CUNY Newswire

Paul Keefe (’07) Wins Acquittal in OWS Case

cunylaw — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:28:31 +0000

In one of the first Occupy Wall Street protest cases to go to trial, alum Paul Keefe (’07), along with Gideon Oliver, represented Alexander Arbuckle, who was taking photos at January 1 march and was arrested for disorderly conduct. Arbuckle was found not guilty, mostly due to the photographs and video taken by Arbuckle and others that contradicted testimony from police officers. “What’s happening is very similar to what happened in 2004 with the Republican National Convention,” Keefe said. “It’s just a symptom of how the NYPD treats dissent. But what has changed is that there is more prevalence of video. it really makes our job a lot easier to have that video.”

Village Voice

Gothamist

Adjunct Prof. Michael Macchiarola in JURIST on SEC Accountability

cunylaw — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:44:44 +0000

In a guest column for JURIST, Adjunct Professor Michael Macchiarola discusses the role of the judiciary in settlements between the Securities and Exchange Commission and private parties. He cites Judge Jed Rakoff of the US District Court of the Southern District of New York, who, in some recent opinions, has “questioned the wisdom of the long-running settlement practice” of the SEC.

CLRN Director Fred Rooney Helps Thomas Jefferson Law School Launch Incubator

cunylaw — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:07:08 +0000

The National Law Journal features Fred Rooney (’86), director of CUNY Law’s Community Legal Resource Network, and his efforts to help Thomas Jefferson School of Law launch an incubator for solo practitioners. Rooney, who in 2007 launched CUNY’s Incubator for Justice, the first of its kind in the nation, traveled to Thomas Jefferson in San Diego to help the faculty there develop the program. “As more solo incubators are conceptualized by law schools, each one is going to be unique,” Rooney said. “I think the Thomas Jefferson model is going to emphasize cross-border matters.”

Read the latest issue of the CUNY Law magazine to learn more about some alumni who are part of the Law School’s Incubator for Justice

Korean Student Thinks of Family Back Home As She Prepares to Earn Her Nursing Degree

lehman — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:54:45 +0000

[caption id="attachment_28275" align="alignleft" width="432" caption="KIl Hyon Hwang"][/caption] Nursing student KIl Hyon Hwang left her hometown of Seoul, South Korea, in 2009 when she was accepted into Lehman College’s competitive Korean exchange program. Although she already had 33 years of experience as a licensed nurse, she hoped that earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) would perfect her medical skills. “The program is very famous in Korea,” she says. “A lot of Korean nurses who graduated from this program had great careers in Korea and in the United States.” Before Lehman, Hwang worked as a nurse for six months at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio as part of an international training program. Her experience inspired her to come back to the U.S. and earn her bachelor’s degree. After less than two years at Lehman, she became a presidential scholar in 2011 and is about to graduate in August. Kil Hyon Hwang’s nursing vocation came as a revelation. At the age of 16, she took her ailing father to a local hospital where she discovered a whole new world. “The nurses wore light uniforms, and I thought they were angels and they helped my father,” Hwang says. “I decided that I wanted to be a nurse and help sick people, too. I wanted to relieve their pain.” Lehman’s exchange program in partnership with Sungshin Women's University in South Korea currently enrolls 28 Korean nursing students. After checking her transcripts, physical abilities and motivation, Hwang was selected for the program, but going to New York meant leaving her 25-year-old son and 20-year-old daughter at home with her husband. “They study English and want to follow my footsteps, but I am here by myself and all of my family lives in Korea, so I miss them very much,” says Hwang, who lives in the Co-op City section of the Bronx. Hwang attended the Counseling Center at Lehman to get advice on how to adjust to her new life in the United States. She also struggled with her English and the requirement to write essays for her classes, but visited the tutoring center before each of her assignments, which helped improve her skills. “To date we have had over 200 Korean nursing students come to our program,” says Prof. Catherine Alicia Georges, chair of Lehman's nursing department. “Some have remained here, others have returned to Korea.” After graduation, Hwang plans to work for a year at a hospital as part of her Optional Practical Training (OPT) program and then return to Korea to work in a hospital there as a nurse educator. She said she hopes to use her new knowledge in her country to help improve medical assessment and nursing diagnosis — the nurse's clinical judgment about actual or potential problems of the patient or the patient’s family. “I learned a lot from the faculty who taught me nursing theory and diagnosis,” she said. “Right now, it’s still new in Korea, and not many hospitals use it. When I come back to my country, I would like to apply this knowledge in a hospital.”

