Around the World in More Than 80 Days
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Grad Receives Prestigious Award 5 . B&G Being Green 6 . Gifts Expand Middle East Offerings 7 . QC Launches QC Venues 13 Montessori Summer Program CLICK HERE QUEENS COLLEGE FacULTY | STAFFf NEWyS OCTOBERi 2011 Around the World in More than 80 Days Have passport, will travel—and teach, History) with the assistance of Mohamed study, or conduct research. That’s becom- Grand finale for Tabrani (Education Abroad). During ing the norm at QC, which saw impressive Year of China their week in Chengdu, the QC team met numbers of faculty, staff, and students with counterparts at Sichuan University, head overseas in the spring and summer. QC’s spring semester had just ended when developing professional bonds in areas First at the airport was Fred Gardaphé 14 faculty and staff—selected through such as English/foreign language instruc- (English/Italian American Studies), who a professional development program tion (Donna Gruber, Jacqueline Davis, and spent the spring semester at the University connected to the Year of China initia- Eva Fernandez), educational leadership QC collection specimens of (l-r) of Salerno in Italy thanks to a Fulbright tive—regrouped in Chengdu, the capital (Nathalis Wamba), drama (Susan Einhorn, botrioidal goethite, fuchsite, and teaching fellowship. Conducted in Eng- of southwestern China’s Sichuan Province, tourmaline crystals in pegmatite CONTINUED ON page 3 lish, his course—which covered American for a two-week humor from Benjamin Franklin to Chris trip led by QC’s Rock Rock—simultaneously acquainted stu- Marleen Kassel dents with American academic practices. (Institutional Collection Finds a “I made my students write papers, but Advancement/ when I first asked them to do so, they Home at American looked at me like I was cra- Museum of zy,” observes Gardaphé. “I use the Socratic method and Natural History I expected them to challenge me. That didn’t happen.” In Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Eugene addition to his 42 hours of Alexandrov, then a professor of class time, Gardaphé toured economic geology at QC, regularly led around the country, giving 25 student field trips to mines and rock lectures, several in Italian. The quarries throughout the U.S., Canada, educational process operated and Europe, where they collected in both directions. “I learned mineral and ore samples. Before so much by living day to day in retiring in the early 1980s, Alexandrov another culture,” he says. meticulously numbered, labeled, and In addition to meeting counterparts at cataloged the specimens—more than Sichuan University, members of the Year 5,000 in all—and assembled them into of China team saw iconic ancient carv- ings and contemporary pandas. CONTINUED ON page 2 ROCK COLLECTION - from page 1 at least a ton and essentially unmovable.” So nine workers from a moving company Recognition Day “a spectacular collection,” according to emptied drawers from the cabinets, Allan Ludman, chair of QC’s School of (Top to bottom) Leo Chalupa ’66 carefully labeling, wrapping, and boxing Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES). was honored as Doctor of Science each specimen. The preparations lightened “Gold, silver, copper, platinum, chromium, honoris causa at Commencement the cabinets enough to move them onto asbestos, trace elements of rare metals, 2011, while two students happily a truck for the trip to a temporary site one-of-a-kind crystals—you name it, the waited for receipt of their degrees. in Brooklyn; later they’ll be taken to the collection had it.” Anita Sonawane, who plans museum for research and display. But last year, with storage space in a career seeking to address “We all worked with Eugene,” says desperately short supply, Ludman and social issues through more Ludman. “We want to make sure this is his colleagues faced a hard decision: The enlightened economic policy, done right.” Once it is settled in its new collection would have to go. gave the Graduate Address. home, the collection will initially be used “We had no choice,” Ludman says. “But Economic empowerment for research. If it is placed on exhibit, it will was also the theme of this there was no way we would discard or be labeled, “Eugene Alexandrov Mineral year’s Commencement break the collection up. We needed to find Collection: Queens College of the City Address provided by John a new home for it.” With mining activity in University of New York,” per an agreement Hope Bryant, CEO of the U.S. today a shadow of what it was a between QC and the museum. Operation Hope. generation ago, he adds, “this is a collection The transfer of the collection frees that can’t be duplicated.” much needed storage space. But it marks So, last fall, SEES reached out to the a bittersweet transition for Ludman and American Museum of Natural History and others with warm memories of