THE OBSERVER
April 11, 2022
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Editor: Susan Rauch
Associate Editors: Micky Josephs
Ariana Caragliano
Contributing Editor: Irene Sax
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Dear members,
I hope you tuned into the wonderful conversation about liberal arts education and the Great Books curriculum led by member Howard Levi with Roosevelt Montas on Friday. Thank you to the committee and to Howard! A link to the recording will be shared once closed captioned. Sign up now to hold your spot for the next Fridays@1 on April 22 with Ellen Zwiebel in discussion with member John Gillespie about the new James Webb telescope: https://gc-cuny.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CLX2NMQQTWacrI-cmlgMSQ
A reminder that we have two workshops next week with the Graduate Center library. Be sure to register and submit your questions early:
Monday, April 18 at 4pm: an in-person tour of the Mina Rees Library that will focus on how LP2 members can access the library services, research and circulation, while on campus. This tour is capped to 12 members; we will keep a waitlist and schedule additional tours as necessary.
Wednesday, April 20 at 4pm: an online workshop on remote access of library resources and services, covering the basics of how to request physical items and digital sources from scholarly databases and journals, media collections, and other libraries.
Please be reminded that due to current limited capacity of the public safety staff at the Graduate Center, ID cards are being issued to LP2 in waves with priority given to members regularly coming to campus for in-person classes, to coordinators, and to committee members. If you have a pressing need to come to campus, i.e., to use the library, and have not been sent instructions to request an ID, please write to [email protected]. Prior to the start of the Fall 2022 semester, there will be an open invitation to all members to request a Graduate Center ID via email and to receive it via USPS. Stay tuned for more information in your email inbox!
We recently distributed the culminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Toolbox to members who coordinated this year. Thank you to all who participated in the Roundtables and the pilot sessions, and members who contributed to and edited the Toolbox, including (and not limited to) Rita Silverman, Terry Hamilton, Susan Sabatino, Ruth Mackaman, and Randy Ross.
I will have Director’s Office Hours next week on Wednesday, April 20 at 1pm. Meeting details will be shared in next week’s Observer.
Take good care,
Mariel
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New schedule for submitting articles for The Observer and Website
Members wishing to submit information for publication in The Observer or listing on the Website have a new deadline: the Wednesday before the Monday publication date. In addition, we urge you to send us your material as early as possible so that it can be entered onto the LP2 calendar, which is managed by the Graduate Center. If you have an event to publicize, please notify Micky Josephs at [email protected] at least a month in advance to ensure that the event receives maximum publicity.
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Elections for the Advisory Board |
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Your chance to vote for members to fill four vacant seats on the LP2 Advisory Board is to participate in the online election beginning Monday, April 11th and ending on Friday, April 15th. You will receive your ballot and instructions via email before the start of voting.
Six people are running to fill the four openings. Running for the three at-large seats are: Maury Harris, Steven Kalinsky, Arlyne LeShack, Judith Monson and Patrick Siconolfi.
Chuck Brecher is running for the “new member” seat.
Below are the candidates’ pictures and statements.
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MAURY HARRIS – LP2 MEMBER SINCE 2017-09-01
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: During my career as an economist, I managed economic research departments at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, PaineWebber and UBS. This experience should enable me to work with others to help improve the quality and breadth of our curriculum content. Also, my professional experience in making presentations to small groups can be useful input for the Curriculum Committee as it provides presentation guidance to new coordinators. I am a member of the IER Investment Policy Committee for our endowments and also serve on the Investment Board of the American Associates of Ben Gurion University endowment
LP2 EXPERIENCE: I have coordinated study groups on New York City and Texas history, COVID-19 economics, financial bubbles, Federal budget deficits, Native Americans and criminology.
MAJOR ISSUES: We need to further improve the already good diversity and content quality of our course offerings. More existing member participation in coordinating must be encouraged and aided. We should more proactively recruit new members who are qualified to lead study groups on specific topics for which we need to expand our course offerings
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STEPHEN KALINSKY -- LP2 MEMBER SINCE 2011-01-01
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: Lawyer, Administrative Law Judge, Administrator New York State and New York City
LP2 EXPERIENCE: Coordinated a bunch of study groups (around 30+/-), Member of the Curriculum Committee for 4 years, Member/Chair of the Virtual Classroom which provided content for Self Help Community Services members. (Zoom sessions to homebound prior to Covid 19); Senior Debate Group facilitator, Led Advances in Civilization discussions, current events discussions and collaborated with Barry Levine on a series of webcasts on Covid and discussions and current events discussions during semester breaks.
