“Open the doors to all — let the children of the rich and the poor take their seats together and know of no distinction save that of industry, good conduct, and intellect.” — Townsend Harris, founder cuny.edu/news THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK • FOUNDED 1847 AS THE FREE ACADEMY M AY 2006 Marshall, Truman and Goldwater Scholars are Named, Inside Continuing the String of Highly Prestigious Awards PAGE Online BA Steps onto Last year’s went to his friend Charles 3 the Stage Julia Rafal, a special-education teacher Claudio Simpkins of City College, who After years of offering online earning her master’s at Lehman College, has has been accepted to Harvard Law courses to students who want – a clear aim: to open the Bronx’s first all- School for this fall. no, need – them, the Univer- inclusive charter school. Merola is a vice chair for fiscal affairs sity is preparing to offer its Ryan Merola, a Brooklyn College junior of the University Student Senate. The first online bachelor’s enrolled in the Honors College, wants to Marine Park resident’s parents and one degrees. The Online become an assistant district attorney. of his grandmothers also studied at Baccalaureate makes And Rachel Schnur of Queens College Brooklyn College. That fact, combined its debut. sees her future in cancer research and a with his acceptance into CUNY’s university teaching position. Honors College program, made his

As winners of three highly competitive decision to attend Brooklyn “a no-brain- PAGE national scholarships, the students recently er,” he said. Citizenship Now! took giant steps toward reaching their The highly competitive Honors 4 The University continued its part- respective goals. Rafal was named a College provides qualifying students nership with the New York Daily News, Marshall Scholar; Merola, a Truman with full tuition, an academic stipend, a setting aside weeklong sessions for Scholar; and Schnur, a Goldwater Scholar. laptop, and intensive advisement, experts to answer questions about “CUNY students are once again com- including essay-writing guidance and becoming naturalized. The sessions are peting successfully for the most prestigious interview practice for their scholarship among the most awards at the highest levels of academic applications. popular call-ins achievement,” said Chancellor Matthew Pictured, left to right, are award-winning students CUNY also had a repeat performance in the city’s Goldstein. “This is a tribute to the students Julia Rafal, Ryan Merola and Rachel Schnur. this year with the prestigious Goldwater history. and their families, our dedicated faculty, Scholarship. Named for Arizona Sen. and the reforms implemented at CUNY accepting differences, is on Rafal’s agenda. Barry Goldwater, the program recognizes PAGE Race Matters – Issues over the past several years.” Marshall Scholarships, founded by outstanding math, science and engineering Britain’s select Marshall Scholarship, Britain in 1953 as thanks for U.S. help for students, covering the cost of tuition, fees, 8 Raised and which counts U.S. Supreme Court Justice Europe after World War II, annually recog- books and room and board up to $7,500 Discussed Stephen Breyer among its alumni, was nize 40 high-achieving American scholars per year. With former Brooklyn awarded to Rafal and 42 others for 2006. who are likely to become leaders in their Last year’s Goldwater winner was College professor John As a Marshall Scholar, she will receive fields. The awards, named for George C. Philipa Njau, who graduates from City Hope Franklin as a fea- $60,000 to pursue her Ph.D. at the Marshall, whose Marshall Plan helped to College in 2007 and aspires to a career as a tured speaker, CUNY University of Cambridge, England, focusing rebuild Europe, pay for two years of gradu- research scientist. This year’s CUNY addresses the plight of on inclusive and comparative education. ate-level studies at a British university. awardee is biology major Rachel Schnur young black males. Race “Ultimately, my goal is to return to the Exceptional leadership potential is also of Hillcrest, Queens, a junior in Queens also became an issue in U.S. and design and implement charter recognized by the Truman Scholarships, College’s honors program in mathematics the case of a murdered schools nationwide based on the inclusion which are named for President Harry S and natural sciences. Hunter College student. models used in the U.K.,” said Rafal, who Truman and provide $30,000 for graduate Schnur wants to earn a doctorate in now teaches at Bronx PS 246 through study to college juniors committed to pub- molecular biology/genetics, and pursue can- PAGE Center Tracks Cancer in Teach for America. lic service careers. Ryan Merola, a Brooklyn cer research and university teaching. These 10 Nuclear Plant Workers Opening the Bronx’s first all-inclusive College political science-philosophy dou- days, though, she works with Queens Queens College’s Center for the Biology of charter school, an approach she believes ble major who aspires to graduate school College Professor Timothy Short, studying Natural Systems, headed by Dr. Steven will aid in erasing the special-education and law school, is the second CUNY stu- plants’ responses to their environment: “I'm Markowitz, has received stigma and help children learn while dent in two years to receive the Truman. in the lab all day long, and I love it.” $40 million to test workers exposed Board Appoints New Law Dean, New V.C. for Students to radiation and toxic rominent legal scholar Michelle J. Anderson to Mary Lu Bilek, who has served as Interim tenured faculty appointment in East Carolina P chemical was appointed Dean of the CUNY School of Dean since May 2005, for “her outstanding dedi- University’s School of Allied Health. His plants Law and Dr. Garrie W. Moore was named Vice cation and service.” appointment, like Anderson’s, is effective July around Chancellor for Student Development, in actions The new Vice Chancellor for Student 2006. the taken by the Board of Trustees at its April 24 Development, Dr. Moore, has been Associate Chancellor Goldstein said, “Dr. Moore has country. meeting. Provost and Vice Chancellor for Student Life at demonstrated an unwavering commitment to The Board also announced the retirement of East Carolina University since 2002. empowering students from diverse backgrounds Emma Espino Macari, the University’s Vice An administrator with a strong commitment to become productive college graduates. He PAGE Chancellor for Facilities Planning, Construction to helping students succeed, Dr. Moore holds a brings to the University an impressive range of MFA Program Gives and Management. The Interim Vice experiences aimed at strengthening the quality of 6 Birth to Theater Company Chancellor will be Eduardo N. del Valle. student life.” Using plans they developed as students in A member of the faculty of Villanova Dr. Moore holds a doctorate in education Brooklyn College’s MFA program in the- University School of Law since 1998, from North Carolina State University. From ater, two young men form a permanent Anderson has taught criminal law and modest beginnings as a teacher training school in theater company in Brooklyn feminist legal theory. She is a graduate of North Carolina, East Carolina University has and offer the borough Yale Law School, where she was Notes grown to become an emerging, national research a series of Editor of the Yale Law Journal and Editor university with an enrollment of more than class of the Yale Journal of Law & Feminism. 23,000. acts. Chancellor Matthew Goldstein said, Speaking of Macari, the retiring Vice “Professor Anderson brings to the CUNY Chancellor for Facilities Planning, the Board not- School of Law an impeccable academic ed she has served since 1993 and has overseen background and an enduring commit- “an estimated $7.5 billion in planning, design and ment to the highest standards of schol- construction.” The new interim appointment, del arship and teaching.” New Law School Dean New Vice Chancellor for Student Valle, has been CUNY’s Director of Design, The Chancellor expressed thanks Michelle J. Anderson Development Garrie W. Moore Construction and Management. FROM THE CHANCELLOR’S DESK CUNY’s Decade of Science Online Courses Open Doors of Opportunity for Thousands Who Otherwise Could not ‘Attend’ College degree-granting Over a year ago, we designated the authority for some years 2005 to 2015 the “Decade of of our flagship When Casandra Kelting started col- Science” at CUNY, renewing the environment cam- lege more than 18 years ago in San University’s commitment to creating a puses, and expan- Francisco, she suffered a back injury and healthy pipeline to science, math, technolo- sion of master’s was suddenly forced to withdraw. After gy, and engineering fields by advancing sci- programs as feeders to the Ph.D. recovering from the injury, she began ence at the highest levels, training students Enrollment in CUNY’s math, science, working as a paralegal and spent the next to teach in these areas, and encouraging and engineering degree programs increased several years in various jobs and traveling. young people to study in these disciplines. by 26 percent over the last five years, com- Recently, however, the Staten Island res- Recent news at CUNY indicates that pared to total enrollment growth of 12 ident felt she was being turned down for the University is meeting these challenges. percent, and included more than 11,000 jobs because she didn’t have a bachelor’s As reported in this issue of CUNY undergraduate and graduate students in degree. It was time to finally get that Matters, the Center for the Biology of Fall 2005. degree, Kelting decided. The trick would Natural Systems of Queens College just In Fall 2006, CUNY’s Teacher Academy be to find a way to juggle a course sched- received a four-year $19.5 million award will welcome its first class at six campuses: ule around her two jobs. from the U.S. Department of Energy to Brooklyn College, City College, the The answer, in part, was an online support a research program of early detec- College of Staten Island, Hunter College, course at CUNY’s College of Staten tion of occupational disease. In addition, Lehman College, and Queens College. The Island, where Kelting also worked part- the National Institutes of Health awarded academy will educate students at the bac- time in the financial aid office. $13.2 million to Hunter College’s Center calaureate level by integrating hands-on “I’m online everyday with this class,” for the Study of Gene Structure and teaching experience in the public schools said Kelting, who also works as an inde- Function, and $12.5 million to City with a rigorous academic program in their pendent title closer. College’s Center for the Study of the majors—biology, chemistry, earth science, Taking an online class, she said, is “very Cellular and Molecular Basis of or mathematics. Each student will receive challenging, but it’s convenient, too. I can Development. The grants were made tuition support and will teach for a mini- get online any time, morning or night.” through the NIH’s Research Centers in mum of two years in New York City For Kelting and thousands of others at Minority Institutions Program. schools after graduation. the City University of New York, online These and other awards indicate the CUNY’s extensive—and growing— instruction represents an opportunity to go high quality of faculty research at CUNY College Now program to prepare students to college when various life circumstances and the lead role faculty play in advancing for college enrollment will continue to run get in the way. science at every level within the summer science programs and plans to This fall CUNY will open its arms even University. Since 1998, CUNY has added expand summer programs in mathematics. wider to students like Kelting. Deborah Adler of Riverdale is taking an online graduate course at Hunter, allowing her to spend time with almost 800 new full-time faculty to its The University is also introducing a new That’s when the School of Professional her newborn son at home and to work as a fifth-grade teacher in Dobbs Ferry. ranks, in part by targeting selected areas, “Science Now” program for middle and Studies will launch the CUNY including photonics and biosciences, for high school students, as part of the College Online Baccalaureate in ongoing cluster hiring. In the last four Now program. CUNY will work with the Communication and Culture, A Short Glossary years alone, more than 400 full-time facul- New York Academy of Sciences and the enabling students who have ty have been hired in engineering, math, Department of Education to create aware- already earned at least 30 col- Of Online Instruction Terms and science. ness and interest in science disciplines lege credits to complete their Asynchronous learning – courses taught fully Our Decade of Science is moving for- through specially designed courses and bachelor’s degree through online, with virtually no face-to-face interaction. ward on several other fronts, as well. workshops after school and during the online instruction. Hybrid or blended courses – classes taught with We will see a dramatic increase in the summer; an annual science competition combination of face-to-face and online instruction. construction and modernization of science that extends existing competition models, Historical Moment facilities around the University, most such as the Intel Science Talent Search, to It will be an historical Blackboard – a type of course management soft- notably the CUNY-wide Advanced Science students who have not traditionally partici- moment for the University and ware enabling instructors to post assignments, keep Research Center—which will concentrate pated in such contests; and an interactive college education. attendance, conduct tests, track grades and facili- on emerging disciplines such as photonics, television program to bring science activi- “Most of these people other- tate discussions. nanotechnology, biosensing and remote ties and innovations to a wide audience of wise would have no access,” said Tablet computers – computers that allow faculty sensing, structural biology and young people. Philip Pecorino, a philosophy and students to make notations on the screen, the macromolecular assemblies, and Science is not made in a laboratory; it is professor at Queensborough way they would mark with pen or pencil on paper. neuroscience—and science facilities at made when a young person gets that initial Community College, who has Brooklyn, City, Hunter, Lehman, and spark of inspiration, that flash of exhilara- taught about 50 online courses Queens colleges. Over the next decade, we tion. Through the University’s Decade of since 2001. The most motivated onliners, enhanced or fully online, according to esti- will be expending about $1 billion across Science, we hope to encourage and sustain said Pecorino, include “women with small mates of George Otte, CUNY’s Director the University on capital projects in the that sense of excitement and curiosity, children returning to college, people with of Instructional Technology. sciences. whether in budding scientists or seasoned physical disabilities or health problems, The University has begun an researchers. and those who can’t come regularly to Key is Flexibility operational review of our Ph.D. programs campus because of their job.” While online courses generally don’t in the laboratory sciences, leading to new Today, about 2.3 million students require less time or effort than traditional investments in graduate student support nationally are currently enrolled in online classes, they do allow CUNY students to for highly competitive students, Ph.D. courses, according to researchers at a rearrange their schedules to make course Massachusetts-based consortium known as work feasible. Sloan-C, which exists to improve the qual- Eric Jackson is one such student. “The ity of online education. Some online class- commute from the Bronx can be extreme- Board of Trustees es are called “hybrid,” or “blended,” which ly time-consuming,” said Jackson, who has The City University of New York means they combine online and traditional taken online writing and literature courses Chancellor Benno C. Schmidt Jr. Matthew Goldstein classroom instruction; others are totally with Associate Professor Bill Bernhardt at online, or “asynchronous.” the College of Staten Island. Jackson has Chairman Secretary of the Board of Trustees and Valerie L. Beal Randy M. Mastro Vice Chancellor for University Relations CUNY has been involved with online two time-consuming internships, as well as education since the mid-1990s, says an outside job. The online courses reduced John S. Bonnici Hugo M. Morales Jay Hershenson Anthony Picciano, professor in the graduate commuting time while allowing him to John J. Calandra Kathleen M. Pesile University Director for Media Relations Michael Arena education program at Hunter College and a fulfill his academic needs, said Jackson, Wellington Z. Chen Carol Robles-Román founding member of Sloan-C’s board of who hopes to graduate by next spring with Editor Ron Howell Kenneth Cook Nilda Soto Ruiz directors. Supported by funding from the a B.A. in history. Writers Gary Schmidgall, Rita Rodin Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the New “And besides,” he said, “what’s cooler Rita DiMartino Marc V. Shaw Photographer André Beckles York State Department of Education, than sitting in a class at 2 in the morning?” Joseph J. Lhota Jeffrey Wiesenfeld Graphic Design Gotham Design, NYC CUNY has trained hundreds of faculty Still, the main question many people Carlos Sierra Susan O’Malley Articles in this and previous issues are available who have offered online courses to thou- ask is: “Does that ‘classroom’ measure up at cuny.edu/news. Letters or suggestions for future Chairperson, Chairperson, stories may be sent to the Editor by email to sands of students over the last five years. to the face-to-face instruction of tradition- Student Senate Faculty Senate [email protected]. Changes of address Now more than 70,000 CUNY students al courses?” should be made through your campus personnel office. are taking courses that are either Web- For many CUNY students and faculty