Video: Fifth Annual Awards for Excellence in Journalism

journalism — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:42:26 +0000

The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism honored two men for their accomplishments in the fields of journalism and philanthropy at the fifth annual Awards for Excellence in Journalism gala at TheTimesCenter on May 14.

Matthew Winkler, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism while Leonard Tow, a pioneer in the cable television industry, was the first recipient of the Distinguished Service to New York Award.

The event also honored three alumni from the recently graduated Class of 2011: Alva French received the Dean’s Award, Nadia Sussman won the Sidney Hillman Foundation Award for Social Justice Reporting, and Patrick Clark captured the Frederic Wiegold Award for Business Journalism.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who hired Winkler from The Wall Street Journal in 1990 to start a news wire for Bloomberg’s growing business information company, introduced his longtime associate and friend. He called Winkler “someone who has reshaped the entire industry of business journalism” and “a visionary leader, a brilliant journalist, and an outstanding editor.”

In his lead-up to Tow, CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein named some of the organizations the philanthropist has supported with gifts of millions of dollars, including the CUNY J-School’s Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism, the Columbia University Medical Center, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the new Claire Tow Theater at Lincoln Center, and a performing arts center at Brooklyn College. “His giving is strategic, directed as to have the most impact,” Goldstein said. “Leonard believes as I do in the power of leverage. He likes to challenge others, stimulate them to aim high and drive forward, and make a difference.”

Dean Stephen B. Shepard praised Winkler for bringing “traditional journalism into the digital age,” and he called Tow “one of the great unsung philanthropists in New York history.”

Video: The CUNY J-School Story

journalism — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:31:15 +0000

Leading Mathematics and Computer Sciences Researcher Wins Prestigious Award

lehman — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:02:37 +0000

Professor Melvin Fitting

Lehman College Professor Melvin Fitting will receive the Herbrand Award for his groundbreaking contribution to the field of automated theorem proving, which focuses on getting computer programs to prove logical and mathematical deductions.

Prof. Fitting, a member of the mathematics and computer science faculty at Lehman, will receive the award in Manchester, N.Y., on June 26 at the International Joint Conference on Automated Reasoning (CADE), a major forum dedicated to automated deduction. CADE Inc. established the recognition in 1992 to honor exceptional contributions to the automated reasoning field.

“It’s very satisfying to find that my work has been influential,” Prof. Fitting says. “My research is in logic, which is why I get split across departments. CUNY has one of the best collections of logicians in the world.”

At 70, Prof. Fitting is one of the pioneers and leading researchers of what are called tableau methods, which were applied to computers and have since become a standard item in the field of automated reasoning. His research has also been used to create semantics for certain programming languages.

Automatic theorems make it possible to build software that can process and deduct new facts based on the available data. They help machines recognize mathematical theorems, formulate hypotheses and research them autonomously. This knowledge can also be applied to the behavior of computer systems.

Prof. Fitting wrote and co-wrote numerous top books on the subject, including First-Order Logic and Automated Theorem Proving, a very popular textbook for graduate-level researchers working in the areas of logic and mathematics. He started teaching at Lehman College in 1968 and has taught at the CUNY Graduate Center for many years.

