President's Report for November 2025

Overview

 Workforce Development, formerly a division of the Office of CEWD, now reports to the Provost in the Office for Academic Affairs. The division leads and implements Workforce Development Industry Certifications and short-term skills-based courses for students, alumni and adult learners throughout Queens and NYC and supports their career pathways to family-sustaining Good Jobs in the NYC region. Workforce Development collaborates with Senior Administration, Faculty, Academic Departments, Continuing Education and Administrative Depts. to secure funding from government agencies, foundations, organizations & corporations for Workforce Development Initiatives.

 Monthly Accomplishments

 Building Performance Lab Grant, CCNY: QCC will be receiving a grant from CCNY's Building Performance Lab (BPL), to offer students and other adult learners in the community the opportunity to be educated in the CUNY "Green Jobs" Energy Training for NYS HCR/Weatherization: The Energy and Carbon Management Training Program, supported by funding through Homes and Community Renewal (HCR), a NYS agency. The program provides comprehensive training in the field of energy-in-buildings, equipping students with energy technology fundamentals and offering opportunities for multiple professional certifications, including the Energy Technician Certificate, as well as internships and job opportunities. Workforce Development is partnering with Dr. Dugwon Seo, ET Department, and Dr. Paul Marchese, Physics Department, on this project. QCC and CCNY are finalizing the MOU, and the CUNY “Green Jobs” Energy Training will begin in January 2026.

Con Edison Solar Panel Installation Training: A Con Edison grant is enabling us to offer two Solar Panel Installation Training Programs, to two cohorts of students. This project is a collaboration between Workforce Development and the Department of Engineering Technology, with Dr. Dugwon Seo as PI of the project, with Dr. Paul Marchese as advisor. The first cohort included 12 students who were trained at Solar One headquarters from July 28^th through August 8, 2025. The second cohort is running from September 29^th through October 10^th, at Solar One headquarters. Students from Cohort 1 are now working with Solar One Career Services and Workforce Development staff to secure Internships and jobs in the Solar Energy field. Once Cohort 2 students finish the program, they will also be working on securing Internships and job opportunities. Stipends are provided to students upon successful completion of the program.

 OneTen: Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Exam Prep Course: Queensborough Community College, Workforce Development, Office of Academic Affairs, is launching their new training program, the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Exam Preparation Course, leading to an Industry-Recognized Certification for the banking and financial services fields. We are working closely with Chair Christina Manzo, Business Department, and will begin recruitment of students shortly through both in-person and virtual Information Sessions. The 12-week program will begin in January 2026. Employer partners include Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo, who will give students who successfully earn the SIE Certification access to apply for Internships and job positions at their companies. Workforce Development staff will work with students and offer them individual and group sessions on Resume Writing, Interviewing Skills and 21^st Century Workplace Skills Workshops, as well as work on placing students into careers at other banks and financial services companies.

Grants Awarded

April 21 – October 2, 2025

Biological Sciences & Geology Department

Dr. Sarbani Ghoshal

PARP-1 Degradation for PARP-Related Diseases.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) R16

Dr. Monica Trujillo

HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: Developing a Wastewater-based Epidemiology Student Training and Education Program at CUNY.

CUNY Bridge Funding

Physics Department

Dr. Wenli Guo

Beginnings: A Quest to Understand and Experience

National Science Foundation ExLENT

Student Affairs Department

Ms. Maryanne Meyer (with Dr. Paul Marchese)

CUNY Career Launch = Queensborough Stem RA

New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD)

Blackboard Retirement

As part of CUNY’s strategic initiative to modernize its learning management systems, we are officially retiring Blackboard as the university-supported LMS, now that our transition to Brightspace is complete. Please review the following key dates and action items: 

Important Dates 

• December 15, 2025: Final day to retrieve past course content or resolve outstanding issues in Blackboard. Examples include getting missing content from migrated Blackboard courses or downloading Collaborate recordings.
• December 18, 2025: Blackboard access will be permanently discontinued across all CUNY campuses. 

Transition & Data Archiving 

• All courses across CUNY are now being delivered exclusively through Brightspace.

• Faculty and staff are encouraged to migrate any remaining course materials before the December deadline. Please contact us at LMSSupport@qcc.cuny.edu if you have any questions or need assistance. 

Online Proctoring Tools

• NY State Rejected a new agreement with Yuja agreement.
• Respondus Lockdown Browser has been renewed through July 2026.

