John Liu: Proposed Tech campus can do more to level playing field for opportunity

The mayor’s recently announced plan to build agovernment-sponsored engineering and science campus in New Yorkchallenges us to deliver training and jobs to the many talentedyoung men and women of color that our economy has left behind. Itis an opportunity we cannot afford to miss.

Mayor Bloomberg is to be commended for launching the ambitiousApplied Sciences NYC initiative that seeks to partner with atop-tier engineering school and establish a cutting-edge scienceand technology campus here.

The Bloomberg administration projects that the new institutionwill generate billions of dollars of economic activity, spin offhundreds of new companies, and create nearly 30,000 jobs.

This addition to New York’s economic and intellectual capitalwill only reach its full potential, however, if it directlyaddresses the glaring opportunity gap facing women,African-Americans and Latinos in science and engineering

According to the National Science Foundation, just six percentof graduate engineering students are African Americans or Latinos.Women hold just 24 percent of the jobs in science, technology,engineering and mathematics – a shameful statistic that has notbudged in a decade.

It is encouraging that the mayor has included some conditions tosupport the involvement of women and underrepresented minorities.But the initiative as it is proposed presents a rare chance tolevel the playing field even more.

The schools that hope to benefit from this partnership with citygovernment should be required to demonstrate their commitment toexpanding opportunities to all New Yorkers. They should be measuredon their track record with minorities and women in areas such asstudent recruitment, graduation rates and job placement; hiring andpromotion of faculty and staff; and success in turning academicbreakthroughs into spin-off companies owned by minorities andwomen. Schools should also provide detailed plans for outreach andpartnership with underrepresented communities moving forward.

The city should also consider appointing more underrepresentedminorities, as well as more women, to the advisory committee forthe initiative. Currently, there are no African-Americans orLatinos on the nine-member committee.

Lastly, the review process should be as open and transparent aspossible. The better informed and involved the public is in thisprocess, the more successful it will be.

Aggressive support for the science, technology and engineeringsectors is critical to diversifying the city’s economy, which hasrelied heavily on the volatile financial sector in the past fewdecades.

But as a government-sponsored initiative, Applied Sciences NYChas a responsibility to provide all New Yorkers with greateropportunities to acquire new skills and find jobs in emergingindustries. If we are not fully utilizing more than half the talentin our city, we are not going to get close to realizing our fullpotential.

Fairness, diversity and opportunity should be the values thatdrive our economic development and job creation programs. Bringingdiversity to this project -and all of New York’s economicdevelopment – will keep our city on top for the 21st century andbeyond.

John C. Liu, the New York City comptroller, is a product ofNY public schools including the Bronx High School of Science andSUNY Binghamton where he studied Mathematical Physics.