-
New Funding Fuels Campus Building Projects
FYIOCTOBER 2004
HIGHLIGHTSFirst MARC grant for QC 2The College Plays Debut
3Technology in Teaching 4Vietnamese Scholars Arrive 6“Teachers
& Parents Speak Out!” 8
Having worked in Israel, Somalia, Croatia, Italy, and Iraq,
NaveedHusain brings a world of experienceto his new job as OIT’s
assistantvice president for information tech-nology and chief
information officer.
Formerly with the Department ofPeacekeeping at the United
Nations,Husain sees much potential “to dy-namically change OIT.”
Havingrecently reviewed the 100-day planand the one-year plan with
Sue
Henderson (Executive Assistant to the President), heobserves,
“OIT is going to be very busy.”
Husain has been given a new title reflecting a newapproach to
technology that will see OIT taking responsibilityfor
telecommunications as well as computer technology is-sues. “OIT is
going to be re-branded,” he says. “It’s going tohave a new name and
a new approach in how it deals with
campus clientele. There’s going to be a greater emphasis
oncustomer service.”
Whereas OIT previously focused on the technical concernsof
faculty and staff, Husain sees student services as an integralpart
of the department’s future. Among the changes he ex-pects to
oversee are campus email for students by early nextyear and the
introduction of Internet kiosks at key locationsaround the campus,
“so if students want to check their grades,their class schedules,
or their email really quickly, they can.”
While Queens College may not offer some of the exoticlogistical
challenges of such locales as Umm Qasr and Mo-gadishu, Husain says
of his new assignment, “I see OIT as aplace where we’ll have a lot
of challenges in the near future.”He points to the successful
launch prior to his arrival of wire-less Internet access on campus
as an indication of his staff’sability to tackle those
challenges.
A challenge he’s particularly looking forward to is
imple-mentation of the Enterprise Research Planning system (ERP).
(continued on page 5)
Q U E E N S C O L L E G E FA C U LT Y & S TA F F N E W S
Husain Brings World of Experience to OIT
A commitment of funding from the 2004-05 Borough Presi-dent/City
Council capital budget and money from Albany arespurring a number
of construction and rehabilitation projectson campus. Some older,
pending projects are also expected toget off the drawing board.
With state funding, the much-needed $30 million additionto
Remsen Hall will be moving ahead in the space vacated byP.S. 499.
The addition consists of 26,000 square feet, withseven teaching
labs and five research labs. All of the secondfloor teaching labs
will be replaced with state-of-the-art facili-ties. Assemblyman
Barry Grodenchik announced the Remsenfunding at a press conference
he organized August 17 at thecollege.
With the help of City Councilman James Gennaro, ColdenCenter is
slated to receive $345,000 for new lighting. “More
up-to-date lighting willenhance the perfor-mances we present
hereand those of outsideorganizations who rentour facilities,”
saysColden Director VivianCharlop. Plans also callfor updating the
cen-ter’s antiquated aislelighting. Optimistically,she says, work
might becompleted by fall 2005. (continued on page 8)
Assemblyman Grodenchik and PresidentMuyskens
Naveed Husain
-
2
QC IN THE NEWS
A story in the Sept. 2Queens Tribune aboutthe Republican
Na-tional Convention andPresident Bush’s visitto a Queens
Italian-American social clubquoted ANDREW
BEVERIDGE (Sociology) . . . NICHOLASCOCH (EES) offered a grim
scenariofor the Aug. 26 Queens Chronicle ofthe effects of a
hurricane on themetropolitan area. He also discussedthe same topic
Sept. 25 on a half-hour special on WABC-TV entitled“Hurricane:
Eyewitness to a Storm2004” . . . DAVID COHEN (EthnicMaterials
Information Exchange) wasfeatured in an Aug. 31 profile inNewsday
detailing his years of ser-vice to library programs at
Queens,including his directorship of Friendsof the Rosenthal
Library and hiswork with theEthnic MaterialsInformation Ex-change .
. . BONNIE GERSTEN’s(Chemistry) receiptof a $200,000research grant
wasreported Sept. 1 inthe Queens Courier and Sept. 2 in theQueens
Chronicle . . . The naming ofCORINNE MICHELS (Biology) as aCUNY
Distinguished Professor wasreported Sept. 2 in the ManhassetPress.
