Discimus ut serviamus:
We learn so that we may serve.
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Since assuming office on July 1, President Frank H. Wu (upper left corner) has been virtually all over campus. He spoke to history, political science, and urban studies classes, led respectively by Erin Wuebker, Carl Bonomo, and James Vacca, and held three interactive introductory sessions with students, faculty, and the broader QC community (another Meet President Frank H. Wu is scheduled for Wednesday, August 12, at 6 pm; mailer forthcoming). Meanwhile, the president has been expanding his local media presence. On July 7, CUNY TV debuted his
“One to One” conversation with Sheryl McCarthy
, Distinguished Lecturer of Journalism at Queens College. Six days later, the
Queens Eagle
published his
opinion piece
supporting QC’s international students and City & State named him one of the
Queens Power 50
; City and State subsequently listed him among the
Asian Power 100
. In addition, Wu talked with Queens alumnus U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat and
filed a comment
with the U.S. Department of Education, objecting to its interim final rule that DACA recipients are ineligible for grants under the CARES Act.
Recognizing the English Language Institute’s longstanding position in the community,
in mid-July,
Wu charged the Ad Hoc Working Group on Certificate Programs with assessing means to bring back “a more robust English Language Institute.” The president noted, “As a non tax levy aspect of the institution, ELI is required to be self-supporting. The goal is to design a program—perhaps oriented toward English for business use or in partnership with a union or other source of significant numbers of students—that would be feasible to operate. The working group may reach out to others for concrete proposals and consider best practices at other higher education institutions.” ELI enrollments in recent years had declined due in part to federal immigration restrictions and the availability of other low-cost and virtually free community-based programs.
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Staying Primarily Online for the Coming Semester
This fall, complying with CUNY-wide policies, QC will stick to a distance model for most academic courses, programs, and support services. Access to the campus remains restricted. The college is reviewing courses for which departments have requested permission for an in-person component, as well as alternatives for students who may be unable to participate due to health concerns or limited Internet access.
Researchers who meet guidelines are allowed to access their campus labs voluntarily, while continuing to work remotely to the greatest extent possible.
In conjunction with the East Coast Conference, QC has postponed all intercollegiate athletic competition for the Fall 2020 semester due to concerns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. This decision currently applies only to fall semester sports. A decision on the remaining competition calendar, and on whether fall sport competition would be feasible in the spring, will be determined at a later date. Regardless of whether competition takes place this academic year, the college will honor all athletic scholarships for student-athletes in the 2020–2021 school year. Student-athletes will not lose a year of NCAA eligibility if no season is held.
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After borrowing one of Satchmo’s trumpets from the Louis Armstrong House Museum, Paul McCartney joined the Preservation Hall Jazz Band remotely in a rendition of “When the Saints Go Marching In.” The New Orleans standard was the closing number in a June 22 fundraiser for the Preservation Hall Foundation’s Legacy Relief Fund, created to help musicians who are underemployed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
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On Sunday, July 26, CUNY Chancellor
Félix V. Matos Rodríguez
marked the 30th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which guaranteed civil rights protections to all members of the disabilities community. “We remain committed to marshaling the strength of the ADA and doing all in our power to ensure that no opportunity is denied any member of the CUNY community on the basis of a disability,” noted the chancellor in the
statement he issued on behalf of the university
.
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Apparently, many students are opting for academic staycations this year: Class registrations for QC’s entirely online summer session reached 14,728, the highest figure in a decade and a better than 30 percent increase over 2019. The college offered a total of 640 courses in four sessions from June 1 to August 6, allowing students to make progress toward their degrees from the safety and convenience of home. The summer package includes virtual library privileges and live technical support.
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To show prospective students around campus—and perhaps allow nostalgic alumni a socially distant visit to their alma mater—the Office of Communications and Marketing has created a
video tour of Queens College
. Using a map to anchor viewers, the video starts at Jefferson Hall—as the in-person itinerary does—and covers the grounds in about seven minutes, ideal for an audience of electronic multitaskers. Thanks to VP
for Enrollment and Student Retention Richard Alvarez
and VP for Student Affairs Adam Rockman for their helpful input. The campus tour video has been imbedded in the new digital publication of “
Queens College at a Glance
.”
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Speaking of campus, QC’s new four-seat golf cart allows Public Safety to traverse grounds quickly and access areas where a marked patrol vehicle cannot travel. Upon request, the cart may also be used to transport important guests around the 80-acre property. After years of service, the college’s previous—and first—four-seater became inoperable, but elements of it were salvaged.
