News

September 17, 2026 L-R: Danny Howell, Fanon John Howell   This fall, the SLU Urban Studies department welcomes two new faculty members. Fanon John Howell joins as a Substitute Assistant Professor and Interim Program Director for Undergraduate Studies. As a sociologist, educator and institutional leader, he focuses on urban education, educational technology and institutional change. […]

If you asked me five years ago whether I thought I’d be a year into my B.A. in Urban Studies at a school in Midtown Manhattan, I might have laughed. And yet, here I am, with my eye set on a big career change.

At Sushi Yu, a no-frills Japanese restaurant in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, there’s a menu option called the Ramos Sushi sandwich. It’s named for Rafael Ramos, who would gather union shop stewards and other union folks from Local 1501 of DC 37 to meet there regularly on Thursday for about a decade.

One of the most special events of the SLU year occurred on Tuesday, June 9th: the reception and award ceremony for winners of the Joseph S. Murphy Scholarship for Diversity in Labor. Awardees, their families and friends, and SLU faculty and staff mingled and celebrated on the 18th floor.

In the spring semester at SLU, “Capstone” is the buzzword! Students work hard on their biggest research projects – but most SLU community members are unaware of what’s being researched.

 A spirited Commencement ceremony for the School of Labor and Urban Studies took place at Town Hall on May 28. Graduates from all Labor Studies and Urban Studies programs strolled — and in a few cases, danced and strutted – across the stage to accept their certificates and bachelor’s or master’s degrees from Founding Dean Greg Mantsios.

This semester has been a powerful chapter in my journey as a student, union member, and emerging leader. At CUNY SLU, I’ve made meaningful progress toward my Bachelor of Labor Studies major, and I recently learned that I only have 14 credits left before I graduate. This realization has been incredibly motivating and reminds me of how far I’ve come.

MA Student Christina Sparrock will participate in a panel this evening, May 21 at 6 p.m. on alternative mental health crisis responses. People may attend via zoom (register here) for a discussion of a joint report, “Self-Determination is the Pathway to Liberation”: Alternative Mental Health Crisis Response in the United States, by New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI), Human Rights Watch, and the Center for Racial and Disability Justice at UCLA School of Law.

The writer and critic Susan Sontag once noted, “A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world.” It makes sense, then, that 2026 Valedictorian Christine Clemmings has a keen interest in the nuanced mechanisms that keep New York City humming.

And just like that, another semester at SLU comes to a close. For any fellow students that I didn’t get the chance to meet: my name is Carmen and I’ve been serving as your Student Union Secretary this year and as SLU’s Graduate Delegate to the University Student Senate.