Provost’s Newsletter: News and Updates from the Division of Academic Affairs for December 4, 2024
December 4, 2024
Dear Baruch College Community:
It’s already December! I hope you had a restorative Thanksgiving break. I had the opportunity to spend time with my entire blended family, which made the time particularly special.
During the 20+ years that I was a full-time faculty member, I realized that if I could get my spring semester syllabi and course materials set up before the end of the fall semester, then I would be able to thoroughly enjoy time with family between semesters or make some concentrated progress on research projects—and usually both. Because you likewise may be organizing your spring semester syllabi over the next several weeks, I want to remind you of the following message sent out earlier via department chairs:
CUNY publishes this religious and ethnic holiday calendar that goes through 2031. As faculty begin to prepare their syllabi for the upcoming winter and spring semester, please review this calendar for the few holidays that require observers to refrain from work. Faculty should please consider not holding exams and quizzes on those dates because observant students will be absent from class. Per CUNY policy, faculty are required to provide an “equal opportunity,” not merely drop the missed assignment from the average, to accommodate student religious observance. This is usually understood to be a makeup quiz or alternative assignment. Some holidays require fasting, which may affect students, even if they do not refrain from work.
The holiday calendar also provides opportunities for faculty who may wish to recognize the holidays that are important to our diverse student body in their teaching.
General guidelines for syllabus format and content can be found on the Syllabus Guidelines page. It’s worth a few minutes to review these guidelines as you begin building your next semester’s courses. The Counseling Center has provided some additional language that can be used in your spring semester syllabi. You can find it in the “Teaching and Learning” section of this newsletter.
Please be reminded that the Academic Affairs Events Calendar is published every Thursday by the Office of the Associate Provosts. All academic departments and academic support units are welcome and encouraged to list events there. The Provost’s Newsletter you are currently reading is for information of interest to faculty and staff about the academic affairs of the College and includes event information only for those events produced by the Office of the Provost.
In that vein and looking to the spring, the Office of the Provost’s signature event of the spring semester is the Annual Cross-College Faculty Research Symposium, which will be held in a half-day format on Thursday, Mar. 27, 2025. Please mark your calendars!
Best wishes,
Dr. Linda Essig
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Campus Updates
December Coffee Chat/Tea Talk Celebrates Faith Diversity
Faculty and staff are invited to join Provost Essig and co-hosts Professors Kenneth Guest, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and Jamel Hudson, Department of Communication Studies, for coffee, tea, and informal conversation about holiday celebrations. This event will be held on Thursday, Dec. 12 from 9:30 to 10:30 am in the Newman Vertical Campus (NVC), 14th Floor, Room 14-270.
Faculty Affairs
Annual Tenure & Promotion and CCE Workshops
Based on feedback, there will be two career advancement workshops for faculty this spring: a tenure and promotion workshop for all tenure-track faculty, and a separate certificate of continuing employment (CCE) workshop for all lecturers interested in applying for CCE status. There will be overviews of these processes at each workshop, as well as an opportunity for faculty to speak directly with recently tenured or promoted faculty about their experiences. The CCE Workshop will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 18 at 12:30 pm. The Spring Tenure & Promotion Workshop will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 12:30 pm. A light lunch will be served at both events.
Student Success
Zicklin MBA Team Heads to the Finals of the Neuberger Berman Sustainable Investing Challenge
Congratulations to the Zicklin MBA Team on making it to the finals of the Neuberger Berman Sustainable Investing Challenge. Other finalist teams were from Ivy League institutions. The final pitch will take place online on Friday, Dec. 13.
Teaching and Learning
Counseling Center Statement for Inclusion in Syllabi
The Counseling Center has created a statement that faculty may include in their spring semester syllabi for students who may be seeking mental health support. The statement reads:
At Baruch, we acknowledge that as a student, you are balancing many demands. If you experience personal difficulties or mental health concerns that are interfering with your academic performance or day to day functioning, please consider seeking free and confidential mental health support at the Baruch College Counseling Center. For more information or to make an appointment, please visit their website at studentaffairs.baruch.cuny.edu/counseling or call 646-312-2155. If it’s outside of business hours (Monday-Friday, 9 am-5 pm) and you need immediate assistance, please call 988. If you are concerned about a fellow student, please fill out a Campus Intervention Team form at studentaffairs.baruch.cuny.edu/campus-intervention-team.
BrightSpace Attendance Tool Deactivation Notice
Under advisement by the University Office of Enrollment Management, the LMS Transition Team will disable the Attendance tool in BrightSpace effective Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024. The decision to implement this change is based on CUNY’s status as a non-attendance institution with the U.S. Department of Education. While the College is required to establish commencement of attendance, this is done through the established WN grade process. Any other form of attendance gathering at the Central Office level in addition to the WN process could compromise this status. However, faculty may maintain their own roll books with classroom activity. If you have questions, please reach out to BrightSpace Support 24/7 by clicking the blue-and-white dialogue box in the bottom right corner of any BrightSpace webpage or via phone at 1-888-895-2511.
Research
Save the Date: Cross-College Faculty Research Symposium — Thursday,
Mar. 27, 2025
The Annual Cross-College Faculty Research Symposium will be held on Thursday, Mar. 27, 2025. This signature event for all faculty includes PechaKucha presentations of research, research awards, and more. Please save the date and stay tuned for more information on both presenting your research and attending the event.
Revised IRB Annual Check-In Review Process
As of Friday, Nov. 1, the Annual Check-In review process was revised to allow Human Research Protection Programs staff to review and return submissions for revisions. The Office of Research Compliance and Outreach (ORCO) will be reviewing and verifying the following items on the annual check-in form:
- Active CITI Certification for key personnel
- Study status (determining whether annual check-in or final reports should be submitted)
ORCO has created a guidance document to assist researchers with this process. Please contact ORCO with any questions.
Faculty Achievements
Congratulations to Sally Wen Mao, Assistant Professor, Department of English, whose book, Ninetails, was named one of the “11 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2024” by The Washington Post.
Guy Moshkovitz, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, has been awarded CUNY’s 2024 Junior Faculty Research Award in Science and Engineering and will receive $41,556 in funds. Congratulations!
Please join me in congratulating the Baruch Assistant Professors who were accepted into this year’s Faculty Fellowship Publication Program cohort:
- Vipulya Chari, Department of Communication Studies
- Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana, Department of Black and Latino Studies
- Claire Grandy, Department of English
- Shawn Grant, Department of Law
- Xiaofeng Liu, Paul H. Chook Department of Information Systems and Statistics
- Xiaonan Wang, Department of Political Science
Do you want to share something you published, exhibited, performed, or presented with the Baruch community? Submit your information here.
Stay Connected
Share Your Research and Creative Activity
Keep the College up to date with your research and creative activity by emailing facultynews@baruch.cuny.edu with the what, where, and when of your publication, exhibition, or award.
President Wu’s Blog
Join the conversation at President Wu’s blog. Read and comment here.
Event Listings
If you have an event for the Academic Affairs Events Calendar, published each Thursday during the academic semester, click here.