College
President’s
Series
President Regina S. Peruggi,
Kingsborough Community College
By Joan Baum, Ph.d.
For Regina S. Peruggi, Kings-borough Community
College’s new president,
and the first woman to hold the position in the college’s 40-year history,
the opportunity to come back to CUNY—where she forged her administrative
expertise after an earlier career in social work and serving on numerous nonprofit
agencies and community institution—is truly “a homecoming.” Prior
to coming to Kingsborough (KCC), Dr. Peruggi was the president of the Central
Park Conservancy and before that, for 11 years, the president of Marymount
Manhattan College. Knowing that it may sound hokey to some, the new president
speaks with unscripted enthusiasm about the mission of CUNY and the opportunity
to serve at one of the system’s most successful (she also says “unique”)
two-year colleges. She doesn’t wait for a question about definition—she’s
got data at her fingertips but also an investment of heart. She beams, talking
about what she has inherited and what she hopes to enhance. KCC is not only “the
most beautiful” of all the CUNY campuses, a 70-acre waterfront complex
of, for the most part, interconnected low-scale buildings, right off Manhattan
Beach in Brooklyn, but with over 20,000 credit and 15,000 continuing education
students (with national outstanding GED and ESL programs), many older adults,
many working women, one of the most desirable, to judge from an unprecedented
number of applications for admissions. Enrollment is at an all-time high.
Word has obviously gotten out: KCC, which
used to be called “the
best kept secret in New York City higher education,” now
has an enviable reputation for preparing students for professions
that lead to real jobs, especially in technology-related fields
in business, nautical training programs, travel and tourism,
and health-related areas (nursing, science, physical education).
Often students choose KCC even when they can get into one of
CUNY’s senior colleges, and the school attracts students
who come from other boroughs and nearby states, though the
overwhelming majority of those enrolled come from Brooklyn.
At the college’s Fall 2004 Convocation President Peruggi,
who has a strong record forging and maintaining ties between
town and gown, announced to a packed and cheering house at
the Leon M. Goldstein Performing Arts Center that she will
continue to strengthen links between the college and the borough
and especially extend a hand to its “first generation
and new immigrants.” And what could be better than the
just- established free Winter Concerts—a series dedicated
to Sounds of the Big Bands and open to the entire Brooklyn
community? (A classical concert is scheduled for March.)
In spite of its large numbers, the college
looks, feels, and acts like a suburban campus, an impression
confirmed for the president in many informal conversations
she has held with students, faculty and staff since her arrival
last August. Indeed, on the day Education Update came
calling Kingsborough was closing down its annual Clothesline
Exhibition against domestic violence but the place was packed
with the curious and dedicated. Though an urban, working-class
institution, KCC boasts over 80 student clubs and activities,
and the president suggests that KCC may have the most long-time
and faithful faculty and staff in the CUNY system. Turnover
is extremely low, the feeling of belonging high, and the national
news promising. President Bush has said on numerous occasions
that he considers community colleges vital in the nation’s
drive to improve education in the country.
Of course it is too early for President Peruggi to articulate particular plans but she has
already made her presence felt in unusual ways—holding
lunches and dinners for faculty and student leaders and taking
visitors on tours—in a golf cart. On one recent trip,
she just happened to meet two students, one an 18 year old,
the other a senior, both from different countries and cultures,
but both serving on the school newspaper. “That’s
Kingsborough, that’s CUNY.”#
