Discimus ut serviamus: We learn so that we may serve.
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QView #184 | September, 10 | | |
Everyone is curious about the potential impact of artificial intelligence. On Wednesday, August 14, Hostos Community College Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Shiang-Kwei Wang led a seminar on the Effective Use of AI in Research and Academia. The event was hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Research and the Office of the Associate Provost for Innovation and Student Success. | From left: Daniel Yakubov, director of QSTEM Academy (QC); Shiang-Kwei Wang, vice president for Academic Affairs and provost of Hostos Community College; Mildi Rodriguez, program coordinator of the Office of Undergraduate Research (QC) | Incoming and returning peer tutors underwent training on Thursday, August 22. Approximately 60 students serve as tutors through the Learning Commons, providing free help online or in person. For more information, including the schedule, click here or stop by the Learning Commons administrative office in Kiely 131, Monday-Thursday, from 9 am to 5 pm. A "Zoom Office" is available on Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm. | Through a partnership between Queens College and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), QC students have been serving as interns with a summer program that teaches English to children in Vietnam. On weekends, interns tour destinations around the country. Members of the latest cohort shared their experiences in a meeting on Tuesday, September 3. To learn more about this program, email teachinginvietnam@qc.cuny.edu or call 718-570-0565. |  | Front row: (from left) students Safiya Ishak, Carol Guachichulca, Aniyah Battle, Joanna Mata, Rosalynn Ye, Eric Grande, Matthew Robles. Back row: (from left) Learning Commons Coordinator Thomas Szlezak, Learning Commons Director Donna Smith, Administrative Coordinator Sayashmini Madhow, Associate Provost for Innovation and Student Success Nathalia Holtzman, President Frank H. Wu, Study Abroad Advisor Joelle Grosso, QC Global Executive Director Patrick O’Connell, Academic Program Coordinator Olivia Tcholakian, Thomas D. Dickson, Experiential Education Director Cristina Di Meo. | A new semester is a great time to look for a new activity—or through it, meet new friends. Students had lots of options to explore on Club Day on Wednesday, September 4. | |
Provost’s Faculty Fellows for 2024-25—Diversity Faculty Fellow Theresa Gurl (SEYS) and Middle States Faculty Fellow Peter Liberman (Political Science)—discussed their work over breakfast with QC administrators and a fellow predecessor Thursday, September 5. The Provost’s Faculty Fellows Program brings faculty into the Provost’s Office to pursue special assignments over the course of a year. Diversity Fellows work on a project connected to diversity, justice, inclusion, and/or equity; Middle States Fellows work on a project aligned with one of the seven Standards for Accreditation. | |
From left: School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Dean Daniel Weinstein, Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness Rebekah Chow, Associate Provost for Innovation and Student Success Nathalia Holtzman, Middle States Faculty Fellow Peter Liberman, President Frank H. Wu, Diversity Faculty Fellow Theresa Gurl Theresa Gurl, Vice President for Communications and Marketing and Senior Advisor to the President Jay Hershenson, School of Education Dean Bobbie Kabuto; Christopher Williams (English), last year’s Diversity Faculty Fellow, is missing from the picture. | |
Women’s Volleyball Opens Season with Four Wins | |
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The Queens College women’s volleyball team got off to a great start for the season, winning four matches last weekend at the Southern Connecticut State Invitational.
On Friday, the Knights defeated Goldey-Beacom College, 3-1, before edging University of Bridgeport, 3-2. Then on Saturday, QC swept Southern Connecticut, 3-0 and came from behind to win 3-2 against Post University.
Freshman Madi Hathaway led QC, totaling 48 kills across four matches with a .281 hitting percentage.
In other Knights’ news, two runners led the QC cross country teams at the Adelphi Invitational last weekend. For the women, Rachel Mow placed ninth out of 99 competitors in the 5k race, while John Ray placed 10th out of 110 runners in the men’s 8k race.
