President's Report for April 2020

Enrollment Management Update

• The Office of Admissions has been working remotely to recruit and assist students for the summer/fall 2020 semester. Admissions counselors were on the road up until mid-March and cancelled all recruitment activities based on the latest Coronavirus guidance from CUNY, New York City/State officials and Health Department experts. The New Student Enrollment Services team reviewed options for online tours and information sessions. Acceptance recommendation files continued to be delivered to QCC from the Central Office, and Admissions staff reviewed applications remotely. As of March 24^th, we were seeing an increase in both admitted and matriculated students from fall 2019 to fall 2020.

• The Office of Academy Advisement transitioned all services remotely in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Advisers leveraged various technologies to begin offering e-advising options for the academy students. Academy Advising conducted 300 remote sessions in a short period of time after adjusting and securing access to technology. Using Starfish, WebEx, Schedule Builder, phone, and e-mail, the advisers worked with students in all different capacities, and addressed critical Starfish flags to support students. Advisers also collaborated with other advising units, and with administration to identify students in critical need of technology such as laptops or internet access. Academy Advisement prepared for new student enrollment and incorporated the same technologies to advise and register incoming students for the fall 2020 class, which started on Friday, April 3rd.

Student Honors/Achievements

• QCC student Ms. Biling Chen and recent QCC graduate Mr. Nicola Baci have been named to the 2020 Phi Theta Kappa All-New York Academic Team in recognition of their scholarly achievements and leadership accomplishments. Mr. Baci graduated from the college at the conclusion of the Winter 2020 semester with an A.S. degree in Liberal Arts & Sciences (Mathematics and Science concentration) and transferred to our sister CUNY institution, Queens College, to begin work on his baccalaureate studies. Chen will be a candidate for graduation at the conclusion of the Spring 2020 semester, at which time she plans to transfer to a four-year university to begin work on her baccalaureate studies as she plans to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry/Biochemistry.  Both students are active members of QCC’s Lambda Sigma Chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society and I wish to thank Dr. Emily Tai & Dr. Paris Svoronos for their tireless work with this important student group.

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. Students are advised to 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 periodically monitor their Office365 student e-mail account and Queensborough Community College homepage for updates from the college.

• All currently enrolled students wishing to receive financial aid for the Fall 2020 and/or Spring 2021 semesters were advised to complete the 2020-2021 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by the Priority Filing Deadline Date of April 7, 2020. Students who miss this date are encourage to complete the FAFSA immediately.  For more information, visit our 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 [email protected]. 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. Currently, single stop staff are operating remotely in the wake of Coronavirus (COVID-19) but are still servicing 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.

• 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 May 15, 2020. Learn more about the Milton Fisher Scholarship for Innovation and Creativity.

• The 2020 Abbey Duncan Brownfield Scholarship Program is now accepting applications. The program provides financial support to students pursuing careers in the brownfield industry in New York City. For more information, including eligibility requirements and application deadline, please visit The NYC Brownfield Partnership.

• 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.

Upcoming Events

• The Student Government Elections will be held online beginning Wednesday, April 29^ththrough Wednesday, May 6^th.  Information regarding the upcoming elections, including voting instructions and candidate information, will be disseminated to all students via their Office365 student e-mail account in the coming weeks.  Also, information will soon be posted to the Office of Student Activities webpage for their viewing pleasure.

Academic Master Plan:

• Development of the Academic Master Plan (AMP), a five-year planning document, will continue as planned, with some revised deadlines. The three working groups—Curriculum, Teaching Excellence, and Student Needs—will submit a final draft of their section of the AMP by May 1 instead of early April. From these documents a comprehensive planning document will be developed by the AMP steering committee as planned. By the end of the academic year, a final draft of the AMP will be available for campus distribution. Depending on circumstances, in some format open forums for review and discussion of the full planning document will commence in fall 2020; ​following that, the final version of the AMP will be submitted to the Academic Senate for review and approval.

Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)

• The Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETL) has been offering virtual professional development opportunities and individual consultations regarding pedagogical practices, scholarship, and the use of educational technology. The Call for Proposals for Pedagogical Research Challenge Awards (2020-21) has been announced. The deadline for proposal submission is Fri, May 1, 2020. PleaseClick here for more details. CETL has worked closely with the Office of Educational Technology in supporting the College’s transition to online instruction. 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)

• The Office of Educational Technology has conducted 45 workshops over the past three weeks. OET reports show more than 500 registrations for the face-to-face workshops and more than 400 registrations for the live webinars. The OET staff also offered daily open-lab hours and hundreds of one-on-one faculty consultations to support the College’s transition to online instruction.

• The Office of Educational Technology has worked closely with the Marketing Department to develop online resources and web sites to support the College’s transition to online instruction. The OET and Academic Continuity websites provide current and updated information on online instruction at QCC:
• Office of Educational Technology
• Academic Continuity

All Faculty are encouraged to visit the OET and Academic Continuity web sites to see a complete listing of all upcoming Distance Learning Webinars and Professional Development Opportunities.

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 Research

• All Principal Investigators please follow the CUNY Office of Research’s research continuity plan to guide your research. Consult Christine Spicknell ([email protected]) in the Office of Grants and Sponsored Programs to discuss how to compensate your employees and students.

• For research involving interactions with human subjects, interactions should be limited to minimize the risk of contracting or spreading COVID-19. Consult the HRPP Coordinator (Dr. Anissa Moody, [email protected]) if you have additional questions.

