Brittney Griner

Dear Commons Community,

U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner was released by Russia from a penal colony in a negotiated prisoner-release deal, a U.S. official said. She is safe and in good spirits, according to President Joe Biden.

Ms. Griner, a two-time Olympian, was serving time in Russia for a nine-year drug conviction for the possession and smuggling of less than a gram of hashish oil.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Ms. Griner was exchanged for Russian citizen Viktor Bout at Abu Dhabi Airport on Thursday. “The Russian citizen has been returned to his homeland,” the ministry said in a Telegram post. Mr. Bout is a suspected arms dealer.

The leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia conducted the mediation efforts to secure Ms. Griner and Mr. Bout’s exchange, the Persian Gulf countries said.

In July, Ms. Griner pleaded guilty to possessing the hashish oil and apologized for what she said was an honest mistake. Before being sentenced in August, she appealed to the court, saying she hoped the ruling “does not end my life here.”

U.S. officials said this morning that the Russian government made clear that the only route to securing the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner was through the release of a Russian national. As reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Ms. Griner was released  in a prisoner swap for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was convicted in 2012 to 25 years in prison for conspiring to sell weapons to people he believed represented Colombia’s FARC rebels, but were actually Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

Mr. Bout was released through an act of clemency approved by President Biden, one of the U.S. officials said.

One of the U.S. officials said of Mr. Bout, “Nothing can remove the stigma of his guilty conviction in the U.S. Justice system.”

U.S. officials said the Biden administration had sought the release of Paul Whelan, a former Marine held in Russia, but Moscow had “treated this situation differently from Brittney’s and rejected each and every one of our proposals for his release.”

“This was not a situation where we had a choice of which American to bring home. It was a choice between bringing home one particular American, Brittney Griner,” the official said.

The official said that choice had “become clear in recent weeks.”

A U.S. official said a senior U.S. government official “spoke at length” Friday with Mr. Whelan “to talk through today’s news.”

The official said another senior U.S. government official met in person with Mr. Whelan’s sister on Wednesday “to share and talk through at length the news about Brittney.”

“I will also emphasize that the president made clear to the Whelan family that when they are ready, he is eager to personally convey his commitment to Paul’s case, its resolution and to keep them informed of our efforts.”

Welcome back, Brittney!

Congratulations to the Biden administration for negotiating her release!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Reporters and editors at The New York Times began a one-day strike today, saying talks between their union and the company had dragged on and showed limited progress.

The contract between The Times and The New York Times Guild expired in March 2021, and about 40 bargaining sessions have been held since. Negotiators have failed to come to an agreement on salaries, health and retirement benefits, and other issues.

More than 1,100 employees signed a pledge to strike for 24 hours. The union negotiating the contract, which is part of the NewsGuild of New York, represents about 1,450 employees in the newsroom, advertising and other areas of the company. More than 1,800 people work in The Times’s newsroom.

In a statement last night, the union accused The Times of bargaining in bad faith.

“Their wage proposal still fails to meet the economic moment, lagging far behind both inflation and the average rate of wage gains in the U.S.,” the union said in its announcement that it would strike.

In a note to the newsroom, Joe Kahn, the executive editor of The Times, said he was disappointed with the union’s decision.

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“Strikes typically happen when talks deadlock. That is not where we are today,” Mr. Kahn said. “While the company and the NewsGuild remain apart on a number of issues, we continue to trade proposals and make progress toward an agreement.”

Compensation remains the most contentious aspect of the negotiations. The Times has offered union members a 5.5 percent raise upon ratification of the contract, 3 percent raises in 2023 and 2024, and a 4 percent retroactive bonus to compensate for a lack of raises since the contract expired. The union has proposed a 10 percent raise upon ratification, 5.5 percent raises in 2023 and 2024, and an 8.5 percent retroactive bonus.

