New Hyde Park 2018 09 28

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Serving New Hyde Park, Floral Park, Garden City Park, North Hills, Manhasset Hills and North New Hyde Park

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Friday, September 28, 2018

Vol. 67, No. 39

N E W H Y D E PA R K

GUIDE TO FALL

TENSIONS HIGH OVER PARKING LOT

COUNTY FLUSHES AWAY $2.56M IN SEWER FEES

PAGES 37-68

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Professor entering 59th year honored Mineola resident has room named after him BY J E D HENDRIXSON Professor Michael D’Innocenzo believes that teachers should often be as close to the age of their students as possible in order to bridge the growing intergenerational divides in society. Ironically, he’ll be an 83-year-old instructor in October. “I came from a generation where you got a job,” D’Innocenzo said. “And you sort of expected to keep it for life.” Despite being offered PHOTO BY JED HENDRIXSON positions and professorships elsewhere, D’Innocenzo, of Mineola, still teaches freshmen Michael D’Innocenzo, surrounded by friends and colleagues at history courses at Hofstra Unihis seminar room dedication.

versity, where he is headed into his 59th year as a professor. D’Innocenzo is the Harry H. Watchel Distinguished Teaching Professor for the Study of Nonviolent Social Change at Hofstra. D’Innocenzo is also a columnist for Blank Slate Media. On Thursday, the university dedicated a seminar room to D’Innocenzo as the longestserving professor in Hofstra’s history. “It’s a punctuation of an amazing journey,” D’Innocenzo said. “I’ve watched Hofstra grow from a small college into a prestigious university around me.” “I first met Mike 48 years ago when I first arrived at Hofstra,” Herman Berliner, dean

of Hofstra’s Frank G. Zarb School of Business and former provost, said. “Fast forward all these years and he has clearly stood the test of time.” D’Innocenzo, a son of immigrants, was born in Nyack, New York, in 1935. His teaching and research began with a focus on the foundations of American liberty and the principles of society. A history honors paper on Charles Beard and the Constitution at Union College in 1957 won D’Innocenzo the Freling Smith Essay Prize, the first of many accolades in his career. “What a privilege it has been for me to be a student who was able to find a calling as a teacher,” D’Innocenzo Continued on Page 103

24 G.N. students named merit semifinalists BY JA N E LL E CL AUSEN

named semifinalists in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Competition this month, making Two dozen students from them among the top 1 percent of Great Neck’s high schools were seniors statewide.

The semifinalists were among the top scorers in New York on the preliminary SAT test and National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. This, in turn, puts them among just over 1,100 New York students and about 16,000 nationwide in line to compete for scholarships. “That is the largest number in recent memory,” Great

Neck Public Schools Superintendent Teresa Prendergast said at a school board meeting last week. “These students scored in the highest percentiles on their PSAT exams and we’re very excited and wish them the best of luck as they move forward into the next phase of this prestigious competition.” The number of students selected this year is roughly com-

parable to last year, when 23 students from the Great Neck schools were named semifinalists. The bulk of Great Neck’s semifinalists this year – or 19 – come from South High School. These students are Yinuo Chen, Annie Dai, Emily Gao, Julia Gorenstein, Hannah Kareff, Continued on Page 103

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