In 1992, the CUNY Board of Trustees’ mission statement included forming the ESL DC to unify ESL professionals across campuses. The CUNY ESL DC since has aimed to enhance the teaching, research, and administration of ESL across CUNY campuses. The Council can advise various actors based on their expertise, write resolutions and send them to OAA and to EVC with concerns related to College ESL and in general to teaching ESL/EFL at CUNY, and to collaborate on research and teaching.

The CUNY ESL DC works toward supporting multilingual students and the competencies and skills they bring as members of a global community in higher education. Our goals include:

• Build on faculty expertise and experience to enhance academic ESL programs and courses in various campuses and integrate them successfully with existing structures
• Maintain and recommend sustainable pedagogical design that draws on the competencies that ESL multilingual students bring to CUNY campuses
• Promote collaborative teaching, administrative, and research practices across members and campuses 
• Maintain placement and testing procedures that guarantee adequate education and academic progress of incoming ESL students.