Diversity is on my mind and on the minds of higher education colleagues elsewhere. Just as we are preparing for the college's first Diversity Week in mid-April (more later in this message), I was humbled to be honored and to keynote the St. John’s University Law School Diversity and Inclusion Gala on March 31. | |
So much of what we do at Queens College involves making efforts to treat people equitably and recognize the contributions of everyone, regardless of background, race, age, gender, or identity. If you missed the State of the College Address and Faculty and Staff Awards Ceremony, I hope you take the time to watch a video of this memorable event and see esteemed colleagues in the spotlight. I’m deeply proud of our faculty and staff and congratulate all those who were honored on March 21. | | |
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Al-Karim Hassanali Gangji | |
Many of last week’s events illustrate the broad range of programming offered on campus. | |
On Monday, March 27, Vasundhara Kalasapudi, the director of India Home, presented a clinical psychology colloquium about the culturally competent shared housing center her organization set up for South Asian seniors in our community. | |
The same day, the second of two panels organized by the Guyanese Student Association, Department of Urban Studies, and Asian American/Asian Research Institute focused on gender justice in the Indo-Caribbean Community. The speakers were Shivana Jorawar, co-director of gender justice organization Jahajee Sisters, and Aminta Kilawan-Narine, founder and director of the women’s empowerment platform South Queens Women's March. | |
The college’s Women’s History Month programming included film screenings, talks, and the annual Virginia Frese Palmer Conference, which this year explored humor. The schedule culminated in Women in Trade, a panel discussion on March 29. Jian Xiao (Accounting and Information Systems) moderated the conversation among Andrea Ratay, head of Global Trade Finance for TD Bank and chair of the New York District Export Council; Carmela Mammas, director of U.S. Commercial Service New York; and Christine Pomeranz, associate professor and chairperson of the Department of International Trade and Marketing for the Fashion Industries at Fashion Institute of Technology. | |
From left: Andrea Ratay, Carmela Mammas, Christine Pomeranz, Jian Xiao | |
On the evening of Thursday, March 30, at an event organized and run by Fred Cadieu (Physics), students and faculty came out in cool weather to witness the alignment of Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, and Mars from a telescope. Physics major Elias Illescas brought his own Orion Starblast 4.5 EQ. | |
Elias Illescas with his Starblast telescope | |
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The following morning, members of my cabinet and I attended a most useful table-top exercise led by Michael Ferrandino, director of operations for University Public Safety, and Steve Katz, public safety and facilities chief at CUNY School of Law. The session included representatives from NYPD, FDNY, and Emergency Services. We discussed strategies for handling possible emergencies on campus. Thanks to Interim Director of Public Safety Deborah Huggins and her team for organizing the presentations. While we always hope for a peaceful semester, we must be prepared in the event situations arise requiring an emergency response. | |
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This month, Queens College will proudly host its first Diversity Week, sponsored by the CUNY Chancellor’s Campus Climate Initiative and the Petrie Foundation. From Monday, April 17 through April 21, facilitated programs, activities, and events will cover such topics as hate and bias, community policing, culturalism, accessibility and disability awareness, LGBTQIA+ resilience, the existence and impact of discrimination and marginalization, and social justice and equity. More details will soon be shared as we expect high-level speakers to participate in the panels and proceedings. I hope students will join me on April 17 at 11:30 am for a one-mile walk and informal talk. While we make several circuits around the Quad, students can tell me about their campus experience. We’ll meet at the flagpole by the World War II Memorial behind Thomas Jefferson Hall. I am especially excited about the all-day Dismantling and Combating Hate Conference on April 21 which will feature a panel discussion, a networking lunch, and breakout sessions on racial healing, antisemitism, and New York City human rights law. The conference is free; register here to reserve your seat. Thanks to Chief Diversity Officer and Dean of Diversity Jerima DeWese and her planning committee, in collaboration with faculty, staff and students, Diversity Week will be a pacesetter in higher education and positively contribute to campus dialogue and life.
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Taking place on Friday, April 21, is the Asian American/Asian Research Institute’s free screening of Dear Corky, a documentary about the celebrated photographer and Asian rights advocate Corky Lee, a QC alumnus. The film will be shown at 4:30 pm at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies (25 West 43rd Street, 18th Floor, Manhattan 10036). Corky was in many ways an iconic figure whose photography captured key events intrinsic to the evolution of the Asian-American community.
