Provost’s Newsletter: News and Updates from the Division of Academic Affairs for August 17, 2022

August 17, 2022

Dear Baruch College Community:

Welcome to this inaugural edition of the Provost’s Newsletter, just in time for the launch of the Fall 2022 semester. Every two weeks, the Office of the Provost will be publishing updates for the entire campus community as well as items focused specifically on faculty affairs. I encourage you to review all of the material in the newsletter. In this issue, I call special attention to two items. First is the link below to an extensive Academic Affairs policy memo provided by CUNY Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost Wendy Hensel. Second are recommendations for engaging and re-engaging students in the “Teaching and Learning” section of the newsletter.

I look forward to seeing many of you on the Clivner=Field Plaza over the next week as we welcome our new and returning students to campus!

Best wishes,

Dr. Linda Essig
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Campus Updates

Leadership Transition at the Zicklin School of Business
Earlier today, I shared news of an important leadership transition at the Zicklin School of Business. H. Fenwick Huss, PhD, Willem Kooyker Dean, has decided to retire effective December 31, 2022. Learn more about the many projects of notable and lasting impact he and his team have led over the last eight years as well as the College’s next steps in the Zicklin leadership transition. Thank you, Dean Huss, for your extraordinary service and contributions to Baruch College.

CUNY Academic Affairs Policy Memo
The CUNY Office of Academic Affairs has issued an extensive policy memo, providing guidance on such items as recording of remote classes, camera policies, travel, open education resources, and more. The full document, which I encourage everyone involved in Baruch’s academic enterprise to review, is posted in the Faculty Handbook here.

Teaching and Learning

Recommendations for Engaging Students
This year, we will be welcoming our largest-ever first-year and new transfer classes as well as some students who may have taken all or most of their first two years of study remotely. To help smooth their transition, the directors of Baruch’s student success centers recommend the following modest actions at the start of the semester:

• Rename “office hours” as “student drop-in hours” to be more accessible.
• Write a welcome letter that conveys “you belong” and distribute through Blackboard before the first class meeting.
• Ask students to let you know if they are having difficulty getting a textbook. It is also helpful to list older editions in the syllabus that would also suffice.

Please see the Provost’s communication of April 28 for more information about how to mediate the cognitive effects of the pandemic.

Teaming at Baruch
Many faculty use team-based learning strategies, such as group case studies and projects, in the classroom. This type of assignment allows our students the opportunity to develop their teamwork skills, which have become increasingly critical in the modern workplace.

Professors Molly Kern (Management) and Minna Logemann (Communication Studies) have created and recently updated the Teaming at Baruch site to provide resources for faculty developing team-based projects. Teaming is a student-focused model for structuring team processes to facilitate more effective collaboration. The objective of the site is to provide the Baruch community with evidence-based resources to help individuals successfully engage in teaming: to leverage the diversity of perspectives and experiences in their teams and to do so in an inclusive way. Learn more.

Kognito Available Through December 31
Kognito’s “At-Risk Mental Health for Faculty and Staff” module is available through a link on Blackboard and as noted below. This is an interactive role-play simulation for faculty and staff that builds awareness, knowledge, and skills about mental health and suicide prevention and prepares users to lead real-life conversations with students that build resilience, strengthen relationships, and connect them with support. To access this training:

1. Visit cuny.kognito.com
2. Log in or create a new account
3. Use enrollment key: baruchcaruf
4. Launch At-Risk Mental Health for Faculty or Staff

Faculty Affairs

Interfolio Faculty 180 Implementation
The implementation of Interfolio Faculty 180 is nearing completion. Thanks go out to the faculty who experimented with the platform over the summer and provided feedback to AssociateProvost@baruch.cuny.edu to improve its functionality. Two of three administrator trainings took place over the summer, with a third scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 21. Training for faculty is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 8, 1–2 pm and Thursday, Sept. 29, 1–2 pm. Sessions have the same content and are delivered via Zoom, so feel free to pick the one most convenient for you. Sessions are recorded and will be made available to faculty who are unable to attend. Self-paced training is available anytime through this video tutorial. We will soon begin a period of “initiated input,” during which faculty will be prompted to review selected segments of information. You will receive detailed instructions from the Office of Academic Affairs after the training period. Please contact AssociateProvost@baruch.cuny.edu if you have any questions.

Faculty Convocation 2022
This year’s Faculty Convocation will be held Thursday, Sept. 15 at noon, in the Simon Conference Room, Room 14-220, Newman Vertical Campus (NVC). President Wu will confer the 2022 Presidential Excellence Awards, and Dr. Sankar Sen, last year’s recipient of the Presidential Excellence Award for Distinguished Scholarship, will provide the keynote, “Wherefore Marketplace Morality?” Staff excellence awards will be conferred at a ceremony during the spring semester. Learn more.

Faculty Cluster Hiring
Following a competitive RFP process with CUNY, Baruch College has been given permission and funding to add 12 new professorial title faculty members across the College’s three academic schools. These faculty are designated toward three interdisciplinary clusters: Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Data Science, and Climate Studies. Baruch was also authorized to add 21 lecturer faculty who will focus on teaching lower-division or required undergraduate courses. These 33 new faculty hires are in addition to the 36 professorial faculty hires already authorized for recruitment. More detailed information about the cluster initiative will be provided in a later newsletter.

Student Success

Academic Momentum 2.0
Academic Momentum 2.0 (AcMo 2.0) is an initiative to support student success, with special emphasis on transfer student success. A cross-college team co-led by Executive Director of Advisement and Orientation Sharon Ricks and Associate Provost for Teaching and Learning Dennis Slavin developed a robust plan that includes degree mapping, tutoring, onboarding activities, and more. You are encouraged to review the complete AcMo 2.0 plan as it will affect many undergraduate learner support operations and articulation processes over the next several years. Learn more.

Research

Capacity Building
Baruch has engaged Washington, D.C.–based McAllister & Quinn to assist in increasing our research grant-getting capacity with a focus on public agency funding. To support this effort, Dr. Jessica Gerrity will visit campus on Thursday, Oct. 6 and make a presentation to the Baruch Faculty Senate as well as meet with faculty researchers and the staff of Baruch’s Office of Sponsored Programs and Research (SPAR).

Focus on Funding

Seed Grant Applications
Applications for the Faculty Innovation Seed Grant program are due Thursday, Sept 1.  Faculty Innovation Seed Grants will support the early-stage development of cross-college (i.e., inter-school) interdisciplinary research proposals. Two seed grants will be awarded to two project teams to develop research or creative projects that cross traditional school and disciplinary boundaries and that have the potential for garnering additional external funding or otherwise have lasting impact on a field/fields or on Baruch College itself. Proposals that engage undergraduate students in research and/or integrate research with teaching are particularly welcome.

Project teams will receive up to $10,000 in support for Calendar Year 2023, with the expectation that external funding proposals will be submitted no later than December 2023. Successful applicants will make a public presentation of their research-in-progress to the Baruch community at the Cross-College Research Symposium in May 2023 and will serve on the selection committee for the next round of applicants. Learn more.