The College of St. George of Staten Island

Outline for Proposed Movie Script

By Dr. Pelham Mead 2021.

1. Introduction

Each and every College and University in the United States whether a Catholic College or Private or Public College always has something to hide. It seems to be standard procedure to sweep problems under the rug rather than deal with the problems in an honest and outright manner. Sadly, faculty and students suffer in the end from the indiscretions of the Presidents, and administrators. When monies are stolen from accounts and the person is caught, most Colleges deal with it internally so as not to let the story get into the Newspapers and produce a bad image of the College. Colleges and Universities are often afraid of the impact of a bad story and how it will affect their alumni contributions. Their justification is when a major bad story breaks that puts the College of University in a bad light; there is a domino effect as to public opinion and alumni opinion. Colleges or Universities are afraid that alumni will stop making contributions to the school because of bad story of embezzlement, violence on campus, child sexual abuse, administrative misdeeds, and other negative stories.

            Take for instance the case of Joe Paterno the Football coach at Penn State University shows that he reported a case of suspected sex abuse of young boys by an assistant coach to his superiors and they in turn swept the problem under the carpet until all hell broke loose in the fall of 2010 and the story came to the surface when one or more victims told their story to the Police and the Newspapers. The story went viral and Penn State was put in a very poor light nationally and internationally.  The first effect of this poor image would be alumni concern and a sudden decrease of alumni contributions. Some alumni are such large contributors that they often have great leverage with the University Trustees. In the Penn State situation the Trustees needed to exercise  “
damage control,” since the case was in all the National Newspapers. They fire Joe Paterno immediately to stop all the News stories. That had a limited effect. It may also have been that the politics of Penn State Trustees had asked Coach Paterno on numerous times to step down and retire. This bad news provided an opportunity for them to finally be able to take action in getting 85-year-old Coach Paterno to step down. While he was coaching he was a powerful man that could tell the President and the Trustees what he wanted to do. Look at the numbers at Penn State. The football stadium seated 65,000 people all paying for tickets. The alumni contributors for the football program specifically and boosters as they are called who always raise funds for the Football program for full scholarships, uniforms, travel funds, coaching salaries, trainers, printing and marketing expenses. Penn State was an empire of Football income and contributions and at Penn state as well as any other campus the bottom line is money.

            This book, although fictional in nature, is based on events that actually happened at many Colleges across the United States over a period of twenty years 1980 to 2011. In no way is this book intended to cause malice toward any College or Institution or President or administrative or faculty individuals. The real intention of this book is to show what really goes on behind the scenes in Colleges and Universities in the United States and how “cover up” is the motto of the day.

            The first story is about a fictitious Catholic College in Staten Island, New York called St. Georges College. This College was on the property belonging to the Sisters of the Holy Cross. Originally, like so many other Catholic Colleges,  St. Georges began  as an all Women’s Colleges in the early 1900’s, and due to declining enrollment became a coed College in 1960. Many small Catholic Colleges that do not have a wealthy alumni base suffer from the same problems, and that is a low or poor alumni funding to help the college survive. Many people do not realize that all Colleges and Universities are tuition dependent as their main source of income. The smaller Colleges public and catholic do not have research departments that generate a lot of federal grants for scientific research, and a lot of funding for faculty, scientists, and facilities. 

Smaller Colleges also suffer from their inability to have good grant writers. They often have only one Development administrator who usually cannot write grants but only organize grants. It is the professors that have to write grants, or knowledgeable administrators that have the time and the motivation.

            One source of income for Catholic Colleges used to be endowment such as naming a classroom for an alumnus contribution. Large million dollar donations would grant an alumnus getting a building named after them. This worked well for a few decades, but after time, each and every classroom, building, gymnasium, pool, sports field, etc. had been named for some alumni that gave money. Even scholarships were named after the alumni contributor. Special graduation awards got to departments where previous alumni funded a Communications Department award, or a Biology Department award.

            Eventually the selling of names on classrooms and buildings much like the selling of pews in churches in the 1800’s and early 1900’s became a thing of the past. Catholic colleges did not have many means of raising funds especially after the Diocese of New York or any other supporting Diocese began cutting funds to Catholic Colleges, and even Catholic Schools in the 1980, 1990, and 2000’s.

