Dear Graduate Students,

Welcome back! The Fall 2025 semester officially begins on Tuesday, August 26.  Please note that the last day to drop a class with a 100% refund is Monday, August 25.

Please read carefully through these important beginning-of-the-semester announcements. In addition to the usual announcements about the academic calendar and course registration, please note the information about multifactor authentication, which you will need to access Brightspace and other QC services.

If you’re on Instagram, please follow the program (@qcenglishma) there.  We’ll be using IG to circulate information about events, upcoming classes, and other information.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me or Professor Mak.  Wishing you a wonderful fall semester.

Best,
Bill 

QC English MA Program

Fall 2025 Announcements

Academic Calendar
The Fall 2025 semester officially begins on Tuesday, August 26. You can find the CUNY Academic Calendar with important dates and deadlines at https://www.cuny.edu/academics/academic-calendars/.  You can find the QC-specific calendar at https://www.qc.cuny.edu/communications/calendar-page/.

Important dates to keep in mind:

• The last day to drop classes for a 100% tuition refund is Monday, August 25. The last day to add classes is Monday, September 1.
• There are no classes scheduled on:
• Monday, September 1 (Labor Day)
• Monday to Wednesday, September 22 to 24 (Rosh Hashanah)
• Wednesday to Thursday, October 1 and 2 (Yom Kippur)
• Monday, October 13 (Columbus Day/ Indigenous Peoples’ Day)
• Monday, October 20 (Diwali)
• Thursday to Friday, November 27 and 28 (Thanksgiving)
• Tuesday, October 14 follows a Monday schedule.
• Friday, November 24 follows a Monday schedule.
• For students planning to graduate Fall 2025 the deadline to file for graduation via your CUNYfirst Student Center is November 1.
• The last day to drop a course with a W grade is Thursday, November 16.
• The last day of classes is Monday, December 15.

Fall 2025 Advising

For important info about our program and its policies and procedures, please consult the most recent English MA Handbook.

We will be available for advising both virtually via email and Zoom, as well as in-person. If you have any questions, need advising, or want to make an appointment, please email us.

Prof. William Orchard, Director of Graduate Studies (English MA)
Email: william.orchard@qc.cuny.edu
Faculty Office: Klapper Hall 604
Fall 205 office hours: M/W 1:30 to 2:30 pm and by appointment

Prof. Cliff Mak, Assistant Director of Graduate Studies

Email: cmak@qc.cuny.edu
Office: Klapper Hall 323

You can also contact us by emailing MAEnglish@qc.cuny.edu.

For general inquiries not specific to the MA program (e.g., for faculty contact info), please consult the English Department website at https://qcenglish.commons.gc.cuny.edu/ or contact the English Department Office (english@qc.cuny.edu, 718-997-4600).

Please be sure to check your QC email regularly (and also add any other primary email addresses to your CUNYfirst account), as the College and your professors may be communicating with you that way.

Check (and Double-Check) Your Schedule

Before the semester begins, please take a moment to log-in to your CUNYfirst and check that you’re registered for your courses. If for some reason your registration has been canceled by the Bursar, or if you’re registered for the wrong courses, it’s much easier to sort out any issues before the semester begins.

English MA courses will continue to be taught in-person or fully online. When you check your schedule, please also double-check the instruction modes for your courses.

If you’re taking an in-person course, please confirm your classroom location the day of your first meeting, as classrooms can sometimes be changed at the last minute. If you’re taking a hybrid or fully online course, your professor should communicate how/where to join their class. If you don’t hear from them by the first day of the semester, please email them directly to request this info. Faculty contact info and office hours can be found at https://qcenglish.commons.gc.cuny.edu/people/ .

Adding a Course

If you are looking to add a fall course, there are open seats still available in ENGL 636, 639, 701, 703, and both sections of 781. Please review the updated course descriptions and confirm current availability by searching the CUNY Global Search. To add into these classes, please contact us at MAEnglish@qc.cuny.edu.

