Provost’s Newsletter: News and Updates from the Division of Academic Affairs for January 24, 2024

January 24, 2024

Dear Baruch College Community:

Welcome to the Spring 2024 semester! The weather has been cold, but our campus will soon be heating up as almost 19,000 students return to campus. This includes more than 1,300 first-year, transfer, and graduate students who will be joining our community as new students this spring. Please help make them feel welcome.

Earlier this week, all faculty received guidance from Executive Vice Chancellor Wendy Hensel via email regarding compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal requirements. Per that guidance, please “consider the accessibility of course materials, online learning products, platforms, and applications, including content [instructors] created, prior to use in the course. Ally will assist with this determination for content uploaded to Blackboard.” Instructors can contact Student Disability Services if they have questions.

There are several leadership searches underway during the spring semester. Finalists for the Vice President for Information Services visited campus last week. This week includes visits from finalists for the new position of Director of Experiential and Community Engaged Learning. As detailed in the last issue of the newsletter, finalist forums are being held this week, January 24, 25, and 26 at 2:45 pm in the Administration Building, 135 East 22nd Street, 3rd floor, Room H-301. We tentatively expect that finalists for the position of Associate Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Student Success will be visiting campus on February 23 and 29 and March 1. Broad participation in the community forums will help ensure successful searches.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to be an important topic for higher education and for Baruch. The ad hoc AI Governance and Operations group, a subcommittee of the AI Think Tank, is developing draft policy and guidelines that will be shared with the community for feedback soon. Until then, faculty are encouraged to include an AI use policy as appropriate to course and discipline in their syllabi. Many faculty are creatively integrating AI literacy into their courses and assignments. The Center for Teaching and Learning continues to build out resources for faculty on this topic.

Faculty and staff may be planning professional travel during the spring semester. Please review the process guide for professional travel reimbursement that follows.

Best wishes,

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

Campus Updates

Professional Travel: Reimbursement Process Review
Faculty and staff traveling for research, conferences, or other college business have to follow a process to ensure that travel expenses are reimbursed in a timely fashion. Contact your school or division travel administrator in advance if you have any questions. These are Leticia Nuñez in the Marxe School, Amanda Becker in the Weissman School, and Troy Taylor in the Zicklin School.

• Traveler must know and use the correct funding source (e.g., BAR01, BAR55, BAR05). If this is not known, contact the appropriate administrator. Traveler must confirm they have access to the “Travel and Expense” or “T&E” module of CUNYfirst. Contact your administrator if you don’t have this access. Note that if you are traveling on Baruch College Fund (BCF) funds, then the process is done via PDF forms rather than in CUNYfirst.
• Traveler completes Travel Authorization form in CUNYfirst for approval a minimum of two weeks before incurring expenses.
• Supervisor (for faculty, this is the department chair) approves CUNYfirst Travel Authorization requests before faculty and staff incur expenses.
• Traveler may only claim allowable expenses as described in the Travel and Expense Processing Summary for CUNYfirst business units and the BCF.
• If traveling within New York State, use the NYS sales tax exemption form for each purchase in NY.
• Traveler submits request for reimbursement within 15 days of returning from travel via the expense reporting function in CUNYfirst.
• Reimbursement request must include all receipts, record of expenses made with personal payment method (credit card statement), and concise description of business purpose that is understandable to a third-party reviewer.

Please be sure to complete each step accurately and on time to support the process of timely reimbursement. If you are traveling internationally, please see the additional forms that may be required and review the international travel policy as well as the information below.

CUNY-GO Travel Registration Requirements
CUNY graduate students, faculty, and staff planning to travel abroad or to a U.S. territory or protectorate for college-related purposes, whose travel is not already reported by the campus study abroad office, are required to register their travel plans with CUNY-GO. This online travel screening application informs the travelers of any additional requirements depending on their destination. Travel to one or more of the countries or territories included in Office of Foreign Asset Control’s sanctions programs list must be planned in consultation with the respective CUNY Campus Export Control Administrator and/or University Export Control Officer. Travel to any of these countries or regions require consultation and additional review: Afghanistan, Balkans, Belarus, Central African Republic, Cuba, Darfur, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine (including Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Sevastopol), Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe. Please note this list is not exhaustive, and the situation may evolve. If you have any questions about this requirement, please contact Keisha Peterson, Director of the Office of Research Compliance at Baruch, or Angela Pilla, University Export Control Officer.

