Leadership during tragedy

BMCC President Antonio Perez (center) rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in 2013. (Photo: Dario Cantatore/NYSE Euronext)

As Antonio Perez retires from the presidency of the Borough of Manhattan Community College on August 31, he is being remembered for increasing enrollment, expanding the number of degree programs and raising the profile of the college.

One of his most important accomplishments during his 23-year tenure, however, was his leadership of BMCC after the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

BMCC is the only college in the U.S. to lose a building to a terrorist attack. The 14-story Fiterman Hall building was destroyed when one of the World Trade Center towers collapsed and fell against it on the evening of September 11.

Perez’s key goal immediately after 9/11 was to reopen the college as quickly as possible.

“The mayor wouldn’t allow us back in; we were able to convince him to let us reopen,” Perez says. CUNY wanted BMCC to close for a year. “We were determined to have students not wait that long.”

The following morning, when media trucks swarmed outside, Perez approached a CBS reporter and offered access to the BMCC roof to get a better vantage point of the devastation. All he asked in return is that as long as they were reporting the news, they would have a message scrolling across the bottom of the screen announcing BMCC will reopen soon.

BMCC opened three weeks after 9/11. Trailers were brought in to serve as temporary classrooms, and some classes were relocated to BMCC’s other buildings. Students were able to finish the semester without losing any credits.

A plan to reopen

BMCC was able to reopen quickly because “we had a great team; we had a great deal of camaraderie. We had trust and bonding,” Perez says. “We had enough people willing to take responsibility to bring us back as quickly as possible.”

The morning of 9/11, “I was driving to work when I heard that a plane hit the World Trade Center,” Perez recalls. “I assumed it was a small plane. Then I saw the second plane. When I got to campus, everyone was scrambling around. People said, ‘What are you going to do?’ I had no idea. It’s not something you have a playbook for.”

The first thing was to get everyone out of the buildings, he says. The 1,200 people inside Fiterman Hall were evacuated between the first and second planes struck the two main World Trade Center buildings. The college’s main campus on Chambers Street became a command center for about 2,000 rescue workers.

Eight students died during attack. They were either firefighters or were working in the World Trade Center, Perez says. Their names are listed on a plaque at the college.

Perez came every day to watch over the campus. “I almost felt like the captain of a ship. It’s not something I imagined would ever happen,” Perez says.

The new Fiterman Hall in 2011 prior to its opening the following year. (Photo: BMCC)

Perez’ attitude changed after the attacks. “I began to accept the fact that we have to cherish each day and nothing is promised to us.”

“Before, I was driven,” he says. After the attack, he began to understand that “we need to be more flexible with people and their time. People need more time to be with their families.”

The following year, Perez was asked to read the names of victims along with other dignitaries at the ceremony to mark the first anniversary of the attacks. “We were in a tent. The wind was howling. It was like the spirits of the victims were in the area,” he recalls.

Since the tragedy, he has devoted more time on security at the college and staff preparedness training. He also led efforts to create a public/private partnership that enabled Fiterman Hall to be razed and rebuilt. The new building reopened in 2012.

An app for remediation

After leaving BMCC, Perez will serve as a City University of New York board of trustees-appointed university professor at Hunter College.

He is also marketing an app he developed, called HiddenChalk, that lets students work on remedial math on their phones, without the need of a textbook, notebook or pencil. “Students often forget their books, but they never forget their phones,” he says.

The app is currently undergoing beta testing, and several colleges are interested in using it. According to a preliminary study, 90 percent of students who tried HiddenChalk found it helpful. And while only 30 percent of BMCC students pass an algebra course on average, there was a 70 percent pass rate among students who used HiddenChalk. (College leaders interested in beta testing the app can contact Perez.)

Eventually, Perez hopes to expand HiddenChalk to other subjects, such as trigonometry and English as a second language.

Reflecting on his tenure at BMCC and the previous nine years he served as president of Gateway Community College in Connecticut, Perez says, “It’s been one of my most rewarding experiences to have the opportunity to have a positive impact on so many people’s lives. It’s been an honor and a privilege.”

About the Author

Ellie Ashford
is associate editor of Community College Daily.
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