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Wednesday, February 18 at 12:00pm - Bobby Sanabria Big Band
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Friday, October 31 at 7:30pm
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
Kate Walter was attending her high school reunion a few years ago when a former classmate produced an old copy of the student newspaper with an editorial Walter had written.
“The ideas in the piece weren’t sophisticated—I was only 16 or 17 and thinking like a teenager when I wrote it,” says Walter, a lecturer in developmental skills at BMCC as well as a highly regarded freelance writer. “But it was interesting to recognize my writer’s ‘voice’—it was already there.”
“Personal and profound”
Walter has spent a lifetime honing and refining that voice. In the New York Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest recently, she won third place for her contributions to the weekly newspaper, The Villager. The judges deemed her work “personal and profound—well-constructed columns that readers must find interesting.”
Walter had been an adjunct instructor at BMCC for 15 years when she hired on as a full-time faculty member this past January. For most of her adult life, she has earned her living as a freelance writer, publishing her work in all of New York’s major newspapers as well as numerous national magazines.
“I’ve always been torn between teaching and writing,” Walter says. “Actually, I started out as a high school English teacher, quit to become a full-time writer, and then returned to reaching as an adjunct at BMCC.” The offer to join the faculty full-time while continuing to write “was a dream opportunity,” she says.
Walter wasn’t prepared for her strong showing in the NYPA contest, given that her editor had submitted her columns without her knowledge. “I was glad not to know,” she says. “That way, I wasn’t nervous about my chances.” Among the columns that were entered was “Back in the Pew Again,” a reflection on the personal life changes that led her to resume regular church attendance after a hiatus of many years. Another column recaptured the jubilant mood in the West Village on Election Night last November—“a combination of journalism and personal reflection,” she says.
The art and craft of writing
As a writer, Walter has focused exclusively on nonfiction—profiles, interviews, personal essays and opinion pieces; she does not write fiction. But she is quick to note that writing personal essays is no less an art than a craft. “You have to know how to structure a sentence, how to cut and edit,” she says. “So I absolutely consider myself a craftsperson. But I am also an artist.”
In the classroom, Walter, who teaches courses in academic and critical reading and critical thinking, encourages her students to find their own writing voice and never attempts to impose her writing style on them. “I think my experience writing analytical, first-person essays is best used when I teach critical thinking,” she says. Not surprisingly, she has her students write as much as possible—“even if it’s not a writing class.”
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
Some special, well-known guests visited BMCC on June 4th who shared one mission—to improve ocean health by forming a Governors Mid-Atlantic Council on Oceans. New York Governor David Paterson, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, actor and environmental activist Sam Waterston and Nancy H. Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, sat on a panel in BMCC’s Richard Harris Terrace to discuss the affect of climate change on the Atlantic Ocean.
Governors Paterson and Corzine, along with Delaware Governor Jack Markell, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine, are creating a structure for these 5 states to improve energy security and independence, making U.S. lands and oceans safer. They signed this agreement at BMCC, with the exception of Governor Kaine, who could not attend the event.
Also in attendance at the forum to protect the Atlantic Ocean were New York Secretary of State Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis.
Improving ocean life, together
According to Governor Paterson, the mission of these Governors is to come together and find ways to improve the health and wealth of the Atlantic Ocean. “We have to reduce mercury admissions into the ocean,” he said. “The less we pollute, the less we’ll have a continued rising of our oceans and how much they shrink our shores.”
According to Paterson, the Mid-Atlantic Governors’ Agreement on Ocean Conservation was formed mostly because the water near the Mid-Atlantic States is cooling and undergoing climate changes that affect sea life. “This really is the catalyst for other problems we have with pollution,” he said.
Governors have ‘aligned interests’
Governor Corzine said that he and Governor Paterson were committed to protecting the water of the NY/NJ Harbor, “with a strong eye for future generations.”
“We all have aligned interests and principles,” he said of the Governors who will make up the ocean protection committee. “For example, if there’s an oil spill off the coast of Virginia, it could impact—and reach—Delaware and New Jersey.”
Governor Corzine said that New Jersey has one of the best wind environments in the country, calling wind power, “a great future source of energy for the Mid-Atlantic.” More wind power means less energy that can negatively affect ocean life. According to Corzine, New Jersey “fully expects to have three thousand megawatts of windpower by 2020.”
Governor Corzine said that by signing the Mid-Atlantic Agreement, the Council is determined to that there will be a continued forum for environmental discussions, regardless of who controls the legislature. “We’re putting in place an advocacy group; a place for resolution,” he said. “We need to be advocates in that great city of Washington.”
From actor to ocean activist
Actor Sam Waterston was the keynote speaker for the event. An environmental advocate and board member for Oceana, an ocean conservation group based in Washington D.C., with an office in Manhattan, Waterston has witnessed firsthand the changes that communities and fishermen face.
