- Hello everybody.
It's a wonderful thing to see 200 people
come into our virtual room.
Looks like you must have come in single
file, that was very quick, very orderly.
I wish we could see each other in person,
but I think it's a good time to say
thank you to you, Dr. Mangino, for opening
up to us here on campus,
and helping us to make a
connection with you.
I think I can speak for all of my
colleagues in saying that it's a
generous and kind thing to do,
so thank you. It's a good idea to
remind everybody of some of the points
in your biography.
You are our 6th President here at
Queensborough Community College.
Just before coming here you worked in
the Bronx, at Hostos Community College,
as Vice President for Academic Affairs.
You are an alumna of the
Aspen Presidential Fellowship
for community college excellence.
It's a leadership program, and I hope I
can remember to get us back to that later.
You began at Hostos in 2004
as an Assistant Professor, and then from
there you became a coordinator,
a department chair,
an Associate Dean for Academic Affairs,
and then interim provost.
Early in your professional career
you were an elementary school teacher,
then you became an adjunct professor at
St. John's University, and like
many of our students and like our
former interim President Dr. Tim Lynch,
you are a first generation
college student.
So welcome, and thank you.
- [President Mangino]
Thank you, thank you so much
for having me, and before we begin,
I would like to ask that we take
a moment of silence just to recognize
all of those who have
suffered from COVID,
and for the fact that we are adding
Jacob Blake's name to those
who have been, you know,
lives have been impacted or lost
to the systemic racism of our country.
Thank you, and I just want to say
that I am committed to
equity and inclusion, and have
been throughout my career,
and look forward to, you know,
continuing that work here at QCC.
I've been in communication with our
Black Faculty Staff Association,
and working collaboratively
to determine how we can
implement the guidelines and the
recommendations from our colleagues.
I also truly support Dr. Lynch's
recommendation to have a faculty fellow
for diversity to help move this forward,
and what I ask for us as a community is
that we hold each other accountable for
this work, to make sure that we make real
change at QCC.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Thank you, it's meaningful to hear,
important to hear.
Well, I'm looking here at your face on
our screen, I'm looking in my camera, and
imagining all our colleagues,
whom I miss so much.
It's nice to connect to them this way,
it's not the same.
We're living in a virtual world, and
I expect many of us now are hoping
that we can be able somehow
to reach out to connect with one another
and to be there for one another
to help sustain us. Just talking to you
now is a sustaining thing for me.
There's an important word that I've
noticed that you use a lot,
Chris, and it's student success and I
know that word is at the center of our
QCC mission.
Student success can be many things.
What does it mean to you?
- That students get to reach their goals.
I believe very strongly that, you know,
there's a lot of energy
and effort it takes for students to get
through our doors between
you know they're paying for an
application fee, they're completing an
application, they're filling out
very challenging documentation to get
financial aid.
They are, you know, up until this semester
they were taking placement exams.
They're, you know, working trying to get
onto campus to figure out their
immunization and to register for classes.
So why do only, you know, six out of ten
students make it through
just that first year?
So, you know, I am committed to making sure
that those students who they all
had a goal of getting a college
education when they went through that
process - how do we make sure
that they do reach those dreams, and,
you know, earn their degree
whether they decide to move on for a
bachelor's degree, or to go straight to
work, but that they are making a
difference that that degree
is making a difference in their lives.
- [Professor Dahlke]
How about from a student's perspective
what would success
look like to a student?
- I think that's the same thing, right?
That they feel that they can do it, right?
I think every student, you know, and I felt 
the same thing as a doctoral student
the first day in my doctoral class like
"ooh, I'm not smart enough to be here,"
right and somebody's gonna notice that.
How do we make students feel that they
are smart enough to be here, and they
belong here, and we're here for them,
to help them get to reach 
their dreams and their goals.
- [Professor Dahlke]
What about from an educator's point of view?
- As an educator myself,
how do we, you know,
spark their interest, their curiosity,
their - how do they discover what they're
passionate about, right?
Like that's part of that education
and then, you know, how do we
give them the skills
so that, you know, whatever their - 
their career trajectory
takes them, right? 
So we know that 30 years from now
our - our workplace is going to look so
different from now.
So many of the degrees, you know, and the
knowledge that students get today
is going to be much different
in the future.
So how do they apply that knowledge and
then how do they have the adaptability
to change with society, and their fields.
That would be student success.
- At QCC we have an Office of Institutional
Effectiveness so - so what what does
student success look like
from the institution's point of view?
- So I mean across the country
we're all held accountable
for our three-year graduation
rates, our student retention rates.
But it's so much more than that, right?
So, you know, for students
to get to graduation they
have to first complete the courses, right?
So how do we help students be successful,
make it through a course,
and then through a semester,
and then through the year,
you know, how do we make sure that
there is no equity gap so that
every single one of our students have
the supports that they need specifically
to help them make that happen,
you know, rather than saying, you know,
students didn't have the
education in the K-12 system,
the question is
how do we help support them where they
are, so that they can make it to the end
and walk across the stage at graduation?
- [Professor Dahlke]
I suppose as we get to know you it's,
it's valuable to learn a little bit
about your, your childhood.
So are you from around here originally?
- [President Mangino]
I was born in Dyker Heights
in Brooklyn, near Bensonhurst,
and in the middle of elementary school
in the years I moved out to Merrick on
Long Island, and then stayed there
for most of my time.
I have a brother who is a
year younger than I am,
and I grew up with both my parents.
My dad had stopped out of school
in the ninth grade.
He had attended catholic school and
was not a good experience.
My mother graduated from high school but
had never gone further on, 
but as despite the fact
that they didn't have
an education, I didn't realize how
abnormal it was that at dinner every
night we, always had dinner together,
but after we ate we would
sit around the table
and play these games, and just have these
competitions to figure out like
who can name all of the capitals
of all the states,
who can name all the states
in alphabetical order,
and then as I got older about, you know,
crossword puzzles, and crypto quotes,
and you know, we spent hours
like, you know, looking up the things in
the atlas or encyclopedias and stuff,
and so they, they truly gave me that
foundation of curiosity.
