@ John Jay Newsletter - 100808

@John Jay Worth Noting October 22 6:00 PM Patrick V. Murphy Lecture Police Chief William Bratton, Los Angeles Police Department Room 630, Haaren Hall

October 22 7:30 PM Rootless: La No-Nostalgia

A theatrical concert about migration. Presented by the Department of Latin American and Latina/o Studies Tickets: $15, general admission; $8, John Jay students with ID. Call 212-279-4200. Gerald W. Lynch Theater

October 26 9:30 AM CUNY Cross-Country Championships Van Cortland Park, The Bronx

October 30 5:00 PM When Will U.S. Courts Join the International Constitutional Conversation? A lecture by Drew S. Days III, former U.S. Solicitor General. Presented by the Center for International Human Rights

Gerald W. Lynch Theater Lobby

November 5 3:30 PM State of the College Address President Jeremy Travis

Gerald W. Lynch Theater

November 7 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Femicide: Understanding and Preventing the Murder of Women in Intimate Relationships Co-sponsored by John Jay College and the Urban Resource Institute Gerald W. Lynch Theater

News and Events of Interest to the College Community October 8, 2008

Drug Policy Under the Microscope Creators of “The Wire” TV Series Anchor Lively Forum

Is the war on drugs winnable? Is drug enforcement laden with racial bias? Are alternatives to continuing the drug war too dire to be worth serious consideration? These and other hot-button issues were among the questions raised at a September 25 student forum on current U.S. drug policy and mass incarceration, sponsored by John Jay’s Center for Crime Prevention and Control. “The Wire: Drugs, Prison and Community Survival” drew a standing-room-only audience of students, faculty and others as an eight-member panel, moderated by Professor David Kennedy, looked at the current state of the war on drugs and its impact on American society. Featured on the panel were Ed Burns and David Simon, senior writers and co-creators of the hit HBO series “The Wire,” who earlier this year were among the co-authors of a commentary in Time magazine that took a highly critical view of the drug war. “There aren’t any politicians — Democrat or Republican — willing to speak truth on this,” they wrote. “Instead, politicians compete to prove themselves more draconian than thou, to embrace America’s most profound and enduring policy failure.” The chief legacy of the drug war, they

Professor David Kennedy (left) moderates “The Wire” forum discussion before a packed house.

maintained was to fill prisons with America’s “poorest, most damaged and most desperate citizens.” Joining them on the panel were Nassau County, NY, District Attorney Kathleen M. Rice; Suzanne M. Corhan, Chief of the Major Narcotics Investigation Bureau for the Kings County, NY,

District Attorney’s Office; Distinguished Professor Todd Clear and Professor Peter Moskos of the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration, and Professor Douglas Thompkins of the Department of Sociology. [A video of the student forum can be viewed online at http://johnjay.jjay.cuny.edu/wire/]

Advisement, Counseling, Enrollment to Gain from Flurry of Personnel Moves Like an upgraded highway, the road to student success at John Jay is about to become smoother and straighter, thanks to a bevy of new appointments in Student Development, Enrollment Management and Academic Affairs. The goal of three appointments in counseling and student advisement is to “ensure a holistic approach to student success that involves both Student Development and Academic Affairs,” said a joint statement by Provost Jane Bowers and Vice President for Student Development Berenecea Johnson-Eanes. Dr. Sumaya Villanueva, the new Director of

Academic Advisement, comes to John Jay from Hostos Community College, where she had been Director of the New Student Advisement and Retention Services Center. During her tenure, student retention increased from 60% to 66% during the first year after implementation of an early warning system. The new Director of Counseling, Dr. Ma’at Lewis-Coles, has been interim director of the Department of Counseling since January, and a member of the department since 2003. The current president of the New York Association of Black Psychologists, she was responsible for

