OAA THIS WEEK | Apr 22, 2021
A news update and community connection for the Office of Academic Affairs of The City University of New York
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Dean Mogulescu of SPS to retire after 50 years of distinguished leadership
One of CUNY’s most notable and longest-serving leaders, School of Professional Studies (SPS) Dean John Mogulescu, will retire this summer. In a written statement, Chancellor Felix Matos-Rodriguez described Mogulescu’s tenure at CUNY as “a remarkable 50-year career that made John one of CUNY’s most consequential and admired academic leaders.”
_____Of Mogulescu’s matchless contribution to the University, including nearly two decades as SPS’s founding dean, the Chancellor wrote: “He spent 34 years in the Office of Academic Affairs, and as senior university dean from 1999 to 2020 he oversaw the conception of everything from the nationally acclaimed ASAP program to initiatives like CUNY Start, the CUNY Service Corps, the CUNY Language Immersion Program, the Workforce Development Initiative and so many more.”
_____The Chancellor noted that Mogulescu also led the team that conceived and established Guttman Community College, helped establish the network of 19 CUNY Early College High Schools, and developed collaborative programs with the NYC Department of Education and numerous city and state agencies that have drawn more than $1.2 billion in external grants and contracts since 2001.
_____In closing, the Chancellor noted that “nothing has been closer to John’s heart than the CUNY School of Professional Studies,” which he has led since 2003. “Under John’s leadership, SPS created the first online programs at CUNY and has been recognized as one of the leading providers of online instruction in the nation. Creating a groundbreaking online school that has helped thousands of working adults advance their careers, or find new ones, is John’s proudest achievement and the capstone of his amazing career.”
Today: SPH panel and Q&A on COVID-19 “vaccines and variants”
The Office of Academic Affairs’ webinar series, OAA Talks, returns today (12:00 – 1:00 p.m.), with a special lunch-and-learn featuring a panel of experts from the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (SPH). Titled “Vaccines & Variants,” the event will include presentations from SPH faculty Bruce Y. Lee, Denis Nash, Victoria Ngo, and Scott Ratzan, all of whom have been consistently featured in local and national media for their respective research and public-health advisories regarding the COVID-19 crisis. The panel will be moderated by Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Strategy and Operations Rachel Stephenson.
_____The panelists will discuss SPH’s multifaceted efforts in understanding and combating the pandemic as well as offer their insights on pressing COVID-19-related matters, such as vaccine distribution and the impact of new viral strains. The discussion will be followed by a Q&A, during which attendees can ask COVID-19-related questions via live chatbox.
_____Those wishing to attend this installment of OAA Talks do not need to RSVP; simply use this Zoom link at the time of the event. Those wishing to listen in on the event by phone are asked to call 646-558-8656. The event will not be recorded.
Recovery Corps continues to seek OAA units to staff students
The CUNY Recovery Corps has endeavored to recruit and place 5,000 CUNY students in jobs this summer, including jobs within the Office of Academic Affairs. A partnership between CUNY and New York City, the CUNY Recovery Corps seeks to create job opportunities for students in order to meet the staffing challenges faced by the City’s small businesses, public health organizations, non-profits, and beyond during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a statement issued by the CUNY Recovery Corps, “This summer, CUNY students will continue to write their history of service to this city as they help revitalize, reinvigorate, and rebuild NYC.”
_____Supervisors of any OAA unit that would like to host a current CUNY college student as an employee for six weeks, 25 hours weekly, through July and August, are asked this form; a CUNY Recovery Corps representative will then be in touch with details. The deadline for student-employee requests is tomorrow.
LaGuardia hosts NEH LAS Latinx Symposium tomorrow
Tomorrow, LaGuardia Community College hosts the National Endowment for the Humanities LAS Latinx Symposium. The virtual event will feature a keynote address by Alejandro de la Fuente, the Robert Woods Bliss Professor of Latin American History and Economics at Harvard University on the development of Afro-Latin American Studies, as well as discussion by Executive Vice Chancellor José Luis Cruz on CUNY’s ongoing Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies Initiative (BRESI). The symposium will include panels organized by LaGuardia faculty and moderated by colleagues from CUNY focusing on new and future directions in Latinx Studies, and Afro-Latin American visual arts and aesthetics, among others. Those planning to attend are asked to register here.