            Since tuition is the main source of Catholic Colleges, unlike their Public College counterparts who also get funding from the State, Catholic College try to keep the tuition low so that they can serve 2^nd generation immigrant students, low income, and minority students. Small Catholic College realize  they cannot compete with publically funded State Colleges, so they target their students from the lower pay scale of available students. Since their mission is to help the poor or help the minorities, they practically give away the tuition in grants, scholarships, and special financial awards. These scholarships are based on need and usually reduce the already low tuition to 50% less than full tuition. If the housing or enrollment is limited at a small Catholic college then they are in trouble. They will always be capped at the amount of students they can house and enroll. Commuter students comprise a large portion of many College and University enrollment. St. Johns University in Queens had 20,000 students in 2010, and only a few hundred live on campus in the few dormitories. This means that almost the entire St. John University student had to commute everyday.

            At St. George’s College of Staten Island only 20% of the students commuted. There were enough dorms on campus to house 2,000 students. The dorms were all old , rundown, and not very attractive. They were cheap as far as monthly rent goes.

St. George’s College did not make much money on dormitory fees, and in the summer the dorms were mostly empty.

            In the early years of St. George’s College the majority of the college faculty were Nuns from the Order of the Holy Cross. They worked for no pay except a small 10% living allowance, and they all lived in housing on the campus. The College in the early years 1930 through the 1950’s made a nice profit, because it’s faculty costs were extremely low. This changed over time because the Nuns were not getting new novices after WWII, and many were dying off. By 1980 70% of the original teaching staff of Nuns had passed away. Only a dozen teaching and administrative Nuns remained at St. George’s College as of 2000. Many other Catholic Colleges run by Nuns were suffering the same thing with a decline in Nuns on the teaching staff.

The Betrayal of the Nuns

            At an all Women’s College in White Plains, New York the “Sisters of Life.”  ran a College called Northern Westchester College. It suffered a decline in teaching Nuns , and enrollment during the 1960’s, when there was the anti-war, anti-establishment, and anti-church movement in the United States. Their enrollment dropped to an all time low of 300 students. They converted to coed by 1965 but the change came too late, and they were faced with closing. A large University from New York city wanted to locate a Medical School in Westchester on the property the Sisters of Life.  The Northern Westchester College was prime property in White Plains. They negotiated a deal to support Northern Westchester College, and at the same time build their Medical school on the same grounds. By 1970 the Northern Westchester College was closed, and the Medical school was booming with enrollment. The Sisters of Life were left out in the cold when the college finally closed even though the University promised to promote and keep Northern Westchester College open no matter what.

            Another group of Nuns called the  “Sisters of the Humble Poor,” has a viable Catholic Prep school in Westchester that began in 1901. Their school “St. Peters Prep of Westchester,” began to lose Nuns as they died out, and few replaced them. Originally the rich families sent their children to the famous St. Peters Prep of Westchester because it was well known as a good Catholic school that placed many graduates in large well known Universities such as Princeton, Yale, and New York University. After WWII, the teaching Nuns had dropped to only 1/3 of the faculty, and lay teachers had to be hired which increased the costs of the Prep school. The buildings of the late 1800’s were crumbling and the neighborhood around the Prep school slowly became a slum. By 1975 the Sisters of the Humble Poor were forced to sell the Prep school or default to New York City in taxes. They sold it to a Jewish school that promised on the sale contract to never sell the school buildings or property to private housing developers. The Jewish Yeshiva lasted ten years, and then went out of business. They sold the property and buildings to a private housing developer who wanted to put in condo units. The “Sisters of the Humble Poor,” sued the Jewish Yeshiva and after many years in court they won a one million dollar judgment. Unfortunately, the one million dollars came too late, because by the time of the settlement there were only four Sisters of the Humble Poor still alive. They donated the money to St. George’s College of Staten Island in exchange for a home for the four surviving Nuns to retire, and live out their lives. St. George’s College gratefully accepted the contribution and repaired it’s one hundred year old roof on its main administration building.  “Easy come, easy go” became the motto for the “Sisters of the Humble Poor.”