Brightspace Technical Support and Training

Technical Support

• For technical questions, please contact LMSSupport@qcc.cuny.edu
• Toll-free support line for all Brightspace users: 1-888-895-2511

 If you are interested in training:  

• One-on-one training and consultation, contact us at LMSSupport@qcc.cuny.edu
• Brightspace Guided Training  
• D2L Website  

• YouTube Videos:
  These resources are designed to support you in making the most of Brightspace. Explore the full playlist here. 

  Additional considerations: QM Rubric

  Follow the QM Rubric to review and improve course quality and accessibility for Brightspace.

The Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETL) is honored to share that for the 9th consecutive year (Cohort IX - 2025-26), as part of the New York State Open Educational Resources (OER) Scale-Up Initiative, CUNY has funded QCC's ongoing OER projects. Specifically, ten faculty from various disciplines will have the opportunity to design course materials and pedagogical approaches as OERs using online, centralized technology platforms. Events this November include Dr. Linda Bastone, Dean of Faculty and QCC Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) Coordinator who will demystify the human subjects research process, focusing especially on the IRB submission form in a Zoom session on Nov 12 (12:30-1:30). Additionally, Professor Gail Lewis from Communication, Theatre, & Media Production (CTMP) will facilitate a CETL CAFÉ (Conversations Advancing Faculty Effectiveness) in the CETL Lab (Lib, 313) on the topic of “meaningful classroom discussions” (Nov 14, 12:00-1:00). The Quiet Quill (i.e., the CETL lab) is available several times during the week for those looking for a quiet space to grade, write, or focus as well. Faculty & Staff are encouraged to visit CETL website to see a complete listing of all upcoming events and professional development opportunities and to submit suggestions for future events.

Enrollment Management Update:

The Office of Academy Advisement is preparing for the upcoming winter/spring 2026 registration cycle, following a successful “October is Advising Month” campaign. On Wednesday, October 8, they hosted a Faculty and Curriculum Training session, and on Wednesday, October 15, launched a campus-wide tabling initiative that scheduled more than 75 first-year student appointments and offered on-the-spot advising to help FYS participants take advantage of priority registration beginning Tuesday, October 28. In collaboration with the Department of Marketing, they expanded advising visibility through QCC’s social media platforms. Beginning Tuesday, November 5, Academy Advisement will welcome new students enrolling for the winter/spring 2026 semester.

Student Support Resources:

• The Office of Financial Services will be hosting weekly FAFSA Fest events to assist students with completing their financial aid applications. For the fall 2025 semester, events will take place on Wednesday afternoons from 1:00 – 4:00 pm in Humanities Building Room 238 on September 9 through December 10 (click HERE to view upcoming dates). Additional events may be added and will be posted to the QCC Campus and Virtual Events Calendar. Please encourage students to attend. If students have any questions, please refer them to the Office of Financial Services located in the Administration Building - Room 106 or email FinancialAid@qcc.cuny.edu.
• Free On-Campus Immigration Assistance - A CUNY Citizenship Now! immigration attorney will be available to assist students on the first Friday of every month (November 7, and December 5). To schedule an appointment, students should email ARC@qcc.cuny.edu or complete the Call Back Request Form. Students using the form are advised to select Queensborough Community College under “What elected official or organization referred you to our services, if any?”.

• Faculty and staff are asked to encourage our students to avail themselves of the valuable and free resources through the QCC Advocacy Resource Center. Services provided include (but are not limited to) public benefits screening, financial coaching, legal assistance, tax preparation services, housing assistance, food pantry referrals, and more.
• Emergency funding is available to students who face a financial crisis that puts at risk their continued enrollment toward their QCC degree. Supported through a grant from The Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation, the funds provide one-time, emergency grants to students in good standing with short-term financial emergencies to enable them to remain in school, rather than being forced to leave or drop out. Students with short-term financial emergencies should be referred to Ms. Amawati Gonesh, Advocacy Resource Center Program Manager, via email at AGonesh@qcc.cuny.edu.  Additional information can be found online at QCC Scholarships.
• The Point Foundation Flagship Scholarship empowers LGBTQ students who are earning their undergraduate, graduate, & doctoral degrees at accredited colleges in the United States by offering financial support, community resources, and professional development. Eligible applicants must have a 3.3 or higher cumulative GPA, be enrolled/intending to enroll at an accredited college/university based in the United States. Community college students must be transferring to a bachelor’s degree program at a four-year college or university for the 2026-2027 academic year. The application period is currently open, with a deadline of November 20 at 8:00 pm EST.

