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Outstanding Teachers: Two Professors' Work Brings Statistics Into the Light
Outstanding Teachers: BILL WILLIAMS jokes that what led him to collaborate with Sandra Clarkson was the constant refrain at cocktail parties: "Oh, you teach statistics? I hated statistics!"Outstanding Teachers: Happy Is Good, Ethical Is Necessary
Outstanding Teachers: KIMORA – SHE USES only one name – has taken on what may seem a quixotic mission: to encourage students who intend to become police, corrections or probation officers to be ethical – if not happy – in their work. She sets the same goal for the teenage prisoners with whom she works.Outstanding Teachers: Biology Inspired With Touches of Theater
Outstanding Teachers: As a teenager on the brink of college, Jennifer Basil faced a big decision – theater or biology. At 17 she'd apprenticed at the New York State School of Performing Arts at the Circle Repertory Company in New York City. But at age 9 — "after watching everything on PBS about animals and fish" – she had written to the renowned Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory on Cape Cod, looking for work.Outstanding Teachers: For Science Majors, Mentoring Makes the Difference at PRISM
Outstanding Teachers: ANTHONY CARPI, professor of environmental toxicology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, hasn't been teaching much since he was tapped to be the Interim Associate Provost for the Advancement of Research last year, but he finds other ways to work with students.Outstanding Teachers: Understand the Concept to Understand the Law
Outstanding Teachers: TOM OFFERS TO SELL HIS JACKET to Sally for $50. Simple, right? But what if Ellen offers Tom more after Sally says OK? What if Tom changes his mind? Does it matter that nothing is in writing? What if Tom lied about the jacket's material?Outstanding Teachers: How to Face the Big Fear — Public Speaking
Outstanding Teachers: DARA BYRNE, an associate professor of communication and theatre arts at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, says her "favorite place is in a class with freshmen, because I enjoy helping them see what the higher education environment can do for them." And she teaches just the course – the one they don't want to take.School Ties: At CUNY J-School, a New Model for Publishing
THE UNIVERSITY is now in the book business with the launch of the CUNY Journalism Press. The academic press housed at the Graduate School of Journalism will use a new publishing model to produce books related to the craft.Outstanding Teachers: Learning How — Not What — to Think
Outstanding Teachers: When she was just 4 years old, Queens College associate professor Susan Croll announced that she would be a medical researcher. As a youngster, she was fascinated by her father's psychology lectures at SUNY Broome Community College and helped him grade the bubble exams, "but not the essay questions." Now The Princeton Review has recognized this neuropsychologist for her own teaching abilities.PROFILE: ARTIST NINA BUXENBAUM
ARTIST and York College professor of painting Nina Buxenbaum grew up in a multiracial, politically active family in Brooklyn. Early on, her work centered on black collectible imagery — Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben and Mammy — that Buxenbaum found "disturbing." Later, it became more personal as she developed her own identity as a biracial African-American woman.FIGHTING BACK
Nearly Killed at 15 by a Bullet That Tore Through Her Brain, Vada Turns Experience Into ArtMaking Storm Warnings A More Exact Science
NEW YORKERs are famous for being unflappable, but in the fall of 2011 William Fritz was worried that the city had taken Hurricane Irene a little too much in stride. Like other climate concerned scientists, Fritz, a geologist at the College of Staten Island, considered Irene a precursor of more powerful and frequent storms in coming years. But where he saw a heads-up, others saw a worst-case scenario that wasn't so bad.The Secret to Mentoring: Take the Time to Care
AS A STUDENT during her undergraduate days, Elana Cooper struggled academically. Today she's a first-year Ph.D. student at one of the top engineering schools in the country, and she is more surprised than anyone.Singer, Songwriter, Actor, Scholar — and More
OLIVER HOUSER would be the first to admit that his childhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan wasn't exactly conventional. How else to explain the home videos of Houser at 6 years old, playing the part of Gwen Verdon, running around the family apartment belting out "Whatever Lola Wants" from the musical comedy "Damn Yankees."New College, New President, Historic Challenge
AS A COLLEGE PRESIDENT, Scott Evenbeck is far from alone when it comes to being "new on campus." His school, its students, faculty and staff are all new as well, participants in a bold experiment in education. As the first community college to open in the city in 40 years, the aptly named and much-publicized New Community College will be under the microscope of educators and media for years to come. Nationwide, community colleges have been an abysmal failure at teaching and retaining the very students who need them. NCC aims to turn this around. Its curriculum is issue-based and uses the city as a learning laboratory. Students are vigorously supported by professors, peer mentors and student success advocates. It is not easy to drop a course.Outstanding Teachers: It's Game Time For Lively Learning From Media To Math And Science
