May 2026

Given our campus population and the numerous activities that take place here, almost any week at Queens College could be described as Diversity Week. Nonetheless, last week lived up to its billing, with a wide range of thought-provoking events. I thank Chief Diversity Officer and Dean of Diversity Jerima DeWese, CERRU Director Iyabo Oyewo-Hall, and the planning committee for creating such successful programming. My only regret is that I couldn’t be everywhere at once.

Culture was the focus on Monday, April 27, when ARTsDay showcased participants from the Art Department, Dance Department, the Aaron Copland School of Music, and the Godwin-Ternbach Museum. Accompanied by students, I got my steps in during a Monday Mile Walk.

Two enlightening panel discussions were held the following day, devoted to climate. In the QSide Lounge, the topic was Pages of Hope, a QC initiative in which students read and participate in facilitated conversations about books by Israeli and Palestinian authors. Yossi Klein Halevi and Yousef Bashir, whose works are in the curriculum, spoke remotely in a session moderated by David Davydov ’26. (I’m very proud of the work being done in Pages of Hope. You can learn more about it on page 11 of Queens magazine.)

Pages of Hope team members (from left): Judith Krinitz (Academic Advising), Arnold Franklin (History/ Jewish Studies), Sara Kahan (Institutional Advancement), and Francesca Girod (Counseling Services)

Meanwhile, at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Jayne Cole Southard—curator of the current GT exhibition, LEGENDS: Athleticism in Asian/American Art —and photographers represented in the show explored the ways photography captures movement, identity, and community within Asian and Asian American experiences. LEGENDS will run through May 14.  

I was delighted to see students, faculty, and staff wearing QC attire in keeping with the community theme on Wednesday, April 29. Bahman Farahdel and Yawar Shah, co-chairs of the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council New York; Ari Gordon, director of Muslim-Jewish Relations for the American Jewish Committee; and Natalia Mahmud, program director of the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, engaged in a moving interfaith dialogue.

That evening, the Breaking Bread: Building Bonds dinner organized by Queens Hillel gave attendees the opportunity to get better acquainted with each other; cards on each table suggested questions to prompt conversations. Chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodriguez attended and was an enthusiastic participant with the students,

The Thursday of Diversity Week always explores change through the Dismantling & Combating Hate Conference. On April 30, the topic was "Where Do We Go from Here?" I had the privilege of introducing Michael J. Garner, New York City’s first chief business diversity officer, who gave an insightful keynote. He was joined at the conference by Dilip Chauhan, Deputy Chief Business Diversity Officer and Senior Advisor. At lunchtime, CERRU’s Social Identity Fashion Show was a fascinating exercise in how clothing serves as a signifier.

The disability right movement emerged from the civil rights movement, so it’s only appropriate that Diversity Week’s compliance programming on Friday, May 1, included a virtual discussion of disability justice and bodily autonomy. That evening, QC’s Khánh Lê (LCD), a CUNY Career Success Fellow for academic 2024-25, teamed up with Lesley University’s Alisha Nguyen to share their research on Vietnamese dual language bilingual education programs in five U.S. states. Their lecture was well timed, falling on the first day of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Disability Week may have appropriately dominated the calendar, but it wasn’t the only thing going on.

On Wednesday, April 29, Political Science faculty Peter Liberman and Meriam Aissa gave a talk that furthered our understanding of the U.S.–Iran conflict.

Peter Liberman

Meriam Aissa

In the afternoon, I enjoyed meeting and talking with the incoming leaders of the Student Association at the Student Union (SU).

Queens College held a party on Thursday to mark the 60th birthday of the Percy Ellis Sutton Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) Program. Flanked by Norka Blackman-Richards and Jerima DeWese, special guest Keisha Sutton-James—granddaughter of the late Mr. Sutton—joined SEEK students, counselors, staff, and faculty at the celebration.  

At the SU, students at the borough’s CUNY campuses presented their research during the third Queens-wide Undergraduate Research Day. I’m grateful to Ronald Nerio at the CUNY Office of Research, the Office of the Dean of Mathematics and Science on this campus, and QC’s Alicia Melendez (Biology) and her fellow members of the CUNY Undergraduate Research Council for organizing this conference.

