Meeting of the Board of Regents | January 2010

Cultural Education Committee

January 11, 2011

Time: 9:35 a.m. – 10:35 a.m.

Location:  Room 217 EBA

REGENTS COMMITTEE ON CULTURAL EDUCATION

Regent Roger Tilles, Chair of the Cultural Education Committee, submitted the following written report.

Your Committee on Cultural Education Committee had its scheduled meeting on January 11, 2011.

(Committee members: Regents Tilles, Bendit, Dawson, Brooks-Hopkins, Phillips and Rosa)

In attendance were: Regents Tilles, Bendit, Dawson, and Brooks Hopkins

Absent: Regents Phillips and Rosa

In addition to CE Committee Members, in attendance were:  Chief Operating Officer Valerie Grey and Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey Cannell.

ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION

Chair’s Remarks: Regent Tilles welcomed everyone and opened the meeting with a brief update on the Regents ad-hoc committee on deaccessioning.  Regent Tilles reported that the ad-hoc committee met on December 15 and is preparing its report, with the hope of presenting a draft report to the Board of Regents in February. 

Regent Tilles also reported on his interest in assessing how arts institutions and cultural institutions can partner with schools to contribute to school turn around.  This would create opportunities to use Race to the Top funding to build stronger partnerships between arts and cultural institutions and schools.  Regent Tilles and Regent Bendit commented that there is already a significant amount of collaboration between arts and cultural institutions and schools, citing Carnegie Hall and the American Museum of Natural History as exemplars.  The committee agreed to seek a joint P-12/CE committee meeting to explore how to better foster development of best practices for collaboration.

Regent Tilles also commented on opportunities to better align the online education services of libraries, museums and historical societies to support programs delivered through BOCES and other institutions.  Regent Tilles cited, as an example, the opportunity to align services in public libraries to support students taking the GED exam providing access to online test preparation resources through public libraries.

Deputy’s Report: Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey Cannell greeted everyone and briefly spoke about the Deputy’s OCE Monthly Report that was distributed at the to the meeting. 

CE (D) 1 –New NetherlandResearch Center

The Deputy Commissioner introduced Dr. Charles Gehring, Director of the New Netherland Project and its principal translator.  Dr. Gehring presented an overview of the work of the New Netherland Research Center (NNRC), which included a brief background on the translation project; the accomplishments over the last 36 years; the relationship with the Dutch government and its Mutual Cultural Heritage program as well as the service provided to the community and schools.

In follow-up discussion, committee members stressed the importance of ensuring that the research work done through the New Netherland Research Center include useful and relevant services to K-12 educators to help them understand and access the role of the Dutch colony in shaping New York’s cultural, legal and ethnic heritage.

CE (D) 2 –Preserving the American Historical Record: Federal Legislative Initiative

The Deputy Commissioner introduced Kathleen Roe, Director of Operations for the Archives and chair of the Council of State Archivists (CoSA) Government Affairs Committee, who briefed the Cultural Education Committee on the Preserving the American Historical Record (PAHR) federal legislative effort.  PAHR will provide $50 million in formula-based funding to all states to support the preservation of and access to historical records held in state and regional repositories and governments.  

The State Archives is taking a leadership role in this effort, and the PAHR bill has been a Regents priority for the past two years. The PAHR bill will be reintroduced to the 112th Congress in February.  It is recommended that the Regents should renew their support of the PAHR bill as part of their federal legislative agenda and encourage the New York Congressional delegation’s members to actively work for the passage of this legislation. 

Meeting adjourned.