2 CUNY MATTERS — May 2006 f Opportunity for Thousands Who Otherwise Could not ‘Attend’ College

students, it’s not as much a concern for At the same time, because students But developing friendships from purely most online students who are faced with often file assignments as they finish them, online interactions is more challenging, the choice of taking a course online — or rather than waiting to submit them on the said Adler, also a fifth-grade teacher in not at all. deadline day, Bernhardt marks them as Dobbs Ferry, who wanted to continue her For Amy Greenberg, who is taking an they come in, instead of going through the education while pregnant with her son. online graduate seminar with Picciano at entire stack in one day. “I tell them, the (He was born in late February.) Hunter College, the lack of faculty “face- earlier they do the work, the more atten- Kelting, the Staten Islander who recent- time” is not an issue, particularly since tion they’re likely to get,” Bernhardt said. ly returned to college, said one of her there were two initial regular class sessions Deborah Adler of Riverdale, who is also biggest challenges was preparing for tech- at the beginning of the semester and taking Picciano’s graduate research course nical glitches, such as computer crashes another session at the end. at Hunter, agrees that online classes leave that end up eating an entire paper. Greenberg said the experience can be more time for discussion and thinking. “Professor Bernhardt told me, ‘You’re going intense and fulfilling. “It’s time-consuming “The first time (we) used Blackboard, I to have that happen sometimes,’ so you with 23 people; you have to read every- thought, ‘Wow, it’s really a place you can need a backup plan. You can’t be a person one’s posting,” said the Manhattan have a discussion.’” who’s discouraged by that.” resident, referring to herself and her class- mates. “I didn’t expect it to be like this...But it’s a discussion, and you want to CUNY Online B.A. Makes Its Debut respond.” Marshalling its full range of educa- A key aspect of the online degree, Training is Required tional resources — a renowned faculty, according to John Mogulescu, Dean of Not being in a physical classroom also an innovative program of study and the the School of Professional Studies, is the may have other unexpected benefits. latest Internet technology — the City commitment to student support ser- Pecorino, the Queensborough philosophy University of New York is offering its vices, including financial aid, tech sup- professor, recalls one day when a student first Online Baccalaureate this fall. port, career counseling, tutoring and came by his office and said in broken Designed for those who seek to com- personal academic advisors. Along with English, “I just came by to thank you.” plete their college degree, CUNY’s new flexible course schedules, these services “I asked why,” Pecorino said. The stu- online baccalaureate combines a strong are critical to making college more dent replied that as an immigrant who liberal arts curriculum with a concentra- accessible — particularly for students spoke English as a second language, he was tion in communication and culture. who were unable to finish their degree. self-conscious and reluctant to speak up in Courses will be diverse and challenging College degree-completion has eluded a regular class. “But in your class,” he said, — and include such areas as mass media many students nationwide. In 1986, more uate course at Hunter, allowing her to spend time with “I’m like anybody else. We’re all the same.” studies, organizational change, global than half the students in four-year public fi de teacher in Dobbs Ferry. While online courses may spur more culture, historical perspectives, scientific institutions completed their degrees, said frequent and fluid commu- reasoning, and urban affairs. Offering a George Otte, CUNY’s Director of the answer is yes – The most motivated nication, they are not easier distinctive “virtual classroom” experi- Instructional Technology. Since that time, although there’s a overall, advocates say. In ence, the online baccalaureate combines he said, research shows that the number tradeoff: What’s lost onliners are: “women fact, they usually require flexible scheduling and Web-based tools of students completing their degree has in the spontaneity of a with small children more training, organization- to facilitate a high degree of interaction steadily declined across the country, with traditional classroom returning to college, al skills and work — for among students, their instructors, and not much more than a third of students is compensated by a both faculty and students. fellow classmates. now achieving their degree. significant gain in people with physical Online CUNY courses “The online degree was The launch of CUNY’s reflection, they say. disabilities or health use Blackboard, e-learning specifically created for The online B.A. Online Baccalaureate fol- “You don’t have problems, and those who software that debuted on those who have been suc- program is for lows extensive work with that kind of physical campuses in the fall of 2004. cessful academically, but online instruction between can’t come regularly to those who have presence of the class- Using Blackboard, faculty were unable to finish their been “unable to 2000 and 2004, supported room, the ability to campus because of their can post assignments, con- studies for unrelated rea- by grants from the Alfred finish their studies ask a question when it job,” says Philip duct online discussions, keep sons, such as a demanding P. Sloan Foundation. comes to mind,” said attendance and track grades. job or family responsibili- for unrelated During that time, more Pecorino, a philosophy Bernhardt, who’s been Faculty do need to be ties,” said CUNY reasons, such as than 20,000 students have teaching online classes professor at very organized. Studies by Chancellor Matthew demanding job taken online courses at since 1999. But online Queensborough the State University of Goldstein. “This kind of CUNY campuses across is “a more thoughtful New York show that facul- program fits perfectly with or family virtually every discipline, medium,” he said, not- Community College. ty spent between 100 and the mission and tradition responsibilities.” Otte said. ing that there are 500 hours (an average of of the University — to – Chancellor Online instruction has often more written interactions between 200 hours) training and preparing before reach out to New Yorkers Matthew Goldstein. increased dramatically teachers, students, and their classmates. their first day of teaching an online class, and provide access to a over the last decade. Besides, Bernhardt added, while having Pecorino said. quality education, which they might not “There is a strong sense among students the opportunity to listen to a dynamic lec- CUNY offers technical assistance for have otherwise.” that online courses are just as good as turer may be important for on-campus professors and for students who need to Offered through CUNY’s School of face-to-face classes, that there is actually learn Blackboard Professional Studies, the degree will enroll as much or more interaction, student-to- software, and students who already have earned at least student, and student-to-faculty,” Otte who may need 30 credits from an accredited college or said. Ninety percent of the students sur- help when university. It will also draw students who veyed said the experience was “as good things go wrong. have completed their associate’s degree as or better” than a similar traditional But not and seek to embark on a baccalaureate course, he said. everything is education. Full-time CUNY faculty will Those findings were mirrored among different from teach the inaugural class of approximately the faculty who were surveyed, Otte traditional 300 students. The University’s Board of added. While 90 percent of participating classes. Trustees and New York’s State Education faculty acknowledged that online For example, Department have formally approved the instruction required more time and in teaching his online baccalaureate. work, they wanted to keep doing it. “It's introductory “It's a strong liberal arts program, one really developed in a grassroots way,” writing courses, that will equip graduates with skills Otte said. “Now faculty are saying, ‘Let’s Staten Island’s increasingly useful in professional envi- build on the work so many of us have Bernhardt uses a ronments,” said Selma Botman, Executive begun and develop an online degree that tablet computer Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. maximizes the benefits to the students.’” that allows him “Among the goals of the program is for Students can come to CUNY and fin- to mark papers students to develop an awareness of the ish what they started. For more informa- on the screen, as social implications of the technologies tion, please visit www.cuny.edu/online or Casandra Kelting has two jobs and saves on commute time by taking an if they were they use, not just learn technical skills.” call 212-652-CUNY. online class at the College of Staten Island. essays on paper.