An advocate for policy change, with a mission to restore the world’s oceans, Waterston told the audience that acidification is to blame for the decreased numbers of sea coral, terrapods (sea snails) and changing water temperatures. According to Waterston, man-made carbon dioxide deposited into the sea has increased every year for the past few years by approximately three percent. He said in a few years, “oceans will no longer be a hospitable place for sea life. It’s already happening.”
Waterston said the carbon in the sea is a, “direct result of our thirst for energy.”
“Off shore wind energy is a technology ready to work right now,” he said. “The problem is not beyond us. We made it; we can undo it.”
A ‘great day for the oceans’
The Mid-Atlantic Governors’ Agreement on Ocean Conservation will focus on the rising tide of new challenges, protecting ocean ecosystems, water quality, energy, ocean habitats and more. After the agreement was signed by Governors Corzine and Paterson, Waterston said, “Today is a great day for the oceans.”
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
On the first floor of BMCC are a row of classrooms that don’t look like typical collegiate rooms—they’re art studios. BMCC offers a variety of creative courses, and in Art 181, Introduction to Sculpture, Assistant Professor and professional artist Sarah Haviland teaches students about clay, plaster and mixed media.
Upon entering Haviland’s Introduction to Sculpture class, visitors may notice the studio’s familiar scent—a mix of clay and plaster. At the beginning of the class, Haviland diligently and patiently talks about art and the best ways to work with clay. Then the real magic happens--students "dig in" to their clay and sculpt away.
Some classmates chat with each other as they roll and sculpt their clay, others listen to their iPods while working, and a select few are so focused on their project they’re oblivious to everything else around them.
This semester, Haviland’s sculpture students were required to visit the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) to view and sketch artworks from famous artists, such as Claes Oldenburg.
No textbooks required
Students are required to purchase their own clay and other supplies for the class. Roma Plastilina (reworkable) and Claystone (or Air-Dry), clays are used in the course. “Plastilina never dries out, it’s an oil-based clay used in claymation films,” says Haviland. “And the Claystone water-based clay is more demanding.”
All supplies and bags are kept in the art room, so students don’t have to carry it around and masterpieces-in-progress stay safe.
Musical collaboration
Throughout the semester, students studied the artwork of Pablo Picasso, Matisse, Constantin Brancusi and other renowned artists. Class projects included molding natural forms in clay—students made clay models of shells in multiple shapes—and sculpting clay food. The food project required students to design individual three-dimensional sculptural food compositions using air-dry clay.
“My students in Art 181 spent part of the semester focusing on food as sculpture, first in detailed clay works, and then in larger-scaled group pieces made of cardboard, plaster, and paint,” says Haviland.
This semester, Haviland’s sculpture students also collaborated on a project with Professor Eugenia Yau, director of the BMCC Downtown Chorus. According to Haviland, Yau was interested in set pieces for her spring concert, which was held on May 5th in Theater II. Several lightweight two-foot sculptures, designed by Haviland’s students, were displayed or carried in procession by the singers, who dressed as chefs and waiters.
“The unusual requirements of this project have given sculpture students at BMCC a new set of challenges and methods similar to those of many public artists today,” says Haviland.
Art vocabulary to remember
Throughout the course, students learn crucial art terms, such as abstract, composition, balance, contour, geometrical, scale and more. Haviland reminds her students that art terminology is important to keep in mind when viewing artwork and creating individual pieces.
“Life is not all surface, it’s looking beyond that,” says Haviland, who currently teaches six Introduction to Sculpture classes. “This class teaches how to understand and examine something more closely than you ever thought you could,” she says.
Source: www.bmcc.cuny.edu
BMCC's Sunil Gupta; President Dr. Antonio Pérez; Mario Musolino, NY State Dept of Labor; Grace Kilbane, U.S. Dept of Labor; Tim Ford, NYC Employment and Training Coalition; Bruce Herman, NYS Dept of Labor; Robert Ubell, VP, Polytechnic Institute of NYU, BMCC Associate Dean John Montanez.
Source: www.bmcc.cuny.edu
One of the key challenges facing New York City in the coming years “will be to find new ways to diversify its economy,” says Congressman Jerrold L. Nadler. “Community colleges will have a role to play in that effort.”
Source: www.bmcc.cuny.edu
The City University of New York is facing a monumental cut of $36.3 ml to the operating budget for the six community colleges in FY 2010 and a $6.8 ml reduction in the Peter F. Vallone Scholarship Program, which hundreds of BMCC students have received over the years.
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
May 18, 2009
Interview with Professor Rebecca Hill.
Rebecca Hill’s first book started out as a graduate school paper.
The book is Men, Mobs and the Law, published this year by Duke University Press. In it, Hill, an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Science, finds common ground between two seemingly dissimilar 19th and early 20th-century protest movements—one aimed at defending early labor organizers against criminal prosecution, the other directed at the practice of lynching in the South.
