President Diane B. Call
2010 - 2018
47 Years of Distinguished Service
There may not be anyone who knows Queensborough Community College better than its President, Dr. Diane Bova Call. Dr. Call came here 47 years ago – as an unpaid intern and a Columbia University graduate student - and, by choice, never left. Here, she discovered her passion for our students, faculty and staff – and eventually found her professional home. She has worked in virtually all major areas of administration and academics and broke crucial gender barriers as the College’s first woman Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs as well as Vice President for Finance and Administration.
And, ultimately, as its first woman President.
Indeed, it is difficult to imagine Queensborough Community College without Dr. Call.
But in May, the President announced she would be retiring at the end of the summer. In a message to the College community she wrote, “To each of you, I thank you. Your unwavering commitment to our students and their personal and intellectual growth will always hold a special place in my heart. You have strengthened our legacy of a strong and engaged faculty, a student-centered learning environment, and of our community partnerships that have both served neighborhood organizations and businesses, and have led to countless educational experiences and career opportunities for our students.” She thanked all “who have made Queensborough the finest community college in the country.”
Due to the President’s nearly five decades-long tenure, this announcement was not entirely unexpected. Still, it was as if a pillar that held up the very foundation of Queensborough Community College would no longer be here. It is a pillar bolstered by impressive numbers. Under Dr. Call’s leadership, 80 percent of the College’s operating budget has gone directly to instructional and student support. There are now over 400 full-time faculty, 30 percent more than when she was appointed as President.
Dr. Call was appointed Interim President in 2010 and then President in 2013. Upon becoming President, she emphasized she would continue to collaborate with all faculty and staff to strengthen those cornerstones she mentioned in her farewell message. The data shows that she delivered. Currently, 83 percent of the College’s faculty hold terminal degrees, three times the national average for community colleges. Enrollment has reached a record high of over 16,000. Students, who now have connections to 129 countries and speak 78 languages, work or hold many internships in New York City for nonprofits, health care providers and businesses.
Dr. Call also has made inroads on Long Island, so that the College now has relationships with more than 200 high schools, colleges, organizations and businesses in Nassau and Suffolk counties. As a result, enrollment from this area is at a record high. Annually, more than 100,000 people from the community and beyond come to events at the College’s renowned Queensborough Performing Arts Center, QCC Art Gallery and Kupferberg Holocaust Center.
To relate what Dr. Call has meant to Queensborough – and what the College has meant to her – the division of Marketing & Communications reached out to many people connected to the College who offered the following tributes. Kip Montgomery, Associate Professor and Chair of the Music Department, who has worked closely with the President for a decade, says:
“I feel like I could write a book regarding what Dr. Call has meant to me, to the Music Department, to our students, and to the College as a whole. Her contributions to everything we do at Queensborough, most especially how we educate, care for and nurture our students, have been enormous and truly incalculable in their impact on the well-being of our community.”
Not that Dr. Call’s presidency has been without challenges. No college president on earth is immune to these. Dr. Call, though, started to learn how to face these challenges soon after she completed her internship and took her first position as a College staffer. She had barely begun when her supervising deans were dismissed. The action she took as a brand-new member of the College staff taught her, she now says, the value of “listening to your instincts and taking the initiative.” The lesson has served her well as President.
Emily Tai, an associate professor of History, provided perspective on those challenges college presidents inevitably face. Tai has known Dr. Call for years, as both a faculty member and an officer of the Academic Senate.
“Sometimes as a faculty governance leader it can seem that our only job is to disagree with administrators, and make their job difficult,” Tai said. “But, I was always grateful for the way President Call would seek—and find—areas of common ground, even with those individuals who might have vexed her the most-as I fear I often did!”
There is also an intergenerational aspect to the connection between the President and Tai, one that is both emblematic of CUNY and speaks to Dr. Call’s tenure. Dr. Call knew the professor’s late father, Bernard Sohmer, a City College mathematics professor and a pioneer of faculty governance at CUNY. Dr. Sohmer was among the original founders of the University Faculty Senate, served as its chair and, like Dr. Call, was also an administrator, as Dean of Students and Vice Provost for Student Affairs.
