Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Elizabeth Hendrey and President Frank H. Wu (from left, front row) with honorees and participants in the Faculty Awards 2021 ceremony. For the full list of awardees and photos, click here. |
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I greatly enjoyed participating in yesterday’s Faculty Awards 2021 ceremony and delivering an address about The State of Queens College. It was especially uplifting to be with many of you in person in LeFrak Hall and many more via livestream. We are devoting this special edition of Frankly Speaking to both parts of our annual program.
First, I’d like to again extend warmest congratulations to all the talented, accomplished faculty honorees. You can read about them in Faculty Awards 2021; they’re listed in the order in which they were recognized.
If you weren’t able to attend, remotely or in person, I’m sharing my State of the College speech. You can also watch the event, which was videotaped. Thanks to all those who helped organize and implement yesterday’s event.
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I’ve been thinking of the Tony Awards for a few weeks, since Danny Burstein, a celebrated alumnus from the class of 1986, picked up a trophy on his seventh nomination. The Tonies, like the Oscars, have created additional awards to salute achievement outside of, or above and beyond, the standard categories. I wish we could do something similar: recognize all the people—faculty, staff, students, alumni, QCF board members—who have been doing their part during these challenging times with dedication and distinction to keep Queens College thriving. |
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Our faculty are constantly adjusting their courses to various modes of instruction and health protocols. Buildings and Grounds and Public Safety and Information Technology labor around the clock to maintain a safe and operational campus; many other staffers routinely stay online to help assure that the college provides its standard services. Academic Advisement and Counseling Services have maintained a rigorous schedule. Students have adapted to unexpected circumstances, advancing in their classes and participating in extracurricular activities in new formats. Last month we celebrated the achievements of almost four thousand students at our annual Academic Excellence ceremony. Loyal alumni and friends of the college have been answering our call to provide increased support. |
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One particular example highlights that commitment. Earlier this year, the Queens College Foundation, chaired by Lee Fensterstock, allocated funding for RISE scholarships, providing supplemental support to students who found themselves unable to meet the costs of higher education as a result of the pandemic. Among the RISE recipients are student-athletes, who have returned to the fields and the courts. You’ll pardon me for bragging about our Knights. Last spring, in shortened seasons, the baseball team made it to the East Coast Conference playoffs; the men’s and women’s tennis squads won the East Coast Conference and went on to the NCAA tournament. |
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The QCF Foundation has also helped to enable the Knights Table to reduce food insecurity among students. Our food pantry gives meals and kitchen staples to any qualified CUNY student, not only those from our campus. A mobile program, Turning the Table on Hunger, made stops in Queens neighborhoods, so students could pick up packages closer to home. In further thought for food, the FNES garden donated produce grown on campus to a local soup kitchen.
I’m grateful to all of you. Your dedication and resourcefulness inspire me.
