"Campus Update" is a weekly e-newsletter published by LaGuardia's Division of Communications and External Affairs to provide news and information to the college community. | |
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Dear LaGuardia Community,
Last week’s devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria has created a humanitarian crisis in the region; as of this morning, the death toll has reached a staggering 36,000. The initial earthquake and its aftershocks, one of which reportedly measured a 7.5 magnitude, have caused the collapse of residences, businesses and historical sites, from the epicenter to cities 200 miles away. Rescue operations have continued, and millions of people in the area are in need. Here are some organizations working to help provide supplies and aid to those in need: UNICEF, Doctors without Borders, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), Turkish Philanthropy Funds, Syrian American Medical Society Foundation, Karam Foundation. Find additional organizations on the CUNY Disaster Relief Efforts webpage.
Times of tragedy can affect people in different ways. Help is available for members of the CUNY community seeking mental health support related to these traumatic events. CUNY’s employee assistance program CCA @Your Service has compiled a Support Guide, and additional resources are available on the CCA site (use company code CUNY to log in). Students may receive mental health support and counseling from LaGuardia’s Wellness Center, or by texting “CUNY” to 741741 to access the CUNY Crisis Text Line. All New Yorkers can contact NYC to speak with a mental health counselor by calling 1-888-692-9355, or texting “WELL” to 65173.
Thank you,
Kenneth Adams
President
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LaGuardia Partners With Robin Hood To Launch Credits For Success Initiative
On February 10, LaGuardia welcomed its community partner Robin Hood, to celebrate the launch of Credits for Success, which offers students who have Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) experience with a high-quality pathway to acquire a college degree. CPL is an academic process that offers students the opportunity to earn credits for college-level learning acquired outside the traditional classroom. Through a generous $1 million grant from Robin Hood, LaGuardia is expanding its academic opportunities to more students who are seeking to earn a college degree. Credits for Success offers college credit eligibility through prior learning assessment of military training and occupations; standardized exams including Advanced Placement (AP), Cambridge, DANTES Subject Standardized Tests (DSST), Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT), and International Baccalaureate (IB); industry certifications and credentials, and portfolio assessment.
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Provost Gastic Rosado Joins Advisory Council for Connecticut CASA
LaGuardia’s Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Billie Gastic Rosado was recently appointed to the Advisory Council of Connecticut Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). Joining 12 other distinguished Advisors, Dr. Gastic Rosado adds to a Council with national reach, from California and Nebraska to New York and Massachusetts as well as Connecticut, and areas of expertise ranging from education, early childhood, and social-emotional health to law, philanthropy and nonprofit management. The announcement also recognized Andrew Smulian of Guilford, who was elected to the CASA’s Board of Directors. Josiah H. Brown, Connecticut CASA’s executive director and member of the Governor's Task Force on Justice for Abused Children, says “We welcome Andrew Smulian to our Board and Billie Gastic Rosado to our Advisory Council. Such leadership from our Board and Advisors boosts our professional staff, supporting dedicated CASA volunteers, adhering to national standards toward children’s best interests.”
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Gabriella Paltoo Sierra Accesses Opportunities to Feed Her Enthusiasm for Preserving the Land and Languages of Indigenous Communities
Gabriella Paltoo Sierra, of Woodside, Queens, is a LaGuardia student who is passionate about helping people who may not have a voice. “I want to work with indigenous people to nurture sustainable development and language preservation,” said Paltoo Sierra. “I don’t want the languages of the Nahua people to be lost.” The Nahua people are one of the largest indigenous groups in Mexico today. Gabriella’s mother, who is from Mexico, is part Nahua. When Gabriella enrolled at LaGuardia as an English major, she brought an open mind with her. That openness, combined with a willingness to jump into numerous activities and opportunities where she could expand her education and experience different disciplines, has helped Gabriella set her sights on a career in international relations and environmental sustainability. Gabriella is a member of the Honors Student Advisory Council (HSAC), Jumpstart Initiative for Black and Latinx Emerging Scholars, and has participated in the CUNY Research Scholars Program; she also works at The English Language Center in Continuing Education. In the spring, Gabriella will participate in the President’s Society.
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LaGuardia Celebrates BHM
February is Black History Month (BHM), honoring the triumphs and struggles of African Americans throughout U.S. history. LaGuardia Community College proudly recognizes the Black Pioneers who played critical roles in the history of African Americans, including George Washington Bush (pictured here). Visit the DEI website to learn about Black Pioneers and upcoming BHM events.
