College of Staten Island

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The College of Staten Island


Established	1976
Type	Public
Location	Staten Island, New York, USA
Website	csi.cuny.edu

The College of Staten Island is one of the "hybrid colleges" of the City University of New York. The college offers both associate's and bachelor's degrees, hence it is a "hybrid" of a traditional four-year college and a two-year community college. The College of Staten Island is one of four such hybrid colleges in the CUNY system, and one of only two which also offers graduate-level study.

It was established in 1976 from the merger of Richmond College (opened in 1965) and Staten Island Community College (opened 1956). Richmond College had been threatened with closure because of New York City's financial crisis, while the older school, because of its status as a community college, received state support. The merger was particularly logical since the community college offered two year degrees, while Richmond College was an "upper divisional" college (the third in the nation) that offered degrees to those in their third and fourth years of schooling.

The College of Staten Island has been located on the grounds of the former Willowbrook State School since 1993. It is the largest campus, in terms of physical size, in New York City. Before the relocation to Willowbrook, the college had a split campus, located at the former Staten Island Community College (in Sunnyside, on Todt Hill) and Richmond College (in St. George).

The first president of the college, Dr. Edmond Volpe, retired in 1994, and was succeeded by Dr. Marlene Springer.

1 The Third Rail
2 WSIA
3 The High School For International Studies
4 External links

[edit] The Third Rail

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The Third Rail is the literary political arts magazine of the College and publishes semesterly. Fully embracing W.E.B. DuBois' notion that "art is propaganda," and in the tradition of “FIRE!” the groundbreaking political arts magazine founded and destroyed during the Harlem Renaissance

The Third Rail features Poetry • Political Commentaries • Philosophy • Photography Arts • Fiction • Non-Fiction • Drawings • Social Commentaries, Plays & everything in the nature of the political arts

[edit] WSIA

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In the mid 1970s, a group of students interested in radio gathered in a broom closet in the C Building of The College of Staten Island. They ran some wire to the cafeteria and started spinning records. These students worked with the College and applied for an FM license. They were granted a construction permit. Not much progress was made until the late 1970s when a new group of students applied to the Student Government and Association for money to start construction. In 1980, a General Manager was hired to get the station on the air. It took a year to work out an agreement for an antenna site on Todt Hill (the tallest point on the East Coast south of Maine), install phone lines to the site for the transmitter, and to complete construction of the studios in the basement of E building on the Sunnyside campus.

On August 31, 1981, WSIA began regularly scheduled programming. Since then, a great number of students have been trained to become staff members. Some have gone on to careers in radio. Others look back on WSIA as an important part of their student life.

For the next 12 years, WSIA-FM languished somewhat invisibly in the E-building basement below the cafeteria at the Sunnyside campus. Few people at the college even knew the E-building had a basement or that CSI had a radio station. However, many people from outside the immediate College community had come to realize just what WSIA was doing. With the format in place, WSIA began gaining a reputation for playing music that nobody else on the overcrowded New York radio dial was. The audience soon grew into other parts of the City, and then Northern New Jersey as well.

A number of changes have happened since 1981. The station's offices and studios have been enlarged and improved. Its operating budget has increased from $8,800 to $100,000 per year. In 1985, the College showed its commitment by picking up the salary of the General Manager. Previously, this had been paid out of student fees. The programming has also undergone a number of changes.

In 1993, The College of Staten Island moved its entire campus to a new, bigger location, giving WSIA completely new state-of- the-art facilities. WSIA now uses brand new equipment making it one of the most technologically impressive radio stations in the entire country. From its fully digital signal to its 64 track recording studios, WSIA has become a staple for new, uncommercial music in the New York City area. WSIA is run by an all-student board of directors and also employs a full-time general manager and full-time Chief Engineer, John Ladley. It is licensed by the FCC and transmits to all of Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, Manhattan and New Jersey. The station also introduces many local and unsigned bands. The new studios are equipped with the capacity to bring bands in to perform live on-the-air. WSIA also has an eclectic music format, sports talk shows, news programming and public affair discussions. The Sports Department also brings the Staten Island community many local sporting events such as college basketball, and high school football.

Membership at WSIA is open to any student of The College of Staten Island, part-time or full-time. The studios are located in the Campus Center, in Room 106.