Discimus ut serviamus: We learn so that we may serve.
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QView #122 | March 8, 2022
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Effective yesterday, CUNY lifted the mask mandate, in accordance with the latest CDC guidance, as well as announcements by Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams regarding policies for public P-12 schools. Vaccine and booster mandates remain in effect. Individuals who choose or prefer to remain masked are welcome to do so.
In a mailer from President Frank H. Wu, members of the QC community were requested to wear masks in tight spaces, such as the Main Gate Public Safety office, where it is difficult to remain distanced from others.
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Queens College President Frank H. Wu works up support for the new B school on campus. |
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The Queens College Business School officially opened for business with a reception on the afternoon of Thursday, March 3, as covered in QNS.com. Kate Pechenkina, interim dean of the School of Social Sciences, emceed the proceedings, which featured remarks by President Frank H. Wu, U.S. Congresswoman Grace Meng, Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs Elizabeth Field Hendrey, NYC commissioner of small business services and CUNY Trustee Kevin Kim, Queens Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Grech, Economics Professor Joan Nix, and Queens College Foundation Member Paulette Bradnock Mullings ’84. Students Faheem Hoosain, Melanie Goldsmith, and Rebecca Yaminian spoke on the program. Economics Professor Luc Marest presented awards to the winners of the Ideas Competition, a virtual business plan contest in which undergraduate and graduate students were invited to propose an entrepreneurial concept or prototype.
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Paulette Bradnock Mullings |
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Kate Pechenkina, Alicia Alvero |
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The Queens College men’s basketball team hosted their first East Coast Conference playoff game in 11 years on Wednesday, March 3, in front of a packed crowd at FitzGerald Gymnasium. The Knights came up short versus Roberts Wesleyan College, 90-72. Despite the loss, it was a great season for the Knights. They earned their highest win total since the 2016-17 season, and with a young team, they should only get better in the years ahead. |
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Clarinetist Anat Cohen rocked the house when her Quartetinho played at LeFrak Concert Hall on Saturday, March 5. Drawing on musical influences from Israel, the United States, and Brazil, the combo also features Vitor Gonçalves (accordion and piano), Tal Mashiach (bass and 7-string guitar), and James Shipp (percussion, vibraphone, and electronics). Cohen’s appearance was made possible through the Jazz Touring Network program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Russia’s war against Ukraine is the subject of a discussion presented tomorrow—Wednesday, March 9, at 12:15 pm—by the History and Political Science Departments. Over Zoom, faculty experts will share their perspectives on a conflict that has already caused tremendous loss of life and created the largest refugee crisis Europe has seen since World War II. Keena Lipsitz (Political Science) will moderate a panel comprising Elissa Bemporad (History), Julie George (Political Science), Igor Kuskovsky (Physics), Peter Liberman (Political Science), and Thomas Ort (History). Attendance is open to members of the QC community; register at Bit.ly/RussiasWar. Zoom.
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The Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance explores 17th-century mores with its production of The Misanthrope. The Moliere comedy will be presented in Rathaus Hall M-11 on March 10-11 at 7 pm, March 12 at 8 pm, and March 13 at 3 pm. Tickets cost $15, or $10 for those with QC ID, and may be ordered here. Identification and proof of vaccination required; seating is socially distanced.
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QC Teams Up with Amazon
Through a new partnership, Queens College will help deliver higher education to people working at Amazon.
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Eight CUNY campuses—Borough of Manhattan Community College, Bronx Community College, CUNY School of Professional Studies, College of Staten Island, City College of New York, Kingsborough Community College, LaGuardia Community College, and QC—are participating in the retailer’s Career Choice program. Hourly Amazon employees accepted at these schools will be eligible for an annual benefit covering tuition and certain fees. Students can major in any subject; tuition rates and fees vary among four- and two-year colleges. Costs are also affected by whether students are enrolled full or part time, and whether they are New York residents.
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“This important partnership is a powerful example of how the private sector can join forces with the City University of New York to advance workers’ education, promote economic mobility and help rebuild New York City’s post-pandemic economy all at the same time,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “We thank Amazon for its commitment to higher education for its employees and look forward to working with them while expanding CUNY’s role as one of the nation’s premiere engines of economic opportunity.”
“Our talented students aspire to succeed—in the classroom and as dedicated employees who strive to provide for their families,” said Queens College President Frank H. Wu. “In recent years, nearly 60% of our students held down at least one job annually while pursuing a degree. We are so pleased to participate in the new Amazon Career Choice partnership that allows Amazon’s hourly employees to attend CUNY colleges and receive tuition and fee payments. Opportunities like this—that improve students’ lives—are why Queens College was established. This will substantially lighten the financial burden for those who are juggling work–life responsibilities as they seek a more prosperous and fulfilling future for themselves and their families.”
Career Choice now partners with more than 180 education providers across the United States, ranging from colleges and universities to programs for industry certifications, English language proficiency, high school completion, and college prep.
