Provost’s Newsletter: News and Updates from the Division of Academic Affairs for May 15, 2024
May 15, 2024
Dear Baruch College Community:
Today is the last day of classes for the Spring 2024 semester! While this academic year has been one filled with some unexpected challenges, it was also filled with wonderful opportunities. For the Division of Academic Affairs, it has been a banner year:
· Hired and onboarded 61 new full-time faculty
· Initiated three strategic research clusters
· Formed six cross-college working groups to achieve the goals of the Baruch College Strategic Plan
· Launched the Office of Experiential and Community-Engaged Learning (ExCEL)
· Completed revision of the College Personnel and Budget (P&B) Guidelines for Appointment, Tenure, and Promotion (scroll down for story and links)
· Published five institutional research data dashboards
· Held 32 Brightspace workshops serving over 407 faculty members
· Initiated new community-building events, including Heritage Month Coffee Chats/Tea Talks
· Launched two new online degree programs (OMBA and OMPA) through the Digital Learning Hub
· Doubled RF research expenditures
· Initiated the Baruch Artificial Intelligence Think Tank
We’ll be carrying this momentum into the 2024–25 academic year with the launch of a new faculty mentoring network, two more online master’s programs, the expansion of the transfer peer mentor network, and more.
As we enter finals week, we are of course looking forward to our 2024 Commencement Ceremonies at Barclays Center on Tuesday, May 28. See you there!
Best wishes,
Dr. Linda Essig
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Campus Updates
Call for Action: Please Submit Textbook Adoptions
Per the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), the College is required to publish information on textbook adoptions within 45 days of the start of class. For the Summer 2024 session, that date was April 1. Adoptions submitted after that point are considered outside of the HEOA requirements. Currently, only 74 percent of textbooks for the Summer 2024 session and 58 percent of textbooks for the Fall 2024 semester have been published. The College is still far short of the textbook adoptions required by statute. Please submit your textbook adoption information as soon as possible.
Faculty Affairs
Revised College Guidelines for Appointment, Tenure, and Promotion of Faculty
Culminating a year-long review of the College Personnel and Budget (P&B) Guidelines for Appointment, Tenure, and Promotion that included input from the Baruch Faculty Senate and the faculty community at large, the College P&B Committee voted unanimously on May 7 to adopt new guidelines. You can find the guidelines and the department and school guidelines to which they refer here.
Announcing the 2024 Presidential Excellence Awards Winners
A total of 57 faculty across all three schools as well as the library were nominated for the Presidential Excellence Awards in Teaching (both full time and part time), Scholarship, and Service. Three selection committees reviewed the 26 dossiers submitted by nominees. I am pleased to announce the 2024 recipients of the Presidential Excellence Awards:
- Presidential Excellence Award for Teaching (full time): Anna D’Souza, Associate Professor, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs
- Presidential Excellence Award for Teaching (part time): Korey Hughes, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
- Presidential Excellence Award for Scholarship: Scott Newbert, Lawrence N. Field Family Chair in Entrepreneurship and Professor, Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
- Presidential Excellence Award for Service: Stephanie Hershinow, Associate Professor, Department of English
Congratulations to Anna, Korey, Scott, and Stephanie! All of the awardees will be honored at the Annual Faculty Convocation on Thursday, Sept. 19, from 12:30 to 2:30 pm. Please mark your calendars!
Teaching and Learning
Letters of Interest Accepted Through Wednesday, May 22: Faculty Director, Center for Teaching and Learning
The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is seeking a new Faculty Director for the 2024–25 academic year with possible re-appointment for an additional one to two years. The Faculty Director will provide strategic leadership and vision for the CTL, with a primary focus on faculty development and the advancement of pedagogical practices. This role will be pivotal in shaping a dynamic learning environment that fosters continuous improvement in teaching and in learning outcomes for students. This faculty leadership position reports directly to the Associate Provost for Instructional Excellence and Pedagogical Innovation and functions in collaboration with the CTL’s Senior Director, who also reports to the Associate Provost. Letters of interest should be sent to provost@baruch.cuny.edu by Wednesday, May 22.
Research
Resources Available for Researchers
The Office of Research Compliance (ORCO) would like to remind Baruch researchers that Dr. Christopher Stults, Assistant Professor of Psychology, is the faculty IRB/HRPP Liaison. He is available for consultations on the logistics of developing and submitting new or amended protocols via the IRBManager system. Researchers can also find a wealth of information and resources on the ORCO website. Additionally, the website includes quarterly reports summarizing their reviewing activities and metrics. The most recent report (Q3 of FY23–24) is available here.
Faculty Achievements
Dr. Valerie Watnick, Professor, Department of Law, has authored the article “Climate Change, Marginalized Communities, and Pandemics: A New Paradigm for Transforming Industrial Animal Agriculture Through ESG,” which has been accepted for publication in the Environmental Law Review for their upcoming 2024 issue.
Dr. Don Waisanen, Professor, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, has co-authored the article “Why Do Some Shout and Others Stay Silent? Communication Context Consistency in Political Discourse Offline and on Facebook,” which has been recently published in the International Journal of Communication.
Do you want to share something you published, exhibited, performed, or presented with the Baruch community? Submit your information here.
Reminders
Adjunct Faculty Survey Request
Faculty Affairs has launched a survey for all adjunct faculty at Baruch. We want to know how we can better support you and your teaching and to hear your suggestions for new programs and workshops for adjuncts. Your feedback is strictly confidential and greatly appreciated. The results will directly inform our planning and scheduling of adjunct-specific events and resources. If you haven’t done so already, please click here to take the survey by tomorrow, Thursday, May 16. Please contact Norene Leddy for more information.
All Faculty and Staff Must Complete E-SPARC and WVP Trainings via Blackboard
All full-time and adjunct faculty, as well as all staff members, are required to take two online, asynchronous training courses each year: the 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. Full-time faculty should complete them no later than Friday, May 31, and all adjuncts have until the end of the current semester. For any questions or concerns about the trainings, please reach out to Maximillian Ng, 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.