CSI Today

WHO:
Two veterans from the group Iraq Veterans Against the War
Two mothers of Iraq Veterans, one of whom lost her son in the war

WHAT:
They will discuss, in an open public forum, the personal impact of the war and why they have taken a stand against the war.

WHEN:
Thursday, November 16, 2006
7:30 PM

WHERE:
College of Staten Island
The Center for the Arts
2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY

Speakers include:
1) Elaine Brower is a mother of a U.S. Marine who recently returned from Fallujah, Iraq. She is a member of Military Families Speak Out, Peace Action Staten Island and on the steering committee for World Can’t Wait,
Drive Out the Bush Regime. She has been interviewed by numerous new media outlets including “Good Morning America”, the New York Times, and Newsday.

2) Christian Bustamante enlisted in the Army National Guard in 1999. He had a profound change in his personal beliefs about war following September 11, 2001 and applied for contentious objector status. He was honorably discharged in September, 2004. He is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

3) Josh Middleton served as a medic with infantry units in Korea and North Carolina. He participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom 2 and completed his enlistment in May of this year. He is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

4) Celeste Zappala is the mother of PA National Guardsman Sgt Sherwood Baker, killed in Baghdad on 4/26/04. Since Sherwood’s death Celeste and her family have spoken out across the country, written articles and done interviews to try to bring an end to the war. They are members of Military Families Speak Out and Gold Star Families Speak Out.

The event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the CSI Psychology Department Social Issues Committee, Peace Action Staten Island and the CSI Program Development Committee.

The College of Staten Island hosts essayist and poet Thomas Lynch in a special presentation entitled “Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans” on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 7:00pm in the Willowbrook college’s Center for the Arts (CFA) Recital Hall.

Thomas Lynch, a funeral director of Lynch & Sons funeral home in Michigan and the inspiration for the hit HBO series, “Six Feet Under,” is regularly featured on the op-ed page of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Times of London. He has appeared on C-SPAN, MSNBC, and NBC. Lynch will present delightful anecdotes at his presentation at CSI, coupled with an in-depth look into what he calls “fellow pilgrims working their way through their own and the larger histories.”

His recent books include “Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans” and “Still Life in Milford.” In his dozens of return trips to Ireland, Lynch learned to look for the larger world inside the small one, the planet in the local parish. The undertaker-author will reveal insights into issues of faith and mortality.

The event is free and open to the public. It is made possible through the generosity of Michael Shugrue. Meet Thomas Lynch at a reception to follow his presentation. Seating is limited; please RSVP by November 10, 2006 to the CSI Advancement office at (718) 982-2365.

Join us at the CSI Library on Saturday, October 14th from 1pm to 4 pm for
Archives History Day in celebration of National Archives Week. The Day will
be filled with an eclectic selection of seminars and presentations by
individuals and organizations dedicated to the preservation of historical
artifacts and ephemera. Participating organizations will be in the Library
Rotunda and the following programs will take place in the Archives, 1L-216:

1:00 pm: Traditional and Digital Photo Organization and Scrapbooking. Tricia
Fauske, Creative Memories Consultant

1:30 pm: Memoir Writing: Journal Writing as Historical Documentation. Carol
Greenspan, CSI Adjunct Lecturer, English Department

2:00 pm: A Survey of Furniture from the Staten Island Historical Society:
Objects as Historical Document. Maxine Friedman, Curator Staten Island
Historical Society

2:30 pm: Organizing an Historical Society: The Tottenville Experience. Linda
Hauck, Director of the Tottenville Historical Society

3:00 pm: Discovering Your Ancestry: African-American and Female Genealogical
Research. Debbie Paige, Genealogy Consultant

3:30 pm: Alice Austen Documenting Family: Photographs as Historical
Documents. Carl Rutberg, Executive Director of the Alice Austen House
Museum.

“This event supports the National Archives Week’s theme ‘Building Bridges
from the Past to the Present.’ It is an opportunity for us as a cultural
repository to reflect on the importance of archival and historical records
to our lives and to foster an increased public awareness of the relevance of
archives to everyday life,” according to Wilma Jones, CSI’s Chief Librarian.

The College of Staten Island (CSI) and the Office of Intercollegiate Athletics have announced the launch of a completely redesigned website for the school’s 12 varsity sports. Located on the World Wide Web at www.csidolphins.com, the new site offers a total multimedia experience for fans of CSI athletics.

The new athletics portion of the college’s website, created in conjunction with Internet Consulting Services (ICS), features extensive information on the entire Dolphins athletic program as well as facts about CSI recreation, intramurals, and Sports and Recreation Center membership and rentals.

“We are extremely pleased to have such a professional and comprehensive new website for use by our students, faculty, staff, and Dolphins fans,” said CSI President Marlene Springer.

