A Battered QC President Quits

Silence blanketed Queens Colleges campus last Monday, as word spread of the resignation of the colleges President Allen Lee Sessoms. In office since 1995, Sessoms, citing personal reasons, will step down on Aug. 31, but sources say the walls may have been closing in on the CUNY college president.
Sessoms had come under fire recently for failing to raise sufficient funds for a $30 million AIDS research center, set to be built on the Flushing campus. In 1997, after announcing his plans to bring renowned AIDS researcher Luc Montagnier from France to Queens to build the center, he revealed that he would raise the majority of the funding through private donations. However, in November 1999, Sessoms drew the ire of CUNY officials when he repeatedly said he had raised the money when, reportedly, he had not.
"The fate of the AIDS center is still under review from CUNY," said a City University of New York spokesman.
Sessoms, 53, declined to be interviewed, but issued a press release saying, "It has been an extremely difficult, while productive five years." He added that Queens College has made "major advances over the past five years. Admissions standards are significantly higher, as is the academic achievement of both faculty and students. Our enrollments are on the upswing, despite our tougher admissions standards. The image of Queens College is at its highest point ever."
Sessoms resignation comes on the heels of a five-year performance review concluded by an independent panel of outside educators. Although CUNY has refused to release the report, college officials speculate it raised serious concerns about Sessoms credibility and leadership of the 17,000-student campus. In addition, CUNY officials recently sent auditors to the campus to review Sessoms spending, but have yet to finish their investigation.
The controversy surrounding the AIDS center is just the latest to have plagued Sessoms over the last two years. In 1998, trustees rejected a plan to merge the school with Queensborough Community College, making it a doctoral-granting university. Another of his most ambitious, yet unfulfilled plans was to add campus dormitories to Queens Colleges campus.
Last year, in a report on remedial education by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Sessoms was quoted using a number of expletives to describe students taking remedial classes. Although he denied using the expletives, Sessoms later conceded to using a "salty term as a synonym for academically unprepared."
"People should look into their heart, and not just judge a series of missteps," said Jeff Weisenfeld, CUNY trustee. "He brought excitement and talent to the school, and had great dedication to recruitment standards. We are saddened, and hope he finds his niche."
Although many of his grandiose projects failed to strike a chord with CUNY officials, Sessoms did manage to leave an indelible mark at Queens College, one of CUNYs most respected schools. A physicist who earned a doctorate at Yale, taught at Harvard, and spent six years as a French and Mexican diplomat, Sessoms was often regarded as an elitist. The Bronx native raised academic and admissions standards considerably at Queens, and transported the school into the headlines by importing prominent cultural and political figures such as Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, former Senator and Irish mediator George Mitchell, and former French President Valery Giscard dEstaing to the college. In fact, dEstaing was awarded an honorary degree last week at a dinner held in his honor.
"He was a man of extraordinary vision," said Dan Andrews, spokesman for Borough President Claire Shulman. "Perhaps he was ahead of his time."
The burden of hiring a new president falls upon CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, who must now appoint a search committee to find qualified candidates. Ron Cannava, public relations director for Queens College, said since the search usually takes up to a year, the college will probably need to appoint an interim president for the fall 2000 semester.
Senator Toby Stavisky of Flushing called Sessoms an "innovator," and pleaded with the search committee to put aside politics when selecting a new president. "I hope they choose an educator, rather than a politician," said Stavisky.
Elsewhere, on Queens Colleges campus, reactions differed about how Sessoms exit would affect the school. "He never fulfilled his promises," said Rob Koch, a Queens College senior. "I dont think he was for the good of all students. He had a personal agenda, and didnt give 100 percent to his students."
"The pressure he must have been under had to have been unbelievable," said first-year assistant music professor David Jolley. "Its too bad he backed himself into a corner."
Queens student Ina Obernesse said Sessoms departure could leave the college in a state of disarray. "I believe his resignation will be a negative move for the school," said Obernesse. "Who knows whats coming now?"