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Students Invited to Attend the CUNY Emerging Leaders Conference
Campus Life, in collaboration with the CUNY Council of Student Life Directors, will host the Emerging Leaders Conference for students on Friday, February 24th from 9:30 a.m.- 4:15 p.m. The conference will be held at BMCC and via Zoom. The student registration deadline is Thursday, February 16th. Conference focus areas include developing leadership skills, valuing authenticity, team building, community engagement, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
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Community College Global Affairs Fellowship
The Community College Global Affairs Fellowship helps strengthen the international affairs talent ecosystem in the US. This fully paid fellowship will engage (at least) 30 American community college, transfer, and non-traditional students from across the US in 1-on-1 mentorship, as well as bring them to DC to participate in an immersive two-week summer enrichment program in June 2023. Participants must be U.S. citizens from groups such as first-generation, low-income, or from overlooked regions of the country. Applicants must have/be receiving an associate degree by August 2023 AND/OR plan to be starting at a 4-year university by Fall 2023. A daily stipend, roundtrip airfare, lodging, ground transportation to and from the airport in DC, and a per diem for meals and incidentals for each day of the program, will all be covered. The application deadline is March 1, 2023.
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LaGuardia Community Encouraged to Participate in DEI Women’s History Recognition
March is Women’s History Month, and LaGuardia Community College is recognizing women from across campus. Women from the LaGuardia community who wish to be featured on the DEI Instagram page can submit their photo and information here. To learn more, visit the DEI website or contact Wendy Nicholson, Executive Director of DEI at wnicholson@lagcc.cuny.edu.
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Updated Logo Lockups and Branded Products Catalog Available on the Faculty Staff Portal
LaGuardia’s recently updated logo is available for download on the Faculty Staff Portal. There you will also find logo lockups for many campus departments, organized by division. Log in to the Portal with your LaGuardia email credential, and select SharePoint sites, then Visual Identity to view and download the logos as well as templates and campus photographs. If you are in need of a department logo lock up that is not on the Portal, please send a request to Communications & External Affairs for assistance. The 2023 Branded Products Catalog is also now available, featuring a wide variety of products you can purchase for your program with LaGuardia branding, from t-shirts to pens to tech accessories, as well as folders and table throws.
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Faculty Spotlight: Professor Arthur Simms’ Work Binds Traditional With Modernism
The work by Dr. Arthur Simms, professor of art and director of the Fine Arts Program at LaGuardia Community College, is resonating with art enthusiasts from all over the world. Most recently, Simms’ work, “I Am The Bush Doctor, One Halo.” is the first show of 2023 to be held in the 17th-century deconsecrated church of San Carlo at Via Bissolati 33, Cremona, located in Italy. San Carlo Cremona renews the collaboration with Servane Mary who invites artists to exhibit in the space. Each exhibition is a site-specific solo presentation of an artist’s work. Simms’s sculptures, which will be on exhibit from February 18 to May 9, 2023, are created from found and natural materials, and are often bound with rope or wire. Likewise, his work binds together traditions and modern art historical trajectories: Surrealism’s uses of automatism and disjunction, as well as its reliance on the unconscious, are merged with the folk cultures of Jamaica, America, and Haiti, in addition to Australian Aboriginal belief systems. The resulting entanglements, constructed from materials such as bedsprings, empty bottles, bicycles, and worn-out toys, resonate with narratives of belonging, playfulness, and psychic energy. Simms work and dedicated to art has been recognized in past years. In 2015, Simms was presented with the S. J. Weiller Fund Award in recognition of his individual artistic achievement and creativity as well as significant contributions to the arts community. Simms’ work “The Miracle of Burano,” will be exhibited from March 11 to April 29, 2023, at Karma, located in Los Angeles, Calif.
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Faculty Encouraged to Participate in COACHE Survey
The 2022-23 Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey will launch this month and close in early April 2023. Harvard University’s Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) is a consortium of institutional leaders working to improve outcomes for faculty. Conducting the COACHE survey at CUNY is part of the university’s commitment to its faculty and its mission, and the data generated from the survey will be important to our college. As such, we urge faculty to participate in the 25-minute survey. Stay tuned for detailed instructions and reminders via email from COACHE at coachefaculty@abtsurvey.com or coachefaculty@abtassoc.com. The email will contain a web-link that is uniquely yours so please don’t delete it.
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NEH Summer Institute "Border Waters” Seeks Faculty Applicants
Faculty are invited to apply to participate in the summer institute, "Border Waters,” funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Ten faculty fellows will read and discuss scholarly and creative works on borders, maritime cultures, and oceanic and riverine environments. In the mornings of our institute, we will attend talks with visiting scholars and artists doing innovative work in their fields. Applications are due by March 3, 2023; contact co-directors Filip Stabrowoski, Karen Miller, and Christopher Schmidt for more information.