            The “Sisters of The Divine Heart,” of Westchester, New York were another group that was taken advantage of by another College. They had a K-12 Catholic School in New Rochelle, New York for over 100 years having been an orphanage originally. It served  Civil War children of fathers who were killed in the war. During the Civil War the “Sisters of the Divine Heart,” served in the War for both the North and the South in Medical hospitals. After the war they formed a small orphanage in New Rochelle sponsored by a millionaire that wanted to leave a legacy in his name so they named the Orphanage Sampson’s Orphanage. In 1910, the orphanage became an elementary school and in 1922 it became a high school also handling grades K-12.  By the late 1930’s, after the depression, they got a charter for an All-Woman’s College called Mount New Rochelle Catholic College. By the 1960’s, the College was in major financial trouble so it merged with Rochelle Shore College. Rochelle Shore College promised to maintain the Mount New Rochelle College, and its buildings and provide housing for the retired Nuns of the “Sisters of the Divine heart.” By 1972, Rochelle Shore College had become a University, and it closed down Mount New Rochelle College, and sold it for a handsome profit to private housing developers. Unfortunately, the “Sisters of the Divine Heart,” had trusted the Rochelle Shore College trustees, and there was no clause preventing them from selling the property at any time in the future. They were eventually left out in the cold.

            In Tarrytown high on the top of the Mountain was another All Women’s College Called High Mount College, that actually lasted until the 1990’s by providing a weekend college for women, evening programs, and an accelerated three year degree program for women. They refused to become a Coed College, and it cost them. Hartford College made them an offer to rent space on the college grounds, and they accepted. After five years, a problem developed with the Hartford College faculty who were union and the non-union High Mount Faculty. The Hartford College faculty were restricted to only the one building they leased from High Mount College. Problems developed and Hartford College threatened to pull out. As fate would have it High Mount College was going under financially. They could not keep enough all woman enrollment to survive. They made a deal with Hartford College to buy the property and buildings so long as it continued to support High Mount College. Three years later Hartford College got it’s revenge and pulled out of the property and sold everything to a private school and made a huge profit. High Mount College was closed forever.

2. The Betrayal of the Nuns
   1. The Sisters of Life-College in White Plains-Pace took over
   2. The Sisters of the Holy Cross- Iona closed
   3. The Sisters of the Humble Poor- Sold Prep school to a Jewish Temple only to have them close years later and sell the property to a developer. The Sisters sued and won $1 million dollars.
   4. Heritage- Most Monasteries, Nun supported orphanages began in the 1800’s when there was a need for children without parents. Especially after the Civil War when many children lost their fathers
   5. History- Initially the Orphanages did very well and many later became Girls schools and then eventually even Colleges for Women. Traditionally the Church appointed male administrators to be in charge of these Catholic schools and colleges. By the 1960’s many catholic schools were in trouble of going out of business. The Vietnam War, Civil Rights Movement, the decrease interest in religion and the economy all contributed to the decreased enrollment in Catholic schools
   6. Mission-Many of the Sisters had a mission to help the poor when in fact they themselves lived in poverty. It is difficult to help the poor when the Catholic Church stopped supporting these many Nun supported Catholic schools. Once the Nuns died out there was no one that would work for free to replace them. They kept costs down because they worked for virtually nothing for the Church.

The Catholic Church had it’s own financial problems and could not help the many Nun founded Catholic schools.

Orphanages became a thing of the past. The State of New York moved in the direction of group homes for wards of the state or orphans. Orphanages were in buildings that were built in the 1800’s and were crumbling and rotting away.  They did not have modern electricity and modern plumbing which all had to be replaced over the years. Not having sufficient money to do this maintenance the buildings eventually became unsafe to use and were often condemned by building inspectors.