This week, women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s tennis will have a busy week of action. Be sure to visit queensknights.com for schedules, statistics, and the latest athletics news.
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Keeping on Course Overseas | |
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Study Abroad enables students to earn academic credit while immersing themselves in a different culture. Applications for Winter Programs are now open. The Study Abroad Fair on Wednesday, September 18, will showcase what’s available. The fair will take place from noon to 2 pm at the Dining Hall’s Midway Court.
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Artists in Residence at QC and LAHM
Residency programs at the Queens College School of Arts and the Louis Armstrong House Museum (LAHM) are giving artists the opportunity to create new work and reach new audiences.
The Thomas Chen Family/Crystal Windows Endowment for QCArts (QView 114) established funding for artists in residence to support Asian contemporary art at the college. A panel of Art Department faculty members chose the first two participants from among 68 international applicants. During the fall semester, Leekyung Kang will focus on Buddhist cosmology in the pursuit of art mediums, such as large-scale painting, raw materials, mirrors, digital prints, and video installation. In the spring, Jian Yang, whose output includes video, installations and performance, will examine the concept of “clean” as a function of censorship that became an ingrained response during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Through LAHM’s Armstrong Now program, artists explore the Armstrong archives to find inspiration for works that fuse music, dance, spoken word, and visual and performing arts. This year’s residencies were awarded to three individuals and one duo: tap dancer and choreographer Lisa La Touche; jazz saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins; saxophonist, composer, and educator Steven Salcedo; and emcee and songwriter Chen Lo and composer and producer Asante Amin, who comprise Soul Science Lab. | |
From Southern Italy to the New World | |
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Picturing Hot Times in New York City
Using an umbrella as a parasol. Soaking up spray from an open fire hydrant. Settling on a park bench under a tree. New Yorkers are resourceful in beating the heat, and Kara Schlichting (History) wants to see evidence of it.
As co-investigator of Melting Metropolis—a study of heat and health in London, New York City, and Paris since 1945—Schlichting is inviting New Yorkers to share photographs and stories of how they experienced summer in the city. This year, Schlichting and postdoctoral fellow Daniel Cumming (History) are focusing on the themes of shade and water. The call is open to all, but they are most interested in photographs taken before 2005.
To collect photos, Melting Metropolis is collaborating with Urban Archive, which has set up a specific page Melting Metropolis for the project. Photos must depict locations within the five boroughs and include at least one human subject. Send an image with your name, email, location of photo, date (if known), and a brief caption to info@urbanarchive.nyc or DM this material here.
Melting Metropolis, funded by a five-year Wellcome Discovery Award, examines the evolving relationship between urban heat and health. The study is based at Queens College and the University of Liverpool; project partners are the Living Centre in Somers Town, London, and Queens Memory Project, New York.
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MLS Alums are “Shaking” Up the Industry | |
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Earlier this year, The Library Journal, the nation’s oldest library publication, released its 2024 list of “Movers and Shakers,” the annual series that highlights individuals and groups who represent a range of innovative, proactive, and supportive work in the library field. A cohort of 49 librarians from around the country were selected across six different categories; several Queens College Master of Library Science alums—Amber Gagliardi ’12, Jennie Pu ’09, and Tara Somersall ’03—were among the honorees.
Gagliardi and Somersall were selected for the “Innovators” category, while Jennie Pu was highlighted in the “Ban Battlers” category.
“The Library Journal is one of the most widely read journals in our field,” explained Graduate School of Library and Information Studies Chairperson James Lowry. “Librarianship is quite a big work force, nationally, and the journal is widely read. It’s seen as a flagship publication in North America.”
Each of these Movers and Shakers was nominated by colleagues for profound contributions to the library field, which are summarized below.
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Amber Gagliardi: Innovator
Amber Gagliardi turned her passion for gardening into an innovative service at the Middle Country Public Library in Centereach, New York, where she is the Adult Services Librarian. Gagliardi founded a seed library where patrons can check out over 70 organic varieties of vegetables, herbs, and flower seeds.
