CUNY Graduate School and University Center

The Graduate Center is located in the former B. Altman and Company Building at 365 Fifth Avenue. Main article: City University of New York § History CUNY began offering doctoral education through its Division of Graduate Studies in 1961, [ 7 ] and awarded its first two PhD to Daniel Robinson and Barbara Stern in 1965. Robinson, formerly a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford , received his Ph.D. in psychology, [ 8 ] while Stern, late of Rutgers University , received her Ph.D. in English literature. [ 9 ] In 1969, the Division of Graduate Studies formally became the Graduate School and University Center. [ 10 ] Mathematician Mina S. Rees served as the institution's first president from 1969 until her retirement in 1972. [ 11 ] Rees was succeeded as president of the Graduate Center by environmental psychologist Harold M. Proshansky, who served until his death in 1990. [ 12 ] Provost Steven M. Cahn was named acting president in Spring 1991. [ 13 ] Psychologist Frances Degen Horowitz was appointed president in September 1991. [ 14 ] In 2005, Horowitz was succeeded by the school's provost, Professor of English Literature William P. Kelly. [ 15 ] During Kelly's tenure at the Graduate Center, the university saw significant growth in revenue, funding opportunities for students, increased Distinguished Faculty, and a general resurgence. [ 16 ] This is in accordance with three primary goals articulated in the Graduate Center's strategic plan. [ 17 ] The first of these involves enhancing student support. In 2013, 83 dissertation-year fellowships were awarded at a total cost of $1.65 million. The Graduate Center is also developing new programs to advance research prior to the dissertation phase, including archival work. The fiscal stability of the university has enabled the chancellery to increase, on an incremental basis, the value of these fellowships. The packages extended for the 2013–14 years increase stipends and reduce teaching requirements.

In 2001, the Graduate Center provided 14 million dollars in student support, and, in Fall 2013, 51 million in student support. [ 17 ] On April 23, 2013, the CUNY Board of Trustees announced that President Kelly would serve as interim chancellor for the City University of New York beginning July 1 with the retirement of Chancellor Matthew Goldstein . [ 18 ] GC Provost Chase F. Robinson , a historian, was appointed to serve as interim president of the Graduate Center in 2013, and then served as president from July 2014 to December 2018. [ 19 ] [ 20 ] Joy Connolly became provost in August 2016 and interim president in December 2018. [ 21 ] Julia Wrigley was appointed as interim provost in December 2018. [ 22 ] In July 2019, James Muyskens became interim president, as Connolly had been appointed president of the American Council of Learned Societies . [ 23 ] On March 30, 2020, Robin L. Garrell , vice provost for graduate education and dean of graduate division at University of California, Los Angeles , was announced as the next president of the Graduate Center. She assumed office on August 1, 2020 [ 24 ] and served until September 28, 2023. [ 25 ] Steve Everett assumed the position of provost and senior vice president in August 2021. Norman Carey succeeded him as interim provost in August 2024. [ 26 ] In August 2025, Joel P. Christensen was appointed as the new provost. [ 27 ] Joshua Brumberg assumed the position of interim president on October 2, 2023. [ 28 ] He was appointed president of the CUNY Graduate Center in June 2024.

The CUNY Graduate Center's main campus is located in the B. Altman and Company Building at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. CUNY shares the B. Altman Building with the Oxford University Press . [ 29 ] Before 2000, the Graduate Center was housed in Aeolian Hall on West 42nd Street across from the New York Public Library Main Branch . [ 30 ] In 2017, the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center at 85 St. Nicholas Terrace in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood became part of the CUNY Graduate Center. [ 31 ] Advanced Science Research Center The Advanced Science Research Center at the Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) is an interdisciplinary STEM center for research and education. It covers five related fields: nanoscience, photonics , structural biology , neuroscience , and environmental science . The CUNY ASRC is located in a 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m 2 ) building on the southern edge of City College 's campus in Upper Manhattan . [ 32 ] [ 33 ] The CUNY ASRC, which opened in September 2014, is an outgrowth of CUNY's "Decade of Science" initiative, a multibillion-dollar project to elevating science research and education. [ 34 ] The CUNY ASRC formally joined the CUNY Graduate Center in spring 2017. [ 31 ] Today, the CUNY ASRC is one of the major pieces of CUNY's citywide research network. Five years after the center opened, over 200 graduate, undergraduate, and high school students had been mentored by CUNY ASRC scientists. [ 35 ] [ 36 ] In that time, the center also hosted over 400 conferences, seminars, and workshops and awarded over $600,000 in seed grants to CUNY faculty. [ 35 ] Research initiatives The CUNY ASRC was founded on the principle that researchers across different disciplines would collaborate to make scientific advancements.

Thus, it consists of five related fields: Nanoscience: Exploring on the tiniest scale, using the living world for inspiration to create new materials and devices that advance fields ranging from biomedicine to energy production Photonics: Discovering new ways to control light, heat, radio waves, and sound for future optical computers, ultrasensitive cameras, and cell phone technology Structural biology: Combining physics and chemistry to explore biology at the molecular and cellular levels, with the intention of identifying new ways to treat diseases Neuroscience: Investigating how the brain senses and responds to environmental and social experiences, with a focus on neural networks, metabolic changes, and molecular signals occurring in brain cells, with the goal of developing biosensors and innovative solutions to promote mental health Environmental sciences: Developing high-tech, interdisciplinary solutions to urgent environmental challenges, including air and water issues, climate change, and disease transmission Each research initiative occupies one floor of the CUNY ASRC building that hosts four faculty laboratories and between two and four core facilities.