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CITY, STATE & NATIONAL NEWS
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SPH launches vaccine education and adoption initiative
The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy (SPH) has launched the New York State Vaccine Education and Adoption Project, a vaccine research and literacy campaign that aims to transform the vaccine-hesitant into adopters in New York City and surrounding counties. The initiative builds on the school's efforts surveying New Yorkers throughout the pandemic to understand their perspectives, and on its emphasis on engaging the community.
The project has three goals: to measure vaccine sentiments in the lower nine counties of New York State, to visualize these sentiments to understand where pockets of hesitancy exist, and finally, to design a vaccine literacy program for the most deeply hesitant communities across the five boroughs of New York, as well as Westchester, Rockland, Nassau, and Suffolk counties. It has received $425,000 in support from three foundations.
_____“ We as New Yorkers and as a nation are at a crucial juncture in fighting a global pandemic that has erased lives and livelihoods. Unless we are able to engage every neighborhood in vaccine acceptance with respect and information, we leave ourselves vulnerable to variants and a shortfall of herd immunity,” said SPH Dean Ayman El-Mohandes, in a statement published in PR Newswire. “ Hesitancy due to misinformation, bias or other causes should not prevent our city and the surrounding region from overcoming this crisis. This research will allow insights into a host of factors barring vaccination.”
______The New York Vaccine Literacy Campaign is a component of the initiative CONVINCE USA at CUNY SPH, led by Distinguished Lecturer Scott Ratzan. “ Measuring sentiments from New Yorkers with specificity down to the community level will give us insights into the driving forces to bolster vaccine confidence and trust,” said Ratzan.
_____Ratzan was among the experts who contributed to a Time article titled “Will Trust in the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Recover? Europe's AstraZeneca Experience Suggests Not.” In light of the loss of vaccine confidence following the pause of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe, particularly in France and Germany, Ratzan was among the experts anticipating challenges to confidence in J & J vaccine due to the pause. “If [recipients] have a choice of other vaccines, they will likely want to take a two-dose vaccine that they believe is safer, that never has been paused, than a single-dose vaccine that may have a very, very small risk,” he says.
_____In conjunction with the Lehman, York, and Medgar Evers efforts, Queens College will host a pop-up vaccination site through the coming weekend.
Queensborough CC launches mass vaccination site
Queensborough Community College is latest addition to CUNY’s growing list of vaccination sites. Patch reported the new site will open this week as part of a city effort to increase access in Queens. “According to the city's vaccine tracker, the Queensborough College site at 222-05 56th Avenue will offer doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and include walk-in appointments for anyone 50 years or older. Mayor Bill de Blasio also announced a new vaccination site at JFK for airport employees and two pop-up sites in Rockaway, which are predominantly Black and Brown communities with some of the city’s lowest vaccination rates. The site will operate in conjunction with other CUNY-hosted sites at York and Medgar Evers Colleges.
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Ways to Observe Earth Day 2021
Today is the 51st annual Earth Day, and the theme is “Restore our Earth.” More than one billion people in 192 countries now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world. If you believe it is important to protect the environment and promote sustainability, consider giving back to the green spaces that gave us so much during the last year, by volunteering to keep NYC parks clean and beautiful. Events in every borough provide opportunities to connect with nature, nurture your green thumb, and serve your community as well as the earth.
The Bronx
Saturday, April 24 from 11:00 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Activities include lake cleanup, tree stewardship, and garden rehabilitation at this Bronx public park. For more information or to sign up, email Joseph.Sanchez@parks.nyc.gov.
Saturday, April 24 from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. In honor of Earth Day, show your appreciation of New York City’s largest park, Pelham Bay Park, by joining Urban Park Rangers on a hike along the shoreline of Orchard Beach while removing trash along the way.
Brooklyn
Saturday, April 24 from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Help the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy with horticultural tasks and assist with trash removal on Pebble Beach. The event isn’t all work and no play. There will also be activities such as a meditative nature walk, yoga, and Earth Day story time.
Thursday, April 22 from 12:00–4:00 p.m. Pick up a "green & go kit" packed with garbage bags, trash grabbers and gloves, and help clean the shoreline around the Prospect Park Boathouse. All are welcome, and advance registration is not required.
If you can’t make it today, you can join the Prospect Park Alliance Junior Volunteer Corps on Saturday, April 24 from 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. for an outdoor, family outing that teaches kids the value of service, gives you a chance to meet other families and children, and, of course, helps beautify the park and get it in tip-top shape for spring. Locations vary and registration is required.