2. The dying breedWhere it was fashionable for Italian and Irish families to have a son become a priest and a daughter become a Nun was an honor.Times changed and the Catholic requirement of celibacy for Priest turned many a man away.For the NUNS they were replaced by trained Nurses in hospitals, Teaching changes and technology came into place outdating many NUNs in education. Italian and Irish families changed over the past 100 years to become mixed with other religions and other nationalities. The old world Italian and Irish traditions began to change and were forgotten. So the need for young girls to become a Nun faded. Women wanted equality and got it and they wanted jobs like the men and got that too. Women left behind the role of caregiver, homemaker, nurse and teacher and ventured into the business world. Women became more educated and earned more money and forgot about Nuns tending the poor.
3. Reduction of Sisters of Life over 100 years of service
   1. The City of New York took over the services for the poor in many ways
   1. Legal challenges to protecting the homeless became the job of the city to find housing.
   1. The Catholic Nuns lost the significance they once had in society in treating the poor, the homeless, and pregnant young mothers. The role switched to the City schools to reach out to help pregnant young mothers with alternative schools. The State of New York provided welfare support to poor families. Orphanages became old buildings just like mental institutions that fell out of favor with society.
4. Retirement of the Sisters of Life
   1. At some point in time even Nuns become to old to keep working so they must retire. There are very few retirement homes or facilities for Nuns that allow them to retire in some comfort with little or no pension money.
5. Changing from a male dominant leadership to a female dominant leadership
   1. In the 1880’s the Catholic Church was male dominated and they did not tolerate female interference as in the case of Sister Eliz. Seton who was turned away by the Bishop when she wanted to form a girl’s school.
   1. This trend continued up until the 1960 when Nuns had to reach out side to the secular community to help them with teachers and administrators.
   1. Secular civilians were brought in to replace the Mother Superior to run Girls schools and Girls Colleges.
   1. By the 1960’s all girls’ schools were dying out so they converted to COED and allowed boys to attend. At first the change was good but it did not last long with free public schools providing superior educations with well-trained teachers for the first time in a century.
   1. Those Girl’s schools that did not want to change like Marymount in White Plains eventually lost their enrollment and had to sell out to Fordham University who in turn closed the school and sold it for a nice profit.
6. The aging of the infrastructure and the inability to prevent deterioration and planned maintenance.
   1. It cost a lot of money for planned maintenance and Nuns traditionally id not have enough money left over to upgrade their buildings.
   1. Natural disasters are bound to happen or simply erosion, storm damage, rusting facilities, aging decay, poor construction, and out of date structures all eventually fall down or become condemned or burn down from poor electrical wiring.
7. The wolves outside the door of the Sisters
   1. 1980’s Sisters of Life ran St. Mary’s College (a 2 year institution) in Yonkers.  I was teaching there as an adjunct at the time.   They were underwater and IONA stepped in to help save the institution.  Within 2-3 years, IONA closed the school, sold the property and made the money.
   1.  1980’s the Sisters of Loving Care ran College of Sacred Heart in White Plains.  In 1976.   It was taken over by PACE who promised to continue to run the school with the nuns.   PACE put their Law school there, and in a few years closed the college that the nuns previously owned.  The nuns have been in litigation with PACE for years – I am not sure how or if this was ever resolved.  Probably – information available on the web somewhere.
8. In early 2000’s Fordham took over Marymount in Tarrytown -which was underwater.  They promised to continue the mission of the sisters and improve the college.   Four years ago, Fordham closed them down, sold the property for a good sum.  Marymount sisters were outraged

