CUNY Master Plan 2012-2016

THE CUNY MASTER PLAN 2012-2016
CUNY SustainableWorks
Having successfully developed a collaborative process that enables the solar market, CUNY SustainableWorks
is continuously working to leverage that platform to enable the market for other cleantech
innovations and processes through the following:
• Sustainable Business Leaders Advisory Board: Established in 2010, over thirty city agencies, workforce
development entities, academia and businesses leaders work across the continuum to grow the
green economy.
• NYCleantech Collaborative (NYCC): Initiated in January 2012, this membership organization of
leading industries identifies key flagship cleantech projects that can make a substantial difference to
the city’s sustainable future and collaborates on streamlining entry to the marketplace. NYCC also
works with the Con Edison Scholar Programs that provides hands-on cleantech project management
experience for CUNY graduate students.
• CUNY SustainableWorks Commercialization Program: Through a million dollar investment fund, this
program supports emerging cleantech, and works with NYCC to provide a pathway into the marketplace.
The program operates out of the Collaboration Center located at the Borough of Manhattan Community
College.
• CUNY Ventures: In an effort to enable the market for cleantech and generate new revenue streams,
CUNY Ventures was established as a for-profit initiative. One initial project, through SunShot NY,
will use IBM’s Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) technology solutions to track data from various
sources and provide analytics on PV performance data and local grid impacts. Future plans include
furthering the partnership with IBM to expand the IOC to be a smarter tool for use in any city, with
services bringing in funds to CUNY while engaging faculty and students on cutting-edge solutions to
21st-century challenges.
Administrative Technology
The relatively close proximity of the CUNY campuses facilitates, and necessitates, the sharing of
resources and services that would be much more difficult—and less needed—were the campuses more
physically dispersed. As noted previously, students transfer frequently among the campuses. Employees
also frequently change their home-base campus, and both students and employees may spend a day, a
month, or a term on another campus. Such frequent human interchange, in order that it be productive,
requires that the administrative systems across the system communicate with each other and facilitate
the work of all students and employees, not just those on a particular campus. These shared administrative
services, including services involving administrative technology, also provide economies of scale and
result in better service to students and faculty while reducing costs to the University. Such services both
promote and are the product of the integrated University.
A prime example of such shared resources is CUNYfirst, a University-wide initiative to upgrade and
integrate database systems that manage student administrative, human resources, and finance business
processes. CUNYfirst will replace dozens of aging software systems that do not interact with a single
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