President's Report for May 2020

Enrollment Management Update

 

• New Student Enrollment Services continued helping students remotely due to Coronavirus (COVID-19). They are seeing an increase in students admitted year-to-date from fall of 2019 and are happy to see an increase in matriculated freshman from fall 2019 to fall 2020.  The Office of New Student Engagement worked in conjunction with marketing to provide virtual tours and information sessions for prospective students.  Outreach to prospective students occurred via email, calls and text messages. In addition, an e-mail sent to 2,000 local high school counselors outlined services implemented to support students during Covid-19.  This support includes informing counselors they can contact our call center during our extended office hours as well as how they can send documents directly to us via e-mail for processing.

 

 

• The Office of Academy Advisement continued to work with continuing and new students in a remote operation to support student enrollment and retention through various modes of advising. Continuing students are booking e-advisement appointments through Starfish or directly with advisers and appointments are hosted through virtual conference, phone and e-mail, depending on what is best for the student.  They have also worked very closely with special programs such as ASAP, College Discovery and CUNY Start. The new student enrollment process is utilizing Hobson Connect, WebEx, and a pre-advising survey through Hobson’s Connect so that advisers can better prepare to advise and register new students remotely. Academy Advisement registered approximately 300 new students with this process. Lastly, Academy Advisement developed a post advisement communication to provide students with an outline of technology tools such as CUNYFirst, Blackboard, Starfish, Schedule Builder, and the QCC Connect App.

 

 

Student Resources

 

• As Queensborough Community College closely monitors all developments related to Coronavirus (COVID-19) and in support of students completing the remainder of the spring 2020 semester via distance learning, the Division of Student Affairs will continue to provide support services to our students via e-mail, telephone and other online modalities. We recommend visit the website of the specific office/department they are trying to reach and follow the instructions outlined.  In the interim, please encourage students to monitor their Office365 student e-mail account periodically and the Queensborough website for updates from the college.

 

• Currently enrolled students who missed the 2019-2020 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) priority filing deadline date of April 7^th are encouraged to complete the FAFSA application immediately. Additional information can be found online on the QCC Financial Aid website.

 

• Emergency funding is available to students who face a financial crisis that puts at risk their continued enrollment toward their QCC degree. Supported through a grant from The Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation, the funds provide one-time, emergency grants to students in good standing with short-term financial emergencies to enable them to remain in school, rather than being forced to leave or drop out. Please refer students with short-term financial emergencies to Ms. Amawati Gonesh, Single Stop Administrator, via e-mail at AGonesh@qcc.cuny.edu. Additional information can be found online at the QCC Scholarship Website.

 

• Faculty and staff are asked to encourage our students to avail themselves of the valuable and free resources through the QCC Single Stop Program. Single stop staff are operating remotely in the wake of Coronavirus (COVID-19) but, they are still assisting students.  Services provided include (but not limited to) financial benefits screening, financial counseling, legal assistance, tax preparation services, food bank, housing assistance and more.  Additional information can be found online at the QCC Single Stop Website.

 

• Single Stop, in collaboration with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, will continue to provide free tax preparation and filingvirtually through Wednesday, July 15th.  Service will follow the Facilitated Self Assistance (FSA) model. Students and their family members will complete their tax returns with the assistance from a tax department employee.  Appointments are held on Wednesdays and Fridays virtually by appointment only.  The following documents are needed to prepare a return:
  • Copy of your last year’s tax return for your FAGI (Federal Adjusted Gross Income)
  • Photo ID (also your spouse, if married filing jointly)
  • Birth dates and social security numbers for you, your spouse and dependents
  • Income documents showing wages (W-2, 1099)
  • Form 1098T (if you paid tuition out of pocket)
    • If claiming childcare expenses, documentation & provider’s tax ID
    • Healthcare Statements (1095-A,B, or C)
    • Routing number and account number to direct deposit your refund

 

Students are encouraged to contact the Single Stop office for an appointment at (718) 631-6347 or via e-mail at Singlestop@qcc.cuny.edu. 