CUNY MATTERS — May 2006 3 STUDENT HONORS She Changed Careers, Now Studies with Eminent Psychoanalysts York’s Student/Scientist Wikipedia as “a theory (or group of the- A Hollywood talent agent- ories) about the psychological concept of As a McNair Scholar, Vanessa turned-City College psychology attachment: the tendency to seek close- Crevecoeur is among the top science major has become the first under- ness to another person and feel secure students at York College. Now the senior graduate student admitted to a pres- when that person is present.” has won national recognition. tigious psychoanalytic training The topic piqued Lyne’s interest and Crevecoeur has been selected to program co-sponsored by the Anna soon she was devouring “everything I receive a UNCF-Merck Undergraduate Freud Center at University College, could read on the subject,” she recalled. Science Research Scholarship Award, London, and Yale University’s Child She eventually decided on CCNY for which provides up to $25,000 toward the Study Center. the opportunity to study with Slade, as costs of her last semester at York, as well Jen Lyne, a member of CCNY’s well as with Professor Eliot Jurist, who as paid internships at Merck & Co. Inc. for Class of 2007 and a City College co-authored the authoritative book on the next two summers. Fellow, was one of 12 asked to the mentalization along with Professor The scholarship is a joint initiative of Psychoanalytical Research Training Fonagy. the United Negro College Fund and Program at Yale in mid-March, a The difficulty of returning to college Merck, a pharmaceutical products and nearly weeklong gathering normally studies was made easier by CCNY’s sup- services firm. Fifteen UNCF-Merck open only to advanced doctoral can- portive environment, she said. “City has undergraduate awards are issued every didates and other professionals. a thorough support system that takes the year to encourage African-Americans to They attended presentations and fear out of returning and worrying that pursue careers in biomedical research. had their work critiqued by promi- you’ve forgotten too much,” she said. Crevecoeur, a Haitian-born chemistry nent faculty, including Peter Fonagy, “Also, no matter how much you have major, hopes to earn an M.D./Ph.D. Ph.D., chief executive of the Anna learned or experienced, there are bril- Emmys for Alums Freud Center. Jen Lyne liant professors who have something “It was extraordinary to have the new and exciting to teach you.” At the 49th Annual New York Emmy undivided attention of such great faculty, a good agent or a good clinician you need Lyne’s motivation, preparation and Awards on March 12, the spotlight was and it was a networking opportunity bar to be a great listener.” enthusiasm earned her an important shining brightly on none,” Lyne said. “Everyone else was either Lyne, raised in Westport, Conn., became opportunity at the Yale program. Dr. two CUNY alums, in a Ph.D. program or a practicing clini- an agent while studying cinematography at Mayes asked her to join ongoing research who were called to cian. I was the only one who didn’t have New York University. She took a position on the “Minding the Baby” project, an the stage at the any patients to talk about.” at the Gersh Agency representing cinema- intervention program for at-risk parents. Marriott Marquis in A screenwriter for EUE/Screen Gems tographers, and within a few years was co- Lyne is happy with her evolving and Times Square to when not attending CCNY, Lyne sees her heading the firm’s literary division, as well. expanding world. ”I’m starting to see accept TV’s most decision to study psychoanalysis and child An offer to join International Creative myself as part of a network of colleagues coveted symbol of development as a natural extension of her Management had her packing for the West doing psychological research,” said Lyne, achievement. earlier professional life. Coast. who will apply to Ph.D. programs this fall Amanda Perez, She compares her time as a talent agent She had a pivotal moment, though, and is president of CCNY’s Psychology a recent graduate Amanda Perez to “10 years of clinical experience. When when she read an article in The Atlantic on Club, encouraging other undergraduates to of Brooklyn you’re someone’s agent, you need to attachment theory that was written by Bob pursue advanced degrees. College and the CUNY Honors College, understand where they are emotionally,” Karen, a CCNY graduate student who was “It changes your perspective and received the award for “Following she explained. “That’s the same point of working with Professor Arietta Slade at approach when you are part of a network Washington’s Trail,” a short segment she departure for a clinical psychologist. To be City. Attachment theory is defined by of people working toward the same goals.” reported and produced for “Transit Transit News Magazine,” the TV program of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Helping Immigrants Become Naturalized Dominican Exchange Winston F. Mitchell, news director of Students at City Tech the half-hour transit PBS program – who Citizenship and Immigration Project and a has also been an adjunct at a number of The Daily News and CUNY have Professor of Law at Baruch College. “I miss my country, but I’m learning a CUNY colleges – won an Emmy along teamed up again for “Citizenship Now.” “The need for citizenship application lot and I do like it here. Our group really with Perez for being the cameraman on The University’s immigration experts assistance is great and growing,” he added, has a chance to make a difference — to the segment. gathered at the News’ offices for another “despite existing federal and state resources leave a legacy about the importance of Also, Walter Garaicoa, a 1994 graduate weeklong round of answering phoned-in for these services.” cross-cultural communication.” of Bronx Community College and a 1996 questions about becoming an American A clear indication of the need for such So said Jose Heriberto Martinez, one of graduate of Lehman College, took home citizen. services is the overwhelming response to the seven students from the Dominican the statue in the outstanding editing cate- More than 100 immigration experts CUNY/Daily News Citizenship Now! Effort. Republic who are studying at New York City gory for “Secrets of NY.” were available to take calls in English or Typically during each of the twice yearly College of Technology (City Tech) as part of Garaicoa’s shining statue will be placed Spanish during the most recent call-in, session, more than 100,000 calls are placed. the new “Study at The City University of with the two others he has won in the past. between April 18 and 22. The University also makes it campuses New York (CUNY) Scholarship Program” Fulbrights at Hunter Each year some 100,000 permanent res- available, free of charge, for immigrant sponsored by CUNY and the government of idents settle in the city, and approximately swearing-in ceremonies. This initiative is the Dominican Republic. James Jackson, a Hunter College senior, the same number qualify for naturalization led by President Eduardo J. Marti of Martinez and the other newly arrived has a won a Fullbright grant and will annually, according to Allan Wernick, the Queensborough Community College, Dominican students have had their transi- spend the next academic year teaching Chair of CUNY’s highly regarded himself an immigrant. tion to life and college in New York eased English at a university in Argentina. A by the large Hispanic contingent of students member of the Thomas Hunter Honors enrolled at City Tech. Currently, nearly 28 Program, Jackson was one of five students percent of the student body is Hispanic, to receive the teaching assistantship to with 227 born in the Dominican Republic Argentina in this nationwide competition. and 810 indicating they are of Dominican Hollie Ecker, a master’s degree student descent. In CUNY as a whole, there are in Hunter’s Communications Sciences more than 23,000 students of Dominican program, has been awarded a Fullbright descent now enrolled in degree programs. grant for her research proposal in Italy. Executive Vice Chancellor for KPMG Scholarship Academic Affairs Selma Botman, who has spearheaded the project, expressed her Elisabeth Peltier, a doctoral candidate in appreciation to His Excellency Leonel Baruch’s Stan Ross Department of Fernandez, President of the Dominican Accountancy, has won one of KPMG Republic, and CUNY Trustee Dr. Hugo Foundation’s Minority Accounting Morales for their strong support of the P

Doctoral Scholarship for 2005-2006. A initiation of the program. P D A

KPMG LLP funds the scholarships P The Dominican students were chosen in R and the $10,000 award is renewable for A a national competition last spring. They five years. Queensborough Community College makes its campus available every semester for the swear- receive full tuition plus a $300 stipend ing-in of new Americans. This was from a ceremony last year. courtesy of their home country and CUNY.