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Psychological Center Offers Free Programs
This spring, the Queens College Psychological Center (QCPC) is offering cognitive evaluations for adults age 65 and over, and a prenatal-postpartum mindfulness group. Both programs are free; all services are confidential.
If you have concerns about your—or a loved one’s—memory, thinking, or attention, QCPC may be able to provide an assessment of cognitive strengths and weaknesses. The process includes individually administered interviews and standardized tests. (Currently, clients must be fluent in English to be evaluated.) One-on-one feedback will be provided, with results explained in understandable terms. Clients will be given a written report detailing performance and findings, and receive recommendations tailored to their needs.
Individuals who are pregnant or have given birth within the last year may be interested in the prenatal-postpartum group, which is based on cognitive-behavioral therapy. Over eight weeks, the group will aim to teach relaxation skills, mindful meditation practices, and provide coping skills. (Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which you focus on being intensely aware of what you're sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment.) Meetings will take place on Tuesday afternoons over Zoom, starting in mid-March.
To learn more about these programs, contact QCPC at qcpc@qc.cuny.edu or 718-570-0500 and leave your name, phone number, and times when you can be reached.
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Incubating Business Knowledge
Would-be entrepreneurs can benefit from a how-to offered by the Tech Incubator at Queens College. From Idea to Business will take place from March 31 to July 7, with sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 6 to 7:30 pm. The curriculum explores customer discovery, product development, market development, and monetization and the basics of running a business; each participant will be expected to make a final presentation. The course costs $400, with a 50 percent discount for those who enroll by March 15. To learn more or register, click here.
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Library Books Archival Fellows for Spring |
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Annie Tummino, the head of Special Collections and Archives at the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, recently announced the Spring 2022 cohort of archives and rare books graduate fellows. The Fellowships program provides hands-on experience and mentorship to talented students from the Graduate Program in Library and Information Studies (GSLIS). Brendan Enright is the Civil Rights and Social Justice Fellow, Ellis Ging was named the Center for Jewish Studies Archives Fellow, and Melissa Lino has been selected as the Shirley Klein Rare Book and Print History Fellow.
Brendan Enright
Enright is in his fourth semester in the GSLIS program, pursuing a certificate in archives and preservation of cultural materials. He will primarily be working on digitizing and cataloging materials from the Art Gatti Collection.
Gatti, a QC graduate, was extensively involved in political and social activism in the 1960s. During that time, he traveled to Mexico with a group dedicated to improving quality of life in impoverished towns. The collection contains clippings, publications, documents, correspondence, fliers, posters, photographs, scrapbooks, and memorabilia. It also documents the work of Mario Savio, another QC student, who later attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he became a national leader in the Free Speech Movement of 1964.
Enright graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2006. After college, he moved to New York City and worked for many years for a housing advocacy group. Although he enjoyed helping many people in that role, he decided he needed to pursue a career with more stable work. Enright had learned about archiving from friends who were involved with it, and he decided to go back to school to pursue a new career.
“They seemed to really enjoy the work. Hearing them talk about making information accessible; it’s all kind of similar to the job I did before with the housing court,” said Enright.
While taking an archiving course at Queens College, he was inspired to apply for the fellowship, which is funded by the Freda S. and J. Chester Johnson Endowment.
“Last semester we talked about archival theory and the role that plays in shaping the narrative,” added Enright. “Community archives are trying to give voices to those different communities that have been left from the record. That really resonated with me. I thought this was the place for me.”
Ellis Ging
Ging is in his final semester as a Master of Library Science (MLS) candidate and is pursuing a certificate in archives and preservation of cultural materials. This will be his second master’s degree at QC; he earned an MFA in literary translation in 2020. He aspires to work in an archive or research library position following graduation.
Ging will be responsible for processing the papers of Vincent Giordano, a photographer who documented the Romaniote Greek-Jewish community—one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities—in both New York City and Ioannina, Greece. In 2019, nine years after Giordano’s passing, his family donated his work to Queens College, where it is preserved by the Rosenthal Library and curated by the Hellenic American Project. Ging will process a physical collection of negatives and prints and also a collection of digital scans.
“One of the main things I’m interested in is improving access,” said Ging. “We have a collection that has great historical importance and research value, and it’s just a matter of getting in and making sure it is accessible to researchers.”
Ging previously worked at two other libraries, but this fellowship, which is funded by the Queens College Center for Jewish Studies, is his first experience with archiving.
Melissa Lino
Lino earned her bachelor’s degree from Queens College in anthropology in 2018 and returned to QC a couple of years later to pursue a MLS degree. She expects to graduate this spring.
Lino works at the front desk of the Rubin Museum of Art and has volunteered at the Interference Archive and interns at the Center for Fiction. But when she saw the opportunity for the Rare Books and Print History fellow, which is funded by Shirley Klein, she knew it was a great opportunity.