- You know you mentioned your, your dad's
experience with education.
What about you? You, you chose to go
to Nassau Community College.
What led to that, and what, what was
it like there for you?
- Yeah, so I-ironically, right, so even
though I had that at family dinner,
I didn't see the value of education in
high school, it was more about
how do you get away with passing,
and not going to class.
So I didn't even think about college
until I saw that, you know,
people around me, you know,
friends were starting to apply,
and I'm like "oooh, I think this is
something I'm supposed to do,"
and not knowing any better,
I, you know, I'm like,
"Ooh, NYU, that sounds amazing,"
so I applied to NYU,
and thankfully at the same time I
applied to Nassau Community College,
and NYU said thanks, but try us again
in a couple of years,
and Nassau Community College,
you know, the first semester
I realized, oh my gosh, like,
I love to learn, and I'm actually
good at this, you know,
and I graduated with a 4.0
having, you know, just it didn't - I didn't
even realize how much that mattered
until I started working at a college,
I'm like, oh wow, that was good.
So they really gave me the foundation,
and then one day, you know, sitting in
a class again I didn't know
what I wanted to major in, so,
you know, I saw the list in the
application, like ooh, hotel restaurant
management, that sounds interesting,
and I circled it, but within
a semester I realized,
you know what, I was looking at
faculty member to classroom
like that's what I want to do with my
life, you know, and so I didn't know,
go talk to an advisor because
you don't want to graduate with
an A.A.S. degree in
hotel restaurant management
and then transfer right?
I should have done that, but when I
transferred to Hofstra, you know,
like many of our students most
of my credits did not transfer.
They accepted them all, right?
I graduated with 156 credits,
with a bachelor's degree,
but they didn't all account for anything,
you know, so you realized
how important it is to help students
make those connections and students to
realize how important it is
to reach out to us, and ask
questions along the way.
- You talked about being inspired by the -
what you saw in the classroom,
the way the faculty member was acting
as a teacher inspired you to know
that you wanted to do that.
But it's a reminder to me that we model
many things for our students.
(crosstalk mumbling)
Is there any teacher in your life
that has an indelible imprint
on who you are as a teacher?
- I think there's a couple, right?
So back in elementary school
I had an art teacher, who -
just as a person,
she had, you know, taken me
under her wing,
and she had heard that I had
just been diagnosed with scoliosis
and she says, you know,
her daughters also had it, and she had me,
you know, reach out to my mom to start
attending these, you know, support groups
with her and her kids, which 
I thought was great, and then in
my master's degree I had
a faculty member who,
my first time, you know, when I was just
about to get into a classroom to cover
for somebody, you know,
as my first full-time job
she had me to her house and her, and her
husband was also a faculty member
at Hofstra, helped me figure out
my lesson plans for the week.
But I think the one who was the
most impactful was my -
in my doctoral program.
I had, you know, again I sang
that first day, that first class,
where I felt like, ooh, you know,
talking about impostor syndrome, right?
That they were gonna find out I
don't belong here.
She actually reached out to me at - during
that week after that first day of class
to say that I impressed her,
and would I do research fellowship with her,
and I had the opportunity 
to do that for three years,
and she was known across
the world in the (mumbles)
learning style model,
and so I got to work with her,
and work with individuals from around
the world to help them get certified
as official trainers in her program,
and it was such an intense process
for them to go through that,
so I really became friends
with so many people where I've
actually gone to their countries
to get to visit them.
But she gave me lots of opportunities
to see what the potential was,
and I think, you know,
the biggest thing was when I was applying
to Hostos, I was also applying to
a - a private school at a 
master's level program,
and I was leaning towards Hostos just
because the people were so much nicer,
but she said to me, you know, go to CUNY
because you have room to grow there,
and you know, I think - I thought about that
as I was, you know, appointed as President.
I wish she was still alive so that she
could see that, you know,
yes, she saw the potential in me
that I didn't necessarily see at the time.
- [Professor Dahlke] I was going to ask
if you were still in touch with her.
- [President Mangino]
Yeah.
- [Professor Dahlke] You - you mentioned
the done and done learning program
- [President Mangino]
Mmm-hmm. (crosstalk)
- [Professor Dahlke]
Sounds interesting.
There might be a mentor
in your life who is
very influential in developing who you
are as a leader, is there somebody like
that, that you want to tell us about?
- [President Mangino]
So she was part of that but also I think,
you know, I'm very reflective in my
teaching practice to always figure out
how do I be the best teacher, and I think I
do that with leaders.
So in every supervisor that I've had,
watching to see what can I learn from
that, whether of don't do that
right or, you know, this is
this is really effective and 
builds the right environment
that you're looking for so,
you know, negatively
I'm going to ignore the - I'm not going to
use names but there are people I'm like
ooh, you know, that really is not what you
want to do but I think, you know, I had
the privilege of working
under, you know, our chancellor for
five years he was our president and I
worked really closely with him so seeing
how, you know, he really
inspired people and made everybody
feel like their work was
very important to the mission and then
my previous president Dr. David Gomez,
I, you know, he had 40 years experience at
CUNY right, so it was a really great
learning experience for me and he
had taken me under his wing to be a
thought partner with him,
and all the change that we did at Hostos
and - and getting to watch that
was very helpful.
- Is there one learning experience or one
lesson you learned early on
that sticks with you as an administrator
or as a leader?
- The sense of community right, and making
everybody feel that they're important,
you know, and I always said that as a
teacher - as I was teaching our early
childhood students at Hostos, I would
tell them like, you know, we all gravitate
to different people and personalities
and right, so you always have your favorite,
I said, but nobody in the classroom
should ever know who their favorite is.
