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

#33

A Week to Remember

QC concluded its 80th anniversary festivities and launched its 81st year with a flurry of events celebrating the school and the campus community. Here are a few highlights.

Students, faculty, and staff marked Spirit Day, Thursday, October 11, by wearing college-branded apparel and accessories. Participants are commended on their sense of style.

That night, QC held its annual Academic Excellence Award Ceremony in Colden Auditorium, acclaiming top undergraduates in front of their proud families. Provost Elizabeth Hendrey opened the evening and welcomed the keynote speaker, David I. Weiner ’76 (bottom left), managing director at the prominent investment firm Neuberger Berman. Tabassum Shahid, an honoree, posed for a photo op with her family (bottom right).

On Saturday, October 13, President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez and QC Foundation President Lee Fensterstock addressed members of the classes of 1943, 1948, 1958, and 1968 at a reception at the president’s residence in Douglaston.

Alums, current students, and their family and friends flocked to campus on Sunday, October 14. With reunion brunches, tours, talks, and the first-ever food truck festival—"A Taste of QC on the Quad”—the schedule catered to everyone. (Above) President Matos and (to his right) his wife, Lilliana Arabia, visited a table prepared by FNES to showcase organic foods. Attendees age 21 and over were able to savor a beer and wine tasting; a reception at the end of the day toasted alums from the classes 1978, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2008, and 2013.

Shark Alert

Matthew Higgins ’98 will make his “Shark Tank” debut this Sunday, October 21, at 9 pm as a guest Shark on the ABC-TV reality show. A graduate of Fordham University School of Law who became the youngest press secretary in the history of New York City, Higgins is now the CEO of RSE Ventures, a private investment firm he cofounded. The new Shark--seen here on the set with Lori Greiner--is also vice chairman for the Miami Dolphins. On this Sunday’s episode, three siblings from Long Island will test the waters by proposing a product in memory of their father, a New York City firefighter who dreamed of pitching on the series.

President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez greeted guests at the QC Art Center, on the sixth floor of Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, for the October 9 reception marking the opening of Acciones Que Levantan a Puerto Rico (Actions That Lift Puerto Rico) ACCIONES . The show, sponsored by the CHICAS by Alejandra Foundation (CHICAS Foundation)—a Puerto Rico-based nonprofit—features the 80 winning entries from an island-wide contest in which children submitted paintings expressing their responses to Hurricane Maria. ACCIONES will be on view through November 9, 2018.

QC was well represented at this year’s Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities conference, held in Atlanta on October 6-8. A delegation of students—seen here with President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez—attended the student track program; Matos participated in a panel of presidents at a pre-conference event, the Annual Latino Higher Education Leadership Institute.

In related news, last week, Excelencia in Education, an organization that seeks to advance the success of Latino students, launched its Seal of Excelencia, a voluntary system for certifying the performance of higher education institutions in this area . Matos marked his support of the new program by meeting with Excelencia in Education’s executives: Board chair William Serrata, president of El Paso Community College, and Sarita Brown, founder and CEO of the organization. Inside Higher Ed covered Seal of Excelencia

Faster Master’s Programs Now Available

After months of planning, QC has launched accelerated master’s tracks. These faster master’s programs permit qualified students to begin taking coursework for a master’s degree or graduate certificate in their senior year, at undergraduate tuition rates. Up to 12 credits of graduate coursework can count toward a student’s baccalaureate as well as the graduate program. Participating students will be able to complete their master’s degree in as little as one calendar year. “We believe this will allow Queens College students to move seamlessly between the two degrees and to finish in a timely and less costly way,” says Glenn Burger, acting dean of Graduate Studies.

Accelerated options http://accelerate.qc.cuny.edu/ exist in all four academic divisions. A total of 16 programs are now available. While many connect undergraduate majors such as Computer Science, English, History, Sociology, and Urban Studies with relevant master’s programs offered by the same department, others link graduate programs with a variety of participating undergraduate majors. (Secondary Education links with Art, English, Mathematics, Science, Social Sciences, and World Languages; Risk Management links with Accounting, Business Administration, Computer Science, Economics, and Mathematics).

Making a Major (or Minor) Decision

Undergraduates who are undecided on a major or minor, or are looking for additional academic opportunities, should make sure to attend the QC Major/Minor Fair on Wednesday, October 17, from noon to 2 pm in the Student Union, Fourth Floor.

Open to all students, including those who are exploring the possibility of adding a second major and/or a minor, the event will allow attendees to find out about unfamiliar majors and compare academic offerings.

“There is something for everyone at the fair,” says Laura Silverman, director of the Academic Advising Center. “While it is a very beneficial event for undecided students, those who are sure of their degree path can discover other academic opportunities, such as research, honors programs, study abroad, and internships to round out their undergraduate experiences.” 

 

To get the greatest benefit from the fair, students should create a list of interests, potential majors, and career opportunities in advance and think of questions to ask faculty and departmental representatives. At the event, students are encouraged to take available literature and other information and ask how to follow up.

To learn more about the Major/Minor Fair, please contact the Academic Advising Center at 718-997-5599.

Taking Care of Caretakers

The relatives of dementia and Alzheimer patients are under constant stress. At QC, caregivers will be able to work through their problems, learn about memory disorders, and develop coping strategies. That’s because clinicians at the QC Psychological Center are setting up a free on-campus support group for staff and faculty taking care of people with Alzheimer’s disease and conditions that cause similar symptoms.

“Two clinicians at the Psychological Center have experience working in clinical and research settings with patients with Alzheimer’s disease and noticed that loved ones were frequently experiencing burdens without having necessary support,” says Yvette Caro, the center’s director. “This inspired them to offer support and information to the family members of those afflicted by the disease.”

