In the well-respected City University of New York (CUNY) system, City College of New York, Queens College, Hunter College and Brooklyn College generate considerable press, but Lehman College in the Bronx sometimes gets overlooked. But José Luis Cruz, named president of the college on August 15, 2016, is doing everything he can to bring Lehman College into the limelight.

Lehman has been a leader in attracting Latino students.  Of its 11,978 undergraduates, 52 percent are Latino, 30 percent African-American, 7 percent white, 7 percent Asian and 2 percent non-resident alien.  Its five most popular majors are: nursing, business administration, psychology, sociology and health service administration.

Cruz arrived at Lehman College with a sterling administrative background and a history of excellence in the science field.  Previously, he served as provost of California State University, Fullerton and was also a former vice-president at Education Trust in Washington, D.C., after starting as a faculty member in engineering at the University of Puerto Rico.

According to the college ratings of U.S. News and World Report, Lehman College ranked as the 46th highest rated public college, which praised its program in teacher education.  It noted that its average class size of 13 is extremely small, and it recently introduced two new programs: one in Computer Graphics and Imaging and another in Social Work.  It described its 37-acre campus in the Bronx as “safe and beautiful” and added that “students pay the areas’ lowest tuition and receive real value for their investment.”

Here’s what José Cruz says about how his goals and challenges at Lehman College.

Hispanic Outlook: The mission of the City University of New York has always been to serve as a major pathway out of poverty.  How is Lehman College achieving that goal?

José Cruz: Raj Chetty (a Harvard University economics professor) issued a report that looked at 30 years of tax returns to identify those colleges that were true vehicles of upward mobility that take those students and propel them into the middle class. City University as a system was clearly the top engine of opportunity, and Lehman College was ranked number four in the country for that work.  We have a legacy of upward mobility, at a time when we’re celebrating our 50th anniversary. We’re looking at ways to leverage that legacy and do even better in that area.

HO: More than half of Leman’s students are Latino.  How much of that is based on being located in the Bronx, with its sizable Hispanic population, and how much on something Lehman is doing?

Cruz: I think it’s a little bit of both. The argument can be made that there are many colleges embedded in large Latino populations that don’t have our demographics.  We have a strong school of education and a strong division of enrollment management that has a broad footprint in the Bronx and neighboring boroughs.  We’ve created many pathways to students who aspire to improve economically.  We’re focused on admitting and retaining them.  It’s a very intentional part of what we do.  And over 55 percent of our students are from the Bronx.

HO: Every president has a particular managing style. What’s yours?

Cruz:  I think that presidents wear many roles determined by the audience, so there’s a role with your alumni, current students, faculty and state legislators. But the one thing that’s common among them, you are the chief discussant. You have to be a spokesperson, and bring people together and address challenges, and leverage opportunity.  My management style is inclusive, transparent, and if I need to over communicate, I will, rather than under communicate.

HO: Developmental or remedial courses in English and math and other areas have also presented an obstacle to graduation.  What is Lehman College’s policy toward developmental courses?

Cruz:  We’re working to try to embed students in credit-bearing courses that they need to succeed, rather than non-credit courses in math.   The credit-bearing courses are aligned with students’ majors and their aspirations.  If you’re interested in physics, it’s a course that will lead you to calculus and beyond.  If you’re interested in business, it’ll be a different course, and liberal arts another.  We’re taking a different approach and aligning this with providing support services to try to get everyone on track right away.

HO:  Retaining students has been problematic for many colleges. What’s the key at Lehman College?

Cruz: It’s a combination of the relevance of our curriculum, the modalities we use in our classroom, providing support services, and what we offer to meet their needs.  At Lehman, 70 percent of our students are female.  That’s higher than the national trend, but in line with many urban colleges.  We have an issue with male students and males of color, which we can trace back to K-12 programs.

HO: What specifically are you doing to attract more male students?

Cruz: We have instituted a long-standing Urban Male Leadership Initiative to attract males of color to help them become teachers.  Demographically, 70 percent of our students come from families with a median income of $30,000, who are an average age of 26.  We need to think about how we support them transportationally, provide services such as food pantries, access to safety-net program and housing assistance.

HO: What does Lehman do to help these students?

Cruz:  I’ll give you one example.  Most people talk about tutoring, but I’m going to talk about teaching.  We had data that suggested that more than 80 percent of our students taking chemistry 101, the first chemistry course, wouldn’t pass the course.  The chemistry faculty took a deeper look and decided to experiment with flip classrooms.  One part of the class was based on video and online learning, and then in class, the faculty member would walk through their homework and what they learned online to help them solve problems.  Instead of an 80 percent failure rate, we had a 30 percent rate, comparable to Hunter College’s rate, where students had 200 point higher SAT scores.

HO: Name one major initiative you’d like to accomplish in the next few years.

Cruz: There’s an umbrella that encompasses many goals including faculty development, student success, community engagement and economic development.  But what stands out is our goal of 90 by 30.  That’s shorthand that by the year 2030, we want to produce 90,000 high quality degrees and credentials.  It’s doubling the number of what we would do otherwise, if we stayed steady steam, which would be 45,000 degrees.  To accomplish that goal, we need to focus on interaction with K-12 schools, how we onboard and deal with transfer students, how we provide childcare support, how we advise, and how we raise more money for scholarships.  90 by 30 brings a lens to this goal based on scale, quality and impact.

HO: Any other thoughts?

Cruz: Walking on to the Lehman College campus, it’s been a privilege.  If you’re passionate about educational equity and economic mobility, it’s great to be part of this community. •