• Media

  • Gotham Gazette Op-Ed

    Gotham Gazette  Op-Ed by LaGuardia President Gail Mellow:
    After Amazon: Establishing Our Local Pipeline for Future Opportunities


    With Amazon’s pronouncement to put the brakes on its plan to bring part of its new headquarters to Long Island City, it’s time to make lemonade out of the many lemons left in the wake.

    Amazon’s decision to locate here centered on our city’s ability to get the company the talent it needs to grow. It’s what every company, large and small, needs to thrive.

    When Amazon first announced it was coming, one of the first questions raised was: who will benefit? Would the 25,000 jobs help our local community, including the residents of Queensbridge Houses, the nation’s largest public housing complex, and LaGuardia Community College, where more than 70% of students come from households with incomes of less than $30,000? What kinds of jobs would be open to someone with just a high school diploma, an associate’s, a bachelor’s? Would it be New Yorkers who benefitted, or people recruited from elsewhere in the country and the world?

    Read full article.




  • New York Times Op-Ed

    New York Times  Op-Ed by LaGuardia President Gail Mellow:
    The Biggest Misconception About Today’s College Students


    You might think the typical college student lives in a state of bliss, spending each day moving among classes, parties and extracurricular activities. But the reality is that an increasingly small population of undergraduates enjoys that kind of life.

    Of the country’s nearly 18 million undergraduates, more than 40 percent go to community college, and of those, only 62 percent can afford to go to college full-time. By contrast, a mere 0.4 percent of students in the United States attend one of the Ivies.

    The typical student is not the one burnishing a fancy résumé with numerous unpaid internships. It’s just the opposite: Over half of all undergraduates live at home to make their degrees more affordable, and a shocking 40 percent of students work at least 30 hours a week. About 25 percent work full-time and go to school full-time.

    Read full article.






  • Media portrayals of college students are often incorrect, outdated, and discriminatory. For community college students, the result is that they’re presumed to be not smart, and to not work hard. But LaGuardia Community College President Gail O. Mellow tells attn: that the reverse is true. “These students are really smart. And what happens is that they haven’t had the opportunity to have a fancy internship, or the tutor. What we find is that these students have grit; incredible ambition. And what they need is just a little bit of an open door.”








  • The PBS NewsHour segment on LaGuardia helps us all better understand what it means to be a college student in America. The story follows up on my Op-Ed in the New York Times to correct misperceptions of today’s college student. The reality is sobering. Community college students struggle to raise families, work and attend college. Despite enormous obstacles, they persist, determined to make a better life for themselves and their families. LaGuardia’s work is impressive. A Stanford University study ranked LaGuardia 5th in the nation in creating economic mobility for low-income students. Changing society’s perception of who attends college is an essential step to leveling the playing field so that every hard working student has a shot at achieving their dreams.

    Read Transcript of PBS NewsHour segment.




  • Dr. Gail O. Mellow, President of LaGuardia Community College, Wins 2017 TIAA Institute Hesburgh Award

    The TIAA Institute has awarded Dr. Gail O. Mellow, president of LaGuardia Community College, with the 2017 TIAA Institute Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence. Named in honor of Reverend Theodore M. Hesburgh, former president of the University of Notre Dame, the award, one of the most prestigious in academia, recognizes outstanding leadership on the part of a college president. The TIAA Institute bestowed this honor March 13th at the American Council on Education conference in Washington, DC.

    Read Transcript of Dr. Mellow's Acceptance Speech.
    The TIAA Institute Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence in Higher Education


    Congress_Photo

    LaGuardia Community College President Dr. Gail O. Mellow with Lynn Gangone, Vice President, American Council on Education;
    Molly Corbett Broad, President, American Council on Education; Doug Chittenden, President, Institutional Retirement,TIAA