Faculty Affairs

Call for Nominations for Presidential Excellence Awards 2023–24
The Presidential Excellence Awards Committees seek nominations for the Presidential Excellence Awards for Distinguished Scholarship, Distinguished Teaching, and Distinguished Service. All full-time faculty members who are in their fourth year or beyond at Baruch, with the exception of Distinguished Professors and Distinguished Lecturers, are eligible for these awards. Adjunct members of the faculty who have taught for a minimum of six semesters at Baruch (i.e., in their seventh semester or beyond) are eligible for the Distinguished Teaching Award (Adjunct Faculty). Letters of nomination are welcome from any source within the Baruch community, including students, chairpersons, colleagues, staff members, deans, and departmental executive committees. Self-nominations will not be accepted. The deadline for nominations is Thursday, Feb. 15. For more information, please visit the Presidential Excellence Awards page. To nominate someone, click here or email your nominations to Vanessa Cano.

Call for Submissions for the Abraham J. Briloff Prizes in Ethics
The Abraham J. Briloff Prizes are intended to stimulate scholarship in the field of ethics, with an emphasis on ethics in professional life. Funded by a gift from alumnus Charles R. Dreifus (’66, MBA ’73), the prizes are in honor of Abraham J. Briloff, Emmanuel Saxe Distinguished Professor of Accountancy Emeritus. They are awarded annually to a faculty member who has written an important topical article, essay, or book on ethics and to a student or students who have written an outstanding research paper or essay, also as it relates to current events. The deadline for submissions is Friday, Feb. 16. Submissions and questions should be addressed to Vanessa Cano. For more information, visit the Abraham J. Briloff Prizes in Ethics page.

National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity Workshop
All faculty are invited to join an in-person workshop featuring Dr. Pablo Peixoto, Associate Professor of Natural Sciences and DEI Fellow in the Weissman School, and Dr. Ashley Gaskew, Assistant Professor in the Marxe School. This workshop will cover the resources available from the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) to help faculty thrive in academia. Faculty will also learn how to claim their account with Baruch’s institutional membership. The workshop will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 30, from 1 to 2 pm in the Newman Vertical Campus (NVC), Room 14-266. RSVP here and reach out to Norene Leddy with questions. Please bring your laptop.

Faculty Affairs Open Office Hours for Adjunct Faculty on Tuesday, Feb. 6
Norene Leddy, Director of Faculty Affairs, is continuing biweekly open office hours for adjunct faculty. The next session will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 6, from 2 to 3 pm via Zoom. Faculty must register in advance. After registering, faculty will receive a confirmation email and the recurring Zoom link for the Spring 2024 semester and can attend any of the sessions. These open office hours are optional and provide an opportunity for adjunct faculty to meet with Ms. Leddy and discuss any questions or concerns they may have. If you are interested in attending but are unable to make the scheduled time, please reach out to her to arrange a mutually convenient time to meet. Contact Norene Leddy for more information.

Student Success

CUNY Undocumented and Immigrant Student Programs Information Session
U.S. National Scholarship invites faculty to attend a virtual information session on scholarships for undocumented and immigrant students on Thursday, Jan. 25, at 11 am. This session will provide information faculty can share with undocumented and immigrant students, including such full-tuition scholarships as TheDream.US, state aid via the New York State DREAM Act, and other CUNY-based resources. Additionally, faculty will be provided with resources to distribute research funds to students as experiential learning opportunities. Register for the information session here.

CUNY Strategic Innovation Faculty Fellowship Opportunity
The CUNY Office of Academic Affairs invites eligible faculty to apply for CUNY Strategic Innovation Fellowships for Summer 2024–Fall 2024. These fellowships help to advance the development, delivery, and governance of University-wide solutions in a number of areas that strengthen the academic enterprise and outcomes for CUNY students. Strategic Innovation Fellows work in a variety of departments within the Office of Academic Affairs (OAA) at CUNY Central, informing policies and initiatives while earning valuable professional development and exposure. Fellows will be embedded within the staff of a given office but also have the opportunity to be part of a broader fellow community, receiving insights and capacity building from leaders across OAA. Depending on the fellow’s host office, sample responsibilities include creating a fellowship focused on supporting high school students enrolled in College Now courses, integrating career connections into degree pathways, informing educational technology deployments, developing experiential learning opportunities in healthcare sectors, and participating in other projects as determined by OAA. Click here for more information and here for the application portal. The application deadline is Thursday, Feb. 29, at 5 pm.

Conversation Partners Program
The Conversation Partners Program (CPP) matches native and nonnative speakers of English for informal conversations. It is a great way for nonnative students to gain confidence in English, for native speakers to gain experience in communicating across language barriers, and for both native and nonnative speakers to expand their cultural knowledge, make friends, and build a network of professional contacts. To participate, students should be willing to commit to meeting their partner at least six times this semester for about one hour each meeting. Please share this opportunity with your students: Learn more here.

