In the past half-century public higher education, like so much of America, has changed dramatically. It’s a vastly different landscape, with millions more attending college as the economy – the world – demands new skills, new knowledge, and new ways of doing business. The City University of New York, one of the largest systems in the nation, has often been at the very forefront of those massive shifts, and within CUNY, the recently-retired Dean Emeritus John Mogulescu, often led the charge.
To cap his career, Mogulescu penned a personal professional memoir, The Dean of New Things: Bringing Change to CUNY and New York City. It is an extremely interesting book, relevant for all who are interested in public higher education and services. There is much here about specific innovations, about how/why/when certain reforms take hold (or not), and an on-the-ground wellspring of information about change management in an enormous public higher education system. A recount of key events is more than history; it offers a compendium of case studies. Dean Mogulescu’s work was usually, but not exclusively, at CUNY’s periphery. These are the spaces where the under-resourced, the less powerful, and the less-connected, those that truly needed education and other services, encountered a enormous public organization.
They are also the areas where higher education reach and impact has grown over the decades. In the last fifty years higher education has become much more relevant to millions who might never have considered themselves as belonging in college, who might never have realized the benefits of higher education. Accordingly, the book raises questions and issues, directly and indirectly, about how we think about the arc and very mission of higher education.
Mogulescu, born after World War II, grew up in an engaged and socially active Brooklyn family. Tennis and basketball were his adolescent passions and sports led to Brown University, where he struggled as a college student. Unsure of his future and concerned about the Vietnam draft, Mogulescu returned home. He taught public school, decided on a career in social work, and entered a graduate program at NYU. An assignment as part of his studies led him to a woman who unexpectedly redirected his entire career. Fannie Eisenstein, an associate dean in the division of continuing education at what would later become CUNY, challenged, promoted, and mentored Mogulescu. His first real effort was through a program educating the incarcerated in the Brooklyn House of Detention. It was a transformative experience, for everyone involved in the effort, and truly changed students’ lives. Likewise, it had a profound impact on Mogulescu, who grew, professionally and as person.
Through these first experiences Mogulescu learned how to develop and implement programs, how to get things done. More importantly, he took to heart the landscape of organizations, bureaucracies and people who oversaw the educational and service ecosystem. Unsurprisingly, offers and opportunities emerge as he tried to navigate where his time and effort would have impact. Also unsurprisingly, smart leaders looked to use Mogulescu’s skills to help their own efforts. In 1986 he began work at CUNY’s central office, focusing on adult education, and reporting to Regina Peruggi. It was a very smart decision for all. Needs for adult learners was high and remains an extremely important part of CUNY’s mission. CUNY sought savvy and innovative leadership to address this need, and Peruggi is an extraordinarily gifted educational leader.
That pattern – Mogulescu moving into the situation, somehow bringing together a range of talented and effective educators, and addressing an opportunity that traditional higher education was ill-prepared to pick up – was to mark his entire career at CUNY. Dean Mogulescu was the innovator, the path-breaker, the developer and implementer. The book makes it clear, as well, that these initiatives did not happen accidentally. Sought by system chancellors and other officials, their realization rested on innovative leadership. That was Dean Mogulescu.
In the following years Mogulescu would spearhead or facilitate the creation of CUNY’s SPS, School of Professional Studies, the creation of fully online courses, programs and degrees (well before it was fashionable), the expansion of CUNY educational services with and through other city agencies, CUNY’s language immersion programs (essential for the many new immigrants to Gotham), building specialized high schools, creating CUNY’s ASAP program (which is nationally known for dramatically improving completion rates), creating a new community college (Guttman), and much more. Each of these initiatives required team creation, team building, soft-money (Mogulescu throughout his career raised money through grants), and extraordinarily skillful organizational maneuvering. It is essential to realize, too, that each one was a collaborative effort. Nothing of value in higher education can take place in a silo or vacuum. Mogulescu knew this and was able to build and foster collaboration for decades.
Earlier in my career at CUNY I had the opportunity to work with Dean Mogulescu and to learn from him. An extremely generous colleague, he inspired through his lived values and he taught through wisdom. It is a powerful and unusual combination. CUNY and the many who have learned and worked there are better because of John Mogulescu – and I am grateful for this book and time with him.
David Potash