William E. Macaulay believes the Obama administration’s focus on alternative energy, including solar and wind, should be expanded to other energy sources. “The Bush administration was oil,” he said, but the Obama administration has “not paid attention to nuclear, and they haven’t really pushed natural gas.” Macaulay is the chairman, chief executive officer, and a managing director of First Reserve Corporation, a private equity firm focusing on the energy industry, which he joined in 1983. He is also a graduate of City College and the benefactor of the Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, which hosted his lecture, “World Energy: Current Outlook, Future Possibilities.”
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Over her 40-year academic career, Mary Ann Caws has authored, edited and translated more than 60 books. A distinguished professor of French, English, and Comparative Literature at the CUNY Graduate Center, Prof. Caws was elected a member of the 2009 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the highest honors in the United States, in October. Her area of expertise is as varied as her interests, from 20th-century avant-garde literature and art, to the intricacies of French cooking. “The French language and Provence are so tightly knit together in my mind with poetry,” explains Prof. Caws. “The whole thing is a great influence on everything else I do.”
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Public meeting of the Board of Trustees, September 29, 2009.

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Award-winning Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat can add a “genius grant” to her long list of accolades. One of 24 individuals who will receive a total of $500,000 over five years from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Danticat helped kick off the 2009 Provost Distinguished Scholars Lecture Series at York College this September. Known for her haunting depictions of Haitian immigrants, Danticat explained the essence of her work. “I try to write things that I would like to read,” said Danticat, who also read selections from her novel, “The Farming of Bones” (1999) and her memoir “Brother, I’m Dying” (2007). “If you try to be formulaic, you will always aim wrong,” she said. “Write what you love reading.”
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In his “Environmental Town Hall” lecture, William Solecki, director of the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities, insists that any future plans to “green” New York City — from retrofitting old buildings to creating environmentally friendly ones — should start now. “We are literally rebuilding New York today in many fundamental ways,” said Solecki, professor of geography at Hunter College, “and it’s important that we rebuild with an eye towards that sustainable future.” Solecki said that cities are responsible for about 70 percent of the world’s carbon emissions, but since they contain about half the world’s population, they are also our best hope for a greener future.
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Like anything else in business, when it comes to greening your workplace, you first need a plan. “You have to assess performance, come up with goals, identify what needs improvements, come up with an action plan, implement and see what the results are,” says Dan Miner, chair of the New York City chapter of the Sierra Club. In his lecture, “Easy Ways Everyone Can Green Their Workplace,” part of the Governor’s Island Lectures sponsored by the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities, Miner discusses ways in which businesses can start to make their workplaces more environmentally friendly, including the installation of roof solar panels and replacing incandescent lights with compact florescent bulbs.
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For his new book “Sound Targets: American Soldiers and Music in the Iraq War,” Jonathan Pieslak, an associate professor of music at City College, interviewed soldiers who have served in Iraq to learn about the roles music they compose, write, and listen to, play in the war and in American military culture. “Some soldiers speak about how music puts them in a predatory mindset,” said Prof. Pieslak, who analyzed some of the troops’ original lyrics and explored the impact of certain musical genres, including heavy metal and rap, in contemporary military recruiting campaigns and in combat.
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Two-thirds of the pharmaceutical industry is based in the New York area and, in the midst of a crippling recession, it’s one of the few sectors still hiring. Responding to this demand, York College launched a four-year, bachelor’s degree program in pharmaceutical sciences, which “will give students the technical skills and academic knowledge they’ll need to work in the industry,” said Panayiotis Meleties, professor of chemistry and dean of academic affairs for mathematics and sciences. A unique feature of this program is its collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Northeast Regional Laboratory, housed on the college’s Jamaica campus since 1999.
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Standing committee meeting of the Board of Trustees, Committee on Faculty, Staff and Administration, Wednesday, September 9, 2009.
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Standing committee meeting of the Board of Trustees, Committee on Facilities Planning and Management, Wednesday, September 9, 2009.
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