"Campus Update" is a weekly e-newsletter published by LaGuardia's Division of Communications and External Affairs to provide news and information to the college community. | |
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Commemorating Women’s History Month
As some of you will recall, Women’s History Month actually started as a week 41 years ago. Women’s History Week became Women’s History Month five years later, in 1987, making March a time to remember and celebrate the many contributions of women in American history. Closer to home, this is a fitting time to recognize women that played key roles in the establishment and success of LaGuardia. In the years before “Community College Number Nine” opened its doors to students, an immense amount of planning took place. Among those who shaped the school we now know as LaGuardia Community College were Sheila Gordon, Janet Lieberman, Ann Marcus, and Mary Ryan. Sheila was one of the first faculty members, Janet served as associate dean of faculty, Ann became the first dean of continuing education, and Mary the first personnel and labor relations director. Many more women contributed to the formation and early years of LaGuardia, which served a 58% female majority student body in its first year.
In recognition of Women’s History Month, the Women’s Center and LGBTQIA Safe Zone Hub are hosting events in collaboration with many campus partners (see details below), and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Instagram page will be celebrating women from the LaGuardia community throughout the month; check the DEI webpage for details.
Best wishes,
Kenneth Adams
President
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Queens Climate Justice Fellows Aim to Collaborate with Environmental Organizations
There are many environmentalists who advocate for endangered species, however, what happens when people’s lives are also at risk, because of the same environmental hazards? This is where environmental justice, activism that focuses on people and their right to a safe living environment, comes into the discussion.
Recently, LaGuardia Community College collaborated with Queens College to establish the Queens Climate Justice Fellows program to offer students the opportunity to learn about the intersection between both social justice and environmentalism, where the inequality of who is being impacted is also considered. The program was started as a conversation between Dr. Natalie Bump Vena and Dr. Ryan Mann-Hamilton, associate professor of Anthropology, Latin American and Caribbean Studies. who are both involved in various Environmental Justice initiatives. The LaGuardia students participating in the first cohort of the program include: Caroline Corwin, environmental science major; Annie Gugliotta, environmental science major; Bunie Joseph, biology major; Abdoul-Aziz Ouedraogo, applied science major; and Alan Cantos, biology major.
Environmental disasters, like earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods, continue to ravage communities all over the country and the world. Unfairly, vulnerable communities pay the highest price for environmental damage, and many communities don’t have the luxury of a physical barrier between them and environmental hazards. Seeing this level of impact on people’s lives can make it difficult for some to believe anything can be done. Professor Mann-Hamilton hopes the Queens Climate Justice Fellows will gain the experience to inspire them to do more.
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CUNY to Waive Application Fee for High School Seniors at New York City Public Schools
The City University of New York announced today that it is waiving the $65 application fee for New York City public high school seniors who apply between March 1 and April 15 to attend a CUNY college in Fall 2023. “We are trying to motivate seniors who may still be undecided about applying to college to take this important step toward their future at no cost. We are also removing a financial roadblock that has deterred many students from applying,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “This initiative is an example of how the University and the New York City public schools have a powerful partnership and are working together to help make the transition from high school to CUNY a seamless one.” NYC Public School seniors can get more information on the fee waiver here.
