Quad (green space) planned for Medgar Evers campus. Designs released.

This article discusses Mr Crews success at increasing the enrollment of MEC and creating a program to help struggling public schools, but -weirdly- makes no mention of his success in securing funding and support for the quad:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/gonzalez-ex-chancellor-tapped-fix-struggling-nyc-schools-article-1.2534052?cid=bitly

MEC has begun an honors program:

http://www.mec.cuny.edu/News/Medgar-Evers-College-announces-its-first-ever-Hono.aspx

whynot_31 said:

This article discusses Mr Crews success at increasing the enrollment of MEC and creating a program to help struggling public schools, but -weirdly- makes no mention of his success in securing funding and support for the quad:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/gonzalez-ex-chancellor-tapped-fix-struggling-nyc-schools-article-1.2534052?cid=bitly

From the article:

"“Parents from Park Slope already have their kids taking college-ready courses,” Adams said. “No one is doing this for the children of central Brooklyn. They find out in their senior year that they were supposed to take a calculus course earlier in their school careers.”

But now that Crew has turned Medgar Evers into a focus for improving public school performance, the children of central Brooklyn finally have their own “pipeline to college,” said Adams, who has made no secret of his plan to run for mayor in the future."

What was said rings true!

I perceive this alliance with LIU as being the first step toward being able to offer an MBA program on MEC's campus.

http://www.mec.cuny.edu/news/LIU-Brooklyn-MEC-Introduce-Accelerated-MBA-progra.aspx

Outside the neighborhood, but related to Brooklyn CUNY campuses trying to reposition themselves: CityTech is currently constructing a new academic building across the street from its current main campus on Jay St:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/city-tech-rising-occasion-article-1.1373377

The new academic building — which will go up at Jay and Tillary Sts. — will also provide laboratory space for students in health care and science programs at the City University of New York school.

“For the first time in the history of the college, these departments will have space built specifically to meet their needs,” said Stephen Soiffer, assistant to City Tech President Russell Hotzler.

There will also be a modern theater and an open central atrium for student use, and a 1,000-seat auditorium above an 800-seat gymnasium.

Full disclosure: I teach (adjunct) math courses at CityTech. And so I was interested in morralkan's impressions of taking classes at CityTech (& Kingsborough). The school does have the feel of a city high-school at times, but primarily in terms of physical facilities. But I've never seen a fight in 10 semesters of teaching there. On the contrary, in my experience students are generally very respectful. 

And I wouldn't say the *only* students qualified to attend college are the older returning students. Based on my sample of ~600 students (2 courses per semester * 10 semesters * 30 students/per course), I'd say about 50% are qualified for college (but mind, I haven't taught remedial math--I have taught the college algebra course that would be a 1st math course for a student that is just beyond remedial)

OTOH, it's gratifying to see students that started with college algebra progress to courses like calculus, and even beyond that to courses like linear algebra and differential equations.

(And for contrast, I have taught a couple times at Hunter--it does feel a lot more like a 4-year college, and the students are more prepared (but I have a much smaller sample size: ~30, and of econ majors)).  

Medgar Evers is now sending students to CUNY competitions. ...a reflection of its increasing academic rigor.

https://medium.com/in2nyc/medgar-evers-wins-big-at-cuny-smartpitch-competition-2f91a764aaae#.rk1f95h90