• The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship makes it possible for the nation's top community college students to complete their bachelor's degrees by transferring to a selective four-year college or university. The Foundation provides up to $40,000 per year to each of approximately 45 deserving students selected annually, making it the largest private scholarship for two-year and community college transfer students in the country. Each award is intended to cover a significant share of the student's educational expenses – including tuition, living expenses, books and required fees – for the final two to three years necessary to achieve a bachelor's degree. Five (5) QCC alumni have previously received this prestigious scholarship and we hope to produce more. The application opened on October 1 and will close on January 7, 2026.

• The 2026 Women's Forum Education Award provides a scholarship of $10,000 to women age 35 and over who have faced and overcome adversity and now, after an interruption in their education, have resumed the pursuit of their first associate or bachelor's degree. Applicants must demonstrate noteworthy promise and resilience in the face of challenges and must also demonstrate a commitment to helping others and to making a difference in their community, large or small, when their own career goals are achieved. Financial need and academic excellence are not the primary determining factors in the selection of recipients, although true financial need should be evident, and the candidate should be in good academic standing. Most recently, two (2) QCC students were announced as 2025 award recipients. The scholarship application opens October 1 and will close on February 1, 2026.

• The 2025 Dr. K. York & M. Noelle Chynn CUNY Ethics and Morality Essay Contest is funded by an endowment gift of $100,000 to the City University of New York by Dr. K. York Chynn and his wife Noelle Chynn. This annual award is intended to promote and stimulate thinking by college students at CUNY about the topic of ethics, morality, and virtuous behavior in their lives. The submission deadline is Friday, November 7.

• The 2025 CUNY Thomas Tam Scholarship was established in honor of Dr. Thomas Tam's many contributions to CUNY. The scholarship awards $1,000 to a qualified undergraduate student currently enrolled in any CUNY institution, Asian or Non-Asian "who has demonstrated creativity in the communication of the concerns of the Asian American community in areas such as Health, Education, and Culture.". The submission deadline to Friday, November 7.

• The 2025 CUNY South & Southeast Asian American Equity Scholarship supports students committed to elevating South and Southeast Asian narratives through academic and community-oriented projects. The scholarship aims to promote equity and representation by recognizing students who are committed to elevating South and/or Southeast Asian American narratives within academic and public discourse. We encourage submissions that deepen the understanding of South or Southeast Asian American experiences. Eligible projects may explore topics such as migration, culture, activism, and disparities within the community. The submission deadline is Friday, November 7.

• The Office of Health Services invites all QCC students, faculty, and staff to a “Stop The Bleed” event on Friday, November 7 at 12:00 pm in the Medical Arts Building – Room MC-29. At this event, attendees will receive vital information on how they can save someone’s life by stopping a bleed.
• Do you have great ideas but are unsure how to present them? Have you ever thought about pitching your ideas to business representatives, entrepreneurs, executives? Join us in the Male Resource Center Thursday, November 13 at 5:00 pm, located in the Student Union Upper Level, for our Elevator Pitch Cocktail Hour. Participants will learn some techniques and strategies on how to approach elevator pitches and professional conversations. This event will include real corporate leaders and businesspeople who participants will have the opportunity to chat with over appetizers and soft drinks. This event will provide practice for participants to make their pitches while making meaningful professional connections.
• “All Sewn Up" - are you big into fashion? Have you ever had the desire or dream to create your own clothing? Well, this workshop is for you! Join us on Monday, November 10 and Monday, November 17 from 1:00 – 3:00 pm in the Male Resource Center, located in the Student Union Upper Level for a two-day workshop “All Sewed Up.” During this workshop, individuals will learn the skills necessary to make a t-shirt from scratch. In this session, individuals will explore the fundamental procedures on how to sew. By the end of these sessions, individuals will have created their own T-shirt.
• QCC Class of 2026 graduates set to complete their degree requirements at the conclusion of the fall 2025 or winter 2026 semester are invited to sit for their Yearbook Portrait, beginning Monday, December 1 through Thursday, December 4, in the Student Union – Lower Level. To schedule an appointment, students can contact Ms. Cha Huang in the Office of Student Activities via email at Chuang@qcc.cuny.edu.
• The Office of Health Services will host the Fall 2025 Annual Health Fair on Thursday, December 11 at 11:00 am in the Student Union – Upper Level. All QCC students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend and get information on health insurance enrollment, nutrition education, family planning, HIV testing, blood pressure, and much more. Direct any questions to Ms. Isabel Hocevar, Director of Health Services, at IHocevar@qcc.cuny.edu.

