THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY

1230 YORK AVENUE NEW YORK.NY 10021

 

JOSHUA LEDERBERG June 17, 1988

PRESIDENT

The Honorable Edward I. Koch
Mayor of the City of New York
City Hall

New York, New York 10007

Dear Ed:

Thank you for arranging the meeting with Richard Green
on May 12th and for your letter of June 3rd about fostering
university-school relationships.

The Rockefeller University, as you know, is an institution
devoted to advanced research in biomedical science; and in that
somewhat specialized role we would be making a somewhat different
contribution than a city college or Columbia University. Insti-
tutionally the most important thing that we can, and do, is to
provide an introduction to research experience in our laboratories
to students at the high school level. I will make further in-
quiry, and report back to you, whether there are opportunities
or obstacles that may bear on broadening that activity still
further. At any given time we have several students on campus
and of course several more over the summer. We have sometimes
faced legal problems and issues in respect to insurance coverage
connected with admitting minors to our laboratories, and per-
haps we could get help from your administration on points like
that. I will be back to you.

In addition, there is of course the individual role that
I, and many others of our administrators and professors, have /
in relation to a variety of schools. As an alumnus of Stuyvesant C
High School I have been very much interested in the welfare of
that institution, and have been working quite closely with Abe
Baumel over the last couple of years in connection with their
planning for a new facility in Battery Park. Most particularly
I was able to get the Dreyfus Foundation behind providing
support and recruitment for administrative assistance to an
The Honorable Edward I. Koch
June 17, 1988
-2-

extremely overburdened principal and staff, now faced with
the additional responsibilities of facilities planning. We
also got good help from the Executive Service Corps in re-
cruiting retired executives to put some of their time into
the same function. I believe that management is a critical
problem at many of our schools -- especially when they face
novel burdens, but, as any student will tell you even in
the day to day operation of their programs. So my sugges-
tion to you would be to set up a task force to look at the
ways in which the management role could be enhanced in-
cluding the use of skilled volunteer help. Besides
Stuyvesant High School there are several other schools

in New York City that would most profit from a relation-
ship with The Rockefeller University: most notably Hunter
and the Bronx High School of Science. The problems today
at Hunter may be more political as there is recurrent
controversy about the priority of academic standards,
versus other criteria, for recruitment into Hunter and

for its geographic location. I would be very much con-
cerned if, in the name of broadening opportunity, we were
also to squash down some of the premier opportunities for
first class education that this city has offered to one
minority cadre after another during its evolution through-
out this century!

I certainly do want to congratulate the city on its
appointment of Dr. Green and you on your continued involve-

ment with these problems; and I certainly want to assure
you of my own unremitting support.

Yours sincerely,

Joghua Lederberg

cc: Mr. Rodney W. Nichols
Ms. Cynthia Greenleaf