Newsletter 2009 Archive

@John Jay Worth Noting 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 AfricanAmerican Studies, Gender Studies Program, the John Jay Black Male Initiative and the Center on Race, Crime and Justice. Gerald W. Lynch Theater Lobby

February 24 6:00 PM Lloyd Sealy Lecture Leadership in Police Equity: Using Research to Reduce Racial Bias Dr. Tracie L. Keesee Denver Police Department Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff University of California-Los Angeles Gerald W. Lynch Theater Lobby

February 27 8:30 AM Prisoner Reentry Institute Occasional Series on Reentry Research

Incarceration and Sexually Transmitted Infections: A Neighborhood Perspective James Thomas University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Gerald W. Lynch Theater Lobby

February 27 9:00 AM 19th Annual Malcolm/King Breakfast

Keynote speaker: The Hon. Malcolm A. Smith Majority Leader, New York State Senate Honoree: Dr. James Malone Professor of Counseling RSVP to 212-237-8764 Gerald W. Lynch Theater Lobby

February 28 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM Law Day @ John Jay Including the Samuel and Anna Jacobs Foundation Lecture on the Law and the Legal Profession Speaker: The Hon. Juanita Bing Newton Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for Justice Initiatives Criminal Court of the City of New York RSVP to www.jjay.cuny.edu/lawday Various locations, Haaren Hall

News and Events of Interest to the College Community February 18, 2009

Gazing into the Crystal Ball

Symposium Looks at Criminal Justice Challenges on the Horizon

A two-day conference intended, in the words of its organizer, to produce more light than heat, the Fourth Annual Harry Frank Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America returned to John Jay on February 2-3, with journalists, academicians and practitioners from across the United States taking a nuanced look at recent and impending changes in criminal justice. “This symposium has become a meeting place for people in criminal justice, a field that’s changing even as we speak,” said Stephen Handelman, Director of the Center on Media, Crime and Justice, which organized the event, with funding from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. Focusing on the theme “A New Beginning? Exploring the Criminal Justice Challenges Over the Next Four Years,” the symposium wasted no time before diving into one of the thorniest issues currently on the American agenda, as panelists discussed the nation’s distressed economy and its relationship to crime trends. Crime trends, like economic conditions, are characterized by volatility, observed Professor Richard Rosenfeld of the University of MissouriSt. Louis. While Rosenfeld’s research showed similar patterns between crime trends and consumer confidence, he said that an increase in crime is not inevitable despite the recent sharp reversals in the economy. “After all,” he said, “crime did not increase substantially during the Great Depression.” Professor Delores Jones-Brown, Director of the Center on Race, Crime and Justice said the Obama Administration must deal with the “lack of legitimacy for police in communities of color.” With the economic downturn, she added, people may seek out jobs in law enforcement solely for the pay and benefits, rather than for publicservice reasons, thereby increasing the potential for incidents of excessive or lethal use of force by

Distinguished Professor Todd Clear makes a point during a panel discussion on “The Sentencing and Corrections Challenge” during the Guggenheim symposium. Also on the panel were (from left) Beryl Howell, a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner of Massachusetts.

police, particularly against young black males. Col. Dean Esserman, the Police Chief of Providence, RI, called on the assembled journalists to “tell the story” that America is losing its children to violence. “We bury our children or we arrest them. Where’s the moral outrage?” Esserman said. “The story is not being told.” Keynote speaker Judith S. Kaye, who recently retired after 15 years as Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, was introduced by President Jeremy Travis as “one of my heroes in this world.” Kaye, who was making her first public appearance since stepping down from the bench, urged attendees to focus on the “crucial but thoroughly unfulfilled job of educating the public about criminal justice matters.” Among the issues that Kaye pointed to were the cost of incarceration compared to the cost

of education; the prosecution of certain juvenile offenders as adults; and the need to provide alternatives to criminal justice, such as youth courts or restorative justice. “This is the time for all of us who care about justice in this country to roll up our sleeves and get to work,” Kaye said. Steven Brill, founder of American Lawyer magazine, Court TV and Verified Identity Pass Inc., served as keynote speaker for the symposium’s awards luncheon, and reminded the audience of his rule for covering the justice system: “Skepticism is an absolutely essential virtue.” “The real challenge for us as reporters is not to be anyone’s lapdogs,” said Brill. The symposium also included sessions on “solutions-oriented” crime coverage, privacy and civil liberties, the future of forensics, and the online world and crime.

College Salutes Reporters’ Quest for Justice A newspaper need not be big to achieve big things, as was proven by Christine Young, a reporter for the 80,000-circulation Times HeraldRecord of Middletown, NY, one of the 2009 winners of John Jay College’s Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Awards. Young was honored at a luncheon on February 3 for her investigative report on the 1989 conviction of Lebrew Jones, who has spent 20 years in prison for the murder of a Manhattan prostitute. Young’s article, “I Didn’t Do That Murder,” prompted the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to open a new investigation into the case. The awards are presented annually in conjunction with the Harry Frank Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America. A second award was presented to Eric Nalder and the investigative team from the Seattle

Post-Intelligencer, for their series “The Strong Arm of the Law,” which exposed Seattle police bias in arrests for obstruction of justice and the questionable handling of complaints against police for wrongful use of force. “This year’s winning news stories show that newspapers large and small take seriously their commitment to reporting on criminal justice issues,” said President Jeremy Travis. Honorable-mention citations were awarded to Steve Weinberg of Miller-McCune magazine, for his exploration of wrongful convictions around the United States; Lomi Kriel and John Tedesco of the San Antonio Express-News, for their critical examination of the San Antonio police Tactical Response Unit, and Geoff Dutton and Mike Wagner of the Columbus Dispatch, for their series on Ohio’s DNA inmate testing program.