MAJOR ISSUES: While we are all looking forward to getting together in person for study group sessions and other activities...there is still a place for some remote activities or at least some HYBRID ACTIVITIES. Hopefully, we can create a program
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ARLYNE LESCHACK -- LP2 MEMBER SINCE 2010-02-01
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: I have had leadership positions in numerous areas including my condo board, charitable organizations, and on my school leadership team. I have had team building professional development experience.
LP2 EXPERIENCE: I have coordinated and co-coordinated many study groups. I have been a member of the Curriculum Committee and the Advisory Board. I am presently a member of the Admissions Committee and the Community Building Initiative. I developed and run the Women’s Group.
MAJOR ISSUES: We need to transition back to an in person learning community, taking into account ways we can meet the needs of our members. We need to continue to encourage our members to create diverse study groups, so we present a full curriculum. We need to encourage multiple ways to connect with one another.
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JUDITH MONSON – LP2 MEMBER SINCE 2018-01-09
PREVIOUS LP2 EXPERIENCE: To further LP2 goals, I will use skills gained in my corporate and volunteer leadership roles: accounting/finance, planning, strategy, team building and committee work. I spent more than 23 years at Seagram in finance positions, leading to Senior VP of Finance for a $billion division; my final role was General Manager of a luxury fashion house in Paris. For the last 6 years of my professional career, I became a Foreign Service Officer at the Department of State, living in D.C., Mexico City and Bogota. Concurrent with my business life, I held senior roles in not-for-profit organizations. As an active Cornell alumna, I served as a Trustee on the Board of Trustees; Vice-Chair of the Board’s Audit Committee; Founding Chairman of the President’s Council of Cornell Women; and member of the Inaugural Board of Directors of the Cornell Club of NY. At the Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains, I was on the Board of Directors and chaired the Audit Committee.
LP2 EXPERIENCE: Currently, I am Chairman of the Finance Committee and, also, Assistant Treasurer, elected by the Board. In the latter role, I work with Colette Siegel and will succeed her as Treasurer when she steps down in July. When I joined LP2 in Fall 2018, I organized five restaurant events over a year period for the 23 other new members who joined at the same time.
MAJOR ISSUES: LP2 must rebound from the "Zoom period" in both facets of its mission—to deepen members' learning and to provide opportunities for social/cultural engagement. Other areas for enhancement are providing a robust orientation/integration program for incoming (and recent) new members and re-energizing programs and SIGs outside of the classroom.
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PATRICK SICONOLFI –LP2 MEMBER SINCE 2017-04-01
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: For the 15 years prior to retirement, I ran a major trade association and advocacy group in New York. Skills that would be useful to LP2 include negotiating successful outcomes among disparate parties; a demonstrated ability to vastly increase funding by adding funding sources and building networks of colleagues and interested parties; achieving consensus among parties with diverging interests; building teams to achieve organizational goals; and helping to develop a vision to guide an organization in setting goals and building participation.
LP2 EXPERIENCE: In 2020 I co-designed and led a study group, “The Federalist Papers,” which was well received. In the current semester, as part of the ArtSIG’s programs, I am leading an Architectural Tour in Manhattan. This is to be first in an ongoing series.
MAJOR ISSUES: Several ideas:
1. Increase membership and diversity by developing sustained relationships with Employee Resource departments at major NYC employers to make retiring employees aware of LP2 as part of the employer’s retirement transition planning which is offered to employees as they retire. Many such employers could be approached; of particular interest could be employers that are colleges and universities.
2. Increase the participation of members by exploring a continued virtual form of participation, not instead of in-person participation but as an adjunct to it. This would enable SG coordinators and speaker/instructors who are not in NYC to enrich our programs. It would also enable us to hear occasionally from international voices.
3. Increase participation by adding early evening social events.
4. Develop ideas that expand the services offered by LP2 and by creating opportunities to enrich our programs by reaching out to other voices in our city and also from experts around the country and internationally.
5. Create a buddy system for members who are experiencing life challenges. This could provide both support for a member in need and an opportunity for the buddy to understand how individuals overcome adversity.
6. Explore relationships with other colleges and universities. This would enable us to draw on broader resources to enrich member programs. As an example, we might call on speakers from other institutions to address our Tuesday discussion series, or to add content to Special Interest Groups.
7. Develop ways to give back to the communities in which we live, perhaps starting with the CUNY community.
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NEW MEMBER CANDIDATES FOR LP2 ADVISORY BOARD
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Charles Brecher – LP2 MEMBER SINCE 2021-01-01
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: I have some expertise in finance, particularly public and nonprofit finance. I also have served on nonprofit boards including the Schyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy (SCAA).
LP2 EXPERIENCE: I am a relatively new member. I have taken multiple study groups each term including the summer term. I also am now doing my first stint as a coordinator with a six-week SG this term.