5. Administration-Catholic Colleges vs. standard Private colleges, differences similarities
   1. In the Franciscan and Vincentian orders the President works for nothing and that saves a lot of money
   2. In other Catholic orders the Mothers Superior have died out and no one was qualified to take their place. The schools had to meet new NY State Education requirements in both their teachers as well as administrators. Many schools and colleges lacked leadership within and had to seek Educational Administrators outside the Catholic community.
   3. In One Women’s College a new President was being sought. The salary was not high and there were few applicants that wanted to be President of a financially troubled institution. A new male non-religious President was hired and he just happened to be Gay. Sadly, he used his sexual preference to hire boyfriends of his in major College Administrative positions even if they had no previous experience
   4. Gay Male VP of Finance
   5. Gay Male Director of Admissions
   6. Gay Female Director of Athletics
   7. Trustees who had no clue
6. Looking for a scape goat
   1. The VP of Finance who stole from the Grant and how he met his demise.
      1. In 1999 the College of St. Paul of Staten Island received a Title V Federal Grant from the US Department of Education for Hispanic Serving Institutions. The College needed 25% Hispanic student population to qualify for the grant which was easy since 35% of it’s population was Hispanic coming from Staten Island.
      1. Before a Coordinator for the Title V grant could be hired the College began the grant with no one in place to direct the grant or carry out its goals. The writer of the grant had quit the college and there was no one who understood what the grant required. The VP of Finance at the time saw an opportunity to buy some financial software without informing the incoming President. The VP of Finance also allowed one of the Deans to draw down money from the grant for unrelated stationary supplies for her office and Reading Center. Sixty thousand was spent during the first year of the grant before a coordinator was hired in the spring of the next year.
      1. Two years after the VP of Finance was removed the opportunity presented itself to look into the purchasing records to see where the missing $60,000 was spent on without proper authorization from the President of VP of Academic Affairs who was theoretically in charge of the Title V grant.
7. The Dean who stood up against the New President’s policies and how she was forced into retirement.
   1. As always the case when a new President comes in he or she sweeps house with all the previous VPs and Deans to put in place people that answer to the new President not to the traditions of old.
   1. One such Dean was quite outspoken and she did not agree in the direction the new President was taking the college. She protested and was eventually asked to retire or resign. She retired and no one replaced her.
8. The changing of the guard with the VP of Academic affairs, the professor replacement, the Director of Nursing replacement.
   1. When you have a constant change of the VP of Academic affairs, the School Controller, and the VP of Financial affairs then no college or school can operate properly. New Policies and procedures cannot be mandated and expect to be successful. If the finances are so poorly managed that even the President does not know how much money there is in the bank, then there can be no financial plan or mission that will work.
   1. Kicking out the old guard. Sometimes the faculty and department chairperson age beyond the normal retirement age. They become dinosaurs that cannot change their old habits and become fearful of technology and new methods of teaching a whole new student body from the 1980’s and 1990’s and 21^st century. The president saw these as a move forward and forced out the old chairman into retirement or cut their positions to part-time. Along with these old-timers when many a dedicated Nun who had no place to go except teach at the college.