She was also profiled in News-
day Sept. 5 . . . EUGENIAPAULICELLI’s (ELL)book Fashion
UnderFascism: Beyond theBlack Shirt waslisted in the July 30issue
of the Chronicleof Higher Education . .. The men’s and women’s
volleyballcoaches, KARL PIERRE and ALINE-PASCAL LUBIN, were both
mentionedin an Aug. 12 story in the FlushingTimes profiling their
daughter, ArielPierre, a star volleyball player at St.Francis Prep
. . . A letter by JEREMYREISS (Labor Resource Center) ap-peared
Aug. 22 in the New YorkTimes in response to an Op-Ed articleon
energy policy . . . The New YorkTimes on Sept. 5 reported
JOSEPHSCIORRA’s (Calandra Institute) orga-nizing of a gathering of
scholars,writers, artists, and musicians on theoccasion of the
feast day for theBlack Madonna of Tindari . . . JUDITH SERRIN
(Journalism) wasquoted in a Crain’s New York Busi-ness story about
the vibrancy ofweekly newspapersin Queens . . . TheAug. 6
Forwardfeatured a columnby EVAN ZIMROTH(English) about thebiblical
Moses ac-cessing his “inner-female” . . . The
announcement of a $30 million addition providing new
chemistryfacilities for Remsen Hall was cov-ered Aug. 22 in the
Daily News andin the Aug. 26 editions of the QueensChronicle and
Times Ledger . . . TheSept. 9 Queens Chronicle noted thehigh
ratings the college received inthe 2005 edition of The
PrincetonReview and U.S. News’ annual listingof America’s best
colleges . . . Thenew season ofprograms atCOLDEN CENTERwas
highlightedAug. 26 in theQueens Tribune. . . The exhibitionBy Land
or By Seaat the QUEENSCOLLEGE ART CEN-TER was featured Sept. 2 in
theQueens Chronicle Magazine, Sept. 5in Newsday, Sept. 9 in the
TimesLedger, and Sept. 15 in the QueensCourier . . . The induction
of the1972-73 QUEENS COLLEGE WOMEN’SBASKETBALL TEAM into the New
YorkCity Basketball Hall of Fame wascited as “noteworthy” in the
Sept. 14Philadelphia Inquirer. The inductionceremony Sept. 21 was
featuredextensively that evening on UPN 9’s10 pm newscast. The
Staten IslandAdvance carried a story Sept. 21,and it received two
pages of cover-age Sept. 22 in Newsday.
Zimroth
Coch
Gersten
Paulicelli
ColdenCenter@QueensCollege
2004–2005 SEASON
Zahra Zakeri (Biology) believes hersuccess in securing the first
MARC(Minority Access to Research Careers)grant for Queens College
stems, inlarge part, from her service the pastdecade reviewing
grants for the Minor-ity Biomedical Research Support pro-gram at
the NIH.
“It allowed me to get in there andtell them how great we are,”
she says.
“This is the first time that Queens Col-lege has received a
grant of this sort for minority education, tomy
knowledge—especially in the sciences.”
The award, which came in June, provides $2,164,817 overfive
years to create programs here to increase numbers
ofunder-represented minority students in biomedical sciences.
Six students are chosen each year to conduct research
withfaculty mentors. They receive a $10,000 stipend, paid
tuition,and funds for lab supplies and travel. Three juniors and
threeseniors are participating this year.
“The main aim,” she says, “is to get students interested
inscience and biomedical research-oriented science. We hope
toaccomplish that by encouraging them to interact with facultyand
work in their laboratories.”
The MARC program is already up and running. The sixstudents will
be attending the NIH’s Annual Biomedical Re-search Conference for
Minority Students in Dallas on Novem-ber 10. Three will present
their work at the meeting.
“We are hoping to do extensive guidance,” Zakeri says.“The goal
is to nourish students from the beginning and makesure that we
guide them into the right programs for a PhD.”
Zakeri Secures First MARC Grant for the College
Zahra Zakeri
-
3
When The CollegePlays premieresOct. 21, audienceswill be treated
to adramatic conceptthat has enjoyedgreat success fordirector
SusanEinhorn (Drama,
Theatre & Dance) in previous produc-tions mounted
Off-Broadway.
Each of the nine one-act plays takesplace in the same setting, a
college cam-pus. The idea of groups of short playssharing the same
setting, explains Ein-horn, first arose at the HB
PlaywrightsTheatre in Greenwich Village. Shejoined the group five
years ago and hassince directed The Funeral Plays, TheHospital
Plays, The Beach Plays, TheSubway Plays, and, this past year,
TheWedding Plays.
Formerly head of the acting programbefore becoming department
chair last
year, Einhorn has produced 19 shows atQueens in her 22 years
here. “All of TheCollege Plays are world premieres Icommissioned.
This is a first for mehere,” she notes.
Four writers—Liz Bartucci, EmilyBloch, Regina Corrado, and
DrewSachs—are Queens alumni. Another, IraHauptman, is QC’s resident
playwright.A diverse group in terms of age, genderand ethnicity,
all—with the exception ofBloch—are seasoned professionals withwhom
Einhorn has previously collabo-rated, some as students and some
ascolleagues. Bloch’s play “TheWarmup,” written while a student
inHauptman’s playwriting class, so im-pressed Einhorn that it is
being pre-sented virtually unchanged from itsoriginal draft. Bloch
graduated last year.The plays will subsequently be pub-lished.
The cast will be drawn entirely fromQueens students. “There are
42 roles.
I’m casting a company of 12 to 14 ac-tors who will be playing
all the roles,”Einhorn explains. An unusual stageconfiguration will
place the audience ontwo sides of the stage with actors per-forming
almost as if working in theround. “It’s a lot of fun for the
audience,and it’s a great challenge for our ac-tors.”
Three of the plays are set at QC andmany of the characters are
college stu-dents. “But,” says Einhorn, “we alsohave a faculty
meeting in a play called‘The Search Committee.’ It’s a comiclook at
how faculty sit around a confer-ence table and decide who they’re
goingto hire. Another play is set in the 1970sat the beginning of
the AIDS crisis.”
