Provost’s Newsletter: News and Updates from the Division of Academic Affairs for July 25, 2024

July 25, 2024

Dear Baruch College Community:

Last week, I attended the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) Academic Affairs Summer Meeting. One of the through lines of the meeting related to creating campus environments where civic dialogue can flourish. In addition to attending screenings of several documentaries, I attended a lively discussion about pluralism with Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America, and also heard from Jared Polis, Governor of Colorado, on the importance of higher education as a public good. This talk was followed by a session on connecting higher education institutions with employers—something Baruch does very well! I attended a preconference session on artificial intelligence in higher education and was challenged to integrate AI literacy across the curriculum, a challenge we are already working toward meeting. I look forward to working with faculty in the coming months on both of these topics.

Regarding AI, we’ve added two new resources to the AI Think Tank webpage, a “Compendium of AI Applications in Higher Education,” aggregated by EAB, and an article in MIT Technology Review titled “What Is AI?” The latter provides an interesting overview of the history and state of the field from an innovation management perspective.

Although there are still a few weeks of summer left, the campus is buzzing with new student orientations, summer classes, high school programs, and faculty research as well. I hope to see you soon!

Best wishes,

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

Campus Updates

Eric Essono Tsimi to Serve as DEI Fridays Faculty Coordinator
Eric Essono Tsimi, Assistant Professor, Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature, will coordinate the DEI Fridays program during the 2024–25 academic year. Continuing the great work done by Anna D’Souza, Associate Professor, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, over the past three years, Dr. Tsimi will organize six online events throughout the year designed to build community through learning and reflection. The first session, scheduled for Friday, Sept. 27, will focus on the intersection between DEI issues and mental health and well-being. I would like to extend a deep thank you to Dr. D’Souza for advancing this series, first at the Marxe School and subsequently for the whole campus.

Faculty Affairs

Preparations to Welcome New Full-Time Faculty Hires
The New Faculty Orientation Planning Committee—Associate Provosts Raquel Fich and Jenny Provo Quarles (co-chairs) and Maria Burgos, Vanessa Cano, and Norene Leddy—are preparing the program to welcome the new full-time faculty cohort of over 20 new faculty members. As in previous years, the program will run for three consecutive afternoons in mid-August and will include a variety of sessions on teaching, research, technology, the library, HR, and PSC-CUNY to onboard the new hires. The AY24-25 new faculty cohort includes tenure-track professorial faculty, lecturers, college laboratory technicians, and visiting professors. They will be officially welcomed to the College at the Faculty Convocation (see “Reminders” below).

Teaching and Learning 

Getting to Know Brightspace: Notifications
Faculty and students set their own notification preferences in Brightspace. Notification preferences allow you to adjust the type and frequency of messages you receive from Brightspace via email, text, or smartphone alert. To set your notification preferences, you will want to click on your name in the upper-right corner of the Brightspace homepage and select “Notifications.” From there, you will be taken to a page where you can check boxes to elect notifications or uncheck boxes to turn off notifications. When you are finished with your elections, be sure to click “Save” at the bottom of the page to retain your changes. For a step-by-step guide, see this Notification Settings Guide from Brightspace. For any 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

Christopher Stults Re-Appointed as Faculty IRB/HRPP Liaison
Dr. Christopher Stults, Assistant Professor of Psychology, has been re-appointed as the Faculty IRB/HRPP Liaison for AY24-25, serving all three schools and the Newman Library. In this role, Dr. Stults provides consultative support to researchers from all three schools in developing and submitting protocols through the IRBManager system. Upon request, he will conduct workshops in classes to promote the understanding of participant protection and compliance considerations in research protocols and will also assist researchers with revision requests, collaborate with the staff of the Office of Research Compliance and Outreach (ORCO) on developing research materials, and much more. Please contact Dr. Stults if you would like to make an appointment.

Kristin Sommer Re-Appointed as Baruch College Research Integrity Officer
Dr. Kristin Sommer, Professor of Psychology, has been re-appointed Research Integrity Officer for Baruch College for AY24-25. In this role, she is the point person for allegations of research misconduct and coordinates with the Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, Research, and Innovation; the Office of Research Compliance and Outreach (ORCO); and the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research (SPAR) to increase training compliance in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR). If you have questions about research integrity, please contact Dr. Sommer.

Faculty Achievements
Yuanyuan Zhang, Adjunct Lecturer, and Ana Valenzuela, Professor, Aaronson Department of Marketing and International Business, along with Aaron J. Barnes, the LaDonna and Charlie Johnson Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Louisville, have co-authored the article “AI and Culture: Culturally Dependent Responses to AI Systems,” published in Current Opinion in Psychology.

Lin Peng, David Krell Chair in Finance, Wasserman Department of Economics and Finance, co-authored the article “Face Value: Trait Impressions, Performance Characteristics, and Market Outcomes for Financial Analysts,” which has been recently recognized as one of the most widely read papers published by the Journal of Accounting Research.

Do you want to share something you published, exhibited, performed, or presented with the Baruch community? Submit your information here.

Focus On Funding 

Master’s in Mental Health Counseling Receives State Support
The College has recently received $195,000 for the Master of Arts in Mental Health Counseling program for AY24-25. The funds include: $100,000 to support paid internship and externship experiences for graduate students in mental health–related degree programs. This allocation will also be used to support preceptor capacity building at our affiliate sites, to sponsor students through career-readiness experiences linked to degree completion requirements, and potential hiring pathways at partner sites. The remaining $95,000 will be allocated to fund the introduction of innovative training modalities to enhance clinical and field training experiences ($50,000) and to augment the existing OMH Mental Health Scholarship Program for underrepresented and/or multilingual students, providing additional scholarship funds for graduate students from underrepresented backgrounds ($45,000).

Provost’s Reading Corner

In addition to reading about artificial intelligence, the summer schedule has given me the opportunity catch up with some novels that have been on my “to read” list for years. These included Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping, and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. For nonfiction, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow, who holds a PhD in political science, is an interesting read for our times.

Do you have a reading recommendation to share? You can submit yours here.

Reminders 

Activity-Based Budgeting Kickoff Event on Tuesday, Sept. 3
This campus-wide engagement on the Activity-Based Budget process is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 3, from 12:30 to 2 pm, in the Newman Vertical Campus (NVC), Simon Conference Room 14-220.

Faculty Convocation on Thursday, Sept. 19
Faculty should please save the date and plan to attend the annual Baruch College Faculty Convocation scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 19, from 12:30 to 2:30 pm. As is customary, we will celebrate and recognize faculty achievements, including career milestones, recent research and creative accomplishments, and distinguished teaching. Additionally, we look forward to welcoming the new full-time faculty cohort. More details about the Faculty Convocation program, including this year’s keynote speaker, will be available in late August.

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.