| .jpg) Dr.
Rae Alexander-Minter, Vice Pres., Metropolitan College
By Sybil Maimin
Dr.
Rae Alexander-Minter gets things done! Smart, enthusiastic, and
blessed with advantage, she is determined that opportunities be
given to others so that they may have a chance to experience the
“precious possibilities of life.” Currently vice president for
governmental and public affairs at Metropolitan College of New
York (formerly Audrey Cohen College), where she is making a difference
by burnishing the school’s image and gaining it recognition and
support in Washington, Albany, and New York City, she has also
been a productive and innovative director of the Paul Robeson
Cultural Center at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
and director of public programs and education at The New-York
Historical Society. Alexander-Minter continues the traditions
of an illustrious family. Her father was one of the first African-American
graduates of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
and one of the early black graduates of Harvard Law School; her
mother was the first black to receive a Ph.D. in economics in
the United States and the first woman of her race to pass the
bar in Pennsylvania and practice. She is the grandniece of Henry
Ossawa Tanner, a renowned artist and student of Thomas Eakins,
whose painting, once owned by her mother, is now on the wall of
the Green Room of the White House—the first African-American to
be so honored. Her husband, Dr. Thomas K. Minter, was assistant
secretary of education in the first Department of Education in
Washington and was deputy chancellor of the New York City Public
Schools.
Dr. Alexander-Minter has been particularly active in promoting
the contributions of African-Americans to the nation’s culture
and history. Her doctoral dissertation in anthropology and education
at the University of Pennsylvania involved a research study of
a 19th-century African-American community in northeast Philadelphia,
which utilized public school students as “junior historians.”
The study, entitled “Boundary Living,” found that the residents
of this black enclave largely determined their self-identity and
life choices through boundaries and “knowing one’s place.” At
Rutgers, she directed an ambitious Paul Robeson Centennial Project
that brought the life of the legendary actor, singer, and political
activist to more than one million people across the nation. She
was instrumental in developing a curriculum on Robeson that was
adopted by several public schools. Her work with the New-York
Historical Society included initiating outreach to public schools
and developing community programs that stressed the city’s cultural
diversity. She has contributed to scholarly research and literature
about African-American culture and education and is particularly
concerned about the importance of role models and the need to
increase the number of educated black males.
Metropolitan College of New York, an accredited, non-traditional
urban school with sites in Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island,
and Queens, is benefiting from Dr. Alexander-Minter’s expertise,
charm, and connections. She has further diversified the board
by drawing in two young African-American women and has developed
advisory councils with key people for each borough. A unique Welfare
to Careers program (l80 students at Metropolitan), in conjunction
with Medgar Evers College (CUNY) and Pace University, is attracting
attention and funding; Alexander-Minter was key in obtaining a
significant grant from Congress. Alexander-Minter is now working
to broaden the College’s outreach to the Southern African country
of Malawi, to seek funds to train the country’s fieldworkers in
the Metropolitan College’s landmark Human Services curriculum.
She is working closely with Malawi’s Ambassador to the United
Nations, the U.S. Agency for International Development and administrators
in Malawi.
The college offers a chance for a better life and connects learning
with work (students must have full-time jobs or internships while
studying full-time, attending classes scheduled to complement
their hectic lives). The average age of the 1,700 students is
32, and 70 percent are people of color. Women comprise 80 percent
of the student body and many are single parents. Students receive
a B.A. in 2 years, 8 months, or an M.A. in 1 year, by attending
three semesters annually and utilizing the workplace as a classroom.
Degrees can be earned in business, human services, public administration,
management, and media. A masters in education is being established
and a curriculum for a degree in health care is being developed.
Dr. Alexander-Minter would like to see the student body broadened
to include more young people and males. Working hard and staying
out front, she welcomes the challenge to make Metropolitan better
known and to pass on her “appreciation of education and allow
for a more egalitarian and equitable access to life’s opportunities.”#
Education
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