Other issues discussed during talks include return-to-work policies and the company’s performance rating system for employees. In a study it released in August, the union said the system was discriminatory.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The New York Daily News pulled no punches with its front page yesterday reporting the 17 guilty verdicts against the Trump Organization for tax fraud.

“FRAUD.ORG,” the tabloid’s headline read atop an image of Donald Trump.

The former president himself wasn’t personally charged, but the conviction sullies his reputation and may widen the ongoing criminal investigation into his business practices. His company faces up to a $1.6 million fine.

FRAUD.ORG indeed!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Time Magazine yesterday named Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy its person of the year, awarding him the accolade “for proving that courage can be as contagious as fear.”

Editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal said the choice of Zelenskyy — alongside “the spirit of Ukraine” — was “the most clear-cut in memory.”

“Whether the battle for Ukraine fills one with hope or with fear, the world marched to Volodymyr Zelensky’s beat in 2022,” he said.

A comedian-turned-politician who was elected to lead Ukraine in 2019, Zelenskyy has worked ceaselessly since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24 to inspire his country’s resistance and marshal international support for Ukraine.

Felsenthal said Zelenskyy’s decision when the war started “not to flee Kyiv but to stay and rally support was fateful.”

“For proving that courage can be as contagious as fear, for stirring people and nations to come together in defense of freedom, for reminding the world of the fragility of democracy — and of peace — Volodymyr Zelensky and the spirit of Ukraine are TIME’s 2022 Person of the Year,” he added.

The magazine also highlighted people said to embody the spirit of Ukraine. They include engineer Oleg Kutkov, who helped keep Ukraine connected; Olga Rudenko, editor of the Kyiv Independent; and British combat surgeon David Nott.

Excellent choice!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked our forces at Pearl Harbor and other locations in Hawaii, taking the lives of 2,403 service members and civilians and leading the United States to declare its entrance into World War II. It was a day that still lives in infamy 81 years later. As we mark National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, we honor the patriots who perished, commemorate the valor of all those who defended our Nation, and recommit ourselves to carrying forth the ensuing peace and reconciliation that brought a better future for our world. Today, we give thanks to the Greatest Generation, who guided our Nation through some of our darkest moments and laid the foundations of an international system that has transformed former adversaries into allies.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Senator Raphael Warnock defeated his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, in a runoff election that capped a grueling and costly campaign, and secured a 51-seat Democratic majority and gave the first Black senator from Georgia a full six-year term.

Mr. Warnock’s victory was called by The Associated Press late last night evening as the senator’s lead was expanding to 51 percent compared with Mr. Walker’s 49 percent. It ended a marathon midterm election cycle in which Democrats defied history, as they limited the loss of House seats that typically greets the party that holds the White House and now gain a seat in the Senate.

Throughout one of the most expensive Senate races in American history, Mr. Warnock used the cadences and lofty language he honed as the senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church to ask Georgia voters to rise above the acrimony and division of Donald J. Trump’s politics.

“I am Georgia,” he proclaimed last night in Atlanta, invoking the martyrs and heroes of the civil rights movement and the small towns and growing cities of his childhood. “I am an example and an iteration of its history, of its peril and promise, of the brutality and the possibilities. But because this is America, because we always have a path to make our country greater against unspeakable odds, here we stand together.”

He uttered what he called the four most powerful words in a democracy: “The people have spoken.”

The defeat of Mr. Walker, who was handpicked by Mr. Trump, culminated a disastrous year for the former president, who set himself up as a Republican kingmaker, only to watch his Senate candidates in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire — as well as his picks for governor in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia — go on to defeat in primaries or in last month’s general election.

Mr. Walker’s loss will almost certainly lead to soul-searching for a Republican Party that must decide heading into the 2024 election how firmly to tether itself to a former president who has now absorbed powerful political blows in three successive campaign cycles. An exhausted-looking Mr. Walker spoke only briefly after his defeat, asking his supporters at an event at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, “We’ve had a tough journey, have we not?” He added, “God is good.”  As reported by The New York Times.

The Georgia result also holds a bold message about race in the rising New South.

