Discimus ut serviamus:
We learn so that we may serve.
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Remembering Les Payne and His Gift to Queens College
In a career that spanned nearly four decades, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Les Payne was well known for his accomplishments as a reporter, editor, columnist, and fierce crusader against racial injustice. But few in the general public were aware of his passion for art.
Payne, who died suddenly on March 19 at age 76, was an avid collector of African and African-American art. Queens College was most fortunate to be one of the beneficiaries of his passion when in February 2015, during the college’s observance of The Year of South Africa, he and his wife Violet agreed to display part of The Collection of Violet and Les Payne at Godwin-Ternbach Museum. The 60 works were all by artists from Soweto, the South African black township from which Payne in 1976 filed searing accounts for
Newsday
about the anti-apartheid student uprising.
Contessa Brewer of NBC4 New York sat down with Les and Violet Payne, along with Godwin-Ternbach Museum Director and Curator Amy Winter, to discuss the Soweto collection and its genesis amid the violence of the Soweto Uprising.
Click here
to see their conversation here.
Newsday
’s obituary for Les Payne can be found
here
and includes a video tribute in which he discusses, among many things, his time reporting from Soweto and how it came to define his career.
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Les Payne is seen conducting a gallery talk at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum at the opening of an exhibition of works by Soweto artists, from the Collection of Violet and Les Payne.
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NAACP Honors President Matos
Every year, the local branch of the NAACP—now celebrating its 75th anniversary—gives an award to an individual who has made efforts to advance racial relations, health, and justice. On Saturday, March 17, President Felix J. Matos Rodriguez was the honoree. President Matos was recognized for the work he does to attract all kinds of students to Queens College, an institution celebrated for its diversity.
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From left: City Council Member and QC alum Rory Lancman; President Matos; NAACP Northeast Chapter President Ken Cohen; City Council Member Peter Koo
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American College of Sports Medicine’s Local Chapter Springs into Action at QC
On Saturday, April 14, for the fourth year in a row, the Greater New York Regional Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine will hold its spring meeting on the QC campus. This year’s theme is Exercise is Medicine: Let’s Get People Moving. Dr. William Kraemer will give the keynote, “Using Aerobic and Resistance Exercise to Enhance Brain Function: Mediating Mechanisms.” Featured speaker Dr. Linda Pescatello, a member of the committee that has updated physical activity guidelines for Americans, will discuss the latest recommendations. In the last segment of the meeting, teams of students, including a three-person squad of Nutrition and Exercise Majors from QC, will compete in a Student Quiz Bowl.
For more information,
click here
.
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The Wright Stuff
Evening Readings resumes on campus on April 10 with guest Doug Wright, who won a Pulitzer and a Tony for his play,
I Am My Own Wife
. His other stage works include
Grey Gardens, The Little Mermaid,
and
War Paint
. Wright will discuss his creative process and read from his work;
Time Out New York
theater editor and chief critic Adam Feldman will serve as moderator. Admission to this event—which will take place in the Music Building, Room 264, at 7 pm—is free for all CUNY students, faculty, and staff with ID. For more information,
click here.
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Building Futures
:
Carlos Beltran
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"Technology Is My Passion"
Thanks to his famous name, Carlos Beltran has made family restaurant reservations and found he was given the best table, preset with wine, courtesy of the house. But this QC student is a star in his own right, for his talent lies not on the baseball field but in the field of computer science.
Beltran, along with Team Knight members Charlie Lin, Zifang Huang, and Navidur Rahman, captured first place in the statewide “Making College Possible Coding Challenge.” Students from SUNY and CUNY colleges had been invited by the governor’s office to develop a mobile app or website to share information about the new Excelsior Scholarship for working and middle-class families. With some colleges sending more than one team, the roster of competitors numbered over 200.
Each team had to present its concept, along with a working model, at the judging, held March 10, 2017 at Facebook headquarters in Manhattan. Beltran’s family watched the competition in real time through Facebook Live.
