College of Staten Island

History

The College of Staten Island is the product of a merger in 1976 of Staten Island Community College (SICC), founded in 1956, and Richmond College, founded in 1965. Richmond College had been threatened with closure because of New York City's financial crisis, while SICC, 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. At 204 acres, it is the largest campus by 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; the campus now houses the Michael J. Petrides School) and Richmond College (in St. George).

Presidents

Walter L. Willig, 1955–1968, was the inaugural President of College of Staten Island predecessor institution Staten Island Community College (SICC). His academic area of expertise was civil engineering.

Herbert Schueler, 1966–1973, was the first President of College of Staten Island predecessor institution Richmond College. His academic specialties were German literature and philosophy.

William M. Birenbaum, 1968–1976, served as President of College of Staten Island predecessor institution SICC until the merger of SICC and Richmond College in 1976, which resulted in the formation of the College of Staten Island. His academic focus was access to higher education for all.

Edmond Volpe, 1976–1994, an American literature scholar, retired in 1994 after having successfully handled the merger of the two colleges and the unification of the two campuses.

Marlene Springer, 1994–2007, an English and American literature scholar under whose leadership the College improved academic standards, introduced several master's programs, raised the level of the faculty, added research institutes, and introduced an Honors College, The Verrazzano School, and the CSI High School for International Studies. She retired in August 2007.

Tomás D. Morales, 2007–2012; arranged for a free shuttle from the Staten Island Ferry to the Willowbrook campus; announced in May 2012 that he would be leaving to become President of California State University at San Bernardino.

William J. Fritz, 2012–2021, geologist, appointed interim President on August 15, 2012, and as President on May 6, 2014. He resigned from the post on December 31, 2021.

Timothy G. Lynch, 2022–present, a higher education administrator, historian, and former Chief Academic Officer of Queensborough Community College, appointed interim president in January 2022, and as president on July 1, 2023.

Willowbrook and Disability Rights

The College of Staten Island’s Willowbrook campus is located on part of the former site of the Willowbrook State School, which was closed in 1987 after both Jane Kurtin of the Staten Island Advance and then ABC’s Geraldo Riviera exposed its horrific conditions to the public, highlighting the School’s systemic warehousing of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and the deplorable conditions under which they lived. This led to legislation to protect the rights of people with disabilities.

Following the establishment of its Willowbrook campus, the College has used its unique position to preserve and interpret the history of the Willowbrook State School and its significance in the disability rights movement. Through its Archives & Special Collections department, the College maintains the Willowbrook Archive, a repository of records, photographs, oral histories, publications, and other materials related to the institution and its legacy.

The campus is also home to The Willowbrook Mile, a 12-station memorial trail located on campus chronicling the history around Willowbrook State School and subsequent advocacy movements during and after its closure. The trail extends to neighboring grounds of the New York State Institute for Basic Research (IBR) and Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). In addition, the College hosts the annual Willowbrook Memorial Lecture, which seeks to educate about Willowbrook’s legacy, supports exhibitions, educational programs, and scholarly research related to disability history, human rights, and social justice, particularly through the School of Education and Social Work with an interdisciplinary minor in Disability Studies.

Academics

Research

CSI has more than 80 research labs, which include the Center for Developmental Neuroscience and Developmental Disabilities (CDN), the Staten Island Breast Cancer Research Initiative, the CUNY Interdisciplinary High-Performance Computing Center (HPCC). The HPCC provides advanced high-performance computing technology resources and corresponding technical assistance to faculty and students, and is among the largest academic computing facilities in the New York metropolitan area.

Research conducted through the CDN has focused on autism, Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, epilepsy, and neurodegenerative disorders. Center-affiliated faculty have secured grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, New York State Department of Health, and other public and private funding organizations.

The College of Staten Island Library houses a collection of more than 175,000 print volumes, over 1.6 million eBooks, and more than 200,000 electronic journals and newspapers. In addition to providing research resources, the library offers information literacy instruction and online educational materials.

The Library’s Archives & Special Collections preserves materials related to the history of Staten Island, the College of Staten Island and its predecessor institutions, Richmond College and Staten Island Community College. Its holdings include manuscript collections, photographs, oral histories, and printed materials documenting local political, social, and cultural history. The archives also house the Willowbrook Collection, which documents the history of the Willowbrook State School and the experiences of its residents, families, and staff. Holdings comprise approximately 1,400 linear feet of archival materials and more than 5,000 printed items.

