Discimus ut serviamus: We learn so that we may serve.

QView #214 | October 28

From left: Peter Paolo, Ricky Malone, Borough of Queens Director of Education Katherine Zapata, QCC Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Phyllis Curtis-Tweed, CSI Interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Nathalia Holtman, QC President Frank H. Wu, LCC President Kenneth Adams, QC Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Patricia Price, University Associate Dean for Transfer and Articulation Samar El Hitti

Transfer Hub highlights video

Transfer hub full video

Many students transfer to Queens College to continue an education they started at another institution. Now these students have a Transfer Hub dedicated to their needs. Executives from LaGuardia Community College (LCC) and Queensborough Community College (QCC)—including President Kenneth Adams and Provost Phyliss Curtis-Tweed—joined President Frank H. Wu and Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Patricia Price at the ribbon cutting at Frese Hall 012 on Tuesday, October 21. Among the others in attendance: Ricky Malone ’19, chief of staff for New York State Assemblymember Sam Berger; Peter Paolo, community liaison for New York City Councilmember James Gennaro; Katherine Zapata, director of education for the Office of Queens Borough President Donovan Richards; Samar El Hitti, University Associate Dean for Transfer and Articulation; Nathalia Holtzman, College of Staten Island interim provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, formerly QC’s associate provost for Innovation and Student Success; Marianne Nargentino, from Career and Transfer Counseling Services at Nassau Community College; and Ivan Scott Lee, senior director for Transfer Success and Partnerships at QC, who worked to establish the hub. The proceedings are captured in this video.

LCC President Kenneth Adams

The Global Student Success Program (GSSP) celebrated its fifth anniversary on Tuesday, October 21; at the gathering, President Frank H. Wu offered congratulations. Since the first cohort arrived here in January 2020, 735 GSSP students have come to Queens College. They hail from 38 countries and add their perspectives and cultures to a campus famed for its diversity.

From left: Josie Ramnanan, president of the Queens College Committee for Disabled Students; Viscardi Center President and CEO Christopher Rosa, a QC alumnus; Jenna Bainbridge; Mason McDowell, Bainbridge’s accompanist and co-composer of 504: The Musical. Bainbridge and McDowell performed a duet from the show, which is inspired by the 1977 sit-in for disability rights.

Actor, singer, and disability rights advocate Jenna Bainbridge—Wicked’s current Nessarose—performed in Colden Auditorium on October 22 in an event highlighting National Disability Employment Awareness Month. On behalf of Governor Kathy Hochul, New York State’s Chief Disability Officer Kim Hill Ridley—the first person appointed to that position—presented a citation to Bainbridge. Representatives of state and city agencies, as well as CUNY, were in attendance.

Laura A. Ward, justice of the Supreme Court of New York County, discussed the successful prosecution of mobster John Gotti during her on-campus presentation on October 22. Ward has been a member of the judiciary since 1997. Earlier in her career, as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York, she was on the team that secured the conviction of Gotti, whose three previous acquittals earned him the nickname “the Teflon Don.” Attendees included students interested in pursuing legal studies and careers.

From left: Queens College Foundation Chair Chaim Wachsberger ’73, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Sean Pierce, Arts and Humanities Dean Simone Yearwood, CUNY Trustee Henry Berger, Justice Laura A. Ward, President Frank H. Wu, QC Counsel Priscilla Deleon, Political Science Professor Keena Lipsitz, CERRU Director Iyabo Oyewo-Hall, Social Sciences Dean Kate Pechenkina

Through extended fieldwork in Tanzania, primatologist and ethologist Jane Goodall—who passed away earlier this month—changed our understanding of chimpanzees, proving that, like humans, they use tools and share that knowledge. Goodall also set up an effective international nonprofit that partners with local communities to preserve the environments where chimpanzees live. On Wednesday, October 22, David Lahti (Biology) presented a commemorative lecture, What Is It Like To Be A Chimp? The Life and Work of Jane Goodall, to celebrate her life and legacy.

CUNY Distinguished Professor Kimiko Hahn (above, left) gave a free public reading on October 22 in LeFrak Hall for her first official campus appearance as New York State Poet Laureate—a title announced earlier this year. The hybrid program, livestreamed over Zoom, was followed by a Q&A facilitated by poet Sonia Arora MFA ’24 (above, right), a reception, and a book signing. Writers at Queens organized the event as part of the English Department’s Queens College Reading Series. Co-sponsors included Asian American Community Studies; the Kupferberg Center for the Arts; QCAP, the Queens College AANAPISI Project; and the Queens College School of Arts. The reading received coverage in QNS.

