Dr. Evangelos Gizis is serving as Queens College’s interim president following the departure of the school’s former leader, James Muyskens. Photo courtesy Queens College
Since the first of the year, Queens College has had a new, albeit interim president, at the helm.
Dr. Evangelos J. Gizis, who had previously served the college in a variety of executive roles, replaced James Muyskens, who retired after more than a decade of service to the Flushing school that is often referred to as the crown jewel in the CUNY system.
“I feel honored to be appointed interim president of Queens College, and I accept this responsibility knowing the challenges the college will face this spring,” Gizis said in a prepared statement.
“And I applaud President Muyskens for enhancing the academic experience of our students, with the result that the college is now nationally recognized as a leader in quality education,” he continued.
A native of Greece, Gizis departed his homeland in 1960 with his sights set on graduate school in the United States.
Following earning an MS and PhD in food science and biochemistry at Oregon State University, Gizis launched a 50 year career in research and academia that took him across the nation.
“I started my career doing research on Vitamin B12 binders in blood and milk and I also worked as a researcher at Michigan State University, the Mellon Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, the Queens Hospital/ Long Island Jewish Hospital Affiliation and as a collaborator at the Brookhaven Lab, and the VA Hospital at Brooklyn,” Gizis recalled.
But, his record of service in the CUNY System is equally impressive.
Gizis, whose previous positions at QC include vice president for college affairs, planning, and information systems in 1986; interim provost in 2001 and provost in 2003, also spent time as an administrator at Manhattan’s Hunter College from 1996 to 2001.
However, as an officially retired full-time employee of CUNY, Gizis said he is not interested in becoming the college’s permanent president, noting that he accepted to serve as interim president as “a service to the university and the college.”
Asked about specific initiatives he plans to focus on, Gizis said that most of his plans revolve around student recruitment.
“I will work to implement the financial aid segment of the City University of New York integrated resources and services system (CUNY first) and develop high-demand academic programs, especially at the master’s level,” he said.
In addition, he said that other priorities include the planning of QC’s offering of doctoral degrees in the sciences in a consortium with other CUNY colleges as well as maintaining momentum at the school while a search for a permanent president moves forward.
Regarding the current numbers of students involved in the tech field, Gizis said that although we’re making progress, we are not there yet.
“We need more students in technical fields,” he said. “The new technologies result in ‘creative destruction’ of many jobs but the new jobs that are created require technical skills.”
Gizis temporarily replaces Muyskens, 71, who retired after a tenure that included hiring more than 300 faculty members and building the college’s first residence hall. Muyskens, who got his start in academia as a philosophy professor, left the college in order to spend more time with his family.
The CUNY Board of Trustees expects to appoint a new president before the fall 2014 semester.
By Alan Krawitz
