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

QView #208 | September 8

New faculty, newly promoted faculty and new department chairs mingled at a September 4 reception at the president’s residence in Douglaston.

From left: Vivek Upadhyay, assistant vice president of Enrollment Management; Anthony Tamburri, dean and distinguished professor, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute; Chelsea Lavington, director of Undergraduate Admissions

Queens College and CUNY Distinguished Professor, and NYS Poet Laureate Kimiko Hahn read three of her poems.

Family, friends, and colleagues celebrated the late Andrew Beveridge, who transformed the field of demographics, at a memorial service on Friday, September 5, at the CUNY Graduate Center. QC sociology faculty Anna Bounds and Ryan Sperry emceed the event. Speakers included Beveridge’s widow Fredrica and daughter Sydney, members of the sociology department, President Frank H. Wu, and Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. An endowed fund has been set up in Beveridge’s honor to support future faculty-student research collaborations. To contribute to the fund, click here.

The 17th season of Live at the Gantries rocked Long Island City with free concerts by Migguel Anggelo’s Icons: Celia Cruz, The Slide Stops, Alphonso Horne & The Gotham Kings, Rebolu, Malika Zarra, and Mireya Ramos. Turn up your speakers to enjoy this recap. The Kupferberg Center for the Arts is grateful to the performers and the series’ supporters: New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; the Mathis-Pfohl Foundation; Resorts World NYC; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; The Howard Gilman Foundation; and The Max and Selma Kupferberg Family Foundation.

Enrollment initiatives, the QC episode of the Amazon Prime series “The College Tour,” and the transfer program, capital construction projects and food services were among the discussion topics when Knight News editors, reporters, and interns met with senior members of the QC administration on Monday, September 8, at free hour. President Frank H. Wu, Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Jennifer Jarvis, Assistant Vice President of Enrollment Management Vivek Upadhyay, Vice President for Communications and Marketing, Senior Advisor to the President Jay Hershenson, Chief Information Officer Troy Hahn and Budget Office representative Nalini Pitrelli fielded questions from student journalists.

Fall Sports Kick Off the 2025 Season with Strong Efforts

The 2025 Queens College fall sports season got underway last week, with men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball each getting off to solid starts.

The men’s soccer team opened the season in style, scoring six goals in a dominant 6-0 win over Holy Family University on September 4. Senior Harry Cooke netted three goals in the lopsided victory. On September 6, the Knights played to a 1-1 draw against Saint Anselm College.

Women’s soccer lost a tough 1-0 decision to Bloomsburg University in its season opener on September 4 but rebounded to earn a 2-2 draw against Dominican University of New York on Sunday. Mia Goicochea and Ana Impellizzeri each scored their first career goals.

Women’s volleyball played four matches last week, winning two. Both victories came in five sets: they triumphed over Assumption University on Friday and defeated Wilmington University in a thrilling match on Saturday. Lindsay Osterhoudt led the Knights with 11 kills versus Assumption and 18 kills with four aces against Wilmington.

It will be another busy week ahead for these three teams with each competing in multiple contests. Cross country will also open its 2025 season this Saturday, September 13 at the Golden Eagles Invitational. 

The complete athletics schedule can be viewed here..

Remembering 9/11

Forty members of the QC community—alumni and relatives of faculty, staff, and alumni—perished on September 11. Their names are recorded on the college’s 9/11 Memorial Page, so we can pause to remember them on the 24th anniversary of the worst attack in U.S. history.

State of the Middle States Reaccreditation Process

In conjunction with the release of QC’s Self-Study Report Draft - Accreditation, the college will hold a town hall on September 17, from 12:15 to 1:30 pm, in the Dave Fields Lecture Hall, Kiely 170. Here’s a chance to hear about the report’s key findings and have questions answered. To attend, reserve a place at Middle States Accreditation Town Hall by September 12. Questions for the Middle States Town Hall may be submitted until September 14. 

Putting the Flu to Flight

Members of the Queens College community are urged to protect themselves and their families from influenza through vaccination.

WorkWell NYC will offer free flu shots to employees on Monday, September 29, from 11 am to 2:30 pm, in Kiely Hall 165 (the HR Conference Room). The site is wheelchair accessible.

You can make an appointment online here or by calling 866-481-4391 between 8 am and 6 pm. 