Dr. Diane B. Call
Emily Sohmer Tai
Associate Professor of History
The first thing I would like to recall is the President’s kindness to me during my parents’ illness and after their death. I spent close to a decade supervising the care of my late father, who became extremely ill in 2004, and died in 2010; while, in the interim, my mother developed terminal cancer, and pre-deceased him in 2008. In fall, 2011, my sister and I donated a Judaica book collection and several paintings by an artist who had survived the Holocaust to the Kenneth and Harriet Kupferberg Holocaust Center and Archives. The books and paintings had been the property of my late mother and father. President Call had worked with my father during his years as chair of the University Faculty Senate, and, while she had already made some lovely remarks on the college email immediately after his death, she was kind enough to speak at the ceremony my sister and I organized to present these items to the Holocaust Center. She wrote me a beautiful letter, praising my mom and dad for their commitment to education and their ‘civic humanism.’ What meant the most to me was her assertion that my parents had ‘lived their principles.’ I didn’t just appreciate the sentiment; I appreciated the way President Call, who has tried to do the same throughout her years at the college, recognized a similar institutional commitment in others.
Today Queensborough is nationally recognized for its student-centered learning environment. When people speak about Dr. Call, they typically mention this and note that her vision for the Queensborough Academies is the capstone of her impressive academic career. Under her leadership, the Freshman Academies were expanded to serve all students, not merely first-year students. Faculty incorporate High Impact Practices and other nationally recognized pedagogical strategies into the classroom and Queensborough Academy Advisers intensively advise students, following them throughout their academic careers here, from admission to graduation, striving to insure that their courses of study are geared towards their goals and interests. All Queensborough Academic Advisers are supported by faculty and use technology and other interventions to ensure student success.
After Dr. Call announced her retirement, CUNY Board of Trustees Chairperson William C. Thompson, Jr. noted that the President has served as an
“…innovator by establishing educational programs that increase student success. She has dedicated her career to building Queensborough Community College into an exemplary part of The City University of New York, for which we owe her our enduring gratitude.”
This year Dr. Call also appointed a college Advisement Council, headed by Alexandra Pyak, Program Director of the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP). Pyak notes the President’s “tremendous support and guidance in regard to advisement…it is one of many examples of her leadership, dedication and vision.” To this Sandra A. Sacrestano, the Lead of the Liberal Arts Academy, adds that the Council, which she vice-chairs, “is a place to share ideas, best practices and challenges we all face in our effort to support student success.”
What motivates Dr. Call’s work? She says that a college “is only as good as its faculty, staff, students and its relationship with the surrounding community.”
Indeed, Queensborough was recently named a top producer of Fulbright Scholars. Queensborough’s students and faculty win many prestigious grants and awards, and the College’s students excel so notably in undergraduate research that at regional events they are often mistaken for graduate students. Many now are graduate students or working in positions that require advanced degrees.
Kay Atanda, (’12) with Dr. Call at Queensborough's Annual Partners for Progress Gala in 2012.
Kay Atanda, (’12), for example, was a Coca-Cola Scholar and Pearson National Prize recipient while at the College. “Dr. Call’s support throughout my academic career at Queensborough was instrumental in my success as a student and as a person. Among other things, she encouraged me to join the College’s Federal Reserve Team which helped me make new friends, expanded my professional contacts and helped me gain more access to wonderful professors who continue to inspire me today.” Kay later served as a U.S. Department of State fellow during the Obama Administration from 2014-2015, attended City College and then earned a master’s degree in International Affairs and Human Rights from Columbia University. He now works for The World Bank in Washington, D.C., as a research analyst on women’s economic empowerment issues.
Additionally, the President’s attention to the details that make the College a community are legendary. For example, she still meets everyone, on every level, who accepts a position here.
The birthday cards she sends to all are equally celebrated, as are the congratulatory notes on achievements and the chicken soup she provides to those who are under the weather. Condolences when loved ones have passed away are often delivered in person and cherished.
Kebedech Tekleab, an assistant professor of Art and Design and a PSC-CUNY Research Grant recipient, describes attending a dinner for new faculty. She says that the President “in her graceful way of greeting guests as she moved from table to table, came to mine and expressed her sympathy in regard to a family member I had lost a few months earlier. Remembering a new faculty member has lost someone is one thing. Knowing who was lost shows a much higher level of interest in that faculty member’s well-being.”
Tekleab’s grant enabled her to study the Refugee Settlement Programs in Uganda and the related refugee crisis in the Mediterranean – then use her research to inspire her art. Before applying, she mentioned this to Dr. Call who the professor says, immediately recognized the importance of her project and supported it.
The President also made it possible for a Campus Peace Officer and the woman he met years ago, when they were both students here, to be the first couple ever to be married at the College. The ceremony took place under the Pergola on Oakland Lawn.