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Paul Williams Embraces Love of Film and Television in Pursuit of Career in Directing
Paul Williams, a Film and Television major from East Harlem, has been honing his skills as a filmmaker, film critic, and leader, through various campus activities including serving as president of LaGuardia’s student Film Club. During his first semester at LaGuardia, in fall 2021, Professor David Stott invited Paul, 36, to join the Film Club and consider serving as a member of the club’s leadership. “I immediately nominated myself for president, because I like to take on work and responsibility. I wanted the experience of overseeing a club,” Paul said. When Paul isn’t leading the Film Club, he can be seen directing films. He received an LGBTQ Film Fellowship through the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives to make a film about the first-ever Queens Pride in 1993. Paul’s career path in film and television, comes after spending more than a decade of pursuing acting and working with children as an after-school grade leader. Despite managing his many film and television activities, Paul has been able to keep up with his academics, and currently has a 3.75 GPA. He is a member of the President’s Society, Phi Theta Kappa, and the Honors Student Advisory Committee. Paul is also a recipient of scholarships from the LaGuardia Community College Foundation, and is an ASAP student. Paul will graduate from LaGuardia in June 2023, and plans to pursue a bachelor’s in film and television
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LaGuardia Community Encouraged to Participate in DEI Women’s History Recognition
March is Women’s History Month, and LaGuardia Community College is recognizing women from across campus. Women from the LaGuardia community who wish to be featured on the DEI Instagram page can submit their photo and information here. To learn more, visit the DEI website or contact Wendy Nicholson, Executive Director of DEI at wnicholson@lagcc.cuny.edu.
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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Did You Know?
As we approach the beginning of our Spring 2023 semester, let wonder guide your curiosity and learning. Be intentional about discovering new things, new information about others, new foods, etc.! Here are some March celebrations and observances worth exploring. Shout Out of the Month – For his amazing work with new teams and student athletes, please join me in honoring Athletics Director, Andrew Walker and his team! PLEASE NOTE: Departments, groups, or individuals planning DEI-related or heritage month celebrations, please contact me via email (wnicholson@lagcc.cuny.edu) at least one month in advance.
–Wendy Nicholson, Executive Director of DEI
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Join the Sustainability Council and Help Plan Earth Day Activities
LaGuardia’s Sustainability Council is celebrating Earth Day on April 22 and throughout the Spring semester. This year’s theme is “Invest In Our Planet”. Please sign up for our newsletter and join the council to share your fresh ideas. The first Earth Day planning meeting will be in early March. Join us!
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Mindfulness Meditation Sessions Available Weekly
The LaGuardia Mindfulness Project (led by Professor Koun Eum, Ellen Quish, Dr. Paul Arcario, and Deema Bayrakdar) invites all faculty, staff and students to Mindfulness Meditation sessions every Wednesday at 8:00 PM and Thursday at 12:00 PM via Zoom. Individuals can join at https://bit.ly/mindfulnessmwed
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Join CUNY at the Annual St. Pat’s for All Parade
The CUNY LGBTQIA+ Consortium will march in the St. Pat's for All Parade in Sunnyside and Woodside, Queens, on Sunday, March 5th. This was the first St. Pat's Parade in NYC to include LGBTQIA+ groups, and it is a vibrant celebration of different cultures. CUNY students, faculty and staff will assemble as early as 11:30 a.m., and the parade will kick at 1 p.m. Register to attend. Should you have any questions, please contact Allie Brashears (jbrashears@lagcc.cuny.edu).
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LAGUARDIA AND WAGNER ARCHIVES | |
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Archivists Working on Donations from New York City Council Members
Archivists in the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives continue working to preserve and make available documents, photographs and other materials donated by several New York City Council Members who left the Council in 2021 due to term limits. Many of the Council Members represented districts in Queens and/or have been affiliated with LaGuardia.
The photograph seen here shows the Equal Pay for EMS rally held on the steps of City Hall on September 25, 2019. FDNY Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workers rallied to demand that they receive equal pay to firefighters. The photo was donated by Council Member I. Daneek Miller (behind the podium), who was the chair of the Council’s Committee on Civil Service and Labor. Before being elected, Council Member Miller was a labor leader, serving as the President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1056 and co-chair of the MTA Labor Coalition. Also pictured here are Attorney General Letitia James (second from left) and Council Member Helen Rosenthal (right) as well as representatives from Uniformed EMTs, Paramedics and Fire Inspectors FDNY Local 2507.
Similar materials can be found here in the Archives Council of the City of New York Collection.
