On May 22, I accepted a tenure-track professor position at LaGuardia Community College. LaGuardia is part of the City University of New York (CUNY) the same university system where I went to graduate school. It is located in Long Island City with in the borough of Queens, in the far southwest corner of Queens, south of Astoria and west of Sunnyside. The college is exceptional among community colleges in that the majority of faculty have PhDs and faculty are expected to do some research.

Several people have asked me whether LaGuardia Community College is located near LaGuardia airport. They are about five miles apart. They share the same name because they’re both named after a former mayor of New York, Fiorello LaGuardia. LaGuardia was mayor during the 1930s. Although he was a Republican, he was also a progressive and an ally of FDR. He spoke several languages and stood up for immigrants. Therefore, it is particularly appropriate that LaGuardia Community College is named for him, as the college has an extremely ethnically diverse student body even by CUNY standards, which is really saying something. This is meaningful to me personally because my great-grandparents were immigrants, and I like the idea of helping immigrants and first-generation college students to improve their lives.

I am very happy to be moving back to New York City, as I really love the culture and lifestyle there.  It will also be nice to socialize and work with my many friends and colleagues in set theory at CUNY. CUNY has one of the most active set theory research groups in the world.

It’s also nice to have the security of a tenure-track position. Moving around every few years for postdocs would be exhausting, I think.The move down to Florida really took a toll on me, although in retrospect it was fun to live for a year in Florida, and I learned a lot about myself and my personal and professional life goals through the experience. There are a few people, places, and lifestyle aspects that I’ll really miss from Florida, but overall, I think I’ll be much happier back in New York. I’m planning to move around the end of July.