Events Report  

CUNYTuesday, December 2, 2025

24 hours of giving back and celebrating Queensborough!

If you have not already, hurry and join a #CUNYTuesday team and start fundraising with your colleagues! 

The team that raises the most money wins a life-size Tiger and bragging rights for a year, and the team that secures the most donors wins a Tiger trophy!

Consider supporting:

• The Lucille A. Bova Food Pantry
• The QCC Fund Promise Scholarship
• The PRIDE Center

For more information, please contact Charles at cpetz@qcc.cuny.edu.

www.qcc.cuny.edu/give

You can also mail in your checks payable to the QCC Fund, Inc., to the College, attention: Division of Strategic Initiatives and Advancement, Room A-508.

With your donation of $150 or more, you will receive a pair of limited-edition

QCC socks (while supplies last).

2025 NYC Marathon:

Congratulations to our amazing runners: Christine Pagano, Johnathan Alexandratos, Rich Linger, Andrew Caon, and Joseph Arias, for completing the NYC Marathon and raising vital support for the QCC Fund Promise Scholarship!

All gifts to the Annual Fund Campaign work together to make a difference!

Thank you for your continued support and for always caring!

GRANTS & MAJOR GIFTS:

• Con Edison has again awarded a $90,000 grant in support of the Digital Green Technology Program: Cloud Computing and AI Fundamentals.
• Amazin’ Mets Foundation awarded $30,000 for merit scholarships.

Art Gallery

Internship Program:

• Fall Internship - we are serving one student.
• We are waiting for work study students for the fall semester.

List of Exhibits/Events – Oakland Building:

Pablo Perez Palacio (Main Gallery) – this exhibit runs through Friday, December 12, 2025

Title- La Tensión Necesaria (The Necessary Tension) 

Working from the tension between what absence means—its void—and what drives us forward as living beings, as collectives, communities, families, and thus social beings, is the central argument of Pablo Pérez Palacio’s recent work, both its point of departure and its arrival. 

It is telling that in the art of the past few years there has naturally re-emerged a kind of existential pan-humanism as a foundational philosophical thought. From this, a space for visual speculation is constructed to help us explain the world—not only formally, communicationally, aesthetically, or bio politically—but also spiritually. Some artists embark on a narrative path of mythological re-fabulations. Others delve into the most essential and mysterious spaces where the voice becomes an abstract whisper. This is the path Pablo Pérez Palacio has chosen to chart an artistic utopia that responds to the questions he, as a human being, asks himself every day. 

Norberto Leon Rios (Gallery Balcony) – this exhibit runs through Friday, December 12, 2025

Title – Irreflexiones

This exhibition by Colombian artist Norberto León Ríos explores solitude, identity, and connection through powerful etchings and woodcuts. Using traditional techniques, Ríos transforms the human body into a stage where movement and vulnerability reveal our shared humanity.

Solitude is a social bond, it unites us, it is bodily, expression, and movement. There is no way to hide behind naked bodies; behind them, there is only nothingness. We seek grounding with our feet and grip with our hands; we call out with fingers and skeptical glances. We play the roles of the theatrum mundi. We are actors who build realities. We are gods, and we are God Himself. 

Kupferberg Holocaust Center 

2025-26 KHC-NEH COLLOQUIUM:

Resistance, Resilience and Reinvention: Artists and Academics Escaping Nazism 

https://khc.qcc.cuny.edu/neh-programs/

In 1933, as Hitler consolidated power, thousands of Jewish and dissident German artists and academics faced persecution, not only from Nazi antisemitism, but also from the regime’s totalitarian control over culture and society (known as Gleichschaltung). As Nazism spread, many painters, writers, filmmakers, and scholars sought refuge in Europe and the U.S., though restrictive and antisemitic immigration policies often blocked their escape. This series explores the history, contributions, and lasting impact of those who escaped, with help from various support networks, through lectures, poetry readings, and faculty development events each semester. Additionally, the series highlights the resistance and creative works that emerged from their survival. Before each

event, we will have a moment of silence in remembrance of those who did not escape the Nazi religious, intellectual and artistic persecution. 