President Heads to D.C. with a Few Ideas for Senate Judiciary Committee President Jeremy Travis traveled to ¶ The creation of a timely national Washington, DC, on September 10 to testify crime data system that would allow police before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee executives, elected officials and policy on “New Strategies for Combating Violent makers, academics and community groups Crime: Drawing Lessons from Recent to have a data-informed policy discussion Experience.” Noting that “the crime and about crime trends and effective responses. justice challenges facing the country today ¶ Support for the implementation on a are enormous,” Travis outlined a federal national scale of proven crime-reduction strategy for promoting public safety in strategies. Demands for such successviolence-plagued communities, and called ful approaches as Operation Ceasefire on the federal government to provide the — pioneered by John Jay Professor David necessary leadership. Kennedy and since replicated in dozens of “We can confidently say that we now other jurisdictions — currently outstrip local experience the lowest levels of violence in a capacity to assist communities with high generation,” Travis said. But then he added, rates of violence. “We have no reason to be complacent, and ¶ A “National Safety Network” that every reason to implement policies that will would cut crime, abate drug markets, rebring our rates of violence much, much President Travis gets his point across in recent testimony before the Senate duce reliance on incarceration and promote Judiciary Committee. lower.” better relations between the police and Any consideration of future policy minority communities. “If we want to produce a safer nation, directions should pay particular heed to an inner¶ Federal leadership in testing new ideas and advance an urban development agenda, and city perspective, Travis continued, since “crime responses to criminal justice problems and the provide equal opportunities for Americans from does not affect all Americans equally.” The dissemination of successful models for use by minority groups, then we must bring these levels phenomenon of violence in America is primarily state and local agencies. of violence down,” Travis told the committee. an urban one, and concentrated in a small [The full text of Travis’s testimony may be Travis, who in the 1990s was Director of the number of poor neighborhoods, often populated found online at http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/1722. National Institute of Justice, offered an agenda by people of color. Moreover, violent crime tends php. A webcast can be viewed at http://judiciary. for the new Administration and new Congress to be committed by, and against, young men in senate.gov/webcast/judiciary09102008-1000. that will take office in January 2009. His these neighborhoods. ram.] recommendations included:

establishing John Jay’s Transfer Student Peer Counseling Center. Kate Szur will oversee the College’s transition from Freshman Services to First Year Experience (FYE). As the new FYE Director, Szur will coordinate a range of academic strategies, including Freshman Learning Communities, designed to enhance student performance in the first year and beyond. Szur came to John Jay 10 years ago, and most recently served as Director of the Center for English Language Support.

Familiar Faces in New Roles The three appointments in advisement and counseling are part of a wave of recent changes in units of the Student Development and Enrollment Management divisions. Two familiar faces in the realm of student services at John Jay have taken up new duties aimed at enhancing the growing profile and prestige of the College’s Graduate Division. Bill Devine has become Director of Graduate Admissions, while Fay Williams was named Associate Director. For the past eight years, Devine has been Administrative Director of the New York City Police Leadership Certificate Program at the College. Williams was previously with the Office of Student Financial Services. “I’m looking forward to the exciting possibilities we find in Graduate Admissions,” Devine said, “particularly the new master’s degree in forensic mental health counseling.” Also taking on a new assignment is Sylvia Lopez, who was named Director of the Office of Student Financial Services. Lopez, a 1987 alumna of John Jay, had been with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions since 1992, and the office’s Associate Director since 2004. Of her new role, Lopez said, “I have an absolutely wonderful staff here at Financial Aid, who do a terrific job of serving our students.” Others taking on new roles include Michael Scaduto, formerly an admissions counselor, who is now Coordinator of the Office of Scholarship Services; Jeremy Sogluizzo, former Assistant Director of Graduate Admissions, who was named Director of Testing, and Angelos Kyriacou, former Assistant Registrar, who has become Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions.

