@BMCC

March 31, 2022

Associate of Arts in Urban Studies Program Prepares Students to Create a Better City
BMCC is proud to announce a new Associate of Arts program in Urban Studies, within the Social Sciences, Human Services and Criminal Justice Department. The Urban Studies program was developed in partnership with the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies (SLU). BMCC Urban Studies graduates will be eligible to transfer to the Bachelor of Arts in Urban Community Studies at SLU and eventually enter a field that draws on sociology, economics, political science, anthropology and more, to analyze the economy and culture, examine how urban problems arise, how they have been addressed and how to plan cities of the future.

Town Hall Examines Realities Behind Enrollment Data, and Strategies to Build Student Retention
An Enrollment Management Town Hall held March 29 at BMCC touched on critical issues of student retention and success, and invited feedback from the BMCC community. BMCC President Anthony E. Munroe defined the focus for the event. “Today, we are coming together to hear from you,” he said. “We want to start a deeper discussion that will begin the ongoing process of creating a plan of action to address our enrollment challenges." Enrollment at BMCC has dropped 21% in the last 10 years — including a plummet from 2019 through 2021, related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Aggregating the data reveals that Black and Hispanic men represent the largest percentage drop in enrollment. This and other important issues were addressed by a panel featuring Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Erwin Wong, Acting Vice President for Enrollment Management Sanjay Ramdath and Dean of Institutional Effectiveness and Strategic Planning Christopher Shults.

Social Justice Week Inspires Change Through a Lens of Inclusivity
The BMCC Race, Equity, and Inclusion Steering Committee (REI) will present the College’s inaugural Social Justice Week, Monday, April 4 through Tuesday, April 12. “Your Voice. Our Action. A Better BMCC,” is the week's theme and is reflected in the wide range of events, panels and presentations, both in-person and remote, being offered to the BMCC community. An opening program and community gathering in Theatre 1 at BMCC's 199 Chambers Street campus and on Zoom kicks off the week, then events continue both in person and on Zoom. View the full program here.

BMCC Strengthens Community Through OpenLab, a Virtual Campus
A team of BMCC professors and staff is working to increase student participation in the BMCC OpenLab by creating a sense of community and fostering a sense of belonging within a virtual campus. The OpenLab Virtual Campus is one of seven projects funded by the President’s Fund for Excellence and Innovation. In the same way the college has physical campuses where students meet for classes and other activities, the OpenLab is meant to be the online space where many of those same activities can take place. The BMCC OpenLab is accessible through many different electronic devices including smart phones.

Science Major Rajvinder Kaur Receives Prestigious Goldwater Scholarship
Science major Rajvinder Kaur has been named a Barry Goldwater Excellence in Education Foundation scholar for 2022. Kaur is the first BMCC student to receive the competitive scholarship. Among the five CUNY institutions represented among this year’s scholars, BMCC was the only community college.

Associate Degree Program Enables Students to Apply Critical Thinking to Concepts of Justice
The Academic Literacy and Linguistics department now offers an Associate of Arts (A.A.) in Critical Thinking and Justice program. Students will learn strategies for reading critically in humanities fields such as philosophy and history. They will apply those skills to examine concepts that have shaped the U.S. legal system, including a focus on the relationship between law and justice, and its impact on daily life. Graduates of the program will be prepared to transfer seamlessly to the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Humanities and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY.

Asian Heritage Month Presents Ping Pong, Poetry, Film and More
Accomplishments by Asians and Asian Americans enrich the fabric of everyday life, and will be celebrated at BMCC in-person and on Zoom throughout April. Events include ping pong and badminton tournaments, films set in California, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Texan, Afghanistan and India, sessions on meditation, healing foods, Japanese publishing and much more. Events are both in-person and on Zoom. Visit the full list of events and join the fun!

Faculty and Staff Deadline to Upload Vaccine Verification Extended to May 27
CUNY and the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY (PSC) have agreed to revise the date by which all full- and part-time faculty and non-teaching instructional staff —which includes among others NTAs, CLTs and those in the HEO-title series—will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and to upload proof of vaccination into CUNYfirst. The deadline has been changed from April 1 to May 27, 2022. The deadline applies to ECPs, as well. Please upload proof of vaccination on CUNYfirst.

Reimagining BMCC Website Offers COVID-19 Information
Visit the Reimagining BMCC website for updated information about wearing masks on campus, Random Testing Program for ALL BMCC community members, CUNY Access Pass Through Cleared4, and tips to help upload Vaccination and Booster Verification in CUNYfirst. Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and higher education safety guidelines issued by the New York State Department of Health and CUNY, BMCC is committed to creating the best possible learning and working experience for students, faculty and staff.

