Newsletter 102908

@John Jay Worth Noting November 3 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM First Vote ’08: Are You Prepared? Presented by the Gerald W. Lynch Theater and the Epic Theatre Ensemble Gerald W. Lynch Theater

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

Gerald W. Lynch Theater

November 6 3:00 PM - 7:00 PM Graduate Open House Gerald W. Lynch Theater Lobby

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

November 16 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM Undergraduate Open House Various locations, Haaren Hall

November 19-25 A Few Good (wo)Men

Presented by the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts Gerald W. Lynch Theater (Times vary. Call 212-279-4200 or visit www.ticketcentral.com for tickets.)

October 29, 2008

John Jay’s Swim Guru Catches Post’s Eye Katz Wins Newspaper’s 2008 Liberty Medal

Professor Jane Katz, John Jay’s resident apostle of aquatics, has added another item to her long list of lifetime achievements and accolades, having been named as one of nine winners of the New York Post Liberty Medals for 2008. The Post created the Liberty Medals program seven years ago, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, to honor “selfless New Yorkers who go the extra mile to benefit others with resourcefulness, empathy and valor,” the newspaper noted. A longtime member of the Department of Physical Education and Athletics, Katz was honored October 20 along with her fellow medal winners at a reception emceed by TV host Regis Philbin. The winners were chosen by a panel of prominent New Yorkers that included New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and city Comptroller William Thompson, among others. Katz, who won in the Educator category, has long espoused the view that she can teach anyone to swim and enjoy the water. The Post made special mention of Katz’s latest endeavor, which took her long-held view to a new level. Through the Kids Aquatic Re-Entry (KARE) program, Katz imparts swimming lessons, aquatic survival skills and life lessons to youngsters from group homes run by the Department of Juvenile Justice. “I teach them the art of playing fair and the buddy system,” said Katz. “When they re-enter society, those rules that were taught in the water carry over to their daily lifestyle.”

Professor Jane Katz at the Water Cube, the swimming venue for the recent Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing.

Currently on sabbatical, Katz recently returned from Beijing, where she attended the Paralympic Games. An Olympic synchronized swimming performer in 1964 before the sport was formally recognized, Katz helped dedicate a new aquatic facility at a university while she was in Beijing,

performing one of her swim routines. Katz said she considers the Liberty Medal a high point of her distinguished career at CUNY. “What this does is it validates 45 years of my being underwater, 45 years of babbling about bubbles,” she said.

Top-Shelf Tutors Aid Students Who Are Baffled by Math or Blinded by Science Even among the best students, there are those for whom math just doesn’t add up, or who are stumped by science. Such students may be able to rest a bit easier knowing that John Jay’s Learning Enhancement Center and Math and Science Resource Center are standing by to help.

Get Ready to Celebrate: November is CUNY Month

Don’t forget to reset your clocks to Standard Time on November 2 — you won’t want to miss a minute of the excitement that is CUNY Month. John Jay will once again do its part in the month-long celebration of the City University of New York, with a series of events running the gamut from personal development to health and wellness, from current events to cultural diversity, from the arts to sports and recreation. In short, there is something for everyone. In a proclamation issued September 20, in which he declared November to be CUNY Month statewide, New York Govenor David A. Paterson made special mention of the Pulitzer Prize won by Professor John Matteson of John Jay’s English Department for his book Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father. Paterson also noted CUNY’s continuing growth in student enrollment, academic standards, student honors and awards, and postgraduate research. November is typically the month when undergraduate and graduate open houses are held at campuses throughout the CUNY system, and John Jay is no exception. The graduate open house will come first, on November 6, with the undergraduate open house to follow on November 16. The week of November 17 is International

News and Events of Interest to the College Community

Education Awareness Week, with a CUNY Study Abroad Fair and programs focusing on the first two John Jay study abroad programs, held this past summer in Morocco and the Dominican Republic. A number of events will focus on current affairs, including “First Vote 2008,” a celebratory election-eve program by the Epic Theatre Ensemble. The event, to be held in the Gerald W. Lynch Theater on November 3, focuses on students who will be voting for the first time. Three John Jay students — Rhonda Nieves, David Chen and William Levenberg — will be honored at the event, which will include a performance of an original short play written for the occasion by Professor PJ Gibson. The performing and visual arts are well represented at John Jay during CUNY Month, including a midday Latin music concert by Juan Usera y La Tribu on November 4. On November 19, the play A Few Good (wo)Men opens for a nine-performance run. The court-martial thriller by Aaron Sorkin features a multicultural ensemble cast of students and faculty, under the direction of Professor Lorraine Moller. CUNY Month at John Jay will also include health and wellness events, personal and career development workshops, and a variety of sports and recreation opportunities. For a complete listing of CUNY Month events at John Jay, visit www.jjay.cuny.edu.

