Roscoe C. Brown, Jr., Director of the Center for Urban Education Policy at the CUNY Graduate Center and a former Tuskegee Airman, will be the keynote speaker at the CUNY Baccalaureate Program Commencement on Monday, June 11. The ceremony will be held at The Great Hall of The Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue, beginning at 10:15 a.m. Troy Grant and Patricia Begley, both the first members of their families to complete college, will speak for the 209 students who will be graduating.

Four graduates who first started college over 30 years ago will be honored: Robert Allen, Linda Salama Benun, Marie Gourdet, and Jocelyn Reavis. (see attached bios).

As director of the Center for Urban Education Policy, Dr. Brown’s work focuses on the role of school-based management and parental involvement in school reform. He is past president of Bronx Community College and former director of the Institute of Afro-American Affairs at New York University. Chairman of the boards of directors of the Greater Harlem Nursing Home, the Urban Issues Group, the Negro Ensemble Company, and the Sports Foundation, he is also a board member of several national organizations, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the American Council on Education, as well as several New York City organizations, including the New York Botanical Garden, the New York City Partnership, and the Museum of the City of New York. He has received numerous awards and honors for scholarly and community activities, among them the NAACP Freedom Award, the Congressional Award for Service to the African-American Community, and the Distinguished Alumnus Awards from his alma maters—New York University and Springfield Colleges. Dr. Brown, a former Army Air Force Captain, commanded the 100^th Fighter Squadron of the 332^nd Fighter Group (the "Tuskegee Airmen") in World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with eight Oak Leaf Clusters. He has been honored by the Intrepid Air-Space Museum in New York City for his outstanding leadership as Squadron Commander.

The historic Great Hall at the Cooper Union has been an important gathering space since it was inaugurated by Mark Twain in 1859. It was the platform for some of the earliest workers’ rights campaigns and for the birth of the NAACP, the women’s suffrage movement, and the American Red Cross. Before they were elected, Presidents Lincoln, Grant, Cleveland, Taft, and Theodore Roosevelt all spoke there; as incumbents, Presidents Wilson and Clinton delivered speeches there.

The CUNY Baccalaureate Program operates as a small, individualized program within The City University of New York. Drawing on university-wide resources, the Program reflects the CUNY-wide consortium model of The Graduate Center, where it is headquartered. The Program allows academically motivated students the freedom and independence to work with faculty advisors in developing an individualized course of study. In offering students an unusual amount of flexibility, the Program appeals to many individuals who have been away from school for a long stretch, work full time, manage a family, or have noncollege experiences that can be credited toward degree requirements. Students in the CUNY Baccalaureate Program can attend classes at all 17 CUNY colleges and The Graduate Center, and they frequently take advantage of independent research projects, internships, and honors seminars in the course of their studies. Since it was founded in 1971, more than 5,000 students have received their undergraduate degrees through the Program, about 45% of the graduates have gone on to obtain master's degrees, and about 12% have since earned doctorates.

The Program’s web site is www.cunyba.cuny.edu.

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2001 CUNY Baccalaureate Program
Graduates Who First Started College over 30 Years Ago

Robert Allen (Fine Arts, B.S., January 2001, cum laude, Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellow) is a 56-year-old African-American man who began college at New York City Technical College in 1965 and later attended the School of Visual Arts. He entered the CUNY Baccalaureate Program in the Spring of 1999. His application to the Program was notable; he described a 30- year dream "to explore and develop..., to understand new ideas, and to achieve academically" by returning to college. He completed one portion of that dream by receiving an A.A.S. in Dental Technology; he entered the CUNY BA/BS Program to pursue his desire to get a broader and deeper academic degree. In the Program, he designed an area of concentration in Fine Arts taking courses at both Brooklyn College and Hunter College.

In 1997, Linda Salama Benun (Art Therapy, B.S., January 2001, summa cum laude) wrote in her application to the Program: "After 25 years of putting my academic studies on hold to raise my six children, I finally returned to college to complete my degree. Three years ago I waved goodbye to my youngest child who was beginning first grade, I turned around, picked up my own books and headed back to Brooklyn College. Now we both agonize over homework and tests together." While raising her children, she and a group of friends began a campaign to make home visits to the elderly and sick in her community. Today, the social service agency she started as a volunteer is called Sephardic Bikur Holim; it has a multi-million dollar budget, a 36-member board, and a staff of 12 full-time social workers. For that plus her work in teaching bible studies, she was awarded 12 prior experiential learning credits by the CUNY BA/BS Program. An accomplished artist, especially in painting and photography, she combined coursework in Psychology and Art to create an area in Art Therapy.

Marie Gourdet (English Literature, B.S., June 2001, cum laude) started college in her native Haiti in 1971. She immigrated to the United States and worked as a legal secretary. While she found her work "financially rewarding" and the lawyers she assisted "brilliant," she longed to work on a more professional level. In 1986, she was admitted to CUNY, but, because her application was late, all of the courses she wanted were filled. She states: "In order to warm up to college and keep my enthusiasm, I took the one course I could get into—Western Literature. I love writing and literature, but expressing myself in correct English was a difficult task. I was yearning to put an end to that hindrance. Regardless of my clever thoughts, I was penalized with a grade of "C" on my first essay. My professor wrote: ‘very intelligent thoughts, but the writing is bad.’ I vowed I would never score a "C" again." She went on to earn all A’s on the rest of her papers that semester. She completed an Associate’s degree at LaGuardia Community College in Paralegal Studies and entered the CUNY BA/BS Program in 1997 to pursue her new-found love, English Literature.

Jocelyn Reavis (Transportation Management, B.S. January 2001) first started college at SUNY/Albany in 1971, transferring to Adelphi University in 1974. In the early 80s, Ms. Reavis began working for the New York City Transit Department, starting out as a clerk typist, but accepting progressively more responsible job assignments and working her way up to Associate Staff Analyst in the Contracts Administration unit by the early 90s. To prepare herself for a higher level management position, she enrolled in the Department’s Transportation Management Certificate Program (a joint program with John Jay College/CUNY) and had the opportunity to work with Professor James Cohen, Director of that Certificate Program. Dr. Cohen, impressed with Ms. Reavis’s grades and motivation, recommended her for the CUNY BA/BS Program and she enrolled in 1995.