John Jay Leads the Pack in New CUNY Leadership Program

CAMPUS SCENES LEOPOLD AND LOEB-OTOMY

John Jay students make up nearly one-quarter of the students selected for the inaugural group of the CUNY Leadership Academy Program — the largest single delegation from any CUNY campus in the new program. Following a grueling selection process, a field of nearly 150 candidates was pared down to the 28 students who make up the initial cohort, including six from John Jay. Said Dr. Joe-Joe McManus, Executive Director of the CUNY Leadership Academy: “All of the nominees were phenomenal. We are confident that we have chosen a group of student leaders who will excel in our program and who are outstanding representatives of their colleges, programs, communities and CUNY.” Students chosen for the program will participate in a variety of seminars and workshops, lecture sessions, leadership conferences and other professional development opportunities. The Leadership Academy is based at the Metro Tech business and educational center in downtown Brooklyn. Representing John Jay are: Jessica Armstrong, Paulique Cardona, Shirley Chan, Kimmesha Edwards, Elishia Fludd and Carolyn Hernandez. All but Hernandez, an international criminal justice major, are in the forensic psychology program. Armstrong and Fludd are BA/MA students.

Remembering the Victims of 9/11 Students from John Jay stood alongside family and friends of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, to read aloud the victims’ names during ceremonies to mark the seventh anniversary of the attack. The John Jay students were part of a larger delegation from all 23 City University campuses, hailing from the 85 countries that lost lives on 9/11. The students were selected at the request of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who acknowledged them during the commemoration and thanked them “for giving us the picture of the possibility of a united human family.” The students and their native countries were: Melissa Lopez (Belize); Christina Bennett (Colombia); Guillermo Monroy (Guatemala); Keiry Martinez (Honduras); Maya Tilipman (Moldova), and Azra Rebronja (Yugoslavia). Attending as alternates without a speaking role in the ceremonies were Emmanuel Anjo (Portugal) and Erin Lamb (Belize).

History professor Simon Baatz inscribes a copy of his critically acclaimed book For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago, following a Book & Author presentation on September 15 that explored the notorious 1924 thrill-killing. Joined by psychology professor Louis Schlesinger, Baatz detailed how two young men, both extremely bright and born to lives of privilege, kidnapped and murdered a 14-year-old neighbor, then dumped his body in a drainage ditch, all for the “pure love of excitement” and a quest to commit the perfect crime. In one of the most sensational criminal cases of the early 20th century, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were defended by courtroom legend Clarence Darrow, whose defense strategy enabled them to avoid the death penalty by pleading guilty and then convincing the trial judge that they were mentally ill.

NICE JOB, PARTNER! GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY Director of Alumni Relations Jerylle Kemp (left) accepts a gift to the College from Commerce Bank branch manager Joseph Dollan and retail market manager Christine Modaffieri following a September 12 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the bank’s newest location at West 62nd Street and Broadway.

English professors Adam Berlin (left) and Jeffrey Heiman congratulate each other on a job well done at a September 17 reception for the debut issue of The J Journal: New Writing on Justice. Berlin and Heiman are co-founders and editors of the journal, which includes fiction, poetry and personal essays examining justice issues from a variety of angles.

CRISIS MANAGEMENT Panel members reflect on a question from the audience during one of the sessions at “The Interrogation & Torture Controversy: Crisis in Psychology,” an all-day conference held on September 12. Cosponsored by the College’s Center on Terrorism and the Department of Psychology, along with York College/CUNY and a number of professional organizations, the conference examined such themes as the use of psychologists in coercive interrogations, resistance and activism within the psychology profession, ethical guidelines for research and practice in the post-9/11 era, and working with survivors of torture and coercive interrogation. Panelists seen here in the session “An Overview of Torture, Its Consequences and Ethical Meanings for Psychologists” included (left to right) investigative reporter Katherine Eban, psychologist Dr. Michael G. Gelles, history professor Alfred W. McCoy of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and John Jay history professor Charles B. Strozier, Director of the Center on Terrorism.