The College Plays will be presentedOct. 21-24 and 28- 31 in the
Perfor-mance Space, M11, Rathaus Hall. (Seecalendar on pages 9-10
for times andticket info.)
The College Plays Play Queens College for Two Weekends
Susan Einhorn
From Flushing to Berlin in Pursuit of Wagner
What draws a music majorto Germany?
“I want to become anopera singer,” declaresEowyn Driscoll. “And
myvoice teacher is quite posi-tive that I’ll be going intothe
Wagner and Straussrepertoire. So, I need to beable to speak German
verywell.”
That’s why the sopho-more was thrilled to receivea scholarship
that allowed
her to spend a month thispast summer studying the German
language and Ger-man art at the Freie Universitaet Berlin. The
scholarshipprovided tuition and a stipend to cover housing andother
expenses, Driscoll explains, “so basically all youneeded to do was
buy your plane ticket.”
“The Freshman Award for North America was given to 25 students
out of a pool of 255 applicants,” ex-plains Monika Fisher (European
Languages), in whoseclass on German fairy tales Driscoll first
learned of the scholarship. “Eowyn can be proud to have
beenchosen.”
Driscoll shared a Berlin flat with other students inthe program.
While many of them were American, sheobserves, “There were lots of
kids from Britain, a fewfrom Holland, a lot of kids from Korea and
Japan andother parts of Western Europe.
“I could get myself around and ask for directions,”she explains
of her limited language proficiency uponarriving in Berlin. “I had
taken German for a semesterat Queens, and my language skills
weren’t really won-derful. But they’re much better now.”
Initial communications difficulties aside, she enjoyedherself
tremendously. “The teachers were very enthusi-astic and all the
kids were really happy to be there.They all wanted to do things. It
was: ‘Let’s go out, let’sgo to a museum’ every day.
“The classes were from nine to four or five in theafternoon. The
lecture classes sometimes went longbecause we often went to museums
and did walkingtours.” Classes were four days a week with
Wednes-days and weekends off.
Her summer adventure will likely be an importantfactor in
determining her future course of study atQueens. “I’m probably
going to seek a second majorin German after this trip,” she
says.
But music—albeit, German music—is still foremostamong her
academic goals, and she declares like atrue Berliner: “Ich bin eine
Opernsängerin.” (“I am anopera singer.”)
STUDENT PROFILE
Eowyn Driscoll
-
QC faculty are continuing to find waysto keep their classes in
tune with thelatest technological trends.
“In the Computer Science Depart-ment, technology is obviously
our breadand butter,” says Chris Vickery. “Buteven in that
environment, we have tokeep moving ahead.”
Moving ahead means a switch in thedepartment’s traditional
emphasis onsoftware design, to using software totackle engineering
design projects.
For the past three semesters, studentsin the department have
been able toutilize new software development toolsto design
hardware “because,” explainsVickery, “hardware development
hasbecome so complex, they can’t use theold tools. We’re talking
about musicplayers, cell phones, PDAs [personaldigital assistants]
and all these thingsthat have a raft of hardware and soft-ware
mixed together inside.”
Using a $135,000 grant he and Sey-mour Goodman (Prof. Emeritus)
re-
ceived from the NSF, the departmentwas able to outfit a
laboratory withnewer, high-end PCs and a number ofself-contained
units designed to tacklenew software/engineering challengescalled
FPGAs (Field ProgrammableGate Arrays).
The department’s use of these newdevices, says Vickery, reflects
changeswithin the industry in the way com-puter-intensive devices
are being de-signed. “This is really giving ourstudents a chance to
understand what’sgoing on. . . . They’re getting a chanceto go in
and do something that’s verycurrent and state-of-the-art.”
VIDEOTAPING STUDENT TEACHERSThanks to Michelle Fraboni
(EECE),student teachers can simply say, “Let’sgo to the videotape”
when discussingtheir developing classroom skills.
“For the past year we’ve had studentteachers videotaping their
lessons andthen viewing them on the computer and
writing their reflections,” explainsFraboni. “It’s a tool that
allows them tosee themselves and find ways to im-prove their
teaching. It’s also a way forsupervisors to revisit a student
teacher’slesson.”
While students are sometimes ini-tially shy about learning the
technicalskills involved, Fraboni explains, “Oncethey get past
that, they love it. It’s reallya great tool, and they’re able to
have apiece for their portfolio. So if they havean interview and
want to show an exam-ple of themselves teaching a lesson,they have
it on CD.”
Fraboni’s project was underwrittenwith a $3600 PSC-CUNY grant
shereceived last April that she used to pur-chase four digital
video cameras, CDburners, and an external hard drive forstoring the
videos. But she’d like to takeher project even further: “I’m hoping
toexpand on this and create an environ-ment where students can
actually share(continued on page 5)
4
New Technology Provides Innovative Teaching Tools
’72-’73 Lady Knights Enter New York City’s Basketball Hall of
Fame
The first women’s team from NewYork City to play for a
nationalchampionship, the 1972-73 QueensCollege women’s basketball
team,was inducted last month into theNew York City Basketball Hall
ofFame. And so they made historyagain, as the first women’s team to
receive this honor.