“At first it was a shock to hear we’d won,” says Beltran, recalling how “exciting and emotional” the experience was. “Charlie Lin, the most experienced on the team, led us to victory! We weren’t used to public speaking, so we practiced, and that gave us confidence. All our hard work paid off.”
Their app, called “A Stronger Tomorrow,” is now being refined in the Queens College Tech Incubator. “President Matos Rodriguez offered us space there,” says Beltran, who hopes the app will be ready for testing by fall 2018 or early next year. With the help of a growing team of tech-savvy students, the app should be ready in due time for release.
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What’s in a Building’s Name?
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Rathaus Hall
Rathaus Hall, home of the department of Drama, Theatre & Dance, is named after composer and QC music professor Karol Rathaus. Born and trained in Europe, Rathaus was one of the first serious composers to do sound for film. The New York Philharmonic, the St. Louis Symphony, and the Louisville Orchestra are among the ensembles that commissioned compositions from him; the Metropolitan Opera engaged him to restore the original version of Mussorgsky’s
Boris Godunov
.
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Register Now
Now is the time to consider registering for summer classes at QC. Students can earn up to 15 credits and get a jump on completing their degree, or on meeting the requirements for the Excelsior Scholarship or on advancing in QC in 4--and still have time left over for a long vacation. Summer Session features:
- hundreds of undergraduate and graduate courses, including 30 online courses
- choice of four sessions (lasting four, six, or ten weeks)
- affordable tuition
- free on-campus parking
- inexpensive and exceptional on-campus housing
For information on schedules, courses, tuition, and to apply, visit
www.qc.cuny.edu/Summer
.
If you have questions, contact Academic Advising at 718-997-5599.
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Carol Fredericks Jantzen
’67, ’70 has won national recognition in the fields of glass chemistry and the safe disposal of high-level nuclear waste. Jantzen has received 11 patents and published about 300 papers. In 2014, QC awarded her an honorary doctorate.
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The Department of Accounting and Information Systems received a $10,000 scholarship for academic year 2018-19 from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, reports
Israel Blumenfrucht
, department chair. The department has until April 27 to nominate an undergraduate or graduate student for the award. . . Giving as well as receiving, Accounting manages QC’s participation in
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance
(VITA), an IRS-sponsored program that offers free tax preparation services to low and middle-income workers. So far this year, 48 returns have been completed through the college clinic. . . .
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Female computer science students
looked on with pride as their mentorees graduated from a Girls Who Code program sponsored by Long Island Women in Tech. . . .
Amy Hsin
is winning attention on the small screen. Last week, her discussion of the benefits of the DREAM Act was featured on No Jargon, the podcast of the Scholars Strategy Network.
Watch the clip
. . .
Roger Mckenzie
has been appointed manager of employee and labor relations for QC’s Office of Human Resources. Roger holds degrees from CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Long Island University, as well as Society for Human Resource Management certification from Pace University. He comes to QC after extensive experience at the New York City Human Resource Administration/Department of Social Services and the New York City Department of Finance. . . QC’s Model UN Delegation, coached by
Francois Pierre-Louis
(Political Science), won two awards—Honorable Mention and Best Position Paper for the General Assembly 3rd Committee—at the 2018 National Model United Nations New York Conference held earlier this month in New York. . .
Douglas Rushkoff
(Media Studies) had a busy night on March 22: Both NBC News and CNN International interviewed him in connection with reports that Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm associated with Donald Trump, secretly accessed individuals’ private data through Facebook. Douglas also published an editorial on why he quit Facebook;
read it here
. . .
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Crime isn’t supposed to pay, but writing about it has been good for true-crime specialist
Harold Schechter
(English).
Hell’s Princess,
Harold’s account of a farm matron who dispatched nearly 30 laborers in turn-of-the-20th-century Indiana, is an editors’ top pick/free Kindle book offer on Amazon Prime this month. . . . Congratulations are due
John Waldman
(Biology). In February, he received the Professional Achievement Award from the New York Chapter of the American Fisheries Society.
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The
Q View
is produced by the
Office of Communications and Marketing.
Comments and suggestions for future news items
and the 8Oth Anniversary Website
are welcome.
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