And I feel that same thing 
as a - as a leader.
Nobody should know who, you know, on
campus that you like more than
everybody else, right?
Like everybody should be treated equally.
- I'm thinking about what you said about
student success I -
I think there's a saying about -
success meets - no, "opportunity
plus preparation equals success."
If you can, take us - take us through the
steps from the very beginning that have
brought you to where you are right now.
(President Mangino laughs)
- Wow, so I mean at Hostos, within a year,
you know, so my chairperson said to me
again within that first year he's like
you know what you're going to make a
great president. And I'm like,
I don't want to be a president,
I absolutely love teaching,
I don't want to get out
of the classroom, but they needed
a coordinator within a year
of my being there, and they had
asked me to take it on,
and you got to see like oooh, you know, you
could really help make change happen at
a different level, you know, 
it's the same thing like
when you go from teaching elementary
school you have the impact on
30 students, and I didn't want to lose
that, but then you realize as a faculty
member at a college, I have the impact
on 30 students that would
go out in the world and
impact 30 students every year, so then
the same thing as a coordinator,
now I have an impact of changing a program
to affect every faculty member with
every student,
and so, you know, then they
needed a chairperson and I,
you know, was happy to do it because
again, I was really curious about
what's happening at the college
level, and how do I connect all of this,
and how do I help support my department
and - and I thought alright,
I'm going to stay as chair but then 
you do that for a few years you're like,
you know what, if I'm a dean I can now really,
you know, do that so it's
each step of the way that I was able to see
how to make change happen, and I had lots
of wonderful opportunities
along the way again,
within a few years of my
being at the college.
CUNY had created a teacher academy, and
our provost at the time was insistent
that it was only for the bachelor's
programs and she insisted with CUNY like
no it has to happen at the community
college level, so I got to direct
our teacher academy, which then gave me
the ability to be at lots of meetings at
CUNY central to meet people across the
campus and see how
CUNY works and - and learn things that you
would never have seen if you weren't all
of a sudden now responsible
solely for recruiting, and all of the
other parts of that
program and then I think, you know,
this past year or two years ago now, it's been I
you know President Gomez at Hostos had
been part of - he was a mentor
for the - for Aspen, and he's like look,
he's like you need to apply, he's like I
see you know you have the talent to do this,
and so I applied, and for a year
we - I had the privilege of,
you know, meeting community college
presidents from across
the country who, you know, 
making change happen right and
improving student success, and really
just transformational and
just the learning I, you know, we read so
many wonderful articles that I realized,
oooh wait, we need to do this at Hostos,
and I put together a group where we started
reading these articles together to see
how do we impact Hostos and makes change,
and then, you know, it - 
the community that - that created,
you know, you talk about community,
I'm still in touch with the 40 people in
my cohort so that, you know,
as we hit COVID we're all,
you know, texting each other
"what are you guys doing for this,"
"what are you doing for that,"
and Aspen was wonderful enough to create
webinars through that whole crisis of,
you know, let's talk about enrollment,
let's talk about the technology,
let's talk about this, and you got to bounce
ideas off of people across the country.
Absolutely an amazing opportunity, and a
growth experience for me.
- [Professor Dahlke]
That sounds wonderful that it continued.
- Yeah, mmhmm.
(crosstalk)
- [Professor Dahlke]
What you said about making change happen,
is - is - is moving for me to hear and
I know I've talked to a number of my
colleagues who have said that this is -
seems like a moment that is,
for our college,
where we can institute change, it's a
good time to thank our
interim President Dr. Timothy Lynch,
because he said I want to keep the
ship afloat, keep us healthy,
get us through Middle States,
but I want to defer to my
successor to make the change happen.
So we're ready, and thank you
for talking to us about that.
- [President Mangino]
Absolutely.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Early in my time getting to know you,
I saw in your materials
that you had been a childhood
educator and I - I was very moved by that
because helping a young mind
to develop, I think, is a precious thing.
How about the - the differences
or the similarities
between teaching a young child and
teaching a college student?
How are those are the same - how is that
different, and - and why?
- [President Mangino]
I think my first year as a teacher,
I joked that they're just taller, right?
It's the same process, but now
I know what the difference is,
it's about our students have so much
more life challenges that they are
juggling, and trying to
prioritize their education
is not an easy part of that,
where in an elementary school,
you know, life still is
affecting them absolutely,
but they're not the ones solely
responsible for getting through that,
right? Where our students
really do need to,
you know, it's hard to prioritize your
education when you're trying to feed
your family and take care
of children and parents and,
you know, that - finding out where -
a place to sleep for the night, right?
So I think that's the difference,
especially for, you know,
CUNY's population, right, in general.
- [Professor Dahlke]
If you're on campus now,
and you saw a faculty member
walk by, and you could say one thing,
what - what would you say?
-  One thing's hard right, I think it's,
you know, to recognize what we've all
been through right, and the faculty
have been through, since March, right,
it's - it's there's been
a lot thrown at us, you know,
between COVID, and the economy,
and the racial, you know,
injustice that's happening and
the civil riots that are occurring,
and at the same time having
to be the pillar of strength
for all of our students, and be there
for them I think is a real challenge,
and I think that needs to be
recognized and I think,
you know, we haven't had a chance
to, you know, take a breath from that yet
and we're back into a new semester and I,
you know, I want them to understand that
I - I get that, right, and I
appreciate the fact that, you know,
you're all here today for our
students on the first day of class
even though we're all juggling a lot of
emotions.
- Faculty governance leaders, and
my role as the faculty governance leader
is to represent the Senate, we've been
working throughout the summer
to develop a reopening plan when the
time comes to phase into
using our campus again, and
I remember when we were meeting with
you one time, you said that -
that self-care was important, and I was
sustained by that. Sometimes you go to a
meeting and you think, I can't do this, like -
- [President Maingo] Yeah.
