At Lehman's Bronx Data Center, Bosworth's Got Your Number

By Hannan Adely

Bill Bosworth never took a statistics class in his life. But, somehow, he has become a leading authority on Bronx populations.

A retired Lehman College professor, Bosworth spends spare time at the Bronx Data Center where he reconfigures hard, cold numbers into detailed, colorful, reader-friendly maps and charts. Curious about immigration patterns of the Irish in the Bronx since 1960? Need to know which Bronx community districts have the highest employment rates? Bosworth's got the goods.

Using information from agencies like the Census Bureau, the Bronx district attorney's office and the Department of Health, Bosworth plugs data into statistical software and churns out meticulously mapped information on subjects like ethnicity, crime, health and income.

"I take the info and milk it," Bosworth explained. "[Then I] present it in a way that makes sense."

He also takes the information to new depths by integrating variables. For example, by crossing age and ethnicity variables, he can determine what percentage of Hispanic women in the Bronx over the age of 65 have college degrees. He can glean information block-by-block, so statistics for a school, assembly or community district, or a particular zip code are available at Bosworth's finger tips.

Bosworth said he wants to make sure valuable data doesn't go to waste, so he makes the information tangible. "If info can't be used in a productive, interesting fashion, [what good is it?]," he said.

He single-handedly staffs the Bronx Data Center, located at Lehman College, putting in about 12 hours a week. His work is supported by the college, which loans him use of the equipment - computers, a printer and a plotter (a poster-size printer); in turn, Bosworth provides information to the college and to the general public.

Journalists, politicians and students all turn to the Bronx Data Center for answers, contacting Bosworth by mail, telephone and e-mail. They also log on to Lehman College's Web- site (www.lehman.cuny.edu), where the center posts its findings under the sociology department and computer center links.

Recent inquiries for information have been made by a filmmaker working on a documentary about criminal justice in the Bronx for BBC and the Discovery Channels and by a student from Oxford Brookes University in England who is researching a project linking crime rates and the regeneration of the south Bronx.
Bosworth's maps and charts are concise and show useful time-period comparisons and obvious geographic connections. "It makes relationships immediately clear to people," Bosworth said.

But the vivid maps serve another purpose - they make community needs crystal-clear. For example, school board members can quickly see what areas contain families who speak limited or no English.

Most of all, Bosworth wants to make sure that data collected by government agencies does not gather dust. "The data is like a pirate treasure chest," he said. "There's a lot of wealth there. The problem is you have to have a key to open it."
The 66-year-old academic came to Lehman College 40 years ago as a political science professor. He was born in Panama and grew up in California. He obtained his undergraduate degree in political science at Stanford and earned his PhD at Princeton. In February 1960, he came to New York to teach Western European Politics at Lehman (then known as Hunter College) and later taught Constitutional Law. He retired in January of last year.

In the mid-1980s, Bosworth began processing data with political science and sociology students who filled out questionnaires and produced statistics. The goal was to teach students how to test their hypotheses, Bosworth said. John Dono, the faculty consultant for computer services who taught Bosworth how to use the statistics equipment, introduced him to the joys of crunching census data. Dabbling in that data became his hobby, and eventually led to his establishing the Bronx Data Center in 1986. Bosworth has since earned the title scientist-in- residence.

So what drives his work at the Bronx Data Center? "Do you know who Sir Edmund Hillary is?" Bosworth asked. "That's your answer." Sir Edmund Hillary was the first person to attempt to climb Mount Everest. Asked why he wanted to climb the peak, he famously replied, "Because it's there."

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