Outstanding Teachers: TEAM GRANOLA'S GAME was preparing for Hurricane Rees, soon to whip through town with terrifying force. The object: Move around the board, gathering the essentials — food, fuel, medical supplies and hardware, plywood and tools — needed to survive the big blow.A Teacher, Storyteller, and Character — at 101
EVEN AT 101 YEARS OLD, Bel Kaufman is still fashionable — sporting oversized Gucci shades and a matching scarf at her Park Avenue apartment one late fall afternoon.A SWEET COLLECTION FOR A BASIC SCIENCE
THOUGH you probably have never heard of him, Hank Kaplan might go down in boxing history as the greatest of all time. Not for his boxing skill, but for amassing the largest archive of boxing memorabilia and artifacts in existence. Upon his death in 2007, at age 88, Kaplan donated the collection — valued at $2.94 million and gathered over 60 years — to the Brooklyn College Library Archives and Special Collections.On the Underwater Trail of Venomous Snails
SCIENTISTS ESTIMATE that there are 300 to 400 different species of terebrid snails — a type of venomous marine snail — that live in tropical environments around the globe. So far, only 150 species have been identified from DNA analysis. Some terebrids are equipped with a venom apparatus that produces compounds that could be used for drug development.Kennedy Family Patriarch: Myth & Reality
BEFORE historian David Nasaw agreed to write the biography of Joseph P. Kennedy, he says he warned Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith and the late Senator Edward Kennedy, who asked him to do it, that "I'm a crazy researcher and I'm going to find stuff about your father that's going to make the family unhappy."School Ties: A New Monkey Discovered in the Congo
A new species of monkey found in the Democratic Republic of Congo may help conservation efforts in the African bush, says Hunter College anthropology professor Christopher Gilbert. A paper on the discovery of the Cercopithecus lomamiensis, known locally as the "Lesula," co-authored by Gilbert made news headlines last fall.Search News
CUNY Newswire
ROTC Returns to CUNY
After a four-decade absence, the Army Senior Reserve Officers Training Corps is returning to City College, which will serve as The City University of New York headquarters for the new University-wide ROTC program, offering rigorous academics and training for leadership in the armed services to students from all CUNY campuses.
CUNY Begins National Search For J-School Dean
A national search has begun for a new academic leader for the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which has emerged as one of the leading journalism schools in the country less than a decade after its founding, Chancellor Matthew Goldstein has announced.
Eight CUNY Students Named 2013 Salk Scholars
Eight outstanding City University of New York students – recognized for research on subjects including cancer, immunology, cardiovascular disease, genetics, neuroscience, autism spectrum disorder, nuclear physics and the physical interactions of dye molecules – have been awarded Jonas E. Salk Scholarships to study in the medical field in 2013, Chancellor Matthew Goldstein has announced.
Executive Committee Meeting of the Board of Trustees
Executive Committee Meeting of the Board of Trustees, May 22, 2013. ... podcast
Farah Diaz-Tello (’09) on Mississippi Case Against Woman for Stillbirth
Alum Farah Diaz-Tello ('09), a staff attorney with the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, spoke to Mother Jones for an article about a Mississippi woman indicted for manslaughter after the stillborn birth of her baby.
Report On Credits For Transfer Students
A University-wide study has reported on ways to streamline course credit transfers among community and senior colleges. Too many transfer students find their college credits rejected by their receiving colleges, each of which has discretion to shape its own general education courses and credit requirements, according to the report of a working group convened by Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost Lexa Logue. The report found that transfer students "confront a variety of uncertainties and risks, including the risk of having some credits rejected, which can slow their progress toward their degrees and increase their costs."...
Colleges Helped In Census Drive
The University played a significant role in the U.S. Census Bureau's massive effort to complete its 2010 New York City count. The University provided facilities in the five boroughs, 17 sites in all, to help the Census Bureau recruit and train students, staff, and community members for its biggest operation: going door-to-door to count households that failed to respond to mailed forms. Patricia A. Valle, an assistant regional census manager, stated that without the University's help "we would not have been able to test and train the thousands of people who came forward to be part of this tremendous undertaking."...