Mr. Warnock was the first Black person from Georgia to be elected to the Senate when he won a 2021 runoff. Republicans chose another Black candidate to try to deny him a full term — a former football star with no political experience and little ideological depth — elevating the role of race and identity in a contest where the Republican candidate denied the existence of racism and the Democrat spoke of painful injustices that have yet to be remedied.

Now, with six years ahead of him in the chamber, Mr. Warnock will remain part of a stunningly small group: Of the more than 2,000 people who have served in the United States Senate, only 11 have been Black. Of the Senate’s 100 current members, just three are Black: Mr. Warnock; Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey; and Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina.

Congratulations, Senator Warnock!

Tony

“We got together and we said we’re not going to shake their hands”
“And now McCarthy is going to investigate the committee that investigated January 6th” pic.twitter.com/cJpQASdCuq

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 6, 2022

Dear Commons Community,

Hailed as heroes, the law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were honored yesterday with Congressional Gold Medals and praised for securing democracy when they fought off a brutal and bloody attack by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. The Congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Kevin McCarthy, and Mitch McConnell had praise for those who sacrificed themselves during the insurrection.  The U.S. Army Band performed touching hymns such as “America the Beautiful.”  However, after the ceremony, police officers and their family members pointedly refused to shake hands with the two highest-ranking Republican lawmakers, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (see video above).

Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi presided over the ceremony, which bestowed four collective medals, the highest honor given by Congress, to the Capitol Police officers present that day.  As reported by several news sources.

“Exactly 23 months ago, our nation suffered the most staggering assault on democracy since the Civil War,” Pelosi said at the ceremony, which was also attended by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Jan. 6 was a day of horror and heartbreak. It is also a moment of extraordinary heroism. Staring down deadly violence and despicable bigotry, our law enforcement officers bravely stood in the breach, ensuring that democracy survived on that dark day.”

“To all the law enforcement officers who keep this country safe: thank you,” McCarthy said. “Too many people take that for granted, but days like today force us to realize how much we owe the thin blue line.”

“Thank you for having our backs. Thank you for saving our country. Thank you for not only being our friends but our heroes,” McConnell said during the ceremony.

The deaths of five police officers are blamed on the Jan. 6 attack, two of those by suicide in the days that followed it. Four Trump supporters also died in the violence that day, including Ashli Babbitt, who was killed in clashes with Capitol Police shortly after breaching the Capitol building. Two others died of heart attacks, and one from acute methamphetamine intoxication.

In the wake of the attack on the Capitol, whose goal was to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden, both McConnell and McCarthy sharply criticized the former president for his role in seeking to overturn the 2020 election results that day. Yet neither man voted to impeach or convict Trump, earning the derision of many Capitol Police officers and their families.

“They’re just two-faced,” Gladys Sicknick, the mother of fallen Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, explained, when asked by CNN why she didn’t shake the hands of McConnell and McCarthy. She added that she was angered by the Republicans praising the officers in one moment, only to travel to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort to “kiss his ring” soon after.

McCarthy, who is aiming to succeed Pelosi as speaker now that Republicans have regained control of the House of Representatives, traveled to Trump’s Florida home and country club on Jan. 28, 2021, despite Trump’s unrelenting promotion of the false claim that he had lost the 2020 election because of voter fraud.

The meeting angered Republicans who had voted to impeach Trump, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. “He’s not just a former president. He provoked an attack on the Capitol, an attack on our democracy,” Cheney told NBC News. “And so I can’t understand why you would want to go rehabilitate him.”

Cheney went on to serve as the vice chair of the House Jan. 6 select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol.

McCarthy attempted to appoint Republican lawmakers to the committee who were sympathetic to Trump, but Pelosi rejected two of his five nominations — Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana. McCarthy, was among the 139 Republicans in the House who voted to challenge the Electoral College results in Pennsylvania, even after the pro-Trump mob had been cleared from the Capitol.