4 CUNY MATTERS — May 2006 ANOTEDND Queensborough Continues QUOTED Slam Poetry Victory Streak Grallas and Kupferbergs Give $10 Million to Acclaimed Novelist Joins Respective Alma Maters, CCNY and Queens Medgar Evers English Dept. For the second month in a row, Queens- borough Community College students Colin Channer, author of the best-sell- won the Intercollegiate Poetry Slam at the Larry and Yvette ing novels Waiting in Vain, Satisfy My Soul, Bowery Poetry Club. Gralla have pledged and Passing Through, has joined the Grace Perez won the $100 prize in $7 million to The City Medgar Evers College English Department March and Gabriel Hualluanca was the College of New York to where he will teach Creative Writing. winner in February. Teams from New York expand a scholarship Born and raised in Jamaica, Channer is a City Tech, Borough of Manhattan program operating in familiar face on the Brooklyn arts scene. Community College, NYU and West- partnership with selec- After earning a degree in media communi- chester Community College are regular tive public high schools. cation from Hunter College, he began as a participants in the contest. The donation brings the freelance writer and also worked as a Poetry Slam, the competitive art of per- Grallas’ total giving to copyeditor for advertising and design firms. formance poetry, challenges artists to focus the college to $10 Channer became co-creative director of on both their writing and performance. million. Larry Gralla, who with his wife Eziba (eziba.com), a leading retailer of Original works of no more than three min- “Yvette and Larry Yvette gave millions to CCNY, global craft, where his redefinition of the utes and 10 seconds are performed without Gralla are true cham- speaks with students. Max firm’s brand identity became a major props, costumes or musical instruments. pions of City College’s Kupferberg and his wife, Selma, factor in its international success. The judges have included artists, journal- mission,” said President inset, gave millions to Queens In 2001, he launched the Calabash ists, musicians, and other poets. Gregory H. Williams. College. International Literary Festival Trust, whose “I can’t imagine anything that’s more That gift came as mission is “to transform the literary arts in important than having students write and Queens College announced its Colden Center was being renamed the Selma and Max the Caribbean by being the region’s man- share their own work. It makes them think Kupferberg Center for the Visual and Performing Arts. The renaming was in recogni- aged producer of workshops, seminars and about the major issues of our day,” said tion of the Kupferbergs’ recent gift of $10 million, the largest single gift received to performances.” The annual festival has George Guida, Associate Professor of date by Queens. attracted authors and visi- English at City Tech and the co-founder of The money will be used to establish an endowment to provide annual tors from throughout the competition. programming support for the arts at the college, as well as to provide much-needed the world. support for renovations to the facility. “I’m influenced Program Leads to Better In a speech announcing the renaming, President James Muyskens thanked the by reggae, by the Grades, Bigger Pay Checks Kupferbergs and summarized the career of Max Kupferberg, an alumnus. “After Max way politics, spiri- graduated from the college with a degree in physics (in 1942), he went to work for tuality, and sensual- Engineering technology courses are the United States Army on the Manhattan Project, conducting nuclear research in Los ity intersect and rough going, and many students in those Alamos, New Mexico,” Muyskens noted. interact in it,” classes have been discouraged by low “In 1946, building on their experiences as inventors of power equipment during the Channer was grades they’ve received. war, Max and his three brothers started Kepco, Inc. This internationally known compa- quoted as But a bulb lit up in the mind of Elaine ny has been a mainstay of the Flushing business community ever since, and Max con- saying in a Maldonado — the New York City College tinues today as chairman of its board.” profile of Technology’s director of Academic As for City College alumnus Larry Gralla, four years ago he, with some support two years Learning Centers — and she came up with from fellow CCNY and Stuyvesant High School alumni, launched the Stuyvesant- ago in The the idea of boosting pass rates by using CCNY Scholarship Project, which awards grants to Stuyvesant students who have Miami adjunct professors — rather than student high SAT scores and are enrolled in honors programs at the college. Last year, Gralla Herald. peers — as tutors. led an effort to establish a similar program for students of the Bronx High School of How successful was the effort? Science. Later this year the program will be launched at Brooklyn Technical High Pass rates in an School, and between eight and 10 additional NYC public high schools are being evalu- Electrical Circuits ated as potential future partners in the project. course went from “City College opens a door of opportunity for people who might not have any oth- 52 percent in fall er way of obtaining an education,” Gralla said. 2004 to 82 percent With his brother Milton, Gralla established Gralla Publications, which published in the fall 2005. trade magazines. Larry Gralla (Class of 1951) and Yvette Gralla (’52) met at City 55 The rates for a years ago, and married soon after. Colin Channer Circuits Analysis course jumped from 62 percent to Lehman Ichthyologist Helps Herring Return to Bronx, after 350-Year Absence 89 percent during the same period. million in federal funds for the once- through the Bronx was a virtual dumping Maldonado was Elaine Maldonado For the first time in 350 years, herring squalid river’s rebirth. He called the plac- ground for automobiles and tires. Owing taking a page from are swimming in the Bronx, and thanks go ing of more than 200 herring in the river to cleanup efforts that began in 1997 the the successful pilot program she had run largely to a Lehman College professor “a historic moment,” adding that there is river is now a place where canoeists paddle for freshman composition students in the who spent years doing research on the sweet symbolism in the development. He and 45 species of fish, including eel, small- fall 2003 — in which part-time English river that flows through the borough and remembers when Puerto Rican, Jewish, mouth bass and sunfish, thrive. Hopefully, faculty were hired to help students with bears its name. Italian and Irish kids grew up together in it will be a place where herring multiply writing and with the complexities of lan- “It represents a kind of a culmination the Bronx and became aware that Jewish also. guage acquisition. phase in all of the restoration activity families appreciated herring. She applied for, and received, a $500,000 that’s been going on in the Bronx to Every once in a while, Serrano U.S. Department of Education Fund for the restore the Bronx River,” said Professor said, he still likes to nosh a wedge Improvement of Postsecondary Education Joseph W. Rachlin, an ichthyologist and of herring out of a jar. (FIPSE) grant to expand the writing initia- director of Lehman’s Laboratory for At present, the herring will tive to City Tech’s School of Technology & Marine and Estuarine Research (La MER). continue to be blocked by three Design. “My speculation based on research was dams. But the Conservation Results show that both students and that the herring probably disappeared from Society and the National Oceanic faculty benefit from what Maldonado has there back in the late 1600s, somewhere and Atmospheric Administration, termed the “Adjunct Academy.” around 1639 or thereabouts, because a which stocks other coastal rivers, “Students are benefiting from having a dam was established near 182nd St.” The are seeking $1 million to tutor who is not only a professor at the dam — built near a flour mill owned by construct fish ladders — gently college, but…also serves as a mentor,” Jonas Broncks, after whom the borough is sloping water passageways – to Maldonado explained. named — blocked herring from reaching allow returning herring to climb And the adjunct faculty can now sup- their spawning grounds, Rachlin noted. over. If the money does not plement their teaching salary by tutoring Key players in the return of herring to become available, volunteers with Left to right, Dr. Tony Pappantonious, Lehman biology or conducting study groups before or after the Bronx were The Wildlife Conservation nets will help the spawning fish professor; Dr. Barbara Warkentine, Lehman alumna class. They are also compensated to help Society and the office of U.S. Represen- surmount the dams. and professor at SUNY Maritime; and Dr. Joseph students make connections to the work- tative Jose E. Serrano. For decades, the eight-mile Rachlin, Lehman ichthyologist and director of La MER place by sponsoring students in design and Serrano has obtained more than $15 stretch of river that winds (the Laboratory for Marine and Estuarine Research). exhibition competitions.

CUNY MATTERS — May 2006 5 A BOROUGH OF CHURCHES BECOMES A BOROUGH OF THEATER Straight out of Brooklyn, and an MFA Program, Ambitious Producers Create a Permanent Theater Company

tions relocating to Brooklyn.) the Sackett Group on temporary hiatus to One of the most important classes he After a decade of peripatetic production enter Brooklyn’s MFA program. took while working toward his masters of in rented theaters that strained its budget, “Our friend Laureen Lefever, who was fine arts in theater at Brooklyn College, the Sackett Group now finds itself with a in ‘Awake and Sing!,’ had already started in Robert Weinstein recalled, was Stephen long-term home in the heart of the vibrant the program,” Haft said. “She was so excit- Langley’s legendary theater management BAM Cultural District, surrounded by other ed about it, she kept telling us about what course. adventurous theaters and the culture-hungry wonderful work they did and how “That was an eye-popping experience audiences of brownstone Brooklyn. “It’s a absorbed you got in the theater; she said, for me professionally,” said Weinstein, dream come true!” Weinstein exclaimed. ‘You guys gotta come!’” referring to the early ‘90s when he was in Making it come true took many years “I had already been thinking about grad- the MFA program. and a lot of hard work. When they met in uate school,” added Weinstein. Working on “Professor Langley laid out what you 1987 during a Brooklyn Heights Players a professional production at The Lambs in need to make a theater and make it suc- production of “Joseph and the Amazing midtown Manhattan, he said with a grin, cessful: find a location near all transporta- Technicolor Dreamcoat,” Weinstein was “it was clear that anyone who was getting a tion, preferably an already existing theater, running the light board and Haft was in check had a master’s degree. It was some- in an area next to similar media – I’m the cast. But Weinstein wanted to direct, thing I had to do in order to move my laughing, because that’s exactly what we’ve and Haft, along with several other actors in directing career into the arenas I wanted.” found here, more than ten years later.” Joseph, shared his vision of an ensemble- Among the professors he would He was referring to the Brooklyn Music based company. encounter in the MFA program, Weinstein School Playhouse, a lovely little theater had a special tenderness for Stephen that in the summer of 2005 became home A bond was formed Langley, the late scholar whose book base for the Sackett Group, a company “We picked plays where no one part Theatre Management in America remains a directed by Weinstein and his friend Dan stood out and everybody had an equal role,” preeminent text in the field. But he added Haft, who forged bonds while students in Haft recalled. The name Sackett Group was that there were a number of others who Brooklyn College’s Theater Department. chosen in honor of Brooklyn’s Sackett were “instrumental in my artistic growth” The playhouse is indeed near all major Street; where Haft and his wife owned a and gave him “something to reach for, a subway lines, and is literally around the house and Weinstein was their tenant. level of production quality and care and corner from the Brooklyn Academy of Early productions of the Sackett Group detail that I hadn’t put into my work Music. (The area will soon boast a brand- included two contemporary plays and before…” Weinstein said. new theater designed by Frank Gehry and Clifford Odets’ “Awake and Sing!” Two As for Haft, he recalled that while in Hugh Hardy. It is being developed for the months after that classic family drama the MFA program he learned about Theatre for a New Audience, one of sever- opened in July 1993, artistic director “speech and diction” and about “the avail- al innovative Manhattan-based organiza- Weinstein and producing director Haft put ability of our bodies, how to relax and con- nect emotionally.” Haft and Weinstein even carried one of their professors along with them into the Brooklyn College Turns Out Sackett Group: John Scheffler, once head Award-Winning Playwrights of the college’s design program, is the company’s resident set designer and mem- ber of the board of directors. As one of New York’s lead- During their two years in the MFA pro- ing dramatists and a recipient gram, Haft and Weinstein solidified their of two OBIES — including one commitment to a professional partnership. for Lifetime Achievement in They did their thesis production together. 2003 — Mac Wellman knows “We did ‘Talley’s Folly,’ which is a two- the sweet sound of applause. character, 97-minute play with no inter- But when it comes to his mission, so you have to keep the ball in MFA play-writing program at Playwright Mac the air the entire time. We already knew Brooklyn College, he would rather Wellman and his we loved working together as actor and that his students take the bow. award-winning director, but that ground base of education Robert Weinstein (glasses and cap) and Dan Haft, who started a Brooklyn-based theatre company, The Especially students like Young student Young really helped things blossom.” Sackett Group. They pose here outside the Group's new home at the Brooklyn Music School Playhouse, Jean Lee. “She is a remarkably intelli- Jean Lee. located in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. gent and focused young person,” Life beyond the MFA Wellman said about the award-winning Haft earned his MFA in May 1995; born there and still live in the borough, as young experimental playwright, Lee. The show is also about Weinstein, derailed by his mother’s death do many of the Sackett Group’s longtime Lee, who graduated from the MFA being in love and trying to be happy in January, completed all the course work members. The arts scene was flourishing, as program last year, won a $20,000 grant in when you're so f ----- up that all you but never handed in the written portion of BAM imported some of the world’s finest February from the Foundation for want to do is destroy everything in your his thesis. They revived the Sackett Group companies for its famous Next Wave festi- Contemporary Arts, whose mission is to path… “ that October by transplanting “Talley’s val, and amateur theater groups and even promote innovation in artistic expression. Those who know Lee say she faces a Folly” to a lower Lee said she thanks the stars, as it bright future in playwriting. Manhattan theater. were, for introducing her to Brooklyn Wellman says he stacks Brooklyn’s “We went along, doing College’s MFA program under Wellman. playwriting program up against the best a production here and a “I was living in New Haven and I con- in the country. “It’s as strong a program production there,” tacted Jeffrey M. Jones, who was teach- as there is anywhere – Yale or Brown or Weinstein said. “But with ing play-writing at Yale. He NYU,” said Wellman, who has taught at the huge increase in real Training for Jobs in the Theater recommended that I go to Mac’s pro- Yale, Brown and NYU. estate costs, we realized gram because he knew that I was inter- (The program for playwriting is in that we couldn’t afford to The chair of Brooklyn College’s Theater program: acting; directing; dramaturgy; ested in doing experimental work, Brooklyn College’s English Department, keep rattling around, Department likes to boast that his gradu- design and technical production; and per- non-linear narratives,” recalled Lee, who not in the Theater Department.) renting Manhattan the- ates are filling theater positions all around forming arts management, which trains the writes and directs her own plays. Wellman has been a prolific aters for two or three New York City, and beyond. people who run the theaters – the agents, In a description of one of her pieces, playwright and a staple at off-Broadway weeks with all those The college is unique within CUNY as producers, the marketing and publicity “Songs of the Dragons Flying to theaters since the 1980’s. He received expenses. We started the only one offering an MFA degree in people.” Heaven,” Lee, a Korean-American, writes considerable attention in 1991 when he searching for space in theater, said Dr. Samuel L. Leiter, the chair. Dr. Frank Hentschker is quick to note that it “presents my confused, disturb- dedicated his OBIE Award-winning play, places other than Leiter explained that the MFA “represents that the CUNY Grad Center offers Ph.D.’s ing, and frequently offensive take on my “Sincerity Forever,” to then Senator Jesse Manhattan.” a certain level of professional (as opposed in theater – for those interested in it as a cultural background in all of its romanti- Helms “for the fine job you are doing of Brooklyn was the logi- to theoretical) training.” scholarly pursuit – and that Hunter, cized, half-informed, and brutal honesty. destroying civil liberties.” cal place to start. Haft He added: “We have five MFA’s in our Queens and CCNY are among the colleges and Weinstein were both