- [Professor Dahlke] Anyway.
- [President Mangino]
No, I - I, yeah, because if we're not in the right place,
we can't help them, right?
So how do - we have to recognize,
and take time for ourselves,
so that we can keep going.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Uh-huh, uh-huh,
and I think it's sort of a mirroring
thing I know that it worked for me
at least in the classroom this -
this is during this time to spend a
significant time saying, let's start
with you Ramon, how are you today,
what's the victory that, you know,
what's the biggest challenge you've had,
I mean it helps me to feel stronger to
know that I'm hearing them.
I saw that you're starting a book club
you're -
you're a - you're a big reader,
I'm thinking.
- [President Mangino]
Absolutely.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Is there a book now that you're reading
that you're learning a great deal from
that you want to tell us about?
- [President Mangino]
No, I mean I just finished two of the
books that are part of the book club
right, and now my daughter had
recommended "How Remarkable Women Lead,"
so I am reading that, and then
based on a conversation that I just
had with the faculty this week
about a book that QCC faculty created
which was "Humanistic Pedagogy
Across the Disciplines."
So I ordered that the day
I got off the call with that person,
so, you know, the problem is,
I used to read my Kindle
would be on audio going back and
forth to Hostos, right,
so I would get three hours
that way and then I'd be at the gym
reading while I'm on the treadmill,
and I get to read that way,
so I have to figure out how to fit it
all in now that I, you know,
there's no commute, and there's no gym.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Yeah - it's good that you mentioned that volume
I - I want to give a shout out to my
college -
my colleague Dr. Amy Traver one of the
editors of that book,
it's a great opportunity
to show how we apply
different learning styles etc to - to the
important concepts of the Holocaust and
genocide and the work that our
Kupferberg Holocaust Center
does here on campus.
Now I'm learning a little bit about a
program that you're starting this fall,
that Queensborough is starting with -
with high school students
from the Queens area,
in which they testify to their truths
and their experiences about racism.
What can you tell us about that?
- [President Mangino]
Yes, so it's  in collaboration
with Schneps Media and a foundation
to reach out to middle school
and high school students for them
to give voice to the racism that they've
experienced, and they can do this through
a paragraph, through a poem, through,
you know, any kind of media
that they feel best demonstrates
their - their feelings,
and their experience,
but also to include part of that
as their leadership right, so
how do they see we can change racism and
end racism in the country.
So once we have the collection we're
going to have QCC students
be the judges, because there are
monetary awards through this foundation
in order to give to the students.
So I  thought it was a great way
for our students to also empower them to
be able to be part of this project.
- [Professor Dahlke]
 What you said reminds me
of something else I learned
about your partnerships
with organizations around the community
to help us with support for
this kind of thing.
- [President Mangino]
You know, there's a reason why we're a
community college, right, we're supposed
to be supporting the community
that we - we're situated in, right, 
and figure out how do we have
partnerships to help support each other
in the work that we do, absolutely.
- [Professor Dahlke]
I'm thinking about a lot of our students
who may be watching now,
who see in you someone who looks like
them in that you're the first
in your family, in your generation
to go to college.
I suppose that makes you think about the
entities that we have on campus that
help students.
What do you have to say about
our students services here at school?
- [President Mangino]
They're all there, right?
I think, you know,
what I've found from everybody
that I've met, right, faculty,
staff, students is, you know,
everybody is doing their best to help
support students and there's lots of
programs. I think the challenge is
how do we connect students
to the programs, and how do we
connect the students that aren't
reaching out on their own, right?
How do we connect the people that
were like me and just, you know,
I would go to school
and just do what I think I'm
supposed to be doing
by reading, you know, the website
or a catalog or something, but
how do we let them know reach out,
ask us a question, check with an advisor,
you know, the food pantry, the fact that
it's open and has been open,
how do we get that word out, you know,
I know there was a research project at
Hostos where we found that the majority
of our students had no idea we had
mental health counseling, right? And I know,
you know, at QCC we have, you know,
again a very strong program, how do we
make sure that students
know and that, how do we make sure that
they grab our hands
when we reach out to them?
- [Professor Dahlke]
 That reminds me of a shout out I want to
give to an email that I think
we all got - are you ready -
the are you ready online program
where the students can yeah, I suppose,
at any time in the semester they could
make sure that they know what they need
to know. A s a faculty member
I can say it's a challenge
to be conversant with every
single program that we have here.
So metimes like an alphabet soup of all
the different initials
that we use to describe what we
offer to our students,  but I guess it's a
good problem to have, and it's
only a click away, you can click online
to see our website, what we offer.
- [President Mangino]
Yeah I know, and how do you help
students understand what
that alphabet soup is, right?
Or what our lingo in higher ed is,
you know, like -
we - we've made, you know,
BURSAR into  a verb, right,
like what does that even mean, you know,
why do we use that - those terms for
students it just adds another
layer of challenges for them.
- [Professor Dahlke]
I love that you said I've - I've been
trying to use the term student hours
instead of office hours.
(crosstalk)
I forget who, (mumbles) someone said
a student may not know what that is.
- [President Mangino]
No, there - it was an article last year
in one of the Insider Higher Ed,
or Chronicle, I read both of those
every morning, that's another part
of my reading ritual, but,
to let - it was about how students didn't
even know what office hours were,
so I had sent it out to all the faculty like,
how do we reword that,
so that students get it, right? 
As a faculty member I used to meet
the students in the cafeteria. I would do
my office hours in the cafeteria because
it was less intimidating to come
see me, right? You could just walk by
and see if I'm there, right?
And then come in rather than having to
go to an office where, you know, you might
not feel as comfortable.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Yeah, that's a great idea,
and I remember
talking to you early on
that you mentioned that you like as an
administrator to be a presence on campus.
