Mayor approves more library funding

In what was most likely a welcome reversal to the city’s keeper of the books, Mayor Bill de Blasio not only halted the threatened $10 million in cuts to the city’s three library systems, but the city’s 2019-20 budget includes an additional $35 million in operations funding.

The budget agreement, announced Friday, provides the funding to maintain current service levels in libraries citywide. The announcement came after months of vocal opposition by library advocates and intense negotiations by elected officials.

Library officials were concerned they would be forced to cut a number of programs if the funding didn’t come through.

New York City’s total budget was just under $93 billion for the year.

College grads welcomed home

Ivy Stella Elgarten graduated with honors during Bowdoin College’s 214th commencement ceremony held May 25.

Elgarten — a gender, sexuality and women’s major with a minor in visual arts — graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Bowdoin, a liberal arts college on the coast of Maine.

Courtney Anne Esteves of Riverdale graduated magna cum laude from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, at its May 24th commencement ceremony.

And Remi Kumar, who interned at The Riverdale Press in 2017, earned a bachelor’s degree in film and media studies during Tufts University’s June commencement. He was among 1,500 other undergraduate students awarded degrees this spring from the Boston-based university.

Manhattan faculty wins finance grant

Two Manhattan College faculty members were awarded a grant from New American Colleges and Universities to create a financial literacy center on campus.

Assistant finance professor Amira Annabi and O’Malley School of Business assistant dean Aileen Lowry Farrelly will use the grant to establish the center, expected to help students and the larger Bronx community make smart decisions about their money.

The concept is based on a similar center at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois.

Lehman’s Make Music Day is June 21

Lehman College will hold a celebration of worldwide Make Music Day on June 21.

Nine acts will perform between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m., featuring ensembles made up of students, alumni, faculty and musicians from around the Bronx.

The event is open to the public and will be held rain or shine, outside the amphitheater adjacent to the speech and theater building on the Lehman College campus, 250 Bedford Park Blvd. W.

Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets and lawn chairs.