News Release
May 16, 2000
Pratt Institute President Thomas F. Schutte Elected to Independent College Commission Board
Thomas F. Schutte, president of Pratt Institute, has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities in New York State. He She will serve a three-year term on the board. The Commission’s trustees met today in New York City.
President Schutte’s extensive career in higher education as a teacher, administrator, and executive spans more than 30 years.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics and geography at Valparaiso University and an MBA at Indiana University before taking a Ph.D. in business administration at the University of Colorado.
His administrative duties began at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania as an assistant dean, followed by two presidencies, first at the Philadelphia College of Art, and then serving for a decade at the Rhode Island School of Design. He was called to Pratt Institute’s presidency from that position.
He has assumed several community responsibilities while serving at Pratt, including the chairmanship of the Brooklyn Arts Council and board membership at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.
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Additionally, Albert J. Simone, president of the Rochester Institute of Technology, was elected as the chair of the Commission’s board. He will serve a two-year term, succeeding Thomas J. Scanlan, F.S.C., president of Manhattan College. Other officers, all of whom are institutional presidents, are: David J. Steinberg of Long Island University, as vice-chair; Thomas Keith Meier of Elmira College, as secretary; and Eugene M. Tobin of Hamilton College, as treasurer.
Three committee chairs were also elected: Kevin E. Mackin, O.F.M., president of Siena College, will chair the Legislative Committee; President Tobin, of Hamilton College, will head the Finance and Administrative Committee; and Lisa Marsh Ryerson, Wells College president, will continue as chair of the Communications Committee.
Other newly elected members of the Board of Trustees are Presidents Joseph G. Burke of Keuka College; David C. Chang of Polytechnic Institute; Todd S. Hutton of Utica College of Syracuse University; and Ann Sakac, O.P. of Mount Saint Mary College.
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The Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU) represents the chief executives of New York's 100+ independent (private, not-for-profit) colleges and universities on issues of public policy. Member colleges compose the largest private sector of higher education in the world and confer most of the bachelor's degrees (56%), master's degrees (72%), and doctoral and first-professional degrees (80%) earned in New York State.
CICU member campuses enroll more than 466,000 students, including nearly 300,000 New York State residents. One in three (27%) New Yorkers enrolled full time at independent colleges and universities in the state comes from a family earning less than $40,000 annually. And most (52%) African-American and Latino students who earn their bachelor's and graduate degrees in New York State are Independent Sector alumni.