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I’m happy to report that your collective efforts—and your adherence to health protocols that call for vaccination, social distancing, and masking—are making a huge difference as we endeavor to maintain a safe campus. This semester, the college has been able to hold some in-person classes and safely resume many campus events, such as Club Day. We anticipate building on this success in the spring, increasing in-person classes to 70 percent. I thank all of the department chairs and our faculty and staff for their ongoing work in assuring we meet that university goal. I am deeply grateful to Chief of Staff Meghan Moore-Wilk and the Ad Hoc Committee on Reopening—the faculty, staff, union, and student members who have so diligently met regularly to provide invaluable input as we continue to address campus operational needs. |
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We all know that remote learning isn’t going away anytime soon. Online courses offer convenience to many of our students, who juggle jobs and family responsibilities. But feedback from our students invariably indicates a desire for on-campus classes. At Queens College, we value the in-person experience and the energy it brings to everything from lab sciences to teacher preparation to social sciences and the performing arts. We look forward to seeing full classrooms once again. |
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I want to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in our nearly year-long efforts to develop and complete a new Strategic Plan for Queens College. Created with the unprecedented input and participation of the extended college community—with the help of over 70 members of the steering committee and working groups and 11 town halls—this plan is transformational in nature. It redefines the mission of an institution that has spent more than eight decades changing lives by providing a high-quality, affordable education to students, regardless of their background. We are convening soon a Strategic Planning Implementation Group to be led by our Interim Dean for Institutional Research Rachel Fester. On November 30, I will be hosting a “thank you” reception for members of the steering committee and working groups who contributed so mightily to the plan. I was also recently appointed by Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez to serve on a new University-wide Steering Committee to help formulate a CUNY-wide multi-year plan. I will proudly share our recent experiences in extensively engaging many diverse constituencies and in charting attainable goals consistent with our educational mission and core values. |
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Now we are continually adjusting to the realities of the 21st century, and to the needs of a city and state recovering from a devastating pandemic. The Queens College of today aims to prepare students to serve as innovative leaders in a diverse world that they help make more equitable and inclusive. As we move forward, we are promoting policies and programs that reinforce core college values—such as service and civic engagement; diversity, equity and inclusion; and research and scholarship—while fostering a welcoming, supportive culture for student success. |
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Speaking of student success, “QC in 4,” the program introduced in 2017, is one example already bearing fruit. From all the data available to us, compared to past student cohorts, members of the program’s first cohort were more likely to earn bachelor’s degrees within four years. Timely graduation saves students money and allows them to proceed to the next stage of their lives, whether they enter the workforce or enroll in professional schools or graduate programs. “QC in 4” results are so promising that we’re planning a similar program, “QC in 2,” for transfer students. |
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As many of you know, through HSI STEM Bridges Across Eastern Queens, QC has partnered with Queensborough Community College to increase retention of under-represented students in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. Under a new grant announced last month, the college will work toward similar goals in collaboration with LaGuardia Community College, which is developing the Queens STEM Academy. |
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Queens College just received a new round of Teacher Opportunity Corps II funding from the New York State Education Department. Statewide, we are among only 17 institutions in this round of funding for the Teacher Opportunity Corps, which encourages people from historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged groups to pursue teaching careers.
We’re striving to diversify the pool of business leaders, too. The Blackstone Charitable Foundation awarded Queens College $446,500 over three years to implement Blackstone LaunchPad, an entrepreneurial skills-building program open to students regardless of major. I’m sure we’ll hear more in the future about our LaunchPad participants, maybe when they announce initial public offerings.
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I would like to add a final word about diversity. The concept is important to Queens College and to me personally. I cannot emphasize it enough. Our shared future depends on our ability to make real what has long been rhetorical. When someone such as me has an opportunity to lead, which I do not take for granted, I believe we also have an obligation to remember the very principles we embraced before we were ever offered such a role as this. When I sat, as I did for many years, as a student in the classroom or a professor in the audience, I was troubled from time to time that those who stood on stage behind a podium, whom we looked up to, neglected to include those who were situated literally below. I am an optimist. I’d like to close positively. |