That evening, I attended Representing Language and the Language of Representation, an exhibition of photographs by QC art students. I encourage everyone to see this show, on display on the third floor of Queens Hall.

From left: Stephanie Clark, yours truly, Thomas Griffin, Jeanette Manmohan. Photo: Steven P. Harris 

Going in for a closer look!

In collaboration with Simone Chess (Wayne State University) and Colby Gordon (Bryn Mawr), English faculty members Miles Grier and Sawyer K. Kemp co-hosted the fourth annual Early Modern Trans Studies Conference from April 30 to May 2. This fascinating conference, sponsored by the English department, Women & Gender Studies, LGBTQIAA+ Student Programs, and others, featured outstanding scholars in the fields of pre- and early modern gender and sexuality.

I should note that on April 14, the CUNY Board of Trustees approved a proposal to create the Institute for LGBTQIA+ Community Engagement and Public History at LaGuardia Community College. (The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives, housed at LGCC, manages an extensive LGBTQ Public History Project.) LaGuardia President Kenneth Adams thanked me for submitting a letter of support for this institute, stating that it “will build on the foundation laid by the CUNY LGBTQIA+ Consortium and work to make the university a place where all students can succeed.”  

I want to wish both our men’s and women’s tennis teams good luck in this week’s NCAA Tournament! Both teams had dominant seasons, and each captured the East Coast Conference (ECC) Championship last week to earn an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. The women will play their first match on Friday, May 8, while the men begin on Monday, May 11. The pairings and times for the tournament were announced late on Monday and were not available at the time of publication, but you can visit our athletic website at queensknights.com for the latest updates on their NCAA Championship run. 

Graduating Honors Seniors were celebrated with a luncheon at the Summit on Monday, May 4.

Among this week’s campus attractions are a Business Breakfast on Thursday, May 7, 8:30 to 9:45 am in the Dining Hall’s Patio Room. The speaker will be Sam Mishra ’16, vice president at US Realty Advisors, LLC, where he specializes in build-to-suit real estate, net lease acquisitions, and assets under management (AUM) growth. Our Business Breakfasts are free to students, alumni, and faculty; reserve your place here.

Perceptions, the Student Choreography Showcase, will open on May 7, with performances through the weekend. These original works by student choreographers, seen below, span multiple genres and reflect the joy, turmoil, and beauty of life. The showcase provides an outlet for an entire creative community, from dancers to costume and lighting designers. For the schedule and ticket information, click here.

As of this writing, the state budget negotiations are unresolved; the city budget talks are awaiting the outcome of Albany actions. We are continuing to meet with state and city legislators and staff to advocate for our operating and capital needs. 

Since this is my last newsletter of the semester, I’ll take this opportunity to most warmly congratulate this year’s graduates—and wish all students, whatever their year, good luck on their exams and final projects. 

Finally, permit me to share the sad news that Associate Professor History Emeritus Mark Rosenblum passed away last month.

Mark held a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and two MAs—one from New York University and one from Goddard College. He devoted almost half a century to Queens College: He joined the faculty in September 1970 as a lecturer, retired from his full-time title in July 2018, and remained on campus for nearly two years more as a non-teaching adjunct.

Specializing in the Middle East, Mark was an engaging and effective teacher who got raves from students. He made national headlines by introducing a course that asked students to research and present a topic pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a perspective other than their own—a pedagogy he summarized as walking in the others’ shoes.

Mark’s work wasn’t limited to the classroom. He served as director of the Michael Harrington Center, director of the Center for Jewish Studies, and director of the Center for Racial, Religious, and Ethnic Understanding (CERRU), the diversity education center he cofounded in 2009 with history colleague Sophia McGee, then-Harrington Fellow John Vogelsang, and QC valedictorian Steven Appel. In addition, Mark was director of the Ibrahim Student Leadership & Dialogue Middle East Program. The throughline of his career was giving people the tools to discuss difficult subjects civilly, find common ground and maybe, bring that experience to other situations. 

On behalf of the entire QC community, I offer heartfelt condolences to Mark’s family.

Stay safe and well.

PS:

I can’t resist circulating these photos from the 2026 Michael J. Fox Foundation Parkinson's Unity Walk on Saturday, April 25. It was exciting to be part of the college’s delegation and see QC acknowledged as one of the event’s top sponsors.