From Sacco and Vanzetti to Mumia Abu-Jamal
“In my first year of graduate school, I wrote a paper comparing the legal defense mounted for Sacco and Vanzetti, anarchists tried and executed for murder in 1920, and the defense of the Rosenbergs, who were convicted of espionage in the early 1950s,” Hill says. “That idea later became the basis of my dissertation.” In graduate school, Hill was active in politics and got involved in the public defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was sentenced to death for the 1981 shooting of a Philadelphia police officer.
“But no Pennsylvania governor was willing to sign the death warrant until 1995, when the state elected its first pro-death penalty governor,” she recalls. “The case got me thinking about the role of defense organizing throughout American history.” By the time she turned the idea into a book, she had extended the story’s historical arc forward to the 1980s and back to the antebellum era and John Brown’s anti-slavery revolt. She had also focused in on the labor and anti-lynching themes.
“With the advent of organized labor in the 19th century, union leaders were often prosecuted for their activism,” Hill says. “The same period saw the advent of anti-lynching campaigns. Between 1877 and 1920, more than 3,000 African-Americans were lynched in the South.” In her book, Hill asks—and attempts to answer—the question, “What do these different types of political campaign look to accomplish?” She concludes that both were focused on defending the rights of individuals, “contrary to a common belief that they subordinated individual welfare to the success of the movement.” But equally important, both forms of protest eventually came together “to address the excesses of the government and gain popular support.”
High praise
While Men, Mobs and the Law has not yet been reviewed, it has garnered enthusiastic praise from prominent writers and scholars. Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, calls the book “a brilliant work of scholarship,” noting that Hill “draws on the most sophisticated analyses of race, gender, class, history, politics, and literature to reorient our thinking about the meaning of ‘popular justice.’” Hill recently appeared at a signing at a Manhattan bookstore where all the copies of her book sold out. Is that a sign the book is destined for commercial success?
“It’s really too soon to tell,” Hill says.
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
May 5, 2009
Interview with Professor Ron Hayduk.
Over the long course of a presidential administration, 100 days is barely an eye blink. But fair or not, every U.S. president since Franklin Roosevelt has been publicly judged on his first 100 days in office. In keeping with that tradition, journalists, pundits and others have offered up frank evaluations of Barack Obama, now that he has passed that first early milestone. Among the most articulate is political activist-author Ron Hayduk, who teaches political science at BMCC.
“I’d definitely give Obama high marks for laying out a new vision of what government can and should be doing, in terms of both domestic and foreign policy,” Hayduk says. “There’s no question that he is one of the smartest and most articulate public figures we have seen in a long time. He comes across as incredibly genuine and heartfelt and projects those qualities from the White House, both to Americans and, most important, to the world.”
The worldwide outpouring of enthusiasm for Obama—and the U.S.—“is hard to overstate,” Hayduk adds, especially given the widespread distrust and dislike of the U.S. that arose during the Bush administration. “It’s incredibly important for the U.S. and the world going forward,” he says.
A downside of bipartisanship?
That said, Hayduk feels that on many fronts—and particularly in dealing with the current economic crisis—Obama has fallen short of his vision.
“Obama’s initiatives have seemingly slowed the collapse of our financial system, which at one point seemed imminent,” he says. “But whether they’ve stopped the collapse outright remains to be seen.” In large measure, Hayduk argues, the president’s agenda has been hampered by his commitment to rise above partisanship and reach out to the Republicans. A case in point: the administration’s $787 billion economic stimulus package “was undermined by Republican efforts to incorporate the largest tax cut every enacted by the U.S. government.”
As a result, the final form of the stimulus bill “was clearly not what Obama had in mind, or what was needed,” Hayduk says. Moreover, the government squandered “an incredible opportunity to nationalize the banks and thus gain greater control over them. Instead they merely propped them up.” While the government now owns a large share of the banks, “it has little capacity to shape what they do,” he says. “The conditions that got us into this mess still exist, and any reprieve we may have seen in terms of market declines or bank failures is only temporary.”
Nor have the benefits of the stimulus plan trickled down to Main Street, he adds: “More than 5 million people have lost their jobs since 2006, and 6 million are facing the threat of home foreclosures.”
High marks all around
As he moves into the second 100 days of his administration, Obama is enjoying one of the highest approval ratings—among voters as well as his political adversaries—of any recent U.S. president. “To a large extent, this is attributable to Obama’s bipartisanship and his determination to curry consensus—but at the expense of more effectively addressing the issues on which he campaigned, such as healthcare, education, the economy and foreign policy,” Hayduk says.
While Obama and company have an opportunity to achieve significant change, “their actions thus far haven’t matched their words,” Hayduk says. The Democrats are in a position to deliver substantive benefits to their core constituencies, “and that could lead to a realigning election in 2010—the kind that really solidifies the party’s base in Congress and enables them to achieve their goals,” he adds. But failure by Obama and the Democrats to deliver on those goals “could color whether Obama gets reelected in 2012.”
