PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
Interim New York City Transit President Sarah Feinberg at the launch of a digital
art installation dedicated to MTA workers who died of COVID-19 on Jan. 25.
Memorial to MTA
workers who died
of COVID-19 goes live
in 107 stations
BY MARK HALLUM
A tearful acknowledgement of the
disaster that was the COVID-19
pandemic took place in the Bowling
Green Station on Monday as agency
leaders revealed a tribute to employees
who died.
Interim New York City Transit President
Sarah Feinberg, who took up the temporary
role about a month before the health crisis
was visited upon New Yorkers, said the
digital tribute with a special poem commissioned
by the MTA was in itself an
“interim” way to honor those who died
while keeping the trains and buses moving.
About 107 stations will play the tribute
featuring “Travels Far” by former U.S. Poet
Laureate Tracy K. Smith about three times
per day with music, also commissioned by
the agency, and cycle through photos of the
men and women of the MTA.
“We wanted to do more than just show
something on screens and give family
members a place to gather and we also
wanted some unique elements to it and
so we actually commissioned the poem,”
Feinberg said. “This has been something
that we’ve been working on in some form
or another for 10 months.”
Feinberg said the tribute will play three
times per day for up to two weeks, ending
on Feb. 7, but a more permanent display
can be expected in MTA headquarters as
well as another location. The poem will be
displayed inBengali,Chinese,English,Haiti
an Creole,Korean,RussianandSpanish.
The disproportionate impact of the
pandemic on transit workers became
nearly immediately apparent, fi rst with
MTA cutting back service by 30% while
staff was out sick or in quarantine. Then by
mid-April, 59 MTA employees had died due
to complications from the virus.
The agency acted quick in approving
$500,000 death benefi ts to the next of
kin as well as making drastic changes to
operations such as suspending fare collection
on buses in order to allow rear-door
boarding to keep drivers safe from the
public through PPE and social distancing.
“We quickly made sure that those families
who lost an MTA worker to COVID
were taken care of fi nancially, but the
launch of today’s memorial is aimed at
personalizing the legacies of those who
died during the pandemic,” MTA Chairman
Pat Foye said. “It is a moving tribute to
the members of our heroic workforce who
lost their lives and we will continue to make
sure those who perished are not forgotten.”
While the MTA employee deaths remain
in the ballpark of about 140, the tribute
features 111 portraits from families who
were willing to contribute, while others, according
to Feinberg, are grieving in private.
“Surrounded by a spectrum of colors,
the portraits in black and white allow us a
glimpse into unique personalities known to
their families and colleagues,”Sandra Bloodworth,
Director of MTA Arts and Design,
said. “This memorial shows that art can be
a powerful messenger, conveying loss and
honoring the memory of our colleagues.”
As the pandemic continues, however,
Feinberg confronted the reality that the
names worthy of remembrance will accumulate,
but also expressed hope in the
deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine as
an end to the crisis.
HIGHER ED TODAY
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I was profoundly moved by the messages
of unity and compassion delivered by President
Joe Biden during his inaugural address
on Jan. 20.
Weeks after a violent insurrection in the
U.S. Capitol provided an inflection point in
the tumultuous and divisive chapter that has
marked our recent history, Biden spoke of the
need to heal.
The president urged Americans to embrace
the difficult process of engaging one another,
putting our differences aside and trying
to find even a small patch of common ground.
In that way, he said, we will begin repairing
the fissures and divisions that have roiled this
nation.
The City University of New York, the most
racially and ethnically diverse University in
the country and arguably the world, has long
been a home to such helpful dialogue and a
beacon to the honest exchange of ideas, a place
where students, faculty and staff are encouraged
to work together, find common ground and
forge a more civil and symbiotic community.
I’m proud that CUNY continues to develop
programs that foster a climate of openness and
mutual respect among people of different backgrounds,
perspectives and experiences. The
pursuit of tolerance and respect has always
been a key tenet of CUNY’s mission, and it has
fueled my own work as a professor, college president
and chancellor.
In 2016, when I was serving as president
of Queens College, I helped lead a Universitywide
committee that was formed to bolster the
University’s promotion of civility and its resolution
of on-campus disagreements. The group
was formed amid a troubling uptick in conflicts
that involved matters of race, religion, gender
and politics on college campuses across the
country.
Through the group’s assessment of those
incidents and issues, I was attracted to the
Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding
(CERRU), a program that has become
an effective driver of inclusivity and equity at
Queens College, where it is based, and on three
other CUNY campuses.
Today, thanks to financial support from
New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson,
CERRU is on track to double the number of
CUNY campuses it can reach. Through its Diversity,
Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Incubator,
CERRU is helping our campus communities
to promote anti-racist practices and cross-cultural
communication.
CERRU Director Sophia McGee said that
she, too, felt empowered by President Biden’s
stirring inauguration message to the country
earlier this month.
“It hit me on a visceral level, the importance
of what we’re doing,” she said. “If we can
engage enough people through our DEI training
and through CUNY’s continued commitment
to equity and diversity, we can create a
shift in the culture where eventually we can
become less divisive and start to work to effect
positive social change.”
The avenues are many in which CUNY can
generate awareness and fluency on a range of
equity-driven, social justice issues.
CUNY’s LGBTQI Student Leadership Program,
brings together motivated students for a
yearlong training experience in leadership and
personal development, civic and community
engagement, and social networking opportunities
with LGBTQI industry and community
leaders.
Our University-wide Black Male Initiative
supports the inclusion and educational success
of African, Black American, Caribbean and
Latino/Hispanic males, who are underrepresented
in higher education.
In 2013, CUNY began a Biennial CUNY
Faculty Diversity & Inclusion Conference that
aimed to help faculty constructively address
sensitive issues surrounding race and ethnicity,
sexuality and gender, age, disability, language
and religion, as well as those of cultural
competency, pedagogy for ESL students and
unconscious bias regarding economic status.
These valuable initiatives at CUNY are all
aimed at creating a more tolerant and inclusive
climate, an objective that is helpful on multiple
fronts. CUNY’s commitment to diversity and
access extends to all aspects of the University,
from its student enrollment efforts to its approach
to faculty hiring, and to the scores of
services that CUNY provides to advance and
sustain its community.
In addition to enabling all students to more
effectively pursue their academic goals, these
endeavors can impact our society in a broader
but no less valuable sense, evidence that higher
education can serve as a powerful engine of
change.
In his inauguration speech, President
Biden ticked off a litany of challenges the country
now faces, and it was a daunting list. Only
by showing respect and listening to one another,
he said, do we stand a chance of writing a
new chapter in the story of America.
That’s a prescription for healing and a recipe
for success. It’s one that CUNY strongly endorses
and has long practiced.
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Schneps Media January 28, 2021 15