President’s Report 1992

At this point

Today, when higher education has become the primary route to success in our society, the mission of Brooklyn College has never been more important. Brooklyn College is the model of a public, urban institution, providing a solid and lasting education for our students and, thereby, serving our community and the nation.
When I came to Brooklyn College in 1992, one of my first initiatives was the development of the planning document The Year 2000 and Beyond: Shaping the Future. The plan was created by the collaborative energy of many faculty, students, and administrators. It laid out an ambitious agenda for advancing our institution on several fronts: teaching and learning, research, campus life, and community service.
In the past four years, we have made a great deal of progress despite severe budget reductions that would have stifled most colleges. The 1997 Fiske Guide to Colleges captures our success: Brooklyn College is a world unto itself... it is an academic anomalya public urban university where studies are organized around a carefully conceived core curriculum that has served as a model for colleges across the country. New academic programs, research centers, and faculty initiatives continue to re flect the collective spirit of growth permeating the campus. Since 1992, our enrollment has increased five percent; grants to fund research have increased thirty-three percent. Members of our faculty have received national recognition as teachers, researchers, authors, and scholars. A facilities master plan, which includes the blueprint for an electronic campus, has been approved by the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York; more than $150 million has been allocated for construction and renovation. We have made many other improvements, some as sweeping as reorganizing the freshman year experience and creating an Honors Academy, others as seemingly modest as streamlining registration, to ensure that Brooklyn College remains a healthy, productive institution in the next century.
Looking out over the campus today, I can say confidently that our academic community possesses the insight, energy, and resolve to keep Brooklyn College in its leadership role as the best urban public college in America.

Vernon E. Lattin
President

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