FACULTY / STAFF NOTES PEER REVIEW JEREMY TRAVIS (President) was named chair of the New York State Juvenile Justice Task Force by the Hon. David Paterson, Governor of New York State. Over the coming year, the newly constituted task force is charged with developing strategies for transforming the state’s juvenile justice system and developing what Travis hopes will be “a more comprehensive and less punitive approach” to handling juvenile offenders. MARIA VOLPE (Sociology) won the 2008 Lawrence Cooke Peace Innovator Award, presented by the New York State Dispute Resolution Association in collaboration with the New York State Unified Court System Office of ADR and Court Improvement Programs. Volpe will also be the honoree at the Network for Peace Through Dialogue recognition night on October 30 in New York City. WANDA FERNANDOPULLE (Student @ John Jay is published by the Department of Institutional Advancement John Jay College of Criminal Justice 899 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY 10019 www.jjay.cuny.edu Editor Peter Dodenhoff Submissions should be faxed or e-mailed to: Office of Communications fax: (212) 237-8642 e-mail: pdodenhoff@jjay.cuny.edu

Development) was selected as an Association for Institutional Research Fellow for the upcoming National Conference on First-Year Assessment, to be held October 12-14 in San Antonio, Texas. JOSEPH KING (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) won the 2008 Roberta Thornton Award, presented by the CUNY Graduate Center’s PhD Alumni Association in recognition of his outstanding achievement as a criminal justice practitioner and scholar.

PRESENTING… KEITH A. MARKUS (Psychology) spent five weeks visiting the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, on an Erskine Fellowship to work with Professor Brian Haig on a joint methodological research project. While there, he presented a colloquium on “Construct Validity and Causal Modeling.” Closer to home, at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Boston, Markus presented a poster titled “Abductive Inferences to Psychological Variables: Weighting Competing Criteria” coauthored by Samuel W. Hawes, a John Jay alumnus, and Rula J. Thasites, a current John Jay student. JANICE BOCKMEYER (Government) presented her paper, “The Politics of Supra-local Nonprofits: Do ‘Good Practices’ Reset the Community Metacenter?” on a panel discussing Local Networks, Race, Immigration and Identity at the

annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in August.

an aggressive program of intervention for incarcerated individuals.

LARRY SULLIVAN (Library) taught a four-day seminar on elite deviance to government officials at St. John’s College in Belize City, Belize, in March. He also gave a lecture on community justice at the National Police Academy in Belmopan, Belize, on March 12. He presented the paper, “Family Values and Domestic Violence: The Polish Paradigm,” at the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in Cincinnati in March. This paper was based on research he did at Warsaw University on a Kosciuszko Foundation grant..

LARRY SULLIVAN (Library) had his article “Prison is Dull Today: Prison Libraries and the Irony of Pious Reading” published in the May 2008 issue of PMLA, the journal of the Modern Language Association. His review essay of The Encyclopedia of the Library of Congress appeared in the April 2008 issue of Library Quarterly.

BETWEEN THE COVERS ELISE LANGAN (Government) published an article on “Assimilation and Affirmative Action in French Education Systems” in the fall 2008 issue of European Education. She was named a visiting scholar at New York University’s Center for European Studies. KIMORA (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) published an article titled “The Punishment Potlach: A Way Out” in the fall 2008 issue of Insights, a publication of the Offender Preparation and Education Network, Inc. In the article, Kimora and her coauthor, attorney Mark Hazelbaker, contend that this punishment potlach in the United States has ignored the cost of criminal justice, and advocate

educating for justice

KEITH A. MARKUS (Psychology) recently published an article contrasting alternative causal interpretations of statistical models, titled “Hypothesis Formulation, Model Interpretation and Model Equivalence: Implications of a Mereological Causal Interpretation of Structural Equation Models” in the summer 2008 issue of the journal Multivariate Behavioral Research. A recent issue of the journal Measurement included his article “Constructs, Concepts and the Worlds of Possibility: Connecting the Measurement, Manipulation, and Meaning of Variables,” as well as his rejoinder “Putting Concepts and Constructs into Practice: A Reply to Cervone and Caldwell, Haig, Kane, Mislevy, and Rupp.” Markus also published a critique titled “Abductive Inferences to Psychological Variables: Steiger’s Question and Best Explanations of Psychopathy,” in the summer 2008 issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology. The critique was coauthored by John Jay alumnus Samuel W. Hawes and current student Rula J. Thasites.