A Brooklyn College alum (Class of ‘49), Mrs. Edith Everett is a well-known advocate of extending educational opportunity to the disadvantaged.  She served on CUNY’s Board of Trustees from 1976-1999, where she was an outspoken spokesperson for compensatory education, programs for English language learners and teacher education programs.  She served as Vice Chair of the BOT from 1980-1997.  She started the CUNY Job Fair—which involves more than 120 employers and many thousands of CUNY students—more than a decade ago.  Mrs. Everett’s dedication to educational opportunity has also included launching early childhood literacy programs in our public schools that currently serve 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders and creating a retraining program for people with expertise in math, science and other specialties to become full-fledged teachers in our public schools.  In recent years, as the battle for CUNY’s integrity raged, she was often the lone, dissenting voice on the BOT against curtailing CUNY’s mission of providing quality, public education to all New Yorkers.  While she believes deeply in high educational standards, she is committed to helping qualified students meet those standards. Mrs. Everett stepped down from her post on the CUNY BOT earlier this year, but has remained a public spokesperson for access and opportunity at CUNY.  In addition to her work on public education, Mrs. Everett serves as the Vice Chair of the National Board of Hillel, the American Jewish Committee and the Council on Economic Priorities.  She also serves on the Board of the Blaustein Center for Human Rights and of Human Rights Watch, where she is an Advisor for the Middle East Division.  She and her husband, Henry, have an extraordinary commitment to civic life and were extensively involved in the rescue of Ethiopian and Russian Jews.

A prominent African American civil rights activist, educator and member of the historic Tuskegee Airmenn—the first Black Air Force group in WWII—Dr. Roscoe C. Brown, Jr. is the former President of Bronx Community College and a tireless fighter for diversity and academic justice.  He created and currently directs the Center for Urban Education Policy at the CUNY Graduate Center and University Center and serves as Co-Chair of Friends of CUNY—an important new advocacy group working to expand the base of support of those protesting the phase-out of remediation at the University.  While President of Bronx Community College for 16 years, Dr. Brown brought record numbers of grants into the community college, developing new programs to link the college with employers and the Bronx community.  Among the efforts he developed were projects with high school students, homemakers, welfare recipients and students in the prison system.  He serves as Chairman of the NYC Regional Educational Center for Economic Development and the Urban Issues Group, and is Vice Chairman of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.  He is Past President of One Hundred Black Men and the former director of the New York University Institute of Afro-American Affairs.  In addition to his connection to numerous other civic, education, youth and healthcare organizations, Dr. Brown is on the board of the Museum of the City of New York, Libraries for the Future and the New York City Partnership.

A graduate of City College, Dr. Sandi Cooper has been a Professor of History at CUNY for 30 years.  She served  as Chair of CUNY’s University Faculty Senate from 1994-1998—just when Mayor Giuliani and Governor Pataki began their assaults on the University.  Known for her witty vigor, she has been a forthright and determined organizer in defense of CUNY’s students, faculty and mission.  She has spoken out for the right of students to access the quality education the excellent CUNY faculty still delivers, tried to increase the CUNY budget to restore a critical mass of full-time faculty within the University and supported policies to enable students from two-year to four-year colleges without undermining the integrity of degrees.  She was awarded the National Network of Faculty Senates/AAHE Award for Distinguished Governance in 1997.  As a scholar, she has published on peace movements, women’s history and issues about war and peace in the modern world.  Dr. Cooper currently serves as an officer on the Board of Directors of Friends of CUNY and was the national President of the Berkshire Conference of Women’s Historians and Founder and National President of the Committee on Women in History.

A student activist and leadership training organization, the Welfare Rights Initiative mobilizes and supports economically disadvantaged college students to assert a collective voice in the political decision-making that determines their own futures.  Staffed and driven almost entirely by women who have firsthand experience with public assistance, WRI promotes increased access to higher education as a route out of poverty for poor families and ultimately seeks to influence a more open, inclusive and democratic process for determining just and constructive public policy.  WRI was launched at the Hunter College Center for the Study of Family Policy in 1995 and has involved over 1,000 students in their work since then.  More than 10 percent of the CUNY student body—about 10,000 full-time students—are claimants of public assistance, 700 of those students enrolled at Hunter College alone.  WRI’s advocacy includes promotion of education—earning a high school diploma or GED equivalent, two- and four-year college degrees—as a route out of poverty and broadening the access of poor people to opportunities to acquire and develop skills, including literacy, vocational training, Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language.  WRI has taken their advocacy to the State Legislature, educating legislators about the need for legal protections of students on welfare.  In the last three years, more than 18,000 students at CUNY have been forced to abandon their studies to participate in NYC’s workfare program.  WRI’s work has helped ensure that many other students don’t feel this the only option they have as well. Coordinating this evening’s presentation are Beatrice Lopez, a Hunter alumna and WRI’s Coordinator for Public Education & Training, and Parthinia Williams, a Hunter student, WRI’s Staff Associate for Public Education & Training.