Obama’s foreign policy, while well-intentioned, has also been marked by an emphasis on rhetoric over policy, Hayduk feels. “During the campaign, Obama promised to get the U.S. out of Iraq and to reorient U.S. foreign policy toward a more diplomatic approach, but that hasn’t yet been followed up on, as evidenced by the escalation of our military presence in Afghanistan and the disintegration of the situation in Pakistan.” In Latin America, despite popular pro-Obama sentiment, “there is a prevailing view there that views our neoliberal foreign and economic policy as anathema to the goals the new leftist regimes have put forward.”
Moving forward—and back
While Hayduk applauds the administration for confronting the harsh interrogation practices of the CIA, “they’ve essentially taken one step forward by saying, ‘Let’s look at this,’ and then two steps back by saying, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t.’ That approach sends a bad message and doesn’t do what the Obama campaigned promised to do—which is to make government more transparent and accountable.”
Admittedly, a 100-day appraisal of any presidency can be thought of as a snapshot, rather than a full-blown portrait, says Hayduk. “There is a real opportunity for this administration to accomplish great things—to create green technology and green jobs that are true living-wage jobs, to deal with some of the most serious infrastructural challenges facing us, such as our dependence on foreign oil,” he says But what will be needed, he adds, is more decisive action.
“What we’re looking for from Obama is action that could lead to a reinforcing positive upward spiral—one that pulls the weakest links up,” Hayduk says. “There is real potential there.”
Source: www.bmcc.cuny.edu
A new Construction Cost Estimator Training Program will teach minorities, women and veterans working in construction the necessary skills to become cost estimators, is beginning today at BMCC.
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
May 1, 2009
Interview with Professor Cousins.
BMCC Professor Olivia Cousins is amazed and impressed by the large array of topics that are addressed in her Health Concerns of Women class.
When women’s health classes were first introduced at BMCC in the 70's and 80's, they didn't highlight topics such as women and stress, women and diabetes, women and violence, depression and self-esteem...topics currently broached in Cousins' class today.
Cousins' students also learn about nutrition, CPR, being in a toxic relationship, dieting and more, focusing on issues specific to women with political and economic considerations.
Health Concerns for Women is a health education course where students gain insight and information into the physical, socio-cultural, psychological and spiritual aspects of women’s health care needs.
In other words, this is no ordinary health class—it goes above and beyond, touching on a variety of social, physical and sexual health concerns.
As expected, the students in this class oftentimes engage in lively, sometimes personal, conversation, sparking group discussions. According to Cousins, both men and women take the class, many of whom say they hope to learn more about their mother's or a friends' health and their own bodies.
BMCC has the distinction of having one of the longest continual offering of a women's health course in the U.S. "It was being taught before I came and I am certain that it will continue to be taught after I leave," says Cousins. "My work has revolved around blending the practical and the theoretical...inside and outside the classroom."
A Personal Interest in Health Issues
Professor Cousins has been personally involved in the women's health movement since 1985. She trained as a medical and community sociologist at Boston University, where she also earned a Masters in African-American Studies; studied education and social policy at Harvard Graduate School of Education and graduated from the University of Dayton with a BA in Psychology.
The Dayton, Ohio, native always wanted to be a psychiatrist. "When I went through undergraduate studies, I decided on clinical psychology. I took what I thought was a 'break' and pursued a degree in public policy; transitioned to African-American Studies and settled into medical and community sociology,” she says. "The theme through all of these degrees and work has been my focus on women and children."
Students Use a Journal To Look Within Themselves
Professor Cousins wants her students to walk away with—and retain—the information they learn about health in her class. “I want the students to go beyond the books we use and the videos we watch—their memories come from the discussions they had about a topic, information that is important and helpful,” she says.
One of the classroom requirements is to keep a journal, where students document where they are/were at a certain point in time. "One entry is to do something for themselves,” says Cousins.
According to Cousins, the most difficult assignment students have is writing about what they see in a mirror. "They have to come to terms with the image they see. They describe themselves, then how they believe others see them, and how they want to be seen."
Many of Cousins' former BMCC students have gone on to take more general health courses such as nutrition and human sexuality; and, according to Cousins, they are now working as health educators at places such as the NYC Department of Public Health, NYC hospitals, or in community non-profits.
The Stress Factor
According to Cousins, a major health issue facing women today is heart disease, which wasn’t addressed much in the last of 30 years, along with obesity and diabetes.
And, of course, women have heard it many times before, and Cousins will say it yet again—that stress is the number one women's health issue today. "Our lives are radically different from where they were in the 60s and 70s and 80s," she says. "We can't do it all, it's a myth. We women are conditioned to mother but we can't nurture everyone."
Source: www.bmcc.cuny.edu
The FY2010 State Adopted Budget agreed to by the Governor and New York State Legislature calls for an increase of $71.0 million over the current year for the City University of New York. State aid is decreased ...
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
April 28, 2009
Interview with Colin Woodward.
Not long after he arrived at BMCC, Colin Woodward was walking down a corridor when he saw a group of students, chatting in what he assumed was New York City street slang.