 

• The Milton Fisher Scholarship for Innovation and Creativity is not a traditional scholarship focused on rewarding academic achievement and financial need.  Its specific goal is to reward and encourage innovative and creative problem solving.  The scholarship aims to honor students who excel as creative problem solvers and to help make their higher education goals more accessible. The award amount is $5,000 per year and the deadline to apply is June 1, 2020. Learn more about the Milton Fisher Scholarship for Innovation and Creativity.

 

• The Freya Moskowitz Stern and Laura Rollins Hockaday Scholarships are now available for eligible students. The scholarships, worth $5000, are awarded to second-year female community college students who will graduate from QCC at the conclusion of spring 2020 and transfer to a four-year university for fall 2020. For additional information, including eligibility requirements and application deadline, visit the Finch College Scholarship website.

 

• The Thomas Tam Scholarship is accepting applications from qualified undergraduate students currently enrolled in a CUNY college who have demonstrated creativity in the communication of the concerns of the Asian American community in areas such as Health, Education, and Culture, media and advocacy. The deadline to apply is June 26, 2020. Full details can be found online at the QCC Scholarships Webpage.

Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)

 

• The Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETL) continues to offer virtual professional development opportunities and individual consultations regarding instructional practices in the distance learning modalities. Recent workshops on timely, contextual issues (such as Student Mental Health, Contemplative Practices, etc.) were offered in collaboration with the Counseling Center and the Faculty Inquiry Group (FIG) on Mindfulness in the Classroom.All Faculty are encouraged to visit the CETL and OET homepages to see a complete listing of all upcoming events and professional development opportunities.

 

Office of Educational Technology (OET)

 

As the QCC community begins the preparation for another semester in a fully online environment, the Office of Educational Technology (OET) thought it would be helpful to develop a list of best practices and recommendations for creating an effective online course. These guidelines were sent to all QCC faculty via email on April 20, 2020. The guidelines are based on the nationally recognized Quality Matters Rubric which is used to assess the design and quality of online courses. 

 

The Office of Educational Technology is also working closely with CUNY’s Central Office and the School of Professional Studies (SPS) to implement an “Online Teaching Essentials” course before the summer. This is a University-wide course managed by SPS staff and it is a critical component of the University’s efforts to support our faculty during the transition to fully online instruction.

 

Each participant who completes the course will:

 

• Gain first-hand experience in and appreciation of the needs of an online learner;

• Identify widely accepted best practices for online teaching, including principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL);

• Reflect on how to apply to one’s own course the instructional design principles, organizational and facilitation skills, and communication and assessment strategies introduced in the course;
• Become familiar with the basic operations and features of a Blackboard classroom from both student and instructor perspectives. 

 

QCC estimates that at least 40 participants will join Cohort I (May). The Office of Educational Technology will work closely with all Department Chairs through the initial selection process. More training opportunities will be available during the summer.

 

The Office of Educational Technology is currently offering daily open-lab hours and faculty consultations to support the College’s transition to online instruction. Currently, the Office of Educational Technology is offering Drop-in Virtual Office Hours through Blackboard Collaborate. Faculty can join the OET Virtual Office to speak with an IT Academic Specialist, Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.  and 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

 

Office of Continuing Education and Workforce Development (CEWD)

 

CEWD has sent graduates from our Hemodialysis Training Program to Mt. Sinai Health System to help patients exposed to COVID-19. 

 

Office of Research

 

• All Principal Investigators please follow the CUNY Office of Research’s research continuity plan to look for guidance to continue your research.

 

• Undergraduate Research Journal: Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic life at QCC, the URJ is changing the manuscript submission deadline from April 1st to October 1st. Please email us at URJ@qcc.cuny.edu and Cc RNelson@qcc.cuny.edu and PByers@qcc.cuny.edu with any questions and submissions.