Rankings

The College of Staten Island’s latest accolades include Newsweek designating CSI ”, multiple members of its faculty have been named to the Stanford University–Elsevier “Top 2%” Scientists List for 2025, the Lucille and Jay Chazanoff School of Business earning accreditation from AACSB International, recognition from U.S. News & World Report as a Top Public School and Top Performer in Social Mobility, Washington Monthly rating the College in the top 25 percent on its List of Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges, Forbes honoring CSI for Return on Investment for three straight years, and consistent recognition as a Military-Friendly® School, among others.

Departments, Programs, and Academics

The College of Staten Island offers a comprehensive range of undergraduate, graduate, certificate, and professional development programs. The College grants associate's, bachelor's, master's, advanced certificate, and doctoral degrees and serves students pursuing careers in the arts, sciences, business, education, healthcare, public service, and technology.

Academic Schools

CSI's academic programs are organized into four schools:

Division of Humanities and Social Sciences

The division includes nine departments: English, History, Media Culture, Performing & Creative Arts, Philosophy, Political Science & Global Affairs, Psychology, Sociology & Anthropology, and World Languages & Literatures. The division also includes the major in Science, Letters, & Society; Interdisciplinary majors and minors in African & African Diaspora Studies, American Studies, International Studies; and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies; as well as minors in Disability Studies; East Asian Studies; Latin American Caribbean, and Latina/o Studies; and a Graduate Certificate in Autism Spectrum Disorders. The Dean is Dr. Sarolta Takács.

Lucille and Jay Chazanoff School of Business

The School of Business offers undergraduate and graduate programs designed to prepare students for careers in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. Areas of study include Accounting, Finance, Economics, Management, Marketing, International Business, and Business Analytics. The school emphasizes experiential learning through internships, applied research, and partnerships with businesses and organizations throughout the New York metropolitan area. The Dean is Susan Holak.

School of Education and Social Work

The School of Education and Social Work prepares teachers, counselors, and educational leaders through undergraduate and graduate programs leading to New York State certification. Programs in the Department of Education include childhood education, special education, literacy education, educational leadership, school counseling, and TESOL. and related fields; the Department of Social Work prepares students for entry-level generalist urban practice and provides a local and global context for understanding and addressing the experiences of people and societies. The department also offers a unique Master of Social Work (MSW) degree, which focuses on generalist practice in the first year and on disability studies in either clinical practice or macro practice in the specialization year. The Dean is Burnett Joiner.

Campus facilities

The College of Staten Island's 204-acre Willowbrook campus includes academic buildings, research laboratories, athletic facilities, student housing, and performance venues organized around two academic quadrangles. Notable facilities include the Center for the Arts, the Astrophysical Observatory, the Sports and Recreation Center, the Library, the Innovation Hub, and the CUNY High-Performance Computing Center.

Dolphin Cove

Dolphin Cove, opened in 2013, was the College's first residential housing complex and accommodates more than 600 students in apartment-style residences, and includes academic support, recreation, and community spaces.

Astrophysical Observatory

The College of Staten Island Observatory is the largest publicly accessible observatory in New York City and serves as a center for research, teaching, and public astronomy programs. Operated by the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the facility has been designated an official asteroid and comet research station by the International Astronomical Union and carries observatory code IAU 294. Its primary instrument is a 16-inch computerized Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.

Center for the Arts

Opened in 1996, the Center for the Arts is one of Staten Island's leading performing arts venues, hosting professional and community performances, exhibitions, lectures, and educational programs. The facility includes the Springer Concert Hall, Williamson Theatre, Recital Hall, and Lecture Hall, as well as exhibition and event spaces used by both the College and the broader community.

Sports and Recreation Center

The Sports and Recreation Center serves as the home of CSI Athletics and includes facilities for varsity sports, recreation, fitness, swimming, and community events. The complex includes an indoor swimming pool, basketball and volleyball courts, fitness facilities, racquet courts, and outdoor fields and courts used for intercollegiate athletics and community programming.

Athletics

The College of Staten Island athletic teams are known as the Dolphins. The College was accepted as a provisional member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II in 2019, and joined the East Coast Conference (ECC) as a full member in the 2020–2021 academic year.[22] The College previously competed at the Division III level as a member of the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) from 1979–1980 to 2019–2020.[23] CSI began the transition to Division II during the 2019–2020 season and completed the transition process following the 2021-2022 academic year.[22]

The men's and women's swimming and diving teams have competed in the Northeast 10 Conference since the 2023–2024 season, formerly competing in the Metropolitan Swimming Conference (METS), as the ECC doesn't sponsor the sport. The College competes in 14 sports: men's sports are baseball, basketball, cross country, soccer, swimming and diving, and track and field (indoor and outdoor); women's sports are basketball, cross country, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, and track and field (indoor and outdoor).

