QView #156 | May 23, 2023

LeFrak Concert Hall—and not a round table—was where Knights gathered for Athletics’ annual awards dinner on Monday, May 15. The banquet celebrated teams’ successes and recognized outstanding individual student-athletes in multiple categories.

On Friday, May 19, a bench in Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library was dedicated in memory of Ruth Hollander ’77, thanks to the generosity of her family and friends. A beloved member of the QC community, she passed away last year, just shy of her 105th birthday.

The Ruth Hollander Award in Jewish Studies recipient Elisheva Schuster, Acting Director of the Center for Jewish Studies Abi Doukhan, and members of the Office of Institutional Advancement joined family members in honoring an amazing woman whose love for learning was surpassed only by her love of family.

Still in style some 30 years after their debut, En Vogue brought their soulful harmonies and dynamic vocal range to Colden Auditorium on Friday, May 19. Almost 1200 people were in attendance.

Collaborating Across Borders and Disciplines

Queens College undergraduates and their overseas colleagues made presentations at the Spring 2023 Virtual Student Conference and Career Workshop, held on May 15 by Global Scholars Achieving Career Success (GSACS).

Through GSACS, students at five CUNY campuses—Borough of Manhattan Community College, Guttman Community College, Hostos Community College, LaGuardia Community College, and QC—collaborated online with peers at Abdelmalek Essaadi University (Morocco), The American University in Cairo (Egypt), Jordan University of Science and Technology (Jordan), and Palestine Ahliya University (Palestinian Territories). Teams were asked to explore two of the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals: clean water and sanitation (#6) and reduced inequalities (#10).

Participants—including QC students in courses taught by Rafael De Balanzo Joue (Economics), Wendy Leynse (Anthropology), and Vanessa Perez (Political Science)—discussed their projects at last week’s conference, the fourth event since CUNY launched GSACS in 2021. They also attended a career workshop with keynote speaker Ahmed Osman (Malave Leadership Academy, CUNY).

In addition to De Balanzo, Leynse, and Perez, the Queens College GSACS faculty fellows for 2022-23 were Desiree Byrd (Psychology), Robin Hizme (English), Ivy Huang (Accounting), and Nathalis Wamba (Education). Additional support was provided by Jean Kelly (CTL), Jane Kim (English), Sophia McGhee (Intercultural Student Engagement and Dialogue, CUNY), Grace Pai (Education), and Michelle Soule (English). Schiro Withanachchi (Economics and BALA) served as principal investigator. Faculty interested in similar virtual exchange course projects can apply for the 2023-24 Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) fellowships when applications open in early September.

GSACS is supported by the Stevens Initiative, a nonprofit that honors the life and vision of J. Christopher Stevens, a career diplomat killed in Benghazi while serving as U.S. ambassador to Libya. The initiative is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and administered by the Aspen Institute, with additional support from the Bezos Family Foundation and the governments of Morocco—where Stevens taught English as a Peace Corps volunteer—and the United Arab Emirates. 

Members of Rafael De Balanzo Joue’s class, ECON 246: Urban Economics, and students in Morocco looked at inequality in the urban economies of their respective countries.

Wendy Leynse’s class, ANTH 239W: Anthropology of Education, examined financial literacy and inequality with students in the Palestinian Territories.

Students in Vanessa Perez’s PSCI 213: The Legislative Process in America, addressed water sustainability with their counterparts at Palestine Ahliya University. The QC group designed public policy to advance the use of technology—in this case, a phone application created by computer engineering students in the Middle East and North Africa.

Baseball Season Ends at NCAA Regionals

The Queens College baseball team’s historic season came to an end at the NCAA East Regional last Saturday.

The Knights began NCAA regional play on Thursday and lost an extra-inning contest to LeMoyne College, 8-7. LeMoyne rallied from a 7-4 deficit in the bottom of the 7th to tie the game and then won after scoring on a wild pitch in the bottom of the tenth.

On Friday, the Knights avoided elimination by defeating Felician University, 7-4. Queens tallied 14 hits and got a strong pitching performance out of the bullpen by Joshuel Rodriguez to extend their season for another day.

However, on Saturday the Knights fell to host Goldey-Beacom College, 14-2, and were eliminated from the tournament.

Queens finishes the season with a program record 34 wins and seven All-Conference selections. They captured their first East Coast Conference Title in 25 years and won their first NCAA tournament game in school history.

Congratulations to the Knights on a great season!

Advising Offers Specialized Accounting Support

An alumnus turned faculty member, Martin Milich (Accounting and Information Systems) spent nearly half a century on the Queens College campus, where he was celebrated for helping students in his department. “Advisement is where I thrive,” he observed upon his retirement last year, when he was profiled in QView 132.