Thirteen of the team’s original 15members were present for the
15thannual awards ceremony held Sept.21 at the New York Athletic
Club.The Lady Knights join only a handfulof teams in the hall,
including the1969-70 NBA champion Knicks, the1949-50 City College
team that wonboth the NCAA and NIT crowns, and the 1963-64
undefeated PowerMemorial H.S. team that featured Lew Alcindor
(Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).
Under the direction of coach Lucille Kyvallos, the Lady Knights
pio-neered an aggressive five-on-five style of play more common to
men’sbasketball. The team received an unprecedented level of media
andpublic attention when it hosted the standing-room-only national
champi-onship tournament, finishing second. They posted a 22-5
overall record;a 19-point average margin of victory; and an
undefeated streak againstNew York State colleges that would last
nearly a decade.
Top: Coach Lucille Kyvallos, fifth from left, posesSept. 21 with
the 1972-73 Lady Knights.Bottom: The champions in their prime.
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5
ALLEN BRINGS, MICHAEL LIPSEY,MAURICE PERESS, BRUCE SAYLOR,and
EDWARD SMALDONE (Music)have been named recipients of2004-2005 ASCAP
Awards. Theawards, made by the AmericanSociety of Com-posers,
Authorsand Publishers toassist ASCAPcomposers, aregranted by
anindependentpanel and arebased upon theunique prestigevalue of
eachwriter’s catalogof original com-positions, as wellas recent
perfor-mances in areasnot surveyed bythe Society . . . JANE
DENKENSOHN (Special Coun-sel) and NANCY HEMMES (Psychol-ogy) made a
presentation,
“Participant Com-prehension Duringthe Informed Con-sent
Process,” at aSept. 10 CUNY-wide symposium at Baruch Collegeon the
protection of human research
subjects . . . Corruption and Marketin Contemporary China, a
book byYAN SUN (Political Science), hasjust been published by
Cornell Uni-versity Press. Using casebooks ofeconomic crimes
compiled annuallyby disciplinary offices, law enforce-ment
agencies, and legal profes-sionals, Sun examines the ways in which
market reforms in thePeople’s Republic of China haveshaped
corruption since 1978, and how corruption has, in turn,shaped those
reforms. The casesrepresent offenders from party-state agencies at
central and locallevels, as well as state firms ofvarying sizes and
types of owner-ship.
PEOPLE
Hemmes
Peress
Smaldone
Technology (continued from page 4)their videos with each other
online.That’s the next step.”
NEW WAYS TO LEARN LANGUAGESAn important part of her role as
directorof the Queens Consortium onLanguages Other than English,
saysEva Fernandez (LCD), is to act as apromoter and facilitator for
better usesof technology in foreign language de-partments at all
CUNY campuses inQueens.
This can sometimes manifest itselfin small but significant ways.
“Foreignlanguage teachers need to be able toinsert accent marks and
strange charac-ters that are not on the basic computerkeyboard,”
she says, explaining one ofthe difficulties of teaching foreign
lan-guages with American computer tech-nology. “I’ve actually spent
a lot oftime training people how to do that.
“In addition to helping people withthe basic uses of
technology,” she con-tinues, “I also like the CUNY group toknow
about the very advanced waysthat some of our foreign language
fac-ulty and students use technology.”
She cites the example of Bill Mc-Clure’s (CMAL) Japanese
classes. “Alot of his students are computer sciencemajors. Instead
of writing a paper oressays about their lives, they writeelectronic
essays. They also videotapethe oral presentations they do in
class
and upload them to a Web server wherethey can all look at
them.”
In her own classes, Fernandez isenthusiastic about using
Blackboard,the online program for course manage-ment. “It’s
basically the way that Idistribute content, assignments,
sched-ules, factoids, and so on to my students.None of them require
training with thissoftware. It’s very user-friendly.”
“Students can search for informationfor a term paper all over
the world froma computer. Instructors can check pa-pers for
plagiarism electronically,”notes Ken Lord (Assistant to theProvost
for Educational Technology &Distance Learning.) “There is,
however,a downside to all this convenience,” hecautions. “Students
need to be awarethat the Internet is filled with falseinformation.
Global Web searches tendto blur the lines of authorship, andprimary
sources don’t get the necessaryverification they deserve.”
Fernandez, too, cautions that ascomfortable as many of her
students arewith new technology, they can be naïveabout some of its
ramifications. “Mostof my students have outside email ac-counts.
The user IDs they choose aresometimes very funny and sometimesvery
embarrassing. They’re communi-cating professionally with a
professor,but they’re sending it from an emailaccount
[email protected] .”
Husain (continued from page 1)“That process,” explains
Henderson,
“will allow all of our functions – suchas human resources,
administration,budgeting, and the student informationsystem – to
work more effectively withone another and within CUNY. ERPwill give
us more flexibility and thepower to provide us with better data.
”
Husain brings more than 15 years ofIT experience to his new
position, in-cluding work with law firms, Fortune500 companies, and
seven years indifferent assignments at the UN as com-munications
information systems offi-cer. He has an MS in
distributedinformation systems engineering fromNew York Polytechnic
University and aBBA from Hofstra University.