6. The firing of the Director of Personnel (gay man who had no background in finance) and who was hired because he had a relationship with the President. Fell out of favor with the president. Unable to properly manage the renovation of an old building. Blamed for taking retirement funds and using it to fund an elevator in the renovated building due to a summer shortage of funds
7. Pushing out old Nuns in teaching positions
8. Phasing out old faculty because they were old
9. Back stabbing
10. Inter-College relationships
    1. College of St. George and the College of Holy Essence. The College of St. George of Staten Island was founded around the time of the Civil War and many of its buildings were built before the 1900’s. It began as an Orphanage and then became a Girls Prep School and then Woman’s College by the 1900’s. Nursing and Education were the biggest programs at the College. Many of its graduates became teachers and Nurses who never made a lot of money in their lifetime.
    2. The College of Holy Essence was supported not by a Sister hood but the Franciscan Brothers of Staten Island who were well endowed by private donations. In the 1960’s both colleges were threatened with possible closure when they decided to develop a mutual relationship where they would exchange students and faculty to save on expenses. They also became fully coed and attracted a lot of Staten Island students from Italian and Latino families.
    3. Benefits of cross-enrollment  
       1. The College of Holy Essence had a great Sports program that it gave out many scholarships, whereas the College of St. Mary’s of Staten Island did not have any athletic fields or outstanding sports teams. Both schools were able to share sports facilities to cut expenses.
       1. The College of Holy Essence had a very high academic standard and offered Engineering, Math, Chemistry, Computer Programming, and other difficult academic programs. The College of St. Mary’s of Staten Island was service orientated so from it’s long standing tradition Nursing was it’s number one program and Communications was the second largest program thanks to cross-enrollment from the College of Holy Essence.
11. Shortcomings of cross-enrollment
    1. Lots of lateness due to the need to catch a shuttle bus
    1. Difference in each college’s Missions
    1. Financial difference between the College of Holy Essence being the richer school and the Poorer College of St. Mary of Staten Island.
    1. The athletes on full scholarships at the College of Holy Essence were not smart enough for Engineering and Computer programming so they all enrolled at the College of St. Mary’s Communications Program in Radio and Television that was a much easier and friendlier program.
    1. The College of Holy Essence always wanted the controlling power when it came to cross-campus policies and enrollment.
    1. The College of Holy Essence was miles ahead of St. Mary’s College of Staten Island in technology since they offered programming and put a high premium on advanced technology, wireless classrooms, Internet access, and smart classrooms and lecture halls.
12. The deadly President’s letter from St. George to the College of Holy Essence and how the contract between Catholic schools fell apart.
    1. Effects on the Department of Communications. The department of Communications went from a student enrollment of 2000 students to less than 300 without the students from the College of Holy Essence. The Dean of Communications left for the College of Holy Essence when they offered him a major salary increase and a brand new facility and program that he could set up from scratch. Their only problem was a lack of space on campus to house the new Communications department. The assistant to the Director/Dean was promoted to the position not as Director but as Manager that commanded a lower salary. The Department Chairperson retired from Communications and the staff shrunk from over 20 adjuncts and 5 full time professors to less than ten part-time faculty.
    1. Fine Arts, Education, Psychology, Nursing, Math, Chemistry, shared departments, all experience a reduction in class enrollment which translated to many adjunct and full-time faculty being fired.
    1. Effects on enrollment. Initially the enrollment went down but the College of St. Mary of Staten Island loosened up on its enrollment policies and also hired placement counselors in Connecticut to recruit students.
    1. St. Mary of Staten Island had a tradition of not offering Sport Scholarships and this policy prevented the Division III teams from excelling. Instead of sport scholarships, financial grants were given to athletes especially from Connecticut to help improve the Baseball team, basketball team, and Volleyball team.
13. D. The big Title III USDE grant
    1. Minority serving institutions
    2. Meeting the Federal agenda
    3. Integrating technologies into the classrooms
       1. Installing smart classrooms
          1. The requirements for the smart classrooms were out of date with the installation of Televisions wall mounted with VCRs. By the 21^st century computer projectors and electronic white boards were the teaching medium of choice
          1. Previous movie screen and TV mounts were unsafe and not properly installed
          1. Improved TV mounts with “H” brackets that spread out the weight distribution on the wall. Bolted through the brick and plaster walls to the next classroom that plywood base to prevent the bolts from pulling out over time.
          1. Wireless technology in every classroom.
          1. Loaner laptops to access wireless technology
          1. Theft and classroom security
          1. Wireless projects and why they were easy to install but worked too slowly to be effective
          1. Tutoring faculty how to use technology in the classroom
          1. The shortcomings of the IT department.
             1. Part-time college students
             1. No defined mission
             1. No funding
             1. Developed out of Collegis five million dollar contract that ripped the college off blind.  Computers were cheap and did not last three years. Parts were stolen from one computer to repair another computer, resulting in a computer graveyard.
             1. Underpaid personnel
             1. Poor HELP station
             1. Good personnel exit to find higher paying jobs.
       1. Installing smart lecture halls
       1. Installing smart computer labs
       1. Installing new renovated facilities

9. Integrating technologies into the curriculum and lectures
10. Writing a curriculum
11. Finding a facility for a Teacher Excellence Center
12. Finding furniture
13. Getting rid of file cabinets
14. Establishing a relationship with IT
15. Quid pro quo (one hand wipes another hand)
16. Personalities to work around
17. IT Director secrets
18. IT Director’s inability to install new Banner finance software and his making promises to the President he could not keep.

