@ John Jay Newsletter (january 28, 2009)

@John Jay Worth Noting February 2-3 8:30 PM 4th Annual Guggenheim Conference on Crime in America

A New Beginning Exploring the Criminal Justice Challenges for the Next Four Years. Presented by the Center on Media, Crime and Justice. Includes presentation of the annual John Jay Excellence in Journalism Awards. Room 630, Haaen Hall

February 3 7:30 PM Happy Birthday, Felix Mendelssohn!

A concert celebrating the 200th birthday of the Romantic composer. Narrated by Eli Wallach. Gerald W. Lynch Theater

February 20 10:00 AM - 4:30 PM Forensic Linguistics for Investigative Practitioners A workshop presented by the Center for Modern Forensic Practice and the John Jay Department of English. RSVP to [email protected]. Room 630 Haaren Hall

February 23 12:30 PM - 3:00 PM Making (Much) Better Sense of the Culture of Black Men in Crisis

Dr. Alford Young Jr. University of Michigan Co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology, Department of African American Studies, Gender Studies Program, CUNY Black Male Initiative and the Center on Race, Crime and Justice. Gerald W. Lynch Theater Lobby

January 28, 2009

New Center Focuses on the Private Sector’s Changing Security-Preparedness Needs Since 9/11, John Jay has aggressively focused on developing programs to meet the changing security imperatives of the private sector. The opening of the Center for Business Preparedness is the latest addition to this strategy. This research hub will be led by a recognized expert in corporate security and business risk management. Thomas E. Cavanagh, whose appointment was announced by President Jeremy Travis on January 22, comes to John Jay from The Conference Board (TCB), where he was Senior Research Associate, having joined TCB’s research staff in 1998. “With corporate security expert Tom Cavanagh as its director, the Center on Business Preparedness will be able to offer a comprehensive program of research and networking opportunities that will keep practitioners abreast of the latest developments and enable them to benchmark their efforts against the prevailing standards,” Travis said. Cavanagh, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University, has served as principal investigator for a number of major reports on corporate security and preparedness, including “Corporate Security Management: Organization and Spending Since 9/11,” “Navigating Risk: The Business Case for Security” and the forthcoming “Preparedness in the Private Sector.” “The field of business preparedness is relatively new and is evolving very rapidly,”

Cavanagh observed. “It incorporates a lot of different elements, ranging from routine security management to business continuity and disaster recovery. At John Jay, we will be able to draw on an extensive body of expertise on protection management, emergency response, cybercrime and terrorism to create a dynamic and exciting program on business preparedness. “John Jay has a tradition of effectively integrating top-quality research with practical experience, so it is an excellent home for this new program, and I look forward to the challenge of developing it,” Cavanagh said. As a research and information clearinghouse, the Center for Business Preparedness will explore best practices, preparedness standards and procedures, and analyses of public safety and corporate security strategies. Its first initiative, undertaken in conjunction with The Conference Board, will be an in-depth examination of preparedness in the private sector. Researchers will interview corporate security executives to determine the extent to which specific

Thomas E. Cavanagh (left), director of John Jay’s new Center for Business Preparedness, and the cover of one of his recent reports for The Conference Board.

preparedness standards have been implemented. The project will also gather and report data on corporate procedures for emergency response, disaster recovery and crisis management. The research will be funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to The Conference Board. “We’re delighted to see that the work we began here will continue in partnership with John Jay, and we congratulate them on the establishment of the Center,” said David J. Vidal, founder of The Conference Board’s security and preparedness research programs and director of its Center for Corporate Citizenship & Sustainability.

College Says Bravo! to Latest Group of Employees Who Go the Extra Mile Twenty-two employees were honored as the latest winners of the Bravo! Employee Recognition Awards on December 19. “I don’t often get a chance to say to a group of employees like the ones we have here how appreciative I am of all your hard work,” said President Jeremy Travis. “You have strengthened

Music, Drama and More Fill the Theater’s Spring Bill A great college, like a great city, deserves a great performing-arts program, and with that in mind, John Jay’s Gerald W. Lynch Theater has unveiled its Spring 2009 Series of concerts, plays and other events. The season commences on February 3 with a 200th birthday salute to Felix Mendelssohn, who is perhaps best known for his “Wedding March,” originally composed as incidental music for a production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The free concert narrated by actor Eli Wallach will include selections from the string octets Mendelssohn wrote as a youth, arias from his oratorio “Elijah,” and his Trio for Piano in D Minor. Another bicentennial — that of the death of composer Joseph Haydn — will be marked in a series of performances beginning February 18, as the Gotham Chamber Opera presents the New York City stage premiere of Haydn’s L’isola Disabitata (Desert Island). The production, directed by acclaimed choreographer Mark Morris, will also be presented on February 21, 25, 27 and 28. Theatre, theology and the judicial process collide when the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts, in conjunction with the APACHE Project, presents The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, directed by Professor Dana Tarantino. The serio-comic play, which will be performed