Features of the new interactive site include live, in-game statistics for Dolphins’ home games, archived statistical information, player of the week selections, biographical information for student-athletes, coaches, and department staff, online media guides, athletic training information, as well as daily updates for members and students regarding building hours and group fitness classes. Prospective student-athletes will be able to download important forms and retrieve eligibility and compliance information, while students and fans alike will be able to get all of the latest results, news, and other information regarding CSI athletics.

“Our partnership with ICS means that visitors to our site will now have a wealth of information at their fingertips, complete with a sleek design and user-friendly interface,” said Jason Fein, Acting Director of Athletics.

Founded in 1996, Internet Consulting Services has serviced a host of athletic websites within the last decade, and worked diligently on creating the CSI website. For more information on ICS, visit their website at www.internetconsult.com.

“ICS takes pride in treating every client like family. We are thrilled to have increased our client base across the nation and we are looking forward to our partnership with the College of Staten Island,” said Jeff Rubin, President of ICS.

The College of Staten Island Office of Intercollegiate Athletics currently sponsors 12 varsity sports (baseball, women’s cross country, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s tennis, and women’s volleyball) at the NCAA Division III level.

For more information on CSI Athletics, please visit their website www.csidolphins.com or call 718-982-3160.

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The College of Staten Island is a senior college of The City University of New York, the nation’s leading urban university. CSI offers 35 academic programs, 15 graduate degree programs, and challenging doctoral programs to 12,500 students.

The 204-acre landscape campus of CSI, the largest in NYC, is fully accessible and contains an advanced, networked infrastructure to support technology-based teaching, learning, and research. For more information, visit www.csi.cuny.edu.

Dr. Margaret Lunney recently received a Fulbright grant to give a Keynote Address in Japan at the 13th Annual Conference of the Japan Society of Nursing Diagnosis and a series of lectures, workshops and consultations at the University of Fukui and Osaka University. Dr. Lunney will include use of her worldwide-adopted tools for nurses to achieve accuracy of nursing diagnoses. She will discuss the fundamentals and trends in nursing diagnosis with nurse educators and nursing students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Dr. Lunney, a full professor of nursing at the College of Staten Island (CSI) since 1997, has been with The City University of New York (CUNY) since 1981. All the while, she has maintained an active and involved research
agenda regarding nursing diagnoses, which are nurses’ interpretations of clinical data related to patients’ and families responses to their health problems and life processes. During her tenure with CUNY, Lunney has
established herself as a major leader in this international field. She has presented keynote addresses on related topics in Japan, Spain, England, and Canada, and has served as a visiting professor in Brazil.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Lunney’s upcoming keynote address in Japan will be presented to 2,500 nurses at a major conference. “This is the third time I’ve done the keynote for this group,” commented Lunney, and “I will spend the other part of my two weeks in Japan at universities consulting with and educating educators and nurses in graduate and undergraduate programs.”

In order to receive her Fulbright grant, which is funding this activity, Lunney had to present her credentials as an expert. “I’ve done extensive research over the years on these topics,” Lunney noted. “While I’m in Japan
I will be helping with scholarly research that utilizes my tools and the concepts that I’ve developed through the years. I’ll be acting as a consultant for them on their research at the same time that I’ll be helping them not just with the accuracy of nurses’ diagnoses but with the art of helping people who are sick to manage the therapeutic regimens related to their illnesses.”

Lunney’s expertise in diagnosis will help nurses think about how they diagnose patients’ health status, and how patients are doing with the self-management of their illnesses. Her approach is holistic, incorporating
partnership with patients and families to optimize diet, exercise, and medication administration, determining how these components fit with patients’ and families’ lifestyles. “I help nurses to think about how to best decide how well people are doing, and what kind of help they need to do better. So that will be my primary contribution in terms of community health,” Lunney said.

At CSI, Lunney teaches a seminar course to graduate students on community health topics and a professional development course in the baccalaureate program, in which she teaches students about electronic health records, the use of standardized nursing languages, and the “the whole idea of being accurate.” She also includes instruction on in-depth health assessments, again, with a focus on accuracy.

“I’m very involved in preparing nurses for the mastery of electronic health records. This is a mandate that has already come and it’s just a matter of time until everybody gets up to speed with the process,” notes Lunney. She is currently conducting studies in Hacketstown, NJ and in Seaview Hospital on Staten Island where she is helping nurses to identify the standardized terms that serve as the basis for quality care and eventually will be part of their electronic health records.

The Office of Continuing Education at the College of Staten Island will be holding its placement test for the Pre-GED and GED Preparation Classes that begin in mid-September. This placement exam will be given on July 31, 2006. Every student must take the placement test before he or she is admitted to one of our classes.

Classes on all levels are offered – the placement test helps determine the class in which each student will be most comfortable. Classes are held at the Willowbrook campus during morning and evening hours. Applicants should be 21 years of age or over and have strong reading skills. These free classes are funded by the Mayor’s Office of Adult Literacy and the New York State Department of Education.