Husain, who came to the UnitedStates at age five from Pakistan,
be-lieves he is well-prepared to address theneeds of the diverse
Queens population:“I think the UN has given me
additionalunderstanding of people of differentbackgrounds and
different work ethics.Some people pray differently, somepeople eat
differently, some peopledance differently. These are all thingsI’ve
learned to appreciate. They allmake the world a more beautiful
place.”
When not immersed in technologicalchallenges, Husain, who
currently liveswith his wife, Lorna, in Manhattan,devotes himself
to being the father “oftwo wonderful boys,” Gabriel, age two,and
Mikail, age five.
mailto:[email protected]
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6
Prints by Surrealist Max Ernst and an-cestral totem poles from
New Guineaare among an eclectic collection of over100 artworks that
will be on display atthe Godwin-Ternbach Museum begin-ning Oct.
13.
The show, Recent Acquisitions 1998-2004, will feature pieces
donated to themuseum by alumni and friends since1998. “We are
delighted to share theseworks with the community in the samespirit
as they were shared with us by ouralumni and friends,” says Amy
Winter,director and curator of the museum.
Winter will lecture on October 27 at12:30 in the museum on Ernst
and Ger-man Expressionist Karl Hofer, one of aseries of free
lectures accompanying theexhibit. Other works on display that
willbe the subject of lectures by expertsfrom the Art Department
include twowoodcuts by Albrecht Dürer; a Gothichead of the Virgin
Mary from 15th-century Spain; textiles from pre-His-panic Peru; and
prints by Braque, Miró,Hiroshige, and more. Two groups of
artifacts from the Ancient NearEast and pre-Columbian America
will also be on display.
The museum is also showingpaintings, prints, and drawingsfrom
Spain and Latin Americaselected from a group of 53 worksdonated to
its permanent collectionby the Lannan Foundation in 1998.
Recent Acquisitions will featuretwo late-15th-century
Flemishlandscape paintings that were re-cently restored by
conservatorAlexander Katlan with a grant fromthe Lower Hudson
Council of His-torical Agencies & Museums.
“We have recently won anotheraward from the Lower Hudson
Councilfor a 17th-century Dutch painting in ourcollection,” says
Winter “and we areeager to thank our benefactors by show-ing these
works and the magical trans-formation that occurs with
propertreatment.”
The latest award provides $7,100 forconservation of the
oil-on-wood panel
painting Landscape with Cattle by afollower of S. van Ruysdael.
The treat-ment will be performed by Katlan, whowill be restoring
another painting in themuseum’s collection, Milton Avery’sThe Beach
Party, thanks to a $3,000grant from the Milton and Sally
AveryFoundation.
Recent Acquisitions 1998-2004 runsfrom October 13 through
December 15.Admission is free.
Godwin-Ternbach Show Highlights Gifts of Alumni and Friends
Vietnamese Scholars Launch New Exchange Program
The arrival from Hanoi of two visit-ing Vietnamese graduate
studentsmarks the beginning of a newexchange program between
thecollege and the Hanoi University ofForeign Studies (HUFS).
Le Quoc Tuan (“Tuan”) and LeThuy Chi (“Chi”) graduated firstand
second in their class last Juneat the prestigious Vietnamese
uni-versity where they majored inEnglish and linguistics. They
havecome to Queens College to auditgraduate classes in the
Department
of Linguistics and Communica-tion Disorders (LCD). They hopeto
matriculate eventually andobtain graduate degrees here orat other
universities, then returnto Vietnam to improve the sys-tem for
educating future teach-ers and translators of English.
“Tuan and Chi,” says ElaineKlein (LCD), a director of
theprogram, “are the first of whatwe hope will be a contingent
ofHUFS graduate students eventu-
ally attaining MA and PhD degreesat CUNY, depending on our
receiv-ing grant money to help supportthis program. We also expect
tosend a small group of CUNY stu-dents, also preparing to be
Englishlanguage teachers, to Vietnam nextyear for a semester abroad
pro-gram at HUFS.”
Klein and Michael Newman (LCD)are laying the groundwork for
alarger program that would strengthenEnglish language teaching to
Viet-namese abroad and to immigrants in
the United States. In both countries,fluency in English is a
primary factorfor success in education and in thework force.
Asked about their impressionssince arriving here, Chi remarks,
“Ev-erything is so different from what lifein Vietnam is, but it’s
not so differentfrom what we know about the U.S.through the
Internet and throughbooks. I’m very impressed by theculture and the
diversity here,” shesays, referring to the campus andsurrounding
neighborhoods.
“I’d say it’s fabulous,” enthusesTuan. “I like the Queens
College cam-pus. It’s so green and so big. . . . It’sso quaint and
so classic, it has a senseof an Ivy League institution. And,
atleast during the summer, I really likethe weather here.
“I’ve also just discovered that thiscampus is very technology
savvy,” hesays, referring to the wireless Internetnetwork. “I’ve
found hot spots every-where, and they let you borrow laptopsat the
library. It’s very impressive.”