According to Franz Baader, president of CADE Inc., the Conference wishes to honor Prof. Fitting’s “outstanding contributions to tableau-based theorem proving in classical and non-classical logics, as well as to many other areas of automated reasoning, logic programming, and philosophical logic. ”

Prof. Fitting plans to retire from teaching at the end of the semester and spend the summer and early fall traveling and giving talks in Europe, Taiwan and Japan. He intends to concentrate on his primary research on justification logics, as well as his two new grandchildren, and continue to participate in seminars and conferences at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Three CCNY Students Named 2012 Salk Scholars

city — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:45:29 +0000

Lisa Brandt and Julian Flores, members of The City College of New York Class of 2012, and Alexa Mieses, a 2011 graduate, have been selected to receive the 2012 Jonas E. Salk Scholarship awarded by The City University of New York. The awards recognize the high ability and scholarship of students who plan careers in medicine and the biological sciences and who are judged likely to make significant contributions to medicine and research. They are selected on the basis of original research papers undertaken with prominent scientist/mentors. “Congratulations to Lisa, Julian, Alexa and the winners from the other CUNY Colleges,” said CCNY President Lisa S. Coico. “Their achievements are a testament to their hard work, dedication, and perseverance as well as to the support of the faculty.” The Salk Scholarship provides a stipend of $8,000 per scholar, to be appropriated over three or four years of medical studies. Salk Scholars also receive achievement citations and diagnostic kits that include an otoscope and ophthalmoscope. The scholarships will be presented at a ceremony Wednesday, May 16, in the William and Anita Newman Conference Center at Baruch College. Dr. Jonas Salk, a 1934 graduate of City College, developed the polio vaccine in 1955. He turned down a ticker-tape parade in honor of his discovery, asking that the money be used for scholarships instead. New York City provided initial funding for the Salk Scholarships in 1955. Ms. Brandt, Mr. Flores, and Ms. Mieses were all inspired to become doctors to aid their communities. After graduation, Ms. Brandt will attend either Columbia University Medical School or Mount Sinai School of Medicine, while Mr. Flores plans to attend Harvard Medical School. Both want to become pediatricians. Ms. Mieses will attend Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Brief profiles of the students follow: Lisa Brandt City College 2012 Salk Scholars: (top to bottom) Lisa Brandt, Julian Flores and Alexa Mieses Ms. Brandt, born in the Dominican Republic to a Dominican mother and an American father, wants to become a pediatrician to provide free and affordable care to her community. “I wanted a career that had a purpose for me, a versatile career where you’re a student, teacher, and guide, and can be a pillar to your community.” Ms. Brandt was so impressed by City College’s affordability and high quality of education, that it was her only choice when she applied to college. “I knew I wanted to go to medical school for a long time, and I knew I didn’t want to come out with debt. I wanted to go to a school that would give me a high quality education,” said the biology major. Currently, she is working in the lab with Professor Jonathan Levitt, using a ferret as an animal model to examine the postnatal development of the brain. She is also volunteering at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian and has volunteered at numerous health fairs. At CCNY, Ms. Brandt received a myriad of honors such as the 2010 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students Presentation Award, and the 2011 Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program Honorable Mention Award in the Natural Sciences. She also received the Zeldin-Sviridov Scholarship, Edmund Baermann Scholarship in Natural Sciences, Associated Medical Schools of New York Stipend and Student Support Services Program Outstanding Academic Award. Additionally, she shadowed a pediatric endocrinologist, and gastroenterologist in private practice. Outside of school, she enjoys drawing. Julian Flores Mr. Flores, the son of Costa Rican immigrants, believes he has an obligation to help the Hispanic community, since he has an opportunity to make an impact. “Being Hispanic, makes me want to want to give back to the Hispanic community to bring about longstanding change.” That opportunity is a scholarship to Harvard Medical School, where he will pursue his dream of becoming a pediatrician. “It is a great honor to come from City College and to represent both CCNY and CUNY at Harvard,” the Flushing, Queens resident said. Mr. Flores, who is receiving a BS in biology, came to City College on full scholarship as a Macaulay Honors College student. He used the resources of Macaulay to go beyond the textbook and the classroom. He counseled parents in a family health intervention program run by Columbia University and also participated in a summer undergraduate mentorship program between his junior and senior years at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Currently, he is using Drosophila Melanogaster, the common fruit fly, as an animal model to study autism spectrum disorders as a research assistant to Professor Tadmiri Venkatesh. At City College, Mr. Flores received countless awards including: best poster in neuroscience at both the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students and the 2012 Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program Conference. He also received a Weston Scholarship, in addition to the scholarship from Harvard. Outside of school, he enjoys playing soccer and baseball as well as dancing and listening to music. Alexa Mieses Ms. Mieses already had dreams of becoming a doctor as a junior in high school. While she attended Bronx High School of Science, three students died of drug-related causes. A sophomore she mentored was one of them, a victim of a heroin overdose. “The experience definitely inspired me to learn more aggressively about the effects of drug abuse on the brain and the body. It increased my awareness of it,” said Ms. Mieses. She volunteered at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and tutored low-income children at the Champion Learning Center in Lower Manhattan. As the coordinator for the CCNY Minority Association of Pre-Health Students’ “Harlem Take Care of Yourself” health fair, she helped increase attendance twenty-fold. She also interned at the Bronx Zoo, the Gay Men’s Health Crisis Center and worked with autistic children in Chile, as a Watson Fellow. A Queens resident of Dominican and Italian heritage, Ms. Mieses graduated magna cum laude with a BS in biology in 2011. She deferred medical school for a fellowship with the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore, where she examined behavioral and genetic correlates of drug addiction. The fellowship provided professional growth and gave her access to new lab techniques. After the fellowship, she will attend Mount Sinai School of Medicine in August and hopes to become a primary care physician in an underserved community. “In addition to practicing medicine as a clinician in New York City, I am also committed to mentoring aspiring medical students and students from underrepresented minority groups.” At CCNY, Ms. Mieses was awarded a J.K. Watson Fellowship and Outstanding SEEK Graduate of the Year Award; she was a SEEK Scholar and tutor, and belongs to three honor societies. In addition, she shadowed a surgeon in private practice as well as conducted neuroscience research on eye movements and studied Spanish and art history in Spain. Outside of school, Ms. Mieses writes poetry and loves singing. She hopes to incorporate her love of writing into her career. Media Contact Ellis Simon P \| 212-650-6460 E \| esimon@ccny.cuny.edu

