Former Sen. Seymour P. Lachman to Teach at Wagner College This Fall

For Immediate Release: June 8, 2006

Teaching Education and Government
Former Sen. Seymour P. Lachman named Distinguished Professor in Residence

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Former N.Y. State Senator Seymour P. Lachman will join Wagner College’s faculty as Distinguished Professor in Residence when classes resume this fall.

            “Sen. Lachman knows public service from the inside out,” said Wagner President Richard Guarasci of his appointment. “For four and a half terms, he struggled to bring reason to the inner workings of Albany,” President Guarasci added.

From 1969 to 1974, Lachman was a member and later the youngest president of the New York City Board of Education. When his term was complete, he taught educational administration at CUNY’s Baruch College and eventually became University Dean for Community Development at CUNY. 

Founder and chair of the National Collaborative of Public and Nonpublic Schools, he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter and reappointed by President Ronald Reagan to the National Advisory Council on Bilingual Education. He also served as the president of the National Committee for Middle East Study. 

“Sen. Lachman is that rare individual who combines first-hand experience in education with service in the shaping of public policy at the local, state, and national levels,” President Guarasci said. “Imagine being a student in one of his classes!” 

The former senator will teach in Wagner’s departments of political science and education.  He’ll join the faculty just at the time when his new book: Three Men in a Room: The Inside Story of Power and Betrayal in an American Statehouse, co-written with Robert Polner, is released (Sept. 5, 2006) by The New Press. 

Among his other major books is One Nation Under God: Religion in Contemporary American Society, co-authored with Barry Komsin, (Random House/Harmony Books, 1994).  Based on 15,000 interviews, One Nation… offers one of the most comprehensive looks at the practice of faith in a country that some have called the most religious and most secular in the world.  It was an alternative Book of the Month Club selection.   

He is also the co-author, along with David Bresnick and Murray Polner, of Black/White/Green/Red: The Politics of Ethnic Education in America (Longman, 1978). While president of the National Committee for Middle East Study, he edited a volume on the U.S. and Middle East that was published by SUNY Press. 

Sen. Lachman earned the Ph. D. degree from New York University after receiving M.A. and B. A. degrees from Brooklyn College. 

Wagner is an independent college of 2,000 undergraduate and 350 graduate students located on Staten Island.  Winner of the 2005 TIAA-CREF Hesburgh Award, the college is widely known for the integration of the liberal arts, professional programs, and civic engagement.  Wagner’s signature curriculum, the Wagner Plan for the Practical Liberal Arts is frequently cited by media and higher education associations as a national model.

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