Romare Bearden, Quilting Time, 1979
Chi and Tuan
-
7
RALPH G. ALLEN“Ralph Allen was that rare person whobridged many
worlds,extending from theprofessional commer-cial theatre
toacademia, and fromthe world of classical
theatre to popular culture and ‘low’art, all of which he
relished with thebottomless appetite of a gourmand.”
So recalls Harry Feiner (Drama,Theatre & Dance) of his
longtimecolleague who died suddenly onSeptember 9 at the age of 70.
According to his wife, HarrietNichols, Allen had long suffered
fromdiabetes and heart trouble.
Born Jan. 7, 1934 in Philadelphia,Allen saw his first burlesque
show asa teenager. Though he would earn abachelor’s degree from
Amherst anda doctorate from Yale as a scholar oftraditional
theater, his youthful inter-est in the bawdy routines of old
bur-lesque show comics brought him hisgreatest public renown.
“His passion for humor led him tocreate the musical revue Sugar
Ba-bies, which was a Broadway hit andearned him a Tony
nomination,“
recounts Feiner. “Ralph was a larger-than-life polymath with
successfulcareers as a scholar, playwright,director, and producer.
He was pas-sionate about classical theater andfounded two
professional theatercompanies. As the producer at theKennedy Center
he worked withmany of the leading actors and directors of our
time.”
Allen retired in 1999 after 15years teaching at Queens. He
alsotaught at the CUNY Graduate Center.
“He was an esteemed and cher-ished colleague,” says Feiner,
“whodelighted his students and peersalike with his combination of
jokes,stories, and his uniquely accessibleand down-to-earth
erudition.”
DEBORAH WOLFEDeborah Cannon Par-tridge Wolfe (Emerita,EECE) died
September 3at the Princeton Medi-cal Center in her homestate of New
Jerseyafter a battle withcancer.
“She was a prominent AfricanAmerican female educator at a
time
when that was a very, very difficultthing to be,” observes EECE
ChairHelen Johnson. “She was an incredi-bly joyful and passionate
person. Shecared deeply about children andabout learning. And she
didn’t hesi-tate to tell anyone what she thoughtwas important for
them to hear.”
A former chair of the ElementaryEducation Department, Wolfe was
the first African American professorat Queens College, where she
wasinstrumental in creating the KappaDelta Pi educational honor
society.She left Queens in1986 after 35years, returning in 2001 to
receivean honorary doctorate.
An adviser to Congress and othergovernment and educational
bodies,Wolfe stressed the necessity of edu-cation, particularly for
those in theunderclass. (Her accomplishments as listed in Who’s Who
in AmericanEducation fill a full six columninches.) The first
African Americanwoman to be ordained a Baptistminister, she
preached for a quarterof a century at the First BaptistChurch of
Cranford, NJ. She alsotaught at the Tuskegee Institute,Grambling
State University, NYU,Fordham, and Columbia.
IN MEMORIAM
College Offers Courses at Rosenthal Senior CenterThe description
“senior class” has newmeaning, thanks to an innovative
collab-oration between Selfhelp CommunityServices and the College
for OlderAdults at the college.
Noting that it was the first programof its kind, Assemblyman
Barry Gro-denchik announced in May a partnershipwhereby QC courses
would be madeavailable to students ages 60 and over atthe Selfhelp
Benjamin Rosenthal SeniorCenter in Flushing.
“We hope this is the beginning of along partnership that will
allow us tomeet the needs of older Queens resi-dents,” said Grace
S. Nierenberg, vicepresident of housing and senior centersfor
Selfhelp Community Services, a
nonsectarian, not-for-profit homecareand social service
organization. “Andwe salute Queens College for its will-ingness to
embrace a new concept inlifelong learning by bringing its
classesdirectly into the community.”
Two courses were initially offeredfor the spring semester:
History of theJewish People 1 and Humor and Opti-mism as Tools for
Good Health. Bypopular demand, the latter is again beingmade
available at the center this fallalong with Staying Young. They
join adozen on-campus courses to becomepart of a catalog of 14
low-cost, require-ment- and test-free courses for seniorsover 60
offered by the College for OlderAdults (formerly the Center for
Unlim-
ited Enrichment), according to DianeGahagan, the program’s
educationalcoordinator.
“I am especially proud of our part-nership with Selfhelp
Community Ser-vices,” said President Jim Muyskens.“These courses
are taught by our finestinstructors at the college. Thanks to
theleadership of Assemblyman Grodenchikand the hard work of people
in bothorganizations, we are off to a very good start.”
Said Grodenchik in remarks to theDaily News, “I have dealt with
theQueens College president for some timeand he has always been
tremendouslyresponsive to our needs.”
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8
(continued from page 1)Extensive rehabilitation of the track and
athletic fields
will take place with an additional $701,000 in City
Councilfunding. A new, colored, resilient topping will be put on
the recently reconstructed track, which will get two morelanes.
Funding will also pay for new soccer and softballfields, as well as
seating and, for the first time, lighting.
The college also hopes to move ahead on a long-pendingproject to
bring the Center for the Biology of Natural Systemsonto campus. The
center, currently in leased space on HoraceHarding Expressway,
would relocate to the roof of the science building, where a
greenhouse is also planned.
