Discimus ut serviamus: We learn so that we may serve.
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QView #121 | February 23, 2022
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Matos Celebrates In-Person Arts Classes at QC |
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Returning to the campus he led for five and a half years, CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez joined Queens College President Frank H. Wu for a tour. Focusing on arts education—an area hampered by the transition to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic—they sat in on a music education class, greeted students at work in a ceramics studio (above), and caught part of a rehearsal by an opera student. They were joined by CUNY General Counsel and Senior Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs Affairs Derek Davis and QC students, faculty and staff, including Student Association President Zaire Couloute. |
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Officer Beckford and Matos Rodríguez
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“It fills me with joy to see arts classes, recitals, concerts, and exhibitions thriving at Queens College and across CUNY,” said Matos. “The arts help us heal. I am thrilled to see these classes and performances happening in person again, another key indicator of the progress we’ve made in our university’s and in our city’s multifaceted recovery from the pandemic. As always, this return is guided by our first priority: keeping our CUNY community safe.”
“The Queens College community has been tremendously resilient throughout the pandemic. It is wonderful to see our campus full of students and faculty returning to mostly in-person classes and activities,” said Wu. “We take special pride in welcoming the chancellor back to the college that he led with great distinction and purpose.”
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Matos and Wu met social practice artist Yvonne Shortt MA ’08 for a tour of “Elevations,” a project she mounted on campus grounds last summer. (To learn more about Shortt, see stories in QView 105 and Queens magazine. Her installation comprises six 6-foot-tall sculptures of Afro picks with ornamental handles. She was accompanied by her mother, Carmen Shortt, a Queens College and Queensborough Community College alumna. The artist's grandparents, father, and brother also attended QC, and her niece is a current student; one of the sculptures on display reflects the family’s close connection to the campus.
The last stop on the chancellor’s itinerary, as covered by amNY, was the Louis Armstrong House Museum. Alongside CUNY General Counsel and Senior Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs Davis, and LAHM Executive Director Regina Bain, Matos took in the museum’s Black History Month exhibition illustrating how Armstrong advocated for Black civil rights in the United States.
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The chancellor’s visit to QC coincided with a special on-campus reunion of Baruch College President S. David Wu and QC’s President Wu—the first two CUNY college presidents appointed by Matos and the first Asian Americans to serve in that capacity. In photo above, Matos is flanked by Frank H. Wu, at left, and David Wu in a conversation in LeFrak Concert Hall. |
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Molloy College President James Lentini (from left, with President Frank H. Wu and Director of Athletics Robert Twible) was game to drop by FitzGerald Gymnasium during his campus visit on February 15.
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On February 16, New York State Board of Regents Chancellor Lester Young and Regent Judith Chin, co-chair of the P-12 Education Committee, came to the campus. Above (from left), Young and Chin spoke with Provost and Senior VP of Academic Affairs Elizabeth Hendrey and President Frank H. Wu. Below, the Regents met Interim Dean, School of Education, Dana Fusco, Interim Associate Dean Trina Yearwood, and faculty chairs from QC's School of Education; and faculty and students. |
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Students freeze—briefly—for a photo op during Knights on Ice, a temporary campus rink sponsored last week by the Student Association. |
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Expanded in-person work schedules take effect on March 1. If you haven’t been to campus in a while, click here and here for information about entering the grounds.
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College To Recommence In-Person Graduation Ceremonies
Queens College is pleased to announce that the 2022 Commencement and Baccalaureate ceremonies will be held in person.
Commencement will be held on Thursday, June 2, at 9 am. The Baccalaureate Convocation, which honors graduates receiving Latin honors and awards, will take place on Tuesday, May 31, at 7 pm in Colden Auditorium. Graduates and honorees will each be allowed to bring up to two guests. Proof of vaccination and masks will be required.
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Danny Burstein ’86, whose Tony Award win was reported in QView 109, will be this year’s Commencement speaker. Christopher Rosa ’89, president and CEO of the Viscardi Center and former assistant vice chancellor for student inclusion initiatives at CUNY, will speak at Baccalaureate and receive the Queens College President’s Medal, the school’s highest administrative honor. (Rosa was the subject of an article in QView 113.
“After two years of virtual ceremonies, we are so excited that Queens College students will be able to celebrate their graduation with friends and family once again on our beautiful campus quad,” said President Frank H. Wu.
More detailed information on Commencement will be provided as the semester progresses.
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CUNY Initiative Increases Lecturer Lines |
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In its inaugural year, CUNY’s Lecturer Hiring Initiative allocated additional faculty to Queens College, announced President Frank H. Wu and Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Elizabeth Hendrey.
“Queens College has been allocated 17 new lecturer lines,” said Hendrey. “These new hires will increase teaching by full-time faculty, allowing us to better serve students—which was CUNY’s goal.” The university’s expectation is that the initiative will also increase faculty diversity and encourage innovative, evidence-based pedagogy and curriculum.
QC allocated lines across all academic areas following consultation with deans and department chairs; the latter received metrics on full-time faculty teaching, failure rates, and growth in enrollment and majors, in order to prepare proposals.
“Lines have been directed to certain priority areas, notably lower-level Pathways and gateway courses that have high failure rates and wide equity gaps in outcomes,” explained Hendrey. “Two lines were given to SEEK to support a high-risk student population. In response to the rapid growth in many STEM fields, quite a few lines went to support the sciences.”
To fill positions in time for the fall, searches will be conducted quickly. Current adjuncts are encouraged to apply.
