39 THE QUEENS COURIER • APRIL 1, 2022 FOR BREAKING Schools Chancellor David Banks talks goals for District 26
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Queens College announces new dean of the School of Social Sciences
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
CMOHAMED@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Queens College announced the appointment
of Kate Pechenkina as dean of the School of
Social Sciences.
Pechenkina has been serving in the position
on an interim basis since July 2020.
“We are delighted to name Kate Pechenkina
as our new dean of social sciences,” Queens
College President Frank Wu said. “With her
international outlook, excellence in teaching
and scholarship, and interdisciplinary knowledge
and research skills, she is the ideal person
to represent and bridge the many disciplines
included in the School of Social Sciences. She
brings very current, socially and scientifi cally
engaged awareness to bear on our 21st-century
mission, in accordance with our Strategic Plan.”
As interim dean, Pechenkina was
instrumental in developing the new Queens
College Business School, which was launched
on March 3. She has been coordinating the
4+1 program in public health with the CUNY
Graduate School of Public Health, supervising
the redesign of the pre-law advisory program,
and overseeing the faculty diversity enhancement
program sponsored by the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation.
Pechenkina’s appointment followed a national
search, chaired by Daniel Weinstein,
dean of the School of Mathematics and Natural
Sciences.
“I am truly grateful to President Wu for offering
me this appointment,” Pechenkina said.
“I am inspired by the opportunity to contribute
to the growth of an institution that has been my
academic home for almost two decades.”
Pechenkina co-edited a research anthology,
“Bioarchaeology of East Asia: Movement, Contact,
Health,” and has published over two dozen
research articles and book chapters.
A principal emphasis in Pechenkina’s
research is on how past environmental
and cultural changes have shaped human
epidemiology. Her research interests include
stable isotope reconstruction of past
human and animal diets, gender inequality
in health, and bone and dental pathology.
Since 2004, she has been conducting fieldwork
in Henan Province, China, where
she excavates at the ancient city of
Zhenghan, which served as the capital
of Zheng and Han kingdoms during
early dynasties.
Pechenkina earned a B.S. in biology
and an M.S. in biology and anthropology
from Moscow State University in Russia.
She received a Ph.D. in anthropology from
the University of Missouri–Columbia in
2002 and shortly aft er joined the faculty at
Queens College and the CUNY Graduate
Center, where she currently has the rank of
professor.
BY ETHAN MARSHALL
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks outlined
his plans to improve the school experience
for students in District 26, along
with the rest of Queens, during a virtual
town hall last week.
Banks discussed necessary improvements
in areas including security workers,
admissions for gifted programs,
superintendents, overcrowding
schools and virtual learning.
The meeting began with comments
from District 26 Community
Education Council (CEC)
President Al Suha, who said
that the CEC 26 was the best
performing district in New York
City, but one that is also chronically
underfunded.
“Even though about half of our students
are economically disadvantaged, District
26 is not eligible to receive grants,” Suha
said.
He criticized the previous mayoral administration
for its lack of transparency
with the community, which according to
Suha, led the de Blasio administration to
“reduce underrepresentation by lowering
mission standards and playing shell gains
with our children in so-called
diversity initiatives. He essentially
created a zero-sum
game which pitted segments
of the community
against each other, and
by doing so the previous
mayor alienated our
families.”
As a result, Suha
said that many families
left the public school
system. He added that the
CEC wants the chancellor
to expand screening for
middle and high
school seats and
increase capacity for a large high school
in Queens.
A high school student who attended
the meeting expressed concerns about an
increase in fights among students, which
Banks said was due to the district’s current
shortage of school safety officers responsible
for stopping these fights.
Banks said there would be a class of
school safety agents graduating Thursday
and while they would put to work as soon
as possible, the class isn’t large enough to
cover the entire school system. Additionally,
Banks pointed out the time it takes to
train these officers.
“The challenge is that even with school
safety officers it takes they have to go
through 17 weeks of training, so we can’t
identify some people and just put them in
schools,” Banks said.
Banks also expressed his belief that
violence in schools usually stems from
violence outside the schools.
“We have issues of violence happening all
over the community,” Banks said.
The chancellor said that many of the students
who were caught bringing weapons
to school said they were doing so in order
to protect themselves within their own
communities.
When asked how he intended to address
the lowered threshold for the admissions
process to gifted high schools under the
previous mayoral administration, Banks
said that this hot button was a difficult
decision and required listening to both
sides of the argument. Ultimately, Banks
decided upon keeping the threshold as is for
the upcoming school year before reviewing
it again.
Banks revealed he intends to grant more
power to superintendents and local communities.
The executive superintendent
role will be eliminated, superintendents
will be granted a higher salary and have
greater resources with which to work and
the community will have a strong say in
choosing their superintendents.
“I need you and I see you and I respect
you,” Banks said of the community.
When asked about overcrowding in the
district forcing some kids to travel long
distances to schools, Banks shared those
concerns. He said that the focus should be
on the geographic priorities of students
in the district, though overcrowding has
made it more difficult. Additionally, the
chancellor said that a lot of funding is currently
focused on building more schools in
Queens and also pointed to remote learning
as another possible solution to reducing
overcrowding.
According to Banks, “remote learning
is here to stay,” and said that it’s an opportunity
for some students to get accelerated
learning, with the possibility of even
graduating early. This would open up more
space for students at schools that would
otherwise be overcrowded. It also presents
opportunities for students who may not be
able to make it to school with the option
to stay caught up on their classes. Additionally,
students who are falling behind
in their classes would have the necessary
resources available to try to catch up.
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