“As I drew closer, I realized they were discussing complex math concepts that were way over my head—but doing it in the language of the street,” he says. “I remember thinking that that’s the kind of thing I enjoy so much about being in this place.”
Coming to America
Born and raised in Wiggin, a small town in northwest England, Woodward followed his wife to New York eight years ago when she was offered a job here. “I worked for a while at the Strand Bookstore and did volunteer work—and in my spare time I wrote,” he says. “But I felt that I needed some way of validating my writing and making it feel worthwhile.”
He initially considered taking a film studies course at Hunter College, but after passing the Compass entrance examination he ended up at BMCC and discovered he had no desire to be anywhere else.
“The more I stayed here, the more I liked it,” he says. “I acquired a renewed love for writing, changed my major to literature and decided to work toward an Associates degree.”
A means of self-expression
While there are many factors that drew Woodward to remain at BMCC, chief among them was the writing courses he took with English adjunct professor, John Bredin. “He really opened my eyes to what I could achieve and gave me a chance to express myself through my writing,” he says. He also cultivated a strong interest in areas far removed from creative writing. “A course I took in colonial American history challenged me in a way I hadn’t been challenged in a long time,” he says. “I really enjoyed that.”
An ardent environmentalist, Woodward spends much of his free time at the Bronx Zoo as a volunteer with the Wildlife Conservation Society. “I believe animals and humans are connected in a fundamental way, and that the more we destroy our forests, the more harm we do to ourselves,” he says.
After he graduates, Woodward expects to further his studies in a senior college. But for now, he is enjoying everything BMCC has to offer. “The diversity here is incredible,” he says. “It’s totally turned around my preconceptions—and that has been a very big part of my education.”
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
April 22, 2009
Interview with Professor Mark Hoffman.
Mark Hoffman typically begins his elective course in Critical Thinking (CRT 100) by asking students what they did during the first hour after waking up that morning.
“Invariably, the first thing they did was make a decision—whether or not to get out of bed when the alarm went off,” says Hoffman, a lecturer and coordinator of the Reading Program in BMCC’s Developmental Skills department. “More decisions follow—what to eat for breakfast, what to wear, whether to come to class.” While some decisions are instinctive, some require real thought. “In all cases, it’s important to be mindful before we make a choice or decision—not to act impulsively, but to approach it logically.”
A double objective
Such mindfulness, he says, is the essence of critical thinking—an approach to learning and decision-making that has direct applications in the classroom and the outside world. In point of fact, Hoffman’s critical thinking course has a two-pronged focus: In addition to building students’ awareness of the need to make logical, carefully considered decisions, the course helps them develop practical academic skills, such as outlining, note-taking and time management.
Along the way, students learn to question their own hard-wired assumptions and prejudices, such as a reliance on stereotypes. “Stereotyping helps us makes sense out of a complex world, but it represents mushy thinking—a reliance on easy answers,” says Hoffman. “We can put people everyone in a group and walk away saying, ‘I understand you,’ but in truth we don’t, because by stereotyping people we’re not seeing them as individuals. While I’m a college professor, I would not like to think I’m just like every other college professor.”
Beyond selfishness
Critical thinking “helps us avoid the pitfalls of irrational or impulsive thinking and helps us get beyond stereotypes and our own prejudices,” says Hoffman. It also leads people away from selfishness, “making us realize that academically and in private life our decisions have consequences beyond ourselves.” A case in point: Early in the semester, he assigns his students to write an essay and then pair off in class with a peer editor. “The exercise emphasizes the need for cooperation and taking responsibility for your actions,” he says. “If you come to class without having done the assignment, you disappoint your peer editor. The point is that our actions—and inactions—have results.”
While many colleges offer courses in critical thinking, they are often weighted toward the theoretical—an approach Hoffman carefully avoids. “We don’t leave it in the realm of the abstract,” Hoffman says. “In class, we do individual and group exercises that reflect the real world. We also try to use actual assignments from other classes as examples of how to manage time and develop good study skills.”
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
April 22, 2009
Interview with Professor Sherry Engle.
Sherry Engle, an Associate professor in the Department of Speech, Communications, and Theatre Arts, teaches Modern American Drama, from melodrama to drama.
Engle, who originally came from Oregon, says she’s always wanted to be a woman dramatist, and took her first step toward reaching her goal by receiving her doctorate at the University of Texas, in Austin, researching women dramatists.
“But by then,” she says, “I was an older student and I was kind of burned out on school and academics, so I decided that because I had been researching women dramatists that I would come to New York and become one. I had been writing scripts as well. So for a couple of years this was a big adventure for me.”
“Eventually, being a starving artist, was not what it’s cracked up to be,” so she eased back into teaching, first at St. Johns teaching speech and then at BMCC.