News and Events of Interest to the College Community

from April 21-25, takes an imagined look at the plight and fate of the New Testament’s most notorious sinner in a trial of “God and the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth v. Judas Iscariot.” The Spring 2009 Series also includes: ¶ Water, Our Most Precious Resource, a narrated free concert of traditional spirituals, gospel and folk music to celebrate World Water Day on March 22; ¶ “Killadelphia,” the latest work from award-winning playwright and performer Sean Christopher Lewis, which runs April 29, 30 and May 1, and uses hip-hop and documentary theater techniques to tell the story of murdered teaching fellow Beau Zabel; ¶ Culturefest!, a weeklong festival of performances and events from March 2-5 to celebrate John Jay’s cultural diversity; ¶ Ballet Academy East presenting the spring performance by its Pre-professional Division, May 22-24, with works choreographed by leading artists of the dance world; ¶ Barnes & Noble Storytelling Hour, on February 4, March 18 and April 8, a special story time for children and caregivers. Complete details of coming events, including times and ticketing information, are on the theater Web site, www.jjay.cuny.edu/theater. Email [email protected] to get regular updates about events.

the core values of this institution.” The third semiannual group of divisional Bravo! award winners were recognized for their “new and creative ideas, innovative problemsolving and superior customer service,” said Robert Pignatello, Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration. Pignatello went on to note that a new wellness and work life initiative will soon be unveiled at John Jay, as an outgrowth of the successful Bravo! Summer Institute launched in 2008. The College’s vice presidents were called to the podium in alphabetical order to introduce the employees in their units who were to receive the Bravo! awards. The winners were: Academic Affairs: Priscilla Acuna (Interdisciplinary Studies Program), David Barnet (Office of Educational Partnerships), Esperanza Lopez-Herrera (Department of Government),

Ashton Franklyn (Criminal Justice Center), Susy Mendes (Office of Sponsored Programs); Student Development: William Altham (Health Services), Ma’at Lewis Coles (Counseling Center), Premwati Sukhan (Office of Internships and Cooperative Education); Finance and Administration: Yagris Diaz (Bursar’s Office), Christine Johnson (Human Resources), Ynes Leon (Facilities Management), Cadelie Neat (Business Office), Louie Perillo (Department of Information Technology), Shirley Robinson (Mailroom), Barbara Wala (Security); Enrollment Management: Crystal Brathwaite (One-Stop Center), Ariel Del Rosario (One-Stop Center), Dawn Layne (Registrar), Mariela Nuñez (Graduate Admissions), David Primak (Registrar), Sara Scaldaferry (Registrar); Strategic Planning: Gail Hauss (Institutional Research).

The newest recipients of the Bravo! Employee Recognition Awards, joined by Senior Vice President Robert Pignatello and President Travis, have plenty of reason to smile after they were honored on December 19.

Welcome to the College Experience

Students show off the research projects they created as part of their Freshman Opportunity class taught by Professors Kimberly Helmer and Marco Navarro. “A year ago, as a senior in high school, I never would’ve dreamed I’d be doing this,” said Heidy Ramirez (at left in photo above right). The students will undertake new team-based research projects in the spring semester, choosing from a broad palette of course options.

Inauguration Provides Study Opportunity of a Lifetime

Brady Scores, On and Off the Court

As scholarship students go, Michael Yusupov is more fortunate than most. During the midyear break in January, while classmates were enjoying a respite from their studies, Yusupov was in Washington, DC, participating in a 10-day academic seminar tied in to the historic inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation’s 44th President on January 20. The Campaign 2008 Presidential Academic Seminar Series comprises four separate academically tailored seminars in conjunction with the 2008 presidential campaign, of which the Presidential Inauguration session is the last. Sponsored by the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars, the series has been held every four years since 1984. The highly competitive seminar offered Yusupov a backstage look at the 2008 presidential inauguration, focusing on the new president and the formation of his administration, and the impact of the media on American politics. Through a combination of lectures, site visits, tours, and special events, Yusupov and the other participating students and faculty explored the critical issues surrounding the transfer of power, the political processes involved, and how the nation’s leaders are responding to the outcome of the 2008 elections.

