By Anna Gustafson
Little Neck resident Wellington Chen was reappointed to the City University of New York’s board of trustees last week, and the Queens architect said he expects a daunting upcoming budget season but is still looking forward to working in a system he praised for giving everyone from immigrants like himself to single mothers a college education.
“Nationwide, budgets are going to be difficult, and logic tells you it will be the same for us,” Chen said. “I’d love to have something like free tuition, but I’d be happy just to have adequate support for the Tuition Assistance Program and the Pell grants.”
CUNY schools, which include Queens College in Flushing, York College in Jamaica, Queensborough Community College in Bayside, LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City and the CUNY School of Law in Flushing, are facing serious budget problems, including multimillion-dollar cuts in funding over the past three years and an estimated $9 billion state budget gap.
While students are applying to CUNY schools in record numbers, the system is hurting financially and the CUNY board of trustees voted last week to increase tuition by 5 percent, which would have to be approved by the state Legislature.
Originally appointed by then-Gov. George Pataki in June 2000 as a trustee for CUNY, Chen was reappointed in 2005 and his reappointment for this year was approved by the Legislature. State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Whitestone) praised Chen’s tenure, saying he has fought hard for education.
Stavisky, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Higher Education, worked with legislators to ensure they would vote on Chen’s reappointment, as well as the first-time appointment of Rockaway Park resident Judah Gribbetz, who has an extensive legislative background, including being a counselor to former Gov. Hugh Carey in the late 1970s and commissioner of the city Department of Buildings in 1965. Only the Senate has to confirm appointments for the CUNY Board of Trustees, not the state Assembly.
“There were 147 nominations submitted by the governor, and we aced on approximately six or seven, two of whom were these trustees from Queens,” Stavisky said. “They have a proven track record. They both have very, very strong backgrounds in public service.”
A resident of Little Neck, Chen was born in Taiwan and has lived in Singapore, Hong Kong and Brazil. After moving to the United States as an adolescent, he grew up in Flushing and lived in East Elmhurst for a brief period of time. He graduated from the School of Architecture and Environmental Studies at City College and now works as the executive director of a nonprofit called Chinatown Partnership, a group that Chen said has helped the Manhattan neighborhood “stabilize and recover from Sept. 11.”
Chen is the chairman of the Board of Trustees’ Standing Committee on Academic Policy, Program and Research and is on the Standing Committee on Facilities, Planning and Management.
“My entire family are beneficiaries of the CUNY system,” Chen said. “My wife is a CUNY grad. I’m a CUNY grad. Many of my family are first-time college attendees. The CUNY system has made a profound impact on us.”
Chen said he has made a strong commitment to public education in part because of his own background.
“The reason my mother took us out of Hong Kong is because she realized there was no chance to get into university there,” he said. “There were only two universities so only the super rich, the super elite got in. Public education is so important.”
Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