Alexandrov, asked if it was interested in acquiring the now in his 90s. collection. A few months later, the museum’s “Eugene is a big, gruff, Russian bear with curator of mineralogy came to the school, a heart of gold,” says Ludman, who has looked over the holdings, and said yes. taught at QC since 1975. “Generations of The transfer took place in the first week students accompanied him on his field trips of August; in terms of complexity, the and he remains a beloved figure to this day. logistics and advance planning requirements His collection was a true labor of love and lie somewhere between those for an estate we’re sad to see it go. But we’re happy that sale and a moon launch. it’s going to a good home.” “This was an intricate operation,” Ludman says. “The rocks are stored in 15 metal cabinets, each weighing Former QC geology professor Eugene Alexandrov and a specimen of tourmaline crystals in pegmatite from the vast rock and mineral collection he assembled. FYI OCTOBER 2011 | 2 aroUND THE world - from page 1 Searching for “a fish by the South East Asian Ministers of who also led a master class for acting stu- Education Organization. The interns co- dents, and Jeffrey Rosenstock), and library with crocodilian taught classes to children ranging in age science (Benjamin Alexander). Cynthia tendencies” from 7 to 15 and had opportunities to Lashley (EECE) visited a master’s class tour the city and other attractions. “This and kindergarten and talked with teachers John Waldman (Biology) and Peishi was a pilot paid international internship and administrators. Christopher Greaves Wang (ECP) also traveled to Asia out of Queens College, a joint effort of (Alumni Relations) researched emerg- this summer to continue projects the Provost’s Office and ELI,” reports ing models for private fundraising within initiated in previous visits. Waldman Donna Gruber (ELI), who was de- Chinese higher education and discussed Si- went to Mongolia to study taimen, lighted with the results. chuan University’s fundraising model with which he describes as student services staff, while John Andrejack “a fish with crocodilian From the Black Sea (Student Life) interviewed undergraduates tendencies.” A threat- about their expectations for study in the ened member of the to Ghana United States. Serinity Young (CMAL) salmon and trout family, established a relationship with In Asia Minor, Joel Allen (History) got the university's Institute for a head start on the 2011-12 “Year of” Tibetan Studies and worked program, concentrating on Turkey, by on a virtual tour of Dazu, site leading an Education Abroad course of rock carvings dating from there during the month of July. “East and the ninth to the 13th century West in Istanbul,” new this year, attracted and a stop on the group’s week six students, two of whom arranged to two itinerary. Leslie Jay (Com- leave after a few days to join Alexander munications), who moonlights Bauer (Anthropology) in an archeologi- as a clarinetist, blogged about cal project along the Turkish Black Sea the trip and played in a joint coast at Sinop. The remaining participants recital with a Sichuan music learned about the Byzantine and Otto- From top: QC students take a break professor; Townsend Harris man Empires, visited Roman ruins on the from teaching English in Ho Chi Minh classical languages teacher An- Aegean Coast, and in the fourth week, at- City; Alexander Bauer and team survey tended lectures at QC’s partner institution, drew Hagerty did research for a site at Sinop, Turkey; John Waldman a unit on ancient monuments. looks at two that didn’t get away. Bahcesehir University. The students’ eth- Before leaving for the rest nicities—they or their families came from of their journey—comprising Greece, Albania, Kosovo, and territory a daytrip to Dazu, a three- five interns—QC grad students in special contested by Pakistan and India—“made day cruise on the Yangtze education. From July 1 to August 8, they for interesting perspectives in a lecture on River, and a brief stopover in transformed two classes at BWCC, which cosmopolitanism,” notes Allen, a scholar Beijing—the Year of China has a partnership with QC: They incor- whose work focuses on the provinces of contingent crossed paths with other QC the taimen eats small mammals and can porated evidence-based interventions into the Roman Empire. “The trip opened new people in Chengdu. Ann Davison (Eng- weigh more than 100 pounds. Waldman, the curriculum, rearranged personnel so perspectives in my own work, too.” lish) and her husband, Len Rubin, were who was accompanied by QC biology parents wouldn’t assist their own children, The projects Rikki Asher (SEYS) at the university to give six lectures on major Ivana Roman ’12, documented his and decorated the rooms with visual sup- pursues have a signature flattened perspec- American short stories and culture to trip on CUNY’s Decade of Science blog, port materials.