19. II. Catholic Stories

20. The Faculty Stories
21. Outsourcing
22. Collegis
23. Banner
24. Food Services
25. Cleaning Services

26. IV Expose’

27. Teachers caught having a sexual relationship with their students
28. Homosexual relations
29. Sex with female college students by faculty
30. Scandals in hiring procedures
31. The hiring of the Athletic Director
32. The hiring of the Dean of Students
33. The hiring of the VP of Finance
34. The replacement of the Director of Human Resources
35. The hiring of the VPs of Academic Affairs
36. How the VP of Finance tricked the school into a five million dollar contract with Collegis. She was a previous employee of Collegis and no one knew that until she quit her position at the College.
37. Pushing out the Education Department Chair who was a Nun
38. Department chairpersons making overload money
39. How they controlled the summer school system
40. How they were over paid even when they were freed from teaching to supervise teachers
41. The inability to change from the old system to a new system
42. The old way of doing things, cheapest thing goes
43. A constant shortage of money
44. An inability to meet the demands of technology
45. The inability of the Faculty Council to keep the President in line.
46. The spies on the Faculty Council.
47. The elevators
48. How the large elevator really broke down and why.
49. The two 100-year-old elevators that constantly broke down.
50. The lack of safety backup for elevators
51. The condemning of the stair cases
52. The surprise inspection that condemned the stair case to the extension as being dangerous
53. The 6-week disaster as a result of teachers being unable to get to their offices.
54. The falling down outside porch
55. The Nuns outside porch that rotted and had to be taken down
56. The constant repair problems with the remainder of the porch
57. The Administration building built on rock
58. The basement erosion
59. The actual bedrock visible in the basement of the building.

60. The Castle/ Student Services
61. The Nun in the tower
62. How she came to be there
63. The four story castle keep
64. Problems with the castle
65. The ineffective security guard system
66. Underpaid security guards
67. A director with no real power
68. No video cameras installed
69. No locked classrooms in the administration building
70. The stealing of smart classroom equipment by a security guard
71. The Friday afternoon thefts of projectors installed in 18 ft. ceilings
72. The motis operande
73. Catching the thief
74. Losing $10,000 worth of equipment
75. The administration doing nothing
76. The break-in to the Communications TV studio and theft.
77. The opportunity to use grant funds for wireless video cameras in the newly renovated building
78. The refusal
79. The eventual break-in and theft of thousands of dollars of TV cameras and recorders.
80. The eventual installation of the wireless video cameras after the theft
81. Reported rapes of female students on campus in the dorms.
82. The lack of safety at night with a poorly lit campus
83. Outside students from other colleges having access to the dorms
84. Local gang students roaming the campus at night
85. The forgotten Point Richard on the Hudson
86. The piece of valuable land cut off by the Metro-North rail road
87. The abandonment of the property
88. The abandoned Metro North Railroad station
89. The original train stop at the College of St. George
90. A change in transportation brings about abandonment of the train station and its destruction
91. The Home for Children of the State next door.
92. Right next to the St. George College property was a State Home for wayward children who often came around the fence to steal things on campus
93. The Westchester sewer plant next door.
94. The smell
95. The inability to control sewage overflow at the Sewer plant
96. The Elementary school run by the Nuns and it’s closing
97. Declining enrollment
98. Closing of the prep academy
99. Selling of the property to raise money
100. The high-rise building that replaced the property that was once the Sr. George Prep School.
101. The effect of a high rise building overlooking the campus
102. The loss of vital land that could have been used for campus expansion.
103. The selling of the first St. Mary Academy to a Jewish organization that folded and tried to sell the property for condos. The lawsuit and the one million the Nuns got which went to repair the administration’s building roof.
104. Declining enrollment
105. The decision to sell and the contract prohibiting being sold for other than educational purposes
106. The lawsuit and the settlement
107. Easy come and easy go, as one million dollar settlement has to be used to repair a seriously leaking administration-building roof.
108. The integration of Technology Over the five-year period of the Title III grants.
109. Hiring a director
110. Selecting staff
111. Completing a budget
112. $60,000 missing before the Director was hired
113. Tutoring 84 faculty over 5 years.
114. The Teacher Excellence Center Ambassadors
115. The Laptop computer loaner program
116. Balancing the grant budget annually
117. Grant rules and regulations
118. The liaison with the Communication Department and its Associate Dean
119. The relationship with the IT department
120. The relationship with The College of Holy Essence and its IT staff
121. The Presidents hiring of the Director of Technology at the College of Holy Essence to work part-time at St George’s College
122. The College of Holy Essence undermining the St. George College’s efforts in establishing technology.
123. 22. The end of the grant
124. The politics regarding promised made in the grant and promise not kept by the President
125. The desire not to fund the Teacher Excellence Center and staff
126. Playing it cheap
127. Finishing the budget on time and on balance except for the $60,000 that was stolen by a previous VP of Finance but never replaced by the President.