Newsbriefs

The Student Affairs and Student Services Division has effected a reorganization involving several positions. Sharon Lerner, formerly Special Assistant to the Vice President for Student Affairs, assumed the position of Director of Student Affairs in May. In her new role, Lerner will supervise the day-to-day operations of the Office of Student Affairs, overseeing student activities, student disability services, other academic support services, and legal compliance issues in the Division. The Child Care and Development Center and the Wellness Center (Health Services and Psychological Counseling and Adult Development) will report to Lerner. Elise Perram has been appointed Associate Director of Student Affairs and Director of Student Activities.

Vincent De Luca, formerly Senior Registrar, has assumed the title of Director of Student Services. In addition to serving as The Graduate Center's Registrar, De Luca is now also responsible for the supervision of the Offices of Admissions, Financial Aid, and International Students in the Student Services Division. In addition, Robert Nelson, formerly Systems Administrator for the Division, has become Deputy Director for Student Services and Information Systems. In his new role, Nelson assists Director De Luca in the supervision of the offices within the Division, as well as being responsible for the administration of all information systems within the Division.

Professor William Kornblum was selected the 2005 winner of the American Sociological Association's Distinguished Career Award for the Practice of Sociology. The award, which honors "outstanding contributions to sociological practice," was presented to Kornblum at the annual ASA meeting in Philadelphia in August. Kornblum, who received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1971, joined The Graduate Center faculty in 1973. As Chairman of the Center for Urban Studies, he researches human ecology, urban planning, and city parks and public spaces, among many other topics; his studies of Central Park and the Times Square area have been widely influential in public policy surrounding those areas. Kornblum's most recent book, At Sea in the City: New York from the Water's Edge, describes a sailing trip around New York City incorporating historical and sociological insights. Some of his other works have explored public housing in Harlem, poverty, and the redevelopment of West 42nd Street. Most recently, Kornblum was commissioned by the Central Park Conservancy to provide official estimates of visitors to a public art installation in the park. He is also a member of the faculty of the Ph.D. Program in Environmental Psychology.

Professor Yehuda Klein has been appointed Executive Officer of the Ph.D. Program in Earth and Environmental Sciences through June 30, 2008. Professor Klein replaces former Executive Officer Jeffrey Osleeb, who has assumed a new position at the University of Connecticut. An expert in environmental and regulatory economics, Klein, in addition to his doctoral faculty appointments in the Earth and Environmental Sciences and Economics programs, has served as an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Brooklyn College since 1989.

Two Graduate Center faculty members have been awarded John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships to Assist Research and Artistic Creation for 2005, the foundation announced. Vincent Crapanzano, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Anthropology, will use his fellowship to study Harki Algerians who were exiled, jailed, and tortured for sympathizing with French colonists. Michael J. Balick, Philecology Curator and Director of the Institute of Economic Botany at the New York Botanical Garden and an adjunct member of The Graduate Center's doctoral faculty in biology, will study the ethnobotany of Pohnpei, an island in the region of Micronesia which is host to the Federated States of Micronesia's capital city of Palikir. Balick plans to publish a manuscript on his findings in 2007. This year 186 artists, scholars, and scientists were selected for Guggenheim fellowship awards from more than 3,000 applicants.

<Return to the front page of this issue of 365 Fifth
<Return to The Graduate Center homepage