Dear Commons Community,

The City University of New York has received a $25 million gift from the Stella and Charles Guttman Foundation to support The New Community College at CUNY and two other community college initiatives to boost student retention and graduation rates. In honor of the gift, the foundation’s largest and the largest ever given to a New York State community college, the CUNY Board of Trustees passed a resolution to rename The New Community College The Stella and Charles Guttman Community College.

The Trustees on April 29 approved the naming of the college and of the Guttman Student Success and Engagement Fund, which will promote further development of the college’s innovative programs. The Board of the Guttman Foundation is committing half of its current assets to CUNY. The Guttman Board approved the gift on April 11, 2013.

The $25 million includes a $15 million endowment for the New Community College, a $9 million endowment for scholarships to help academically qualified students from all seven CUNY community colleges transfer to CUNY senior colleges, and $1 million to expand the University’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) initiative, which has won national acclaim for its success in improving community college retention and graduation rates.

Tony