The genesis of teaching modern American drama at BMCC
As Engle tells it, after teaching speech for a while, she noticed that there was a course on the books, called “Modern American Drama,” and noticed it wasn’t being offered. So she spoke to the then department chair and received encouragement to proceed in developing a new course. But she wanted the course to be fresh and include women, men and women of color, gay and lesbian authors, and ethnic playwrights who she calls a “must.”
Her dissertation was on women dramatists, which evolved into a book, New Women Dramatists in America, 1890-1920. Engle believes that it is important to rediscover some of these women, like Martha Morton and Rida Johnson Young, who, she says, contributed so much to American drama.
“I don’t go back very far in the course, but I wanted to include men and women of color, like August Wilson, the African-American playwright whose literary legacy is The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer prizes; Lorraine Hansberry, whose Raisin in the Sun, was inspired by her family's legal battle against racially segregated housing laws of Chicago in the 1950s; and Asian writers like, Henry David Hwang, whose M.Butterfly, won the1988 Tony Award.”
From melodrama to drama
Engle says she likes to begin each course with the melodrama “for fun as an icebreaker.” She wants her students to see that modern drama was preceded by melodrama, with its juxtaposition of hero and villain.
“I use the analogy of the Bruce Willis movie Die Hard, as a perfect melodrama. You have the extreme villain and then you have this hero who is protecting his wife who is also heroin in her own right. Early film was melodramatic. They played music to heighten the emotion and a lot of these elements are still used in movies.”
“When writers such as Eugene O’Neill, who was among the first to introduce the technique of realism to American drama, and Susan Glasspell, whose novels and plays are committed to developing deep, sympathetic characters, and other writers began to become more realistic in terms of characters, the playwrights built an American genre.”
Off to the theatre
One of the goals in this course, says Engle, is to get students to see more plays. One of their requirements is to write a critique of a play. She doesn’t care if the play is off off/Broadway or Broadway. She, in fact, urges students to be an usher at a play and thereby see it for free. Students receive extra credit for seeing several plays and they are required to do a paper and discuss a playwright or a play in depth and write an analysis.
Source: www.bmcc.cuny.edu
Summit, a "joint collaboration"This semester's Third Entrepreneurship Summit was a joint collaboration among students and professors from the Business, English, Modern Languages, Early Childhood Education and Speech departments, along with the Writing and Literature Program.
Source: www.bmcc.cuny.edu
To celebrate their one-year anniversary, BMCC's Center for Career Development invited faculty, students and staff to the third floor of the main building for a party and information session. Held on Monday, ...
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
Amy Smith is a registered nurse and now an emergency department nurse fellow at North Shore University Hospital, located in Manhasset, New York. She is training to specialize in emergency medicine and trauma. North Shore is designated as a Level I trauma center, which provides Smith with a rigorous experience.
Smith is feted with Awards
Smith is also a 2008 BMCC nursing graduate, and an outstanding one at that.
When Smith applied to BMCC she was told, “You’d better apply to every nursing school out there because BMCC is very competitive and you probably won’t get in.”
She says she is stubborn by nature, which seems to serve her. BMCC’s nursing program was the only one she applied to, because Smith was determined to get into an elite program. And she did.
“It was a very competitive class, but we kept each other sharp and studied together,” she said. “I enjoyed my professors and was very fortunate to get all their years of experiential teaching.”
Married, and a mother of two children, Smith—who has a seven-year-old son and a sixteen year-old daughter—was honored to receive the Tacinelli Award for Compassion and Caring at the Honors Convocation for Nursing. The award is named after Professor Barbara Tacinelli’s parents, and is awarded to a BMCC nursing graduate who goes above and beyond, in their level of compassion and caring.
“I was thrilled and honored that I was selected,” Smith said. “I was the first recipient to receive the award. Then, to my surprise, at “pinning”—which is nursing’s graduation—I was awarded Best All-Around Student for my class. I was really in shock. It was unbelievable.”
Smith’s fellowship
Smith’s North Shore fellowship lasts a year and is, as she says, a great opportunity for her to continue her education in emergency medicine. While many graduating nurses go directly into med-surgery, Smith is drawn to emergency and trauma medicine. She says, “I love it and I can’t believe they pay me for it. I love going to work.”
Smith, who excused herself because she just came from what she called, “a rough 37 hour shift,” to speak with us, was still amazingly perky and thoughtful after working three, twelve-and-a-half hour consecutive shifts.
She usually begins her day at 11a.m. in what she describes as a large emergency department, which has 100 beds, and is split into different areas, where she is cross-trained as an “ER” nurse.
An ER nurse
“Emergency departments don’t stop. They don’t close and patients don’t stop coming,” Smith said. “You don’t get 10 patients to care for in a day. You can care for five patients in a 12-hour shift or 25 patients; some get discharged and some get admitted. During my day, I start to see patients immediately, working with the attending physicians and residents,” she explains. “I am fortunate that we have this great collaborative team. Doctors treat diseases and nurses treat people and their responses to diseases.”
According to Smith, nurses are advocates for their patients’ well-being. “The days when nurses were subservient to anyone who had higher authority than they did, are forever gone,” she said.