Updates on Scheduled Events

• Upcoming Events: Responsible Conduct of Research Workshops: 4/8 (1 pm to 2 pm), and 5/7 (2 pm to 3 pm), 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.
• The Newly Tenured Faculty Reception and Faculty Excellence Awards scheduled on April 21^st has been postponed.
• The 2020 Spring Student Symposium scheduled on April 24^th is canceled. ​
• The Undergraduate Research Brown Bag Lunch Discussion scheduled at 12 pm, 4/29 is canceled.
• The Faculty Mentoring Luncheon schedule on May 1^st is canceled.

Grants Update

Grants Awarded February 2 through April 2, 2020

• CUNY University Associate Dean for Technology Education: CUNY Open Educational Resources PIT, $6,000, Lead PI - Stroumbakis, Dimitri; co-PIs Lam, Raymond, Wu, Huixin; "Engineering and Technology for the Better Good of Society"

• CUNY Office of Research: Junior Faculty Research Award in Science & Engineering (JFRASE), $50,000, Lead PI -Bellovary, Jillian; "How to Build a Supermassive Black Hole”

• CUNY University Associate Dean for Technology Education: CUNY Open Educational Resources PIT, $1,000, Lead PI - Zhou, Zhou; "A New Chapter in Introductory Organic Chemistry: A Brief Introduction to the Applications of Small Organic Molecules as Food Additives"

• CUNY Office of Research: Interdisciplinary Climate Crisis Research Grant, $40,000, Lead PI - Bolhassani, Mohammad (CCNY); co-PI - Chauhan, Moni (QCC) "Employing a new construction material and technique to reduce the global CO2 emission" (No funds to QCC – Lead College CCNY)

• CUNY Office of Research: Interdisciplinary Climate Crisis Research Grant, $42,950, Lead PI - Phillip, Neal (BCC); co-PIs - Marchese, Pau (QCC)l; Irish-Bramble, Ken (MEC); Skeete, Dereck (BCC); “Picarro Greenhouse Gas Monitoring System request for Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn" (No funds to QCC – Lead College Bronx CC)

• CUNY Office of Research: Interdisciplinary Climate Crisis Research Grant, $10,000, Lead PI - Hum, Tarry (QC); co-PIs - Petersen, Joan (QCC); Chirico, Donna (York); Hendrey, George (QC); Bratspies, Rebecca (CUNY Law); McArdle, Andrea (CUNY Law); Stabrowski, Filip Akira (LaGCC); Porter-Morgan, Holly (LaGCC) "CUNY Queens Sustainability Consortium" (No funds to QCC – Lead College Queens College)

• CUNY Office of Research: Interdisciplinary Climate Crisis Research Grant, $10,000, Lead PI - Porter-Morgan, Holly (LaGCC); co-PIs: Marchese, Paul (QCC); Gonzalez-Urbina, Luis (BMCC); Trachman, Julie (Hostos); Tesser, Derek (GC); Phillip, Neal (BCC); "CUNY Conference on Climate Change Education (C4E)" (No funds to QCC – Lead College LaGuardia CC)

• American Council of Learned Societies: Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowships, $40,000, Lau, Matthew; Title TBA

The College’s foundation, the QCC Fund, Inc. has established the “Save Our Students” SOS Emergency Fund Campaign, which will kick off on April 15^th and run through June 30, 2020. Using the crowdfunding platform, GiveGab, the goal is to support Queensborough students who are unable to meet essential expenses due to temporary or unexpected hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic. This purpose of the fund, which was developed in conjunction with the Office of Student Affairs, is a one-time, supplemental resource for our students to keep them enrolled and on a path toward graduation.

The 2020 Partners for Progress Gala scheduled for April 30^th is being rescheduled for later in the year.

All Fight Campus Hunger student organized fundraising events in support of the food pantry scheduled this semester have been cancelled.

Art Gallery

All events in the Art Gallery for the duration of the semester have been cancelled.

Kupferberg Holocaust Center

2019-2020 KHC/NEH Colloquium, Authoritarianism on the Continuum

The semester's two (2) remaining events are now taking place online:

• Wednesday, April 22,2020 at 12:00 p.m. - Protest and Social Movements (ONLINE EVENT)
  • 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 at the New School for Social Research will discuss these dynamics as well as the limits and potentialities of the current wave of protest movements taking place around the world.
• Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at 12pm - Dismantling Democracy (ONLINE EVENT)
  • The flip side of authoritarianism is democracy, which is performed and protected through a complex web of institutions, documents, social norms, and belief systems. The speakers for this event will address the processes through which the conditions for the practice of democracy can and have been eroded in the past and present.

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 [email protected].

Online Teaching Resources & Events about Holocaust Education as well as Addressing Xenophobia and Intolerance

The KHC will continue to send out emails from our sister organizations featuring online teaching resources and events about Holocaust education as well as addressing xenophobia and intolerance. Please also contact Marisa Hollywood, the KHC's Associate Director ([email protected]), if there are any specific resources you need. 

Queensborough Performing Arts Center (QPAC)

All events between April 21, 2020 and May 12, 2020 have either been canceled or postponed.

Customer information has been disseminated through emails, phone calls, messages on QPAC ‘s phone system, on QPAC’s website and through social media. Affiliates have been notified (venues, hotels, technical crews, instructors, senior centers, schools, etc.).  Some customers are taking credits on their accounts for future use, other customers have requested refunds.

QPAC’s ADA construction project is continuing. 

Preliminary plans for next season have begun.