President William Pollard brings "a new energy" to Medgar Evers College, but critics voicing their concerns
The New York Times
August 2, 2010
It has been only a year since William L. Pollard was named president of Medgar Evers College, a historically black institution in central Brooklyn that is named for the slain civil rights leader. In that time, Dr. Pollard has focused on increasing graduation rates, making the college more student-friendly and, mostly, getting to know the campus.
“This is a breath of clean air,” said Nancy Lester, a professor in the education department for 12 years. “Without denigrating anything that came before Dr. Pollard and his team, we have a new focus, a new energy and a new openness on a variety of issues, from the budget to standards to integrity.”
Yet the new administration also finds itself caught in a tempest that continues to brew even during the summer recess. Some professors, Brooklyn elected officials and others have accused Dr. Pollard of being dictatorial and detached from the surrounding community, which in the 1960s pushed the City University of New York to create the college.
They say he has been antagonistic toward some academic centers at the college, in particular the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions, which advocates for former prisoners. Some professors complain that the faculty did not have enough say in the selection of a new provost, and that Dr. Pollard has assembled an administration with too few native New Yorkers and too little institutional memory.
