"The education of free people is the hope of humanity."
These inspiring words, which have been a part of the mission and ideals of The City University of New York (CUNY), continue to challenge us and to hold us accountable for presenting a well-rounded education no matter an individual’s background or means.
The City College of New York (CCNY) Motto, “Respice. Adspice. Prospice.” translates as “Look back. Look here. Look forward.”
As the Chair of the reestablished Black Studies Department at CCNY, allow me to share how the Black Studies Department embodies the CCNY motto and CUNY mission and how with your support and contributions, we can make even greater strides in educating free people and serving as the hope of humanity.
Look Back
Whether one considers the student activists who were a part of the freedom struggle of the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam war, or of Black Lives Matter, over and over again our students hold a mirror to ourselves and show us how we can stand with the marginalized — they have been standing for something larger than themselves for decades.
On the campus of CCNY in 1969, a group of courageous students issued what we now know as The Five Demands, which is also the name of the documentary on PBS that details their heroism. CUNY has a beautiful and courageous history of supporting and uplifting systems that provide greater access for the marginalized.
Look Here
The CCNY Black Studies Department is community engaged and honors the diaspora via an experiential and globally inspired curriculum. Black Studies is an academic and activist discipline that provides an intellectual space where students can gain interdisciplinary knowledge of the world while developing as engaged scholar activists. The training and education that our students receive in Black Studies allows for the pursuit of careers and further higher education in a variety of fields. Black Studies provides access to higher education for a diverse population of students as we are an interdisciplinary discipline that provides education to students across the College via cross-listing courses.
Look Forward
Our faculty and staff are committed to eliminating equity gaps for our students via our innovative teaching, mentoring, leadership, and service. As our national championship winning New York Knicks and our new NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani have shown us, diversity and inclusion are our superpowers. In Black Studies, we embody comprehensive research, engagement, and service in a discipline that allows for an engagement with the whole of academia.
Black Studies is under documented attack nationally and to resist these attacks and to meet the needs of our students, our city, our state, and the ideals of a country founded 250 years ago, I hope that you will stand with and support Black Studies as we educate free people and preserve the hope of humanity.
In Leadership & Service,
Jervette R. Ward, Ph.D. (she/her)
Chair & Associate Professor
The Black Studies Department, CCNY
Last Updated: 06/25/2026 11:06