In 2018, the library already had a thriving gardening program, and Gagliardi had the vision to create a seed library as a way to enhance their services. The seed library started off small, but it saw a boon during the pandemic when people were stuck at home and food prices rose. Since then, the popularity of the program has continued to grow. In 2023, Gagliardi expanded the services to include programs on cooking and nutrition.
“I saw the seed library as a way to enhance our gardening programs and to give patrons the tools they needed to grow their own, organic food,” explained Gagliardi. “Another part of the seed library was the increased need to help our pollinators. We have a lot of native seeds that are beneficial plants for the environment.”
The library receives seed donations from several places and purchases additional seeds from local farms. Additionally, Gagliardi has built a community of people who use and give back to the seed library, with many patrons participating in seed-sorting parties and contributing seeds to the library when their plants mature.
Building off the success at her own branch, Gagliardi went on to co-found Long Island Seed Libraries, working with other local libraries to expand the program. Currently, more than half of the libraries on Long Island have seed libraries.
“It’s been one of those services that just has brought in people who wouldn’t necessarily use the library on a regular basis,” she said. “It seems to be one of those services that make the whole community happy. It’s been a very rewarding experience.”
Gagliardi was pleasantly surprised to hear she was named to the Movers and Shakers list and hopes the publicity will help increase the popularity of seed libraries.
“It was a very big surprise. I was very grateful. To have something like the seed library be recognized is a great thing because the ultimate goal is for every library to have this service.”
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Jennie Pu: Ban Battler
Jennie Pu is the director of Hoboken Public Library, where she oversees the city’s historic main library, a branch, and a learning center that serves the city’s 60,000 residents. Pu is also the co-chair of the New Jersey Library Association Public Policy Committee and appointed to the American Library Association Policy Corps, Unite Against Book Bans cadre. Her substantive initiatives championing intellectual freedom led to her inclusion on the “Movers and Shakers” list in the Ban Battler category.
In June of 2023, in celebration of Pride Month, Pu organized a city-wide banned book readathon, bringing people together to read excerpts of books that had been banned across the country. This led to a barrage of hateful messages and misinformation from various social media accounts directed toward the library and those participating in the event.
In spite of the attacks, the event went off without a hitch. But the incident inspired Pu to do more.
“We needed to make a stronger and more public stance against censorship,” noted Pu. “We could never take it for granted. This can happen anywhere, and it happened to us.”
In August 2023 the Library Board passed a resolution to declare the Hoboken Public Library the first book sanctuary in the State of New Jersey, protecting individuals’ intellectual freedom and the right to read.
Two weeks later, the City of Hoboken followed suit and declared the entire city a book sanctuary. Over the past year, the grassroots movement has grown throughout New Jersey to 27 book sanctuary libraries and four municipalities, and counting.
“The book sanctuary movement uplifts the values held by our communities,” explained Pu. “It’s a local measure that’s positive and proactive. People want to read what they want to read. That resonates with everyone.”
Pu was honored to be a part of the prestigious “Movers and Shakers” list.
“To be a named a Mover and Shaker—there is no better compliment than when you get it from your peers, especially peers doing tremendous work in other parts of the country.”
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Tara Somersall: Innovator
As branch administrator at the Yonkers Public Library, Somersall has many responsibilities, including operations, team building, customer service training, community outreach, and professional workshops. But it was her work with early readers that led to her addition to the “Movers and Shakers” list. Somersall helped start the Born to Read program at the Yonkers Library to promote early literacy for children before they reach kindergarten.
Several times per week, Somersall and other librarians read at the library to young children, whose ages range from as young as one month to four years old. She also hires local performers who specialize in reading engagement and music, which helps to make the event more exciting for young children. Additionally, the library holds reading workshops for parents and provides them with a reading log to track when they read to their children. Children can also take part in the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program and receive awards as they reach certain milestones.