You may know on our campus,
our new science atrium,
so imagine it's the end of the
semester, it's not too cold
you're in the science atrium, and you
see a student who after their
first semester is struggling.
What do you say?
- [President Mangino] 
To figure out why, right?
So like to really look deep
into what are you doing right?
So for instance if a student
doesn't do well on exam, right,
even my own kids, right? I would
always be like well go back and read the
question that you got wrong
and think about like,
why do you think you got it wrong?
Was it because you didn't understand
the question, or because you didn't
know the information enough, right?
So do you have to either
do more time studying,
or figure  out the question, right?
So my own daughter one time,
when she read it, she's like, well
I figured I didn't understand
what the question meant,
so I figured I had to pick, it was
multiple choice, I had to pick the word
that I had no idea what it was because
that would only make sense.
I was like, well not so much, right?
But I really - understanding like how a
teacher words a question, or how
so many of us use the test banks, right,
and the wording is usually a little
tricky, right. so helping students
understand that. So for a student who's
struggling is it because you're not
putting the time and energy in?
Is  it because it's not something that
you're passionate about, right?
Because then you want to
find a field and a discipline
where you are passionate.
But there's, you know,
this self-reflection, and helping
them do that to figure out
what needs to be put in place for them
to be successful.
Is it just that they don't
go to tutoring, right?
And, you know, students
 feel like, well I'm not supposed
to go to - only people are struggling, right, 
 should be going to tutoring - well, no,
you know even our A students, if you go
to tutoring you're going to do better,
right, in your classes, so -
you know helping them with that.
- [Professor Dahlke]
You know,
you say that it reminds me of a good
resource for students
that I was able to put on my syllabus
because I saw there's a - 
you get on our college website
and scroll down a little bit, and
there'll be support for students
you click there and - virtual tutoring
(crosstalk and mumbling)
so that's - that's a good thing to learn.
- [President Mangino]
Yeah, no, and at the end of COVID, right,
when we're all back on campus
is that a resource that we still keep
partially virtual for students, right?
So that students can access it
and they don't have to, you know,
commute to campus just to go to
tutoring, right?
Is there a way to support them
while they're doing the work, right?
So if a student's doing their
homework and struggling,
are they going to stop, and
get on a bus to come here,
or would they be more willing to click on,
you know, Zoom, and work with a tutor
that way. I think, you know,
that's - there's going to be benefits at
the end of this of, where we realize,
you know, what we can do this better.
You know to help support students and
that goes back to equity right, you know,
do students have the money, right,
if their choice is to, you know,
feed their family or get on a bus
we're all going to choose to feed our
family, but if they could still connect
to us virtually, that's a good option.
- [Professor Dahlke]
That's - that's a - that's a hopeful thing
to hear about that - that
when we're all done with this,
- [President Mangino]
Yeah.
- [Professor Dahlke]
the best of both worlds -
- [President Mangino]
Yeah, no, absolutely I think we have totally
learned that there are ways
to be - do better in the work that we do.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Say you had a recent college graduate
that you were talking about - someone who
 just graduated from Queensborough,
you have any advice for that person?
- [President Mangino]
Make sure that you're doing work
that you're passionate about, right?
I think that's -
I think we could all be successful if we
find what that is, and it might not be
that first job, right, and that first job
is a stepping stone for this, you know,
to the next job, and what do you
learn in that job to take with you,
you know, like every moment
for all of us, right?
Is it growing experience, right, and -
so what can you do - take from that?
And to continue to stay
connected to the college, right?
Just because you're a
graduate doesn't mean that,
you know, you're still not
one of ours, right?
And how do we help support
them through that, right?
If they're transferring and having
issues transferring,
if they working at a job, and they
want to now look for another job,
reach out, and let us help you, right?
And then to stay connected to our alumni.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Right, yeah.
[Professor Dahlke sighs]
- [Professor Dahlke]
We've come to a time
where I can put on my
Alex Trebek hat,
and take you through a speed round
of questions, and see within fifteen seconds,
[snaps fingers]
[President Mangino laughs]
- and there's gonna be a timer,
and there's a Pontiac in it, used,
but a Pontiac that you win.
Alright, you ready?
Are you ready for this?
- [President Mangino]
I'm ready.
- [Professor Dahlke]
First job?
- [President Mangino]
I was a maid cleaning hotel room -
or motel rooms, and then I was also an
aerobics instructor for Elaine Powers.
- [Professor Dahlke]
What did you learn in your first job?
- [President Mangino]
At Elaine Powers I realized that
when you got to teach everyone
how to use the equipment,
that I - I realized like oooh,
right, it was teaching, right?
And I'm like, I am enjoying being
able to explain to people information,
and that - so that connected
with the faculty at
Nassau Community College is what drove
me to education.
Yeah, and then, you know,
two other things at the same time,
I was also a crisis hotline counselor,
so I was trained as a volunteer for
Middle Earth hotline, and that's now
called Long Island suicide hotline,
and those skills have helped me
throughout life, right?
Really how to help people feel
that they're being listened to,
and heard, and how - and how
to stay calm during a crisis, right?
Like that, you know -
And then if I could take another second
before I might lose the Pontiac, right,
but, you know, I also had been a been a -
(laughs)
- been a live in counselor in a - 
for a foster home for teeange boys,
so I lived for a year with six boys,
from the ages of twelve to sixteen,
and really, you know, helping to support them,
but just seeing, you know,
the supports that they need,
the troubles that, you know,
so many of our youth experience
was definitely heartbreaking.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Don't worry about the timing,
second prize is a ceramic tiger.
- [President Mangino]
Alright! (laughs)
- [Professor Dahlke]
Remember that, on Wheel of Fortune,
the early days, when you'd go shopping
when you won.
- [President Mangino]
Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, yeah.