Announcements

April 9: Transitions and Transactions VI Explores Teaching in a Pandemic
BMCC, in collaboration with the New York College English Association, will present Transitions and Transactions VI: Teaching Literature in the Time of COVID, an all-day virtual conference set for Saturday, April 9. The conference will feature 20 panels and two featured panels with presenters from across CUNY as well as Europe, Canada and many regions of the United States. What this remarkable array of educators share is having grappled with remote learning across many diverse communities. For program details and more information, visit Transactions and Transactions VI or email transitionsandtransactionsconference@bmcc.cuny.edu.

Academic Momentum 2.0 (AcMo 2.0) Town Hall, April 11
BMCC students, faculty and staff are invited to attend an AcMo 2.0 Town Hall at 11 a.m. on Monday, April 11. AcMo 2.0 refers to the CUNY Academic Momentum Campaign, a system-wide endeavor to improve undergraduate graduation rates over a three-year period. The AcMo Town Hall will be held in Theater 2 at the College’s 199 Chambers Street campus. Members of the BMCC community can also participate remotely via LiveStream: Register now to attend virtually.

Joe Doctor Colloquium: Promoting Mindset, Metacognition and Belonging for Equity, April 1
The Faculty Development Committee invite BMCC faculty and staff to join the 2022 Joe Doctor Colloquium: Promoting Mindset, Metacognition, and Belonging for Equity on Friday April 1 at 10 a.m. via the online platform Zoom. This year’s guest speaker is Fullerton College English Professor Miguel Powers. For more information, contact Professor Ruth V. Guirguis at rguirguis@bmcc.cuny.edu.

BMCC Theatre Department Presents William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night April 27-May 1
The BMCC Theatre Department invites students, faculty, staff and general public to enjoy a free, live theatre performance of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, directed by Theatre Arts Professor Diane Dowling. This in-person event will take place in BMCC’s Theatre II with several performances between April 27 and May 1. The famous line, “If music be the food of love, play on,” sets the tone of the romantic comedy Twelfth Night. Interwoven plots involving gender, class and same-sex attraction make the play as relevant to current times as it was in the early 1600s when Shakespeare wrote the play. For more information including safety requirements and uploading proof of COVID vaccines, click here. For questions, contact Demi Agapitos at dagapitos@bmcc.cuny.edu, Emma Ruopp at eruopp@bmcc.cuny.edu or Karl O’Brian Williams at kowilliams@bmcc.cuny.edu.

Music and Art Department Hosts In-Person Faculty Recital
The Department of Music and Art presented the Music Faculty Recital at the Shirley Fiterman Art Center on March 30. This was the first in-person faculty recital in more than two years. Faculty performers included Steven Tompkins, Andrew Boudreau, Amber Yiu-Hsuan Liao, Robert K. Reed, Yi-Chuan Chen, MaKayla McDonald, Howard Meltzer, Judy Woo, Quentin Angus, Can Olgun and Joo Yoon Lee.

Deadline Extended to April 4 for Faculty and Teaching Staff Applications for the Summer 2022 Anti-Racist Pedagogy Seminar
The Anti-Racist Pedagogy Working Group in collaboration with CETLS is accepting applications from faculty and teaching staff for the Summer 2022 Anti-Racist Pedagogy Seminar: Transforming the Classroom, scheduled for June 13-17. Made possible through a grant from the President’s Fund for Excellence and Innovation, the seminar will explore anti-racist teaching practices and provide participants with the opportunity to revise their course curricula and lessons. Participants who successfully complete the seminar will receive a $400 stipend. For more details, workshop dates and the application form, click here. The deadline to apply is extended to April 4. Contact Professor Shawn Grant at shgrant@bmcc.cuny.edu or Professor Kirsten Cole at kcole@bmcc.cuny.edu with further questions.

Careers in Economics Panel April 6
Representatives from organizations including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Flora Financial and the New York City Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget and more, will discuss the wide array of future career opportunities available to students who major in Economics at this in-person panel discussion, April 6 at 2 p.m. at 70 Murray Street, room M-1215 or via Zoom. Representatives from the BMCC office of Internships and Experiential Learning and the Center for Career Development will also be there. For more information, Zoom registration and questions, click here.

Park Place Window Project at Shirley Fiterman Art Center
The Shirley Fiterman Art Center is pleased to announce Pages, a site-specific installation designed for the Park Place Window Project, by New York-based artist Kelly Parr. For this project, Parr focuses on the subject of utopian hippie houses from the 1960s, and their emphasis on the handmade, amateur, and impermanent. Using re-photographed images from books of the era, Parr creates a kind of theatrical shadow box using layered and manipulated vinyl prints on glass. To learn more about the installation, click here.