Faculty Fellows:

Alison Cimino, Lecturer, Department of English, M.F.A.

Dr. Beth Counihan, Professor, Department of English 

Dr. Mark Zelcer, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Department of Social Sciences

Deciding Who Was Worth Saving: American Universities and the Refugee Scholars of the Nazi Era

November 12, 2025 at 12:00pm EST

In Person & Online

Register to watch online: https://tinyurl.com/y5fab4bt

Register to attend in person: https://tinyurl.com/2pn52zu8

Location: KHC

Despite the triumphalist tale that during the Nazi era the United States rescued Europe's intellectual elite, including Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, Hannah Arendt and Herbert Marcuse, thousands of European scholars sought to immigrate to the United States and could not. American universities refused to hire them and the State Department erected barrier to letting them in, meaning many lost not only their livelihoods, but also their lives. Dr. Laurel Leff, author of Well Worth Saving: American Universities’ Life and Death Decisions on Refugees from Nazi Europe (Yale University Press, 2019), will introduce a few of those scholars and explain how academic institutions in the United States undertook these fraught choices. 

Flight or Fight? Artists in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945

December 3, 2025 at 12:00pm EST

 In Person & Online

Register to watch online: https://tinyurl.com/395zxa45

Register to attend in person: https://tinyurl.com/2a9azjvm

Location: KHC

Between 1933 and 1945, the National Socialist regime controlled artistic work in Germany. Join Rachel Stern, founding director of the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted, Ostracized and Banned Art, for a discussion about the system of fear and control installed by the Nazis, its impact on the national cultural landscape, and artists’ strategies of survival.

UNSEEN THREADS SERIES:

Memorializing Black History: Heritage, Culture and Community at the Weeksville Heritage Center

November 19, 2025 at 12:00pm EST

In Person & Online

Register to watch online: https://tinyurl.com/3jnj3c7b

Register to attend in person: https://tinyurl.com/ycy4dsr3

Location: QCC’s Oakland Building Dining Hall

The Weeksville Heritage Center is a historic site and cultural center in Central Brooklyn that uses education, arts, and a social justice lens to preserve, document, and inspire engagement with the history of one of the largest free Black communities in pre-Civil War America. Join Dr. Raymond Codrington, Weeksville’s President and CEO, and Irvin Weathersby, Jr., author of In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space (Penguin Random House, 2025), for a conversation about memory, historic preservation, as well as the connections of cultural heritage institutions to the local communities in which they are based.

This event is part of QCC’s Unseen Threads initiative, a partnership between the KHC and the College’s Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Center. It is co-sponsored by the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center in White Plains; the Center for Genocide and Human Rights Research in Africa and the Diaspora at Northeastern Illinois University; the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University; the Holocaust, Genocide & Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan University; the Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity at Western Washington University; the Reiff Center for Human Rights & Conflict Resolution at Christopher Newport University; and the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University.

FALL 2025 RECORDED EVENTS

Memory, History, Desire: Tracing the Creation of The Gangster We Are All Looking For

Recorded on September 16, 2025

Recording: https://youtu.be/BcTJomS_A7A?si=ltJR83Yd_u-AW1Gx

In this multimedia presentation, acclaimed performance artist, and author, lê thị diễm thúy, will share the story of how she wrote her book, The Gangster We Are All Looking For. This lyrical autobiographical novel tells the coming-of-age of a Vietnamese refugee growing up in post-Vietnam War California as she navigates grief and the changes within her family, affected by loss, war, identity and economic instability. Join us as thúy recounts her writing journey and encourages readers to tap into their own creativity and stories. This event is part of Queensborough Community College’s (QCC) 2025 Welcome Read, a faculty-driven, community-building experience for first year QCC students taking English classes, in both non-credit programs and credited courses. This program is organized by QCC’s English department and made possible through funding from the KHC.

From Częstochowa to Bayside: The Story of the KHC’s Torah Scroll

Recorded on September 17, 2025

Recording: https://youtu.be/6yHUWH0Va34?si=DSYaMkE1CUb0kUH8

In 1988, while visiting Częstochowa, Poland, Harry Rapaport made a remarkable discovery: a trove of Torah scrolls hidden in the attic of a wartime factory that had previously been a Jewish ritual bathhouse. Although heavily damaged, these religious artifacts are a living memorial to the local Jewish communities who perished during the Holocaust. Learn about how one of these scrolls found

its way to the Kupferberg Holocaust Center, and the yearlong process involved to both restore and remount this powerful historical artifact.