- [Professor Dahlke]
- I'll put it on account, I'll get the ceramic tiger.
I thought, who would buy that?
Anyway.
- [President Mangino]
In the heat of a moment,
you do some things that you might not
normally do.
(laughter)
- [Professor Dahlke]
Oh listen, when - when you're not at work
what do you like doing?
- [President Mangino]
I love to run.
I picked it up seven years ago,
and I'm an avid runner,
I try to run five to six days a week,
I love to hike when I could find
people to go hiking with me,
and obviously reading,
and I love to travel.
The week before break, you know, we
were shut down, I was in Iceland
in, you know, geothermal spas that was just
wonderful.
- [Professor Dahlke]
There's a show on Netflix with Zac Efron,
which you may be familiar with,
where he and a friend
go around to different parts
of the world that have
really sustainable ways of finding
energy, and Iceland was one of them.
- [President Mangino]
Yeah, yeah.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Yes or no, did you see Zac Efron?
- [President Mangino]
I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you said.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Did you see Zac Efron
when you were in Iceland?
- [President Mangino]
I did not, no. (laughs)
- [Professor Dahlke]
Alright, you - you mentioned running.
Is there a long race that you ever did?
- [President Mangino]
I like to run on my own,
because that's how I clear my head.
Two races that I did,
one was for a fundraiser
for Bronx Community College,
so we did a 10K around the Bronx,
you don't realize how hilly
it is until you're running it.
(laughs)
And then one New Year's Eve, my son and I
did the run at midnight around Central Park,
in Central Park, which is amazing if
nobody's ever done it you could walk it,
but the fireworks, and it's just an
amazing experience.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Oh, that does sound -
- [President Mangino]
Those are the only two races,
the rest of it is really just as therapeutic.
- [Professor Dahlke]
You - you - you mentioned what it's like
to clear your mind -
(crosstalk drowns out audio)
- something so important to remember now,
whatever we can do,
- [President Mangino]
Yep, yep, yep.
I love to go out in the morning
at like 6:00 a.m.,
and nobody else is up,
it's me, and, you know,
the rabbits, and squirrels,
and stuff, and just, yeah, yep.
- [Professor Dahlke]
How do you like our track on campus?
- [President Mangino]
I've seen it, I have not run it yet,
but no, it's beautiful,
absolutely beautiful.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Our campus is something to be -
- [President Mangino]
I - yes.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Places to - to unwind.
- [President Mangino]
Yep.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Yeah, I think you said something
about hiking, is there a
favorite place you like to hike?
- [President Mangino]
The Moab desert was stunning.
I had so - the Moab desert,
I was so hoping to go see Zion this year,
obviously that's gonna have to wait,
but that was - I want to go back to Utah.
It really impressed me, yeah.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Have you ever been to Glacier National Park?
- [President Mangino]
Mmm-mm, nope.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Oh my goodness, it's so beautiful.
It's - it's - I used to spend
my summers in Idaho,
and just north, within two to three hours drive,
I think you have to go into Montana
a little bit too, though,
there - the Glacier National Park is there,
and there's a part where,
plate tectonics or whatever it is,
the land has shot up,
so right there you see
millions and millions of years,
into the path, it's absolutely stunning.
- [President Mangino]
That was Iceland, right?
We were standing in the middle of
the two walls that was just, you know -
- [Professor Dahlke]
Right.
- [President Mangino]
Breathtaking.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Yes, I saw that on the show.
- [President Mangino]
Mmmhmm.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Iceland I suppose is going to be
one of the places that you say is
one of your favorite trips,
do you have another one?
(President Mangino laughs)
- [President Mangino]
So China was another one I got to go for work.
They reached out to me, I got
to go to Shanghai and Beijing.
I was only there for only three days,
so I would love to go back.
But I was able to work with, and again,
I'm going for 15 seconds, I was able to
work with the principals of all of the
high schools in Beijing and 
Shanghai to - they were looking to use
learning styles, right, and to
teach to individuals learning styles.
It didn't go anywhere after that - politics changed,
and a new group came into play,
but it was an interesting
way to see the country from inside,
working with their officials.
But I did get to go stand on the
Great Wall of China, which again,
you know, surreal experience.
- [Professor Dahlke]
I'm glad you mentioned the 15 seconds,
it makes me think that sometimes we have a plan,
and something happens and it's better to
do a new plan.
I remember early in my -
(crosstalk and inaudible conversation)
- [President Mangino]
Yep, it's one of the top lessons,
right, in teaching, right?
(crosstalk and inaudible conversation)
- [President Mangino]
You need to stop,
and wait to make sure
that they catch up.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Yes.
- [President Mangino]
Yeah, which I think goes back to
another leadership thing
that I've learned, right,
and that really stuck with me, right?
You could have a plan, right, and you have -
and you could get to the end line,
but you might be there by yourself, right?
So making sure that everybody
understands it, is on board with it,
is really important, right, and that
was something that I found,
you know, one time, again,
one of those aha moments
moments sitting in a committee or -
I wasn't even at the meeting, but I heard
about it,
and then I went to see, how do help this -
where some people came out of the - the meeting
and thought oooh everything was
great, this was the best meeting ever,
and others were like, oh no that was terrible,
and like how could it be so different, right?
But then when I got there,
and you realize that
if you don't all have the same idea of
what should be at the end of that meeting,
the purpose of the meeting, right,
and what you're hoping to get,
then it's not helpful, right?
So taking the time to see,
okay what are our beliefs, right,
what do we all commonly agree on,
and where do we want to go together,
is really time well spent,
to make good work happen.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Mm, mm-hmm.
I feel lucky because in our department -
I teach in the music department, we spend
we spend a lot of time our faculty
informally around our office space
talking about the ways we can reach our students best,
and our chair now Dr. Bjorn Berkhout and - and I are - are good friends,
- [President Mangino]
Mm-hmm.