 

Upcoming Events:

• Responsible Conduct of Research Workshops: 7/7 (2 pm to 3 pm), and 5/7, will be conducted via video conferencing format. All faculty members and students who are involved in a research project on campus are required to complete the RCR CITI online training and the in-person workshop, here: RSVP page.
• Spending your PSC-CUNY Grant Money: 5/3 (12 pm to 2 pm), contact Corisse Vialva to RSVP (cvialva@qcc.cuny.edu) ​

Grants Update

Grants Awarded April 3 through April 23, 2020

 

Art and Design                                                                            

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,425, McCracken, Mr. James; "Do you know who I am?"

                                                                                                                                   

Biological Sciences and Geology                                               

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,500, Bhansali, Dr. Punita; "The Effect of L-DOPA treatment on retinal ganglion cells in albino and pigmented mice"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,500, Davies, Dr. Rondi; "Water in cratonic eclogite xenoliths: Implications for mantle lithosphere evolution and dynamics"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional B, $6,000, Ghoshal, Dr. Sarbani; "Inositol Hexakisphosphate Kinase-1 (IP6K1) is a potential target in age-induced obesity and insulin resistance"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional B, $5,900, Nguyen, Dr. Andrew; "Analyzing the intracellular signaling involving STAT3 and estradiol and their regulation of proteins involving in osteoclast differentiation and functions"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,500, Orlofsky, Dr. Amos; "Regulation of host amino acid transporters by an intracellular parasite"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,500, Srivastava, Dr. Anuradha; "DNA methylation microarray data analysis to investigate epigenetic modifications of regulatory genes responsible for brain development in fetuses exposed to intra uterine tobacco smoke"

                                                                                                                                   

Business                                                           

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Vragov, Dr. Roumen; "Behavioral Effects of Online Ad Payment Policies"

                                                                                                                                   

Chemistry                                                                                    

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,283, Karimi, Dr. Sasan; "Synthesis of antimycobacterial pyrroles (Part 2)"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional B, $5,998, Lall-Ramnarine, Dr. Sharon; "Examining the effect of hydrogen bonding on the physical properties of ether derivatized imidazolium ionic liquids"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,500, Wei, Dr. Sujun; "Protected Air Stable Transparent Electrode in STM-BJ Method"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Zhou, Dr. Zhou; "Study towards the Concise Synthesis of Hydrophilic Double Reactive Cyanine Dyes"

                                                                                                                                   

Engineering Technology                                                            

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,498, An, Dr. Guozhen; "Personality Recognition from Deceptive Speech using Deep Neural Network"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,500, Lam, Dr. Raymond; "Flexural Mechanical Properties and Microstructures of Three-Dimensional (3D) Printed Thermoplastics"

                                                                                                                                   

English                               

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Anderst, Dr. Leah; "#MeToo and the Uses of Collective Autobiography"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Che, Dr. Charissa; "Conflict in 'Chineseness': Recuperating the '1.5 Generation' Conversation"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Dennihy, Dr. Melissa; "Student Participation in Discussion-Based English Classrooms"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Diaz, Dr. Noelia; "Traumatized Bodies in the Holy Ground (1990) by Dermot Bolger"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,500, Fragopoulos, Dr. George; ""White Like the Wing of a White Chicken": Lord Byron's Afterlives in Greece"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional B, $4,530, Katz, Dr. Zivah Perel; "Accessibility in Community College English Composition Classrooms"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Lago, Ms. Susan; "Thoreau's Sister Tells her Tale"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Lane, Dr. Cary (Lead PI) & Schrynemakers, Dr. Ilse (co-PI), "Weighing In: Faculty Recommendations for Policy and Practice in Post-Remedial CUNY"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, McAlear, Dr. Robert; "Creating an Online Module for Teaching MLA Citation: Design, Implementation, Results"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Messier, Dr. Vartan; "The Nomadic Transtextualities of Desire in Tsai Ming-Liang's What Time is it There? and Goodbye, Dragon Inn"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Miller, Prof. Benjamin; "blockbuster: a poem"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional B, $6,000, Tuszynska, Dr. Agnieszka; "Raceless No More:  In Search of Race in Willard Motley"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Zhelezcheva, Dr. Tanya; "The History of Thomas Traherne's Octavo Roman Forgeries (1673)"