The Impetus to Remember: Holocaust Memorials Erected by Jewish Burial Societies

Recorded on October 16, 2025

Link to recorded event is forthcoming

At the end of WWII, Jewish burial societies (landsmanshaften) often created memorials in cemeteries to honor the memories of their families and towns destroyed during the Holocaust. Join us for a conversation about the history of the landsmanshaften, as well as an exploration of how burial societies at the Mount Hebron Cemetery in New York City became the only remaining pieces left of these original communities. The event features Susannah Trubman, Learning and Media Center Educator at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research; Adam Ginsberg, President of the Cedar Grove Cemetery Association; and Deirdre Poulos, Director of the Mount Hebron Legacy Foundation.

An Introduction to Discussion Based Pedagogy of Transformative Texts

Recorded on October 17, 2025

Link to recorded event is forthcoming

In this interactive zoom workshop, Queensborough Community College English department members Ilse Schrynemakers and Susan Lago introduce participating colleagues to the discussion-based pedagogy of the Great Questions Foundation, founded by faculty at Austin Community College. Both Dr. Schrynemakers and Professor Lago are in their second year of a Faculty Fellowship with the Great Question Foundation. They share the philosophy and student engagement strategies to help stimulate and facilitate meaningful class discussions for faculty who are teaching about the texts, academics, and artists featured in the 2025-26 KHC-NEH colloquium and/or are interested in learning about the Great Questions Foundation approach.

Poetry of Witness and Resistance: A Conversation with Ilya Kaminsky

Recorded on October 21, 2025

Link to recorded event is forthcoming

Acclaimed poet Ilya Kaminsky’s poems bear witness to our times and create a space for empathy and compassion in resistance to oppression. Kaminsky is the author of Deaf Republic (Graywolf Press, 2019) and Dancing in Odessa (Tupelo Press, 2004), and co-editor and co-translator of many other books. His work was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, the Whiting Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award, and Poetry magazine’s Levinson Prize, and was also shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Neustadt International Literature Prize, and T.S. Eliot Prize (UK).

Beyond All Binaries: Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, the German-Jewish Queer Rights Activist Who Took On the Nazis

Recorded on October 22, 2025

Link to recorded event is forthcoming

In a world where most saw binaries of "us" and "them," Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld saw humanity as a seamless continuum of "we." Applying this insight first to sexual orientation, then to gender, and finally to race, Hirschfeld worked to rally the world against rising fascism. A century after the Nazis burned his archive and drove him from Berlin, Hirschfeld's outlook has much to teach us as we face down book bans and weaponized xenophobia today. The event features Daniel Brook, author of The Einstein of Sex: Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld Visionary of Weimar Berlin (Norton & Co., 2025). This event is part of a special collaboration between the Harriet & Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center (KHC) and the QCC-CUNY LGBTQIA+ Consortium.

Albert Einstein: Refugee, Activist and Humanitarian

Recorded on October 28, 2025

Link to recorded event is forthcoming

In 1933, with almost twenty years of service as professor at the Prussian Academy of Sciences and researcher at Humbolt University of Berlin, and under targeted threat from the Nazi regime, Albert Einstein fled Germany. With the aid of the Academic Assistance Council, he and his family took refuge first in Belgium, then England, before his appointment at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. In this presentation, Michael Shara, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) professor and curator of the 2002 landmark AMNH exhibit, “Einstein,” discusses Einstein’s experiences as a refugee and his political and humanitarian activism. 

“Una Cosa Viva”: The Futures of Holocaust Memory and Meaning in Argentina

Recorded on November 6, 2025

Link to recorded event is forthcoming

Argentina–home to the largest Jewish community in Latin America–is a nation with multiple histories of violence and loss, including the 1976-1983 dictatorship and the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Society, which remains in a state of impunity over thirty years later. In recent years, new challenges have also resituated the significance of Holocaust memory for imagining and reimagining Jewish Argentine futures. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research, Dr. Natasha Zaretsky, author of Acts of Repair: Justice, Truth, and the Politics of Memory in Argentina (Rutgers University Press, 2021), explores new generations of Holocaust memory and their significance for democracy and the public sphere.