Other pending projects include:
■ A new entrance on Kissena Boulevard ($500,000, Borough
President)■ A Jewish Studies Reading Room in Jefferson
Hall($150,000, City Council)■ Student Union improvements, including
a new patio withgreenery, partial refacing of the exterior, and
repair and resurfacing of side parking lot (funded by Student
Unionrevenue sources).
Recent quick-fix efforts ateducation reform such ashigh stakes
testing andscripted, mandated curric-ula are causing many pub-lic
school teachers to feellimited in their ability toexercise
professional judg-ment and creativity inmeeting the needs of
theirstudents. Coupled withpersistent underfunding of public
education, manyschools are in trouble.
These and other issuesraised by such programs as “No Child Left
Behind” will beexamined at Teachers and Parents Speak Out!, an
all-dayeducational conference that the Department of Elementary
andEarly Childhood Education is co-sponsoring on Saturday,October
23 in LeFrak Concert Hall. Other sponsors are QC’sCenter for Equity
Studies Research and the nonprofit Centerfor Collaborative
Education.
“We organized this conference in response to the growingconcerns
of our students, who teach in public schools,” saysEECE Chair Helen
Johnson. “Since they will be participatingin the workshops and
panels, the conference is a way for themto engage in discussion
with other educators.” Representativesfrom major education advocacy
groups such as the Campaignfor Fiscal Equity will also take
part.
Perhaps because the conference is going to address sensi-tive
and timely issues, the EECE has received much interest
from elected officials. Eva Moskowitz, who chairs the
CityCouncil’s Education Committee, and City Council
colleaguesRobert Jackson, John Liu, and Gale Brewer will be
participat-ing. Johnson says they’re also hoping to have
representationfrom the teachers’ union and the Department of
Education.
The conference will begin with a panel of New York Cityteachers
weighing in on the topic “I Thought I was a Profes-sional,” and
include presentations and dialogue sessions ex-amining the
consequences of “No Child Left Behind” and theprospects for
authentic educational reform. Several workshopswill examine a
variety of related issues.
One panel will include the leaders of all the workshops and the
members of the City Council “so that they can hearthe concerns of
one another as well as the concerns of theaudience,” says Johnson,
who sees this as “an activist prob-lem-solving conference. We want
to provide opportunities forpeople to network and form action
groups beyond this event.”
A volume from Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers will docu-ment the
conference’s proceedings.
City Council Leaders to Participate in Education Reform
Conference
Helen Johnson
AWARDS ARE HIGHLIGHT OF OCTOBER 20 FACULTY-STAFF
ASSEMBLYPresident Muyskens will present four faculty memberswith
Excellence in Teaching Awards at the October 20 Faculty-Staff
Assembly. The awardees are RichardBodnar (Psychology), Benny Kraut
(History), JanicePeritz (English), and Alan Sultan (Mathematics).
Adjuncts John Nici (Art) and Edgar Troudt (BALA) and graduate
student Yolanda Medina (EECE) will also be cited for excellence in
the classroom.
Additionally, Muyskens will present Mini-Grants for Innovative
Teaching to Jonathan Buchsbaum andZoe Beloff (Media Studies) and
Patrick W. G. Brock, N. Gary Hemming, and Allan Ludman (EES).
Following his welcome and two video presenta-tions, the
president and Provost Evangelos J. Gizis will introduce new
administrators, chairs, and faculty.(For profiles of 52 new
faculty, go towww.qc.edu/provost/new%20faculty%202004.htm
QUEENS TAKES FLIGHT IN NEW EXHIBITThe borough of Queens has an
important place in the history of American aviation. Voices of Old
Technology – A Museum in the Making, in partnershipwith the QC Oral
History Project, has created Queensin Flight – From Balloons to
Seaplanes to Space Shuttles. The exhibit highlights stories from
local resi-dents and members of the QC community who havehad a role
in this colorful chapter of the borough’shistory. The exhibit will
be on display through the fallsemester in the Barham Rotunda and
the second floordisplay cases of the Rosenthal Library.
QC COMMUNITY
http://www.qc.edu/provost/new%20faculty%202004.htm
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9
7THURMEMORIAL SERVICE: Don Passantino(1950–2004), Student Union,
FourthFloor Ballroom, 3:30 pm.
CONCERT: MENC Private StudentsRecital: LeFrak Concert Hall,
7:30pm. A voluntary $10 donation to theACSM Scholarship Fund is
requestedfor these special evening concerts.
10SUNBENEFIT CONCERT: For “Pipe-dreams” on WNYC-FM, with
Jan-Piet Knijff (Music) playing on theMaynard-Walker Memorial
Organ.LeFrak Concert Hall, 6 pm (tickets$15 in advance, $20 at the
door; forreservations call 718-739-8813).
13WEDLECTURE: “Full-Body Wine from theGrapes of Wrath: A Russian
Poet’s
Adventurous Discoveryof America – Warmthof the Cold War,”
Dis-tinguished ProfessorYevgeny Yevtushenko(European
Languages).Music Building, ChoralRoom, 12:15 pm.
LECTURE: “The Nuremberg Trials and the De-Nazification of the
Germans after World War II,” Professor Volker Berghahn. LeFrak
Concert Hall, 7:30 pm.
