Saturday, April 11, 2009

WHO OWNS CUNY'S BUILDINGS?

Just found out from Brooklyn College Prof. Jean Grassman (Health and Nutrition Science) that The Dormitory Authority of NY State (DASNY) owns all of CUNY's buildings and they've just gone "green." This is intriguing on at least three fronts: 1) the governance structure of CUNY: I have been at CUNY for almost 20 years and I still do not understand large chunks of how CUNY operates: and of course to change the way CUNY operates first one must understand how it works, who controls what etc. (Note my earlier post that CUNY has its own Community Development Corporation!) 2) there are so many "green" efforts at CUNY but they are incredibly disconnected and if we dont figure out how to connect them, the whole project for a sustainableBC is not only NOT gonna go far, but BC and other parts of CUNY will be marginalized as NYC looks for leadership in becoming green and defining sustainability (right now Columbia U. plays the lead role among universities and while this is understandable given some of the great people there, it is not the kind of framework that would come out of a project developed at CUNY: for example, green jobs programs at Columbia means something else entirely than one at CUNY given the incredible differences among student populations). 3) two is enough for now.

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