- [Professor Dahlke]
And he and I have talked a lot about
should we lessen the content
in our class ever so slightly
so that the content you do deliver
is really digesting.
- [President Mangino]
Yeah, yeah, no, I think
that's something that faculty,
you know, struggle with, right?
Like you have the idea of
well this is what they need to know,
but then there's the reality of what do
they really know, right?
And we all know that, right?
Because when they take the
second level class
I was like, what happened, it was taught there.
But if it doesn't - they don't have the time,
and it takes time, right,
to retain the information,
then it's useless if we just covered it,
right, and gone through it.
How do we make sure it sticks with them,
and sometimes it's a matter of figuring out what's the most vital, right?
Because, you know, no matter how much we
believe that after 60 credits
they remember every single fact that we've
taught them when they graduate,
we know the reality, right, is it -
it can't possibly all stick with you, right?
So how did the concepts stick enough
that you could apply the information.
so that they're successful.
Minus the - right, I want my nursing
students to know everything (laughs)
because that's (mumbling and laughing)
but - but there's the reality, right, of -
nobody's retaining anything in
an hour and fifteen minutes, if it's all just -
- [Professor Dahlke]
Yeah, yeah -
I remember a professor,
one that stuck with me was talking about
if we at - I went to
Lewis and Clark college
for my undergraduate in Portland,
she said if we teach you how to be
interested in this subject,
so you can learn on your own,
we're going to feel successful.
- [President Mangino]
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, I taught a special ed class once where
the final exam,
instead of it memorized, right,
 it was go figure it out.
If you have a student with this disability
in your class,
what are the strategies
you don't - you need to know, right?
Because I felt like, you know,
 it could be five or ten years
before they have a student with a very
specific,
you know, a blind student, or a deaf
student in their class
so what I needed them to know is that
they knew how to look up
the information and create lesson plans
using that
to be effective,
not memorize it.
- [Professor Dahlke]
What we're talking about now is - is -
timely because it's worth giving a shout out
to Dr. Arthur Corradetti, who is our
Dean for Institutional Effectiveness,
I know our college is - is -
is deeply committed to assessing
what we do on every level.
I know my colleagues in the steering committee
Dr. Jannette Urciuoli and Dr. Ziva Perel Katz,
we work on assessing how
does the Senate work,
how do our committees work.
what can we do to be better?
Do something, 
you look at whether it worked or not,
and you make your plan to make it better the next time.
Hoo - it's a lot of work but it -
it gives you the motivation to want to
just not check the boxes every semester.
Oh, you mentioned your - I think you
mentioned two children,
a son and a daughter?
- [President Mangino]
I do.
So my son is 21,
and he's leaving on Saturday to go back
up for his last year at Buffalo,
and my daughter had spent a year at
Albany,
and then transferred to Stony Brook,
hated college so much that she graduated in three years,
because she just wanted
to be done with it,
so she took every summer and winter class,
not the ideal, but she is now working at a bank,
and absolutely loving it, 
and enjoying life, she's 23.
Yeah.
But you know what's been interesting is like, you know,
being in the head of
eighteen, nineteen, and twenty year old,
20 year olds as they're going through
college, right?
So you see their thought process, you know?
So my daughter, you know,
when she had to take the
placement  exam when she transferred from
Albany to Stony Brook
and she's trying and she's like,
I can't figure it out,
it was at home, they were having them
do it through Alex Software,
and she's like, you know,
I'm just gonna say I can't do it and I'm
going to retake that remedial class.
I'm like in what world would you do that, right?
And I go and I read it and it's like oh no look
you just click this button,
and I took pre-calculus at
the college level in high school and
now you're done.
But she was gone, you know, so I always
think about like what would our students
do if they don't have a mom
who was a provost, right,
guiding them through the process
you know, how many of them would have
clicked that button
and taken a remedial class that they
didn't need, right?
Or you know my son, you know, so many times
he would call me from Buffalo, right,
of my teacher now has us doing this
homework assignment and we have to use
Excel, and I don't know how to use Excel
and what do I do, and I'm like
well go to the library because the
librarians know everything
about the campus, right, and
say, you know,
is there a workshop on Excel, right, and
then he did that and then, you know,
one day he got me though because he called
and he couldn't find the classroom,
and I'm like yeah, I really don't know,
I said go find a door that's open
and ask somebody where
the classroom is, right?
But how do we make sure that every
one of the QCC students
have that -  that safety net, right?
Who is it that they're going to
call on campus when they're stuck?
- [Professor Dahlke]
You mentioned campus,
is their favorite part of our campus,
something that you really think is
really nice about QCC?
- [President Mangino]
What do I think is really nice about QCC?
I think is the - the pe -
(crosstalk)
- [President Mangino]
Oh on campus,
it's just so beautiful, right?
I mean I'm looking out my office windows, right,
with the trees and - and stuff, you know, 
the Holocaust Center
was out, I got the privilege
to be able to go
through that I got to go through the art
center, the Art Gallery.
It's - it's a beautiful campus and it has,
you know, this whole sense of community,
right, that there are -
it's a closed-in community.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Yeah, yeah it's a blessing for us
that we have that campus.
I see you're in your office.
- [President Mangino]
Yes.
- [Professor Dahlke]
- That gives some - some comfort
to - to know you're there and you're
holding - holding down the fort.
- [President Mangino]
I know I mean I'm mostly working
remotely
as everybody else is,
but I think, you know,
it was appropriate to be here today,
on the first day of class.
- [Professor Dahlke]
How was traffic?
- [President Mangino]
Yep, 15 minutes
in the middle of rush hour,
I got in my car ten to nine,
and I was here at 9:04 I think it was.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Oh man, you can't beat that.
I see my clock it says about 1:25,
We're coming a little bit to the end of our
time,
we spoke together for nearly an hour
and the time went by.