14THURCONCERT: Student Vocal DuetRecital: Luba Mayzus and
MarcelleDuarte, sopranos. LeFrak ConcertHall, 12:15 pm.
15FRICONCERT: BMus Graduation Recital:Larry Small, baritone.
LeFrak Concert Hall, 3 pm.
18MONFACULTY COLLOQUIUM: “John F.Kennedy and Israel’s Nuclear
Program,” Isaac Alteras (History) 12 :10 pm, VIP Room Corner Bistro
in the Student Union.
LECTURE: “Why Columnists WriteWhat They Write,”
Newsdaycolumnist, Sheryl McCarthy. StudentUnion, Room 310, 12:15
p.m.
LECTURE: “Finding the Lost Tribes of Israel: Traces of the
Israelite Exiles in Assyria,” Professor K. Law-son Younger, Jr.
LeFrak ConcertHall, 7:30 pm.
20WEDLECTURE: “Dealing with the SalemWitch Trials in Poetry,”
Nicole R.Cooley (English). 12:30 pm, Rosen-thal Library, 5th floor,
President’sConference Room #2. Sponsored by Friends of the Queens
CollegeLibrary.
21THURCONCERT: QC Choir & Chorus: JamesJohn and Cindy Bell,
conductors.LeFrak Concert Hall, 12:15 pm.
21-24THUR-SUNTHE COLLEGE PLAYS: A festival of world premiere
short plays incollege settings. Rathaus Hall, M 11.Thurs, 7 pm; Fri
& Sat, 8 pm; Sun, 3 pm. $13/$10 QCID, seniors,alumni. For
tickets: 3095.
24SUNCONCERT: Comedian Modi andklezmer band Khevre. LeFrak
Concert Hall, 2 pm.
25MONCONCERT: Austrian artistsErst Kubitschek, harpsi-chord and
organ, andMarianne Kubitschek,baroque violin. Worksby Heinrich
Biber,Georg Muffat, andothers. LeFrak Concert Hall,12:15 pm.
27WEDLECTURE: “Objectsand Donors – Con-tinuing the Tradition,”
Amy Winter, Director and Curator, Godwin-Ternbach Museum. Mu-seum
Gallery, 12:30 pm.
CONCERT: QC Orchestra: MauricePeress, music director,
Smetana’sMa Vlast (My Country). LeFrak Concert Hall, 12:15 pm.
OCTOBER EVENTS
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27WEDLECTURE: “Fashion and Identity in Italy in the 1930s,”
Eugenia Paulicelli (ELL). Calandra Institute 25 W. 43rd St., 17th
floor (between5th & 6th Avenues), 6:30 pm.
LECTURE: “Reconsidering the GoldenAge of Sephardi Jewry in Light
ofContemporary Scholarship andPolemics,” Professor Jane
Gerber.LeFrak Concert Hall, 7:30 pm.
28-31THUR-SUNTHE COLLEGE PLAYS: A festival of world premiere
short plays incollege settings. Rathaus Hall, M 11.Thurs, 7 pm; Fri
& Sat, 8 pm; Sun, 3 pm. $13/$10 QCID, seniors,alumni. For
tickets: 2788.
29FRICONCERT: Third Annual HalloweenBand Spectacular: James
Borchers(MA ’04), percussion, Rachel Lumsden (MA ’04), flute,
MikaelKarlsson, piano, and guests. LeFrakConcert Hall, 3 pm.
31SUNFILM: Without a Home (Yiddish, with English subtitles).
Discussant:Professor Emanuel Goldsmith.LeFrak Concert Hall, 2
pm.
1MONRECITAL: Jan-Piet Knijff performingon the Maynard-Walker
MemorialOrgan. LeFrak Concert Hall, 12:15 pm.
3WEDVOCAL SEMINAR PERFORMANCE:Claudio Monteverdi’s The
Coronationof Poppea, in a new English transla-tion. LeFrak Concert
Hall, 12:15 pm.
LECTURE: “The Virgin Queen of theGodwin-Ternbach Museum: A
15th-Century Head of the Virgin Maryfrom Spain,” William Clark
(Art).Klapper Hall 401, 12:30 pm.
LECTURE: “Battlefield Ethics and Jewish Law,” Professor
MichaelBroyde. LeFrak Concert Hall, 7:30 pm.
ExhibitsRECENT ACQUISITIONS 1998-2004,Godwin-Ternbach Museum,
October13-December 15, 2004. Monday-Thursday 11 am-7 pm; Saturday,
11 am – 5pm
IN HIS SPARE TIME. Louis ArmstrongHouse Museum, 34-56 107th
St.,Corona, NY 11368. For information,call 718-478-8274 (through
Oct. 24).
DENNIS CADY: BY LAND OR BY SEA,PAINTINGS, PRINTS AND
SCULPTURE,1982–2004. QC Art Center, Library,6th Floor (through Oct.
27).
NOVEMBER EVENTS
Eagle Creek by Dennis Cady
FYI is published on the first Thursday of the month. Items
should be submittedby the 12th of the preceding month toMaria
Matteo, Kiely 1310, x 5590. Itemslonger than one paragraph must
besubmitted via e-mail to [email protected] .
Without a Home (October 31)
10
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