MAJOR ISSUES: We need to restore in-person interactions for study groups and other special interest groups. We also need to keep a varied and lively set of study groups offered each term, with many members participating as co-coordinators. Attention should also be given to diversifying the backgrounds of the members.
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Call for Break Activities between Semesters
The Community Building Initiative seeks volunteers to lead activities during either or both breaks, May 16th - May 27th and July 12th - August 31st.
Like our earlier break activities, yours can meet once, twice or multiple times. Whether it’s a book or movie discussion, a current events discussion, a travel adventure or art presentation or something else, your colleagues will appreciate your efforts. We also invite all current and past coordinators to offer a one-session encore presentation selected from a prior study group. Tech help is available to assist you to set up and run the Zoom session. You’ll receive a Zoom link to send to participants.
To propose your activity, contact Jane Case Einbender ([email protected]) from the Community Building Initiative (CBI).
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Online Research: A Zoom Workshop on 4 Essential Free Tools
Thursday, April 14, 4:00-4:30PM
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Want to know what academics think about the puzzle of the Man in the Mackintosh in Ulysses? Interested in reading a chapter or finding an illustration in an out-of-print book? Wondering how, and how long, the phrase “Sugar Baby” has been in use? This workshop is an introduction to a few of the tools featured on lp2nyc.org’s Library and Online Research page: how to use them together to get the information you want for your study group and how to save and share this content in a digital format. We will focus on Google Scholar, Google Books, Google Ngram (a tool within Google Books) and JStor. As time allows, we may provide a quick intro to other publicly accessible text, image, audio, video, and book sources. There will be an opportunity to get your questions answered and one-on-one help. You might even learn another computer trick or two. Write Denise Waxman at [email protected] to sign up.
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Fridays@1 with Dr. Ellen Zweibel: The James Webb Telescope - A Keyhole into the Past
Friday, April 22 @ 1PM
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Astrophysicist and plasma physicist Ellen Zweibel will discuss the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful space observatory ever launched. After $10 billion and years of delay, the telescope was flawlessly launched on December 25, 2021. The JWST is three times the size of the Hubble Space Telescope and designed to see further into the past than its celebrated predecessor to study the first stars and galaxies to turn on in the dawn of time. LP2 member John Gillespie, Professor Emeritus, Astronomy & Physics, at City University of New York will moderate Dr. Zweibel’s presentation.
Ellen Zweibel is the William L. Kraushaar Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor. In 1991, she was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. In 2016, she received the James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics for "seminal research on the energetics, stability, and dynamics of astrophysical plasmas, including those related to stars and galaxies, and for leadership in linking plasma and other astrophysical phenomena". She investigates astrophysical phenomena and plasmas physics of the sun, stars, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies. Dr. Zweibel was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.
We are delighted to have Dr. Zweibel present the Norma Grossman Memorial Lecture in honor of her mother, Norma Grossman. Norma taught biology in Livingston High School in New Jersey for 26 years and was a member of LP2 for more than 25 years. She is remembered by her many friends at LP2.
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Venue: Claude Samton's Loft/Studio
Address : 84 Mercer Street #2 (between Broome and Spring Streets)
Date & Time: Thursday April 28 @ 4PM
Join us at architect/artist Claude Samton's cavernous Mercer Street studio in Soho for an afternoon of socializing and learning. We will visit nearby studios of sculptor Zigi Ben Haim and artist Michelle Doner as well as Claude's work (photomosaics, photographs, book illustrations and writings).
There is limited capacity for this event, so RSVP ASAP to:
Transportation:
Subways
# 6 to Spring Street
R,W to Prince Street.
E,C to Spring Street
B,D,F to Broadway Lafayette Street
Bus # 55 to Spring Street
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Science Seminar Series
Eleanore T. Wurtzel, Vitamin A Deficiency, Synthetic Biology and the Coming Green Revolution
Monday May 9, 2022 @ 4PM
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The world population is expected to increase by as many as 3 billion come 2050. The question is how to feed those growing numbers. For reasons having to do with climate change, the shrinkage of arable lands and a host of other confounding elements, traditional agriculture won’t cut it. A major part of the solution is expected to lie with synthetic biology, a relatively new-to-the-scene multidisciplinary pursuit aimed at substantially increasing plant productivity in an environmentally sustainable fashion. Among those at the forefront of that effort is Dr. Eleanore T. Wurtzel, Professor of Biology at CUNY’s Lehman College and the CUNY Graduate Center Biochemistry and Biology Programs, whose research centers on crop-enhancement strategies designed to combat Vitamin A deficiency, the underlying cause of blindness and increased mortality currently affecting 250 million children world-wide. On May 9th, she will join us for a wide-ranging discussion of how we can meet current and future food resource needs. .