Depending on the availability of respondents, the group will begin meeting in about a month, weekly or biweekly, on Wednesdays from 12:15 to 1:15 pm. The clinicians are advanced trainees in the clinical psychology doctoral program under Caro’s supervision, with specialty consultation from Nancy Foldi (above), director of QC’s Neuropsychology Laboratory of Aging and Dementia.

For more information about this support group or to schedule an appointment, call 718-570-0500 or write [email protected] . “We’re excited to help support this underserved population of caregivers and hope to make a positive difference to the QC community,” says Caro.

Alum to Lead Talk on Artificial Intelligence  

 

From Blade Runner , to Terminator, to the Matrix , artificial intelligence has long captured our imagination. But AI is no longer just science fiction. It’s here today, and is affecting nearly every facet of human life. What does AI mean for jobs in the future, and what social implications will arise with its increased use?

On Monday, October 29, from noon to 1:30 pm, QC alum Keith Furst, managing director of the consulting firm Data Derivatives, will answer these questions and much more when he leads a talk on the topic in the Tech Incubator, CEP Hall 2.

During years of extensive consulting experience with financial institutions, Furst focused on the documentation, design, model development, implementation, calibration, and validation of financial crime systems. He is the co-author of the book AI Supremacy: Winning in the Era of Machine Learning . He holds a BA in philosophy from QC and an MBA from Baruch College.

“AI may evoke curiosity and hope on one hand, and fear and anxiety on the other,” said Ying Zhou, executive director of the Tech Incubator. “What we develop today will impact our future for many years to come. We want to lead the change and not be left behind. Many of our students will be entering the workforce in a few years and will become the strategists, designers, developers, implementers and policy makers. It is important that they have a global view with multiple perspectives when it comes to technology. This talk will help them think beyond their individual disciplines and think more broadly.”

To attend this talk, register for the FREE event here.

Joel Allen wrote the following obituary in response to the sudden loss of his esteemed fellow History professor, Satadru Sen.

It is with sadness and a profound sense of loss that the History Department at Queens College announces the passing of Prof. Satadru Sen on Monday, October 8. Satadru (PhD, University of Washington) joined the faculty in 2006 as an expert in South Asian history. He received tenure and promotion to associate professor in 2011 and promotion to full professor in 2015. Satadru’s scholarship was his passion; through it he sought to expose the inequities and hypocrisies wrought by colonial regimes in South Asia and in the Indian Ocean World. His research ranged from the institutionalization of discipline and punishment to the global celebrity of a cricketer-turned-politician and its implications for understanding the experiences of subjects in imperial contexts. 

Upon arrival at QC, Satadru revamped and revitalized the curriculum in South Asian history. Building on a new two-part introductory series of Hist 144: Ancient India and Hist 145: Modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh , he created exciting upper-level colloquia and MA courses, such as Sex, Society, and Indian Cinema ; Gandhi and Non-violence ; South Asian Nationalism ; and Hindus and Muslims in South Asia . He also taught at the Graduate Center, whose faculty he joined in 2011, and directed the Mellon-Mays program offering preparatory services for students of color interested in careers in academia.

During the college’s Year of India (2012-13), Satadru spearheaded a film festival featuring free monthly screenings at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum followed by commentary by experts and absolutely delicious catering. He also played a role in bringing Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen to campus to deliver the keynote address for that year’s programming.

Satadru’s five single-authored monographs include Disciplining Punishment: Colonialism and Convict Society in the Andaman Islands (Oxford University Press, 2000), Migrant Races: Empire, Identity, and K.S. Ranjitsinhji (Manchester University Press, 2005), Colonial Childhoods: The Juvenile Periphery of India, 1860-1945 (Anthem Press, 2005), Savagery and Colonialism in the Indian Ocean: Power, Pleasure and the Andaman Islanders (Routledge, 2010), and Restoring the Nation to the World: Benoy Kumar Sarkar and Modern India (Routledge, 2015). In addition to these are two collections of essays and one co-edited volume.

We will dearly miss Satadru’s dedication to promising students, his photographic eye at department events, his penchant for activism of an intellectual stripe, and perhaps most of all, his sense of humor, however mordant. Satadru is survived by his wife Amanda, his daughters Mira and Leila, scores of fellow historians, and thousands of readers.

Jorge Antonio Alves (Political Science) analyzed the recent Brazilian elections for the Monkey Cage , the political science blog at the Washington Post  . . . . Dhanya Bell (Information Technology Services) ran the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 7 and is entered in two events next month: the TCS New York City Marathon on November 4 and the Philadelphia Marathon two weeks later . . . . Stephen Farenga and Dan Salvatore of SEYS can be seen discussing spatial cognition and their book,  Spatial Intelligence: Why It Matters from Birth through the Lifespan, on an EdLab Seminar  . . . . Daniel Kaufman (Linguistics and Communication Disorders) and a team of linguists were filmed for the documentary  Ciao Babylon  as they searched New York City neighborhoods for speakers of endangered languages. After being shown at the American Museum of Natural History on Friday, October 19, at 9 pm as part of the Margaret Mead Film Festival, the move will get a free screening on Tuesday, October 23, at 12:15 pm at Rosenthal Library 230 . . . . Pitch Fest (Tech Incubator), a QC event in which entrepreneurs compete for seed money, got coverage on NY1  . . . . Pat Rachal (Political Science) reports that her team won a five-year, $2,728,125 grant for the New York Deaf-Blind Collaborative, housed at QC. This is the third round of federal funding for the program, which works to improve the quality of life for deaf-blind children and youth throughout New York State . . . Jeffrey Satenstein (Accounting and Information Systems) led students on a September 28 visit to mid-size CPA firm Baker Tilly, with the help of the World of Work program and its student coordinator, Aashmattie Harilal .