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Aim to Increase Number of Hispanic, Low-Income Students Earning Degrees The City College of New York and two CUNY community colleges are partnering on a multifaceted initiative to attract more students to the STEM disciplines – especially Hispanics and low-income students – and help them earn their degrees. Producing more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) graduates is critical to strengthening U.S. competitiveness in the global economy. The program, called the Alliance for Continuous Innovative Learning Environments in STEM (CILES) is funded through a five-year, $4

Division of Interdisciplinary Studies’ Elena Romero Pens Book, Organizes Events; To Speak on Topic December 2 at Center for Worker Education Hip-hop, a culture and music genre with roots in New York City’s black and Latino communities, has influenced everything from language to politics to dance to fashion. Not surprisingly, a hip-hop pedagogy is emerging in academia, as evidenced by a hip-hop think tank at New York University and the establishment of hip-hop archives at Harvard and Cornell. At The City College of New York, Elena Romero, communications coordinator, academic advisor and adjunct

The AIDS Memorial Quilt, an iconic symbol of the epidemic that has killed more than half a million Americans, will go on display at The City College of New York December 1 in observance of World AIDS Day. On loan from The NAMES Project Foundation in Atlanta, the quilt will hang in The Great Hall on the second floor of Shepard Hall, until December 2. Members of the public will be able to view it without charge 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on both days. City College is located at 138th Street and Convent Ave., Manhattan. “December 1 is World AIDS Day when the international community remembers those we have

Google “Morocco Courtyards and Gardens” and an eponymous book by Achva Stein, professor of landscape architecture in CCNY’s Spitzer’s School of Architecture, appears at the top of the list. Recently, Professor Stein had an opportunity to put her scholarship to work designing the Moroccan Courtyard for a new gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Produced in a space that barely measures 20’ x 20’, the courtyard recreates the look of the courtyards found in Morocco that had been brought back from Andalusia in the 14th century. It is a critically acclaimed spot for contemplation and quiet

Professor Carnaval Attends White House Ceremony to Launch NSF Career-Life Balance Initiative A few years ago, Ana Carnaval was a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Berkeley with one baby in her arms and another on the way. With grants to write, a “Science” paper in the works and her spouse living half a continent away most of the week, she literally had her hands full balancing the demands of career and family. Dr. Carnaval, now an assistant professor of biology at The City College of New York, considers herself lucky. Flexible grants and a supportive advisor allowed her to

A new City College of New York seminar series takes an interdisciplinary look at climate change. The first event, 12:30 p.m. Monday, November 28, pairs Dr. Marco Tedesco, CCNY assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, and Andrea Polli, associate professor in fine arts and engineering at University of New Mexico. They will present their talk, “Digital Culture and Climate Change at the Poles,” in Room MR1 in the Marshak Science Center. “Our aim is to create an interdisciplinary framework that will encourage discussion and critical thinking about climate change and its implications

First Writer from French Caribbean to Receive Langston Hughes Medal Award-winning author Edwidge Danticat, hailed as the literary voice of Haiti, will receive the 2011 Langston Hughes Medal at The City College of New York’s Langston Hughes Festival, Friday, November 18. CCNY President Lisa S. Coico will bestow the award upon Ms. Danticat at 6:30 p.m. in the Marian Anderson Theatre, located in Aaron Davis Hall on the CCNY campus. “Since 1978, the Langston Hughes Festival has honored eminent African-American writers including Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker,” said

Megan Foster’s Time Thrusts Her Into Sub-Elite Category of Women Marathoners; One of 18 from City College to Cross Finish Line When she ran in the New York City Marathon three years ago, Megan Foster suffered stress fractures in her shins, forcing her to miss the next two years. This year, she adopted a new training regimen, and she completed the 26.2-mile course in just under three hours, a personal best. Her official time, 2:59:35, placed her 59th among all women in the race and thrust her into the sub-elite category, one notch below the world’s best female marathoners. She averaged one mile

CCNY Electrical Engineering Professor Tarek Saadawi Likens to Reconnaissance Plane on Spy Mission Although so far the Duqu seems to have affected only a small number of cyber systems, it likely is a precursor to imminent more harmful attacks, warns cyber security expert Dr. Tarek Saadawi, professor of electrical engineering at The City College of New York’s Grove School of Engineering. Professor Saadawi likens Duqu to a reconnaissance plane on a spying mission to prepare for a bombing raid. “Duqu’s main goal is information gathering and surveillance of specific cyber systems,” he says. “It

Visit by Landscape Architecture Students to Flint, Mich., Provides Foundation for New Ideas to Reshape Communities’ Futures Flint, Mich., the General Motors factory town that was the subject of “Roger and Me,” a controversial 1989 documentary by native son Michael Moore about factory closings there, is considered by many a “poster child” for aging Rust Belt cities. It’s an unfair assessment, asserts Denise Hoffman Brandt, professor of landscape architecture in the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at The City College of New York. In September, Professor Brandt took eight graduate