Hope to see you there!

Name of college or university: CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies

When were you founded? 1971

Location of campus or campuses: Program headquarters at 365 Fifth Avenue, New York City; 19 colleges where students study are located in the 5 boroughs of New York.  The 19 colleges include 6 community colleges, 11 four-year colleges, a school of professional studies, and a doctoral center.

Estimated total enrollment in 2009: 500

Estimated total enrollment of military-related students in 2009: 10-12

What are the major programs in which your military-related students are enrolled? Servicemembers enrolled in CUNY BA/BS have designed degrees working one-on-one with full-time CUNY faculty members in Terrorism Studies, International Crime, Global History, Race and Gender in American Politics, East Asian Religion and Culture, U.S.-Latin American Relations, Disability Studies, Human Behavior and Pathology, and Space Science, to name a few, but as an individualized degree, there is almost no limit to the kinds of subjects students can pursue.

Frequency of class starts: Classes start at least four times a year: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer.  (Admission to the University as well as to this individualized program, however, occurs twice a year, fall and spring.)

What are your residency requirements? In order to qualify for CUNY’s resident tuition rate, a student must first meet the University’s qualifications for residency.  The qualifications are different for community colleges and four-year colleges.  In most cases, in order to qualify as a resident for tuition purposes, a student must have continuously resided in New York State for a period of 12 months.  Community college students must meet additional residency requirements. (As for academic residency credits taken during the CUNY Baccalaureate, students must complete a minimum of 30 CUNY classroom credits to earn this degree.)

How large is your faculty? What roughly is their average length of employment at your institution? Briefly outline the accomplishments and backgrounds of your faculty. CUNY has over 250,000 students and over 6,700 full-time teaching faculty members. Guggenheim Fellows, Pulitzer Prize winners and two U.S. Poet Laureates have taught at CUNY, and more than 80 percent of full-time professors hold the highest degrees in their fields.

Are you regionally or nationally accredited and are you a member of the Servicemembers Opportunities Colleges? Yes.

What is the name of your accrediting organization(s)? Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York.

Are you a member of the Yellow Ribbon Program? What scholarships do you offer military-related students? No; our program has several scholarships, but none are specifically designed for service members.

Do you accept transfer of credits from other schools? Do you award credit for College Level Examination Placement and other programs? Yes.  Students can transfer in up to 90 credits from regionally and New York State Board of Regents accredited colleges. No more than 60 community college credits can be accepted.  Remedial and English-as-a-Second-Language credits are not accepted. A maximum of 30 noncollegiate credits is possible (this includes credit-by-exam; military, FDNY, NYPD, EMS, NPONSI credits; and life experience credits).  Credit for life experience is evaluated after admission to the program.

How long do you take to provide an official evaluation of transfer credits? What information do you provide students on the evaluation process? Do you require students to enroll prior to providing an official evaluation? Transfer credits are evaluated and communicated to the student prior to enrollment.

Describe the support services you offer military-related students either on campus or online or both. Each CUNY college has a Veterans affairs representative. Some campuses have a full-service office that offers a range of counseling for all enrolled veterans and reservists. All Veterans affairs representatives are able to offer appropriate referrals for the following services (almost always available at the student’s home college of matriculation): Academic Advisement and Tutoring, Career Services, Child Care Services, Disability Services, Counseling Services, Financial Aid and Benefits Advisement, Housing Options, Women’s Centers.

Some Veterans are eligible for tutorial benefits. In order to be eligible for tutorial benefits, veterans must be receiving monthly veteran’s benefits on at least a half-time basis. Such veteran students are entitled to 12 months of tutorial benefits to a maximum of $100.00 per month.

Students may be eligible for Veteran’s Work-Study benefits. In order to be eligible, students must be receiving full-time Veterans benefits. Such students can work up to 750 hours per year at a rate of at least the federal minimum wage.

See http://web.cuny.edu/about/veterans/vets-services.html for additional details.

