HUNTER HEADLINES FOR 2007 ( 2007 2006 2005 2004 archives )

Hunter Science Student Wins Award at Research Conference

Hunter Geography Students Win Graduate Fellowships

Brookdale to Lead Healthy Urban Aging Initiative

Two Hunter Students Receive Women’s Forum Award

Hunter Poll Finds Clinton Has Support of 63% of LGB Likely Voters

Professor Flanagan’s Video Game Research Website Launched

Filmmaker Charles Stuart Named Jack Newfield Professor at Hunter College

Distinguished Journalist Brings Career Insights to Hunter

Hunter Study Reveals Many “Distracted Drivers” in NYC

Hunter Students Join in the Call to Take Down Alcohol Ads in NYC Mass Transit

Hunter Film Grad Debuts First Feature Film

Four Faculty Members Named 2007-2008 Fulbright Scholars

Hunter College Athletic Hall of Fame Celebrates Silver Anniversary with Four New Inductees

Alumna’s Music Featured on “America’s Next Top Model”

Chris Seeger (’87) Named One of the Best Lawyers in America

Hunter to Co-Sponsor the 13th Annual Avignon/New York Film Festival

Professor Hett’s Book Wins History Award

Alumna Receives Prestigious Journalism Award

Distinguished Writer Annie Proulx Comes to Hunter

Hunter President Raab Named One of New York’s 100 Most Influential Women

New Funding Announced for McNair Scholars Program

Hawks Score Big Wins In Volleyball,Tennis

Hunter Chosen to be Part of New Biomedical Complex

Hunter Joins Forces With Asia Society

Chinese Language and Culture Come Alive at Hunter

U.S.News & World Report Ranks Hunter Among Top Public Universities

Hunter Professor Receives APA Conflict Resolution Award

Hunter Alums Named “Top 100” Power Lawyers

Social Work Alumna Wins Prize for First Latina Fiction

Alumna Wins Prestigious Economics Prize

Arlie Petters ’86 Featured on NOVA

Physics Professor Named Cottrell Scholar

Jeff Greenfield Delivers Commencement Address

Vita Rabinowitz Named Provost of Hunter

Memorial for Erwin Fleissner

Urban Planning Students Win JPMorgan Chase Competition

Hunter Science Students Display Research

Hunter Housing: Summer Rentals 2007

Hunter Students Selected as Jeannette K. Watson Fellows

Princeton Review Guidebook Cites Hunter Again

Message from President Raab Concerning Virginia Tech

Hunter Professor Up for Booker Prize

Undergraduate Student Elections to Take Place April 23-27, 2007

CBS’s Jeff Greenfield to Deliver Commencement Address

Journalism Award Winners Announced

Hunter Athletics Ranked in National Poll

Joachim Pissarro Named Director of Hunter College Galleries

Startalk Project Awards Chinese Division $100,000 Grant

Filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami to Hold Master Class at Hunter

Wireless in Wexler

Meeting the President is Proud Moment for Hunter Student

Honors Hunter Professor

Bonnie Fuller Addresses Hunter Grads

Hunter Physics Student Honored for Her Research

Hunter Athletes Honored with Humanitarian Award

Hunter Grad Stars On Broadway

Hunter Student Accepted Into New York Times Program

‘Yes, Virginia' Girl was a Hunter Graduate

 

STUDENTS IN THE NEWS FOR 2007 ( 2007 2006 2005 archives )

Hunter Graduate Student Wins the Pierre Salinger Award at the Avignon/New York Film Festival

Student Presents Poster at Einsteins in the City Research Conference

Urban Planning Alumna Awarded Prestigious Fellowship

Hunter Student Designs Museum Tours

Hunter Sisters Explore Law Enforcement

Hunter Grad Terry Madden Wins Gold Medal at Canada Cup

Progressive Scholar Today, Progressive Leader Tomorrow

Hunter Student Selected For Guggenheim Internship in Venice

Hunter MFA Student Selected as Jacob K. Javits Fellow

Two Hunter Students Awarded HIA Fellowships

Recent Grad Aurora Almendral Wins Prestigious Fulbright Grant

Two Hunter Students Named NYC Urban Fellows

Getting a Look inside New York Government

Hunter Student Christine Curella Named Truman Scholar

Hunter Represented at Joint Annual Meeting of Physicists

Hunter Student Chosen for Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange

Hunter's Madden Wins National Championship

Hunter Alum Competes in “Top Design”

Making a Difference as "Young People For" Fellows

Hunter Student Receives Memorial Scholarship from NY Association of Black Journalists