“We want to reach children, reach parents or caregivers, and promote an overall love of reading,” explained Somersall, who was thrilled to find out she was selected for the award.
“I was filled with gratitude. I felt like this was a win for all librarians,” she added. “I love reading. I have fond memories of my first school librarian. I guess that was the path I was supposed to take.”
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The Queens College Difference
Queens College’s strong representation on “Movers and Shakers” speaks to the quality of the GSLIS program at Queens College. All the alums who were interviewed felt that Queens College helped set them up with success in their career, with some even landing their current jobs through their QC connections.
“I had a great experience at Queens College,” noted Pu. “I think it has some fantastic faculty and a very diverse student body, which I loved.”
“Their ability to offer so many different options for students is very helpful,” said Gagliardi. “When I did my final project, they really allowed me to explore whatever topic I wanted. While doing that research, I came across Middle Country Library, which led me to my career.”
“I think from my experience, it’s more personable at Queens,” added Somersall. “The professors really care. It’s very family-like. That’s what separates us from the larger universities.”
“We are the only American Library Association-accredited program in the city that is publicly supported, making us the most affordable, which reduces some of the barriers to studying, and contributes to the diversity of our student body. Queens College is changing the demographics of the library workforce for the better,” explained Lowry. “Our students come in with a lot of drive and a vision for where they want to go. The program encourages students to think creatively about information work, and to see themselves as part of a profession that they have the ability to shape.”
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All's Fair at the Queens County Farm Museum | |
Despite the urban setting, the Queens Agricultural Fair—now in its 41st year at the Queens County Farm Museum—is the real deal, with a carnival, hay rides, contests in pie eating and corn husking, and an array of local craft and food vendors. Do you or your children grow vegetables, arrange flowers, keep bees? Are you famed among family and friends for your crafts or your culinary talents? People who participate in the Blue Ribbon Competition get free admission to the fair. | |
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Thelma Adair
Professor of Education Emerita Thelma Adair died on August 21, eight days short of her 104th birthday.
Adair, née Thelma Davidson, was born in North Carolina and educated at two of the state’s HBCUs, Barber-Scotia College and Bennett College. Then she moved to New York City with her husband, pastor of Mount Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church. While raising three children, Adair organized and managed day care centers and Head Start programs and completed a doctorate in education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. She joined the QC faculty, teaching here for 31 years. She also worked with the Peace Corps, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and Operation Crossroads Africa.
Committed to her faith, Adair was an ordained elder for the Mount Morris congregation and in 1976 became the first African American woman elected moderator of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Subsequently she served as president of Church Women United, an inclusive Christian women’s organization that works to advance world peace.
Age didn’t slow Adair down. In 2015, she joined President Barack Obama and other leaders in Selma, Alabama, as they commemorated the 50th anniversary of civil rights leaders’ first attempt to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge on a march to Montgomery. In a wheelchair and wearing a mask, she visited her neighborhood polls in November 2020, instead of casting an absentee ballot. “I wanted people to recognize that this is the person that we can be in our lives at this moment,” she told Spectrum News.
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Arthur Edelstein ’74
Arthur Edelstein, an accountant, passed away on August 24. He was 71.
A mathematics major at QC, Edelstein served as treasurer for the Student Association, experience that may have proved useful when he became a CPA. He enjoyed skiing, wine, and presiding over the grill at cookouts. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Barbara Gibson, and their daughter, Leslie Edelstein.
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Edward Griffith ’77
QView recently learned that Edward Griffith, who represented District 40—then comprising parts of East New York, Brownsville, and East Flatbush—in the New York State Assembly for 17 years, died last October. He was 92.
According to Remembering Edward Griffith: ‘The Most Decent Man in the Legislature’ – The Legislative Gazette, Griffith matriculated at QC, where he majored in political science, after earning a bachelor's degree in education from the Canal Zone College in Panama and spending six years in the United States Air Force as a missile technician. He segued into politics after serving as the first president of the Community School Board for District 19.
