Assemblyman Marcos Crespo, Chair of the Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, released the following statement on the State University of New York (SUNY) Board of Trustees’ decision to name Dr. Carlos Medina as Vice Chancellor of the Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer.
“Yesterday, the SUNY Board of Trustees announced that Dr. Carlos Medina, the current Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ODEI) will be elevated to Vice Chancellor of the State University of New York. He will be the first Latino to hold such a title in the nation’s largest public college system. Dr. Medina has a distinguished career of working on such issues and his work has been acknowledged nationally in the form of top honors awarded.
This is a historic achievement and decision by SUNY on several fronts. The leadership of Board of Trustees Chairman Carl McCall and Chancellor Nancy Zimpher on making the State University of New York a national leader on improving access, affordability, and successful outcomes for minority students needs to be commended.
The elevation to a Vice Chancellorship of the office which works on issues of critical importance to underrepresented minority communities comes only a few months after SUNY announced major and lengthy new policies to improve diversity, inclusive excellence and student success on all of its campuses.
SUNY has 64 campuses, over 89,000 faculty and staff, and almost 500,000 students of which some 20% (100,000) are minorities.
With non-whites now making up the majority of high school graduates across the nation, colleges and universities have begun to prioritize more resources and focus new efforts devoted to issues of diversity and improving student access and successful completion of a college education. SUNY has now well positioned itself to address these issues into the rest of this century.
The diversity programs headed by SUNY have been strengthened by this decision. Last year and under the leadership of Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, the Minority Graduate Fellowship administered by SUNY saw a $600,000 increase to approximately $7 million annually, the first increase in this successful program in over a decade.
The SUNY Office of Diversity, Equity and inclusion was created in 2007 under then Chancellor John Ryan and in collaboration with former Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force Chair Peter M. Rivera and Dr. Raul Huerta, United University Professions Executive Board Member and Vice President for Professionals. In 2006, they traveled to campuses in other states to examine best practices in achieving minority student success. Afterwards, Chancellor Ryan and Assemblyman Rivera put together a team of staff from their respective offices and Dr. Huerta to work out the details needed to create the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
The Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force continues to work with SUNY on issues of college affordability, improving student success, increasing diversity of its faculty and professional staff, and supporting SUNY’s overall mission as a world-class institution of higher learning.
Today, the strengthening of ODEI is due to the tremendous work of Chairman Carl McCall and the visionary efforts of Chancellor Zimpher. In combination, they have well positioned SUNY to better serve the educational needs of all New Yorkers while working to build the diverse workforce our communities and state needs to compete in a global economy.
Minority student success in higher education, increasing their graduation rates in STEM fields, and postgraduate education are critically important to the economy of New York. Under Chairman McCall and Chancellor Zimpher, the future looks brighter thanks to their years of work on these issues and the strong foundation for progress they have built.
I along with the members of the New York State Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force thank them for their leadership and commitment. We express our gratitude to the SUNY Board of Trustees for their notable work on all fronts dealing with minority student success, diversity of faculty and staff, and improving the world-class education available at our State University system.”
