CUNY Newswire

An enthusiastic audience gathered in the Center for the Arts Concert Hall for this year’s Convocation, an annual tradition at the College of Staten Island, where the campus community learns about the institution’s many advancements and successes, and also honors faculty and staff members who are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

View the CSI Today Photo Gallery.

View the Convocation Accomplishments 2012 publication on the President’s Office online bookshelf.

This year’s Convocation was more noteworthy than usual, as new Interim President Dr.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy and the damaging impact on our community, a collection of student-athletes at the College of Staten Island have been a major part of the relief effort.  CSI’s Victoria Donegan (women’s soccer) and Jessica Pifalo (women’s swimming) are just two of many faces in the community serving as activists for the efforts, and ambassadors of CSI athletics at the sites since Day One, and their story is chronicled today by NCAA News reporter Brian Hendrickson on www.ncaa.org.

In recognition of the ongoing disruption in public transportation and the shortage of fuel in the NYC metropolitan area, the College of Staten Island urges all students, faculty, and staff to register for the CSI RideShare program to conserve resources and ease commuting stress to campus.

Please note the following important updates and contact information. —Classes resume Friday, November 2, 2012. The College will be operating on a Friday schedule. —The CSI Ferry Shuttle and Loop Buses will begin operating on their normal Friday schedule on November 2, 2012.

CSI Professor Hildegard Hoeller’s new book, From Gift to Commodity: Capitalism and Sacrifice in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction, has been published by University of New Hampshire Press as a part of its Becoming Modern: New Nineteenth-Century Studies series. In this rich interdisciplinary study, Hildegard Hoeller argues that 19th-century American culture was driven by and deeply occupied with the tension between gift and market exchange.

The College of Staten Island recently hosted its seventh annual “Take Back the Night” event, raising awareness about the continuing problem of violence and abuse against women and all gender-related violence, on Tuesday, October 16 in the CSI Campus Center Green Dolphin Lounge.

The Mammoth Follies lures audiences with a charming rendition of a pre-historic musical.

With the recent protests around Wall Street drawing attention to the rise of economic inequality in the United States, College of Staten Island Assistant Professor of Sociology Thomas Volscho has recently published an article in the American Sociological Review that aims to explain the rapid 30-year rise of the super-rich.

The College of Staten Island is proud to announce its partnership with CleanEdison to offer clean technology training in BPI, LEED, and Solar as preparation for professional certification exams this fall. CleanEdison will offer all CSI students interested in pursuing a career in the energy auditing, green building, or solar industries. CleanEdison will offerBPI Building Analyst, BPI Multifamily, LEED Green Associate, and Solar PV Installer trainings this fall. “CSI is delighted to partner with CleanEdison in delivering ‘green’ construction technology courses in Staten Island,” said Hugo Kijne, Executive Director of Continuing Education and Professional Development for CSI. “Construction and maintenance of buildings and homes is a large part of the Staten Island economy, and these courses will make the Island a friendlier place from an environmental perspective and help stimulate its economy.” CSI has always prided itself of being a campus that helped produce successful and community-oriented students who gained their knowledge and skills both in the classroom and through indepth field work.

Throughout the month of October, the College of Staten Island will spotlight the successes of the members of the College community with its Second Annual October Recognition Month, featuring an extensive calendar of events. CSI Interim President Dr. William J. Fritz notes, “The College of Staten Island’s Second Annual October Recognition Month is a celebration of the diversity and achievements of our College community.

During a recent photo shoot for CSI’s Website, Professor Charles Liu was having a hard time standing still. With each click of the camera’s shutter, Prof. Liu grew more animated, first shifting in his chair, then rising altogether.  His polite smile evolved into a broad grin as he tossed his blazer over his shoulder and began offering his own direction. “What if I lean on something?” he asked.

LEITH TER MEULEN, who received a BA magna cum laude in Economics with a second major in Women’s Studies from Richmond College in 1976, is the President and CEO of Landair, Inc., a company that she founded in 1992. She describes the company as providing “an array of project development and management consulting services.

Years in the making, the College of Staten Island will be unveiling its inaugural Hall of Fame class in 2012, with the rousing event scheduled for October 11 at the Staten Island Hilton Garden Inn.  Invitations to the event will be available in late-August.

CSI Phonathon Caller Noura Abdel is a sophomore Nursing major at the College. Noura heard about the Phonathon from her SEEK advisor Miriam Perez and decided to participate because “I love to talk and love talking to others.” She adds, “The best part of this job was that I was able to talk to alumni who have graduated from the College who have majored in all different types of subjects, and I was able to ask about their experiences here at the College.” Noura states that she really appreciated it when she spoke to someone who graduated with a Nursing degree because, “I was able to relate to them, and since we had so much in common, I was able to…connect with them.

The Annual Meeting of the CSI Alumni Association Board of Directors was held on Monday, June 18, 2012 in the Campus Center Green Dolphin Lounge. The meeting provided an opportunity to welcome current and former Board members, members of the CSI Administration, and old friends, and gave a glimpse into the future as 2012 grads were also present.

The College of Staten Island offers a world of knowledge to its students, as many take advantage of study-abroad pportunities every year. The College also hosts students from other countries, who want to benefit from a high-caliber CSI education, while learning about the U.S.

Katherine Stone graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Teacher Education Honors Academy (TEHA) with a BA in Mathematics. While at CSI, she racked up an impressive list of accomplishments, including the Sherry Blackman Award for Mathematics, she was a Noyce Scholar and a Harcourt Fellow, and she was a finalist for 2012 Valedictorian.

STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE – Students can sit in a classroom and listen to their professors discuss features of the Earth, but until they go out and see things for themselves, it’s difficult to retain the information — like the way the Richmond Creek Bluebelt absorbs water.

SEEK student Tiffany Pham received a BA in SLS-Early Childhood Education and a BS in Mathematics. She will now pursue a Master of Arts degree in Adolescent Mathematics Education at Brooklyn College. During her five years at CSI, Pham not only worked diligently on her studies, she also made a huge contribution to the College and the community.

College of Staten Island Salutatorian Daniel Feldman plans to begin studying astronomy at Boston University as a PhD student in the fall. He received a BS in Physics as part of the Macaulay Honors College (MHC). During his undergraduate studies, Feldman has taken part in numerous research projects covering a number of areas, such as asteroid tracking, studying youth indicators in M dwarf stars, examining objects in the Kuiper Belt, using high-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy techniques to help determine the physical properties of brown dwarfs, and even building a radio antenna to track solar flares.