CSI/CUNY News Release
	For Immediate Release - Monday, March 3, 2003

Verizon Communications presents CSI with $5,000 check

An innovative new series entitled the Visiting Executive Leadership Program is dedicated to empowering students for success and funding important new research initiatives, announced CSI’s vice president for college advancement, Richard I Truitt.

“This multidimensional program is focused on partnering CSI’s best students with corporate and community leaders,” he continued, “and provides an educational and informative opportunity benefiting students, corporate leaders, and the community.”

The day began with the campus visit of Paul Crotty, Group President of Verizon Communications, on March 11, 2003. Crotty enjoyed a lively discussion about business leadership and the value of public higher education with prominent college leaders and more than 25 juniors and seniors during an informal, catered power-breakfast.

CSI’s 204-acre campus and its facilities were showcased for the Verizon executive with a guided tour and a session of faculty research presentations. CSI’s professors shared their ongoing work regarding data compression of multimedia signals, network reliability and stability, as well as ultra-fast communication switches.

Crotty presented a $5,000 check to Lisa Reilly, director of the college's Center for the Arts, to help fund a new community outreach and audience development initiative. The who’s who list of attendees included representatives from prominent government offices and key Staten Island businesses.

Patrick McDermott, president of McDermott & Thomas Associates, as well as president of the CSI Foundation, presented Crotty with an engraved medal that commemorated the importance of Verizon’s participation in CSI’s program.

The day concluded with a presentation entitled Leadership and Crisis Management in the Wake of Disaster: The Verizon Example after 9/11, which was an engaging behind the scenes look into the corporate struggle to reestablish a vital communications component after is was severely hobbled by international terrorism.

The College of Staten Island (CSI) is a senior college of The City University of New York (CUNY), the nation’s leading urban university. CSI offers 35 academic programs, 15 graduate degree programs, and challenging doctoral programs to 12,000 students. The 204-acre landscaped campus of CSI, one of the largest in NYC, contains an advanced, networked infrastructure to support technology-based teaching, learning, and research. For more information, visit www.csi.cuny.edu

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