Watch the Video
Dr. Diane B. Call, during her early years working at Queensborough Community College
Dr. Diane B. Call, a member of the Counseling Department here at Queensborough Community College
Arpy S. Coherian
Director, Pre-College, Continuing Education and Workforce Development
I started here in the Counseling Department nearly 35 years ago, fresh out of graduate school. Diane was among a cadre of young professionals in Student Affairs who exemplified an enthusiasm, dynamism and sense of professional responsibility. It was a wonderful time to be in Higher Education. There was real camaraderie and there also were many teachable moments, role models and excellent programs for students. I will always remember Diane as an exemplary administrator who moved from our little corner of the world on the fourth floor of the Library Building to oversee myriad college areas, all for that initial mission: To serve our evolving student body and its academic aspirations.
On June 1, Dr. Call led her final commencement. She, herself, holds a Doctor of Education degree in College and University Administration, a Master’s degree in Community College Administration and a second Master’s degree in Student Personnel Administration, all earned from Teachers College, Columbia University. Additionally, she holds a Certificate in Curriculum Development from Harvard University, School of Education.
But on the day of commencement those who earned associate degrees were again her stars - and the stars of graduation. To focus attention on the graduates, she often does not invite a speaker. “Instead, I narrate the event,” she explained.
During a recent interview in her office, Dr. Call reminisced about her own childhood in Westchester. “My mother dreamed of going to college and earning a CUNY degree, but that dream never became a reality. My father, Charles F. Bova, Sr., was an orphan who served in World War II. My parents married after the war.”
The College’s Veterans’ Grove, which is named for the President’s father, was a gift from Dr. Call to honor him, along with those at the College who have served. A plaque on the site notes that her father was a Bronze Star Recipient, a first sergeant in the Tank Destroyer Brigade of the United States First Army – and a liberator of the Dachau concentration camp.
Eventually, Dr. Call was living her own life, in college and graduate school. And then, here at Queensborough which she refers to as “her professional home”.
“And I have thought of myself as a ‘stay-at-home president’. I have cared more about what is happening here – on this campus. This is not to say that I did not spend a great deal of time keeping up with the national picture, speaking to colleagues from across the country and sometimes meeting with them and presenting to them in person. But my place has been here, doing the work that needs to be done. And, for me, my work home is Queensborough Community College.”
President Call has thought of Queensborough as her work home from the day she arrived at Queensborough almost five decades ago. She was in that position as an unpaid intern when she completed her first Master’s degree in Student Personnel Administration. She spoke up, asked for a full-time job and got one working with student clubs.
“I was always drawn to education and wanted to be a teacher,” she said. “After several years of teaching high school English, I decided to change my graduate school major to work in higher education. My first master’s degree required an internship at a college. Fortunately – and fortuitously – I was assigned here…Looking back on my own experience, it took me a bit of time to realize I had a career, and not simply a job. That is a lesson I try to teach every member of our campus community.”
In speaking more about that first major challenge she had at the College, the President added that she had only had a full time job for two weeks when it happened – when all her supervisors at the still-new college lost their jobs.
“It was a challenging launch,” she recalled, philosophically.
Quickly, though, she realized she should be worrying about the students. The students had also depended on these supervisory staffers to mentor them on their personal and academic growth. And now they were gone.
“The students were much older then,” Dr. Call said. “Of our 5,000 students, more than 2,500 were military veterans, including those who had served in Vietnam. I knew I had to do something so they wouldn’t feel abandoned, so I went to work the next day, a Saturday. No big deal. I didn’t like weekends. I liked going to work.”
“I remember that the students were sitting on the floor, as they did then - and still do. I sat down on the floor with them. I wanted them to feel comfortable speaking with me. I wanted to reassure them and help them to discuss their plans for the future. I wanted to try to instill a sense of security in them. This was a difficult time, but not only for this one department in our College. It was a difficult time for the nation as well, and many of these students had recently returned home from fighting a war – an unpopular war. They needed support.” It is the same kind of strong support the President continues to give to students, staff and faculty who are veterans today; she does this in concert with maintaining the Grove in their honor.
Dr. Call looked wistful, as she told this story about her first challenge back then. “That was when I first began to learn about the College’s moving parts and how they connect.” Then quickly, she returned to the present. “By the way, I like weekends now,” she said confidently with a smile. She is someone leaving a job well done.
