CSI/CUNY News Release
	For Immediate Release - Monday, April 7, 2003

CSI announces new public affairs initiative - the Staten Island Project
to involve borough officials, community leaders, and CSI faculty

The College of Staten Island recently announced the creation of a dynamic new initiative that will integrate the work of the college with the public affairs concerns of Staten Island. The venture is appropriately named the College of Staten Island--Staten Island Project, or CSI-SIP.

• WHAT:
  The inauguration the CSI-SIP, followed by a reception. There will be a roundtable discussion of the future goals of the CSI-SIP.

• WHO:
  John J. Marchi, NY State Senator; Marlene Springer, President, CSI; Mirella Affron, Director, CSI-SIP. There will be representatives from city and state government, as well as CSI faculty representing the four main policy domains.

• WHEN:
  Friday, April 11, 2003; 4 p.m.

• WHERE:
  College of Staten Island Library (1L) Archives and Special Collections
  2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island NY 10314

Building on a solid foundation of conferences and programs already in place, the CSI-SIP will become the umbrella organization to expand the college’s role in the Staten Island community.

The CSI-SIP will serve as a non-partisan public affairs interface between borough officials and community leaders. The expertise of CSI faculty and staff will be at the service of community needs.

The CSI-SIP will be a dynamic forum that encourages and facilitates debate and discussion on controversial issues crucial to the community, while attempting to resolve the issues before they become urgent problems.

“As the only public institution of higher education on Staten Island, CSI is ideally positioned, through the newly established CSI-SIP, to play an even more central role than it has in the past in public affairs debates that affect the borough, its relationship to the city, and its link to the immediate region,” commented Marlene Springer, president of CSI.

CSI-SIP will interface with the community in four main policy domains:

• Governance: will increase the stock of knowledge about Staten Island’s institutions and how they work, as well as expand participation in local civic and political life.

• Civic Education: this initiative will present new programs that combat cynicism and apathy while strengthening the community’s connection with city administration.

• Health, Environment, and Land Use: the management of urban growth is a critical problem on Staten Island. This initiative will focus on the rapid expansion of the Island's economy and population while recognizing opportunities and overcoming challenges.

• Economic Development: the educational resources offered by the college will strengthen education in the training-intensive fields of the post-industrial economy that attracts productive workers and successful firms.

The CSI-SIP initiative is inspired by Senator John J. Marchi’s historic service to the Staten Island community and the college, and his pivotal role in establishing the CSI Archives and Special Collections with a gift of his papers in 1999. For more information visit the CSI-SIP Web site at www.csi.cuny.edu/csisip

EDITOR'S NOTE: You are invited to send a reporter and/or camera crew to cover this event. If you plan to attend or send a representative, please contact Ken Bach, director of public relations, to make arrangements.

MISSION STATEMENT (excerpt):
CSI-SIP is designed to integrate the work of the College with the public affairs concerns of the people of Staten Island. To that end, it mediates and facilitates the collaboration of the College’s faculty, students, and staff with government, civic organizations, and businesses in order to identify and seek to resolve the borough’s public issues before these become urgent problems. CSI-SIP serves more specifically as an information and consultation resource to prepare citizens and leaders to make better informed decisions about public life; it fosters the development of faculty research and undergraduate and graduate education through engagement with the Staten Island community; and it builds bridges to other public affairs institutes and local communities as a spur to innovations in public life on Staten Island. While encouraging and facilitating debate that accommodates differing, sometimes conflicting, positions on controversial issues crucial to the community, the CSI-SIP itself is committed to maintaining a non-partisan stance.

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, is fully accessible and 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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