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Remembering 9/11
To commemorate the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, Newsweek magazine interviewed five New York City college presidents to learn where they were as the planes struck the two towers and the challenges they faced in creating a calm, reassuring environment for their campus community. I was one of those five and my interview,…
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Prom Plus
It was like a scene from “Yes to the Dress;” all it lacked was Randy Fenoli and wedding plans. It was, instead, all about proms—and it was taking place on the 8 th floor of Dubinsky on a Sunday afternoon in April. There were racks of gowns; stacks of dancing shoes; tables filled with sparkling…
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Bridging Cultures with Language
About a dozen people seated in small separate groups, scattered throughout the room, were deep in conversation. There was occasional laughter—and if you listened closely, you heard a jumble of languages. This was a session of the Language Exchange and it was—happily—just as I imagined it might be. Presiding was Educational Skills Professor Charlotte Brown,…
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Civility Begins with Us
If we made a list of useful, real-world antidotes to the divisive forces running rampant in our current political climate, civility would certainly be among the top entries. It is important that we not dismiss civility as mere politeness and courtesy. Civility is much more than a simple social lubricant. It arises from the bedrock…
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A Model Citizen…a Model Neighbor
How many times have we all heard the admonition: if you see something, say something? Fortunately for us, it was that simple admonition that nagged at our neighbor Jane Shreibman when she spotted an oddly wired device in a trashcan outside her West 27th Street apartment one September Saturday night. It was two hours after West…