Saturday, April 24 from 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. In addition to participating in a park cleanup, volunteers can collaborate on “ ephemeral landscape” artworks, which are made using natural materials found in the park. Registration is required.
Manhattan
Saturday, April 24 from 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Celebrate Earth Day in East Harlem with Green and Blue Eco Care with a fun cleanup of Thomas Jefferson Park. Volunteers will clean, plant sunflowers, and learn about their importance to the NYC ecosystem. Space is limited so reserve a volunteer spot soon.
Saturday, April 24. Although the Earth Day volunteer event takes place this weekend, volunteer opportunities are available at this waterfront park all year long. On certain Saturdays, volunteers will work with horticulture staff from the Hudson River Park Trust on activities like planting, weeding, pruning, mulching, and other gardening activities. Email volunteer@hudsonriverpark.org or call 347-515-2242 for more information.
Queens
Saturday, April 24 from 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Head to Sobelsohn Playground, located on the eastern end of Forest Park, for eco-friendly arts and crafts projects followed by a cleanup session.
If you can’t make it on Saturday, then go to Forest Park on Sunday, April 25 from 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. for the Pine Grove Earth Day Planting event when volunteers can help the park with mulching and maintaining the park’s historic pine trees, as well as planting and general litter pick-up.
Staten Island
Saturday, April 24 from 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Celebrate Earth Day and join the Freshkills Park Alliance and NYC Parks Department for a cleanup at Schmul Park. While helping to beautify the landscape, you’ll learn how to identify native, invasive, and ornamental plants. Registration is required.
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In each edition, OAA This Week asks our colleagues about the work their unit is doing in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, and how they’re personally faring in the era of remote work. If you would like to be featured as a Colleague Connection, please contact Duffie Cohen at Duffie.Cohen@cuny.edu.
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Lorena Villavicencio, Interim Supervisor of Administrative Services, Office of Academic Affairs
What does your role as interim supervisor of Administrative Services entail? I oversee the contracts, procurement, and payable activities under the Early Childhood Professional Development Institute, K-16 Initiative, Continuing Education and Workforce Programs (CEWP), and Student Success Initiatives (SSI). My team consists of two coordinators of administrative services, Celene Guzman and Kathiusca Nunez, who work closely with the programs to ensure all our submissions are following Research Foundation (RFCUNY) policies and procedures. A few items that my team and I are responsible for are processing invoices, reimbursements, stipends/scholarships, and consultant agreements.
How has your office adapted during the COVID-19 crisis? What are some of the challenges you and your team have had to address? The Majority of our work was already virtual, so our office and processes have not changed much. I think the most burden was the lack of having two screens to do our daily tasks. The major challenge my team and myself have had is issues with VPN — we were not able to just call each other for simple questions. The biggest challenges are the loss of funding and the new restrictions imposed by our sponsors due to COVID-19.
What’s your home workspace like? What kind of challenges or disruptions are you dealing with while working from home? I had to move out of New York City because my parents really feared I would contract the virus; so I moved back home with my mother. I did not have a workplace, so I would just find any corner of the house to work peacefully — with family around it is difficult. Now, I am living in a student residence because I am a graduate student at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. I have a proper desk and an area to comfortably work without any disruptions. My wireless keyboard and mouse really resemble the office, so it makes me feel more productive. The most difficult part of working from home is working from my laptop, which has such a small screen.
What’s your daily routine lately? Do you have a self-care practice that has helped you deal with the past year? Routines have become a very peculiar concept for me. Every day is different from each other, but if I need to summarize, I first attend my graduate classes during the morning then begin my workday. I have started to bullet journal to spark up my creative side. In addition, I practice aromatherapy for stress relief and energy boost. I don’t have anywhere to go, but I have a pretty hefty lipstick collection waiting to be used.
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Cases of COVID-19 are rising the world over, save for Europe. Fortunately, numbers in New York have reached the lowest point since last November.
Coinciding with the spike in COVID-19 cases globally, the U.S. State Department issues travel advisories for 80 percent of the world.
A new pandemic anxiety takes shape: the unveiling of your pandemic summer body.
Something to do pre-Krispy Kreme: link up with jab and joint activists.
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OAA This Week is published every Thursday. OAA This Week's editorial staff is comprised of Jason Brooks, Duffie Cohen, and Karen Rostron. For comments, questions, suggestions, or news and event tips, contact the professional communications writer for the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost, at Jason.Brooks@cuny.edu.
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