While we don’t usually editorialize, after speaking with Smith, we say without any equivocation, that it takes special person to be an ER nurse.
Smith says she sees lots of death, especially of children and elderly. The title trauma center Level 1 Smith says, means that at North Shore they “get everything and anything,” usually the unexpected, in a life-and-death situation.
Emergency medicine, says Smith, is ever-expanding. Years ago, there were just emergency “rooms” in hospitals devoted to emergency patients. “Now, emergency departments are typically free-standing departments within a hospital and they have their own administration,” she said.
The future
Smith sees herself continuing with emergency medicine. She is now on her way to receiving her baccalaureate in nursing at SUNY Delhi and her goal is to be a clinical nurse specialist in trauma emergency and disaster medicine.
“Disaster nursing is a fairly new field, especially since 9/11, and what this means is disaster nurses take care of people who have been in a disaster, whether man-made or natural. It deals with triage and the deployment of nurses to assist those patients impacted by catastrophes,” she said. “It is doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people.”
“Without getting incredibly sentimental, I think that 9/11 changed my life. I think it is important to reach out to as many people as possible.”
Source: www.bmcc.cuny.edu
In response to the recent news about instances of human swine flu, the BMCC campus community is advised to follow the instructions and guidance offered by the New York City Department of Health and Hygiene (DOH) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC). ...
Source: www.bmcc.cuny.edu
Summit, a "joint collaboration"This semester’s Third Entrepreneurship Summit was a joint collaboration among students and professors from the Business, English, Modern Languages, Early Childhood Education and Speech departments, along with the Writing and Literature Program.
Source: www.bmcc.cuny.edu
To celebrate their one-year anniversary, BMCC's Center for Career Development invited faculty, students and staff to the third floor of the main building for a party and information session. Held on Monday, ...
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
Psychology—as an academic discipline—has gotten somewhat of a bad rep, says Vernon Smith, who teaches several courses, including General Psychology, Abnormal Psychology and Social Psychology.
“There’s a lot of dry theoretical content to absorb, and psychology often doesn’t lend itself to lab work and other hands-on activities,” he says. But since arriving at BMCC last year, Smith has used in-class movies and videos, multimedia and other teaching tools while drawing on his own intellectual curiosity to convey the drama, excitement and relevance of psychology.
One of the points Smith emphasizes in Psych 100 (General Psychology) is that Psychology is indeed a science—“one that incorporates rigorous, quantitative research methods and a growing battery of advance technology tools, such as neuro-imaging and PET scans, that provide an actual look at the human brain.”
Peeking at brainwaves
As an undergraduate at Philadelphia’s Temple University, he recalls, “I had the opportunity to spend time in a neuro-psych lab, where we could fiddle around with the electronic equipment and view brainwaves.” He is hoping someday to replicate that experience at BMCC—most likely by adding an hour—and a credit—to the school’s General Psychology course.
Students who have completed the General Psychology course can opt to enroll in Smith’s Abnormal and Social Psychology courses, which place a heavy emphasis on writing, thinking, research and critical reading of assigned texts. This semester, Smith’s Abnormal Psych classes included viewings of three films, including Swedish director Ingmar Bergmann’s Persona, in which an actress retreats into a world of silence and, over time, merges personalities with the nurse who cares for her.
“What we focus on is how Bergmann’s cinematic style mirrors the inner experience of someone in psychological distress,” Smith says. “In a sense, the students become armchair psychologists—but I let them know there is right or wrong answer. All that matters is that they stretch their minds.”
Casting off prejudices
Smith is particularly interested in the debate over what he calls “the universality of psychology”—a topic that he covers in General Psychology. “The question I put to the students is whether the principles we study in the U.S. are applicable to psychological mechanisms and behaviors in other parts of the world,” he says. That invariably leads to a discussion about the importance of replicating studies, taking a broader view of human behavior, and stepping out of an exclusively American context.” It’s a topic that seems to have special resonance at BMCC, with its highly diverse student body.
“There are so many nationalities and cultures represented here, it’s inevitable that many students will be thinking about these very questions,” Smith says. “Fifty years ago, English and philosophy were the dominant college majors—you could take either one and move on to a career in virtually any field.” Now psychology is rapidly becoming the most popular course of study. “I think it’s because students understand that in the 21st century, as the world shrinks and we routinely connect with people from other cultures, it’s essential to have people skills and apply them in a way that’s deep and meaningful,” Smith says. “Psychology provides a way to understand yourself—and your neighbors—better.”
Source: www.bmcc.cuny.edu
Thank you so much for participating in the 2009 State Budget Campaign for CUNY. In a very difficult budget year the results were encouraging. Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, University presidents, faculty, ...
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
Few areas of science have as immediate or profound an application to real life as forensics—typically defined as the use of science to address questions and investigate matters related to crimes and other legal matters. Recently, BMCC and John Jay College of Criminal Justice joined forces to launch a joint program that offers a unique path to a career in forensic science while taking the concept of credit transferability to a new level.
