Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

“How Can We Do Better?”: Empowering Diverse Voices Through An Academic/Public Library Partnership, Annie E. Tummino, Jo-Ann Wong

Publications and Research

Queens Memory is a local community archiving and oral history project, co-administered by Queens Public Library and Queens College, CUNY. During COVID-19, members from both institutions collaborated to create a series of virtual roundtables hosted on Facebook Live, centered on social justice, current events, and creating positive social change. Specific examples include xenophobia and Asian Americans during COVID-19; the Black Lives Matter movement; student activism and political engagement; and equity/inclusion in archives. In selecting these topics and speakers, we made sure that the diversity and lived experiences of our communities were represented, and that speakers included both scholars and students. …

Understanding Of Aerosol Transmission Of Covid 19 In Indoor Environments, Adama Barro, Cathal O'Toole, Jacob S. Lopez, Matthew Quinones, Sherene Moore

Publications and Research

Our reason for discussing severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or 2019 novel corona virus (Covid-19), is to understand its aerosol transmission characteristics in indoor spaces and to mitigate further spread of this disease by designing a new HVAC system. The problem that we are tackling is the spread of covid-19 droplets through aerosol transmission by looking at potential engineering solutions to the existing HVAC systems. The purpose is to eradicate the spread of the COVID-19 by testing indoor spaces in an effort to understand the effectiveness of ventilation controls. We believe that scientists and engineers have not …

Reopening America's Schools During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Protecting Asian Students From Stigma And Discrimination, Daisuke Akiba

Publications and Research

The COVID-19 outbreak has prompted a rise in stigma and discrimination against people of Asian descent in many areas in the world, including the United States1. Anti-Asian hate incidents, which have ranged from verbal attacks, refusal of service to physical assault, continue to transpire in the U.S., and they put psychological and physical well-being of Asian children at increased risk. Discussions toward reopening of U.S. schools thus far, however, seem to have exclusively included the infection-related concerns and pedagogical consequences of continued disruptions in face-to-face instructions. Hence, educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders need to have plans in place …

Depression And Anxiety During The Covid-19 Pandemic In An Urban, Low-Income Public University Sample, Sasha Rudenstine, Kat Mcneal, Talia Schulder, Catherine K. Ettman, Michelle Hernandez, Kseniia Gvozdieva, Sandro Galea

Publications and Research

Mental health disparities in the aftermath of national disasters and the protective role of socioeconomic status are both well documented. We assessed the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms among underresourced public university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. Between April 8, 2020, and May 2, 2020, adult students (N = 1,821) across the CUNY system completed an online survey examining COVID-19–related stressors and mental health and sociodemographic factors. Using multivariable logistical regression to assess the association between COVID-19–related stressors and depression and anxiety symptoms, we found a high prevalence and severity of depression and anxiety …

Ny Food 20/20: Vision, Research, And Recommendations During Covid-19 And Beyond, The Hunter College Nyc Food Policy Center, The Laurie M. Tisch Center For Food, Education & Policy, The Cuny Urban Food Policy Institute

Publications and Research

The public health and economic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic to the New York City (NYC) food system have been tremendous. In the six months since March 2020, when the pandemic reached NYC’s 5 boroughs, the number of food-insecure individuals has nearly doubled from 1.2 million to 2 million;1 diet quality for many individuals has decreased;2 the local food workforce has lost more than two-thirds of its workers;3 and more than 1,000 NYC restaurants and food retail outlets have closed,4 some never to re-open.

Too often the impacts of a crisis such as COVID-19 are not measured until long after …

Unprotected On The Job: How Exclusion From Safety And Health Laws Harms California Domestic Workers, Isaac Jabola-Carolus

Publications and Research

Since its creation in 1973, California’s Occupational Safety and Health Act has excluded an entire class of workers—those employed in private households as nannies, housecleaners, home health aides, and home attendants. This report documents the human cost of their exclusion at a time when COVID-19 and ecological disaster compound typical workplace hazards. Based on a recent survey of over 700 domestic workers across the Los Angeles and San Francisco metropolitan areas, the report offers a large-scale snapshot of safety and health challenges faced by this workforce. Findings demonstrate that job-related injuries, illness, and violence are common; that employers rarely provide …

Is Exposure To Epidemic Associated With Older Adults’ Health Behavior? Evidence From China’S 2002-2004 Sars Outbreak, Hong Zou, Sha Wen, Hongwei Xu

Publications and Research

Objectives: To determine whether exposure to an epidemic is associated with better health behaviors.