The President also will be leaving with the knowledge that she has mentored many faculty, staff and students – and that among her students are those who either stay to work here or return to do so. “I am so proud of a student who began as a Tech Fee intern in our Academic Computing Center and now mentors other people,” she said. Tech Fee is a program she initiated as Vice President for Finance and Administration to provide students – all of whom commute - with a convenient hands-on learning/work experience at the College.
“And then there is Lucy Shi,” Dr. Call continued, speaking with pride about another alum, who now also works here. “Lucy is a Risk Management and Finance Manager. Her passion for her work is deeply rooted in her connection to our community.”
“My family moved here from Sydney, Australia in 2002,” Shi said recently. “It was right after my high school graduation. I didn’t know how long I would be staying so I decided to enroll in a two-year college, so that if I returned to Australia, I would already have an Associate Degree instead of worrying about transferring credits back.”
Like a number of individuals who have known the President a long time, Shi affectionately refers to her as “Dr. Diane.”
“It was spring 2005 when I met Dr. Diane,” Shi continued. “She was then Vice President for Finance and Administration. I was the Administrative Vice President of the Student Government Association, a math tutor and a College Assistant in the Accounting Department. The President was very involved with the student government and we often met weekly. I saw a mentor in her and soon she became my go-to person whenever I needed advice on something, whether it was about my career or academics. I kept in close touch with her after graduation. In 2010 I was working as an accountant for AIG when the economic crisis hit. I needed a way out. Luckily, Queensborough was hiring. I ran back to Queensborough and continued to advance my career.”
Shi said, “The President is a guardian angel to many. She took me right under her wing. She gave me the wisdom and confidence to show my potential to others. She also encouraged me to get involved in our community. I am a member of numerous committees and one of the most important ones I have been on is Affirmative Action. I am proud to have served on over 30 search committees.”
New York State Senate Women of Distinction Awarded to President Diane B. Call by Senator Toby Stavisky.
It is impossible to mention Dr. Call without noting her own elegant style and the influence she has had on the campus. It is beautiful - and well-stocked with comfortable gathering places for students to study and collaborate, including the new Science Atrium. “The campus is just gorgeous,” agreed Anne Marie Menendez, professor and chair of the Nursing Department. “When I go elsewhere, I can’t wait to get back here. I love to show it to colleagues from other schools, as well.”
Menendez, echoing the comments of other chairs, also discussed how the President has supported her department and its students. Both she and Alexandra Tarasko, a nursing professor, noted that the President appreciates the particular needs the nursing department has for supplies. And also that it is important to keep the Department’s Simulation Laboratory current. (A simulator for birthing, the department’s first, will arrive soon). The professors also noted that Dr. Call comes to every luncheon and candle lighting ceremony for graduates, always prepared with details about the students’ lives, studies and aspirations.
They added that when Lorraine Cupelli, an assistant nursing professor, collaborated on a project with the Kupferberg Holocaust Center, Dr. Call brought her and a student to describe it to the Center’s board. The study addressed cultural competency – and sensitivity – so needed by nurses today. It also discussed the value of nursing students’ interviews with elderly Jewish Holocaust survivors on “their cultural views of health, illness and death.” The proximity of the campus’ Holocaust Center, the study said, made it ideal as a “nontraditional clinic site.”
The Kupferberg Holocaust Center, the QCC Art Gallery and Queensborough’s Performing Arts Center (QPAC), are the arms of the College that both serve students and draw in members of the community. Dr. Call’s support of this has been keenly felt. She has emphasized that all three are “learning laboratories,” due to the work they do with both the College’s students and the community.
Susan Agin, who has been the Executive and Artistic Director of QPAC for almost 15 years, noted that the center is “thriving, touching thousands and inspiring many, due to the President’s vision that student resources should extend far beyond books alone.” Agin said that when Dr. Call attended events at QPAC “the artists performed just a bit better when they knew she was watching.” The director added that “community members are also happy to be able to thank the President for her support of the arts, in person.”
Assistant Professor Azadeh Aalai, a social psychologist who was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the Holocaust Center, said that the President’s“passion in serving the community and developing programs for our students was very apparent and visible in all the work that she did.”
President Call characteristically prefers to speak about all the work others have done. “A few weeks ago I tried jotting down things that happen in a day,” she said. “But I had to stop because the list grew too long. But it did contain so many wonderful, unexpected surprises. For example, I visited our Flushing Center, where we teach construction workers about OSHA regulations – in Mandarin. What is constant here is the solid commitment of faculty and staff to students and to others who avail themselves of the education we provide.”