“The past year has seen major changes in campus tutoring services in mathematics and science,” noted Michele Doney, John Jay’s Coordinator of Math and Science Tutoring. “We have been taking a very close look at what is happening on other campuses, and getting involved in national organizations dedicated to college learning assistance in general and tutoring specifically. In this way, we can ensure that John Jay students are receiving tutoring services in math and science that are designed and administered according to national best practices.” A key component of the enhancement in tutoring services is an ongoing program of tutor training that includes topics such as roles and responsibilities, ethics, learning styles and strategies, and effective tutoring techniques. The training also allows tutors to pursue national certification through the Association for the Tutoring Profession. To achieve just the first level of ATP certification, tutors must have two letters of recommendation, a minimum of 25 documented hours of tutoring experience, and at least 10 hours of formal training in ATP-approved topics. Nine of the 12 currently eligible John Jay tutors are awaiting final approval of their certification. Another seven tutors will be eligible to apply later this semester. “This will be the first time math and science tutors at John Jay will be nationally certified,” Doney said, “and to my knowledge this will also be the first time tutors in any subject on our campus will achieve national certification.” The Learning Enhancement Center is in the midst of changing its name to the Math Preparation Center, but its mission is unaltered, offering tutoring in Math 100, 103, 104, 105 and 108 to help students get out of remediation. The Math and Science Resource Center provides tutoring in 100- and 200-level math courses as well as a broad spectrum of biology, chemistry, physics and toxicology courses. Tutoring is typically provided to small groups of

Tutoring coordinator Michele Doney (right) with science tutor Katrina Harewood.

three or less in sessions that last up to an hour. Doney continued, “John Jay students are beginning to notice the change in how math and science tutoring are done on campus, resulting in an increased demand for tutoring. In the fall 2007 semester, when the new practices were first implemented, the Math and Science Resource Center did about 1,300 student-hours of tutoring. In the spring 2008 semester, that number jumped to more than 1,800 studenthours. Midway through the fall 2008 semester, the resource center has already done more than 1,000 student-hours According to Doney, “A survey conducted over the summer showed that the overwhelming majority of our students would recommend us to others, and feel they were able to earn higher grades in their math and sciences because they came for tutoring. Similar things are happening at the Learning Enhancement Center.” The Math and Science Resource Center is located in Room 4200 North Hall; the Learning Enhancement Center is in Room 011 Westport. Doney can be contacted by phone at (646) 5574595, or via email at [email protected]. Briana Weinert, the LEC director, can be reached at (212) 237-8019; email [email protected].

Stars Come Out to Mark Theater’s 20th Anniversary Dance, Drama, Music and More Take Center Stage in Gala Evening One of the centerpieces of John Jay’s Haaren Hall since the building opened in 1988, the Gerald W. Lynch Theater marked its 20th anniversary on October 7 with a gala celebration highlighting the diversity of artistic styles and performers that have graced the stage over the years. Presenting everything from drama and spoken word to live music and dance, as well as hosting a wide array of conferences and ceremonies, the theater is widely recognized as one of the finest performance venues in New York. The roster of luminaries who have performed there is as long as it is diverse: rock music icons such as Chicago and Elvis Costello; the Joffrey Ballet, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Paris Opera Ballet; opera ensembles including the New York City Opera, Bronx Opera Company and the Metropolitan Opera Guild; and the annual Lincoln Center Festival, which has featured numerous A-list actors. In addition, numerous student/faculty productions have been mounted in the theater, including West Side Story, The Crucible and Rashomon. The anniversary celebration included a performance by the Universal Image Dance Team, a student group that won the “John Jay’s Got Talent” contest on September 17, and a preview from the College’s next student-faculty production, A Few Good (wo)Men, the courtmartial thriller by Aaron Sorkin, which opens on November 19. Acclaimed film and stage actor David Strathairn presented a reading of a Robert Frost poem written for the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961. The evening also included a screening of The Castle: 4 Voices, 70 Years in Prison; a performance by Dzul Dance, featuring alumna Robin Taylor Dzul (MA, 2003); and a scene from the play For Color Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, which was staged earlier this year at the Bayview Correctional Facility in Manhattan. Professor Ben Lapidus of the Department of Art and Music closed the show with a three-song set by his Latin jazz band Sonido Isleño. Since March, the theater has been administered by Executive Director Shannon R. Mayers, aided by a 13-member John Jay College Performing Arts Advisory Council, chaired by Professor Daniel Paget of the Department of Art and Music.