To enable declared and “pre-declared” accounting students to benefit from the kind of individualized academic support Milich provided, he and his friends worked with QC to set up the Professor Marvin Milich, Emeritus, Accounting Advising Program Assistant. The assistant will help students get oriented, understand the requirements of the two tracks in Accounting, and otherwise meet success in their major.

“Due to the generosity of Professor Milich, we were able to create this position, which has gone to an amazing senior student in Accounting: Bushra Patwa,” says Laura Silverman, director of the Academic Advising Center. Patwa recently completed an audit internship at KPMG and participated in the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program at QC. She has a desk in Kiely 217 and can be contacted at bushrapatwa.aac@gmail.com.

Immigrant Student Support This Summer

The Queens College Immigrant Student Support Initiative advocates for and empowers immigrant students, regardless of their immigrant status. On a case-by-case basis, the initiative helps eligible immigrant students secure in-state tuition rates, identifies potential scholarships, and connects students to larger resource networks. For the latest information on services, resources, scholarships, and support available to the immigrant community, join the Queens College Immigrant Student Support Initiative email list.

In partnership with CUNY Citizenship Now, QC Immigrant Student Support has arranged for an immigration attorney to provide free legal consultations to students over the summer. In-person appointments will be available on campus on five Tuesdays: June 13, July 11, July 25, August 8, and August 22. Students must use Navigate to schedule a meeting with the attorney. After logging into Navigate, students must select Student Affairs as the care unit. Then students must pick the service labeled Immigrant Support: Attorney & Legal Consultation. At that point, students will see available appointments within the next 30 days. Beyond that period, it’s necessary to choose a date on Navigate.  

If you have any questions, contact the initiative at ImmigrantSupport@qc.cuny.edu or 917-718-3990.

Daly News

The American Chemical Society dedicated a National Historic Chemical Landmark to Marie Maynard Daly ’42—the first African American woman in the United States to earn a PhD in chemistry—at Columbia University on May 19. After graduating from QC, Daly earned a master’s at New York and a doctorate at Columbia. In a ground-breaking career, she conducted post-doctoral research at Rockefeller University and held positions at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In 1988, she established a scholarship at QC for minority students who wanted to pursue science. She passed away in 2003.

In Memoriam

Anna Friedman Prager ’58

Anna Friedman Prager, whose service to local and state government in Rhode Island prompted the United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services to name her an Outstanding Citizen by Choice, passed away on May 6. She was 87.

Born in Poland, Prager was a little girl when World War II divided her parents; she fled to the Soviet Union with her mother, while her father served in the Polish army. Against all odds, the family reunited in a Siberian labor camp. Upon release from the gulag, they settled in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, then kept changing countries until they landed in New York City.

Prager, a teenager, added English to the languages she spoke and was admitted to Queens College. Majoring in chemistry, she met her husband, in a lab. After he was offered a job in Rhode Island with the Environmental Protection Agency, they moved to South Kingston.

When their children left for college, Prager pursued a master’s degree in community planning from the University of Rhode Island. Applying what she learned, she spent a dozen years as South Kingstown town planner, served on the town council and as its president, held policy positions in the governor’s office, and chaired the board of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. Prager is also recalled for her efforts to address the crisis in affordable housing 18 years ago, leading the board of directors for a development corporation charged with creating low- and moderate-income residences in the county.

Bertram Hirsch ’68 is quoted in a New York Times article, “The Brutal Past and Uncertain Future of Native Adoptions,” documenting his contributions to the Indian Child Welfare Act. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling this spring on a case challenging that act . . . . Juliet Papa ’78, award-winning reporter for 1010WINS Radio, was named to the Bronx Walk of Fame . . . . President Frank H. Wu is #22 on City & State’s 2023 Power of Diversity: Asian 100. City & State noted that Wu announced $2.2 million in federal funds to grow QC’s business and arts programs and worked with legislators to advocate for the Hunger-Free Campus Act in New York. Last week, he participated in several events marking Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, speaking to the Asian Pacific Alliance at Con Ed—led by Senior Planning Analyst William Lee—and at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Wednesday, May 17 and addressing the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission the next day. On June 6, the president will be a panelist in Between Black and White: Asian Americans Speak Out, a virtual discussion involving WNET and the Serica Initiative about the challenges and opportunities Asian Americans face as they build coalitions with members of other communities . . . . the Tech Incubator at Queens College was the subject of a recent article in the May 18 edition of Queens Times. The article publicized the fact that the New York City Economic Development Corporation selected the incubator to participate in the 2023 Founder Fellowship Program....QC’s Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies held its 45th annual awards and scholarship ceremony on Tuesday, May 16, at an appropriate off-campus location: the Consulate General of Greece in New York. As reported by Anamniseis, Consul Konstantinos Konstantinou enthusiastically agreed to host the event at the consulate for the first time, saying it is Greece’s duty to embrace every effort to spread and preserve Greek language and culture.