Free flu shots are also available at participating pharmacies and in-network medical offices. For more information, contact your health insurance provider, visit the NYC Health Map, or click here,

Artfully Repurposing Plastic on Staten Island

Despite efforts to ban plastic bags, straws, and utensils, the United States is engulfed in single-use plastics. That’s the backdrop for WASTELANDIA, an immersive theatrical dance experience created and directed by Edisa Weeks (DTD). Premiering at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art on Staten Island September 19-21 and 26-28, WASTELANDIA will engage attendees through creative reuse workshops; a mural, featuring activists on Staten Island, that the audience can color in with chalk; an interactive trash tunnel; lots of dancing; and a game show with audience contestants.

“The work is about our potential future, our obsession with fossil fuels and single-use plastic, and what we can do as stewards of life on earth,” says Weeks, who choreographed the piece in collaboration with its performers.

Admission is limited; for scheduling and ticket information click here.

WASTELANDIA is the first part of DELIRIOUS Dances/Edisa Weeks’ 3 RITES Trilogy, which investigates why Life, Liberty and Happiness were included as inalienable rights in the United States Declaration of Independence.

The Gift that Keeps on Giving: Queens College Graduates Forge Bond through Lifesaving Kidney Donation

When middle school teacher Thomas Coveney (left) MSEd ’05 was in desperate need of a kidney transplant, he received a life-saving donation from a co-worker and fellow Queens College graduate, Maggie Goodman (center) MSEd ’17.

For more than ten years, Thomas battled a kidney disease called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSG), which is characterized by scarring of the glomeruli, the filtering units of the kidneys. After medication and treatment were no longer effective, he needed a kidney transplant or faced going on dialysis for the foreseeable future.

He found an angel in the form of his co-worker.

Maggie, a sixth-grade math teacher, and Thomas, an eighth-grade social studies teacher, are colleagues at I.S. 73 in Maspeth. But since they worked in different departments at a big school, they didn’t know each other very well. Their relationship primarily consisted of cordial greetings in passing and being friends on Facebook. Yet a fateful social media post changed their lives, and their relationship, forever.

Maggie Goodman and Thomas Coveney

A Plea for Help

In November 2024, Thomas’s mother posted a message on Facebook pleading for help in finding her son a matching kidney. She tagged her son’s Facebook account in the post, which caused the message to also pop up on Maggie’s feed. The post said that anyone who was interested in becoming a kidney donor could set up an appointment with Northwell Health to see if they were a match. After reading the message, Maggie felt compelled to help.

“My whole life, I've always kind of felt like I wanted to donate something, whether it be bone marrow or an organ, if possible,” she explained. “It just was kind of a bucket list item for me. The opportunity came along. It felt like the right time, right place—everything sort of lined up. And I just thought it would be cool to help if I could. It was really just as simple as that.”

The process of determining that Maggie was a match took about two months, and during that time, Thomas had no idea that she had gone through the testing process. In January 2025, she received word that she was a match.

The next day, she decided to give him the good news in a humorous and creative way. While getting ready for homeroom, she came up to Thomas, dropped a bag of kidney beans on the table and said to him, “take my kidney.”

“I asked her if she was insane, and we hugged,” joked Thomas. “I probably said no like four times and then said yes.”

From there, the process moved very quickly. Just two weeks later, on February 10, both were in surgery for the transplant.

A New Lease on Life

The surgery was a resounding success. Maggie went back to work just two weeks later, and Thomas returned to work in about two and a half months. The pain from the surgery was short-lived, according to Thomas, but he had to stay home longer because he was immuno-compromised after the surgery. He returned to classroom in May to finish out the 2024–25 school year.

“I feel great. I haven't been sick at all. I have to walk up six flights of stairs to my classroom, and I have no issues,” noted Thomas. “I’m not as thirsty as I used to be and I have more energy. It’s great!”

For those considering a kidney donation but are hesitant to undergo the procedure, Maggie offered some reassuring details.

“What a lot of people don't realize about kidney donation, at least nowadays, the technology has gotten so improved that it was all laparoscopic for me, meaning they didn't really have to open me up fully. They just made a one-inch incision below my belly button, and were able to do everything out of there, which I don't really understand how but it's kind of wild.”

A Deeper Connection

But the two share more than a kidney and the same workplace. They both earned their master’s degree in education from Queens College. Thomas received his MSEd in 2005 and Maggie obtained her MSEd in 2017. (Ironically, they were not aware they were both QC alums until being contacted for this story!) And their attendance at Queens helped set them down a path to the life-saving transplant years later. 

“Queens was a good option for me. A lot of people recommended it and said it was a quality education for a cheaper price than some other schools,” explained Maggie. “So it all worked out, and I ended up loving Queens College. It opened me up to the public school system, which I didn’t have a lot of experience with at the time. Queens got me more comfortable with that.”