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Saluting Students Online
With all Queens College commencement ceremonies postponed this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, several of QC’s departments honored their 2020 graduates in the best way possible by holding virtual events.
The Percy Ellis Sutton
Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) Department hosted
a
Facebook Live Celebration
on June 4 for all 194 graduates of the program. SEEK Director Norka Blackman-Richards, VP for Enrollment and Student Retention Richard Alvarez, and Associate Provost for Innovation and Student Success Eva Fernandez gave opening remarks. Each graduate was also acknowledged and had a chance to express their gratitude for their time at Queens College.
The
English Department
set up a beautifully designed
wix.com
website, which included messages from members of the English faculty as well as a video student commencement address from Emily Shih. Also included was a complete list of graduates and award winners. There were more than 400 visitors to the site on the day it was released.
The
History Department
combined many of the aforementioned features with
its virtual graduation
.
Faculty wrote or posted video messages of congratulations and invited students who graduated with various prizes and honors
to do the same
.
The
Aaron Copland School of Music
also held an
elaborate virtual ceremony
for its graduates and award winners on May 28, which included musical performances from many of its students.
QView encourages other departments to notify us about virtual celebrations for the Class of 2020.
In other end of academic year news, students Reaa Ali, Andrea Buzon, Cayla Kempf, and Siddharth Malvia received Student Affairs awards. To learn more about these honorees, see the
Knight News
.
Because local high schools could not hold their customary graduations on campus, the Kupferberg Center stepped in, showcasing outstanding students through the
Valedictorian Project
.
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ACSM Offers Free Summer Shares
This summer, Aaron Copland School of Music launched QClass, a free educational series presented online by top industry performing artists among the faculty. Open to students, faculty, staff, and the general public, the classes develop young artists’ practical skills, encourage conversation across the diverse creative community, and promote public awareness of the importance of the arts.
David Berkman started the series on June 29 with Introduction to Improvisation. Three days later, ACSM Director Michael Lipsey interviewed Jazz Studies Director Antonio Hart in Race, Music, and Hope. On July 8, Frank Morelli offered Seeking Inspiration, Consolation and Motivation through Music. Would-be do-it-yourselfers learned about Home Recording for the 21st Century Musician and Why It Matters from Peter Calandra on July 23. This Thursday, July 30, Andy Blanco will talk about his experiences on and off the Great White Way in Broadway and Beyond. To make reservations,
click here.
The series continues next month, with How to Be Your Own Best Advocate--Being an Artist Leader, featuring violist Brett Douglas Deubner, on Thursday, August 6, at 5 pm,
RSVP here and a conversation between Lipsey and Director of Orchestral Studies Mark Powell on Resilience, Rehearsal and Staying in the Zone on the following Thursday, August 13, at 5 pm,
RSVP here.
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Promoting a Good Sport
Rob Twible '97, interim director of Athletics since February 2018, has been appointed director of Athletics. He brings over 20 years of collegiate administrative experience to the position, in which he is responsible for the overall development and general management of the college's intercollegiate athletic programs and its NCAA Division II membership.
"I am incredibly honored to continue leading and could not have been in this position without the support of the university's leadership, our dedicated coaches, and staff," said Twible. "There are challenges ahead and much uncertainty in this pandemic, but I believe that anything is possible if we all work together. I look forward to working closely with our student-athletes, coaches, staff, and college constituents to position our student-athletes for success in the classroom, community, and within their sport."
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Building a Career That’s Up to Code
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Want to pursue a career in technology? Pursuit, a nonprofit organization, offers a four-year fellowship
pursuit.org/fellowship
that prepares people to enter the field, and three years of career support for those who complete the program. Applicants require no prior coding experience.
Students and recent graduates, regardless of major, can learn more about this fellowship on Wednesday, August 5, from 12 noon to 12:30 pm, at an information session held by the Center for Career Engagement and Internships and Pursuit.
RSVP for the session on Hire QC:
www.qc.cuny.edu/HireQC
(
Student login > Events > Workshops > RSVP & Add to Calendar
). The meeting link will be provided closer to the date of the event to those who register.
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Looking for Class Acts
Public-spirited individuals are sought to fill a total of six vacancies on Community Education Councils (CECs) in Queens before the beginning of the school year. Council responsibilities include holding monthly public meetings with the superintendent to discuss the state of the district’s elementary and middle schools, reviewing the district’s educational programs, and approving zoning lines as submitted by the superintendent.
