Provost’s Newsletter: News and Updates from the Division of Academic Affairs for June 11, 2025

June 11, 2025

Dear Baruch College Community:

Welcome to Summer Session 2025! Early summer is a good time to reflect on the academic year that has just ended. Accomplishments related to the Baruch Strategic Plan 2023–2028 will be reported at the beginning of the Fall 2025 semester. Data and information about our progress is currently being aggregated.

One area in which much progress was made was the new transfer student experience. Orientation and registration were decoupled, enabling a 67% increase in transfer student registration prior to January 1. This helps both students and departments, which can better gauge transfer student demand earlier. The Office of New Student Programs created an asynchronous “New Transfer Experience” Brightspace course that provides both information resources and opportunities for engagement. Despite not being required, more than half of all new transfer students engaged with the site and engaged with one another in 108 different discussion threads. Finally, thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Education Title V program, we were able to scale up the Transfer Peer Network so that all new transfer students had a peer mentor in the spring.

Congratulations on these successful initiatives go to Associate Provost for Learning and Student Success Kathleen Gray and the team in the Office of New Student Programs led by Rob Kunicki! Dr. Gray, Dr. Kunicki, and I, along with Marxe Public Affairs undergraduate student (and peer mentor) Kaylanie Flores, will be presenting our efforts to scale peer mentorship at the annual GlobalMindED Conference in Denver next week, showcasing Baruch College as a national model for access, excellence, and outcomes.

Onward,

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

Campus Updates

Updated Blogs@Baruch Server
On June 4, Blogs@Baruch transitioned to a new server. This new multi-region setup synchronizes multiple servers to allow for instant failover backup in case of hardware or power issues, as well as off-loading media to improve site responsiveness. This has been a multiyear project to bring Blogs@Baruch to a modern, faster, reliable server configuration. If you have any issues with your Blogs@Baruch site since the transition, please contact Christopher Silsby, Blogs@Baruch Manager, Ed Tech Office.

Student Success

Applications Now Open: 2025–26 CUNY Climate Scholars Program
The CUNY Climate Scholars program (CCS) application for the 2025–26 cohort is now open. CCS seeks passionate, determined, and serious-minded students committed to making a positive impact on our environment and our society. The program will run from August 21 through April 30, 2026. Students will participate in a research lab experience and an internship throughout the program, culminating in a research presentation at the Baruch Creative Inquiry and Research Expo in May 2026. Each Climate Scholar will earn up to $7,500 for their participation. Interested students must submit an application by Friday, June 20. To learn more about CCS, please read the Annual Report. Please inform your students—either in the classroom or elsewhere—of this opportunity.

Teaching and Learning 

Getting to Know Brightspace: Fall 2025 Semester Courses Available 
Courses for the Fall 2025 semester are now available for instructor access. You may request a practice course page, Blackboard course migration, or a section Merge. You can also add teaching assistants to your courses early by adding a user to 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  

Updated CITI Training Login System
The CITI training login system now requires the use of CUNY Login credentials. Please use this CUNY-specific link to log into CITI. When logging into CITI Program with your CUNY Login credentials, please remember:

• If you have a correct EmployeeID in your existing CITI account, you will see your CUNY-affiliated training page immediately.

• If your EmployeeID is not correct, log in once with your existing CITI username and password (which you can reset if forgotten). After this, you will only need your CUNY Login credentials.
• If you have multiple accounts, the most recent one will show automatically. Please contact CITI for help merging accounts. If you have no existing account or cannot retrieve your username and password, CITI will create a new account affiliated with CUNY.

All independent researchers without valid CITI Training Certification (RCR/HSR) are required to request that an account be manually created for them. Principal investigators (PIs) or independent researchers can request the manual creation of a CUNY CITI account by completing the CUNY-Affiliated CITI Account Request Form.

Reminder: Independent Researcher Agreements
An independent researcher is someone who conducts research without being affiliated with a university or other institution. A CUNY Independent Researcher Agreement (IRA) allows non-affiliated individuals to participate in CUNY research activities and ensures that they follow CUNY policies. The form requires signatures from the Baruch PI, independent researcher, and the PI’s department chair. After gathering these signatures and providing the required information, send the form to Keisha Peterson, Director, Office of Research Compliance and Outreach (ORCO), to obtain final approval from the Provost’s Office and, if applicable, export control review.

Faculty Publications 
Zachary Calamari, Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Sciences, had his article, “Post K-Pg Rise in Ant and Termite Prevalence Underlies Convergent Dietary Specialization in Mammals,” published last week in the International Journal of Organic Evolution.

Neil Hernandez, Assistant Professor, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, recently had his article, “An Examination of Shifting Enforcement Priorities: Republican Officeholders Reorganize the U.S. Immigration System, 1906-1913,” published in Social Science History.

Jihwon Park, Assistant Professor, Ross Department of Accountancy, co-authored an article entitled, “The Effects of MiFID II on Voluntary Disclosure,” published in Management Science.

Do you want to share something you published, exhibited, performed, or presented with the Baruch community? Submit your information to facultynews@baruch.cuny.edu.

Assessment, Accreditation, Institutional Effectiveness

Call for Proposals: CUNY Accreditation Conference
The CUNY Middle States Council, in collaboration with the CUNY Assessment Council and CUNY Central, will be hosting an accreditation conference on Friday, Oct. 24, from 10 am to 3 pm at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. The event will offer sessions and dialogues addressing accreditation and assessment in higher education, as well as the present national landscape and its impact on our institutions. Baruch’s Middle States Liaison, Dr. Tiffany Lee, Vice President for Institutional Field Relations, will serve as the keynote speaker. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. There is currently a call for proposals to present at the conference. If you are interested in submitting a proposal, please complete the proposal form by Friday, Aug. 15. Please view the flyer for more information.

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
Read President Wu’s blog and join the conversation.