“Queens had a good reputation for teachers. And I lived on Long Island, and I could drive there, and I needed to do something that was going to go relatively fast so I could start teaching, because I didn't do my undergrad in education,” said Thomas of his decision to go to Queens. “I wouldn’t have a teaching career without Queens College.”

Maggie and Thomas are now more than just colleagues who say hello in passing. They have become close friends, visiting each other’s classroom and getting together often for lunch. Even their moms have bonded through the experience and connect regularly.

“Our family has really bonded, and we definitely are staying in touch, which is nice,” added Maggie. “It’s been a big change. Our relationship went from zero to one hundred.”

Send in the Clowns

Once again, the celebrated UniverSoul Circus is pitching its tent in Roy Wilkins Park. The lineup comes from all over the map and includes Chinese trapeze artists, African hoop divers, and Russian acrobats. Shows will run Thursday-Sunday through the end of the month. For specifics, click here.

Stephen Buchauer ’66

High school teacher-turned-pastor Stephen Buchauer died on July 22. He was 81.

A biology major and education minor at QC, Buchauer taught science in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, before spending 27 years at Averill Park High School in New York. He retired from the classroom in 2008.

Buchauer trained as an associate pastor in the lay ministry program at Berkshire Community Church and took courses online at Andover Newton Theological Seminary. In his second career, he took on pastoral duties at multiple Massachusetts houses of worship: South Egremont Congregational Church, White Oaks Congregational Church, Hancock Baptist Church, and a variety of fill-in ministries. From 2013 to 2020 he was the pastor at Morningside Baptist Church and served on the Pittsfield Area Council of Congregations. In addition, he provided ministry counsel for a program at the Berkshire Dream Center.

Buchauer is survived by his wife, three stepchildren, and grandson.

Richard Dunham

Lighting designer and former Queens College faculty member Richard Dunham died on June 19 at the age of 83.

Dunham’s love of theater was whetted during his childhood in Hanover, New Hampshire, where his family was involved in local productions. He majored in theater at the University of New Hampshire, served in the army, and then earned a master’s in theater lighting design at Indiana University.

A position with Kliegl Brothers Universal Electric Stage Lighting Company brought Dunham to New York City. He went on to work with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, and Broadway and off-Broadway productions. He also taught technical theater at QC. Retiring to Maine, he studied woodworking and sold distinctive lamps he crafted in his home studio in Appleton.

Dunham is survived by his wife; his stepson and his wife; extended family members and friends, and two dogs.

Marion Dorothy London ’62

Clinical psychologist Marion Dorothy London died on July 13, a few days short of her 85th birthday.

The daughter of Czechoslovakian refugees who fled the Nazis, London was born in England and immigrated to New York with her family. A history major at QC, she taught the subject in New York public and private schools. Moving to Massachusetts and switching gears, she earned a master’s in school counseling and, while raising two young children and working as a counselor, a doctorate in clinical psychology.

London co-founded the Women’s Health Clinic in New Bedford, created and conducted peer-counseling services for the underserved, produced women’s liberation conferences, and set up the peer-counseling program at her children’s high school. In retirement, she relocated to Davis, California, to be near her children and grandchildren, reserving summers for Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. She is remembered as a dedicated gardener who volunteered at Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls and the Davis Arboretum. She also sang with the Davis Chorale.

London is survived by her husband Peter, whom she met at QC; their son, daughter, and daughter-in-law; and four grandchildren and a grandson-in-law.

Emily Drabinsky (GSLIS) is a co-author of Organize Your Library! Developing the Collective Power of Library Workers, published by ALA Editions | Neal-Schuman, imprints of the American Library Association . . . .

David Gerwin (SEYS) and other Fulbright recipients for 2025-26 from the US-Norway Fulbright Foundation were announced at a ceremony on Thursday, August 21, at the Nobel Institute in Oslo . . . .

Michael Krasner (Political Science) will be speaking about Trump and reality TV at a hybrid event at the Society for Ethical Culture on Sunday, September 14, at 11 am . . . . Kate Menken (Linguistics) was interviewed on the “Brian Lehrer Show” on WNYC regarding the Trump administration’s attacks on bilingualism and multilingual learners; the episode first ran on August 26 . . . . The Academic Advising Center’s Peer Ambassador Program received a one-time grant of $20,000 from the Gray Foundation . . . . The Louis Armstrong House Museum was the subject of a feature in the New York Amsterdam News. Executive Director Regina Bain (below) is extensively quoted in the article.