If you wish to add a course that has been closed, please contact us and we will place you on the wait list. Currently, ENGL 724 (Disability, Bodies, and the Communities in 19^th-Century Fiction) and ENGL 781-02 (Folklore and Literature) are closed. All other classes are open.

QC Hub

The QC Hub is a centralized office with staff from the Registrar, the Bursar, Financial Aid, etc., and is the easiest way to get any financial or registration problems resolved and your bureaucratic questions answered. You can make a virtual appointment with them via the QC Navigate app (https://qc-cuny.navigate.eab.com/ , using your CUNY Login) or email them at QCHub@qc.cuny.edu. For more info and their hours, see https://www.qc.cuny.edu/qchub/. Please note that, unfortunately, the QC Hub is understaffed and can get overwhelmed. If you contact the QC Hub and don’t get a response within a week or two, please let us know so we can help follow up.

Information Technology Services (ITS)

For help with online account or tech issues, contact ITS (https://www.qc.cuny.edu/its/). You can try live chat support (Mon–Thu 9am–10pm; Fri 9am–5pm), call them at 718-997-4444 (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm), email support@qc.cuny.edu, or submit a ticket online. You can also check
their knowledge base for potential solutions to common issues.

Multifactor Authentication

Over the semester, Queens College instituted multifactor authentication to access things like CUNYfirst, Brightspace, and email.  Please be sure to set this up immediately as it could block your access to class and other things.  IT Services created the following links to help you with this process:

• Setting Up CUNY Login MFA : Queens College Service Desk
• Video Instructions: Setting Up CUNY Login MFA

The video instructions are a bit easier to work with than the written ones. Keep in mind that the process requires you to download a Microsoft MFA Authenticator application to your smart phone.

QCard

The QCard is your official QC student ID, and you will need it to gain access to and throughout campus. If you don’t already have a QCard, you can find info on how to obtain one at https://www.qc.cuny.edu/its/qcard/.

Rosenthal Library

You will need to tap in with your QCard to access the Rosenthal Library building. Visit their website (https://library.qc.cuny.edu/ )  for their hours and for help with your research (https://library.qc.cuny.edu/services/research/ask-us/). The humanities librarian, Prof. Leila Walker, can also help you with any research-related questions; you can email her at leila.walker@qc.cuny.edu .

Counseling Services

Being a grad student can be really stressful. For free and confidential mental health services, check out QC’s Counseling Services (https://www.qc.cuny.edu/cs/). You can call them at 718-997-5420 or email CounselingServices@qc.cuny.edu to make an appointment. If you ever find yourself in crisis, you can also connect 24/7 with a trained crisis counselor by texting CUNY to 741741.

Camera Policy for Online Classes

In the Spring, Queens College changed its camera policy for online classes. During the quarantine, turning one’s camera on was elective since all classes went online and we recognized that not everyone had a situation that allowed for their room to be visible during class meetings. Four years later, though, we have an ample array of in-person and online offerings, and those who elect to enroll in online class should be prepared to have their cameras on during class sessions. This is especially the case in graduate MA classes, which involve much greater participation by everyone present. If, in the course of the semester, you are not able to turn on your camera one day, make sure to communicate with the instructor and find other ways to actively participate during the class meeting.

Thesis Writers

If you are completing your MA thesis this semester, you have been enrolled in the 791 class (if you submitted a proposal and haven’t been enrolled, contact Bill immediately). During the semester, Cliff and Bill will hold workshops focusing on different aspects from the thesis: one focusing on the advising relationship and applying for graduation and one on the thesis defense and submitting the final version of the paper for approval. At each of these workshops, you’ll have an opportunity to also share a page of two of writing with others, which will provide a chance to get feedback and to see how your peers are approaching thesis writing. Mor information on these sessions will be sent out to thesis writers during the second week of the semester. 

If you plan to write your thesis in the Spring 2026 semester, we’ll have an information session for that in November, before the Thanksgiving holiday.