Returning to campus after the pandemic lockdown has been difficult for many students. Some have had to work, raise a family, or deal with financial issues. In response to this, CUNY has focused on making its online degree offerings more visible to ensure access to higher education regardless of any difficulty. Hostos Community College is part of these efforts and has pioneered its first fully asynchronous online degrees starting in Fall 2023 under the Hostos Online initiative:
  • Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences (AA-LAS)
      • Community Health
      • Teacher Education
      • Psychology
      • Latina/o American and Caribbean Studies
  • Associate in Applied Sciences in Early Childhood Education (AAS-ECE)
  • Certificate Community Health Worker (CHW) (in development)
One of the greatest bonuses of this project is that all materials will be available, 24/7, on Blackboard. Besides ongoing accessibility, every course offered will transfer to all 4-year CUNY colleges, and online students will have access to all the support services that in-person students get. 
 
“We are very excited about our fully online programs; this shows our commitment to breaking down barriers and empowering our students to reach their academic goals by making quality education accessible, affordable, and flexible. With the option to study anytime and anywhere, students can create a schedule that suits their unique needs,” said Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Shiang-Kwei Wang. 

For her part, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Andrea Fabrizio coordinates essential components of the initiative. In order to have highly qualified instructors for this teaching modality, she recruited 90 faculty members who will be able to participate in asynchronous teaching development workshops to be facilitated by the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) for the next three years. Fabrizio is also responsible for spearheading the development of the degrees alongside colleagues from various departments: English Professor Linda Hirsch (AA-LAS), Education Professor Jacqueline DiSanto (AAS-ECE), and Health Education Assistant Professor Amrat G. Amnie (CHW certificate), among others. 
 
Registration starts on Tuesday, April 5, 2023.
 
To learn more about the program requirements, click here.