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Dear Members of the Campus Community,

I invite you to join us today, April 2nd, at 1pm in the Steinman lobby for a memorial gathering in honor of Professor David Rumschitzki.

For more than four decades, David was an active member of our campus community who left an indelible impact in the lives of his students and colleagues. We will be joined by members of his immediate family in remembering all the qualities that made him irreplaceable.

At a later date, we will plant a tree on the lawn of Shepard Hall to honor David's memory, commemorate his contributions and to serve as an inspiration.

Tuesday, April 2, 2024
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

The City College of New York
The Grove School of Engineering
Steinman Hall Lobby
140th Street & Convent Avenue
New York, NY 10031

Join us for a gathering to celebrate the life and contributions of
David Rumschitzki

To join remotely, please visit:

https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/chemeng/celebrating-life-professor-david-rumschitzki

ABOUT DAVID S. RUMSHITZKI

The City College is mourning the loss of David S. Rumschitzki, a stalwart professor of chemical engineering for four decades in the Grove School of Engineering. He died suddenly in his office on Nov. 2, 2023. He was 66.

Professor Rumschitzki was a colossus both on campus and in his field, with numerous accomplishments and honors to his credit. Athletic and indefatigable, he was an enduring figure in Steinman Hall, guiding and advancing the educational careers of generations of students in one of the best public engineering programs in the nation.

Professor Rumschitzki was legendary for his stewardship of student research, his engagement with student clubs and his participation in faculty committees, including the executive committee of the faculty senate.

Professionally, his research and work were of the highest class, earning him recognition widely. A particular focus of his were questions regarding the chemical processing of cholesterol in the blood, with a particular interest in how different cells engage the process of maintaining cholesterol homeostasis.

His honors include: National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator (1987),  Melville Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1996),
Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the University of Bonn (1996-1997), and Herbert G. Kayser Professor (2004-2011),

In 2019, Professor Rumschitzki was the recipient of a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant for his proposal “Theory & experiment for breast cancer dormancy & recurrence.”

The Fulbright supported his research at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion in Haifa, Israel, to find out why some cancers reappear years after chemotherapy or surgery.

Later in 2019, Professor Rumschitzki received a U.S. Department of Education Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) grant of more than $1million to train seven chemical engineering PhDs in sub-areas of the field.

He cared for the welfare of others and was instrumental in installing health insurance coverage for PhD students through the Graduate Center when the Doctoral program was still at CUNY. He also fought for tuition waivers for engineering PhD students in their sixth and seventh year after the program moved to CCNY.

Professor Rumschitzki was a diligent steward of his own health as well.  A vegetarian, he ran the NYC Marathon every year and biked to school daily. The only time he would not use his bicycle, is when it was snowing too heavily then he would switch to skis.

David, who came to CCNY in 1983, will be sorely missed. He leaves the CCNY community as one of its longest serving and most engaged members.

Dear College Community:

The Provost and I are pleased to announce the nomination process for the 2024 Faculty Awards. The awards are one of the most important ways that we honor the accomplishments and contributions of faculty to students and to our campus life.

Please review the detailed descriptions of the award nomination guidelines available here and posted on the Academic Affairs website.

• President’s Award for Excellence
• President’s Award for Outstanding Faculty Service
• President’s Award for Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Service
• Provost’s Outstanding Teaching Award
• Provost’s Award for Pedagogical and Curricular Innovation

The due date for nominations for the awards is April 21, 2023.

The awards recipients will be honored at a reception at the end of the semester.

Sincerely,

Vince Boudreau
President

Tony M. Liss
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Hello Campus Community,

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand have secured $1.5 million in the Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations package to boost skills-based workforce development at The City College of New York situated Rangel Infrastructure Workforce Development Initiative. The funding will support CCNY as it seeks to expand skills-based training on campus for low-income New Yorkers in the form of increased access to computer labs, instruments, trainers, and career opportunities.

This is a major development that will further enhance the College’s reputation as a leading driver of social mobility. For example, it will raise the annual household income of families with one or more members who will receive the training at CCNY and land employment critical to improving the city’s infrastructure as a result. In addition, the project's importance to the city is linked to its potential to enable low-income New Yorkers to become highly skilled in the most in-demand occupations. It will also increase the local workforce hiring pool for employers, enabling them to scale up operations and create even more jobs in the process. It promises to empower the economically disadvantaged, including minorities, women, veterans, the formerly incarcerated, and recent high school graduates, by improving equity of opportunity in a historically unequal infrastructure labor market.

I am deeply grateful for Sen. Schumer’s leadership and initiative in securing the $1.5 million appropriation to support the operation of the Charles B. Rangel Infrastructure Workforce Initiative. This money will ensure that the Rangel Center continues to fulfill its crucial mission of preparing a diversified and democratically constituted workforce for the crucial, patriotic work of rebuilding America’s Infrastructure. Not only is this support crucial to the functioning and expansion of the Rangel Center, it’s a moving testimony to our elected officials’ attention to the welfare of our community and our educational institutions.