Gary Brady, a shooting guard with the John Jay men’s basketball team, knows how to “pay it forward,” and prominent media outlets have taken notice. Brady, a junior on the team that last year won the first CUNY Athletic Conference championship in program history, was the subject of a feature report on the MSG network on December 20, which focused on his work at the same group home in the Bronx where he grew up. His story has also been told on the Web site d3hoops. com, which covers Division III collegiate basketball. Brady was just 9 years old when he began living at the Andrus group home, and he is now in his third year as a counselor at the facility, working an overnight shift four nights a week. His days are filled with a full-time class load, studying and homework, and during basketball season, practices and games. He credits his success to the guidance provided by his own counselors, mentors and coaches, who he says “made time for everything.” Brady now makes the same time as mentor for scores of youngsters in the same situation he once faced. The cable TV report appeared on MSG Network’s “Aéropostale College Basketball Weekly” show. A link to the MSG video will appear soon on the John Jay Athletics Web site, www.johnjayathletics.com. For the d3hoops online article, “Mature Beyond His Years,” visit www.d3hoops.com/nation/09/dec18.htm.

The seminars “are designed for the elite college or university student who has or yearns for a heightened sense of civic engagement and will enjoy interacting with internationally recognized figures including politicians, journalists, professionals and many more,” according to the Web site www.campaign2008.info. “This is a first-rate program, with many learning opportunities, culminating in the inauguration itself,” President Jeremy Travis said in an e-mail to Yusupov, a senior BA/MA student in public administration. “We are so proud that you have been selected for this scholarship opportunity.”

FACULTY / STAFF NOTES BETWEEN THE COVERS SIMON BAATZ (History) had his book, For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago (HarperCollins) chosen by USA Today as one of its 10 Best Books for 2008. Jonathan Yardley, the book critic for The Washington Post, chose For the Thrill of It as one of the Top 15 Books for 2008, and R.V. Scheide of The Sacramento News & Review selected Baatz’s book as one of the year’s Best 55 Books. JOCK YOUNG (Sociology) had his new book, Cultural Criminology: An Invitation, written with Jeff Ferrell and Keith Hayward, published by Sage. The book was launched in November at the American Society of Criminology meeting in St. Louis. JILL STAUFFER (Philosophy), who is currently on fellowship in residence at the Graduate Center, has had her new book, Nietzsche and Levinas: “After the Death of a Certain God,” published by Columbia University Press. The volume was coedited with Bettina Bergo.

@ 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

JANE KATZ (Physical Education and Athletics) had her article “Joint-Friendly Water Workout” published in the October/November 2008 issue of Arthritis Health Monitor. Her article on “The Healthy Swimmer” appeared in the November/ December issue of USMS Swimmer magazine. ADINA SCHWARTZ (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) published Parts 1 and 2 of her article “Challenging Firearms and Toolmark Identification” in the October and November/December issues of The Champion, the journal of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Part 1 was the cover story in the October issue. The articles are also scheduled to be reprinted in The California Defender.

PRESENTING… MICHAEL PFEIFER (History) presented a paper titled “The Midwestern Making of Racial Lynching: The Lynching of African-Americans in the Civil War and Reconstruction” at the American Historical Association meeting in New York City on January 3. Pfeifer previously presented a paper, “Lynching, Law, and Sectional Identity in the Antebellum Border States” on October 25 in Louisville, KY, at the Filson Institute Academic Conference on Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. JOCK YOUNG (Sociology) gave a series of six lectures during a recent visit to Argentina. He was the introductory plenary speaker at the international seminar on “Rethinking the Role of the State in Crime Prevention,” hosted

by the Federal Secretariat of Public Safety. He addressed the Social Cabinet of the Province of Santa Fe on policies of social inclusion in the field of crime control; spoke at the Universities of Buenos Aires and Rosario on his recent book The Vertigo of Late Modernity; and presented his research on multiagency crime prevention to the U.N. Development Program on local initiatives in this area. While there, he also had productive meetings with the National Director of Criminal Policy and the director of the U.N. program regarding future research on crime and social exclusion. JANE KATZ (Physical Education and Athletics) presented a talk on “Health and Exercise Through the Holidays” on December 17 as part of the David Rogers Health Policy Colloquium at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center. HOWARD PFLANZER (Communication and Theatre Arts) had readings of his plays UFO Story and The Flowers Sing: Strindberg’s Dream presented by the Living Theatre in Manhattan on December 2.

PEER REVIEW KIMORA (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) was appointed to the board of directors of OPEN Inc. (Offender Preparation & Education Network, Inc.), a correctional service agency founded in Dallas, TX, in 1979. “We are thrilled Dr. Kimora has agreed to serve on our board,” said the organization’s executive director, Ned Rollo. “She brings a national and academic perspective to us.”

educating for justice

DUANE GREEN (Facilities Management) won the heavyweight title in the biennial Tournament of Champions amateur boxing competition held at Nassau Coliseum in December. Green, who trains at the Young Boxing Association (YBA) gym in the Bronx, chalked up two technical knockouts and one decision en route to the championship. In the first round, he scored a TKO over the fighter who had defeated him for the title two years ago.