On October 30th, Queens College reopened the Gertz building, which houses the Speech-Language-Hearing Center. With the cutting edge improvements made at the newly renovated center, students can make use of the additional spaces, treatment rooms, and technological upgrades that allow for enhanced teaching and clinical education.
“This is a program where the students are serving clients for real, not just reading about how to do this, but they engage in service learning and start practicing their profession,” said QC President Frank H. Wu at the event.
According to Sima Gerber, Professor and Associate Chair for Speech-Language Pathology and Communication Sciences and Disorders, the Speech-Language-Hearing Center was first established at QC in 1942 and Gertz Hall was officially opened in 1961, with its most recent renovation taking place in 1987.
Since 2021, the building has been undergoing renovations and the Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Program has been housed within Kissena Hall 2, located across the street from the main gates of Queens College.
The completed $9.5 million renovation at Gertz Hall, which is approximately 8,200 square feet, features new roofing, new windows, new heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems, new electrical system and lighting, new carpeted floors and a new entrance and waiting room.
“The Queens College Speech-Language-Hearing Center is a community based clinic that provides services for those experiencing communication challenges. Currently, the center provides 80 sessions per week and we are serving people across the lifespan who may present with aphasia, apraxia, stuttering, articulation, and phonological disorders, literacy problems, and autism spectrum disorders,” said Sima Gerber, Professor and Associate Chair for Speech-Language Pathology and Communication Sciences and Disorders during the reopening.
With the Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Program returning to Gertz Hall, the center will continue to make great strides in teaching, clinical education, and research opportunities. Students are highly sought after for employment in clinics, hospitals, and school settings across the country.
Among the QC staff and faculty and former and current students at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, other attendees included Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) President and CEO Robert J. Rodriguez, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr., City Councilman James F. Gennaro, and Vice Chancellor of Facilities Planning, Construction and Management at the City University of New York (CUNY), Dr. Mohamed Attalla.
A highlight of the event was when City Council Member James F. Gennaro reflected on his own personal struggles with stuttering during his childhood and how he overcame the adversities he faced and why he’s so grateful that facilities like the Speech-Language Pathology Center can offer people world-class care:
“It was a challenge to pick up the phone and not be able to say hello, you know? Come around the meeting where you have to say your name and you can’t do it…This is a story of a stuttering little boy who had nobody and to the extent that I got help, it wasn’t helpful… And this is one of the great things about Queens College… Just to bring these kinds of services and this kind of support and this kind of love and this kind of affirmation to help people work through their challenges.”