Art Student Adds Flourish to Festival in Spain

Hunter Student Takes Action Against Global Warming

Hunter Junior Heads to DC for International Relations Internship

Hunter Nutrition Student Promotes Healthy Lifestyle

Hunter Senior Named Young Ambassador by German Academic Exchange Service

MoMA to Premiere Film Produced By Fulbright-Winning Hunter Student

Hunter Soccer Star Represents College in South Africa

Music Student Selected for Highly Competitive NPR Internship

Hunter Student Wins a Fulbright Grant to South Korea

Two Students Travel to Germany Via Prestigious Awards

Hunter Doctoral Student to Attend Meeting of Nobel Prize Winners

Hunter Student Wins Fulbright to Spain

 

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HUNTER HEADLINES FOR 2007

Hunter Chemistry Department Named As One of Best in America

The Hunter College Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has been named as one of the top 100 chemistry departments in America by Chemical and Engineering News, the largest scientific publication in the world.

The department was also lauded for being at one of the colleges with the highest number of women faculty members.

Some 35% of the Hunter faculty is comprised of women. Nationwide, women continue to suffer from low representation on college chemistry faculties – with women making up an average of only about 15% of the faculty from the other top chemistry schools listed.

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Hunter Science Student Wins Award at Research Conference

Hunter College student Asif Rahman received a prestigious award for outstanding scientific presentation at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students in Austin last month.

 

Rahman - a junior with a triple major in biology, political science and Thomas Hunter special honors – won for his project studying factors that play a role in hypertension and epilepsy. His research was conducted under the supervision of Dr. Steven Marx, a professor of medicine and pharmacology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Rahman is also currently in his second year of studying cancer under the mentoring of Hunter’s Dr. Derrick Brazill.

 

“After graduating I plan on going on to MD/PhD programs with the ultimate goal of being both a physician and a scientist, specializing in cardiology,” Rahman said. “If there is one thing I would like to say about my experience and success thus far, I attribute a large part of it to the outstanding mentoring that I’ve received from individuals like Dr. Brazill and Dr. Marx. They’ve played a major role in helping me develop the necessary skills to succeed in the research community.”

 

The conference is designed to encourage under-represented minority students to pursue advanced training in the biomedical and behavioral sciences.

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Hunter Geography Students Win Graduate Fellowships

The Society of Woman Geographers has awarded graduate fellowships to Hunter students Erin Araujo and Rhoda Quan.  The geography masters students each received a $5,000 fellowship award on November 16 at the Geography Department’s Annual Geography Awareness Week dinner.  Alice Hudson, president of the New York Group of SWG, which support thesis research by women geographers, presented the awards Over the course of the next year, Araujo and Quan will be conducting novel studies.  Araujo will investigate the political ecology of water privatization and decentralization in the central highlands of Mexico, and Quan will demonstrate how geospatial techniques can be used to understand spatial access to healthcare.  The Fellows will carry on the legacy set by the SWG’s members—who include primatologist Jane Goodall and former NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan—by making advances in their fields, and, as is customary in the Society, meeting to share their discoveries and adventures.  Araujo and Quan will present their research to SWG members in February 2008.  

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Brookdale to Lead Healthy Urban Aging Initiative

 

Hunter’s  Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging and Longevity will play a leading role in an ambitious New York City initiative to improve the health and quality of life for the city’s older adults.

Brookdale - working in partnership with the city’s Department for the Aging and the United Hospital Fund - will undertake a three-year effort aimed at providing better medical programs for the elderly in important areas such as self-management of diabetes, prevention of falls, healthy physical activity and screening for breast and prostate cancers.

The new initiative will be directed by Marianne C. Fahs, PhD, MPH, professor of urban public health at Hunter College and the Rose Dobrof acting executive director of the Brookdale Center.

The Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging and Longevity has a long and outstanding reputation as one of the nation’s leading institutions for identifying and helping to deal with the needs of older New Yorkers.

“We are pleased to be working with the Department for the Aging and the United Hospital Fund on this important effort,” said Hunter College President Jennifer J. Raab. “This initiative will further enhance the city’s efforts to meet the needs of its growing senior population.”

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Two Hunter Students Receive Women’s Forum Award

Hong Xin	Lei Yu

Two Hunter College students, who overcame great odds to succeed, have been named as recipients of the Women’s Forum Education Award.

Hong Xin - a senior studying film and creative writing - came to the U.S. for asylum after facing political oppression as a published writer, a poet and an accountant in China.  “I want to make documentaries about people in disadvantaged societies we don’t often see,” she says, “and feature films telling simple stories about the pain and vulnerability in people’s lives and the hope and joy that still remains.”

Lei Yu - a senior studying eastern religions - came to the U.S. at the age of 25, learned English and supported herself and her family in China for ten years before she could afford college.  “I realized that for a woman with no special connections, China of the 1990s still offered limited opportunity,” she says.  “I could get married and be supported by a husband or I could work in a factory.”