Sincerely,

Vince Boudreau

Dear Members of the Campus Community,

I hope this note finds you well and you are settling in for our spring semester.

I want to set aside some time this semester, as last, to speak with our community in town hall formats, centering mainly around opportunities for you to address questions to me and to other members of the administration.

The Student town hall meeting will be held on Thursday, April 4 at 12:30pm. The Faculty/Staff town hall is now scheduled for Thursday, April 11 at 12:30pm.  Both meetings will be in Marshak Lecture Hall 3 and will be in-person only. A recording of the meeting will be placed on the website.

I look forward to speaking with you again.

Sincerely,

Vince Boudreau
President

Dear Members of the Campus Community,

I hope this note finds you well and you are settling in for our spring semester.

I want to set aside some time this semester, as last, to speak with our community in town hall formats, centering mainly around opportunities for you to address questions to me and to other members of the administration.

The Faculty/Staff town hall meeting will take place on Thursday, March 7 at 12:30pm, and the Student town hall meeting will be held on Thursday, April 4 at 12:30pm. Both meetings will be in Marshak Lecture Hall 3 and will be in-person only.

I look forward to speaking with you again.

Sincerely,

Vince Boudreau
President

Dear Campus Community,

I have recently been reminded that our holiday party corresponds with the first day of Hanukkah, and I want to ensure that Jewish members of our faculty are not in a position of choosing between a campus celebration and family obligations. Because of that, we are moving the Holiday Party to December 14th. We will gather at 5pm.

Sincerely,

Vince Boudreau
President

Dear Faculty and Staff,
 
As many of you know, Vice President Celia Lloyd has announced her retirement as of February 1st, 2024. It is difficult to know where to begin to describe Celia’s long tenure and many different roles at CUNY and CCNY. Celia came to CUNY more than 30 years ago and has been at CCNY for the last 25 of those 30-plus years. She came to City College as the Senior Registrar and also served as the Interim Director of Admissions, the CUNYfirst Coordinator and, most recently, the Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management.

Celia has clearly had a large impact on our campus, and her keen eye for talent has resulted in three terrific hires that will leave us on very solid footing when she leaves: Director of Admissions Joanna Kucharski, Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management Naomi Nwosu, and Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Ramon De Los Santos.

To ensure a smooth transition and to make the most of Celia’s remaining time at CCNY, we are making significant changes in Enrollment Management and Student Affairs now while Celia is still on campus to help and advise. Effective immediately, Celia will focus on the 1847 Academy and The Hub (formerly Gateway), with two important goals: getting the 1847 Academy off the ground by Spring semester and fully integrating academic divisions into the workings of The Hub so that undeclared students are moving into majors in a timely manner. The remainder of Celia’s substantial portfolio moves to Naomi and Ramon, with Naomi taking over the Enrollment Management portion and Ramon taking over Student Affairs.

Celia has worn many hats at City College and performed each of her roles with care, integrity and skill. I am grateful that she will be with us through January helping in the transition to new leadership in Student Affairs and Enrollment Management.

We will be celebrating Celia’s many contributions to the College in January. Stay tuned for the announcement.
 
Sincerely,

Vince Boudreau,
President

and

Tony Liss,
Provost

It is my pleasure to announce that Professor Ranajeet (Ronnie) Ghose has agreed to step in as Interim Associate Provost for Research when Rose Wesson takes her position as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at CUNY on Friday, December 1st. Ronnie came to City College in 2002 as an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department (now Chemistry and Biochemistry). 

In addition to having a productive and well-funded research program, Ronnie has considerable administrative experience, serving as a Program Director in Molecular Biophysics at the National Science Foundation, Vice-chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Chair of the College Research Council from 2018-2020.

A search for a permanent Associate Provost for Research will begin soon. 

Please join me in welcoming Professor Ghose to his new role and thanking and congratulating Rose once again on her new role at the University.

Dear Members of the Campus Community,

I hope that you had a restful holiday break, and that the time off has allowed you to gear up for the fast run we’ll all have to the end of the semester. I’m writing to share what I can about our campus closure last Tuesday.

On that day, we received a phone call in which someone threatened to commit an act of violence on campus at a specific time—without, however, targeting any specific individual or group on campus. We investigate all such threats, dismiss those that do not seem credible, and apprehend many who make such calls. However, since we were unable to verify this as a hoax in a timely fashion, I decided that the only prudent decision was to close the campus. At this time, however, our investigation has proceeded to a point where we can say that no threat to our campus remains.

As we have done in past such incidents, our Public Safety Department is working closely with law enforcement authorities to apprehend the responsible party. Threatening calls are both a violation of our campus disciplinary code and, usually, a violation of the law. We take these threats seriously and collaborate closely with law enforcement agencies to identify those individuals who make them as part of our continued efforts to keep our campus safe.

I would like to thank our public safety team for their swift action last week. Their work, and their close collaboration with law enforcement, clarified the nature of the call and allowed us to return the campus to safe footing.

I look forward to seeing you all on campus this coming week.

Sincerely,

Vince Boudreau,
President