Dr. Wurtzel is a professor in the Department of Biology at Lehman College and a member of the Graduate Center at CUNY. She has a PhD in molecular biology from Stony Brook University and has undertaken postdoctoral fellowships in plant biology at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
This event is via Webinar and open to members only. For more
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Coming to Campus? Scroll Down for Current GC-CUNY Protocols |
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ONLINE ART SHOW
From: Michael Shapiro
Title: Iris in Bloom
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Michael says: I saw these while walking along Long Island Sound in Westbrook, CT.
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Calling All Painters, Sculptors, Photographers, Block Printers, Ceramicists and Textile Artists!
Display the creative work you have been doing this summer in the Online Art Show. Send a photograph of your work with a title and a brief statement about it to Carol Millsom at [email protected]. Art works appear in The Observer in the order in which they are received.
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LP2 member Zuzana Justman is the featured speaker at the program opening the Center for Jewish History’s exhibit “Last Stop Before the Last Stop” about Theresienstadt, the Nazi transit camp. She is a documentary filmmaker whose works have largely been filmed in the Czech Republic and other European countries. In her work, she explores the Holocaust as well as postwar history.
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Zuzana Justman with her parents, Marie Picková and Viktor Pick, leaving a skating rink in Prague, in 1938. Courtesy of Zuzana Justman.
Date/Time Tuesday, April 12th, 2022, 5:30 – 7:30PM EDT
Venue
15 W. 16th St.
New York, NY 10011
Admissions
General: Free
Tickets
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From Alec Rill: Photo SIG is Back in Action |
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Alec Rill with his wife in front of one of his photos hanging in the Altered States exhibit at the Soho Photo Gallery. |
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The first photo SIG outing and lunch was a resounding success, with 23 people participating in the Soho Photo Gallery event and 20 continuing to lunch.
Five members of the Gallery cooperative met the group, described the exhibits and answered questions. The group then continued on to lunch at a classic old-fashioned restaurant in Tribeca, where they talked, laughed and planned future projects.
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The SIG members plan to continue visiting galleries and (of course) having refreshments and, possibly, getting together and talking about specific photography topics, joining for photo shoots in the streets around NYC and having group critiques of photos submitted by members. The feeling was “the sky's the limit.”
You don’t have to be a photographer to join the PhotoSIG; just have an interest in photography. If you’re interested in joining, contact Alec at [email protected].
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PhotoSIG members at the Soho Photo Gallery |
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Where LP2 members are always happy to meet – over a dining table.
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GC-CUNY Campus Covid Protocols
For those who are coming to campus:
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Masks are no longer required in all campus spaces.
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The rest of the Covid-19 policies remain in place. If you do not have a Cleared4 Pass, email [email protected] a week before your intended visit. Cleared4 Pass (or “Blue Pass”) system automatically renews passes on their expiration date, If you lose your pass, email [email protected] to manually extend it.
- Bring GC-CUNY ID or other official ID.
Additional Campus Operations Info: Reporting positive cases and contact tracing:
- If you are feeling sick, DO NOT come to class.
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If you come into close contact (within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes total, even if in segments) with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, please be sure to wear a close-fitting mask around others and test at least five days after exposure (regardless of symptoms). You do not need to stay home unless you develop symptoms.
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If you test positive for COVID-19, do not come to class and isolate for 5 days before testing. Take precautions until day 10 including wearing a well-fitting mask when around others. Please notify me at [email protected] so that I can manage contact tracing while maintaining your privacy and give further guidance per CUNY’s policy, following CDC guidance.
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Unfortunately, the COVID-19 testing centers on CUNY campuses are not available for use by LP2 members at this time. I will update you if this changes. NYC offers free COVID-19 testing and all New Yorkers can receive a free COVID-19 virus PCR test. Diagnostic tests are available through NYC COVID Express sites or through other public and private sites (search via the COVID-19 Test Site Finder). Further information on free testing can be accessed by calling 311 or the NYC Health and Hospitals website.
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The Women’s Group meets at 3:45PM on Thursdays. Contact Arlyne LeSchack at [email protected].
The Men’s Group meets at 3:45PM on Wednesdays. Contact Jay Fleishman at [email protected].
Stitch Away Stress meets at 4PM Tuesdays. Members share skills and enjoy the meditative benefits of handwork. Contact Michelle Harris at [email protected].
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Observer Submissions Send items for the next week’s Observer to Micky Josephs at [email protected]. See deadlines above. Send Online Art Show entries and suggestions for tours to Carol Millsom at [email protected].
Member Forum If you have something to share with the LP2 community, e.g., a photo, an article, a book or a website that you’ve discovered and think would be interesting to members, send it to Micky at [email protected] for inclusion in the Member Forum.
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