Collectively, CSI’s athletics teams accumulated 108 CUNYAC Championships between 1977–2018, making 38 appearances in NCAA Division III National Tournaments in team sports, with many other appearances at NCAA regional and national championship meets in individual sports such as swimming and diving, cross country, etc. The College also claimed CUNYAC Commissioner’s Cup titles in 2001 and 2018, awarded to CUNY’s most successful athletics institution. They currently join fellow CUNY-school Queens College as the only NCAA Division II public schools in New York. In their short time in Division II (2019–present) they have boasted multiple postseason appearances within the East Coast Conference and the Northeast 10.

Prior to entering NCAA Division II, the Dolphins racked up an impressive list of CUNYAC and Division III accomplishments.

Club sports include a women’s flag football team that competes in the National Collegiate Flag Football League (NCFFL)—they won the NCFFL championship in 2025. Other club sports are cheerleading, women’s bowling, esports, and a competitive dance team.

CSI athletic facilities include the Sports and Recreation Center, a 1,200-seat arena that serves as the home for basketball and intramural sports. Outdoor facilities include a synthetic turf soccer field (Dolphin Soccer Park), adjacent is a multipurpose field encircled by a quarter-mile track, and full turf softball (CSI Softball Complex) and baseball fields. The ‘College of Staten Island Baseball Complex’ was the home of the Staten Island Yankees before they moved to Richmond County Bank Ballpark in 2001. The ballpark had a capacity of 2,500 people and opened in 1999.[24]

Notable people

Faculty/staff

Sos Agaian, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, named among top 2% of scholars in 2025

Zaghloul Ahmed, Professor, and Chair and Program Director of the Physical Therapy Department, a leading figure in the field of bioelectronic medicine

Nancy Bogen, Professor Emerita of English, producer of mixed media combining photography, poetry, and music

Patricia J. Brooks, Professor of Psychology, director of the Language Learning Laboratory

Ava Chin, Professor of Creative Nonfiction and Journalism, author of Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times (“Urban Forager”), The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and The Village Voice, among others.

Grace M. Cho, CSI Associate Professor, Sociology and Anthropology, has received a number of honors, such as a 2022 Asian/Pacific American (APA) Award for Adult Non-Fiction and was named to the Nonfiction Longlist of the National Book Awards for her book, Tastes Like War: A Memoir.

Ashley Dawson, Distinguished Professor of English

Ismael García-Colón, Professor, Anthropology, is the recipient of the Frank Bonilla Book Award from the Puerto Rican Studies Association for his book, Colonial Migrants at the Heart of Empire: Puerto Rican Workers on U.S. Farms.

Li Ge, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, highlighted in a recent Phys.org article exploring a groundbreaking study demonstrating how multiple streams of light can be guided simultaneously through chip-based networks using principles of topology.

Donna B. Gerstle, Director, Center for Environmental Science; Executive Director and Principal Investigator, Staten Island Breast Cancer Research Initiative

Alumni

Jo Ann Bland, late civil rights activist in Alabama[citation needed]

Justin Brannan, New York City Council member for the 47th district from 2018 to 2025; former musician

Joe Causi, “Brooklyn’s Own” legendary radio host and disk jockey of 40+ years WCBS-FM 101.1

Alexa Criscitiello ’12 (AKA A.A Christi), Managing Editor of broadwayworld.com

Alfred B. Curtis Jr. ‘86, previously served as president and CEO of the United Nations Development Corporation; former NYC Commissioner of the Department of Youth and Community Development/Department of Youth Services; Republican candidate for a state senate seat in Staten Island and Brooklyn; former president of the Staten Island NAACP; former CUNY Board trustee

Andrea Dalzell ’17, ‘19, nurse and disability rights activist

Jerry Ferrara, film and television actor

Sara M. Gonzalez, former New York City Council member for the 38th District from 2002 to 2013[citation needed]

Vinny Guadagnino ‘09, reality television personality, best known for MTV's Jersey Shore

Kamillah Hanks, New York City Council member for the 49th District

Muriel A. Howard, President of Buffalo State College, 1996–2009, former president of American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU)

Raj Amit Kumar, filmmaker and writer; best known for Unfreedom, which is banned in India[citation needed]