Fyi April 2007

APRIL 2007 2 Jim O’Hara Retires 3 Wettan Named Asst. VP for Athletics 5 Students Air Issues on WBAI 6 QC Mentored-Students Are Science Winners Queens College Faculty & Staff News André Watts (see calendar) FYIFYI Ambitious Strategic Plan Will Help Shape the Future of Queens College Progress continues apace on the college’s Strengthening the Quality of the College throughout the fall, focusing on what the new Strategic Plan. Experience for All Students; Strengthening college should be in 2026, and providing a Initiated last fall, the strategic planning the Quality of Life for the College set of strategic objectives for the five-year process was guided by a Strategic Planning Community; Ensuring a Strong Financial period of 2007–2012. Their final reports, Council, which was supported in its work Foundation; Enhancing Physical Facilities; submitted in January, included detailed rec- by eight committees. Composed of faculty, Increasing the Visibility and Recognition of ommendations in their various areas, many students, administrators, and alumni, these the College in New York City and Beyond; of which will be incorporated in the final committees studied a broad range of issues, and Setting Performance Measures and Strategic Plan. including: Enhancing Academic Quality; Ensuring Accountability. Upon receiving the committees’ reports, The Balance of Teaching and Research; The council and committees met (continued on page 4) Guerrilla Girl Questions Images of Women Asking an Uncomfortable Question: Is It 1938 Again? Representing Frida Kahlo, a member Nearly two decades after the west, the shadows of World War II loom tor Leonard Fein, founder of Moment mag- of the Guerrilla Girls—guerrilla theatre losing a war that devas- large. In response, the college’s Center for azine. Panelists will discuss Iran’s quest artists devoted to exposing sexism tated its population and Jewish Studies will present Is It 1938 for nuclear development, the rise of anti- and racism in art, politics, and cul- its economy, crushing its Again? A Major Conference on the State of Semitism in European countries with ture—offers a multimedia presentation bid for regional domi- World Jewry. growing Muslim populations, and the rela- at last month’s Virginia Frese Palmer nance, a troubled land Opening on Sunday, April 22, the two- tionship between Israel and the American Conference on Female Image Makers. begins to revive. Defying day event will feature experts whose per- Jewish community, among other topics. Group members take the names of international agreements, spectives range all over the political map. Seating is limited, so advance registra- dead female artists. Joyce Warren (Women’s Studies) moderated a panel Dershowitz it rearms itself under the The lineup of scholars, intellectuals, and tion is recommended. Tickets for the entire of prominent women writers and film- leadership of a man who faults Jews for its activists includes Norman Podhoretz, event cost $35; seats for a single day cost makers who examined how images disasters—and encourages sympathetic lis- editor-at-large of Commentary; Alan $20 ($30 and $15 for QC faculty and of women have evolved with respect teners to take violent action. Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of staff). CUNY students may attend free of to historic and current cultural and The country is Iran. The politician is Law at Harvard Law School; Michael charge, but must present a valid college ID political influences. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And the Walzer from Princeton’s Center for at the door. A kosher box lunch, included year is 2007. But in an era when Islamic Advanced Study, editor of Dissent, and with the admission price, will be served on terrorists have declared a jihad on Israel and author of Just and Unjust Wars; and educa- both days. Jim O’Hara Looks Back at Thirty-Seven Years at Queens College It would require the patience of a saint to of both Powdermaker and Frese Halls, dur- English in mer session. “I held about nine different posi- put up with the inconvenience created by ing his tenure as executive director of facili- 1974. (He tions here, working with nine different presi- the renovation of Powdermaker Hall. Fortu- ties and campus services, as two accom- completed all dents, seven different provosts, and close to nately, as an ordained deacon in the Roman plishments of which he is proudest. credits toward three dozen student government presidents.” Catholic Church, Jim O’Hara has a talent “Powdermaker was quite an accomplish- a PhD at St. Jim also served as assistant vice president and for counseling people in times of crisis. ment because we all pulled together,” he John’s.) Prior vice president for student services. “Oh yeah,” he laughs, when it’s suggest- says, “and it really took an extraordinary to Queens, he His immediate plans include some ed that this, along with having minored