Last week, McCarthy indicated in a letter to the chair of the House Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., that House Republicans would launch a new investigation of the committee itself.

Before Republicans retake control of the chamber, however, the Jan. 6 committee is planning to issue criminal referrals to the Department of Justice “focused on the main organizers and leaders of the attacks,” a source told CNN.

The families of the officers honored yesterday noted that McCarthy’s decision to investigate the Jan. 6 committee also influenced their decision to not to shake his or McConnell’s hand.

Tony

Jennifer Raab

Dear Commons Community,

Jennifer Raab in a letter (see below) yesterday to the Hunter College community announced that she will be resigning as President at the end of this academic year in June 2023.  I must say it is a surprise considering she is leaving on a high note having just secured a “a record-shattering $52 million gift from Leonard Lauder” for our school of nursing that was announced on November 18th.  I have not always supported some of her actions as president  but it cannot be denied that she has accomplished a great deal to elevate the status and reputation of our college.  I also thank her for her long tenure which has not been the norm at Hunter.  Most of our recent past presidents have served for 4-5 years and leave which is not long enough to establish long-term change and improvements.  Truth be told and as her letter to the community indicates, she achieved a lot for Hunter.

Thank you President Raab and we wish you well in your future endeavors!

Tony

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Dear Hunter Community,

It has been a privilege beyond measure to lead this exceptional institution for the past 22 years, in effect, through the entire 21st century. But the time has come to announce I will be leaving the presidency of our beloved Hunter College at the end of June 2023.

This decision is a bittersweet one, but it has been made easier by my complete confidence that Hunter is securely set to remain what the Princeton Review calls the crown jewel of CUNY.

Since 2001 — a period that coincides with the tenures of five governors and four mayors — we have accomplished so much together that it poses a challenge merely to list the many high points. Surely among them are the new schools and spaces we have built for our extraordinary students: the Silberman School of Social Work in a new East Harlem campus, and the creation of transformative new main campus spaces like the Leon and Toby Cooperman Library and the Larry and Klara Silverstein Student Success Center. We moved closer to our vision of making Hunter the public school of the arts by acquiring the Baker Theater Building on 67th Street and the Tribeca art studios and galleries. This physical growth came as we added MFAs in Film, Dance, and Theatre and burnished our storied Creative Writing, Art, and Music Master’s degrees.

I am so proud that we invested in our outstanding scientists by purchasing a research floor in the Weill Cornell Belfer Center and partnering with the East Side medical institutions on translational science grants.

I point with particular pride to the remarkable restoration and transformation of the landmark Roosevelt House into a Public Policy Institute offering certificates in public policy and human rights that, together with outstanding community programs, reflect Hunter’s strong commitment to civic engagement.

Most recently, we have celebrated the record-shattering $52 million gift from Leonard Lauder, whose extraordinary generosity establishes an endowment to train future health-care professionals at our acclaimed nursing school.

Together, utilizing the more than $500 million raised from donors since 2001, we have created or modernized many other facilities and programs that will continue to serve our Hunter community well into the future, and invested millions in scholarships and internship support to level the playing field for our extraordinary immigrant and first-generation college students.

We have proudly nurtured emerging college students at our Manhattan Hunter Science High School, a nationally ranked early college high school we created in 2003, and at my beloved Hunter College Elementary School and High School, of which I am a proud alumna.

For me, it has always been about all things Hunter. It has been one of my life’s great joys to build on its glorious past and create an even more remarkable future.

Anyone who knows me, knows I bleed Hunter purple. For 22 years, my daily focus has been on supporting our talented professors and industrious students. What a delight it has been to help build a faculty of top-notch researchers, educators, and artists. I revel in their accomplishments as winners of MacArthur, Guggenheim, and Carnegie fellowships; the $1 billion they secured during my tenure in research support; and the impact their scholarship and mentorship have had on our students.