From left: Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York; New York State Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar

Representatives of New York’s Hindu and Jewish communities gathered on Sunday, October 26, at the QC Dining Hall to mark the recently completed holidays of Diwali and Sukkah. The event—Lights of Unity—was organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and the Hindu Temple of North America and focused on the shared celebratory nature of the respective holidays through music, dancing, exhibits, and talks by elected officials and religious leaders.

Women’s Tennis Completes Perfect Fall Season; Men’s Soccer Clinches Playoff Bye

The Queens College men’s soccer team clinched a bye in the upcoming East Coast Conference (ECC) playoffs, while the QC women’s tennis team capped off an undefeated fall season with three straight victories.

The men’s soccer team battled to a 1-1 draw against ECC rival Molloy University last Wednesday. With 17 points in the conference standings, the Knights have secured a first-round bye in the upcoming ECC playoffs. They can also clinch the top seed with a win in their final ECC match this week.

The women’s tennis team won three matches in three consecutive days last week, knocking off University of the District of Columbia, D’Youville University, and Daemen University in convincing fashion. The Knights improve to 5-0 overall and 4-0 ECC play. The season will now take a break until the spring.

The women’s soccer team also earned a crucial tie against Molloy last week, picking up a valuable point in the ECC standings. The Knights currently sit in fifth place with one conference game remaining. The top six teams qualify for the ECC playoffs.

The cross country teams wrapped up the 2025 season at the ECC Championships last Saturday. The men’s team finished sixth overall, while the women placed eighth.

Coming up this week, men’s soccer will host Felician University on Wednesday at 7 pm and Roberts Wesleyan on Saturday at 2 pm. Women’s soccer will also take on Roberts Wesleyan on Saturday at 4:30 pm. Meanwhile, women’s volleyball will take on Adelphi University at home on Wednesday at 7 pm, followed by home matches against D’Youville on Saturday at 11 am and Daemen on Sunday at noon.

For the latest Knights news, scores, statistics, and more, visit queensknights.com

Little Words Matter a Lot

Above: QC Student Life Events Manager and LGBTQIAA+ Programs Coordinator JC Carlson wears their university identity as associate director of the CUNY LGBTQIA+ Consortium.

International Pronouns Day takes place on the third Wednesday of October. Appropriately, LGBTQIAA+ Programs at QC offered something for everyone on October 22. Students made bracelets and buttons with their pronouns and other messages of self-expression. Drag artists performed while students enjoyed a resource fair and voter registration drive. There were games and prizes, too.

Visits to Quinceañera: Dress and Memory in Latine Culture, currently on display at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum, were part of the festivities. Student leaders conducted special tours of the exhibit, highlighting and celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community’s connections to coming-of-age traditions.

Pronoun Party was made possible through the generous support of the CUNY LGBTQIA+ Consortium and the New York City Council. Co-sponsors included the Gender, Love and Sexuality Alliance; the Alliance of Latin American Students; the Hispanic Club; Delta Phi Epsilon Sorority; and the CUNY Office of Student Inclusion Initiatives.

Math Lecture Series Goes Fourth

Since 2022, the Queens College Mathematical Discoveries Series has brought accomplished mathematicians to campus to discuss their work. This year’s speaker is Lauren K. Williams, a researcher from Harvard University and the Radcliffe Institute and one of this year’s recipients of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, aka “the genius grant.” Williams will present her talk—Triangulations and Physics—on Wednesday, October 29, from 12:15 to 1:30 pm, in Kiely 170. All students are encouraged to attend; the lecture will be accessible even to those who haven’t taken any math classes. Pizza will be served, presumably in triangles.

Preparing for Day of the Dead

For Day of the Dead (November 1-2), families create ofrendas—personalized altars honoring deceased loved ones. QC will participate in this tradition on Wednesday, October 29, 12:15 to 1:30 pm, when students will work together in Rosenthal Library’s Barham Rotunda to make five ofrendas. The program will continue in the Rosenthal Library café, where people will be able to enjoy Mexican snacks and decorate Day of the Dead masks. This event was organized by Sara Hinojos (Media Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies) and Eric Silberberg (Rosenthal Library) and co-sponsored by the School of Arts, Latin American and Latino Studies, Media Studies, and Rosenthal Library.