6 CUNY MATTERS — MAY 2006 ECOMES A BOROUGH OF THEATER bitious Producers Create a Permanent Theater Company

pitch the idea to someone who could we are,” Weinstein commented. putting one up on stage, doing preproduc- make it happen when the Sackett Group Regarding the company’s special inter- tion for another, doing post-mortem finan- threw a tenth-anniversary party in est in presenting works by women, cial comparisons on another. It’s all so we November 2003. Weinstein says the inspiration came from can move closer toward our goal, which is “We invited Borough President Marty “the talented women we met at Brooklyn a full, annual 12-month season. If we’re Markowitz, just because he’s an important College.” The Sackett Group has mounted not working on something every day, we’re person in Brooklyn,” Weinstein said. five separate productions showcasing one- not doing the right thing.” “Much to our surprise, he actually act plays written and directed by showed up. While Dan was emceeing the women, the most recent in performance, I sat the borough president October 2005. Performances around the down, looked him in the eye and said, ‘We Weinstein’s ambitions cover a University during really want to explore moving our compa- wide stage. ny’s operations here.’ I told him that when I “In the big picture, in the long May include: was a kid, BAM had a repertory company run, we want to create a theater and produced its own shows; as a public here in Brooklyn with a national Brooklyn College, school student I went there almost once a voice,” he said. “And our compa- GERSHWIN THEATER month. It was a big part of Brooklyn’s iden- ny’s sensibility fits in nicely “The Crucible” tity. When BAM changed directions, they among the other theaters here. by Arthur Miller, directed by brought in unparalleled, high-level outside BAM is mostly an import house. Rose Burnett Bonczek entertainment, but what they were doing Theatre for a New Audience May 5 at 8 p.m.; May 6 at 2 didn’t grow out of the community anymore. concentrates on classics. The It really bothered me that Brooklyn didn’t Irondale Ensemble, which is p.m. and 8 p.m.; May 8 at 2 p.m. have its own professional company of, by, moving into a gorgeous room in Tickets: $12 general public, $10 seniors, and for the residents of the borough. I’ve the Presbyterian Church down $5 students dreamed of building that since I was a the street, does very experimen- teenager sitting on the Promenade.” tal theater. These are organiza- City College, COMPTON-GOETHALS HALL, Markowitz, himself a Brooklyn College tions with a long history of Room 318 grad, was impressed. The arts, he knew, were production, large endowments, “Dreamgirls,” one of the driving forces behind the Brooklyn built-in audiences for their kind music by Henry Krieger, boom, and it was his mission as borough of theater. Fortunately, there was president to keep it booming. At a subse- room for us. lyrics and book by Tom Eyen quent meeting, Markowitz and his aides “The exciting thing about hav- Directed and choreographed by Keith Lee Grant suggested underutilized spaces that might ing the company producing year- May 11, 12, 13 at 7 p.m. meet the Sackett Group’s needs, among round is that we can grow,” he them the Brooklyn Music School’s theater. continued. “Over the years we’ve Hunter College, FREDERICK The dream came true found some amazing actors, who LOEWE THEATER embrace the kind of ensemble “Henry V” Checking it out, Haft and Weinstein where the only star is the show by William Shakespeare, liked what they saw. “Companies our size itself; we’ve had great usually get to share a tiny basement,” experiences, and many of them sponsored by the Graduate Weinstein said. “Here we found a beautiful, come back to us over and over Theater Club and directed 266-seat theater that was nothing short of again.” by Jason Andrew Eckard a jewel. It’s got opera-house style acoustics Haft interjected, “We didn’t May 3, 4, 5 at 8 p.m.; and a wonderful, full proscenium stage – even have auditions for ‘The May 6 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. which needs some attention and renova- American Clock.’ Rob just cast Tickets: free with Hunter ID, Adults $12, tion, but hopefully we can achieve that people he’d directed before. But seniors and students (other than Hunter) $5 with both organizations working together.” none of the actors in our next Liz Koch of the borough president’s production have ever worked LaGuardia Community College, office put Haft and Weinstein in touch with with us. It’s a widening net.” BLACKBOX THEATRE-Room M-122 who started a Brooklyn-based theatre company, The Brooklyn Music School executive director The partners hope that that new home at the Brooklyn Music School Playhouse, Karen Krieger, and over the next 18 months widening net will attract more “The Antigone Project” the two organizations negotiated, reaching spectators as well. an original multimedia production an agreement in the spring of 2004. “Now that we have a perma- directed by John Henry Davis and some Equity showcase companies present- The Music School got technical support nent home, we don’t have to produced by Will Koolsbergen ed fine plays to grateful audiences. for its dance recitals and other performances; reorient our audience to another May 22 at 4 p.m.; May 23 at 2:15 p.m. and But there was no resident, year-round and the Sackett Group got the opportunity part of town and another street 6 p.m.; May 24 at 11:45 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and professional theater. to produce plays throughout the year, as long with every production,” 6 p.m.; May 25 at 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.; Weinstein thought their organization as it accommodated the Music School’s Weinstein said. “We can tell May 26 at 2:15 p.m. and 6 p.m. could fill that gap, and he got a chance to schedule. them, ‘We’ll always be here. You Tickets: free In August 2004, the can come three or four times a Sackett Group opened its year.’ This isn’t just our home; first-ever full-scale season it’s their home for affordable Lehman College, THE STUDIO COLLEGE with Tennessee Williams’ theater.” Two plays by Edna St. Vincent Millay: “Suddenly, Last Summer,” The Sackett Group’s 2006-7 “Aria da Capo” / “The Murder of directed by Weinstein. season will begin in the fall with Lidice” “Women’s Work V” fol- “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” by obs in the Theater directed by Osnat lowed in October, and Steve Martin, possibly followed Greenbaum ecting; dramaturgy; offering MA’s or BA’s in theater. Arthur Miller’s seldom- by one of the late August l production; and per- In fact, virtually all CUNY colleges, seen “The American Wilson’s plays. It’s thrilling but May 3 at 3:30 p.m.; ement, which trains the including the community colleges, have Clock” in January. The exhausting, the partners admit, May 4 at 8 p.m.; theaters – the agents, theater programs of some kind, season will close in April to be running one season while May 5 at 12 p.m. keting and publicity Hentschker said. He has compiled a 60- with an original play, planning the next. and 8 p.m.; May 6 page booklet describing theater programs “One Big Happy Family,” “Up until now,” said at 8 p.m.; May 7 hker is quick to note and faculty around the University. written and directed by Weinstein, “doing just one pro- at 3 p.m. ad Center offers Ph.D.’s Hentschker said those interested in Joe Costanza, who has a duction at a time, we had time Tickets: free for students, sliding scale for others se interested in it as a obtaining “The CUNY Interschool Theatre BA in theater from to save money, to plan, to make Call 718 960-5637 for ticket information and that Hunter, Faculty Directory” can contact him by e- Queens College. all the phone calls. Now we’re are among the colleges mail at [email protected]. “We chose American perpetually working on several plays because that’s who projects at the same time:

