A Community of Many Communities: The College, The Borough, The City, The Nation, The World Annual Report 2019 | 1 A Community of Many Communities: The College, The Borough, The City, The Nation, The World | 2 | 3 A message from President Thomas A. ISEKENEGBE ronx Community College was founded in 1957 in response to years of local activism fighting for more opportunities for higher education in the borough. Sixty-two years later, BCC continues to serve the community. But what we now define as “community” has grown far beyond the borders of our campus. BWithin our gates, BCC is a community of many communities. Our students come from some 100 different countries and speak more than 50 languages. We have campus resources, student clubs and special events that speak to the diversity of religion, race, gender, orientation, age and physical ability that is the hallmark of our college. Meanwhile, BCC students, faculty, staff and alumni contribute their talent, wisdom and commitment. In turn, these larger communities play a fundamental role in the life of our campus. This year’s Annual Report takes a look at the kaleidoscope of communities that we shape and that shape us, from the College to the Borough to the City to the Nation and ultimately the World. These pages will take you to the streets of India, where BCC students have conducted original research into the environment and sustainability and passed on their knowledge to young Indians; to the halls of the United Nations, where a BCC professor shares his insights with a global audience; to the avenues of the Bronx, where the BCC community races side by side with the people of our borough during our annual Run the Bronx 5K and 10K runs, the second oldest footrace in the city; to Manhattan’s Directors Guild of America movie theater, where our student- filmmakers show their work to industry professionals; to the many places that have felt the impact of BCC “Broncos,” some of whom are profiled in each section of this report. Wherever there is a community devoted to making its part of the world a better place, there you may well find members of our BCC community contributing to that outcome. Join us now on a journey through the BCC community of communities. Consider this annual report your invitation to be a part of it. Thomas A. Isekenegbe President, Bronx Community College | 4 | 5 The College The first community of Bronx Community College is the College itself: the leafy green grounds and its 34 buildings, some of them architectural gems, but most important the people within those buildings, who explore, reflect, guide and serve in a school year rich with events and discovery. | 6 | 7 Manny LOPEZ A LIFE DEVOTED TO STUDENT LIFE he Office of Student Development/ “I grew up in Harlem. The crack epidemic and AIDS Student Life covers a broad range of non- were the huge social issues of my generation. academic activities of BCC students. The That influenced a lot of my thinking about how to administrator who oversees it all, Associate be solutions-based. I don’t like to just sit behind a Dean for Student Development Manny desk. I like to get out and sit with the students in TLopez, has to occasionally pause as he enumerates the cafeteria and try to understand how I can be of his many responsibilities: “Student leadership, civic benefit to them in their lives.” engagement, student organizations, honor societies, That work has involved mentoring students, taking the Student Government Association. Also what we them to conferences, helping them though personal call ‘affinity groups’: the Male Empowerment Network, crises or just sharing coffee with a student who the LGBTQIA+ Resource Room, the Womxn Up! suffers from sickle cell anemia and talking about his Space. Other units in my portfolio include the Office of passion for Japanese graphic novels. Personal Counseling, the Office of Judicial Affairs and the Office of Health Services. Then there’s the new For Dr. Manny Lopez, one of the most gratifying student orientation and at the end of the academic moments in his job is Commencement. The students year… Commencement!” he helped to bring to that point often leave him a note or a card or an email. The sentiment is always the In short, Lopez is in charge of the “community” of same: “Thank you.” Bronx Community College. And he loves it. “I grew up in “I work with the students and for the students from the very first day they start here up to their graduation Harlem. The crack to facilitate their success, both at the institution and in life.” epidemic and His career has been almost entirely at Bronx AIDS were the Community College. “I started in the Office of Disability Services as a counselor a dozen years ago.” huge social issues But his BCC roots go even further back than that. “I have