Nominate Senators to the BMCC Academic Senate by April 14 at 5 p.m.
Nominations will be accepted through 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 14 for Academic Senate at-large representatives. Senators serve a three-year term, through May 2025.

Eight senators are being elected to represent full-time faculty: Nominate here.
Two senators are being elected to represent full-time CLTS: Nominate here.
Four senators are being elected to represented adjunct faculty and CLTS: Nominate here.

Eligible voters will receive an email with voting instructions and a link to the election site after the close of nominations on April 14. Representatives to the Academic Senate are automatically members of the BMCC College Council. If you have questions about the nomination process, please contact an Elections Committee co-chair: Christine Priano, cpriano@bmcc.cuny.edu or Cynthia Wiseman, cwiseman@bmcc.cuny.edu. Election Committee members also include Orlando Justo, Maureen Keena and Manita Pavel.

Lactation Rooms Support the Transition Back for Students, Faculty and Staff
Reflecting the culture of care at BMCC, support is available for students, faculty and staff transitioning back to school or work while nursing, chest feeding or pumping. Lactation Rooms provide a comfortable rocking chair, electrical outlets, hand sanitizer, paper towels and literature. There is no refrigeration available for expressed milk, so individuals need to provide their own travel bag. To reserve the Women’s Resource Center (WRC) lactation rooms at 199 Chambers Street, Room S-340; in the Murray Building, Room M-317 or in Fiterman Hall, Room F-910, call (212) 220-8166; email wrc@bmcc.cuny.edu or stop by the WRC. To reserve lactation space in the BMCC Health Services Offices at 199 Chambers Street, Room N-380, call (212) 220-8157. Visit the Lactations Rooms page on the BMCC website for more information.

Women's Herstory Month: Bring Questions for the Sexperts and More
Women's Herstory Month closes out after more than 20 workshops, film screenings and panels. Bring your questions on April 7 and join the conversation on anatomy, sex, communication and more. This panel of "sexperts" will feature Licensed Clinical Social Worker Gaby Muniz and Nurse Practitioners Ofiong Okona, FNP and Natalee Bussoletti, WHNP. On April 14, take part in trauma-sensitive yoga. Students who attend two or more WHM events receive Co-Curriculum Transcript credit.

Faculty and Staff Invited to Rent Cap and Gown for 2022 Commencement Ceremony
BMCC will celebrate the Class of 2022 on Thursday, June 9 at 9 a.m. with an in-person commencement ceremony at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Faculty and staff who need to rent a cap and gown to participate in the ceremony, please contact Jonathan Rosser at jrosser@bmcc.cuny.edu no later than April 5.

CUNY-Wide Training and Resources for Using PeopleSoft 9.2
Computer Information Systems is planning to launch the CUNYfirst Campus Solutions upgrade to PeopleSoft 9.2 over spring break in April 2022. This second phase of the upgrade extends the new PeopleSoft 9.2 improvements across all of CUNYfirst, including the new tile-based CUNYfirst home page (also known as the “Interaction Hub”). The changes to CUNYfirst will be new for many in the BMCC college community. CISTraining has developed a sustainable and engaging training program to support the various and ever-changing needs of our learning community as we prepare for the launch of the 9.2 CUNYfirst Interaction Hub (IH), Campus Solutions, and Faculty/Advisor upgrade in mid-April. It has released a four-week training calendar of live webinars and is updating its CUNYfirst Sharepoint site on an ongoing basis with the latest recordings, video clips, user guides, and job aids. It is also updating and migrating over 500 CUNYfirst user guides into CUNYITHelp, which will improve your ability to find the information you need via keyword searches. In addition to the user guides, students will find helpful videos on www.cuny.edu/cunyfirst closer to the launch date.

To help ensure a truly supportive foundation for the launch, the first set of live webinars will be delivered to our campus service desks and technicians. This will be followed by general sessions on Campus Solutions for administrative staff, along with sessions for the faculty and advisor communities. Please complete the Registration Form for Administrative Staff and/or the Registration Form for Faculty/Advisors to select and sign up for your desired 9.2 webinar session using your CUNY Login (Username: Firstname.Lastname##@login.cuny.edu).

Submit Your Ballot for the 2021-2022 Employee Appreciation Awards by May 6
BMCC students, faculty and staff, show your appreciation for staff (non-faculty) who demonstrate outstanding achievement and creative contributions through their role at BMCC — beyond what is normally expected of employees. SUBMIT ONE BALLOT with a detailed nomination in any or all categories: Leadership, Inspiration, Innovation/Technology, Rookie of the Year and Team Achievement.