Winter Is Coming

Registration is open for Queens College’s Winter Session. Running January 2 to 23, Winter Session offers undergraduate and graduate courses from a variety of disciplines. Current students can earn credits in courses that often fill up quickly in the fall and spring semesters; new students can get a taste of what college life is all about. Online and hybrid classes are available. For more information, click here. ​

Queens Botanical Garden To Hold Smashing Event

A week after Halloween, even the strongest jack-o-lantern will yield to the elements. You will be able to give it an exciting sendoff at Queens Botanical Garden’s Pumpkin Smash on Sunday, November 9, 10:30 am-2 pm at the QBC Compost Yard (42-80 Crommelin Avenue, Flushing 11355). The event, co-sponsored by New York State Senator John Liu and New York City Councilmember Sandra Ung, will feature pumpkin chucking, refreshments, composting education, activities, giveaways, and more!

Toby Talbot '49

Toby Talbot, a film aficionada who with her husband ran art-house cinemas on the Upper Westside for nearly 60 years, died on September 15. She was 96.

The Bronx-born daughter of Jewish Polish immigrants, Talbot met her husband, Dan, as she was going to a movie theater. He was a book editor; she was an editor and translator. They had been planning to open a bookstore when on impulse they leased their first venue, the Yorktown—which they renamed the New Yorker—from her sister’s accountant. The deal required them to turn a profit their first year.

The New Yorker was a family affair. Dan oversaw operations, Toby approved the decidedly high-brow lineup, and, as the New York Times reported, “her mother ran the candy concessions, lox and carrot cake included. Her father stood: sentry in the lobby, which became a salon for film buffs.” The Talbots went on to establish other locations, some running concurrently, and open a distribution company, New Yorker Films, that from 1965 to 2009 handled more than 1000 movies.

A Spanish major at QC, Talbot taught the subject at East Rockaway High School on Long Island, led classes on Spanish literature at Columbia University and New York University, served as education editor of the Spanish-language newspaper El Diario Nueva York, and translated Argentine journalist Jacobo Timerman’s Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number—an account of his arrest and torture by the junta—into English. Under her own byline, she wrote multiple books.

Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, the Talbot’s last theater, closed in January 2018 when the couple couldn’t renew their lease. Dan Talbot died the following week.

Talbot is survived by her three daughters, four grandchildren, and her sister,

Cameron Carrella, who is working toward an MSEd at Aaron Copland School of Music and teaches at Kramer Lane Elementary School in Bethpage, was named the winner of the North Shore Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural Long Island Music Educator’s Performance Prize. The award recognizes the impact of outstanding Long Island music educators in both the classroom and the concert hall. Carrella performed Jean Baptiste Arban’s Fantaisie and Variations on The Carnival of Venice with the North Shore Symphony on October 25 at Adelphi University Performing Arts Center . . . .

Soroudi with Sara Kahan in Rosenthal Library

Mehran Soroudi, an alumnus, spoke to NY1’s Roger Clark about his QC memories. He is funding the Freda and Mehran Soroudi Commons at Rosenthal Library to honor his late wife, whom he met on campus. He contacted Sara Kahan of the Office of Institutional Advancement to discuss making a substantial gift after seeing last year’s NY1 story about scholarships supported by alumni of QC’s Phi Epsilon Pi fraternity chapter, through an endowment organized by Robert Jacobs ’70. . . . Edward Smaldone (ACSM) announced three free performances of his composition While the Sand Still Runs by the Herbert Trio. The first concert, including music by arts building namesake Karol Rathaus and current ACSM faculty Jeff Nichols and Bruce Saylor, will take place on Friday, November 7, at 7:30 pm at Elebash Hall. Sand will subsequently be performed on Sunday, November 9, at 2 pm at the Manhasset Library and Monday, November 10 at 12:15 pm in LeFrak Concert Hall and over livestream . . . . Professionals Off Campus is organizing a November 13 trip to The Bloc, a global health-communications agency co-founded by Rico Viray ’79. Juniors and seniors majoring in media studies, communications, marketing, business, design, psychology, or the sciences will have the opportunity to meet Bloc executives and learn about their work. Resume submissions are recommended. RSVP required.