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LaGuardia to Host Second Annual CUNY LGBTQI+ Student Conference
The CUNY LGBTQI+ Student Conference brings together LGBTQI+ students from across CUNY interested in learning more about leadership and creating change on our campuses and broader communities. What does leadership for social change look like? What does an inclusive CUNY look like? The conference encompasses workshops, a keynote address, and most importantly, bringing together Queer & Trans students, faculty, staff, and allies. The theme of this year's conference is Community, Advocacy, Power, and Healing. Registration is now open for the Conference, taking place Friday, March 31, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and welcomes keynote speaker Cecilia Gentili, founder of Trans Equity Consulting and the former Director of Policy at GMHC. Contact Nathan Tosh with questions, or for more information.
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“Call-ing” All Volunteers
The Student Information Center is seeking volunteers to help call new students that are ready to register and start classes this Spring. Volunteers will be provided with a list of approximately 15-20 students and scripts to help guide their conversations. Volunteers should plan to complete calls by March 1, so students have time to register. Staff and faculty interested in participating should contact Loretta Capuano.
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GOOD NEWS FROM GRANTS DEVELOPMENT | | |
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Professors Receive Grant in Support of OER Textbook Project
Natural Sciences professors Joshua Tan and Allyson Sheffield were awarded a $12,000 grant to work on an Open Education Resources (OER) textbook to complement LaGuardia’s “Life in the Universe” course. “OER materials are generally free to use, reuse, repurpose, and distribute,” said Dr. Tan. “Thus, students and instructors are afforded much better access to the educational materials than under traditional publishing.” For many students at LaGuardia and CUNY, the cost of textbooks can be expensive. Almost 40 percent of CUNY’s students come from households with annual incomes of less than $20,000 and spending an average of $1,200 per year on books and other supplies can be the biggest obstacle to earning a degree. “To complement the textbook, this project has developed an extensive collection of homework and lab materials, available for free through the MyOpenMath platform,” Dr. Sheffield said. “The textbook and supplementary material together will provide a zero-cost option for an introductory Astrobiology course.”
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LaGuardia Renews Partnership with Catholic Migration Services to Help Green Card Holders Become U.S. Citizens
LaGuardia’s Center for Immigrant Education and Training has provided citizenship and ESL instruction for green card holders through a partnership with Catholic Migration Services since 2016. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (DHS–USCIS). DHS-USCIS has funded the work with a new grant, awarded in October 2022. LaGuardia’s CIET-CMS citizenship program, which serves about 100 students per year, is open to students who are green card holders. CIET provides assistance with submitting the N100 citizenship application, one-on-one interview practice for citizenship interviews, and classes in preparation for the citizenship exam. Catholic Migration Services is a not-for-profit legal services organization with 501(c)(3) status and an affiliate of Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens (CCBQ), has been providing legal services, including naturalization legal services, to immigrants in New York City since 1971. All of their services are provided without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
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Service Now
LaGuardia is replacing SysAid, our current College wide ticketing system, with ServiceNow, a cloud-based system that will improve our efficiency, security and ability to connect, manage, integrate and respond to help desk ticket requests. We are in the final phases of completing and testing our transition to the new system and have targeted going live in the Spring.
Student Technology Helpdesk
The new Student Technology Helpdesk will be providing basic help and support to students having technical issues logging in or accessing LaGuardia applications and online resources. The Student Technology Helpdesk is scheduled to open on March 3. It will be in B127 and will operate from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
M365 Update
The Outlook Upgrade on all workstations to a new version compatible with M365 that will work after the conversion has been completed. We are now in the next phase of the transition, conducting research and development to ensure a seamless conversion to M365. We anticipate going live with the new cloud-based email system during the Spring.
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PUBLIC SAFETY TIP OF THE WEEK | | |
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Lost and Found
The Campus Public Safety maintains a “lost and found” service for the campus community. Report lost items and turn in items that are found unattended to the Public Safety Office in the E-Building, Room E-100. The item will be inventoried and secured.
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LAGUARDIA IN THE HEADLINES | |
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February 15
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February 17
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February 20
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"Campus Update" is produced and published by the Communications and External Affairs Division. Faculty and staff who wish to submit items for publication can Share a Story or send an email to CampusUpdate@lagcc.cuny.edu. Submissions must be received by 5 p.m. Monday to be considered for publication on Wednesday. |
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