an associate degree from BCC in Liberal Arts,” of my generation. says the native New Yorker. “Then I went to Hunter for my baccalaureate in Urban Public Health.” At Hunter, That influenced a he also got a master’s in Urban Affairs. At the CUNY Graduate Center, he earned a master’s in Philosophy lot of my thinking and most recently a Ph.D. in Urban Education. about how to be solutions-based.” | 8 | 9 NSF GIVES BCC A RECORD $5 MILLION GRANT “BRONX READS” BECOMING In a dramatic affirmation of the quality of a Bronx “This NSF S-STEM grant will help BCC as it builds Becoming, the best-selling memoir by Michelle This is the third year of Bronx Reads, which was Community College education, the National Science a community of excellence,” said BCC President Obama, is the featured book of this academic launched in the 2017-18 academic year with a Foundation (NSF) awarded BCC a $5 million grant for Thomas A. Isekenegbe. “The grant will leverage year’s “Bronx Reads: One Book, One College, One communal reading of Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and proven resources on both campuses to provide Community,” the campus-wide program in which all Life of Henrietta Lacks. For 2018-19, the book chosen Math (S-STEM). Announced in August 2018, this is academically talented, low-income students with of BCC reads the same selected book and participates by students and faculty was Why the Cocks Fight: one of the largest grants of its kind that the NSF has academic, financial, advisement, mentoring, career in events and activities focused on issues and ideas Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola awarded to a community college. and enrichment support to help them obtain a degree, raised in its pages. by Michele Wucker. Programs devoted to themes Over a period of five years, this award will ultimately further their education and enter the STEM workforce.” In the pages of Becoming, the former First Lady explored by the work included an essay contest, benefit 575 Bronx students who are pursuing degrees Securing this major award was the last great provides her unique insights into American history, musical performances, lectures and panel discussions in math and the sciences. It will fund a collaboration contribution to the BCC community by the late Dr. racial identity, gender and feminism, education and and an appearance by the author. Similar events will with Lehman College to provide and coordinate Vicki Flaris, whose tragic death was mourned across civil rights as viewed through the prism of her own life celebrate Becoming. scholarships, research opportunities and faculty the campus by her colleagues and students. (See experiences. As part of the Bronx Reads experience, mentoring to STEM students while at BCC and as they page 83.) As Principal Investigator, Dr. Flaris would students have received a free copy of the book. transfer to continue their studies at Lehman College. have implemented this grant with Co-Principal Faculty are encouraged to incorporate this reading The NSF grant will also fund BCC faculty to research, Investigators Luis Montenegro, Nancy Ritze and, into their curricula. develop and design an instructional model to support at Lehman College, Pamela Mills. It is a fitting legacy these STEM students as they persist and succeed in for an educator who devoted her life to diversity their studies. in science. | 10 | 11 FACULTY & STAFF HONORS, AWARDS AND PUBLICATIONS JOHN ASIMAKOPOULOS IVAN HOROZOV ULANA LYSNIAK NELSON SANTANA Social Sciences Mathematics & Computer Science Health, Physical Education and Recreation Library Wrote Why the Oppressed Hate the Left Appointed to the doctoral faculty at the Graduate Honored as an Ivy League Legend in March Awarded the Dan C. Hazen SALALM Fellowship CUNY Book Completion Award Winner 2019-2020 Center at CUNY, Fall 2018. 2019 by The Ivy League. Inducted into Columbia for Fall 2019 for his project, “José Mesón: University Hall of Fame in October 2018. Transnational Hero of the Movimiento 14 MONIQUE BRIGGS PRATHIBHA KANAKAMEDALA de Junio.” Art & Music History SETH OFFENBACH Publication of CD, *di.vi.sion of premieres: Of Co-authored, The City Amplified: Oral Histories History CHEYENNE SEYMOUR Death and the Planets by Jim Lahti. Performance and Radical Archives. A collection of essays from Wrote The Conservative Movement and Vietnam Communication Arts & Sciences by di.vi.sion. Albany Records, September 2019. The City Amplified Working Group at The Center War: The Other Side of Vietnam. Routledge, 2019. Published The Perks and Problems of Posting: for the Humanities at the Graduate Center CUNY. Social Media’s Impact on Pursuing Degrees. STEPHEN DUNCAN New York, NY: Printed at The Print Shop, The DAVID J. PUGLIA Routledge, 2020. History Graduate Center, CUNY, 2019.