Award winners Christine Young and Eric Nalder are joined by keynote speaker Steven Brill, founder of Court TV.

Deadlines Loom for Scholarship Aid to Qualified Students Deadlines are looming for qualified John Jay students to apply for hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarship funds, and dozens of awards for graduating seniors. “We have no shortage of highly qualified students at the College, and we’re always looking for more,” said Vice President for Enrollment Management Richard Saulnier. “We’re trying to ensure that institutional scholarship funds are being spent for the purposes they were intended, which is why we are encouraging as many qualified students as possible to apply.” The College offers scholarships for freshmen, sophomores, upper-division and graduate students as well as some specifically aimed at women, international students, law enforcement

employees, researchpdf. Many also require minded students essays and/or letters of and more. Many recommendation. scholarships at both For a list of the undergraduate and scholarships that are graduate levels have currently available, March 2 deadlines, and including descriptions still others have March and eligibility criteria, 23 closing dates. go to http://www.jjay. Scholarship cuny.edu/scholarships. Coordinator Michael php. Information is also Scaduto pointed out available in the Office The Office of Scholarship Services is taking a strategic apthat most scholarships of Scholarship Services, proach to finding qualified candidates for scholarship aid. require completion and Room 1285N. submission of the John Jay Scholarship General “We’re taking a more strategic direction with Application form, available online at http://www. regard to scholarships,” said Scaduto. “We want jjay.cuny.edu/GeneralScholarshipApplication08. to recruit and retain qualified students, based on

things like academics, public service and activities outside of academics, and then support them once they’re on campus, keeping them active in the larger John Jay community.” Scaduto noted that a “representative” 11member scholarship committee, chaired by Saulnier, has been working proactively to inform students about available scholarships and encouraging them to apply. “We develop criteria, select candidates and set application deadlines,” he said. A new Web feature allows students to sign up for the “John Jay College Scholars Network” to receive information about new and current scholarships, application information and deadlines, invitations to workshops and seminars, and other relevant updates.

Study Abroad Experience to Go Farther Afield in 2009

Hometown Heroes The John Jay baseball program gave a tip of the collective cap on January 24 to two prominent members of the local baseball scene, at the annual Lou DeMartino Memorial Dinner. John Brant, a member of the John Jay Athletics Hall of Fame and three-year team co-captain in the late 1970s, was presented with the Distinguished Baseball Alumni Award. Brant, a summa cum laude graduate of John Jay and a decorated lieutenant with the Port Authority Police Department, told guests at the fundraising dinner that “playing at John Jay was one of the greatest points of my life.” Lou Santos (right), a longtime figure in sandlot baseball and youth baseball instruction, was honored with the Lou Demartino Lifetime Achievement Award. Dan Palumbo, John Jay’s head baseball coach and interim Director of Athletics, presented the awards and served as the dinner’s master of ceremonies.

Flush with the success of John Jay’s first faculty-led study abroad programs last summer, four new courses will be offered by the College in 2009, in such locales as Korea, Greece, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The new study abroad programs are: ¶ “Caribbean Cultural Criminology,” taught by Professors Luis Barrios (Latin American and Latino/a Studies) and Douglas Thompkins (Sociology), meeting in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. ¶ “Religious and Cultural Co-existence Among Christians, Jews and Muslims in Greece,” taught by Professor Effie Cochran (English), meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece. ¶ “Korean Art and Culture,” taught by Professor Thalia Vrachopoulos (Art and Music), meeting in Seoul and selected other cities in Korea. ¶ “Women in Mexico: Labor, Violence and Social Change,” taught by Professor Natalie J. Sokoloff (Sociology), meeting in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Ken Lewandoski, the Director of International Studies and Programs, noted that the study abroad programs provide John Jay College academic credits, and qualify under the Study/ Travel Opportunities for CUNY Students (STOCS) program, through which participating students can receive $750 to $1,500 in financial aid. (The deadline for STOCS applications is March 16.) “These programs are academically rigorous,” Lewandoski said. “They are all designed to enhance a student’s chosen course of study.” The four-week programs include classroom lectures and discussions, field trips and presentations by

The White Tower, one of Thessaloniki’s most famous architectural landmarks.

local persons of interest. Housing arrangements will vary from one program to the next, including apartments, dormitories or living with indigenous families. All students will be required to attend a pre-departure orientation, and to share their experiences with the broader John Jay College community upon their return, Lewandoski said. Application dates for the four courses vary. For more information on the study abroad opportunities, contact the appropriate faculty program directors, or Lewandoski at 212-4841339, email [email protected].