But above all, it is hard to find words to describe my passion and love for our Hunter students. With our incredible Student Services team, we have invested in their success both in the classroom and in extracurricular programs. It is moving — but not surprising, given the talent and tenacity of these future leaders — that this investment has yielded spectacular results including two Rhodes Scholars, a Marshall, five Schwarzman, and many Luce, Fulbright, Truman, and Soros fellowships, and large numbers of acceptances at the nation’s leading graduate, medical, and law schools.

Given the popularity and success of our oversubscribed Macaulay Honors program, we created six additional freshman merit scholarship programs in the humanities and sciences.

Each and every day, we demonstrate it is indeed possible to work, teach, and study in an environment that stimulates inquiry, cherishes diversity, and respects the rights of all. Our students come from 100 countries and speak 150 languages but share a commitment to learning and growing together at Hunter.

It has been thrilling to watch class after graduating class emerge as success stories in their own right, then give back to Hunter as board members and mentors, and contribute to the city as civic and business leaders, public officials, and philanthropists. Hunter alumni have made me proud and grateful for their devotion to the College’s motto of caring for the future. And I have loved being invited to their weddings and hugging their babies!

Hunter’s enrollment is gratifyingly high and our graduation rates are strong, with academic standards that set us apart among public colleges. It was the indomitable spirit of our community that kept us connected and directed toward keeping our commitment to our students during the challenging online pandemic years. I will forever cherish what we accomplished under the most demanding circumstances, and I am delighted that we have emerged, back in person, a bustling campus with our students as hungry as ever to learn and grow. Let us never forget how we overcame this adversity together and thrived in its wake!

Clearly, these accomplishments would not have been possible without the phenomenal Hunter team, and I want to express my profound thanks to everyone with whom I have had the honor to work over the past two decades. Together, we have made a difference in the lives of each other and, most importantly, in the lives of our students. We helped them pursue and achieve the American dream that Hunter College has made attainable for so many generations of students. It has been the privilege of a lifetime to work with you on this most-crucial mission.

Over the next six months, I plan to express my appreciation to each of you personally. For now, I want to extend my sincere thanks to the faculty, students, professional and support staff, donors, board members, and alumni who join me in bleeding Hunter purple. And I want to express my gratitude to Chancellor Matos Rodríguez, the Central Office team, and the CUNY Trustees for their support.

In the Spring semester, I will focus on completing our 2023 goals, including plans for the next phase of our library renovation, redesigning our career center, and launching our online social work master’s. As I embark on my next professional adventure, I will always keep Hunter in my heart and continue to live and breathe the college motto —  mihi cura futuri : the care of the future is mine.

With gratitude for the opportunity to serve the extraordinary Hunter community,

Jennifer Raab

Brian Kemp

Dear Commons Community,

Michelle Cottle, New York Times editorial board member, had a piece yesterday entitled, “The Man Who Neutered Trump,” in which she elevates Georgia Governor Brian Kemp as someone who stood up to the former president and  serves as a beacon for the GOP to dump Trump and get its political house in order. Here is an excerpt:

“Throughout his re-election race, Mr. Kemp practiced scrupulous social distancing from his ticketmate [Herschel Walker]. The men did not do joint events. Mr. Kemp did not talk up — or even about — Mr. Walker. When asked about the distance between their campaigns, Mr. Kemp tended to make vague noises about supporting “the entire ticket.”

Which, honestly, was the only sensible course of action, considering the freak show that has been Mr. Walker’s candidacy. Accusations of domestic abuse? Semisecret children? Allegations (which he denies) that he paid for abortions for multiple women? Making up stuff about his academic and business ventures? The guy has more baggage than a Kardashian on a round-the-world cruise. No candidate with a sense of self-preservation would want to get close to that hot mess.

But now! Mr. Kemp is having a moment. Having secured another four years in office — despite being targeted for removal in the primaries by a certain bitter ex-president — he is feeling looser, freer, more inclined to lend a hand to Walker.