CUNY Law Adjunct Prof. in Racial Profiling Challenge

cunylaw — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:30:31 +0000

Prof. Jonathan Moore, who co-teaches a seminar on Section 1983 federal civil rights litigation, is one of the attorneys in Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al., challenging the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policies. Today a federal judge granted class certification in the case. The class includes all persons unlawfully stopped and frisked since January 2005, including those stopped on the basis of being black or Latino. Moore, a partner at the firm of Beldock, Levine and Hoffman, was also a lead counsel on an earlier racial profiling case, Daniels v. City of New York, et al..

Read the opinion

New York Times

Center for Constitutional Rights

Moore also recently represented attorneys Michael and Evelyn Warren, who were assaulted by police and falsely arrested when they objected to a police sergeant kicking a handcuffed man in the head, which they witnessed while driving past the Brooklyn arrest scene in 2007. The Warrens were awarded $360,000.

Seeking Out Educational Opportunities Has Been this Award-Winning Entrepreneur’s Key to Success

laguardia — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:29:10 +0000

Long Island City, NY—What often makes small businesses so interesting is the stories behind them. Take, for example, the story of Daniel Levy, a native Argentine who came to New York set on creating a business that would help him make it big in the iconic city and ending up winning the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2012 Entrepreneurial Success Award of the Year.

Reflecting on the past two years that have catapulted him into a realm of success he couldn’t have imagined in his lean years as a small business owner, Levy describes his participation in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses education program at LaGuardia Community College in 2010 as a turning point. “The program changed my mindset from thinking of myself as a regular small business person, who does all the everyday things, to a CEO, with a vision of long term goals,” he says. “It was and is and will be life transforming for my business.”