The Trial of the 19th Century
A new book by Harold Schechter, professor of American literature and culture at Queens College, recounts a sensational 1840s murder and trial that included an O.J. Simpson-like media circus and the jousting of well-matched legal teams for the prosecution and defense. Killer Colt: Murder, Disgrace, and the Making of an American Legend has a cast that includes the victim, a busy local printer named Samuel Adams, the accused killer, John Colt -- older brother of Sam Colt, inventor of the famous six-shooter -- New York Mayor Robert Hunter Morris, 90 witnesses, and an enthralled public. Was Colt guilty or not guilty? Read the book to find out....
Pilot e-Textbook Initiative
The University has joined forces with IBM and New York City's Department of Education in a pilot e-textbook initiative at Stuyvesant High School aimed at better equipping students to succeed in higher education and then in a global workforce. In the trial program a group of 102 ninth graders will test Kindle DX e-book readers to download text and supplemental materials for geometry, biology and social studies classes. The partnership "takes aim at holding down costs and will offer students tools to better prepare them for college-level work," says Allan H. Dobrin, CUNY executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer. ...
The World Through Women's Eyes
International filmmakers brought "The World Through Women's Eyes" into focus at the Graduate School of Journalism in April with a global documentary festival launched to recognize the importance of such films in covering world events at a time of declining international news coverage. "It was all that we envisioned at the start and more ... not just filmmakers talking about films," says film board founder and chairman Lonnie Isabel. CUNY's journalism school has also started a documentary film class and Isabel expects that student film projects and discussions will be part of the next documentary festival. ...
CUNY's Website Is a Big HitCUNY's Website Is a Big Hit
The University's website -- www.cuny.edu -- has increased traffic by more than 50 percent to a record 1.64 million unique visitors per month since its 5.0 redesign one year ago. It is now the second most searched site on Google in the New York metropolitan area. In March 2011, the site produced a record 6.6 million page "hits" or pageviews. Among the most visited pages were the homepage, the portal log, admissions related pages, and employment and job search pages. In addition to providing vital services to faculty and students, the site, which is managed by the Office of University Relations, is also becoming a favorite for lifelong learners. ...
Honor for Anti-Apartheid Hero
Jonathan "Johnny" Clegg -- the renowned South African musician, human rights activist and anthropologist -- received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from The CUNY School of Law on April 5. Best known for songs such as "Asimbonanga" ("We have not seen him") -- a tribute to Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, Victoria Mxenge, Neill Aggett and other anti-apartheid heroes and martyrs -- Clegg and his bands Juluka (the first mixed-race band in South Africa, formed with the Zulu musician Sipho Mchunu,) and Savuka defied apartheid laws by performing for racially mixed audiences, resulting in numerous arrests for Clegg and band members. ...
Rising Star at Queens College
Liliete Lopez, a graduate of Hostos Community College now attending Queens College, has been honored as a "rising star" by the Queens Courier. Because she is blind, Lopez wasn't permitted to go to public school until she moved to America from Nicaragua at 13. But she's flourished in this country. Since 2009, she's been the treasurer of the CUNY Coalition for Students With Disabilities, which represents 9,000 students. Last fall, she was elected vice chair of disabled student affairs for the University Student Senate. ...
CUNYfirst Speeds Things Up
At a recent conference at City College, Queensborough Community College students Aradhna Persaud and Ashley Grant gave the new CUNYfirst system a test drive. Persaud logged into her student center, checked her adviser-approved course plan, searched for classes and put two into her shopping cart. It was easy, she says and while it was just a demonstration, using CUNYfirst (fully integrated resources and services tool) will eventually be the normal routine for students, faculty and staff. It will replace a jumble of inefficient, campus-based computer systems -- some dating to the 1970s. When it's fully deployed, every University information system will seamlessly mesh with every other. ...
Professor Tracks Ex-Convict's Life
For eight years, Greg Donaldson, a communications and theatre arts professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, followed the life of Kevin Davis, a former prisoner who spent seven years behind bars. Out of that came the book Zebratown: The True Story of a Black Ex-Con and a White Single Mother in Small-Town America. The title refers to a neighborhood in Elmira, one of New York's many upstate cities noted for rusting factories and a big prison where "mixed-race couples and their children abound." ...