Openings are available at CEC 25, serving Flushing, Whitestone, Beechhurst, Kew Gardens Hills, Bay Terrace and College Point; CEC 28, serving Rego Park, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Briarwood, Richmond Hill and Jamaica; CEC 29, serving Jamaica, Jamaica Estates, St. Albans, Queens Village, Cambria Heights, Laurelton, Springfield Gardens, Hollis and Rosedale; and CEC 30, serving Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst, Sunnyside, Woodside, Astoria and Long Island City.
Positions are unpaid; candidates must live in or own a business in the district where they seek to serve. Applications must be filed by email on Friday, August 7. Appointees will fill the remainder of two-year terms that started on July 1, 2019, and will conclude on June 30, 2021.
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Summarizing the QC Mission in a Few Words
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You cannot appreciate how Queens College arrived at its motto, Discimus ut serviamus (We learn so that we may serve), without considering the extraordinary period in which the college came into being.
1937 was an eventful year in the eventful decades between the ends of the First and Second World Wars. In January, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began his second term in office. Among the achievements of his first term were historic measures to fend off the devastating effects of the Great Depression--measures for which the idea of service to the needs of the nation was integral.
Anyone who has visited our national parks, traveled our highways, crossed any number of bridges (including the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge), or turned on a light fed by hydroelectric power has experienced some of the legacy of one of Roosevelt’s most significant accomplishments, creation of the Works Progress Administration. Established in 1935, the WPA recruited millions of unemployed Americans and saw to it that they learned the skills necessary to acquire jobs working in a vast array of public works projects throughout the country. The WPA also sponsored art, music, theater, and writing programs.
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Founding QC President Paul Klapper created the college's motto; the building bearing his name originally housed the campus library.
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By 1937, the idea of learning in order to provide service for the common good was very much the zeitgeist and very much on the mind of the man who became Queens College’s first president, Paul Klapper. To commemorate its 50th anniversary in 1987, Queens College published a book chronicling its first half-century,
The People’s College on the Hill
. Under the title, Paul Klapper’s Dream, its preface succinctly addresses how the college has kept faith with its mission as expressed in the motto that Dr. Klapper created to inspire its first class of students and generations more to follow:
Queens College has always been immensely responsive to the history of America–social, political, economic; local, metropolitan, national. This responsiveness is not at all surprising. Unlike many other colleges Queens grew out of the immediate needs of the community. The ever-growing borough, peopled with immigrants, needed a college. The people who lived here could not afford to send their children away to school, but it was their dream that their children be educated. To Dr. Paul Klapper, the College’s first president, “reality was just a dream realized.” His dream of a community of scholars serving others (“We learn in order that we may serve” was his choice for a motto), became Queens College.
Because the students went out into the larger community each day, as residents, family members, and jobholders, they were always part of the real world, and responded to it immediately and fully. Proud of the quality of their education, they were eager to translate it into service, and to live the lives it enabled them to appreciate. . .
Remarkably, this description of Queens College from its founding through its first 50 years continues to ring true some 33 years later. And its motto, created by a man who was himself an immigrant to these shores, remains just as resonant for a student body today that is more diverse than Paul Klapper could have ever imagined.
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Greeting New Students
On August 24 at 10 am, Queens College will for the first time hold Ubuntu: I Am Because We Are, a welcome resource fair and networking opportunity. Designed as an introductory program for Black students, Ubuntu is open to all new students.
The event will include remarks by President Frank H. Wu and student leaders, exciting entertainment and more.
The annual New Student Welcome Day will take place the next day. Festivities will start at 9 am with greetings from President Wu. Provost Elizabeth Hendrey, Vice President for Student Affairs Adam Rockman, and Student Association President Zaïre Couloute will also speak. Brief presentations by student clubs and organizations and QC offices will follow. The program will feature student leaders in a live panel discussion; during the session, incoming students and their parents will have the opportunity to submit questions.
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Student Senate Elections
Results of a certain hyper-local race were confirmed over the summer. Siddharth Malviya, a senior, will chair the Student Senate for 2020-2021. Serving on the executive committee are seniors Andrea Buzon and Alihaider Hassan and juniors Marie James and Rida Zaidi.
The Student Senate—the legislative branch of the Student Association—is composed of student delegates in the Academic Senate. As a governance body, the Student Senate solicits the opinions and concerns of the student body and supports its general welfare.
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Capitalizing on Social Media
At a campus as large as QC, no single office can track all faculty activity. Therefore, the Office of Communications and Marketing is inviting faculty members to share their professional social media handles by emailing them to
Comms@qc.cuny.edu
, for possible sharing or use in other campus media.
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Marianne Cooper
Associate Professor Emerita Marianne Cooper, a QC faculty member for nearly four decades, died of COVID just after her 82nd birthday.
