LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

CUNY DOMINICAN STUDIES INSTITUTE - PREEMINENT IN ITS FIELD

The CUNY Dominican Studies Institute (DSI) is the preeminent research center, archive, and library in the United States for the study and understanding of the people and history of the people of Dominican descent in the United States, the Dominican Republic, and elsewhere. DSI is a CUNY-wide institute, but we are proud that DSI makes its home within the Colin Powell School.

In its beginnings, the Institute had two immediate goals: Advance a research agenda and ensure an inclusive dissemination program. Well before the Colin Powell School existed, DSI was pioneering an approach to communityfocused work that cemented ties between the Institute’s research and community leaders who make use of it. Early and on-going research focused on Dominican immigrants; on explaining why they came to the United States and settled in New York City; on the importance of the historical and cultural legacies of Dominicans as a people; and on the need to preserve and transmit this heritage among young Dominicans, particularly those born and raised in the

United States. While the Institute’s original mission has not changed, its research agenda has. It has been affected by an aggressive demographic change in the United States, from a mere 125,000 people of Dominican decent in 1970, to an enlarged population of close to 2,000,000 in 2019.

There was once a popular view that described Dominicans as unsettled people, or as immigrants who had one foot there and the other here, living between two worlds. Research now portrays Dominicans as a settled people, with a half century of history in the U.S. Their children’s children already have children of their own. They now win political offices and hold power. The Institute is engaged in important work focused on how Dominicans are integrating, assimilating, and achieving socioeconomic progress in the United States; and on understanding how a portion of Dominicans have managed to move up the socioeconomic ladder while the majority continue to lag behind. DSI had an eventful year in 2018-19, with dozens of events and new studies along

with important acquisitions within the archives and library. Dr. Sandy Placido, a recent PhD from Harvard University, joined the Institute’s research team, a joint hire of the History Department at Queens College and DSI. The Institute is poised for continued growth in the years ahead.

The Institute is engaged in important work focused on how Dominicans are integrating, assimilating, and achieving socioeconomic progress in the United States; and on understanding how a portion of Dominicans have managed to move up the socioeconomic ladder while the majority continue to lag behind.

DOCTORAL PROGRAM IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY FINDS NEW HOME IN COLIN POWELL SCHOOL

Compared to the other clinical programs at private universities in the metropolitan area, our tuition is between onefifth and one-third the cost. Our applicants, thus, tend to be more economically diverse.

Since 1966, CCNY has been the physical home of the Clinical Psychology doctoral program at CUNY, but in 2018, the program’s overall administration was transferred from the CUNY Graduate Center to the Colin Powell School. While it is the only doctoral program within the Colin Powell School, by way of mission, it’s a great fit. The program’s central purpose is to provide high quality clinical service to an underrepresented minority population and to educate and train a multi-cultural and diverse student body to become psychologists.

The Clinical Psychology program offers a world class experience to its students. There are currently 17 Clinical Psychology PhD programs in the state of New York that are accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA). Of these, we are one of four programs that offer training in longterm psychotherapy. Of these four, we are the only program that focuses on serving the underrepresented minorities in our catchment area. Compared to the other clinical programs at private universities in the metropolitan area, our tuition is between one-fifth and one-third the cost. Our applicants, thus, tend to be more economically diverse and represent a significant number of working and middle-class students. One of the most straightforward methods of measuring the success of a clinical psychology program is to assess their internship match rate for the one-year required internship necessary for licensure. Our program has had the highest match rate of any program in the metropolitan area over the past 20 years and our rate of students getting their top choice in the internship match is also the highest of any program in the metropolitan area. We admit 14 students a year.

In 1999, when the APA reviewed all 192 doctoral clinical psychology programs in the United States for their commitment to the recruitment, retention and graduation of students from underrepresented groups, it

awarded City College’s clinical program with its inaugural and prestigious Suinn Minority Achievement Award for excellence in this area. Routinely, the program accepts approximately one-third of its students from underrepresented minority groups.

Historically, the Program was under the administrative aegis of the CUNY Graduate Center. Over the five-year period 2012-2016, the Graduate Center’s umbrella program of 14 training areas in Psychology experienced significant cuts in both the number of students admitted and the fellowship support for such students. Both the Graduate Center’s overall Psychology administration and the Clinical Program’s faculty and administration concluded that this situation could not continue. The program successfully migrated to the Colin Powell School in 2018 when the State Board of Higher Education fully approved the Program’s shift to the College and granted it the ability to award the doctoral degree to the Program’s graduates.

LECTURE SERIES COMMEMORATES PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT WHO INSPIRED AND GUIDED STUDENTS

STANLEY FEINGOLD LECTURE SERIES on American Politics

“Professor Feingold taught respect for all peoples long before it was popular,” students recall. In November 2018, the Colin Powell School proudly inaugurated the Stanley Feingold Lecture Series on American Politics. The series honors the legacy of Stanley Feingold, a CCNY graduate who taught political science at CCNY from 1948-1982.

Held in historic Shepard Hall, where Feingold’s rousing classes convened half a century ago, the inaugural event featured a discussion of politics in Albany and Washington, DC following the midterm elections. In honor of Professor Feingold’s reputation for promoting critical debate across party lines, the guest speakers were Edward F. Cox, the former chairman of the New York State Republican Party, and Elizabeth Holtzman, a four-term Democratic Congresswoman and first woman to hold the offices of District Attorney of Brooklyn, and New York State Comptroller. Sam Roberts, the longtime New York Times urban affairs reporter and columnist, moderated.

Inspiring Students and Honoring Public Service

Feingold was renowned for his extraordinary dedication to teaching and mentoring students. He was highly respected for provoking intellectually vigorous debates in class and for challenging students to confront opposing viewpoints respectfully. He also taught the ethics of public service as a vocation.

So strong was Feingold’s impact on students that two dozen of them continued to meet with him to argue about politics over lunch for nearly two decades after he retired. The informal group, known as the Stanley Feingold Luncheon Group, met every two months in New York City and included CCNY graduates who were well into their careers as lawyers, journalists, professors, and public servants.

Feingold also played a crucial role in building CCNY as an institution. He was among the faculty nominated to negotiate with student protesters who shut down the campus in 1969. Feingold’s rapport with students, who sought a more open admissions policy at the college, helped him to resolve peacefully the conflict and make a lasting contribution to the college’s history.

Collected Writings

In conjunction with the lecture series, members of the luncheon group collected Feingold’s email correspondence with them over the group’s 17 years of meetings. The writings contain insightful analyses of American politics in the early 21st Century and will now serve as an archive for political researchers, journalists, and anyone else interested in Feingold’s legacy and thought.