                                                                           

Foreign Languages and Literature                                           

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,345, Borrachero, Dr. Aranzazu; "Developing a Curriculum for an Oral History Project: 'Mothers and Daughters of the Spanish Transition to Democracy'"

                                                                                                                                   

Health, Physical Education & Dance                                        

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Assassi, Dr. Parisa (Lead-PI) & Zinger, Dr. Lana (co-PI); "Knowledge, attitudes and practices of food handlers regarding food safety in grocery stores in NYC, 2020"

 

Health, Physical Education & Dance with Speech Communications & Theatre Arts

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional B, $6,000, Geismar, Prof. Aviva (Lead-PI) & Huggins, Prof. Heather (co-PI), " 'Dis Place' - a Dance/Theater Collaboration between Aviva Geismar, Heather Huggins and Kirk German"

                                                                                                                                   

History                                                             

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Keogh, Dr. Timothy; "Suburbs in Black and White:  Struggling to Live and Work in Postwar Long Island"

                                                                                                                                   

Library                                                            

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional B, $5,930, Kim, Prof. Mi Seon (Christine); "Integrating Mission-Aligned Information Literacy Framework into Science & Engineering/Technology Curriculum in the Community College"

                                                                                                                                   

Mathematics & Computer Science              

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,496, Akcay-Ozcan, Dr. Zeynep (Lead PI) & Boccio, Dr. Dona (co-PI), "Comparison of Online Discussion Technologies in Hybrid Algebra Classes"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Garbin, Dr. Daniel; "Number field degeneration of Hilbert modular surfaces"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,500, Liu, Dr. Wenjian; "Bayesian Phylogenetic Inference of Stochastic Block Models on Infinite Trees"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Sassolas, Dr. Mathieu; "Non-zero-sum Opacity Games"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,499, Sosnovski, Dr. Bianca; "Security Properties of Cayley Hash Functions"

                                                                                                                                   

Social Sciences                                                                             

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional B, $5,935, Milton, Dr. Trevor; "Modern Racism: Exploring the Direction of 21st Century American Racial Identity"

 

• Professional Staff Congress - CUNY (PSC-CUNY): 51 Traditional A, $3,482, Traver, Dr. Amy; "Consonant Commodities: Comparative Historical-Sociological Perspectives on Child Emigration and Agricultural Specialization, 1853-1929"

 

 

Facility Capital Projects Update

 

The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) issued a March 30, 2020 directive that all non-essential construction, except for emergency construction, must cease and, as a result, the Queensborough QPAC and Chiller Plant projects were halted immediately. Effective Monday April 27, the order has been rescinded for the Chiller Plant upgrade and the contractors will continue the project with the support of QCC, CUNY and DASNY. All safety precautions will be taken including appropriate social distancing. 

The Coronavirus Community Fund Campaign kicked off on April 15, 2020 and, with a week into the campaign, we are at 21% of our goal. The Campaign will run until June 30, 2020 and will provide a one-time emergency relief to Queensborough students experiencing unexpected hardship during the COVID-19 crisis for expenses such as rent, utilities, technology, medical care, groceries and other essentials. The grant does not have to be repaid to the College or the College’s Foundation, the QCC Fund, Inc.

Thank you to the campus community for their unwavering support.

 

Art Gallery

Virtual Exhibitions:

The Art & Design Department’s annual Juried Student Exhibition is now online as a virtual Gallery. We would like to thank Dr. Kathleen Wentrack, Department Chair and coordinator of the exhibition Professor Anne Marie Coffey for their continued collaboration and efforts. In its twelfth season, the exhibition has become an annual unveiling of our students’ artistic prowess and success. We embrace the opportunity to present these young artists, to guide their growth and witness their potential as makers and thinkers unfold.

