Provost’s Newsletter: News and Updates from the Division of Academic Affairs for May 29, 2024

May 29, 2024

Dear Baruch College Community:

Yesterday was my favorite day of the year: Baruch College Commencement! Commencement is where we really see Baruch’s unique combination of access and excellence come together to achieve outcomes. More than 5,400 students were honored at Commencement yesterday, along with the President of the American Museum of Natural History, Dr. Sean Decatur, who received an honorary degree. Alumna Lara Abrash (MBA ’94) provided the Commencement address, and our own President S. David Wu gave an inspiring send-off to our newest alumni. Over 100 faculty and numerous staff were there to share in the festivities!

As the academic year ends, one of the less positive things I’m looking back on is what seems to be a significant increase in cyberbullying. Some of our students, many of whom spent formative high school time online, are using third-party platforms to say things about one another that are hurtful or even perceived to be threatening. Faculty are not immune to the effects, with students writing about faculty members on these platforms too. As a community, we can help maintain a positive learning environment for our students by encouraging students to do all of their group work, group discussions, and class-related communications within the learning management system, D2L Brightspace. We will soon be adding anti-cyberbullying content to the Intro to Brightspace course for students as well.

To help strengthen that “civil discourse” muscle at every level, we’ll be engaging a second cohort of the very successful Dialogic Classroom Workshop next year, with details to follow as faculty return for the Fall 2024 semester.

As we enter the summer season, we are doing so with D2L Brightspace fully deployed. You can log in to your personalized Brightspace portal here. Scroll down for more details. And … please remember that the deadline for the required E-SPARC and WVP trainings is this Friday, May 31.

Best wishes,

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

Campus Updates

Dr. Tammie Cumming Appointed Associate Provost for Assessment, Accreditation, and Institutional Effectiveness
I am thrilled to announce that Dr. Tammie Cumming, currently Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness at Brooklyn College, will be joining Baruch College in a similar capacity on Friday, July 5. An expert on assessment and accreditation, she is a frequently sought after speaker on the topic both nationally and internationally. In addition to assessment and accreditation, she will oversee the work of institutional research and collaborate closely with Chief of Staff Dr. Kenya Lee and Provost Essig on tracking progress toward the College’s strategic goals and the CUNY Performance Management Plan (PMP) process.

Welcome Ethan Webster, College Registrar
I am also delighted to welcome Ethan Webster, who joined Baruch on May 13 as College Registrar. Ethan served most recently at Pacific College of Health and Science, where he was College Registrar and Director of Financial Aid, overseeing staff and operations on three campuses (San Diego, Chicago, and New York). He brings a demonstrated commitment to broadening access to higher education, a facility for using data and technology to actively support student success, and strong leadership skills to promote professional development and a collaborative approach to problem-solving.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Eliza Tom for assuming leadership of the Office of the Registrar during a long and challenging transition year that included the implementation of new systems, a major network disruption, and several unanticipated staff vacancies. She and her colleagues have worked incredibly hard, and I am very grateful for their expertise, patience, and extraordinary dedication.

Faculty Affairs

Finalized Guidelines for Appointment, Tenure, and Promotion of Faculty
After a yearlong process of review, the College Personnel and Budget Committee adopted new guidelines for appointment, reappointment, promotion, and tenure. Faculty should familiarize themselves with these guidelines, available here.

Teaching and Learning 

It’s Here: D2L Brightspace Launches with Summer Session
To help support you during this transition, the LMS transition team has curated a list of resources and supports. We recommend engaging with the materials available to you and that you begin exploring Brightspace as soon as possible.

• Log in to Brightspace using this URL: brightspace.cuny.edu. You will log in using your CUNYfirst username and password (firstname.lastname##@login.cuny.edu). You will also find a link to log in to Brightspace under “Quick Links” on the Baruch website.
• Visit Baruch’s Brightspace transition website to learn more about the transition, available professional development and training, and other support.
• Attend any of the extended Brightspace Drop-in Support Hours beginning tomorrow, Thursday, May 30. Extended support hours are Mondays and Thursdays from 12 noon–1 pm and 5–6 pm. No registration is required; use this Zoom link to join the Drop-in Hour.
• Access 24/7 Support from Brightspace. Support is available to CUNY faculty, staff, and students via phone, chat, and email. When engaging with support make sure to say you are a CUNY faculty or staff member and provide your CUNYfirst username as your Brightspace email address (firstname.lastname##@login.cuny.edu).
• Reach out to the Baruch Brightspace Transition team by emailing brightspace@baruch.cuny.edu.

Research

Using Institutional Data for Research
Baruch College Principal Investigators, faculty, and PhD students seeking to use institutional data in their research projects must complete a Data Transfer and Non-Disclosure Agreement to obtain permission. This agreement is a memorandum of understanding that protects the rights of the institution, its students, faculty, and staff and clarifies how the institutional data may be used.

Faculty Achievements
Dr. Angie Beeman, Associate Professor, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, has received the Doris Wilkinson Faculty Leadership Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems. This national award recognizes scholars whose work focuses on social issues of contemporary public importance. Congratulations!

Dr. Stephanie Hershinow, Associate Professor, Department of English, has recently conducted an interview with the Booker Prize–nominated novelist Brandon Taylor for the Novel Dialogue podcast. Please click here to listen to the podcast.

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

Assessment, Accreditation, Institutional Effectiveness

Program Review Process Updates
On behalf of the College, the Office of Assessment, Accreditation, and Institutional Effectiveness (OAAIE) would like to acknowledge the Departments of History, Mathematics, and Modern Languages and Comparative Literature for successfully engaging in the academic program review process during the 2023–24 academic year. To provide additional guidance and clarity for future reviews, OAAIE has developed a checklist for the external review component of the program review process. The program review schedule and reporting template, as well as the external review checklists, can be accessed here. In addition, department data requests can be submitted to the Office of Institutional Research here.

Reminders 

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. 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.