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LaGuardia Participates in Queens’ “Borough Hall on Your Block” Week
LaGuardia Community College recently participated in a series of events, hosted by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, during the “Borough Hall on Your Block: Western Queens” week. First up, LaGuardia’s Poolside Café opened its doors for a community job fair on February 22 (pictured above). Then on Friday, February 24, the team attended the Youth Opportunity Fair at the Variety Boys and Girls Club in Astoria. The week wrapped up with an Immigrant Resource Fair at Jacob A. Riis Center on Saturday. Each fair featured a diverse spectrum of participants, including the New York State Police, Urban Upbound, and the Floating Hospital and were well attended by community residents. Communications and External Affairs, Enrollment Management, and Adult and Continuing Education represented the College during these series of events.
Pictured: Queens Borough President Richards (third from the right) and Shurn Anderson, Director of Economic Development for QBP Richards’s office (second from the left) with LaGuardia staff members.
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Professor Examines Politics of Time in Research Publication
Dr. Nichole Shippen, Professor of Political Science, recently published, “For Free and Useless Studies”: Critical Reflections on the End of Work and Study, in a special issue of the Journal of Classical Sociology 23(2), 2023 dedicated to examining the work of critical theorist, André Gorz (1923--2007). Dr. Shippen applied the theoretical concept of "economic rationality" from André Gorz to analyze the politics of time in higher education.
Gorz was a main theorist in the New Left movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and is credited with coining the concept of "non-reformist reform".
“There is a growing number of time scholars across a variety of fields. Many of the political science scholars are women, which I don't think is a coincidence given the unfair distribution of social reproductive labor." Dr. Shippen said. “I worked on this research as a follow-up to my book, Decolonizing Time: Work, Leisure, and Freedom (2014). My book includes a chapter on Gorz and the journal reached out to me with interest in Gorz."
Dr. Shippen revisited Gorz’s Destroy the University (1970) to conduct an analysis of the community college as "situated between the factory (vocational) and the prison (formal education’s 'other') in the United States."
“College administrators increasingly require economic rationality to justify the continued existence of liberal arts, humanities, and social science programs at community colleges or risk being eliminated as ‘useless,’ Dr. Shippen argues. “Most community college students are first generation, full-time students, workers, and often parenting students. They face severe time constraints, which are under-theorized and under-politicized to their own detriment.”
Furthermore, Dr. Shippen argues, “The COVID-19 pandemic compelled most people, including students, to transform previously private spaces to public spaces to accommodate work, school, and care-giving responsibilities. As a result, spatial and temporal distinctions between these different modes of being collapsed, allowing economic rationality to inform the most intimate settings of home; a Gorzian nightmare.”
In this article, Dr. Shippen brings Gorz’s Destroy the University into conversation with his Critique of Economic Reason to examine how economic rationality functions within the community college with special attention to the acceleration of study in relation to Complete College America’s ‘15 to Finish’ program at LaGuardia.
On September 8, 2022, Dr. Shippen presented, “For Free and Useless Studies: Critical Reflections on Work, Study, and Security,” as part of the Caucus for a Critical Political Science 2022 Plenary Lecture.
“Community colleges are misunderstood,” Dr. Shippen said. “I wanted to examine many aspects of the community college through a political theoretical lens that challenges how students are affected and how their experiences can be compromised.”
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Faculty Encouraged to Participate in COACHE Survey
The 2022-23 Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey will launch this month and close in early April 2023. Harvard University’s Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) is a consortium of institutional leaders working to improve outcomes for faculty. Conducting the COACHE survey at CUNY is part of the university’s commitment to its faculty and its mission, and the data generated from the survey will be important to our college. As such, we urge faculty to participate in the 25-minute survey. Stay tuned for detailed instructions and reminders via email from COACHE at coachefaculty@abtsurvey.com or coachefaculty@abtassoc.com. The email will contain a web-link that is uniquely yours so please don’t delete it.