BMCC Cafeteria at 199 Chambers Street Open for Spring 2022
BMCC students, faculty and staff can enjoy a hot meal, healthy salad or delicious sandwich at a reasonable cost in the MBJ Food Services/BMCC Cafeteria on the second floor at 199 Chambers Street, Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

BMCC Panther Pantry Assists Students Facing Food Insecurity
BMCC students facing a food emergency are encouraged to visit the Panther Pantry and take home pre-packed bags of nutritious, non-perishable food. The pantry distributes bags of food, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hot meals are distributed Thursdays from 1 to 2 p.m. at 199 Chambers Street, Room S-230. For more information, contact the Advocacy and Resource Center (ARC) at arc@bmcc.cuny.edu or call (212) 220-8195.

Enrollment

Admissions is Back in the Swing with In-Person Events
The Admissions & Recruitment team is vamping up for Spring and reintegrating on-campus Tours and Information Sessions. Campus Tours will be offered Wednesdays at 12:30 p.m. and the Information Sessions at 3 p.m. Be on the lookout for new and friendly faces around campus. For more information, contact the Admissions Office at (212) 220-1265 or admissions@bmcc.cuny.edu.

Faculty are Invited to Present at Academic Open House (Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout April)
The Admissions Office will host a virtual Academic Open House on Tuesdays and Thursdays in April for admitted students, prospective students and even current students to explore each Academic and Career Community, meet our dynamic faculty and learn about the robust academic offerings at BMCC. Faculty are invited to join our Admissions team and be as creative and involved in the content and delivery of these benefits as possible. Please take a look at the schedule below and let us know if you’d like to co-present, create a dynamic breakout room, bring along some of your current students or alumni, share a presentation and more. Let us know who will be representing your area and how you wish to participate by completing this form. Here is the April Academic Open House Schedule:

4/5 at 5 p.m. – Accounting, Business, Economics
4/7 at 6 p.m. – Arts and Humanities
4/12 at 5 p.m. – Behavioral and Social Sciences
4/14 at 6 p.m. – Communications and Media
4/19 at 5 p.m. – Education
4/21 at 6 p.m. – Health Professions
4/26 at 5 p.m. – Government & Public Service
4/28 at 6 p.m. – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

Making Headlines

Alumna Nolvia Delgado, Leader of Kaplan Foundation, commends BMCC advisors who helped guide her transfer process
March 30, 2022 — The Miscellany News

Human Resources

Have You Been Impacted by the Russian Invasion of Ukraine? CCA Can Help
BMCC faculty and staff experiencing anxiety and distress caused by Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine can access free, short-term counseling sessions and unlimited counseling by phone 24/7 at (800) 833-8707 through CCA@YourService. Updated information can be found on the CCA member website. If you are seeking assistance for friends, family or colleagues in Ukraine, or if you are a concerned global citizen looking to offer support, these online resources can assist in locating services and providing aid. CCA also provides the webcast, Navigating Through Grief and Loss. Read the CUNY Chancellor’s statement on the crisis in Ukraine and its palpable impact on many in New York, home to the largest Ukrainian community in the nation.

Who is CCA@Your Service?
They are a confidential, 24/7 employee assistance program provider. For additional information refer to the program flyer or visit their website. Call (800) 833-8707 or visit CCA online (Company Code: CUNY) CCA@YourService also presents stress awareness month.

Mandatory Full- and Part-Time Staff and Faculty Trainings Available on Zoom
The Office of Human Resources will host virtual sessions for ESPARC (Employee Sexual and Interpersonal Violence Prevention and Response Course) and WPV (Workplace Violence Prevention) trainings via Zoom during the Spring 2022 semester. For dates, times and to reserve a spot, please visit the Human Resources Training and Development page.

Donors and Alumni

Learn How to Open an Investment Account and More: Free MoneyWorks Seminars
BMCC, in collaboration with the Financial Planning Association of New York, provides MoneyWorks, a series of free virtual seminars for the BMCC community. Upcoming sessions include A Practical Guide to Opening Your First Investment Account, April 6; Starting Your Own Business, April 20 and Mind Over Money, May 4. BMCC is grateful to Santander Bank and Capital One Bank for supporting this series.

Alumni Now: Geordany Arias
Geordany Arias (Liberal Arts ’18), the first in his family to enroll in higher education, said his experience as a BMCC Gilman Scholar studying in Spain opened a new door for him. Mr. Arias next entered Teacher's College at Columbia University and specialized in Bilingual Education through the Teacher Opportunity Corps (TOC) state-funded program that places teachers from underrepresented backgrounds in New York classrooms. “The program is a safe space where I'm in a group with people who actually look like me," Arias said in a recent profile piece from Teachers College, which also reported that Latinx students in Arias’ classrooms have in turn learned from a teacher who looks just like them.

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