Introducing Dean Silva-Puras

CUNY SPS is excited to welcome Interim Dean Jorge Silva-Puras. In this Q&A, Dean Silva-Puras shares his plans for the School during the 2021-22 academic year.

I’ve had what you could call a very diverse career—or careers, plural, because I have changed careers quite a few times. I’ve been a lawyer, and I’ve worked in marketing, finance, and as a senior government employee. Most recently I taught at Hostos and served as provost at Sagrado Corazón University in Puerto Rico. Of all these professions, the one that I enjoy the most by far is academia. I really love teaching, and working with students, faculty, and staff. CUNY SPS is a great place and I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better position.

Well, my number one priority is to make sure that it’s safe to come back for our staff and faculty, as well as focus on the quality of our online education.

Beyond that, I’m going to be investing quite a bit of time and effort into promoting our School to a broader set of potential students who would benefit from CUNY SPS’s flexible and top-ranked programs.

Another interest of mine is how we can leverage educational technology, or EdTech, to allow us to reach that bigger audience. I’m looking into how we can increase the use of technology for the benefit of our students, faculty, and staff.

I think the biggest challenge facing higher education is that enrollments nationwide— though fortunately not in our case—are going down. So that puts more pressure on universities for a smaller number of candidates.

I also think that the pandemic has opened a lot of eyes at other universities to the opportunity that online learning represents. I would imagine that many other schools might want to increase their online offerings, which means more competition for us. But we’ve been doing this for 15 years, and we’re in a better position than most.

Also, there’s a hidden benefit— now universities and students are seeing what can be done online. So while this is a challenge, it’s also an opportunity for us.

Many things. But mainly the opportunity to grow our enrollment so we can help more people. We have over 4,000 students, but we live in a city of over eight million, so we could potentially impact more of our community, here and nationwide. So what really excites me is that possibility of scaling what we offer, while keeping our quality control.

I’m also working on strengthening the articulations with other CUNY schools, particularly with community colleges, to make sure students are aware there’s this pathway that can take them from an associate’s all the way to a master’s.

Ultimately, I’m very, very excited about the potential of changing lives. If someone is struggling to go to school because of work or family obligations, CUNY SPS can offer a viable solution.