(Left) Professor Greg Donaldson, playing an overbearing Marine colonel, upbraids a young Navy lawyer, played by Hector Alzate, in a scene from the forthcoming production of the court-martial thriller A Few Good (wo)Men. (Above) Kymberli Roberts pours her heart in a wrenching scene from For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, which was staged earlier this year by John Jay students and inmates at the Bayview Correctional Facility in Manhattan.

(Above) Actor David Strathairn offers a dramatic reading of the Robert Frost poem “Dedication,” which was written for the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. (Above left) The big finish by members of the Universal Dance Image Team, a student ensemble that won the first annual John Jay’s Got Talent competition. (Left) Music professor Ben Lapidus, standing at left, leads his Latin jazz band Sonido Isleño in a three-song set that closed the anniversary celebration.

FACULTY / STAFF NOTES PRESENTING… M. VICTORIA PÉREZ-RÍOS (Government) presented a paper, “On the Effectiveness of International Tribunals (ICTY and ICTR),” at the American Political Science Association’s annual meeting in Boston, MA, August 28-31. She also presented two papers — “Investing in Renewable Energies: Are Some Third-Generation Human Rights More than Wishful Thinking?” and “Accountability for Disappearances: The Role of Regional Courts” — at the annual meeting of the Research Committee on Sociology of Law in Milan-Como, Italy, in July. ROSEMARY BARBERET (Sociology) and Andrés Rengifo, a graduate of the PhD program in criminal justice and currently an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, were part of a Commission of Independent Experts selected @ John Jay is published by the Office of Institutional Advancement John Jay College of Criminal Justice 899 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY 10019 www.jjay.cuny.edu Editor Peter Dodenhoff Graphic Design Gary Zaragovitch Submissions should be faxed or e-mailed to: Office of Communications fax: (212) 237-8642 e-mail: pdodenhoff@jjay.cuny.edu

by the Colombian statistics agency, DANE, to evaluate crime statistics produced by the National Police of Colombia, from September 15-19.

BETWEEN THE COVERS Simon Baatz (History) wrote “Criminal Minds” for the August 2008 issue of Smithsonian magazine. The article is an excerpt of his book For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago. MANGAI NATARAJAN (Sociology) had her newest book, Women Police in a Changing Society: Back Door to Equality, published by Ashgate Publishing in September 2008. The book focuses on a unique and highly successful experiment begun in Tamil Nadu, India, in 1992, in which all-female police units were established as a way of enhancing the confidence and professionalism of woman officers. KIMORA (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) was named contributing editor of Getting Out by Going In (GOGI), a monthly newsletter published by a nonprofit organization of the same name. GOGI educates federal, state and juvenile offenders in California and Arizona. In addition, Professor Kimora wrote the foreword for Mara Leigh Taylor’s book Women in Prison: Women Finding Freedom. In May, Kimora visited female inmates at the Century Regional Deten-

tion Center in Lynwood, CA, where she spoke about the importance of the GOGI program. LORI L. MARTIN (African-American Studies) had several publications in 2008 including an article titled “Cashing in on the American Dream,” which examined racial differences in housing values over the past few decades. The article appeared in the journal Housing, Theory and Society. Martin also co-authored an article with Hayward Derrick Horton, “Critical Demography and the Measurement of Racism,” as well as a book, Non-Married Women and Asset Ownership, which explores differences in the types and levels of assets owned by non-married black and white women. MARGARET WALLACE (Sciences) recently published “Forensic Science: The Interface between Science and the Law” in the Korean Journal of Scientific Criminal Investigation. The article discussed the role of molecular biology on forensic science and emphasized DNA-based methods of identification in human, botanical and entomological samples. EDWARD SNAJDR (Anthropology) had his book, Nature Protests: The End of Ecology in Slovakia, published by Washington University Press. The ethnographic study investigates why Slovakia’s ecology movement, so strong under

educating for justice

socialism, fell apart so rapidly despite the persistence of serious environmental problems in the region. JAMES CAUTHEN (Government) and BARRY LATZER (Government) co-authored an article, “Why so Long? Explaining Processing Time in Capital Appeals,” which appeared in Justice System Journal, a publication of the National Center for State Courts. Their research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Justice. BARRY LUBY (Emeritus, Foreign Languages & Literatures) recently published a new book, The Uncertainties in Twentieth and TwentyFirst Century Analytic Thought: Miguel de Unamuno the Precursor. The work was published in September by Juan de la Cuesta-Hispanic Monographs.

PEER REVIEW SUSAN OPOTOW (Sociology) was presented with the Morton Deutsch Conflict Resolution Award at the 2008 American Psychological Association Convention in Boston this past August. The award, presented by the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence (Division 48 of the APA) recognizes Opotow “for her outstanding contributions as a scholar, teacher, and mentor.”