Methods: Using nationally representative survey data collected in 2011 and 2014, we identified middle-aged and older Chinese adults whose communities experienced an outbreak of the 2002–2004 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). We estimated logistic models of health behaviors in the years after the SARS epidemic.

Results: Compared to those who lived in communities not hit by the epidemic, respondents who lived in communities with a SARS outbreak in 2002–2004 were more likely to get a physical examination in 2010–2011 and have their blood pressure checked and …

Resuming On-Site Services: Final Report And Recommendations Of The Cuny Libraries Covid-19 Task Force, Kathleen Dreyer, Jeffrey Delgado, Karen Okamoto, Steven Ovadia, Roxanne Shirazi, Michael Waldman, Haruko Yamauchi, Simone Yearwood

Publications and Research

This report was prepared by the CUNY Libraries COVID-19 Task Force, which formed in May 2020 with the following charge:

Authorized by the CUNY Office of Library Services and the Council of Chief Librarians, the task force is charged to survey best practices shared by libraries world-wide and to develop guidelines for CUNY Libraries site management, staff and user safety, circulation and resource sharing, and materials handling as pandemic conditions evolve.

A summary of the draft report was submitted by Interim Dean for Library Services Polly Thistlethwaite to CUNY’s Academic & Student Support Task Force on June 23, 2020. The …

Teaching With Oer During Pandemics And Beyond, Jennifer Van Allen, Stacy Katz

Publications and Research

Purpose – Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning materials openly licensed so that others may retain, reuse, revise, remix or redistribute (the 5Rs) these materials. This paper aims to raise awareness of OER by providing a rationale for using these learning materials and a strategy for educators to get started with OER during the collective crisis and beyond. Design/methodology/approach – Using a broad research base and anecdotes from personal experience, the authors make the case that OER improves student access to learning materials and improves the learning experience in both PK-12 and higher education contexts. Findings – The authors define …

When Knowledge Breaks, Elizabeth Jardine

Publications and Research

Blog post describing the effect of the shift to distance learning due to COVID-19 in Spring 2020 on content and maintenance of LaGuardia Community College's Ask LaGuardia knowledge base.

Food Frights: Covid-19 And The Specter Of Hunger, Maggie Dickinson

Publications and Research

Worries over widespread food shortages in the first few weeks of the COVID-19 lockdowns in the United States eclipsed the real hunger crisis on the horizon—one intimately tied to already existing inequalities. In the midst of the pandemic, the specter of hunger is haunting the same people it always has—the poor, the undocumented, low wage workers, the un- and under employed. It is not our supply systems that are breaking down and causing hunger, but our systems for ensuring people can access the food that exists which have been broken for a long time.

Covid-19’S Effects On New York City’S Food System: Lessons For Public Health Responses, Nevin Cohen, Nicholas Freudenberg

Publications and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted food availability and affordability and changed the daily food practices of New Yorkers. Eleven surveys of samples of 1,000 New York City adults from March 13 through June 28 illustrate three effects on food access and food insecurity: (1) closing restaurants, schools, and other sources of prepared foods reduced access and changed shopping patterns, food expenditures, and diets; (2) economic disruption exacerbated food insecurity and increased demand for food assistance; and (3) altered food practices affected diets and health. These impacts were disproportionately borne by vulnerable populations. This paper reports survey responses illustrating the effects of …

The Distributional Short-Term Impact Of The Covid-19 Crisis On Wages In The United States, Yonatan Berman

Publications and Research

This paper uses Bureau of Labor Statistics employment and wage data to study the distributional impact of the COVID-19 crisis on wages in the United States by mid-April. It answers whether wages of lower-wage workers decreased more than others', and to what extent. We find that the COVID-19 outbreak exacerbates existing inequalities. Workers at the bottom quintile in mid-March were three times more likely to be laid off by mid-April compared to higher-wage workers. Weekly wages of workers at the bottom quintile decreased by 6% on average between mid-February and mid-March and by 26% between mid-March and mid-April. The average …

Free-To-Play? An Examination Of Intrinsic Motivation And Gaming Behaviors In U.S. Female Mobile Gamers, Margot Goldblum

Dissertations and Theses

The prevalence of U.S. female gamers has skyrocketed in recent years, largely due to the popularity of mobile games; however, this population is underrepresented in academic research. The present study aimed to close this gap in the literature by focusing on the motivations and behaviors of adult female mobile gamers in the U.S. It also aimed to capture changes in gaming motivation and behavior resulting from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. An online sample of 354 American women 18 to 77 years of age (M = 36.79, SD = 12.38) were surveyed about their motivations for mobile gaming, …