News & Events
City Tech Adds 41 Full-time Professors, Reports 13.7% Increase in Freshmen
City Tech’s orientation team of students and administrators, along with President Russell Hotzler (center, rear), gets ready to greet new students. Photo credit: Alberto Vargas.
Brooklyn, NY -- September 9, 2008 – Forty-one new full-time, tenure-track professors have begun teaching at City Tech this fall, bringing the total full-time faculty to 380. This is on top of last year's addition of 40 new faculty lines.
"About 20 percent of our full-time faculty members were hired in the last two years," noted City Tech Provost Bonne August. "The significant addition of new professorial lines at City Tech is part of a City University of New York (CUNY)-wide effort to increase full-time faculty with a diverse mix of educators who have impressive research and teaching credentials."
On the student front, preliminary data indicates that the College is experiencing a 5.7 percent increase in fall 2008 enrollment over last year's 13,500 students, bringing total enrollment to almost 14,300. Over the past five years, the College has seen fall enrollment jump 21.3 percent.
The numbers are even more striking for first-time freshman and for transfer students. This fall, 3,233 freshmen enrolled, marking an increase of 13.7 percent over last year's entering class. As for students transferring to City Tech from other colleges, 1,139 did so this fall, which is a 20.9 percent rise over last year’s transfer student enrollment and just about double the transfer student enrollment of five years ago.
“This pattern of increase is partly a reflection of the College's success attracting students who want to be part of the high-tech workforce necessary for New York to compete in a global marketplace,” notes City Tech Vice President of Enrollment and Student Affairs Marcela Armoza.
“We had an unprecedented 800-plus parents of students at our New Student Orientation,” she adds. “Many are first-time college parents who came to learn how to best help their children succeed academically. It was really heartening to see so many enthusiastic, supportive parents on campus.”
For several years in a row, City Tech has been recognized as having one of the most diverse student populations of all comprehensive colleges in the North, according to U.S. News & World Report. Mirroring this, one-third of City Tech’s new faculty members are from underrepresented groups and 70 percent of the new professors are women, many in fields of study like mathematics, engineering and computer systems technology in which women have been underrepresented. Among the 41 new faculty faces on campus this fall are:
* Sara P. Schechter, distinguished lecturer (law and paralegal studies), served for 25 years as a judge in the Family Court of the State of New York. She is the author of the widely-used textbook New York Family Law for Legal Assistants, Second Edition. She holds an AB degree from Barnard College and a JD degree from NYU.
* Anne Zissu, associate professor and chairperson (business), is an expert on mortgage and asset-backed securities. She is founding editor of The Financier and The Securitization Conduit. Most recently a professor of finance at Temple University, she earned a master's degree in econometrics from Paris X, University of Nanterre, and a PhD in economics from The CUNY Graduate Center. She is fluent in French, Italian and Rumanian in addition to English.
* Viviana Vladutescu, assistant professor (electrical and telecommunications engineering technology), specializes in optics and remote sensing, particularly as they pertain to the atmosphere. She holds a BS in electrical engineering from Polytechnic University of Bucharest and a PhD in electrical engineering from The CUNY Graduate Center.
* Gregory Marinic, assistant professor (architectural technology), has designed complex university and transportation buildings as well as custom residences. Holding a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Maryland, he has substantial work experience in the New York and London studios of Rafael Vinoly Architects.
* Liana Tsenova, MD, assistant professor (biological sciences), earned her medical degree at the Medical Academy of Sofia, Bulgaria. With a specialty in microbiology and immunology, she has 30-plus publications to her credit and has done research on tuberculosis at Rockefeller University. She is particularly interested in host-pathogen interactions and the evaluation of new vaccines.
• Eric M. Rodriguez, assistant professor (social science department), was formerly executive director of Body Positive, a community-based organization serving New York City's HIV/AIDS population. Holding a PhD in social/personality psychology from the CUNY Graduate Center, his research focuses on gay and lesbian Christians.
Students and faculty returning for the fall semester also have 31 new "smart" classrooms in four campus buildings ready for their use. Planning continues for a new academic complex to be constructed at 285 Jay Street. Other capital projects in various stages of development include:
* A new curtain wall façade for the Voorhees Building (186 Jay Street) is in design, as is a new façade for the first story of the Pearl Building facing Adams Street. The Pearl Building's first floor façade will be renovated, including new energy-saving windows.
* The culinary facility renovation project, which will give hospitality management students a state-of-the-art training facility, is expected to begin in December.
* The area previously occupied by the college's bookstore in Namm Hall (300 Jay Street) is being redesigned as the Student Welcome Center and Gallery.
* New lighting and banners for the Namm Hall façade are being installed.
* The Library has been given a facelift with new carpeting, carrels, seating and bookcases.
In terms of student services, there are several new developments. City Tech will be hosting "Healthy Home Front," a health fair for CUNY students and prospective City Tech students who are veterans. Bringing together armed service and community-based organizations and City Tech resources, the November 12 event will offer health information and services necessary for building post-military careers.
Following its successful trial program in the spring semester, City Tech, in conjunction with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is offering an expanded HPV vaccine program for female students up to age 25.
"Despite declining rates in the occurrence and late-stage diagnosis of cervical cancer, African-American and Hispanic women continue to be diagnosed later and are more likely to die from cervical cancer than white women," says Holly Burmeister, director of the Student Wellness Center. "African-American and Hispanic women together make up 31 percent of the total student body and account for two-thirds of all female students. We are very committed to reaching out to this population."
Increased services for vets and a more extensive HPV vaccine program are part of an overall expansion of City Tech Student Wellness Center offerings. Others include instructor-led fitness classes five days a week and in the evenings, new hip-hop dance and kick-boxing classes, and an eight-week walk-to-run training class designed to give students new to fitness the confidence and conditioning to complete a three-mile walk/jog fun run.
Rounding out these developments, two student spaces dedicated to meditation and reflection have been set up on the fifth floor of the College’s General Building. "There has been a rise in the number and diversity of student clubs with a spiritual focus," notes Vice President Armoza.
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