Félix V. Matos Rodríguez assumed the post of Chancellor of the City University Of New York (CUNY) on May 1, the first Latino ever appointed to this position. Matos Rodríguez, who has been president of Queens College since 2014, is the eighth Chancellor of CUNY and the first minority educator to head the university.
According to the American Council on Education, the portion of Hispanic college presidents barely changed between 2011 and 2016, inching up to 3.9 percent from 3.8 percent. The overall portion of minority college presidents increased only slightly over the same period, to 16.8 percent from 12.6 percent.
One of a few U.S. educators who has served as president of both a baccalaureate and community college, Matos Rodríguez, 56, enhanced Queens College’s reputation for excellence. As president of CUNY’s Eugenio María de Hostos Community College, the post he held prior to his appointment at Queens College, he gained acclaim for a double-digit increase in the retention rate.
“For me, this appointment is particularly special because CUNY is home.,” said Matos Rodríguez. “I am immensely proud to have risen through the University’s ranks and am deeply honored to now have the opportunity to lead an institution I love and treasure.”
Matos Rodríguez holds a B.A. from Yale University and a doctorate in history from Columbia University. A scholar on the history of women in the Caribbean, he is the author of Women and Urban Life in Nineteenth-Century San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1820–1862; and editor of several books, including A Nation of Women: An Early Feminist Speaks Out.
Currently the board chair of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), Matos Rodríguez also serves on the boards of the TIAA Hispanic Advisory Council.
As he led Queens College, Matos Rodríguez pushed to increase diversity college-wide. Under his Presidential Hiring Initiative, 48 percent of faculty hires have been from underrepresented groups.
At Hostos, where he served as president from 2009 to 2014, Matos Rodríguez improved student performance and doubled the college’s fundraising intake. The fall-to-fall retention rate increased to 68 percent from 57 percent during his tenure, and the school’s graduation rate increased to 28 percent from 22 percent.
Matos Rodríguez left CUNY for several years in 2005, returning to his native Puerto Rico where he worked one year as a head adviser on Health and Social Welfare to the governor of Puerto Rico. In 2006, he was named Secretary of the Department of Family Services, a post he held for nearly two years in which he oversaw nearly 11,000 employees across 104 regional offices.
From 2000 to 2005, Matos Rodríguez was the director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College (El Centro), and he was also a tenured professor of Black and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies. He previously taught at Northeastern University, Boston College and the Universidad Interamericana-Recinto Metropolitano, Puerto Rico.
The City University of New York is the nation’s leading urban public university. Founded in 1847, CUNY counts 13 Nobel Prize and 24 MacArthur (“Genius”) grant winners among its alumni.
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