in amount of understanding and sensitivity on spent five traveling with his wife, Fran. “I’ll proba- philosophy at St. Francis College (he the part of the people involved who had to years in the bly be expanding my ministry in the majored in English), may have made him be moved twice: out of Powdermaker into New York church,” he says, while also making note uniquely suited to the task. “Powdermaker swing space and back.” Army National of his long involvement with the campus Hall was a $70 million gut-renovation that Of Frese Hall, he notes, while it was not Guard, achiev- ministry services. involved relocating ten academic depart- officially a landmark building, the college ing the rank of first lieutenant. May, he says, will mark nine years since ments, two deans’ offices, and the graduate approached its renovation as if it were, and so “I came to Queens College with the idea he was ordained as a deacon at Holy Name admissions office for approximately five was able to preserve its unique architectural of pursuing a career in teaching,” he of Mary in Valley Stream, where he is on years,” he recalls. Given the fact that the attributes. “We had the same firm that did the recounts. “I taught in the English Department the Bishop’s Advisory Committee for the building represented 40 percent of the cam- renovation of Grand Central Terminal,” he for about two years when I was approached Diaconate. “The church,” he says, “has been pus’s classroom space, the inconvenience remarks. “Some of the glass work, particular- by President (subsequently Chancellor) a significant part of my history outside the could not be overstated. ly in the lobby, is just phenomenal.” Joseph Murphy to assume some administra- college and inside the college.” Jim, who served as interim vice presi- Jim first came to the college as a grad tive responsibilities.” He became assistant to In the months ahead, Jim’s career at the dent for finance and administration through student. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow the director of the Adult Collegiate Education college may come full circle: “I’ve been January, left the college on March 30 after and a New York State Regents College program, which led to stints as executive asked to do some teaching here.” 37 years of service. He cites the renovations Teaching Fellow and received his MA in assistant to the president and director of sum- STAFF PROFILE Cynthia Rountree: College’s New Affirmative Action Officer Cynthia Rountree had an important assignment to complete equal employment opportunity (EEO) compliance officer for Chase Manhattan Bank; administra- before becoming QC’s director of affirmative action, compliance, tive law judge for the NYC Commission on Human Rights; and regional personnel relations and diversity: teaching geography to a class of middle school attorney for J.C. Penney. students in a remote village in the Kumasi region of Ghana. Before any of this, however, Rountree taught high school in Washington, D.C., developing “I travel to Africa on a regular basis, working with people skills that she believes translated well to her work in affirmative action: “I developed EEO and who do service projects there,” she explains. “We call ourselves training programs to assist staff and departments in understanding the role of affirmative action the Africa Group, and we’re composed of nurses, teachers, social and the mandate of equal employment opportunity. I like the training and consulting aspects of workers, health educators, and others. We donate clothes, take my job because I see affirmative action as a resource for the departments and the college.” along school supplies, etc. The kids are desperate for learning. Rountree, who grew up in Harlem and went to public and Catholic schools, holds a BA from They never ask for candy or cookies; they ask for pencils and Howard University and a JD from Howard’s School of Law. A member of the American Bar paper. Many don’t go to school because they don’t have supplies. Association, she is admitted to practice in New York State and the Southern District Federal Court. “We go into villages and teach in schools or work in clinics. She is replacing Marianne Cooper (GSLIS), who accepted the additional role when the college I’ve been doing this for about 15 years and have been to about needed an AA officer. In her first weeks, Rountree notes, she’s been working closely with 16 countries. Africa is one of my great loves.” Cooper and Reinalda Medina, the new director of human resources. “We’re collaborating on For the past 15 years Rountree has been in private law practice in New York City, where she seeing ‘Where do we go from here?’” she says. specialized in conflict resolution, social services law litigation, and labor, discrimination, and She’s also discovering the campus she’d never visited in her 17 years as a resident of wage-hour law.

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