Among other achievements, Griffith drafted ethics legislation, preserved transportation services for children with disabilities attending nonpublic schools, and worked to improve safety for boxers.
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Gopal Sukhu
Gopal Sukhu, professor of Chinese, died suddenly on August 21.
After completing his undergraduate degree at Yale, Sukhu received a fellowship from the People’s Republic of China to study Chinese history, literature, and archaeology at Wuhan University. Then he completed a doctorate in Chinese literature from Columbia University.
A scholar of wide-ranging interests—during the 1970s he was lyricist for the Finnish jazz composer Heikki Sarmanto—Sukhu held teaching positions in Taiwan, Ohio, and New York. At QC, he taught classical Chinese and comparative literature and developed the writing-intensive course on Asian religion. His books include The Shaman and the Heresiarch: A New Interpretation of the Li Sao, and The Songs of Chu, a complete translation of the second oldest anthology of Chinese poetry, the Chuci.
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Regina Bain (LAHM) was interviewed by CBS New York for a story about distinctions recently accorded the Louis Armstrong House Museum . . . . Peter Calandra BA ’82, MA ‘95 (ACSM) composed, performed, and recorded the music that accompanied three Vice President Kamala Harris biopics shown at the Democratic National Convention . . . . Rolanda Coleman ’21, a second-year student at Fordham Law School, is the subject of a New York Courts Amici Podcast: An Insider’s Look at the Americans with Disabilities Act: Rolanda “Dolly” Coleman . . . . Arin Mohamed, a graduate student in Urban Studies, is the co-author of “Build Med Schools for Queens and S.I.,” published in the Daily News . . . . Nicki Nieves, an alumna, was Team USA’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremony of the Paralympics. Nieves helped Team USA win a gold in sitting volleyball in Rio de Janeiro in 2016; she had to sit out the 2020 games because of COVID but returned to action for this year’s Paralympics . . . . Caroline Rupprecht (Comparative Literature) has just published a peer-reviewed article, "Melzer and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Anna Seghers's novel Die Entscheidung (1959)" in the Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook (Oxford UP, 2024) . . . . Ashley Chandanie Somwaru MFA ’21 has received a 2024 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. The fellowships, given to exceptional poets age 21 to 31, include a $27,000 award and participation in a public reading at the Dodge Poetry Festival in Newark, New Jersey, on October 19 . . . . Jason Tougaw (English) published an opinion column, “Dems, listen to Eminem’s one-man culture war” that ran on the front page of Salon . . . . Adela Zamora ’19, a DACA recipient who traveled to her native Mexico with the help of CUNY Citizenship Now!, wrote The Study Abroad Trip of a Lifetime – CUNYverse about her experience . . . . | |
QC faculty members Chloë Bass (Art), Yin Mei (Dance), and Edisa Weeks (Dance) each received MAP Fund grants of $30 thousand toward new projects. MAP champions cultural equity and formal innovation in experimental music, public art installations, opera, multisensory media, live electronics, poetry, ritual, musical theater, puppetry, culinary arts, and other kinds of work . . . . CUNY’s inaugural 50 Under 50 Distinguished Alumni – CUNY Newswire includes QC graduates Luz Espinobarro ’19, early college coordinator at the Academy for Careers in Television and Film, and Marlene Leekang ’06, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Baruch College . . . . QC Gamelan Yowana Sari , a Balinese art ensemble in residence at ACSM, performed in Bali this summer, getting newspaper coverage . . . . The Invaders: A Freedom Summer Play will have its New Jersey premiere on September 21 at the Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck. The play, written by Ralph Carhart (DTD) and produced by the Andrew Goodman Foundation, debuted at QC in June of this year, in connection with the 60th anniversary of the murders of civil rights activists and clock tower namesakes James Chaney, QC student Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. | |
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