When the program makes its debut this fall, it will enable qualified students to pursue an associate in science degree at BMCC and then transfer seamlessly to John Jay, where they can earn a B.S. degree in Forensic Science. Total credit transferability is assured.
A rich and varied profession
While TV shows such as Law and Order have popularized the role of forensics, the field is considerably broader, says BMCC science professor Charles Kosky. “Forensic scientists work in labs, in the field, and in offices as supervisors and administrators,” he says. “They can pursue careers in both the private and public sector and in criminal as well as civil cases. It’s an incredibly varied field.” Some students even move on to other careers; Kosky knows of at least one BMCC graduate who transferred to John Jay and later went on to medical school.
The one constant is the need for a thorough grounding in the STEM disciplines—science, technology, engineering and mathematics. “The BMCC part of the program will involve a heavy course load in the basic sciences—physics, biology, chemistry and math,” Kosky says. “Before they transfer to John Jay, students must have taken courses in organic chemistry, quantitative analysis and molecular biology, which are the foundation of further study in forensics.” While the coursework will not explicitly deal with forensics, “it will be tweaked to make it forensics-friendly and, to the extent possible, correlated with forensics,” says BMCC science professor Lalitha Jayant.
Encouraging minorities to participate with a two-million dollar grant
Because minority students represent a significant percentage of BMCC’s student body, a related initiative, which Jayant is spearheading, is aimed at helping participating minorities—particularly Hispanic students—derive the maximum benefit from the forensics science program. Funded by a Title V grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the two-million dollar initiative actually has a double objective: to increase the number of Hispanic students enrolled in STEM courses; and to increase the number of Hispanic students transferring from BMCC to senior colleges. “Because the college’s articulation agreement with John Jay was already in place, we decided to use it for the purposes of our Title V initiative,” Jayant says.
The Title V grant is also used to fund other ancillary programs as well, including internships and summer programs for high school students. Eligible Title V students will also receive a stipend of more than $2,500 stipend over a two-year span.
Regardless of their specific motivation or career goals, forensics is best suited to students with a passion for science and scientific inquiry. “To succeed in this field, you really need to have the mind of a scientist and a desire to delve into topics you don’t understand,” Kosky says. “If you come to a crossroads in an investigation and don’t know which way to turn, you need to be the kind of person who is willing to think and speculate.”
Source: www.bmcc.cuny.edu
Congressman Jerrold L. Nadler, who represents New York's 8th congressional district, which includes parts of Manhattan,as well asBMCC, and Brooklyn, will betheKeynote Speaker at ...
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On Wednesday, March 25th, The BMCC Office of Financial Aid held its annual Financial Aid Awareness Day in the Richard Harris Terrace. The event gave students the chance to learn about the many different resources available to help pay for college, via grants, loans, work study and scholarships.
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY Although the arts flourished in Spain in the early years of the 20th century, works by Spanish women during that period have largely been overlooked by critics and scholars. An exception is the poetry of three women—Ernestina de Champourcin, Josefina de la Torra and Concha Mendez—who are the subject of an academic project by BMCC student Mariana Soto.
Soto’s study, “Three Forgotten Poets: Women of the Generation of 1927,” was recognized at the CUNY Women’s and Gender Studies Recognition Day, sponsored by the CUNY Women’s Studies Council and the CUNY Women’s Center Council. Soto was one of two BMCC students selected by the BMCC Women’s Studies Project and Women’s Resource Center to present their work at the May 1 event; the other was Wioleta Jaworska, who will be featured in a separate story.
Challenging society’s rules
“All three poets produced extraordinary work but were marginalized because they were women,” says Soto, a Liberal Arts major who will graduate next semester. Apart from her coursework at BMCC, Soto, who is an accomplished singer and guitarist, attends the Julliard School. Upon graduation from BMCC, she hopes to major in music, and has a special interest in ethnomusicology.
“Even today,” Soto says, “many people remain unaware that women made such a significant artistic contribution to the arts in Spain—as poets, musicians, and visual artists.” The three poets on whom her study focused “were true pioneers who stepped outside the role of women as it was defined by society’s standards.” Importantly, their contributions were not confined to poetry, she adds.
“Josefina de la Torra was also a gifted actress and musician,” she notes. “And Mendez was involved in promoting and publishing some of the most important literary work of the period, including the plays and poems of Federico García Lorca.”
All three women figured importantly in The Generation of 1927, an influential group of avant garde poets, writers, dramatists and artists.
Creating art in a turbulent time
The careers of the three women extended into the 1930s, a time of turbulence, repression and civil war in Spain. “I believe that a full historical account of Spanish art in the 20th century must include the women who played such a key part in it,” Soto says. As both an academic and an artist herself, she adds, “I feel a kinship with Champourcin, de la Torra and Mendez. Learning about them has been incredibly inspiring to me.”