On the subject of fundraising, Dr. Call expressed a humanistic point of view.
“Our donors are investors,” she said. “People learn how their investments impact students in small ways and large ways. We need the investment from donors to insure student success. I think I have raised an awareness of the extraordinary institution we are. The money is important but we need believers. We need people who can offer our students internships, people who can offer them jobs. It is not just writing a check. It is believing in what we do. This is why we always put our students and alumni front and center at board meetings, at our Partners for Progress Gala. We want donors and potential donors to see the impact of their investments.”
Paola Beniquez with Dr. Call and students at Queensborough's Annual Partners for Progress Gala in 2018.
Among those who spoke at this year’s Gala was Paola Beniquez, a student artist who has been flying back periodically to Puerto Rico to help her family members. Their life was upended by Hurricane Maria. Paola flew back and forth while pursuing her art and design studies and gaining acceptance to Pratt Institute in the fall. Beniquez is also a champion of the College’s women’s volleyball team, and was one of three first year students in the country to win a “Player of the Year” award. Other students who spoke included Mabely Salvador, an immigrant from El Salvador, the first in her family to go to college. She is also Student Government President and plans to study psychology at Queens College. Another speaker, Kyle Chin-How, (’15) an immigrant from Guyana, won a prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. He participated in a White House Internship and graduated from the Skadden Arps program at City College in 2017.
As the interview drew to a close, Dr. Call paused and remembered an international trip she took about twenty years ago. Another passenger on her flight, a venture capitalist, asked her what she did for a living. “I told him that I was an educator, a college administrator. ‘Oh, he said. ‘We are in the same line of work. We both believe in people.’”
One final question was posed.
What does our President see when she starts to drive home from the College and turns around for an end-of-the-day look?
“I see a community. Not just buildings but people. I see something that is really strong, really beautiful and something that represents dreams for everyone. For me, it was, starting as that unpaid intern-to have been given the opportunity and to have achieved. I am so proud of our students, faculty and staff who have also achieved. I was blessed. I cannot express how much I believe in student success. I believe in a community that collaborates to turn dreams into reality.”
President Diane B. Call with Mabely Salvador, Vice President for Evening Students and Nazia Bonori, Vice President for Part Time Students, Student Government during Commencement 2018.
A Grateful Community Remembers ... Sign the Memory Book Below:
Jeanne Galvin
Professor and Chief Librarian
When I met Diane she was Vice President for Finance and Administration. She was on the committee that interviewed me. I was impressed that a Finance and Administration Vice President asked a question about RefWorks (a citation management software package). I learned later that this question was typical for someone who has an interest in the details of people’s work and how they try to make a contribution.
When I started to work at Queensborough I was told that people frequently met for lunch at 1 pm at Oakland. When I shyly entered Oakland, Diane jumped up from her seat to welcome me to the table and make sure that everyone was introduced.
Not too long ago the Library suffered the loss of a very special member of our department, Professor Barbara Bonus-Smit. I called Liza Larios [Dean for Human Resources and Labor Relations] when I got the sad news. About five minutes later Diane was at my door and stayed while a member of the Counseling Center gave the news to the department. She was in frequent contact, as we at the department worked though our grief, and offered whatever help we needed.
She has been most gracious in thanking me and members of the department for our work in promoting an understanding of predatory journals and in dealing with the press.
I will miss her.
Kay Atanda (’12)
Research Analyst, The World Bank
President Call was unflinchingly graceful and patient whenever she met with me and other student leaders-- even during tense situations and heated discussions. I always admired how skillfully she explained complex issues and encouraged student participation in decision making. But her eloquence is not what I will remember most about her. What I will remember is her capacity to listen and to listen unconditionally. President Call connected easily with students because of her openness and strong determination to ensure student success. She was always generous with her time and always wanted to help students. Once, I heard another student tell the President she feared her learning disability might limit her academic success and her career prospects. President Call encouraged her not to give up. Then the President shared with this student that although she, herself, had an issue - no hearing in one ear - she had not let that stop her from pursuing her goals.
I am grateful to President Call for all we were able to accomplish together during my time at Queensborough, including renovating the student center and increasing funding for study abroad opportunities. I will remain forever thankful for her tireless commitment, thoughtfulness and our camaraderie.