CUNY MATTERS — May 2006 7 An American Challenge: Tackling the National Issue of the Young Black Male By Curtis Stephen success.” larger concentration of black students. This From the moment John Hope CUNY is working on that goal at its fall, CUNY plans to launch a Teacher Franklin, 91, became an educator in eleven senior and six community colleges Academy to encourage more black males 1939, one issue has concerned him with a $2 million grant from the New York to teach at New York City public schools, more than any other – the precari- City Council. As much as anything else, especially in the sciences. There also exist ous state of black men in America. the University wants to improve the num- other programs such as CUNY Prep, which “It’s at the top of my mind all the bers with respect to college attendance provides high school dropouts with a “sec- time,” he says. and graduation rates. ond chance” to prepare for college and Currently on a national tour to Nationally, males in the United States, obtain a General Equivalency Diploma. promote his book, an autobiogra- irrespective of race, trail females in college The Black Male Initiative is already phy entitled Mirror to America, enrollment and graduation; but the gap receiving an enthusiastic push at Franklin – once a Brooklyn College between black men and black women is Queensborough Community College, professor, now a professor emeritus especially high, demographers have said. through Men Achieving and Leading in at the University of Chicago and The gap is distressingly wide among Excellence and Success — or MALES — a Duke University – has had ample Hispanics also. new program that includes a range of men- cause for alarm as he’s traveled the At CUNY, for example, only 33 percent toring services in addition to workshops country. of the 58,000 black students are males; 36 and orientation programs for high school “I was in San Francisco the oth- percent of the 50,000 Hispanics are males; students. er day,” Franklin recalled. “I saw 42 percent of the 54,000 whites are males; “We want to provide hope by showing literally hundreds of men standing and 47 percent of the 29,000 Asians are them that there is light at the end of the around, homeless and jobless. They males. tunnel,” said Queensborough President were not all black, but largely But as a chilling article (with the head- Eduardo Marti. black. I asked myself, ‘What is this line: “Plight Deepens for Black Men”) in John Jay College will play a crucial role in the richest country in the the March 20, 2006 issue of The New York in coming up with ways of overcoming world?’” Times pointed out, the more alarming data conditions that lead to the high rates of Franklin, who in 1955 became are in the incarceration rates and jobless- incarceration. the first African American to head ness rates. In inner cities across the nation, “There’s an interplay between education a department at a primarily white more than half of all black men do not and the criminal justice system,” said John university — when he was chair of finish high school. And of the black Jay President Jeremy Travis. The college is Brooklyn College’s History dropouts, 72 percent are jobless, the article focusing on strategies for helping young men Department — was selected as the noted, and 34 percent are in prison. avoid the path to incarceration and, instead, John Hope Franklin keynote speaker for a late April, The huge pool of poorly educated black to find the one leading to employment. CUNY-sponsored conference on men in the United States is “becoming “We have a chance to help them get the plight of the black male. ever more disconnected from the main- their lives back on track,” Travis said. The symposium, titled “Black Male challenge,” said Executive Vice Chancellor stream society, and to a far greater degree According to Franklin, a large-scale, Youth: Creating A Culture For Educational for Academic Affairs Selma Botman, who than comparable white or Hispanic men,” concerted effort can serve as a national Success,” was held at John Jay College and was chosen by Chancellor Matthew the Times article stated. model for addressing the crisis of the grew out of CUNY’s Black Male Initiative, Goldstein in 2004 to oversee planning for Central to boosting the number of young black male. “If we confront this a multi-million dollar plan to increase the Black Male Initiative. “We concluded black males at CUNY is an aggressive cam- problem, we can deal with it successfully,” black male enrollment by 25 percent over that our institution had to become a moral paign to strengthen existing pipeline pro- he said, “and there’s hope in it – since the next two years. voice in this area by increasing access and grams, particularly at high schools with a Hope is my middle name.” The initiative was inspired largely by the innovative program that Medgar Evers College established several years ago. “You can’t save the whole world, but John Jay, Hunter Set Scholarships for Murdered Students we wanted to engage more young black males to participate in higher education,” the factor in the disparate treatment by the the killers of Romona, who was 21, said President Edison O. Jackson. In Scholarships have been established at media and police. Moore was black. St. appeared in court to face charges in that February, Gerald Jackson, a former profes- John Jay and Hunter colleges for two Guillen’s race was not highlighted in stories three-year-old murder. The city quickly sor of Africana Studies at Cornell young female students who were murdered about her, but the establishments she visit- became aware of the similarities – and dis- University, was named executive director in cases that stood out for the wanton, ed the night of her death are popular with similarities – in the two killings. of Medgar Evers’ Male Development and depraved nature of the killings. a young white college crowd. Back when Moore was missing, her Empowerment Center. Imette St. Guillen, 24 and a graduate “I hope something good comes out of family says they could not get police to For students like 24-year-old Lavar student at John Jay, was killed in February this,” the still-distraught Carmichael said, take the case seriously and had to make up Dopwell, the attention to black males has after visiting late night spots in SoHo. Her sitting in the living room of her home in their own missing person fliers. been paying off. Born in Harlem, Dopwell, death was one of the most brutal in recent the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. “I hope Moore’s mother says that only recently, a sophomore majoring in business manage- New York City history, and the case the police come to realize they shouldn’t in the wake of the St. Guillen case, has the ment, arrived at Medgar Evers in 2002, received prominent daily coverage in the treat black children as if they are nobody.” media paid attention to Romona’s murder. after a two-year hiatus following gradua- local print and broadcast media. Regarding the more recent murder of In mid-April two men were sentenced to tion from Washington Irving High School. John Jay College and the New York St. Guillen, the student’s body was found life in prison. The prosecutor, Anna-Sigga “I saw people getting cut in gang fights Daily News, together with the Association in a desolate part of Brooklyn. Her feet Nicolazzi, said, “They tortured her physi- on a regular basis,” he recalled. “It was so for a Better New York, recently announced were bound, her mouth gagged and her cally, sexually and mentally for hour on stressful that I couldn’t deal with school a $250,000 fund-raising drive to endow a head completely wrapped in tape, police hour, not ending until they took her life. anymore.” scholarship in St. Guillen’s name. said. She had been raped, officials said. A Moore’s mother said she hopes the Dopwell joined the workforce and held But some critics of the media and bar bouncer has been arrested. effort to raise scholarship money in her a number of entry-level jobs before realiz- police have complained that the 2003 tor- As the St. Guillen case was developing, daughter’s name gets stronger. So far, ing that he “could only go so far” with only ture-killing of Romona $5,000 has been raised and scholarships a high school diploma. “It’s not just the Moore also stood out for given to two students. degree,” said Dopwell, who aspires to be its viciousness, and that Those wishing to contribute to the an advertising executive. “College develops her case received far less Imette St. Guillen scholarship can make skills that you definitely need in life.” attention. checks payable to the John Jay College As recently published studies and news Hunter College offi- Foundation, Imette St. Guillen Scholarship articles have highlighted critical social indi- cials say they hope the Fund, and mail them to John Jay College cators, such as high incarceration and recent media stories about Foundation, 899 10th Ave., Room 623T, unemployment rates among black males, Moore’s death, though New York NY 10019. the Black Male Initiative is designed to they have been few, will Those interested in contributing to the come up with ways of ameliorating the lead to more contributions Ramona Moore Scholarship should make current condition. The main tool is educa- to a scholarship fund in checks out to The Hunter College tion, especially at the college level. her name. Foundation, c/o Romona Moore “We realized very early on that we had Moore’s mother, Elle Scholarship, and mail them to The Hunter to look inwardly and think more broadly Carmichael, has publicly College Foundation, 695 Park Avenue, about public policy in order to meet this complained that race was Imette St. Guillen Romona Moore New York, NY 10021.

8 CUNY MATTERS — May 2006 BOOK TALK OF THECITY 19th-Century Women Pursue Financial Independence Peering into Times Square By Gary Schmidgall the 19th century, Warren became a court- a “dollar worshiper” and “the witch of Wall Described as “a continuous carnival” room habitué, and thereby hangs a tale of Street.” and “the crossroads of the world,” Times In 1838, Catherine Grimké published collegial serendipity. Back in the 1970s, the The next chapter, “Economics and the Square is a singular phenomenon in mod- America’s first comprehensive demand for New York State Supreme Court was in American Renaissance Woman,” is ern New York, the place where imagina- women’s rights, Letters on the Equality of need of storage space and chose to discard conceived as a satiric contrast to F.O. tion blends with reality. the Sexes and the Condition of Women. One the testimony and supporting records of Matthiessen’s 1941 study of five famous To scholar and author of those letters was on “The Legal thousands of cases from the 1840s to 1920. male writers who, Warren explains, were Marshall Berman, it is also Disabilities of Women,” and just how Warren’s colleague at Queens, historian by and large totally clueless about or unin- the flashing, teeming, and astonishingly disabled women were before Leo Hershkowitz, terested in money: Emerson, Thoreau, strangely beautiful nexus the bar of justice in the intervened and sal- Whitman, Hawthorne, and Melville. of his life. In his new book 19th century is vaged them, eventu- Warren’s five countering women are most- — On The Town: One a central focus ally donating the ly not so well known — Susan Warner, Hundred Years of Spectacle of a new book collection to Hofstra E.D.E.N. Southworth, Harriet Beecher in Times Square, published by Joyce University in 1994. Stowe, Maria Cummins, Fanny Fern — but this year by Random Warren, profes- “This collection has their astute consciousness of the need for House — Berman takes readers on a sor of American been invaluable,” financial smarts Warren makes thoroughly thrilling illustrated tour of that special Literature and Warren writes, evident. part of New York City, and of his life. director of giving her informa- Chapter 4 returns to court cases in Berman is a Distinguished Professor of Women’s Studies tion on “women which women were plaintiffs, most political science at The City College of at Queens whose stories frequently with the desire to regain money New York and The Graduate Center. College. were in fact or property they owned. The next chapter, Picture it. On erased from “The Economics of Race,” fascinatingly Cuban Revolution Revisited marrying, all of a history.” explores the special economic preoccupa- woman’s property Focusing on tions displayed in the fiction of four Samuel Farber, in The Origins of the became her hus- the momentous African-Americans, notably Harriet Cuban Revolution Reconsidered, band’s. A New York decades sur- Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl challenges dominant views of the revolu- statute of 1828 rounding the (1861) and Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig tion’s origins and historical trajectory. specifically stated Civil War, (1859). Chapter 6 explores the three vari- A professor of political science at that a married wom- 1845 to 1875, eties of suits in which a woman was the Brooklyn College, Faber argues that the an could not write a Warren looked defendant: non-payment of debt, mortgage structure of Cuba’s political economy in will. A widow was at more than foreclosure, and inheritance disputes. the first half of the Twentieth Century not only responsible 2,500 cases Chapter 7 offers a panorama of made the island ripe for radical social and for the debts of her and found instances in which the law figures in the economic change. husband, but also nearly 400, plotting of ten women authors. In Chapter Taking advantage of recently declassi- could inherit only a life or about 15 8, “The Economics of Divorce,” Warren fied U.S. and Soviet documents, the pro- interest in a third of her percent, in which presents highlights from divorce cases, fessor highlights the fateful convergence husband’s real property a woman figured as a litigant. “All but a which made up about a quarter of the cas- of events that introduced the Soviet (thus greedy sons could, handful of these cases focus on a monetary es she read. Union to Cuba, and made it Cuba’s ally and did, sue to force the sale of a mother’s dispute.” Warren then set out to connect The last chapter, “Woman’s Economic and sponsor. home). On a wife’s death, the husband got the dots between ubiquitous financial-legal Independence,” is devoted, rousingly, to the it all. Married women had to get a male themes in prominent women’s fiction and three authors who most clearly and elo- Mexicans in Two Worlds “next friend” to sue in court. Needless to the particularities of these real-life cases. quently espoused the wave of the future. add, women could not become lawyers, Women, Money and the Law alternates Easily the pluckiest is Fanny Fern (1811- Drawing on more judges, or jurors. chapters that present narratives of illumi- 72), who was left in poverty with two chil- than fifteen years of One can only roll one’s eyes and recall nating or typical cases (there’s not a little dren when her husband died in debt in research, Mexican New the immortal words of Charles Dickens’s sordid human drama here) with chapters 1846. (Warren has a separate book on Fern York: Transnational Lives Mr. Bumble: “If the law supposes that, the in which Warren shows how this case law to her credit.) Fern went on to be a of New Immigrants offers law is a ass — a idiot.” is reflected ubiquitously in women’s fiction famously rambunctious novelist and a view of globalization As we learn in Warren’s study, Women, of the time. To acclimatize the reader to a reformer; no wonder she greeted Walt from a very human per- Money and the Law: 19th-Century legal landscape often intimidating to a Whitman as a soul mate. It was she who spective. Fiction, Gender and the Courts woman plaintiff, Warren sets forth in detail asked witheringly in 1870, “Why shouldn’t Professor Robert (University of Iowa Press), the legal system the case of Trust v. Trust, a suit for support women work for pay? Does anybody Courtney Smith’s study focuses on — then virtually created to keep women by a wife against a wealthy husband who object when women marry for pay — Mexicans who move back and forth financially dependent upon an arrogant left her and several children after 17 years. without love, without respect, nay, with between New York and their home patriarchal capitalism – very grudgingly Mary Trust pursued her rights against her even aversion?” She it was who also boldly village in Puebla, Mexico. Smith shows disgorged its controls. In 1848, with the despicable husband for 14 years. declared the year before, “I want all wom- how the immigrants borrow from both Married Women’s Property Act, New York Chapter 2, “The Dominant Discourse,” en to render themselves independent of communities as they develop new became one of a few states to allow wom- sets forth the social, legal, religious, medi- marriage as a mere means of support.” notions of race and politics. en to control their own pre-marital prop- cal, and commercial premises employed to Warren follows up with Louisa May Smith is an associate professor of erty and earnings during marriage. In discourage women from access to and con- Alcott (1832-88), focusing not on Little Sociology, Immigration Studies and Public response, James Fenimore Cooper wrote a trol of their own money. My favorite anec- Women but on her more subversive fiction Affairs at the School of Public Affairs at whole novel, The Ways of the Hour, con- dote: Hetty Green, the most successful for adults published under a pen name. Baruch College and at the Graduate demning the law. If a woman has money of woman Wall Street investor of her day Then she ends with a revealing look at Center. Mexican New York was published her own, Cooper fatuously opined, she who died worth $1.6 billion in today’s Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) by the University of California Press. should “reverently pour it into her money, being chastised as “unfeminine,” and offers a bracing recontextualization of husband’s lap.” Gilman’s 1892 story, “The Yellow Sex and the Cold War Hard though the patriarchy Wallpaper.” Not merely a lurid, labored to incarcerate women within Financial Facts of Life for Poe-like divertissement, the story, When Americans talked about poli- the parlor, kitchen and nursery, 19th Century American Women Warren says, is a “searing portrayal tics in the 1950s, they often seemed to Warren is convinced by her wide • Upon marriage, all of a woman’s prop- of the 19th-century middle-class be talking about sex. reading among women writers of the erty became her husband’s. woman’s life, in which the woman In Manhood and American Political period, both white and African- • A New York statute of 1826 specif- was confined to the home sphere Culture in the Cold War, Kyle A. American, that there was a palpable ically stated that a married woman and treated like a child. For both Cuordileone argues that the highly gen- consciousness of economic could not write a will. Fern and Gilman, the solution to dered language of the Cold War was the dependence among women then, as • Hetty Green, the most suc- what they considered a madness- product of specific anxieties centering on well as a growing thirst for financial cessful female Wall Street inducing situation was economic post-war notions of masculinity. freedom. One finishes the book think- investor of her day – she died independence.” A history professor at the New York ing the battle for economic indepen- leaving what would be $1.6 Six years later Gilman reiterated City College of Technology, Cuordileone’s dence even more momentous than billion in today’s money – was the moral of her story in a nonfic- book, published by Routledge, shines a the battle for suffrage. Intent on chastised as “unfeminine” and tion study. She titled it, appropri- light on tensions that can still be found in deconstructing “the fiction of wom- the “witch of Wall Street.” ately enough for Warren’s own American political culture. en’s purity in financial matters” during book, Women and Economics.

