A few reminders to all instructors

August 20, 2025

A link to this message was sent as part of the Provost’s Newsletter on August 20, 2025

Welcome to Fall 2025! Here are a few reminders to ensure we all have a wonderful semester:

Please remember to erase everything written on the white boards as a courtesy to the next instructor. Do not remove erasers from classrooms unless you have brought them yourself.
Transition between successive classes occupying a classroom: Students and instructors have a right to enter their room in a timely fashion, and instructors already in the room should not continue teaching past the end of the period. But departing students and instructors are also entitled to use a portion of the room for informal discussions in the minutes immediately following class. Both in-coming and out-going students and instructors should be respectful and accommodating during these transitional periods.
Please ask your students to clean up after themselves (as should we, the instructors).
Please ask students to return chairs that have been moved to their normal position (usually in rows).
Don’t forget to log off the lectern computer before you leave the room.
Please be sure to turn off the ceiling projectors when you finish using them; replacement bulbs are expensive. (The projectors turn off automatically only on certain settings.)
But please do not turn off the rack-mounted equipment at the bottom of the lectern: the next instructor to use the equipment must not only figure out what has happened and find a power button but must restore any changed settings as well. Furthermore, when the equipment has been turned off, the touch screen console at the top of the lectern still works–you can push the button to turn on the projector–but nothing will happen, which adds to the confusion since the touch screen is responding but not the equipment.
When you use your ID card to unlock a classroom door in the NVC, the door remains unlocked for one hour. Thus, there is no need to use a chair to hold the door open.
Please don’t leave extra unused blue books in a classroom. Blue books should not be easily accessible: some students take extras and use them to camouflage the notes they bring into a closed-book exam.
Please set classroom guidelines for eating during class to minimize disruptions to student learning.

Kathleen Gray, PhD
Associate Provost and Assistant Vice President
Baruch College, CUNY
646-660-6504 (phone); 646-660-6531 (fax)
Kathleen.Gray@baruch.cuny.edu
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/provost/teaching_learning.htm