Research

Call for Participation: Third Annual Cross-College Faculty Research Symposium
All full-time faculty are invited to share their research with their Baruch colleagues in a fun PechaKucha format (20 slides in 20 minutes) at the Third Annual Cross-College Faculty Research Symposium. This symposium will take place in person on Friday, Mar. 22. Full-time faculty selected to present are also eligible for one of four $2,000 research awards, made possible by a grant from the CUNY Office of Research. There will also be smaller audience-choice awards decided on the day of the symposium, so please plan on attending all day. You do not need to present to attend; all faculty are welcome. This year’s keynote speaker is Dr. Sean Decatur, President of the American Museum of Natural History. The deadline for submissions is Friday, Feb. 9. Learn more here and apply here. Please reach out to Associate Professor of History Katherine Pence with questions.

Howard J. Samuels State and City Policy Center Fellowship Programs
The Howard J. Samuels State and City Policy Center is currently accepting applications for two of its fellowship programs: the Samuels Doctoral Fellows and Samuels Public Affairs Fellowship. The former is for PhD students who have defended their dissertation proposals, and the latter is for academics, researchers, and community leaders who work in the field of public affairs. Up to four fellows in each category will be awarded unrestricted grants of $5,000 each. The application deadline for both fellowships is Thursday, Feb. 15. Click here for more information.

Faculty News and Publications

Two Faculty Leaders Selected for the Inaugural AASCU Department Chair Leadership Institute
The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) has announced the names of 36 higher education professionals selected for the inaugural cohort of its Department Chair Leadership Institute. Notably, two Baruch faculty leaders, Scott Newbert, Professor and Chair of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Michael Waldman, Interim Chief Librarian, are among the inaugural cohort. Congratulations to them both!

International Group Exhibition Features Faculty Artwork
Paschalina (Lilia) Ziamou, Associate Professor of Marketing, had several three-dimensional works and works on paper included in I Can No Longer Produce the Limits of My Own Body, a group exhibition curated by Nadine Khalil at NIKA Project Space, Dubai, UAE. The exhibition ran from Nov. 15, 2023, to Jan. 13, 2024, and dove into the anatomical, animal, material, and technological aspects of embodiment.

Want to share your recent publications, awards, or achievements? Faculty can click here. Staff can click here. Be sure to put “For the newsletter” in the subject line of your email.

Reminders 

AY24-25 Applications Due for Research Reassigned Time for Tenured Faculty
To support faculty research, the Office of the Provost is coordinating the Research Reassigned Time (RRT) program for AY24-25. This program allows eligible tenured faculty who have a full 18-unit instructional load to apply for 3 units of research reassigned time during the next academic year (AY24-25). Faculty must be “research active” based on criteria established and published by the three schools. After a short application process, including submitting research proposals, faculty will be selected for the program by a committee from their own school. For more information about eligibility, application process, timeline, and selection criteria in each school, please check the RRT page. The deadline for applications is this Thursday, Jan. 25.

Save the Date: Spring Tenure and Promotion Workshop, Tuesday, Feb. 27
Please save the date for the annual Spring Tenure and Promotion Workshop to be held in person on Tuesday, Feb. 27, from 12:30 to 2:30 pm. All tenure-track, Certificate of Continuous Employment (CCE)–eligible lecturers, associate professors considering promotion, and staff members who work on the faculty tenure and promotion process are encouraged to attend. This workshop will present an overview of the tenure, promotion, and CCE processes at Baruch and will feature recently tenured, promoted, or CCE-awarded colleagues who will share insights and advice from their own experiences. The content and format will be a bit different from prior years, so even if you have attended in the past, please plan on participating.

All Faculty and Staff Must Complete E-SPARC and WVP Trainings via Blackboard
All faculty, both full-time and adjunct faculty, and all staff members are required to take two online, asynchronous training courses each year: Employee Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response Course (E-SPARC) and Workplace Violence Prevention (WVP). Both are available via Blackboard, under My Organizations. Please set time aside as soon as possible to complete these mandatory CUNY trainings. For any questions or concerns about the trainings, please reach out to Baruch’s Compliance Training Administrator.

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, presentation, exhibition, award, and so on.

President Wu’s Blog
Join the conversation at President Wu’s blog. Read and comment here.

Newsletter Items?
If you have an item you would like considered for inclusion in the biweekly Provost’s Newsletter, please click here to send an email to the Provost mailbox. If you have an event for the Academic Affairs Events Calendar, published each Thursday during the academic semester, click here.