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Faculty Invited to Participate in Common Reading Program
LaGuardia’s Common Reading has two goals: to foster a greater sense of community among students and faculty, and to enrich intellectual life at the College. Faculty are invited to join in Common Reading this spring by including a core book excerpt in one of their classes, approaching the text from any angle, and participants will exchange teaching materials and strategies. At the end of each term the faculty will be asked to conduct a short survey to measure student learning in their target class. LaGuardia’s Common Reading Program is partnered with Core Books, a CUNY-wide humanities initiative that engages many of the same influential works and is open to full-time and adjunct instructors. Core Books is funded with grants from the Teagle Foundation and support from CUNY. Selected participants may be eligible for compensation though teaching release and/or summer salary. If you would like to register to teach in the program, please complete this form. Please contact Charity Scribner, program co-chair, with any questions.
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Celebrating Women’s History Month
The Women’s Center and LGBTQIA Safe Zone Hub, in partnership with Casa de las Américas, the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Option, and the Photography and Fine Arts Programs will present a series of events commemorating Women's History Month. The theme, “Personal is Political”, will draw focus on women in the arts. Events begin March 16 and run through the month.
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LaGuardia to Host Second Annual CUNY LGBTQI+ Student Conference
The CUNY LGBTQI+ Student Conference brings together LGBTQI+ students from across CUNY interested in learning more about leadership and creating change on our campuses and broader communities. What does leadership for social change look like? What does an inclusive CUNY look like? The conference encompasses workshops, a keynote address, and most importantly, bringing together Queer & Trans students, faculty, staff, and allies. The theme of this year's conference is Community, Advocacy, Power, and Healing. Registration is now open for the conference, taking place Friday, March 31, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and welcomes keynote speaker Cecilia Gentili, founder of Trans Equity Consulting and the former director of policy at GMHC. Contact Nathan Tosh with questions, or for more information.
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Campus Worksites Needed for Summer Youth Employment Program
For 35 continuous years, LaGuardia has hosted the largest Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) in Queens, under the direction of Claudia Baldonedo. SYEP offers young adults ages 16- 24 paid summer work experiences, funded by the New York City Department of Youth & Community Development. There is no cost to LaGuardia departments to host SYEP participants—all that is needed is your support, guidance, leadership and mentoring while they are working with you. If you are interested in hosting one (or more!) SYEP participant, please speak with your supervisor and then contact Claudia at claudiab@lagcc.cuny.edu or 718-482-5236.
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Student Technology Helpdesk Opens Friday
The new Student Technology Helpdesk will open this Friday, March 3 to provide basic help and support to students with technical issues logging in or accessing LaGuardia applications and online resources. Students will be able to get help with: Blackboard, LaGuardia Mobile App, Wireless Configuration, Student Email, CUNYfirst, Adobe, Microsoft Office 365, My LaGuardia, Zoom, LinkedIn Learning, Dropbox, and OneDrive. The Student Technology Helpdesk will be open to students in B-127, and can be reached at 718-482-6117, Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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PUBLIC SAFETY TIP OF THE WEEK | |
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Personal Safety
While in your car:
- Keep windows up and doors locked.
- Park in well-lit areas and travel on populated streets. Avoid desolate or isolated areas. Do not pick up hitchhikers.
- If you have car trouble, signal for help by raising the hood or tying a white cloth to the door handle.
- Prepare for the unexpected. Travel with a charged cell phone and have emergency assistance numbers handy.
- Consider a roadside assistance plan such as AAA. Keep an emergency first aid kit in your car. Keep emergency supplies in the trunk such as jumper cables, road flares and a flashlight.
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LAGUARDIA IN THE HEADLINES | |
"Campus Update" is produced and published by the Communications and External Affairs Division. Faculty and staff who wish to submit items for publication can Share a Story or send an email to CampusUpdate@lagcc.cuny.edu. Submissions must be received by 5 p.m. Monday to be considered for publication on Wednesday. |
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