Provost’s Newsletter: News and Updates from the Division of Academic Affairs for May 29, 2025

May 29, 2025

Dear Baruch College Community:

Happy Commencement! Yesterday was a day of joy and celebration—and my favorite day of the year. Baruch College conferred 5,246 undergraduate and graduate degrees at the Barclays Center to students from each of its schools and majors. It is truly the highest honor of my career to be the “host” of this ceremony.

As we move into the summer months, many of us are considering the impacts of AI on our work and beyond. As President Wu wrote in his recent blog, “AI is now forcing us to rethink our place in the human world.” As we do, I share a cautionary tale about two professors at Northeastern University and Southern New Hampshire University who appear to have taken their use of AI too far by outsourcing their course materials and their student feedback, respectively, to AI agents. As a third professor notes in the article, “‘The value that we add as instructors is the feedback that we’re able to give students,’ he said. ‘It’s the human connections that we forge with students as human beings who are reading their words and who are being impacted by them.’” As AI use becomes more normalized, we must never forget these human connections and the human value faculty and staff bring to their interactions with students.

In support of these human connections, the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences is receiving a planning grant from the Teagle Foundation for a project called “Reading is Human.” The grant will support efforts to integrate human-to-human reading aloud exercises into First Year Seminar, as well as Pathways courses in the Departments of English, Philosophy, Black and Latino Studies, and eventually others. If brought to scale, the initiative is designed to improve both our students’ engagement with reading and with one another.

The report of the Cross-College Committee on AI Curriculum Development, currently under review by college-level faculty committees, also leans into human connection by calling for both the responsible and ethical use of artificial intelligence. They write, “By responsible use of AI, we refer to understanding when use is permissible, when it should be discouraged, and how to critically evaluate the answers received from AI.” Our own AI Use Guidance calls for all users to “disclose that the content was generated by AI.” Please keep this guidance in mind as you explore how to integrate AI into your own work.

On an unrelated matter, I note that the Fall 2025 academic calendar has some nuances necessitated by the later start date and the addition of holidays. Among the anomalies created by these changes is that Friday, October 24, will run on a Monday schedule. This may create a scheduling challenge for Friday religious observance by both students and faculty. Faculty are obligated by policy to provide equivalent experiences to students to accommodate religious observance and may themselves be affected by this schedule change. Some options for equivalent experiences are to record a lecture in advance and post on the course Brightspace site for asynchronous learning; hold a make-up session on a mutually agreeable date; or assign meaningful take-home work in place of in-person instruction that can be completed asynchronously. Please make plans early for accommodating this Friday, October 24, schedule change.

Many faculty and staff take time off during the summer months. I myself will be away next week giving a talk at Aärhus University, returning Monday, June 9. The Office of the Provost remains open, of course.

Best wishes,

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

P.S. No AI was used in writing this letter.

Campus Updates

Daniel Libertz Wins Inaugural Assessment Excellence Award
Congratulations to Daniel Libertz, Assistant Professor, Department of English, for receiving the inaugural Assessment Excellence Award. This award recognizes excellence in learning assessment practices that have contributed to the improvement of Baruch College student outcomes. Libertz’s detailed process for assessing learning outcomes in First-Year Writing exemplifies a commitment both to individual student learning and institutional improvement. His assessment design examines student growth while also assessing how students were producing writing that met our expectations for the Pathways composition learning outcomes.

CUNY-GO Travel Registration Requirements
All CUNY faculty and staff traveling abroad or to a U.S. territory for college-related purposes must register their travel plans with CUNY-GO if not already reported by the Study Abroad Office. CUNY-GO informs travelers of requirements based on their destination. Please consult with the CUNY Campus Export Control Administrator (ECA) or University Export Control Officer for travel to countries on the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Sanctions Programs list, which includes Afghanistan, Belarus, Myanmar, Cuba, and others. For any questions, please contact Office of Research Compliance and Outreach Director Keisha Peterson or University Export Control Officer Angela Pilla.

Teaching and Learning 

Getting to Know Brightspace: Perusall Integration 
Perusall, a social annotation tool, has now been integrated into Brightspace. Perusall will allow students to collaboratively annotate readings with other classmates. To add a Perusall activity to your Brightspace course, navigate to a content module and under “Existing Activities,” select Perusall-Baruch. If you need support using this feature, please contact the Baruch Brightspace Team to request an overview appointment. 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  

Human Subjects Research Reminder
In the context of research, human subjects are considered living individuals who are part of a study. Researchers might collect information or samples from them directly by interacting, conducting interventions, or analyzing existing data or samples that are tied to their identities. For principal investigators to be considered engaged in human-subjects research, there must be an intent to produce generalizable knowledge. Generalizable knowledge is designed to draw general conclusions, inform policy, or generalize findings beyond a single individual or an internal program. The information is collected to share with others in a discipline and make a broad statement (conclusion) about a group of people, procedures, programs, and more. If you are unsure if a project or activity requires HRPP/IRB review, please contact the Office of Research Compliance and Outreach.

Faculty and Staff Achievements 
Ashley Gaskew, Assistant Professor, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, recently published a new collaborative article, “All Eyez on Me: Undergraduate Black Women Student Leaders at HBCUs Visual Reflections on Their Leadership Experiences,” in the Journal of African American Women and Girls in Education.

Congratulations to Associate Professor of Journalism and Writing Professions Gisele Regatão on publishing five long-form journalism features with The World:

• “Brazilian Hip-Hop Artist Brisa Flow Brings Indigenous Issues to the Fore”

• “What South America’s Largest Buddhist Temple Says About the Religion’s Growing Influence in Brazil”

• “‘She Transcends’: French-Chilean Rapper Ana Tijoux Finds Hope and Meaning in ‘Vida’”

• “Japan Awakens for the Global Art Market”

• “Brazilian Rapper MC Soffia Is on a Mission to Empower Black Women”

Robert Wagner, Associate Professor and Deputy Chair, Department of Law, was named one of four finalists for this year’s Academy in Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Charles M. Hewitt Master Teacher Competition. He will formally present his ideas at the annual ALSB Conference this summer. Congratulations!

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

Reminders

Now Open: Faculty Mentoring Network Mentor and Mentee Applications for AY 2025–26
The Baruch Faculty Mentoring Network supports faculty across the College with opt-in, needs-based mentoring at all career stages. If you would like to sign up to be a mentor or a mentee next year, applications are now available through the Mentoring Network’s SharePoint site. Faculty can use this online portal to view areas of support and identify a preferred mentor. Additionally, faculty can stay updated on upcoming Mentoring Network events, workshops, faculty interest groups (FIGs), peer mentoring/networking opportunities, and other resources designed to support faculty. For more information regarding the Mentoring Network and any questions, please contact Norene Leddy, Director of Faculty Affairs.

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.