 

Permanent Collection:

The Gallery continues to develop and research the African Art Permanent Collection for re-installation. Highlights of the collection will appear on the Gallery’s website and Facebook. Educational downloads will be available for course planning featuring collection objects along with cultural information on the collection.

 

Virtual Programming:

A Facebook video series will begin in May 2020 featuring recorded lectures and discussions between Gallery personnel and authors, artists and aficionados in the art field. Discussions and lectures will focus on works of art from the collection, upcoming projects and publications. Some notable presenters include Dr. Julia Rothenberg from the Social Sciences Department; Professor Jules Allan from the Art & Design Department and Bing Yang, a published photographer, who will be discussing their forthcoming publications.  Please visit the Gallery’s website for complete scheduling.

 

Kupferberg Holocaust Center

 

 

ONLINE EVENTS:

Three (3) of the KHC's spring semester events were held virtually and all are available for view on QCC's YouTube channel:

• Eugenics, Historical Trauma and Survivance: A Conversation with Artist and Educator Judy Dow
  • Judy Dow, whose artwork is featured in the current KHC exhibition, Survivance and Sovereignty on Turtle Island: Engaging with Contemporary Native American Art, speaks about her use of Abenaki basket making to tell the untold stories of her ancestors who experienced oppression and injustice. She also addresses the connections between her artwork and related research pertaining to the Vermont Eugenics survey that targeted her family
• 2019-2020 KHC/NEH Colloquium: Protest and Social Movements
  • For the past decade, under authoritarian regimes and bourgeois democracies alike, we have seen millions of urban protesters take to the streets across the globe, sometimes occupying local spaces and other times bringing the work of their cities to a halt. Dr. Mark Frazier, Professor of Politics and Academic Director of the India China Institute and Dr. Deva Woodly, Associate Professor of Politics, both from the New School for Social Research, discuss these dynamics as well as the limits and potentialities of the current wave of protest movements taking place around the world.
• 2019-2020 KHC/NEH Colloquium: ​Dismantling Democracy
  • The flip side of authoritarianism is democracy, which is performed and protected through a complex web of institutions, documents, social norms, and belief systems. Dr. Jessica Pisano, Associate Professor of Politics at the New School for Social Research and Dr. Kevin Anderson, Professor of Sociology, Political Science and

Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, address the processes through which the conditions for the practice of democracy can and have been eroded in the past and present.

 

LAUNCH OF NEW EXHIBITION:

The KHC's next exhibit tentatively titled, Concentration Camps: Inside the Nazi System of Incarceration and Genocide, examines the scope, strategy, and cultural breadth of the largest and most organized mass murder in human history. ​It's one of the largest shows the KHC has ever mounted and will be up for at least two (2) years to give faculty maximum time to integrate it within their courses. It also connects with the next Common Read: George Takei's They Called Us Enemy (about his experiences in the Japanese internment camps). The exhibit will launch in both physical and digital forms and all curricular materials (including the catalog, lib guide, and testimonial films) will be available online prior to the start of the fall 2020 semester. 

 

 

EXTENDED: Call for Applications: KHC/NEH 2020-2021 Scholar in Residency

The call for applications for the 2020-2021 KHC/NEH Scholar-in-Residence Program has been extended until May 15th. All interested faculty members should contact Dr. Laura Cohen, the KHC's Executive Director, at LCohen@qcc.cuny.edu.​

 

Queensborough Performing Arts Center (QPAC)

 

• We've begun to post links to past QPAC performances on social media

 

• We’ve set up a Support the Artscampaign which is live on our website

 

• Started a new program called QPAC Live! - an entertainment broadcast - which not only makes it possible for us to continue acknowledging the legislators who assist the College and support QPAC, but in addition will provide a performance platform for our students come the fall. Departments we expect to work with are Music, Speech & Theatre, English, Art & Design, & Dance.

 

• The entire QPAC staff is working hard to navigate new live programming options for a post-pandemic audience

 

• Moving quickly to learn as much as we can on how to remain vital and navigate this new “norm”.