The City University of New York (CUNY) and Wikimedia New York City announced its first Wikimedian-in-Residence, Richard Knipel, who will work with faculty, students and staff to make the University’s research more accessible to the public while contributing to the Wikimedia umbrella of websites. Knipel comes to the role after serving in the same capacity for the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He will be based out of the CUNY Office of Library Services alongside a part-time documentarian who will evaluate the pilot’s success in expanding the visibility of the University’s archival materials.
The two-year pilot is funded by the philanthropy of craigslist founder Craig Newmark and is a partnership with Wikimedia New York City, a local Wikimedia chapter that collaborates with volunteers and institutions to advance projects like Wikipedia.
“A key part of CUNY’s contributions to New York is its growing leadership in research that benefits the people of our city,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “It makes perfect sense to leverage the incredible research expertise of our faculty and students, along with the archives that often don’t make it to the public, to improve and expand the information that is available to the public on Wikipedia. Nearly everyone relies on Wikipedia, and we’re thankful to Craig Newmark Philanthropies and Wikimedia NYC for recognizing CUNY as a trusted resource for providing quality information to the public at large.”
“Wikipedia is where facts go to live and where truth tellers of all types can contribute to an accurate historical record,” said Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist and the namesake of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. “A Wikimedian-in-Residence will help CUNY share information available in its archives and the expertise of its faculty with the public. That’s a good thing.”
“Wikimedia NYC exists to support access to free knowledge for everyone,” said Wikimedia NYC Executive Director Pacita Rudder. “We’re excited to be partnering with CUNY to both train the CUNY community on how to be an editor and ensure that the rich ecosystem of information that exists within the university is available on Wikimedia sites.”
Under the initiative, the University’s faculty and researchers will be trained on how to embed their research in the Wikimedia suite of projects with the intention of making such resources more publicly available. CUNY students and staff will also be trained in the classroom on how to leverage the knowledge they have in their areas of experience to contribute to the platforms.
“I’m looking forward to helping CUNY find ways to make its rich archive of research materials more accessible to the public through Wikipedia,” said Knipel.
The CUNY Wikimedian-in-Residence program builds on existing coordinated efforts by the University’s students, faculty and staff to improve public access to quality information. LaGuardia Community College has hosted four Wikipedia Translathon events where attendees translate English language Wikipedia articles into other languages, building on the presence of the city’s largest English as a Second Language program. The effort also complements a three-year project funded by the Mellon Foundation underway at CUNY to explore and raise awareness of archival collections across the University’s 25 colleges.
“CUNY’s history is New York City history,” said CUNY University Archivist Natalie Milbrodt. “The archival collections available to researchers across our 25 campuses are a treasure, and we are excited for the opportunity to share that treasure with more New Yorkers through this initiative.”
Craig Newmark Philanthropies has long supported CUNY’s educational mission. The University in 2018 renamed its journalism school as the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY after a $20 million donation from Newmark through his philanthropic organization. An additional $10 million gift in January 2024 launched the Newmark J-School’s campaign to provide free tuition to all of its students by the end of 2026.