What is your policy for withdrawals or extensions due to deployment or other military-related duties? CUNY supports students who are called to duty during their college career. The Chancellor has communicated his desire that deployed students be given as wide a latitude as possible to enable them to seamlessly resume their studies as soon as they are able to do so. Each college’s registrar is the initial point of contact for a military-related interruption of attendance. Students may also seek the help of the Veterans affairs representative on their campus, the Student Services Office, or the campus Ombudsman. A student who is called to active duty in the armed forces of the United States after having attended regularly for 13 or more weeks or having completed 85% of the term’s work through acceleration may be given full credit for each course in which he or she has a grade of C or better. Students called to active duty who do not meet attendance requirements sufficient to earn a grade are entitled to a 100% refund of tuition and fees, except application fees. See http://web.cuny.edu/about/veterans/active-duty.html for additional details.

Describe some school activities in the past year or so—official or otherwise—that might indicate a military-friendly atmosphere for students. In addition to the Veterans affairs representatives on the campuses, most CUNY colleges have active clubs for Veterans that offer social activities as well as co-curricular ones. CUNY Baccalaureate does not offer specific military-related activities, but all servicemembers in CUNY BA/BS would be invited to the program’s regular offerings such as Study Abroad workshops, GRE/Graduate School workshops, and other networking/social events.

Sum up in 10,000 words or fewer why your college or university is a military-friendly institution. CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies (CUNY BA/BS) is a military-friendly degree program for a number of reasons.  Students can receive up to 30 noncollegiate credits toward the degree, which would include credits for United States Armed Forces Institute courses, as well as credit-by-examination.  Students also receive academic advisement upon applying, and will have their transfer evaluation complete by the time they enroll.  Most importantly, this degree allows students to design their own curricula, so they may follow academic pursuits that may not already exist as defined majors.  In doing so, students work individually with faculty mentors and academic advisors, giving them a strong academic support system.  They will also be part a cohort of independent, mature, adult students as participants in CUNY BA/BS (while taking classes throughout the CUNY system, alongside students ranging from traditional college age to adults).  As “dual citizens,” enrolled in both this degree program and matriculated at one of the CUNY colleges, they will have access to all of their college’s programs and services (i.e., career counseling, Veterans Affairs, financial aid, health and counseling, student government, etc.), as well as the programs offered by CUNY BA/BS, which annually include workshops on study abroad and graduate school.  They will have access to courses and libraries throughout the University, so it is possible to take courses near one’s work in one borough, and near one’s home in another.  Students can earn the degree with coursework completed in a number of ways, including online, internships, independent study, fieldwork, etc.  The degree also offers several scholarship opportunities; at any given time, 10-12% of the total students enrolled are receiving CUNY BA/BS scholarship support.

CUNY BA/BS has already been recognized as a military-friendly institution by “Military Advanced Education” magazine, as well as by G.I. Education (http://www.giedu.com).

City University will be holding several college fairs this fall for high school guidance counselors.  Our staff will be at the following fairs; if you’d like to use this opportunity to meet with us and pick up our materials, please do so:

Friday October 9 8:30am-1pm at Lehman College

Tuesday October 20 8:30am-1pm at Brooklyn College

Wednesday October 28 8:30am-1pm at City College

Remember as well that we have several Information Sessions coming up this fall; see this link for the dates  and times of those:  http://cunyba.gc.cuny.edu/informationsessions/

CUNY will be holding a college fair specifically for students interested in transferring into majors leading to career opportunities in the Health Professions:  Sunday, Sept 13, 10am-2pm at Hunter College. 

I will be there representing CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies.  I hope that any current CUNY BA/BS students (or alumni) in health-related areas of concentration will be able to join me to help me answer questions from prospective students.  If you can, even just briefly, please email me at bkneller@gc.cuny.edu to let me know.  (If you cannot be there on Sept 13 but want to share information/ideas about your particular AOC, future plans, mentor, etc.,  please email me.)

I look forward to meeting prospective students for whom CUNY BA/BS  can be the route academic route to careers in Health-related areas.