Sara Danzi Engoron
Assistant Professor of Biology
Dr. Call gets to know all the faculty - she easily knew me by name soon after my arrival at Queensborough. She has been very supportive of my work. While Larisa Honey [Assistant Professor, Anthropology] and I were developing our mtDNA project, she agreed to have the college purchase certain laboratory equipment we needed and couldn’t afford. Recently she sent me an email (out of the blue) asking if we could use a new cart for our mobile DNA lab and bought us two! She also supported us in ways that promoted our work, including inviting us to speak at the convocation for the Fall 2017 semester.
Laura A. Bruno
Assistant Vice Chancellor For Enrollment Strategy and Management, The City University of New York
(Formerly Associate Dean of Enrollment Management, Queensborough)
Dr. Call’s tenure at Queensborough is remarkable not only for her major accomplishments, of which there are many, but for the thousands of quieter moments that changed the lives of so many. One such example is how Dr. Call made time to meet every new HEO that was hired at Queensborough. Knowing those who were carrying out the work of the College was essential to Dr. Call. As such, she personally met each new staffer, asking each individual what drew them to the College. She then told them what made Queensborough so special for her. I was there for many of these conversations. I saw how important and transformative they were for new staff members. They left her office feeling valued, welcomed and clear about how they would fit into the fabric of the College. In this way she helped create a community of professionals who, from day one of their tenure, were committed to making ‘the Queensborough difference’ real.
Robin Levine
Enrollment Management Specialist in Graduation Audit
I began my career in the Instructional Support Services Center (ISSC) at Queensborough in April 2002. Dr. Call was instrumental in providing tutoring and other academic support services to students. When my position as Test Preparation Coordinator became permanent, I was invited to a new employee meet and greet with Dr. Call. At that meeting, she talked about the need for students, faculty and staff to interact in the current technological environment. This was in the days prior to social media like Facebook and Twitter.
Throughout the years, Dr. Call has been a champion of many of the initiatives that grew from the ISSC and its successor, the Writing Center. Through the Queensborough Fund, Dr. Call created the beautiful and peaceful memory garden dedicated to her parents, which is part of the Kupferberg Holocaust Center. It is a lasting tribute to the students, faculty and staff of our campus, the University, the borough of Queens and the surrounding community of Bayside. Dr. Call is known for her impeccable design sense and style which has become part of the fabric of our campus.
On a personal level, she often stops in to say hello – and I so appreciated the birthday cards she sent each year. I wish her luck in her retirement but something tells me we’ll be hearing more from her, soon.
Professor Bob Rogers
Chair, Department of Art and Design
For decades one of the ‘pots that I have banged’ has been the extraordinary programs in the arts at Queensborough. I have argued to every administration for decades that the potential talent and resources that Queensborough has to offer could make it unique in CUNY, effectively a two-year Purchase College of the Arts. Over those decades only Dr. Call also recognized that possibility and with her support and encouragement the college now has two nationally accredited art programs (Art and Design and Theatre) and is working towards accreditation for Music and Dance. The kind of commitment in resources, and trust and belief in the faculty necessary to achieve this difficult standard speaks to her leadership and unique vision for the college.
Stuart Asser
Professor, Engineering Technology Department
Diane and I applied for the rank of Full Professor in the same year. There were three of us who were applying. The third applicant was a senior faculty member who was also a chairperson. He told Diane and me that he understood how the promotions committee thought and what they were looking for. He spent a good deal of time telling us what to do and say to the committee. After he finished, I became very nervous. He went first and while he was presenting himself Diane calmed me down and told me to forget everything he said. She said: ‘Just do what you prepared originally and it will be fine. And Diane and I were both approved!
Paris Svoronos
Professor, Chemistry
As a young tenure-track faculty member I was asked by my chair to serve on college committees, which I did. It was at that time that I first met Dr. Diane Call with whom I worked in at least twelve committee opportunities over the years- both as a fellow faculty and in her various tasks as a Dean. Over my 37 years of knowing and working with her, we developed a close relationship. It is one characterized by our mutual respect for opposing views which, nevertheless, always include a common thread. This was (and still is) central to the vision that we ought to serve the student population and the college…
Aiming for more recognition for our College, I submitted an abstract in 2000 to the 220th National American Chemical Society Meeting in Washington D.C. I was elated to receive an acceptance letter that, I later found out, was most likely the first ever submission by a community college student. At that time, I was confronted with the expenses associated with this trip and went to (then) Dean Call with my request. Two colleagues and I were allowed to travel to Washington D.C. in the college jeep. That was the beginning of undergraduate research at Queensborough.