The Education Fund of Women’s Forum, Inc. provides annual awards to mature women of need in New York City who have exhibited extraordinary and often heroic efforts in overcoming adversity to pursue a college education.

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Hunter Poll Finds Clinton Has Support of 63% of LGB Likely Voters

 

In the first public, political survey ever conducted by a university-based team of scholars with a nationally representative sample of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGBs) Americans, results released today show that Senator Hillary Clinton has the support of 63 percent of LGB likely voters in the Democratic primaries, followed by Senator Barack Obama with 22 percent and John Edwards with 7 percent.  The Hunter College Poll also finds that during the process of “coming out,” LGBs become more liberal and more engaged in the political process than the general population. 

“We found a stunning transformation in political views in the LGB community of a magnitude that is virtually unparalleled among social groupings in the U.S. population,” said political science professor Kenneth Sherrill of Hunter College, one of the study’s investigators.  The Hunter College Poll was conducted with 768 respondents by Knowledge Networks, Inc. from November 15th through November 26th, 2007.

Other findings include:

•	Nine in 10 LGB likely voters will vote in the Democratic primaries and 21 percent say that lesbian and gay rights will be the most important issue influencing their vote in 2008.
•	72 percent of LGB likely voters consider Senator Clinton a supporter of gay rights, with Senator Obama at 52 percent and former Senator Edwards at 41 percent.  On the Republican side, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was at 37 percent, followed by Senator John McCain at 13 percent. “These findings suggest opportunities.  Clinton benefits from a high turnout in this very Democratic bloc; her opponents would benefit from making their stated support for gay rights more visible to LGB voters,” said Murray Edelman, a distinguished scholar at Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute and one of the study’s investigators.
•	33 percent of all respondents say they are “very interested” in politics compared to 22 percent of the Knowledge Networks general population sample.  And 36 percent said they became more interested in politics during their “coming out” period.
•	LGBs were more likely than the general population to have contacted a government official in the past 12 months (23 percent to 16 percent).   “These levels of civic engagement indicate that gay people can have a bigger influence on public policy than suggested by their relatively small share of the population,” said Patrick J. Egan, an assistant professor at New York University and another of the study’s investigators.
•	Asked what gay rights goals are “extremely important,” LGBs chose:

	goal	% saying goal is “extremely important”
	enacting employment non-discrimination laws	59%
	protections from bias crimes	59%
	securing spousal benefits	58%
	AIDS funding	53%
	legalizing same-sex marriage	50%
	rights of transgendered people	36%
	ending the military’s ban on being openly gay	36%

	“The top priorities for LGBs bear little resemblance to the debates that have dominated the headlines,” said Egan.
•	When asked about the proposed federal law making it illegal to discriminate against lesbians, gays, and bisexuals in employment, LGBs (by a margin of 60 to 37 percent) said that those seeking to pass the law were wrong to remove protections for transgendered people in order to get the votes necessary for passage in Congress.   The Hunter College Poll was funded by a grant from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.  Sole control over the design of the study’s questionnaire and analysis of the data were maintained by the study’s investigators.  The survey was conducted among those who identified themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual to Knowledge Networks, which recruits its nationally representative sample of respondents by telephone and administers surveys to them via the Internet.  The survey has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4 percentage points.

# # #

 

***POLL DATA BELOW***

THE 2007 HUNTER COLLEGE POLL

 

NATIONAL SURVEY OF LESBIANS, GAYS AND BISEXUALS

NOVEMBER 15-26, 2007

N = 768

 

Demographics

% of LGBs   % of LGBs           SEXUAL ORIENTATION     PARTY IDENTIFICATION     Gay, lesbian, homosexual 51.1     Strong Democrat 33.3   Bisexual 48.9     Not strong Democrat 22.1           Lean Democrat 28.0 GENDER       Independent/Undecided/Other 3.0   Female 51.2     Lean Republican 5.7   Male 48.8     Not strong Republican 5.7           Strong Republican 2.2 AGE               18-29 30.2   POLITICAL VIEWS   30-44 32.2     Extremely liberal 15.3   45-59 28.6     Liberal 32.1   60+ 8.9     Slightly liberal 13.9           Moderate 27.9 EDUCATION       Slightly conservative 3.9   Less than high school 10.2     Conservative 2.3   High school 23.7     Extremely conservative 2.0   Some college 32.4     DK/refused 2.6   Bachelor’s degree or higher 33.7           HOUSEHOLD INCOME       less than $10,000 14.0     $10,000-$24,999 19.1     $25,000-$49,999 29.8     $50,000-$74,999 17.5     $75,000 or more 19.6           RACE/ETHNICITY       White, not Hispanic 68.7     Black, not Hispanic 9.8     Other, not Hispanic 1.8     Hispanic 15.6     2 or more races indicated 4.1