Future allocations to additional departments will be considered based upon the successful completion of searches in this first round. A multi-year initiative will be accomplished by CUNY adding to campus base budgets, if necessary using a portion of current adjunct funding.
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More Big Ideas
Memes are more powerful than they seem. In the next Big Ideas episode (airing this Thursday, February 24) , Jamie Cohen (Media Studies) emphasizes the need for visual literacy to understand widely circulated images, videos, and texts, which often serve as dog whistles.
Big Ideas, an original video series launched last year by the Office of Communications and Marketing, highlights QC faculty and their research. The current season is described here.
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Learning through Service Internships
This semester, students in Working to Learn; Learning to Serve—offered by the Business and Liberal Arts (BALA) Honors Minor program—are holding internships with nonprofit organizations across the city. Arda Nazerian (BALA) created the course with a We Learn So That We May Serve (WLSTWMS) grant.
Led by former Vice President for Finance and Administration William Keller and supported by the Queens College Foundation, WLSTWMS encourages faculty to redesign existing courses or develop new ones that integrate teaching, learning, and community service, enabling QC students to “learn so that they may serve.” The program debuted in the spring of 2021 by awarding seven grants of up to $5,000 each.
A Political Science class with community service components (QView 109) and a practicum on meeting the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse children with intellectual disabilities (QView 112) , presented in the fall, are among the courses developed through WLSTWMS.
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Thinking Globally, Participating Remotely
Students, faculty, and staff from QC and four other CUNY colleges were in remote attendance at the fall 2021 student conference presented by Global Scholars Achieving Career Success (GSACS) on December 1 and 4. Through GSACS, a virtual exchange program, CUNY students collaborated remotely with university students in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and the Palestinian Territories on experiential learning projects that explored U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. Participants also engaged in career development.
Kirsten Beck (Classical, Middle Eastern, and Asian Languages and Cultures), Jill Carjaval (BALA), A. Alexis Larsson (English), Wendy Leynse (Anthropology), Taruna Sadhoo (Experiential Education), and Suzanne Strickland (Sociology) served as 2021 GSACS Faculty Fellows. Additional support was provided by David Engel (Center for Career Engagement and Internships), Jean Kelly (CTL), Elizabeth Saurel-Schumacher (English), Ashraf Shady (Education), Donna Smith (Learning Commons), Michelle Soule (English), and Schiro Withanachchi (Economics and BALA). Information about this year’s program will be provided soon; interested faculty may contact Withanachchi schiro.withanachchi@qc.cuny.edu.
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Global Scholars Achieving Career Success (GSACS) is supported by the Stevens Initiative—sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with federal funding—and administered by the Aspen Institute. The Stevens Initiative also receives support from the Bezos Family Foundation and the governments of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. |
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Tutors Sought for FNES
The Committee for Disabled Students (CDS) seeks tutors for FNES 250. Undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni are eligible for tutoring positions, which pay $20 an hour, with a cap of $300 per semester. Candidates must have earned at least a B in this class and have an overall GPA of 2.5 or better. To apply, write queenscollege.cds@gmail.com and include an unofficial transcript to verify that all the requirements are met for the class you wish to tutor, as well as your full name, phone number, and time availability.
CDS’s mission is to fully integrate persons with disabilities into the mainstream of social, cultural, and community life.
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State Library Makes Historic Acquisition |
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The New York State Library just announced its acquisition of the papers of QC alumnus Harold Holzer, a celebrated Lincoln scholar and historian.
Holzer began his career as a journalist, moving into the political arena as press secretary to Representative Bella Abzug. He went on to serve as public affairs director for WNET and, under the administration of Governor Mario Cuomo, executive vice president of the New York State Urban Development Corporation. Holzer subsequently spent 23 years in the public affairs office of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His donation is extensive, including 55 books, 150 lectures, newspaper articles, photos, and recordings of television and radio interviews.
This announcement comes on the 30th anniversary of his appointment by Cuomo to the board of the New York State Archives Partnership Trust, a post Holzer still holds. He received the Empire State Archives & History Award in 2017. He is the Jonathan F. Fanton Director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, CUNY.
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Heard Around the Virtual Campus |
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Professor Emerita Jessica B. Harris ’71 MA curated “African/American: Making the Nation’s Table,” an exhibit at the Africa Center, as reported in the New York Times, the New Yorker, Gothamist, and other media outlets . . . . Sean Uendra Moonsammy, who holds degrees from QC in music and speech-language pathology, was profiled in ASHA Wire for his work on the staff of Stony Brook Medical Hospital . . . . Stephen Pekar (SEES) will present “Evidence from the Equator to the Poles: How Climate Change Impacted the Ancient World” at the CUNY Graduate Center (365 Fifth Avenue., Manhattan; Room 9100) on Thursday, February 24 at 4:15 pm. After the talk, he will perform a piano composition he wrote, inspired by Antarctica. To attend the event over Zoom, contact Pekar for the link . . . . Nuria Rodriguez-Planas (Economics) published “Hitting where it hurts most: COVID-19 and low-income urban college students” in Economics of Education Review. The paper was based on responses to a summer 2020 survey that asked CUNY students how the pandemic would impact their educational achievements and economic and financial well-being. Earlier this year, Rodriguez-Planas published a paper on flexible grading, COVID-19, and academic performance at Queens College in the Journal of Public Economics . . . . Dana Weinberg (Sociology) got a seed grant of $185K from the U.S. Military Academy for her project “Developing a Data Science Methodology to Detect Military Narratives in Influence Operations.”
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Comments and suggestions for future news items are welcome.
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