In the late 1960s, a group of faculty and students who believed that the City University of New York’s educational program should provide greater flexibility suggested offering a CUNY-wide bachelor’s degree. The degree program would permit students to move among the various CUNY campuses to facilitate unique, individualized courses of study. In 1971 the New York State Board of Higher Education agreed, authorizing an early incarnation of today’s CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies. This year the program celebrates its 40th anniversary.
What exactly is the CUNY Baccalaureate Program for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies? CUNY BA (the program is commonly referred to as “CUNY BA” even though it also offers a BS) is a small, university-wide alternative degree program intended for self-directed, academically strong undergraduates who have well-formulated academic and career goals. Students are not accepted into the program as freshmen; rather, to be considered, applicants must have completed at least 15 college credits with a GPA of 2.5 or higher and be able to articulate a clear academic goal. Once accepted, each student designs an individualized area of specialization with guidance from a full-time CUNY faculty member who agrees to serve as mentor.
System-wide, the program has been a huge success, graduating close to 7,000 students in its 40-year history. Five hundred sixty-two of those students have graduated with Baruch as their home college. (CUNY BA is based at the CUNY Graduate Center, and Baruch is one of the “home colleges” for the program.) Currently 17 CUNY Baccalaureate students are “home-colleging” at Baruch.
In addition to its outstanding student candidates, the University gives much credit for the success of the program to faculty mentors, calling them “the cornerstone of CUNY BA.” Program mentors ensure that students go above and beyond the degree’s basic expectations. Twenty-six Baruch faculty members are currently serving as mentors. Beth Kneller, deputy director of the program, estimates that, since the program’s inception, Baruch mentors number “in the hundreds.”
One of the program’s many impressive mentors is Professor of Public Affairs and former Interim Baruch College President Stan Altman. “The CUNY Baccalaureate Program provides these students an opportunity to discover their passions and become empowered to explore new ideas through the program’s individualized, interdisciplinary scholarship,” says Altman, “resulting in their discovering new academic territories.” Recently, Altman mentored Diana Diaz, who graduated magna cum laude in 2011 with a CUNY BA degree in education policy analysis.
Diaz grew up in Ecuador and came to the U.S. after high school with the goal of getting a college education. Initially lacking funds, she started out living with different host families and attended school to learn English. With her English improving, she earned college credits at the University of Connecticut and Nyack College. Later she enrolled full time at CUNY’s Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), working full time to support herself and finance her education.
Diaz, who decided to pursue a career in public policy and advocacy, came to the CUNY Baccalaureate Program by way of a stellar recommendation from one of her BMCC professors. For Diaz, the specialized program helped her connect academics with her passion for improving the educational opportunities of underserved populations. “As an intern at a nonprofit organization focused on improving the quality of life for Latino children and families, I advised, counseled, and provided information to parents about the different early childhood and afterschool programs. On a daily basis, I heard parents’ complaints and experienced their frustrations at not being able to find available slots for their children in these programs. Our conversations reminded me of my own educational barriers,” she says.
Today Diaz works full time at the Day Care Council of New York and is earning a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies in education at Teachers College/Columbia University. “I came from a very strict environment that taught me to persevere, to work hard, and to give the best in everything I do,” she says, “but I couldn’t have done this without a CUNY BA.”
CUNY BA students are by definition star students. They have regularly won major CUNY awards, such as the John F. Kennedy Jr. Fellowships, Pipeline Fellowships, and Belle Zeller Scholarships, and major national awards, such as Thurgood Marshall Scholarships, Mellon Mays Fellowships, and Fulbright Fellowships. Even in these hard economic times, external support for CUNY BA remains strong, with the program receiving grants from such groups as the Diamond and Ford Foundations.
Clearly a product of the 1960s, the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies remains true to its original mission of helping students and faculty explore intellectual and educational innovation. It’s no wonder that the program was called “the gem of the University” by one of the evaluators during the program’s 2010 Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools reaccreditation process.
—Diane Harrigan