Medgar Evers President Jackson Announces Retirement
Medgar Evers College President Edison O. Jackson has announced his intention to retire after 20 years of outstanding service to the University.
"For so many years, Edison has been an wonderful friend and a trusted and good counsel to me and others in the University, " said Chancellor Matthew Goldstein.
Dr. Jackson assumed the presidency of Medgar Evers College on September 1, 1989, spearheading an educational renaissance across the college.
Working with CUNY, President Jackson led an extensive capital campaign to upgrade the college’s aging facilities and expand classroom, laboratory, and meeting space. New construction includes the completed School of Business and Student Services Building and an Academic Complex that will be completed in 2010.
Through a series of multi-year strategic plans, he outlined a clear vision for the college’s future that included initiatives to increase student participation and proficiency, implement a new academic structure, and restore the institution’s senior college status. Medgar Evers, which now operates as a CUNY senior college, has since enriched the lives of thousands of graduates and their families and become a beacon of opportunity in Central Brooklyn.
Student enrollment has increased 71 percent since 1989. The college now serves more than 6,000 students.
He was the inspiration for the University’s Black Male Initiative (BMI). He established the Male Development and Empowerment Center to encourage the enrollment and academic success of black men, and since fall 2005, their enrollment has increased by almost 12 percent.
Student performance at the college has improved, as well, with pass rates on education and nursing licensure exams reaching 95 percent and 100 percent, respectively.
He oversaw a revision of the Academic Affairs area, which now encompasses four major schools, and the addition of several new degree programs, recruiting talented faculty along the way. He led an extensive library revitalization and improvement project, fully digitizing the library and remodeling the physical space.
Under his leadership, the college saw its funded programs and sponsored research grants grow almost fourfold.
President Jackson has been an active voice in the higher education community, serving on several boards, committees, and commissions, and has been a tireless and effective advocate for the college and the University throughout Brooklyn and across the city and state.
President Jackson’s deep commitment to Medgar Evers College and his outstanding 20-year record of accomplishment as an academic leader have resulted in a transformed, educationally vibrant institution and an improved quality of life for thousands of students, faculty, staff, and alumni. The college, the community, and The City University of New York are profoundly indebted to him for his leadership and his unwavering dedication to higher learning.
The City University of New York is the nation's leading urban public university. Founded in New York City in 1847 as the Free Academy, the University's 23 institutions include 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E. Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, the Graduate School and University Center, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the CUNY School of Law, the CUNY School of Professional Studies and the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education. The University serves 243,000 degree-credit students and more than 240,000 adult, continuing and professional education students. College Now, the University's academic enrichment program for 32,500 high school students, is offered at CUNY campuses and more than 300 high schools throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The University offers online baccalaureate degrees through the School of Professional Studies and an individualized baccalaureate through the CUNY Baccalaureate Degree. More than 1 million unique visitors and 2 million page views are served each month by www.cuny.edu, the University's website.