Fragments of Memory: Lost Notebooks of Children's Testimonies from the Holocaust

Recorded on November 10, 2025

Link to recorded event is forthcoming

In 1945, a group of survivors in the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp opened several schools for the growing number of orphaned and displaced children at the camp. To help their young

charges heal, the teachers encouraged them to write and speak about their traumatic wartime experiences. Recently uncovered notebooks of child testimonies together with fragmentary archival collections scattered across multiple repositories tell the story of this early documentary effort. On the 87^th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom that took place November 9 and 10, 1938, Dr. Regina Kazyulina and Dr. Christopher Mauriello, Directors of Salem State University’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, discuss the teachers who did everything in their power, despite their own wartime traumas, to ensure the children’s stories and voices would not be forgotten.

KHC ORIGINAL EXHIBITION:

The Concentration Camps: Inside the Nazi System of Incarceration and Genocide

On View and Online at: https://khc.qcc.cuny.edu/camps/

The KHC continues to offer self-guided audio tours of its original exhibition which surveys the scope and brutality of the Nazi system of incarceration and genocide, underscoring the horrific consequences of antisemitism, racism, and authoritarianism. In addition to the exhibit’s text, images, and artifacts, personal testimonies from local Holocaust survivors offer painful insights into these excruciating landscapes of degradation and dehumanization. This exhibit was curated by Dr. Cary Lane, KHC 2020-21 Curator-in-Residence and former Associate Professor of English at QCC.

Please email KHC@qcc.cuny.edu to schedule a tour for your class.

RECORDED EVENTS:

KHC public programs: https://khc.qcc.cuny.edu/recordings/

KHC curated playlists: https://www.youtube.com/user/CUNYQueensborough/playlists

Queensborough Performing Arts Center (QPAC)

A national search is being conducted for the next Director of QPAC. An assessment will be conducted to determine how we can expand QPAC’s involvement in the borough and further integrate the Center with the College as we enter this next chapter in QPAC history. While a national search is launched and conducted, Mark Amsterdam, who has worked for QPAC for three decades, has been appointed Interim Director.

There are 22 events in the theatre between November 11th through December 9, 2025, as follows:

• Speech & Drama Department show “Cartoon”

Thursday, November 13, 2025

Friday, November 14, 2025

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Friday, November 21, 2025

• Arts on Stage, Daytime (Rentals)

Monday, November 24, 2025

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Monday, December 1, 2025

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Thursday, December 4, 2025

Friday, December 5, 2025

Monday, December 8, 2025

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

• Kwanzaa Rehearsal (Evenings)

Monday, December 1, 2025

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Monday, December 8, 2025

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

• CUNY TUESDAY (Afternoon)

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

• Dean’s List Ceremony (Evening)

Thursday, December 4, 2025

• Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer (QPAC)

Saturday, December 6, 2025 – 11:30 a.m.

• Melrose Productions (Rental)

Saturday, December 6, 2025 (Night)

• Prelude Dance (Rental)

Sunday, December 7, 2025 (All Day)

Campus Updates:

• CUNY Central has signed a new 10-year university-wide contract with COMPASS Group for vending machine services across all campuses. As part of this agreement, COMPASS has deployed new vending machines throughout the Queensborough Community College campus. In addition, with the conclusion of the University’s pouring rights contract with Pepsi, the new COMPASS vending machines now feature a wider selection of Coca-Cola products and other beverage options, offering greater variety and flexibility for our campus community. The transition was coordinated centrally to ensure a smooth rollout and consistency across all CUNY colleges.
• Enhanced Board Submission Process:
  The CUNY Central Office of Finance and Administration has implemented a new enhanced submission process for actions requiring Board of Trustees approval. The goal is to formalize, standardize, and strengthen the way items are submitted to the Finance and Administration Committee (F&A) of the Board.

Under this new framework:

1. Campuses identify and process needs (e.g., vendor contracts, appointments, fees, or policies) in coordination with the Operations Senior Staff (OSS) at Central Office.
2. When Board approval is required, the campus prepares a Resolution and Justification Memo, both of which must be comprehensive, accurate, and aligned with the guidelines issued by CUNY Central.
3. A mandatory pre-conference is held between the campus VP of Finance and Administration, EVC/COO, and OSS to review the materials, discuss early feedback, and ensure readiness for Board consideration.
4. The VP for Finance and Administration or the College President then presents the item jointly with Central Office leadership at the F&A Committee meeting prior to full Board approval.

This process promotes transparency, accountability, and stronger campus ownership of all submissions. The next F&A Committee meeting is scheduled for November 24, 2025, and campuses are expected to follow the enhanced procedures for any upcoming actions.