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On the topics of accessibility and disability awareness, I’d like to put in a plug for the Michael J. Fox Foundation-Parkinson’s Unity Walk on Saturday, April 22, in Central Park. The Unity Walk is the largest single-day grassroots fundraiser for Parkinson’s disease research in the United States. Once again, the Queens College Speech-Language-Hearing Center is coordinating a team of students, faculty, and clients of Reclaiming Your Voice, a program offering free speech and communication therapy for people with Parkinson’s (QView 112). The team will gather at the Naumburg Bandshell (near West 72nd Street) for the event. For the first time, the Speech-Language-Hearing Center will be represented among the booths set up on site to share information about its program, treatments, activities, and more for people with Parkinson’s and the greater community. To be part of the QC delegation or support the walk, check out the team fundraising page.
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In campus news, I’m delighted to report that the New York City Council allocated $20,000 to the Knights Table Food Pantry for the purchase of food items. We’re grateful for support in our efforts to address food insecurity among students. My special thanks to all the faculty, staff, students and alumni volunteers who have made our pantry a model program of great benefit to its clients. On Saturday, April 1, Arianna Livreri (Office of Student Development and Leadership) and students Wai Phyo Aung, Sundas Aamir, and FNU Aarti spoke to NY1 about their work in the food pantry.
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Left to right: Wai Phyo Aung, Sundas Aamir, Arianna Livreri and FNU Aarti. | |
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I trust everyone saw that Queens College enjoys outstanding ratings for low net price and economic mobility in “Build Your Own College Rankings,” published last week in the New York Times. This system, built on data from the U.S. Department of Education, allows students to use their priorities, such as high earnings or racial diversity, to determine where to apply. The results prove what we already know: QC offers a high-quality, affordable education. Our students are primed for success.
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A recent example: Kirk Persaud, who expects to receive his bachelor’s degree in neuroscience this year, and his master’s in behavioral neuroscience next year, is one of 413 students to be named Goldwater Scholars for 2023-24. This is a tremendous achievement: winners were chosen from 1,267 students in natural science, engineering, and mathematics nominated by 427 academic institutions. The Goldwater is a prestigious award, and I’m extremely proud of Kirk.
I’m thrilled to see how well many of our spring sports teams are doing this year. The baseball team is off to a torrid start with a record of 17-6, while men’s tennis (11-3) and women’s tennis (8-5) teams are once again having great years. Additionally, our track and field team hosted its first meet on our beautiful new track two weeks ago. It took several years of planning and hard work to renovate our soccer field and track, and it is wonderful to see the many ways these facilities are benefiting our college community this year. We wish all our spring teams the best of luck the rest of the way and hope to see them in the postseason!
| Congratulations to Sebastian Alvarado (Biology) and Elizabeth Ijalba (Linguistics and Communication Disorders), who were named Career Success Fellows for April 2023 through June 24. For this, the second Career Success cohort, CUNY’s Office of Transformation chose 50 fellows from 165 applicants; representing 21 CUNY colleges and multiple disciplines, they will explore ways for students to develop career readiness. | |
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Arts and Humanities Dean William McClure has accepted the position of provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at SUNY New Paltz, effective July 6. A dean at QC for over a decade, Bill was also special assistant to the provost for international affairs (2015-2021) and interim associate provost (2017-2018); from 2005-2011 he chaired the Department of Classical, Middle Eastern & Asian Languages & Cultures. Something of a renaissance man, he’s an expert in Japanese language and linguistics, a nationally ranked Olympic weightlifter in the master’s category who has been serving as QC’s faculty athletic representative, and the vice president and treasurer of the board of Flushing Town Hall. On a personal note, I’m deeply grateful for all the time Bill spent familiarizing me with the college and the Borough of Queens. In recognition of his lengthy tenure at QC, I have conferred on Bill the honorific of senior as part of his title. For the remaining duration of his time with us, he will be senior dean of Arts and Humanities. We wish Bill the very best at SUNY New Paltz.
I hope everyone has a great spring break and with Ramadan, Passover, and Easter converging this month, I wish happy holidays to all who celebrate.
PS: While the number of infections has significantly dropped, the pandemic left many of us bereaved. On Wednesday, April 19, at 12 noon, Queens College and the Office of Student Development and Leadership (OSDL) will host the campus’s second annual COVID memorial ceremony. I encourage everyone to join me at Cooperman Plaza, where a plaque will be unveiled to commemorate members of the extended QC community—family, friends, and colleagues—who lost their lives to COVID. You will have the opportunity to meet and talk with both the student organizers who are helping with this event and family members of those who left us. Please do join us there. Thank you.
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