“When I saw the opportunity on campus, I thought it was really cool because it’s really hard to get experience handling rare books and preservation,” explained Lino. “Most institutions don’t have the funding for a dedicated preservationist or conservationist.”
As a fellow, Lino will improve preservation and access of the Queens College Rare Book and Print History Collection through housing delicate items in custom boxes and pamphlet enclosures and conducting outreach to the college community. Several years ago, QC’s collection of rare books was severely damaged due to a flood in the storage room where the collection was housed. Thanks to Shirley Klein's generous donation, the books were recently cleaned by trained technicians and returned to the library.
The rare books collection includes a number of juvenile literature titles. Lino will work with Tummino and Leila Walker, QC’s digital scholarship librarian, on creating a digital exhibit to showcase some of the materials.
Each fellow will be at the library one to two days a week, doing a combination of remote and in-person projects throughout the Spring 2022 semester. We wish all of them well this semester!
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Opening Up New Worlds for Students
For more than 30 years, the Center for Career Engagement and Internship’s World of Work courses—combining classroom sessions and practical experience—have been helping QC students prepare for life after college. Last fall, Keesha Cameron and Zavi Gunn (Career Development Center) and Taruna Sadhoo (Experiential Education) made this World a lot bigger, with support from a We Learn So That We May Serve (WLSTWMS) grant.
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WLSTWMS, launched in the spring of 2021, is led by former Vice President for Finance and Administration William Keller and supported by the Queens College Foundation. In its inaugural round of funding, the program issued seven awards of as much as $5000 to faculty who redesigned existing courses or developed new ones that integrate teaching, learning, and community service, enabling QC students to “learn so that they may serve.”
“Once we saw the WLSTWMS proposal go out, Keesha and I asked Taruna if she wanted to work with us,” recalled Gunn. The answer was an emphatic yes. The result was a World of Work offering organized around the theme, “Think Globally, Act Locally.” Resting on the learning pillars of career readiness exploration, global citizenship development, and community engagement, the course “presented career-readiness through the lens of global citizenship,” said Sadhoo.
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Activating Alumni
During virtual classes, students heard presentations by experts in community development, organizing, global citizenship, sustainable development goals, and public speaking. Participants in Alumni Sharing Knowledge (ASK)—a program leveraging the talents of QC alums—appeared via Zoom to discuss key professional development topics such as diversity, equity and Inclusion in the workplace; community reinvestment; community development; and advocacy and policy issues/opportunities on Capitol Hill. (ASK, an Office of Alumni Development initiative covered in QView 95, allows students to benefit from the broad range of knowledge possessed by the QC alumni community and practice their networking skills.)
To apply what they were learning, students had to complete structured and supervised experiential work with nonprofits, community-based organizations, social entrepreneurships, and government agencies in New York City. Efforts were made to place students in positions matching their interests. Personality assessments, informational interviews, and weekly journaling on class topics were among the other course components. Because the class operated on a remote model, students had fewer opportunities to engage with each other as a group. That, too, was a teachable moment, explained Cameron. “Students are entering a world of work that may look like this.”
For last fall’s cohort, diverse by age and gender identity as well as ethnicity, the combination of classroom sessions, assignments, and local placements was enlightening.
“I have no words to express my gratitude toward such excellent advisers, events, and career centers,” noted Saheeda Azimulla, 52, in her final presentation. A psychology major who had to leave school in her native Guyana at age 14 and was married off less than four years later, she volunteered with a nonprofit that assists victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. “The topic that resonated most with me was the sustainable development goals,” Azimulla continued. “As we learned in lectures, women suffer worldwide, mainly because of poverty.” She hopes to work with women coping with domestic violence and hardship.
Responses like these validate the expanded World of Work concept.
“Experiential learning is central to the education of Queens College students,” observed Sadhoo. “Alumni wish they had had a class like this when they were students.”
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Heard Around the Virtual Campus |
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Fran Drescher, an alumna honored at the 2017 Queens College Gala, was introduced as the president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Union at the SAG-AFTRA awards on Sunday, February 27. People documented Madame President’s preparations for her appearance. Drescher was elected to her office last fall . . . . John Dennehy (Biology), Igor Kuskovsky (Physics), and Nuria Rodriguez-Planas (Economics) are members of teams that just received CUNY Interdisciplinary Research Grants. Eleven projects were chosen, out of 61 applications; more than $440,000 in total was awarded in this cycle. Dennehy will work with Monica Trujillo (Biology; Queensborough Community College) on “Trapping and Concentrating Viruses from Wastewater.” Kuskovsky will collaborate with Milan Begliarbekov (Nanoscience Initiative; CUNY Advanced Science Research Center) and Maria Tamargo (Chemistry; City College) on “Intermediate Band Solar Cells: Toward Ultra-High Efficiency Photovoltaics.” Rodriguez-Planas will research “Improving CUNY Students’ Mental Health through Resilience Thinking During the Pandemic” with Margit Shasha Rudenstine (Psychology; City College).
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