The last day to submit a complete application for readmission for Fall 2009 is Friday, September 11^th

Gabriel Lubon and Susan Van Brackle are two such students, pioneers in their chosen fields.  Lubon, now a graduate, studied Engineering Psychology under the mentorship of Professor Nancy Oley, Psychology, Medgar Evers College.  An engineering psychologist is an applied scientist who develops knowledge about the abilities and limitations of humans to sense, store and process information, and to act.  This knowledge is applied to the design, use, and maintenance of human-machine systems.  Engineering Psychology promotes the development and application of psychological principles, knowledge and research to improve technology, consumer products, energy systems, communication and information, transportation, decision making, work settings, and living environments. The goal is safer, more effective and more reliable systems through an improved understanding of the user’s requirements.  Lubon’s initial foray into the field was when he took courses in his native Saint Lucia in mechanical technology while simultaneously studying psychology; his area of concentration in CUNY BA/BS was comprised of Psychology courses from Medgar Evers and Brooklyn Colleges, courses like Brain and Behavior, Sensation and Perception and Cognitive Psychology.  Lubon also completed an Independent Study on the effects of cell phone electromagnetic fields on brainwaves and cognition, which was later published in the Journal of Behavioral and Neuroscience Research.

Van Brackle designed an area of concentration called Marketing Anthropology which involves the use of ethnographic data collection for marketing purposes.  Using participant observation, interviews, surveys and focus groups, researchers help advertising agencies and their clients better understand consumer behavior.  Marketing Anthropology is fast becoming an industry standard, and is used by companies such as Procter & Gamble, Whirlpool, Volvo, and Electrolux, to name a few.  Van Brackle’s initial interest in the field developed when she was President of her own cosmetics company in Harlem, having received a $100,000 loan from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone.  Van Brackle’s area, designed with York College faculty mentors Professor William Divale, Social Sciences and Professor Linda Perry, Accounting and Business, included Anthropology, Business, History and Sociology courses from York, Brooklyn and Hunter Colleges.  During her time in CUNY BA/BS an article of hers was published in the newsletter of the Society for Applied Anthropology.  With her degree, she went on to work as a Business Analyst for Target Sourcing Services in their International Trade and Development division; she now works at Cornell Weill Medical Center on international programs.  Van Brackle has just completed her Master’s in International Management at Manhattanville College.

And the trailblazers keep on enrolling, studying everything from Computers and Digital Evidence; Human Rights and International Law;  Sustainable Tourism; Urban Music and Multimedia; and Space Science to Narrative Psychology; Youth Studies; Quantum Information and Computation; Globalization; Immigration Studies; and Economic Trends of the Middle East.  Some of the latest pioneers to arrive at CUNY BA/BS are Brittany Narcisse, Noah Ginsburg, Ilanit Marks, Catherin Granton, Tunu Thom, Ashanti Dixon, and Sam Friedman.

Brittany Narcisse is here to study Development Sociology, a new field that originated at Cornell University, devoted to the study of societal development in aspects of population dynamics, environmental problems, rural development, globalization and change, industrial and labor markets, and gender, race and class stratification, and, of course, the development of solutions for these problems.  Narcisse’s area of concentration is comprised of Hunter and City Colleges courses in Anthropology, Economics, Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology, in consultation with her faculty mentor, Professor Maritsa Poros, Sociology, City College.

Noah Ginsburg is one of over twenty students in CUNY BA/BS studying some form of Sustainability, a highly interdisciplinary field.  Ginsburg has been interested in the environment and building since an early age.  In high school, he put these two passions together for the first time by building a wind-powered generator for a class project to demonstrate the feasibility of a simple technology that was environmentally sound.  Now he is designing his degree in Sustainable Energy with the guidance of Professor Steve Greenbaum, Physics, Hunter College.  Ginsburg’s long-term goal is to make “sustainable energy the rule rather than the exception to the rule in the twenty-first century.”  His concentration includes courses in Geography, Political Science, Community Health, Physics and Environmental Science at Hunter and Baruch Colleges.

After ten years in the corporate sector, Ilanit Marks returned to college to study Life Coaching.  Life Coaching is a new and rapidly growing profession that differs from consulting, mentoring, advice, therapy or counseling.  The coaching process addresses specific personal projects, business successes, general conditions and transitions in the client’s personal life to help the client choose new courses of action.  To pursue Life Coaching as a concentration, Marks is studying with Professor Claus Mueller, Sociology, Hunter College, by taking Sociology and Psychology courses, and completing several independent studies.