 

Campaign 2008

(includes only those respondents saying they would

“definitely” or “probably” vote in the 2008 primaries/caucuses) (N = 579)

VOTE IN DEMOCRATIC OR REPUBLICAN PRIMARY
	Next year, are you more likely to vote in a Democratic presidential primary or caucus, or a Republican primary or caucus?

plan to vote in…   % of LGB likely voters     Democratic primary/caucus 86.9     Republican primary/caucus 13.1

INTENDED VOTE IN PRIMARY/CAUCUS

If the 2008 {Democratic/Republican} presidential primary or caucus in your state were being held today, and the candidates were: ROTATE: {(if plan to vote in Democratic primary) Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich or Mike Gravel} {(if plan to vote in Republican primary) Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Ron Paul or Fred Thompson} for whom would you vote?

Democratic Primary Preference		% of LGB Democratic likely voters		Republican Primary Preference		% of LGB Republican likely voters
	Hillary Clinton	62.8			Rudy Giuliani	50.0
	Barack Obama	22.3			John McCain	23.0
	John Edwards	6.5			Mitt Romney	11.3
	Dennis Kucinich	4.5			Fred Thompson	10.0
	Bill Richardson	1.2			Mike Huckabee	3.8
	Chris Dodd	1.1			Ron Paul	1.0
	Joe Biden	1.0			Tom Tancredo	0.6
	Refused	0.6			Refused	0.3
		(N = 501)				(N = 78)

CANDIDATE FAVORABILITY RATINGS
	Do you have a favorable or unfavorable impression of…

		% of LGB likely voters
		very favorable	favorable	unfavorable	very unfavorable	don’t know enough to rate
	Hillary Clinton	47.5	34.3	4.3	7.4	6.5
	Barack Obama	25.7	47.1	8.0	7.7	11.5
	John Edwards	14.0	48.8	12.1	4.0	21.1
	Dennis Kucinich	9.3	18.7	10.4	4.8	56.8
	Rudy Giuliani	3.5	24.2	28.7	26	17.6
	John McCain	3.0	26.5	27.9	16.6	26.1
	Bill Richardson	2.7	21.2	12.8	5.9	57.3
	Ron Paul	2.4	10.2	12.1	7.0	68.3
	Mike Huckabee	1.8	6.3	17.1	8.8	66.1
	Fred Thompson	1.5	11.1	22.3	19.9	45.1
	Mitt Romney	1.2	10.3	20.9	23.7	43.9

PERCEIVED CANDIDATE SUPPORT FOR GAY AND LESBIAN RIGHTS
	How strong a supporter or opponent of gay and lesbian rights would you say each candidate is?

		% of LGB likely voters
		strong supporter	supporter	opponent	strong opponent	don’t know enough to rate
	Hillary Clinton	22.3	49.5	2.1	2	24.1
	Dennis Kucinich	16.3	10.9	3.1	1.7	68.1
	Barack Obama	12.6	39	10.1	1.2	37.2
	John Edwards	5.4	35.5	13.4	6.4	39.2
	Bill Richardson	2.5	16.8	7.1	4	69.6
	John McCain	1.8	10.9	21.3	16.6	49.4
	Ron Paul	1.5	7.5	7.1	4	79.9
	Rudy Giuliani	1.2	35.7	15.2	7.9	40.1
	Fred Thompson	0.2	6.1	10.9	22.6	60.1
	Mike Huckabee	0.1	2.1	10.1	13.8	74
	Mitt Romney	0	3.9	13.7	29	53.4

INTENDED VOTE IN GENERAL ELECTION
	SPLIT SAMPLE: If the 2008 presidential election were being held today and the candidates were ROTATE: Rudy Giuliani, the Republican and Hillary Clinton, the Democrat, for whom would you probably vote? If the 2008 election for president were being held today, would you probably vote for the ROTATE: Republican candidate or would you probably vote for the Democratic candidate?

		% of likely LGB voters				% of likely LGB voters
	Hillary Clinton	88.4			The Democratic candidate	90.8
	Rudy Giuliani	11.0			The Republican candidate	7.9

ISSUE MATTERING MOST TO 2008 VOTE
	In deciding which presidential candidate to support in 2008, which of the following issues is most important to you?  [ROTATE RESPONSES]    Earlier you told us that the most important issue to you in deciding which presidential candidate to vote for in 2008 is [RESPONSE TO PREVIOUS QUESTION]. If the list had also included "lesbian, gay and bisexual rights," would you have chosen that instead?

% of LGB likely voters         when provided list of issues without LGB rights when provided list of issues with LGB rights issue mattering most to 2008 vote     the economy and jobs