- [President Mangino]
Absolutely enjoyed it, Steven, thank you.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Good, so good to get to know you,
I want to thank the - the 
Vice President for Marketing, Stephen Di Dio,
to - to do, behind the scenes, this very important work
to make this technological thing happen,
which is not easy.
That you, and he, and everyone at QCC
have the idea - you, specially,
idea to meet with us so kind.
You met with faculty governance
leaders early on,
and you - you took the time to reach out
to us,
and to ask us what our priorities were
for QCC,
what - what about you, what's your vision?
- [President Mangino]
I go back to, I mean,
so let me start by saying,
I got to meet so many
amazing people, right?
I - I'm trying to meet with each of the chairs
individually, I've met with numbers of
you know governance, students,
local politicians, I mean
it's the only way I'm going to get to
really know everybody, right,
and find out what's really happening.
So I am asking everybody their priorities,
you know, one of the things I ask,
is you know, something
that you think should not change
at the campus, right, and
everybody's like nothing should change,
like everything should be - 
there's so much great work happening,
and legitimate work, right? 
Like I read so much before I came here about
the high impact practices,
but everybody mentions it, right?
So you know that it's really happening.
So with that said, right, my vision is about
how do we just, you know, do so much better
for all of our students so, you know,
we have high graduation rates,
we have high success rates,
but that doesn't mean that every student
is graduating, right?
And every student's not
seeing that success so, you know,
just like every other
college across the country
there's equity gaps here, right?
There - there's not,
every student whether, you know,
based on gender, ethnicity,
if they're a veteran student,
if they're a first generation student,
there are gaps there.
How do we make sure that
we get rid of the gaps, right?
How do we make sure that
our practices and policies
are equitable and inclusive across the college,
and I believe, you know, QCC, you know,
really highlights, right, we would just
recognized again as being the most
diverse community college in the country.
I think with that comes a responsibility
to make sure that every one
of our students has the same
opportunities and support systems that
they need to graduate and walk across,
you know, the stage at graduation,
and that's my goal.
You know, just building on the work
that's already happening here,
and the dedication of everybody, again,
every person that I have met
is really committed to helping support
students and doing their best work,
so together,
we could really make this happen
and become a national model,
right, of how to do this work.
- [Professor Dahlke]
What you say reminds me that,
I'm starting my 11th year here,
and when I first started
I thought, oh what have I done,
this is a crazy thing.
But then I - I bonded with the college and
I, and I -
I would want to say that any of my
colleagues who are watching
who are early in their time here,
you - you can become like a member of a family.
We always like to urge people to participate
in - in - in, faculty governance,
our Senate is always ready to accept
people who would want to run
to fulfill a seat, or - or - or work on a
committee that helps to run our college.
And what you're talking about the - the -
the vision of -
what - what we want to - where we want to be
in five or ten years
helps to make me want to go to work,
and it made me think about something else,
I was preparing for class today,
and a student emailed me
and asked me a question.
I thought wait a minute,
I - I , don't distract me,
I need to be getting ready for my class!
And then some little voice in my head said,
Steven, that's your job.
Maybe more than preparing for your class,
to reach out and say, here's what you do.
- [President Mangino]
Yeah.
(Professor Dahlke sighs)
- [Professor Dahlke]
Well, I feel more motivated,
and I think many people who are watching now,
I - I believe, feel motivated to - to - to
march through this year,
with our heads held high,
and then to take care of our students
the way we - that we need to,
and it will be May 30th in about five minutes,
We'll see each other Commencement,
God willing.
- [President Mangino]
Yeah, hopefully not, yeah.
And I also just want to recognize the anxiety
that the campus feels with transition, right?
Having a new President come in is always,
oooh, you know,
the personality that, the - the -
what their vision is,
what changes are they going to make,
how are they going to disrupt our lives, right?
And - and - and I just want to reassure
people that, you know, the work here
is amazing, right? The people are - are fabulous,
that it really is about how do we just keep
doing it together, and just, you know,
maybe change our - the frame with the lens
that we're looking at the work, right,
to make sure that, you know, every student,
you know, is participating in a high impact practice,
and things like that, but I don't want -
you know I want to alleviate people's anxiety,
(laughs)
right? And - and also recognize it,
that it is real I get that.
- [Professor Dahlke]
That's right, that's right.
I guess the first job is to acknowledge what you feel,
get an understanding where it's coming,
to say okay, it's okay, I can manage that.
- [President Mangino]
Yeah.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Ah, Chris, it's very good to get to know you better.
Great to see your face.
I look - I look for the day
when I'll see it in person.
- [President Mangino]
Yes.
- [Professor Dahlke]
You're (mumbles) in person.
Look for the day when we're
all on campus together again,
and it will be a joyful day,
I can imagine the tears,
and the laughter, and the smiles,
 and that helps us get through.
So that's the goodbye from me,
thank you everyone for being here,
thank you Stephen Di Dio for making this
happen,
thank you Chris for making it happen,
volunteering,
but I - the right thing to do
is give you the last word Chris.
- [President Mangino]
I think have a fabulously amazing semester, right?
Enjoy the first day of class, right?
And it - and it's hard to put
everything else out of our mind
but really being present in the moment with
your students in - in, you know,
and helping them get through
the semester also.
But I am thrilled to be here,
I - I feel a part of the family already
if I could say that after a week and three days,
but you know, one of the students I met with said
how she's went from campus to campus
trying to figure out the right school,
and all she did was step back
on the campus at QCC,
and she knew this was the right school,
and I had to say,
I really understood that,
because I have felt that from everybody also,
that have told - you know completely embraced me,
and made me feel welcome,
and as part of the family,
and I appreciate that,
and I thank everybody.
- [Professor Dahlke]
Goodbye everybody,
thank you very, very much Chris,
I'll see you soon,
and everybody else,
I'll see you soon.