Besides a new attitude, Levy also received from the program the crucial skills and knowledge he needed to take his company to the next level. Having arrived in New York in 2001 knowing little English, it wasn’t until 2007–after various failed business ventures–that Levy launched Manhattan Home Design, an online modern furniture company that began with just $500 and the sale a few tables on eBay. In 2009, he heard about 10,000 Small Businesses and began to inquire. “I was always looking for different opportunities to learn, to restructure my business,” says Levy. By 2010, he had been granted one of the coveted spots in the first cohort, which is free of cost to the business owners accepted into the program.

The aim of the 10,000 Small Businesses initiative is to help small businesses across the U.S. grow and create jobs. This is carried out through a rigorous 100-hour business education program, which focuses on accounting and financing, negotiation, marketing, operations and other key business management areas; business support services, including specialized business coaching; and access to financial capital through non-profit community lenders. An essential element of the program is to develop a business growth plan.

Levy immediately began implementing into his business strategy what he was learning in class. Already working on a business deal with New York City, Levy used what he learned in his negotiations class to help him land a $200,000 contract to provide tables and chairs for plazas in Times Square as well as other prominent public spaces in the city. “This was my first big contract,” notes Levy. Another positive outcome from the program: a line of credit for $150,000 from Seedco Financial Services, the 10,000 Small Businesses community lending partner in New York.

In 2010, the year Levy graduated from the program, his company earned $500,000. By 2011, his revenue had more than doubled. Levy has also added two new employees.

“We have developed our growth plan and are exceeding our expectations,” Levy says. Manhattan Home Design currently sells more than three dozen brands and partners with sites such as Amazon and eBay.

Impressed with Levy’s commitment to his company’s success and the results it is yielding, New York City Small Business Services’ (SBS), nominated him for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 2012 Entrepreneurial Success Award of the Year. The winner is chosen by a panel of SBA judges and the SBA Administrator based on criteria that include expansion from a small to large business, staying power, growth in number of employees, increase in sales and innovativeness of product or service, among other factors. Levy won the prestigious award for the New York District.

“It’s an ongoing process, and even though we finished the classes, every day I’m learning,” explains Levy of his experience in 10,000 Small Businesses at LaGuardia. “They created a marketplace, and I’m actually doing business with some colleagues from the program,” he says. Other interaction with fellow graduates includes an alumni group being run by the program, and networking as well as socializing that the business owners initiate on their own. “We share opportunities. We try to help each other in different ways and be supportive,” says Levy.

Looking to the future and his big plans for Manhattan Home Design, he asserts, “Maybe one day I’ll do business with Goldman Sachs!”

To learn more about the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses initiative at LaGuardia Community College, please:

• Visit www.laguardia.edu/10ksb

• Call our team at (718) 730-7400 or

• Email 10KSB@lagcc.cuny.edu

About Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses:

Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses is an initiative to unlock the growth and job creation potential of 10,000 small businesses across the United States through greater access to business education, financial capital, and business support services. The program operates through a national network of public and private partner organizations including community colleges, business schools and Community Development Financial Institutions. The initiative is currently active in New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Long Beach, Los Angeles, and New Orleans, and will continue to expand to communities across the country. Community partners in New York City include The City of New York, LaGuardia Community College and Seedco Financial Services.

About LaGuardia:

LaGuardia Community College located in Long Island City, Queens, was founded in 1971 as a bold experiment in opening the doors of higher education to all, and we proudly carry forward that legacy today. LaGuardia educates students through over 50 degree, certificate and continuing education programs, providing an inspiring place for students to achieve their dreams. Upon graduation, LaGuardia students’ lives are transformed as family income increases 17%, and students transfer to four-year colleges at three times the national average. Part of the City University of New York (CUNY), LaGuardia is a nationally recognized leader among community colleges for boundary-breaking success educating underserved students. At LaGuardia we imagine new ideas, create new curriculum and pioneer programs to make our community and our country stronger. Visit www.laguardia.edu to learn more.

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