…

Whatever happens with Mr. Walker, keep an eye on Mr. Kemp. The 59-year-old Georgia governor is positioning himself to be a major Republican player — one that, unlike so many in his party, is not a Trump chump.

If Mr. Kemp’s electoral victory over Stacey Abrams was decisive, besting her by more than seven percentage points, his psychological victory over Donald Trump was devastating, in ways you cannot measure in votes. Mr. Trump had targeted Mr. Kemp for defeat this year, after the governor refused to help him subvert the presidential election results in 2020. The former president put a lot of political capital on the line in his crusade against Mr. Kemp, only to get spanked once again in Georgia. The governor’s refusal to bow to Mr. Trump wound up burnishing his reputation across party lines, which served him well in the purplish state. In the general election last month, Mr. Kemp won 200,000 more votes than Mr. Walker did in his race

….

It’s all upside for Mr. Kemp. No one will seriously blame him if he can’t rescue a candidate as lousy as Mr. Walker, and he wins friends and influence within the party simply by trying. He also gets to wallow in his status as a separate, non-Trumpian power center. After all the abuse he has taken from Mr. Trump, the governor must on some level relish being asked to salvage the former president’s handpicked dud, even as the party made clear it did not want Mr. Trump anywhere near the Peach State this time. And if Mr. Kemp somehow manages to drag Mr. Walker to victory, clawing back one of the two Georgia Senate seats Mr. Trump helped cost the party last year, it will be an ostrich-size feather in his already heavily plumed cap — not to mention a fat thumb in Mr. Trump’s eye.”

Amen to all that Cottle says about Kemp except the part that “he somehow manages to drag Mr. Walker to victory.”  The last thing the country needs is a Senator Walker!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Molly Worthen, a historian at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, had a guest essay yesterday in the New York Times entitled,  “If It Was Good Enough for Socrates, It’s Good Enough for Sophomores,” that visits the benefits of oral exams for undergraduates.  While popular if not mandatory in most doctoral programs, the oral exam is not common in undergraduate study.  Worthen makes the case that it might be time for colleges to revisit the oral exam.  Below is an excerpt.

As someone who has used oral presentations along with written essays for decades as part of examinations, I agree with Worthen’s position.

Tony

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“As finals loom for most college students across America, it’s worth revisiting oral exams. The phrase brings to mind stone-faced interrogation intended to expose a trembling student’s “skull full of mush,” in the words of Professor Kingsfield in “The Paper Chase.” But if done right, oral exams can be more humane than written assessments. They are a useful tool in grappling with many problems in higher education: the difficulties of teaching critical thinking; students’ struggles with anxiety; everyone’s Covid-era rustiness at screen-free interaction — even the problem of student self-censorship in class discussion.

So why are they so rare? I found no firm statistics on how many American university instructors use oral exams with undergraduates, but the numbers seem to be low. Many schools face pressure to expand enrollments, give frequent low-stakes mini-assignments and use technology to quiz students en masse or “gamify skills” and call it “student engagement.” Professors are already stretched thin, and universities face a student mental health crisis made even more acute by the pandemic — so it can seem like an inopportune time to revive old-fashioned, low-tech, potentially nerve-racking oral assessments. And that’s exactly why we should.

Oral exams have been around at least since Socrates grilled Meno on the nature of virtue. Students at medieval universities in Europe debated one another and their teachers in oral disputations and endured public interrogation by committee viva voce — “with the living voice.” In the 1600s, all exams at Oxford and Cambridge were oral, and in Latin.

By 1700 or so, some Cambridge courses began to drop orals in favor of written exams, and phased them out of most disciplines by the mid-19th century. Orals persisted longer at Oxford, a university traditionally strong in classics and theology. Thomas Arnold, head of Rugby School and later a professor of history at Oxford, wrote in 1838 that students examined orally “have been thus tried more completely than could be done by printed papers; for a man’s answers suggest continually further questions; you can at once probe his weak points; and, where you find him strong, you can give him an opportunity of doing himself justice, by bringing him out especially on those very points.”