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Back then and still now, I would say that people rightly are concerned about what happens on campus, well beyond the content of the education that is supposed to be delivered. We care very much, as we should, about the pedagogy—the techniques of teaching—to ensure they are effective. Among the issues I wrote about was language. That also was part of my scholarship and advocacy, and I’d like to share a bit. As much as I have been a supporter of free speech, I have been equally emphatic that words have meaning and some terms generate consequences which are negative and severe. Platitudes about the First Amendment do not adequately address the harms of the common cruelty of childhood teasing and taunting. That extends to adult situations, our lives public and private, inflicting real trauma on individuals and setting up hierarchies within society. The perspective of those who make the joke and that of those who are perennially the butt of the joke are not the same. Some folks who believe, even if sincerely, that their remark is trivial, do not realize that their reaction when an objection is raised can be quite revealing—they demonstrate their indifference. We can do better. I am confident we will do better. |
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That is why we created the role of the new Chief Diversity Officer or CDO. Our model is to add a senior leadership official, beyond the Title IX compliance officer, who at Queens College is Michael Das. CUNY has long had a single CDO on each campus responsible for an extensive portfolio of compliance and DEI matters. We now have two persons charged with responsibility in this regard. |
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Following a national search, we have appointed Jerima DeWese to serve as Chief Diversity Officer. Jerima will be starting on November 15, coming to us from the SUNY system and bringing extensive experience from both the public and private higher education sectors. She is a Queens College alumna and her professional work includes CUNY. She will provide essential leadership to help us advance diversity, equity, and inclusion as prominently envisioned in our new Strategic Plan. |
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Together, Jerima and Michael will be rolling out anti-bias training. That will address not only egregious discrimination but also implicit bias. I look forward to it. I know I will learn: I catch myself from time to time, acutely aware that despite myself, I too have stereotypes rattling around in the back of my head I haven’t even noticed until that moment. I want to admit that openly, because to live up to our ideals requires honesty. |
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I have been honored by your welcome and your trust. That is why I want to be clear about my commitments. I am aware that to sustain our sense of community, my respect for you must be reciprocal. Emerging from the pandemic, our responsibilities to one another have never been more apparent. Please join me in the work that we have yet to do, here at a great institution. This is our moment. |
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In this challenging economic climate, the story of Queens College—its diversity, its track record of helping people from lower-income families attain social and economic advancement—continues to resonate with donors. Later this month, I will have an exciting announcement about one of our latest gifts. In addition, Queens College is expanding its partnership with the Orr Group to identify and approach appropriate foundation and other related prospects. |
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It isn’t hard to sell people on Queens College. Our accomplished alumni and faculty do that for us. Daisy Cocco De Filippis, recently appointed president of Eugenio María de Hostos Community College after serving as interim, demonstrates what’s possible for our graduates. She launched her career with a bachelor’s in Spanish and English literature and a master’s in Spanish literature from QC. Food historian Jessica Harris is both an alumna and a professor emerita. She has found new audiences since Netflix released “High on the Hog,” a four-part series based on her book of the same title. Time magazine just named her to its list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2021. This year’s recipients of MacArthur Foundation’s so-called “genius grants” include filmmaker Alex Rivera, who has taught in the Department of Media Studies.
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This academic year, new schools of Arts and Business will make their debut. These schools will be engaged in preparing students to enter sectors that are in constant evolution. I want to thank Interim Social Sciences Dean Kate Pechenkina and Arts and Humanities Dean Bill McClure and the many faculty involved in creating these new initiatives for their outstanding work to develop the curriculum and related activities. |
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Exciting programs are also emerging from We Learn So That We May Serve grants. With the support of the Queens College Foundation, the We Learn So That We May Serve program awarded individual faculty members or teams up to $5000 each for integrating teaching, learning, and community service into their courses. It’s popular these days to question the value of a liberal arts degree. Queens College is committed to assuring that the benefits of education aren’t limited to students alone. |
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These are just a few examples among many encouraging developments as we have benefited from a relatively stable financial environment. Many of you have attended our “Budget 101” seminars that have helped to broadly establish transparency and a greater understanding of fiscal realities as well as opportunities. I want to especially thank our Chief Financial Officer Joseph Loughren. |
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When I was appointed your president sixteen months ago, I said that the presidency of Queens College was my dream job. I knew that Queens College was located in the world’s most diverse urban area, educating its immigrants and the sons and daughters of immigrants—including many first-generation college attendees. As I travel the borough, including by bike, and meet alumni, elected officials, civic, business and religious leaders, I continue to be inspired by the numerous connections we already have to the community and new opportunities to further strengthen ties. And as I travel within Queens College, both on Zoom and on campus, I am similarly elevated by the aspirations of our faculty, students, staff and alumni who appreciate the vital role Queens College plays in the positive transformation of the lives of all whom we serve. So I am proud and blessed to be here with you, as we chart a course that will take Queens College into the future with renewed optimism and hopes for the academic year and beyond.
Stay safe, healthy, and productive! Thank you.
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