CUNY FIRST Application Package Packs a Lot of “Wow!” CUNY FIRST, a comprehensive array of applications that will streamline and enhance finance, personnel and student service processes, is coming to John Jay, and members of the Department of Human Resources are hoping to share with the rest of the College the various “wow! moments” they say are built into the system. Addressing a Town Hall meeting on January 29, Christel Colón, the College’s Director of Human Resources, said the implementation of CUNY FIRST – which stands for Fully Integrated Resources and Services Tool – will be “a change for the better, the faster, the easier, the more accurate.” It will also represent a major step

toward making the College a more paperless operation. “I can’t wait for the PAF bonfire,” she said, referring to the personnel action forms that would be phased out by the creation of an online reappointment process. Praveen Panchal, John Jay’s Chief Information Officer, moderated the gathering and pointed out that existing CUNY systems are “archaic, difficult to maintain and failing every day. The lack of information in the existing systems, Panchal said, leads to enormous redundancy and inaccuracy. According to Panchal, CUNY has more than 35,000 employees, with no comprehensive

human resources system. In addition, the University receives more than 10,000 job applications a year. The Talent Acquisition Management (TAM) module of CUNY FIRST will be used to help streamline the hiring process, and then a Human Capital Management (HCM) module will come into play, handling a broad range of personnel functions such as time and leave, reappointment, and changes in personal information or status. The two modules will be the first human resources components to roll out, with an implementation target date of summer 2009. The entire system, Panchal emphasized, is designed with privacy and security in mind.

Personal information can only be viewed by the individual in question and authorized College officials. The new system’s potential for doing mass reappointments as opposed to processing them individually, and its “Quick Hire” function for speeding the process of hiring college assistants and adjuncts, were among the “wow! moments” noted by Colón, who underscored her own excitement with CUNY FIRST by adding that “I came into HR for the people, not the paperwork.” CUNY FIRST is being launched in stages, with the entire system expected to be operational by the winter of 2010-2011.

and “International Courts and Conflict Resolution: Toward a New Normative Framework, Social Justice and New Debates,” at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, held in New Orleans, LA, in early January. She also chaired a panel on Domestic Implications of International Law and served as a discussant on a panel on Pedagogy and Research.

Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Strobl was nominated for her paper “The Women’s Police Directorate in Bahrain,” which appeared in the International Criminal Justice Review Journal.

FACULTY / STAFF NOTES ON BOARD BEN JORGENSEN (Physical Education and Athletics) was named as the College’s new head men’s tennis coach. Jorgensen, who has been a tennis instructor for more than 15 years, was the top singles player as a member of the men’s tennis team at New York University in 1989 and 1990. He is also a working actor who has appeared in several films and daytime soap operas.

be presented by the Mystery Writers of America on April 30. DAVID BROTHERTON (Sociology) had his book Keeping Out the Other: A Critical Introduction to Immigration Enforcement Today (Columbia University Press) cited as “Outstanding Academic Title for 2008” by Choice, the review magazine of the American Library Association. Brotherton co-edited the book along with Philip Kretsedemas of the University of Massachusetts.

BETWEEN THE COVERS KIMORA (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) will have her article titled “The Correctional Educator: A Nontraditional Occupation” published in the May/June 2009 issue of Offender Programs Report, a publication from the Civic Research Institute that is devoted to “innovative programs, management strategies and legal developments in offender rehabilitation.”

PRESENTING…

SIMON BAATZ (History) had his book, For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago (HarperCollins), chosen as a finalist for the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Non-Fiction Crime Book in 2008. The award will

ELLEN BELCHER (Library) presented a paper titled “Is there a Halaf Bead and Pendant Typology? A Look at the Evidence” at the Bead Technology Workshop hosted by the British Museum in London, England, on January 12-13.

@ 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

ADINA SCHWARTZ (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) made a Continuing Legal Education presentation on “Daubert Challenges to Firearms Identification” on January 10 at the Fifth National Seminar on Forensic Science and the Law, sponsored by the Office of Defender Services of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

PEER REVIEW STACI STROBL (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) is one of the finalists for the Richard J. Terrill Paper of the Year Award to be presented in March by the

NISHAN PARLAKIAN (Communication and Theatre Arts, emeritus) received the St. Vartan Award from the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), for his lifelong achievements in the performing arts. Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese, said, “It is through individuals like [Parlakian] that the future of Armenian theater will remain vibrant among the next generation of Armenian Americans.”

JANE KATZ (Physical Education and Athletics) conducted one-day clinics on “Swimming for Total Fitness and Swim Basics” at the Jewish Community Center in Tucson, AZ, on January 4 and The Club for Women, an all-women health club in Phoenix, on January 6. M. VICTORIA PÉREZ-RÍOS (Government) presented two papers, “Cooperation against Transnational Crime: Lessons from the Balkans”

Research under Glass

educating for justice

A student pauses to take in the latest gallery display in the lobby of Haaren Hall, an eight-panel salute to student-faculty research efforts. The exhibit features faculty members and students representing a broad range of disciplines, from hard science to the humanities, from criminal justice to computing.

@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.