Catherine Granton entered CUNY BA/BS to design a degree called At-Risk Females and Environmental Education with her faculty mentor, Prof. Barbara Winslow, Women’s Studies, Brooklyn College. Granton’s goal is to create her own career path traveling around the country and modeling to young women a variety of programs that use the environment to teach them positive skills.  She has taken courses in Women’s Studies, Children’s Studies, Psychology and Environmental Science at Brooklyn College, Queens College, the College of Staten Island, and the CUNY School of Professional Studies.  This summer, she will continue her work with Prof. Cumiskey (College of Staten Island) on a project with a Staten Island Office for Children and Family Services facility.  Granton created a program using the “No Child Left Inside” Act as a model.  She is taking groups of young women out of the facility to the local National Park (Gateway National Recreation Area) and creating cooperative events (i.e. birdwalks, planting, etc.) with one of the NPS rangers.  This program is the first of its kind with OCFS youth in NYC.  They are also planting a garden at the facility using organic methods.  One goal is to teach ecology while also “planting” some good seeds in the young women themselves for their future.

Tunu Thom has worked in the field of performing arts for most of her life, performing at venues such as The Apollo Theater, the International African Arts Festival, Central Park Summer Stage, and the Brooklyn Academic of Art.  For the past 15 years, she has taught classes in Theatre Arts, African Diasporic Dance, and Dance History at Hunter College and the New Victory Theater.  Like so many other students, she came to CUNY BA/BS to combine her experience and talent with her passion and vision; for Thom, that means an Area of Concentration in African-Centered Education.  With courses in Black Studies, Psychology, and Education from Hunter, Brooklyn and Medgar Evers College under the direction of Prof. Donna Wright, Education, Medgar Evers, Thom is learning a number of African-centered pedagogies, paradigms, and methods she will apply to her work; she is also interested in documenting historically accurate educational plays, and is most recently working on a play chronicling the life of Dr. Nina Simone.

Ashanti Dixon is a student of Dance Science, the study of scientific principles applied to dance, and to improving the health and well-being of dancers.  Under the mentorship of Prof. Philip Ording, Mathematics, Medgar Evers, she is taking advanced courses in Calculus, Dance, Biology, and Physics. After college, she plans to become a teacher.  She believes dance can help children can help children with emotional and behavioral problems.  She recently had the privilege of working at two schools, one elementary and the other intermediate, where she taught dance weekly to eighty children.  Since the age of 16, she has worked at the Aspen Institute for Community Change, assisting in developing curricula designed to explain and break the barriers of structural racism.  As a volunteer, she dances at women’s homeless shelters to “encourage them and bring them joy.”

Sam Friedman has just completed his degree with a dual area of concentration (like a double major) in Electric Media and Obsolescence and Information Visualization.  Friedman is an electric artist, infusing electric technology into his artwork.  His recent projects include a large multimedia project focusing on the General Electric Corporation and a homemade bicycle generator and a photovoltaic solar module that will power an interactive video installation.  Participants in the piece will generate the electricity used to power the projection.  The piece is a re-imagination of the human relation to energy.  For his area in Electric Media and Obsolescence, he works with Professor William Sakas, Computer Science, Hunter College, using courses in Dance, Computer Science, Art and Media.  Information Visualization is an emerging field that concentrates on the use of computer-supported tools to explore large amounts of abstract data.   Practical application of Information Visualization in computer programs involves selecting, transforming and representing abstract data in a form that facilitates human interaction for exploration and understanding.  Friedman has used courses in Computer Science, Media, Math and Biology for that area, under the guidance of Professor Weigang Qui, Biology, Hunter College.  In fall 2009, he will begin NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Masters Program with a $20,000 scholarship. His work can be seen at http://welike2draw.com/samwell/

Some of the Area of Concentrations proposed by new students admitted for the fall 2009 semester include Nutritional Biochemistry, Theatre and Multi-Media Arts, Human Trafficking, and Homeopathy and Spiritual Healing.