CUNY MATTERS — May 2006 9 FACULTY HONORS Queens Center Receives $40 Million to Gonsher Wins Emmy Among recent Emmy winners this nuclear weapons. Until 1951, it also was secured one of 11 contracts to put the plan year was Debra Gonsher Vinik, chair of Garry Sexton knew working in a used in fluorescent tubes — the kind that into action. This contract — funded at a Bronx Community College’s Depart- nuclear weapons plant might harm his were gathering dust at the Portsmouth, total of $20 million from 2000 to 2005 and ment of Communication Arts and health, but he was wary of doctors. So he Ohio, nuclear weapons plant until the another $19.5 million recently — accounts Sciences. let time pass. 1970s, when Sexton was directed to smash for 40 percent of screenings nationally and “It was absolute- Then Steven Markowitz, the occupa- them in 55-gallon drums for disposal. is the only one scanning for early-stage lung ly hysterically fabu- tional physician who heads Queens Beryllium scars the lungs, impeding cancer. Receiving almost $40 million for lous,” said Gonsher, College’s Center for the Biology of Natural proper functioning. both contracts, Markowitz is CUNY’s who attended the Systems, cornered him at a conference. “I used to run. Now if I walk a short biggest recipient of research grants. ceremony at the Markowitz offered weapons plant employ- distance I have to stop,” he said. It was a natural fit for the college’s Marriott Marquis in ees federally funded screening for work- “Sometimes just taking a shower and Center for the Biology of Natural Systems. New York’s Times related illnesses. Sexton was a union safety brushing my teeth I have to sit down and Founded by legendary ecologist Barry Square, where she rep whose duties included encouraging take a rest,” he added. Commoner, the center is an environmental received a 2006 workers to take these free exams. Sexton is one of hundreds of nuclear and occupational health institute that Emmy. How, Markowitz asked bluntly, could weapons plant workers who discovered strives to identify and help rectify environ- Professor Gonsher The documen- Sexton have credibility if he hadn’t been medical problems or their causes through mental threats to human health. tary — titled “And screened himself? this unique, federally funded screening Markowitz, soft spoken and with a mod- the Gates Opened: Women in the Some weeks later, Markowitz phoned to program operating out of Queens College. est demeanor, credits the union and others Rabbinate” — examines the struggle by insist. “He made me commit,” recalled It was born through moral suasion, con- who created the program for its success. women for the right to be ordained as Sexton, 56, who at the time was experi- stituent politics and savvy lobbying by the But Senate Majority Leader Mitch rabbis. It was directed by her husband, encing bouts of shortness of breath. Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, McConnell (R-TN) has no hesitation giv- David Vinik. The screening showed why: chronic now merged into the United Steel Workers ing credit where he feels it’s really due: Hunter Profs Win Fulbrights beryllium disease. of America. “Under the leadership of Dr. Markowitz, This rare condition is triggered by sensi- In Washington’s corridors, thousands of workers have been screened Hunter faculty members, Godfrey tivity to beryllium, a metal found in golf Markowitz not only helped and dozens of cancers were detected early Gumbs and Terry Mizrahi, received clubs, dental crowns and electronics, besides shape the national enough to be treated.” Fulbright Scholar grants to conduct screening protocol, As the Cold War ended in the late research abroad. but with the 1980s, pressure built on Congress and the Gumbs, the Maria A. Chianta and union also Department of Energy to clean up toxic Alice M. Stoll Professor of Physics, just waste left by the nuclear arms race. The returned from a five-month stint at Bar- DOE, which still builds and maintains Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel, these weapons, has spent billions on where he carried out the research fund- decontamination, although much remains ed by the Fulbright. to be done. Gumbs’ investigations are related to Meanwhile, Portsmouth workers were such high-priority areas as energy, telling their senator, Democrat John homeland security, climate, and Glenn, that they had been poisoned as nanotechnology. well. “They worked with radiation and, Mizrahi, a professor of social work what’s less apparent, they worked with and the director of ECCO (Education a lot of toxic chemicals,” Markowitz Center for Community Organizing), will said. spend six months at Hebrew University Glenn inserted a provision in the in Jerusalem, where she will teach a Defense Reauthorization Act of 1993 seminar and conduct research on com- directing DOE to provide retired work- munity social work. ers with ongoing medical evaluations, Fernandez is ACE Vice Chair since many occupational diseases don’t show up for as long as 30 years after Ricardo R. Fernandez, president of exposure. Lehman College, has been elected vice “It was common sense — workers chair of the American Council on should get evaluations to see if they had Dr. Steven Markowitz of Queens College’s Education (ACE), the major coordinating problems stemming from their work — Center for the Biology of Natural Systems. body for higher education in the U.S., with and on the other hand it was quite radi- more than 1,800 member institutions. A member of the ACE board since 2003, Fernandez was elected by acclama- (figures cover recent five-year periods) tion during the organization’s 88th annual Top Research Grant Winners* meeting in Los Angeles and will automati- PROFESSOR COLLEGE DEPARTMENT AMOUNT START YEAR cally assume the position of chair in 2007. Based in Washington, D.C., ACE pro- Markowitz, Steven Queens Center for Biology of Natural Systems $19,483,507 12/01/05 vides leadership on key higher education SUMMARY: A medical screening program for Y-12 and ORNL workers is needed because selected workers at these facilities have likely had significant issues. exposure to radiation and chemical toxins. Jordan Wins Lifetime Award Khanbilvardi, Reza City Civil Engineering $12,850,000 01/01/01 egendary vocalist Sheila Jordan, an L SUMMARY: CCNY is the lead Institution for the multidisciplinary CREST Center, to conduct research consistent with NOAA's environmental assessment Adjunct Professor of Music at City College, received the Manhattan and prediction and environmental stewardship mission and to recruit and train graduate students from under-represented minorities. Association of Cabarets & Clubs (MAC) Mills, Pamela CUNY Chemistry $12,500,000 09/15/04 Lifetime Achievement Award for jazz. The award recognizes outstanding SUMMARY: Mathematics and sciences in the New York City school system are confronted with a number of serious problems which are expected to be work in the fields of cabaret, jazz and addressed by the strategy of a Micro/Macro approach for reform at both the local level and system-wide. comedy. Past recipients include Liza Filbin, Marie Hunter Biological Sciences $7,797,019 09/30/00 Minnelli, Joan Rivers and jazz greats Kenny Barron, Bucky Pizzarelli and The SUMMARY: Immediate goals include the development of the research careers of two young neurosciences faculty already at Hunter and to establish Manhattan Transfer. the animal model of spinal cord imaging at Hunter. Jordan, who lives in Manhattan, said she was so shocked when she heard the Alfano, Robert City Physics $5,998,566 05/01/03 news that she fell off her chair. “I’ve been SUMMARY: The City College of New York proposes to establish a Center for Optical Sensing and Imaging (COSI) in order to develop enabling optical doing this music for so long, I don’t expect technologies, instrumentation, and methods for sensing and imaging of the earth and environment and to attract and train under- anything except the joy I get from teach- represented U.S. minority students in related science and engineering disciplines at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. ing and singing,” she said. *Information compiled by the CUNY Research Foundation, the not-for-profit educational corporation that engages in post-award administration of private- and government-sponsored programs at the University.