Interested students should call (718) 982-2196 as soon as possible for information, an Application for the program, and more details about the placement test.

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After 11 years of growing her business, Doreen Zayer of Relax on Cloud Nine will be one of three businesses inducted into the New York State Small Business Development Center’s (SBDC) Hall of Fame on June 20 in Albany.

Her quest to become a successful businessperson began in November 1994, when Zayer first visited the College of Staten Island’s (CSI) SBDC seeking to develop a business plan and get direction on obtaining financing. With the assistance of CSI’s SBDC, Zayer opened her massage therapy practice at the Staten Island Mall in 1995.

In 1998, Ms. Zayer obtained financing to complete extensive renovations to her home on Clove Road and bring her business operations to the ground floor. With the move, her business evolved from massage therapy into a full service spa.

Continued consultation with CSI’s SBDC helped her business steadily grow in several areas including finances, marketing, management and human resources. In May 2002 she opened a second massage and health improvement facility at the Hilton Garden Inn. Late last year major renovations at the Clove Road location began again, this time converting the additional space into expanded spa facilities. Both locations currently offer body treatments, massages, facials, hydrotherapy, yoga classes, and many additional services.

Acknowledging the assistance she received from the CSI SBDC, Zayer today generously shares her successful entrepreneurial experience with fellow business owners at monthly business roundtables sponsored by the CSI SBDC.

Relax on Cloud Nine joins a select group of 35 small businesses in New York State that have been inducted into the SBDC Hall of Fame for their outstanding vision, persistence, ingenuity, and innovation. The SBDC has assisted businesses statewide via its network of 23 regional centers for the last 22 years. It is administered by the State University of New York and its educational partners, and funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration

CSI’s SBDC offers free business counseling, financial planning, and marketing services to New York state residents. Since 1993, it has helped create over 2,600 local jobs, assisted over 3,700 businesses, and helped businesses invest $85 million locally.

Dean L. Balsamini, director of the Staten Island SBDC says: “Ms. Zayer is a high energy, focused entrepreneur who has expertly managed to balance her home life and parenting young children while running a successful business.”

The Center for the Study of Staten Island: Staten Island Project (CSI-SIP), the public policy arm of the College of Staten Island, is conducting a poll of over 800 Staten Islanders to gauge the health of the island’s civic culture.

The poll, titled the “Staten Island Social Capital Community Benchmark Study,” measures the frequency of participation in local civic, political, religious, and volunteer groups, as well as the level of trust Staten Islanders invest in their neighbors. It was developed by researchers at Harvard University in 2000, and revised in 2006, to be used by communities across the country as a tool to measure civic health objectively. Over 30,000 Americans in 41 communities were surveyed in the first round of the study in 2000. The national poll will be conducted later in the year to measure changes since the 2000 round of polling.

The poll is underwritten by a grant from the Staten Island Bank and Trust Foundation. The Center for the Study of Staten Island is partnered with the Bloustein Center for Survey Research at Rutgers University and SRBI, a survey research firm based in Manhattan.

The polling will officially start on Monday, June 12 and continue to the end of the month. The 20-minute poll will ask about 110 questions.

Richard Flanagan, associate director of the Center for the Study of Staten Island and one of the principal investigators of the study said, “the poll measures the concept of ‘social capital.’ It is the idea that when people are involved in community life and involved in grassroots groups, many good things happen. In communities with lots of citizen participation in civic groups, crime rates are lower, schools are better, and government works more efficiently. When people feel they belong to a community, and trust their neighbors, they feel better. This survey allows us to measure Staten Island’s strengths and weakness in these terms, and compare the results to other communities and the nation as a whole.”

“The great advantage of the poll is that it is a benchmark study,” Flanagan continued. “The same questions have been asked in other cities, allowing for direct comparisons of the results. We will be able to compare levels of trust among neighbors in Staten Island, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles, for example.”

The Center for the Study of Staten Island will issue a report about the study’s
findings in the fall, and present the results of the survey at meetings of Staten
Island organizations. In March 2007, the Center will hold a conference at the College of Staten Island built around the results of the poll.

The goals of this effort are to spark a dialogue about the meaning of community on Staten Island; join the national debate about social capital and community; assist institutional improvements in the government and civic sector; and promote basic social science research.

BACKGROUND
Nationally, social scientists have noticed that participation in local groups has dropped off in recent decades, and have suggested that this decline is the cause of many social problems. Harvard professor Robert Putman, in his best-selling 2000 book, Bowling Alone, documents the decline in civic life and argues for policies to reverse the falloff, including expanding community service programs in schools, encouraging employers to allow workers to take time off to participate in community affairs, and redesigning towns and cities to create additional public spaces.

The social capital movement has spread internationally. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern is using the social capital framework to understand his country’s domestic challenges.

EDITOR’S NOTE: For additional information, contact Richard Flanagan at 201-602-9025