Born in Budapest in 1938, Cooper—nee Abonyi—grew up in a turbulent time and place, surviving both World War II and the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Helped by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, she and her mother made their way to Syracuse, New York; they became U.S. citizens and Marianne earned a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University. Continuing her education at Columbia University, she completed a doctorate in Library Science and began her 36-year-career at Queens College.
Cooper taught in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, serving as chair for the department as it adopted new technology. Then she became the college’s affirmative action officer. A working mother and civic leader described by loved ones as a suburban superwoman, she retired in 2011, giving her more time to spend with her husband, children, and grandchildren.
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Wilma Winnick
One of CUNY’s longest-serving professors, Wilma Winnick passed away on May 12, 2020, at the age of 96.
Winnick began working as an adjunct in Queens College’s Psychology Department in 1946 while pursuing doctoral studies at Brown University; five years later, she joined QC’s professorial faculty. Focusing on human learning, she wrote one of the seminal papers to empirically establish what would become “implicit memory” or “procedural memory.”
Colleagues recall that Winnick served at least three terms as deputy chair as well as two three-year terms as chair. She was in her eighties when she retired. The room PSY 213W (SB A337) is named after her. The Psychology Department also established the Wilma A. Winnick Award in her honor; the prize is given to a graduating senior
who has made substantive contributions to the department.
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President Frank H. Wu
will join LaGuardia Community College President
Kenneth Adams
, York College President
Berenecea Johnson Eanes
, and Queensborough Community College President
Christine Mangino
on Thursday, July 30, at 6 pm, in Meet the Presidents, a Schneps Media webinar featuring the new leaders of CUNY institutions in Queens. To register
click here
,. . . .
Khaleel Anderson
’19 won the Democratic primary for the vacant New York State Assembly seat representing District 31 in southeast Queens. His victory in the predominately Democratic district puts him in a good position for the November 3 elections . . . .
John Andrejack
(Student Advocacy and Appeals) published an article in
Brain and Life Magazine
about the positive side of his experiences during the coronavirus pandemic as a person with Parkinson’s Disease. He also contributed the patient perspective to an article in Lancet Neurology . . . . Queens College alumnus
Danny Burstein
won the
Drama League’s Distinguished Performance Award
, the oldest and most exclusive theatrical honor in North America . . . .
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Zaire Couloute
, president of QC’s Student Association, was quoted in a
Queens Eagle article
about a July 19 rally in Roy Wilkins Park against gun violence . . . . Late saxophonist, arranger, and composer
Jimmy Heath
, one of the founders of ACSM’s jazz program, was given a virtual salute by Flushing Town Hall on June 19 with
I’m Back Swinging Again
. Featuring performances by people who had known and or played with Heath, including
Antonio Hart
(ACSM), the livestreamed event supported the Jimmy Heath Fund at Queens College . . . .
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Seogjoo Jang
(Chemistry and Biochemisty) got a three-year, $483,685 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for a project studying molecular excitons--transient quantum mechanical objects that play key roles in capturing and processing solar energy . . . .
Queens Memory
, a community archiving program supported by the Queens Public Library and the Queens College Library, streamed the first segment of a two-part documentary, “The COVID-19 Project: Navigating a Pandemic,” on Facebook live and QPTV on Sunday, July 26. Part two will air on Tuesday, August 25, at 10 am on Spectrum Channel 1997, RCN Channel 85, and Verizon Channel 37, and on the same date at 7 pm on Spectrum Channels 34/1995, RCN Channel 82, and Verizon Channel 34 . . . .
Nuria Rodriguez-Planas
(Economics) received international media attention for "The Perfect Storm: Effects of Graduating in a Recession in a Segmented Labor Market," a paper she co-wrote with Daniel Fernández-Kranz from IE Business School and published in March 2018 in
Industrial and Labor Relations Review
. In May, Spanish newspaper
El Pais covered her research
. On June 19,
Rodriguez-Planas
appeared on Spanish TV in the program “
La Sexta Columna
,” discussing how her research can provide insight into the current recession’s impact on millennials. . . . .
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Gregory Sholette
(Art) delivered the keynote for the Arts in Society Conference, Galway, Ireland, on June 24; he can be seen
in conversation with curator Megs Morley
. . . .
James Vacca
(Urban Studies) is cited in
We Humans and the Intelligent Machines
for trailblazing work he did on the City Council to promote
algorithm transparency
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The
Q View
is produced by the
Office of Communications and Marketing.
Comments and suggestions for future news items
are welcome.
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