10 CUNY MATTERS — May 2006 Track Nuclear Plant Workers

cal, because there is no other industry in screening is to tell people the truth about the United States for which there are com- their health. Secondarily we want to detect prehensive occupational health evaluations,” disease early and help people,” he said. Markowitz said. To boost credibility, the union runs cen- In 2000, with bipartisan support, ters staffed by fellow workers, active and Congress also passed a compensation law retired. There, the union offers a two-hour that so far has paid $1.2 billion to nuclear pre-exam workshop to talk about workplace weapons workers diagnosed with 22 cancers toxins, and to discuss how to talk to a physi- or other specified work-related illnesses. cian and how the special compensation law “For a number of people, this is a way of works. Medical analysis is done in Queens. making peace with the past, which was a Miller, of the Government Accounta- very unkind past,” said Richard D. Miller, a bility Project, said: “I’ve been in these facil- policy analyst with the nonprofit Govern- ities when they were in full-scale operation ment Accountability Project, which protects — giant windowless buildings, often physi- Lori Brannon travels in a van, working for Queens College and testing workers for signs whistleblowers; he played a behind-the- cally very hot, no windows, very noisy, of cancer. scenes role in securing both laws. thick clouds of toxic vapors in the air. You These progressive health-care initiatives often needed earplugs. These are giant are backed by what might appear to be industrial facilities with toxic materials and On the Road – with Music in the strange conservative bedfellows, including radioactive substances, or reactor facilities Majority Leader McConnell and Senators that release neutrons, or industrial process- Background – and Saving Lives Jim Bunning (R-KY), Mike DeWine (R- es that generate industrial particulate. They OH) and George Voinovich (R-OH, who were defined as ultra-hazardous facilities Lori Brannon is a Queens College employee but she lives in Charlotte, N.C., and succeeded Glenn in 1998). The legislators under the Atomic Energy Act.” she travels innumerable miles around the country, from one nuclear weapons plant all came from states with weapons plants. So it’s a wonder that Markowitz found to another, in a huge white truck containing a low-dose helical CT scanner. The Queens College center started only limited rates of workplace-related Brannon works for the college’s Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, and screening at three gaseous diffusion plants lung disease among the self-selected group she performs the scans, checking workers for signs of cancer and other diseases. in 1998 — K-25 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; that chose to be tested. As of March, the “You have to be self-reliant and independent,” she said of the work she does. Paducah, Kentucky; and Portsmouth, Ohio program had evaluated 12,702 DOE Brannon has made the mobile CT suite comfortable, playing soft jazz, creating a — and a year later it added Idaho National workers, finding that: Almost three-quar- sitting area and placing posters on the ceiling over the scanner. Each Sunday she Laboratory. In the first three of those ters have hearing loss.; 17 percent have drives or flies to the location of the week and camps out in a motel; Friday she goes plants, workers mix uranium ore with chronic bronchitis; 10 percent show lung home. “It gets old some days, but I have rapport with the patients and feel I’m mak- chloride to produce a vapor that is sent scarring consistent with significant occupa- ing a contribution. It’s much more personal than a hospital is, where you never see a down long tubes to separate two isotopes, tional exposure to asbestos; 4 percent have patient again.” U-238 and U-235. The former goes into emphysema, brought on at least in part by Her work has saved lives. nuclear bombs, the latter is waste called powerful lung irritants used in the gaseous For one example, her scans found an early lung cancer in Sam Ray, who worked depleted uranium, some of which goes diffusion process, like hydrofluoric acid; 3 in a Portsmouth, Ohio, plant for 41 years and lost his natural voice to laryngeal can- into armor-piercing shells. percent have sensitivity to beryllium.; A cer a dozen years ago. These plants are in rural areas, where separate lung-scanning program detected “There were no real safeguards for the first 30 or 35 years,” he said through an workers don’t have access to independent 44 early lung cancers (see sidebar). artificial voice box. “There was radiation, all types, penetrating radiation and also air- physicians with expertise in occupational “This is not an epidemiological study,” borne. That’s no longer possible, because restrictions today are so much greater.” medicine. Often their only recourse is the which would track all of the 600,000 people In addition to Ray, there was a 47-year-old man with a suspicious lung nodule “company doctor,” whom they may not trust. who ever built nuclear weapons, Markowitz that Brannon followed for three or four visits; at the appropriate time, he had Sylvia Kieding, a consultant to the Steel said. “But I’m encouraged that we haven’t surgery and today is back working. “Every time I see him he hugs me, saying he Workers and its predecessor unions, says found large numbers of people who are ill.” would never have gone anywhere else,” Brannon said. “The realization hits you that the workers strongly believed that screen- Similar results have been found by other his kids could be without a father and his wife a widow.” ing “should not be dominated by universities screening other weapons plants. And then there was the young man whose scan showed an abdominal aortic academics, that it had to be a partnership DOE last year expanded screening to aneurysm. (The abdominal aorta is a large blood vessel that supplies the abdomen, — and not one in which we were a junior other plants, resulting in the center’s latest pelvis and legs; an aneurysm is a blood vessel that expands like a balloon.) partner. Workers had no faith in studies; grant. The five recently added plants are in “It was about to rupture, and if it ruptures, you’re going to bleed to death. they thought they were whitewashes and Ohio, Tennessee and — right here in New What hit him was that’s the way his father died, at about the same age,” Brannon said. often they were.” York — at Brookhaven National Surgeons fixed the problem. Markowitz agrees. “The goal of the Laboratory on Long Island. Said Brannon: “That’s what keeps me going.” CCNY Professors Receive NSF Grants for Cell Research Projects

Research into proteins involved in cancer growth is among the projects being funded at City College through the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program. Two science faculty members at the college have received grants, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Iban Ubarretxena-Belandia and Assistant Professor of Physics Carlos A. Meriles. Ubarretxena plans to investigate the molecular basis for regulated intra-membrane proteolysis, which is a signal transduction mechanism controlling cell growth and proliferation, in everything from bacteria to humans. He plans to study the biochemistry of intra-membrane proteins and their three-dimensional structures, in order to understand their biochemical properties in atomic detail. “This mechanism is directly involved in many forms of cancer as well as the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease,” the professor noted. “Understanding its properties at this level could lead to novel therapeutic strategies against cancer and neuro-degenerative disorders.” Authorized funding for Ubarretxena’s project, “Biochemical and Structural Characterization of Intramembrane Proteases,” totals $934,363. Meriles’ project, “Long-Range Dipolar Fields as a Tool for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Microscopy” has been authorized for $587,000 over five years. The year one appropriation is $147,000. His investigation aims to develop techniques for using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to analyze the chemical composition of cells and functions of cellular components. He explained that MRI has been difficult to apply to microscopy because reconstructed MRI images have resolutions no greater than one micron (one thousandth of a millimeter). Of his project, Meriles said, “If successful, this strategy could be very helpful because it maintains the well-known advantages of MRI to investigate biological matter without sacrificing spatial resolution.” Carlos A. Meriles, Assistant Professor of Physics, (left) and Iban Ubarretxena- The NSF awards, which run for five years, are given to support “early career-development activities of Belandia, Assistant Professor of Chemistry (right). those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education.”

CUNY MATTERS — May 2006 11 Crusading Journalism Lives on with Jack Newfield Professorship College go after them with a seeming fearlessness. It Queens College Lehman College Baruch College Queensborough College of Staten Island hey met 30 years ago. As longtime is curious to note today that many city Fashion Show Lehman Brass Annual Spring Community Crystal Gayle T of Staten Island Traditional Quartet Fling Street Fair College colleagues at the Village Voice, the two bureaucrats — the very kind who in the Observatory Grammy award- costumes and 12:30 PM Free Music, games, 2nd Annual CUNY winning country muckrakers helped hone the weekly into a past would feel the sting of Newfield’s darts Public Program contemporary and food General Highlights Saturn singer bruising thorn in the sides of some of New — have adopted his views and even, to a designs. 12 PM Free Education 1 PM and the moon 8 5 PM Free Conference York’s most powerful, greedy and corrupt. degree, his methods. PM Free $45, $42, $39 Today, one of them, Jack Newfield, is gone. The city’s Department of Housing 9 AM Free The other, Wayne Barrett, carries on Preservation and Development has “isolat- Borough of City College Queensborough Newfield’s legacy in a Hunter College ed its own list of worst landlords.” In a sign Queensborough Lehman College Manhattan Lehman College Community Las Sirenas Student Recital Community Children’s Community classroom. of openness, HPD College Womens' Choir Performances by College Musical College This semester officials showed Leslie Uggams Directed by Riikka music students Highlights In Jazz Jazz works from Swing Into Barrett, a senior Barrett’s class how to 3 PM Pietilainen 2:30 PM Free Blossom Dearie the past, present Spring Big Band editor at the use the department’s $45 12 PM Free 8 PM and fusion orchestra $30 /$27.50 S 12:30 PM Free 7 PM $25, $20, Voice, is the first databases. $18.50 to hold the Jack “The agency itself Newfield now seems to be fol- City College Graduate Center New York City Baruch College College Visiting lowing in Jack’s foot- Chamber Music Urban Food College of The LACUNY of Staten Island Professorship in steps,” Barrett said. & Vocal Systems and Technology Institute Annual Laughter Arts Journalism, The class’s exposure Ensemble Community End of Semester event, meetings Festival, Italian Development 1 Student Show: for librarians Night named for the to media and govern- Concert 12:30 PM Free 7-9 PM $10 BTech Program $25 8 PM crusading inves- ment movers and 10 AM Free $45, $42, $39 tigative journal- shakers has ist and Hunter made Hunter alumnus who senior Taina Queensborough Queens College∂ died in Borrero con- Community Col. Yom Hashoah December sider journal- Happy 250th Ceremony Village Voice writer Wayne Barrett, Birthday, Mozart! Holocaust remem- 2004. Guided who holds the Jack Newfield Visiting ism as a Oratorio Society of brance by Barrett, 12 Professorship in Journalism at Hunter possible career. Queens 9:30 AM Free students are get- College. Newfield, inset, was known “Wayne’s class 4 PM $20, $18 ting an insider’s for his “Ten Worst Landlords” inves- has been an view of city and tigative articles in the Voice. amazing expe- state politics — rience. He brings FOR MORE DETAILS and the media (guests) into almost coverage thereof — through guest speak- every class,” said the 22-year-old political AND MORE LISTINGS: ers, reporting projects and assigned read- science major who has interned with Sen. ing. They are also stepping into Newfield’s Hillary Clinton’s press office. cuny.edu/events shoes, spending a good chunk of the “The fact that (Barrett) brings in people semester reviving one of his best-known he doesn’t necessarily agree with, I think is and best-read Voice features: the annual list great.” of New York’s Ten Worst Landlords. Forty-six years ago, in 1960, Jack The Voice “has agreed to publish the Ten Newfield graduated Hunter with a BA in Worst Landlords, which we haven’t pub- English. He began his journalism career as lished in about eight years,” said Barrett. sports editor of the school newspaper, the The paper has agreed to pay every student Hunter Arrow. At the Voice, his annual lists LaGuardia and give them bylines, and the 5,000-plus- of Ten Worst Landlords and Ten Worst Community College word cover story will be “in honor of Jack Judges were widely read, and influential. Salman Ahmad and will say that it was inspired by his Barrett, who joined the Voice nearly 30 of Junoon journalism.” years ago, was co-author, with Newfield, of Rock ensemble The Newfield professorship is expected City for Sale, about the political corruption of Pakistan 8 PM to go to a different distinguished journalist scandals during the administration of $25, $15, $10 each year, with a faculty committee select- Mayor Edward I. Koch. Barrett has also ing the fellows, said Hunter spokeswoman written Rudy! An Investigative Biography, Lehman College Graduate Center Graduate Center Graduate Center Meredith Halpern. At the time of Barrett’s about Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and The Unstoppable The Color of Lead-Safe Work Food Systems appointment, Hunter President Jennifer Trump: the Deals and the Downfalls. Debbie Reynolds Wealth: Economic Practices for Policy Raab said he would bring “a unique Newfield, said Barrett, was “an in Concert Apartheid in Contractors Urban farmers’ insight” to students as an investigative jour- enormous influence on my life. ... He was 3:15 PM $50, $45, America Course in proper markets $40, $35 7:30 PM $10 procedures 7 to 9 PM nalist who was also Newfield’s colleague. one of the funniest people. We’d talk 10 9 AM to 5 PM $20 The class, Local Political and Investigative times a day if we didn’t see each other, and $75 Reporting, is “a conscious effort on my part he’d always keep me in stitches.” to carry on Jack’s traditions in many ways,” Teaching the class at Hunter “keeps me FREE SUMMER Kingsborough Barrett said. Newfield used to train his sights in touch with him,” Barrett said. “I can still Community College Summer on the greedy and the corrupt, and would hear him talking.” HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAMS Concert Double-Header Thirteen CUNY college campuses are offering Klezmer & summer programs for New York City public Hawaian Swing high school students. Row a boat down the 7 PM Free Non-Profit Org. Hudson River or meet some of the city’s leading U.S. POSTAGE journalists. Conduct research in a state-of-the-art aquatics lab. Act. Write. Play the sax. Graduate Center The City University of New York Lose Weight PAID It’s all part of a COLLEGE NOW SUMMER. Office of University Relations UTICA, NY through Most schools provide transportation 535 East 80th St. Permit No. 75 Hypnosis money and lunch. 12-1 PM $40 New York, NY 10021 For more information: http://collegenow.cuny.edu/students/summer

Graduate Center Stop Smoking through Hypnosis 12-1 PM $40