Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Message Archive

Thursday, March 21, 2019

This email is being sent to all members of the Baruch College faculty.

For an archive of announcements sent from the Associate Provost beginning June 2011, click here.

Dear Colleagues,

Each year we announce the winners of the Abraham J. Briloff Prizes during Ethics Week. The prizes are funded by a gift from alumnus Charles R. Dreifus (’66, MBA ’73) in honor of the late Abraham J. Briloff, Emanuel Saxe Distinguished Professor of Accountancy Emeritus. Traditionally, there are prizes in three categories: undergraduate student, graduate student, and faculty. Additionally, this year the members of the prize committee asked that we publicly commend a second essay by a graduate student.

The $500 2018 Briloff Prize for an undergraduate goes to Nathaniel Zinda for “The Ethics of Persuasion in Technology.” Mr. Zinda is a senior majoring in Economics (BA) and minoring in Mathematics and Information Tech & Social Responsibility. His essay is an edited excerpt from his forthcoming honors thesis. His advisor is Prof. Ted Joyce. The members of the Briloff committee wrote:

“This paper argues that through the use of ad-based online software, technology companies have become responsible for functional and existential distraction among their audience, which undermines wellbeing and threatens autonomy.”

The $500 2018 Briloff Prize for a graduate student goes to Annie Kato for “Humans or Resources? The Ethics of Strategic Human Resource Management.” Ms. Kato is a third-year PhD student in Industrial-Organizational Psychology who anticipates completion in May 2021. The members of the Briloff committee wrote:

“This paper raises concerns about human dignity in the context of the use of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM), a management practice that treats employees more as resources to be used rather than as autonomous human beings to be treated with respect.”

The $1500 2018 Briloff Prize for a member of the Baruch faculty goes to Professor Thomas J. Main for his recent book, The Rise of the Alt-Right(Brookings Institution Press, 2018). Prof. Main, of the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, submitted his chapter “The Alt-Right on the Foundational principles of American Politics” to the committee, members of which wrote:

“This book chapter provides an engrossing account of misuse of America’s founding documents by the Alt-Right to produce a false narrative in support of their narrow racist ideology.”

Honorable Mention: The members of the committee would like to mention that it found “Migration Research: On the Boarders of Europe and Ethics” to express important concerns and would like to commend its author, Claudia Huerta, a graduate student Marxe School’s Master of International Affairs program who anticipates graduating in December of 2019.

The winning essays (and chapter) soon will be posted to the webpage for the prize, where the work of previous winners also may be read: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/facultyhandbook/BriloffPrizes.htm

Dennis Slavin, PhD

Associate Provost for Teaching and Learning

Assistant Vice President

Baruch College, CUNY

646-660-6504 (phone); 646-660-6531 (fax)

Dennis.Slavin@baruch.cuny.edu

http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/provost/teaching_learning.htm