Provost’s Newsletter: News and Updates from the Division of Academic Affairs for October 16, 2024
October 16, 2024
Dear Baruch College Community:
Last week I had the pleasure of introducing Baruch faculty and staff to the plans and renderings for the new space at 63 Madison Avenue (entrance on 27th Street). If you weren’t able to attend the forum, the project’s SharePoint site can be accessed here, where you can find a video recording of the presentation. The draft floor plans were central to the presentation. In addition to an executive education suite featuring classrooms, a dining room, a computer lab, and breakout rooms, five 40-seat classrooms and two 75-seat classrooms will be used for cohort-based master’s programs and other courses. Specifically, there is room in the schedule (especially the weekday morning schedule) for other classes at the 4000 level or above. If you are a faculty member interested in teaching in these new spaces when they become available, please fill out this interest form.
Next week, students, faculty, and staff can participate in a weeklong festival of civil discourse as part of the Baruch Connects series outlined by the President earlier today. I hope to see you on Clivner=Field Plaza at the Fall Festival, at one of the faculty-led discussions, or at the keynote talk by Kazu Haga, “Dialogue as a Stepping Stone for Social Change.”
Another area of focus for the Office of the Provost this year is artificial intelligence as it relates to teaching and operations. On behalf of the Artificial Intelligence Think Tank, I am thrilled to share that Michael J. Jabbour, Chief Innovation Officer at Microsoft, will be holding an interactive and informative session on Thursday, Nov. 7, from 3 to 5 pm. Details on this follow.
Finally, the popular “Provost’s Reading Corner” section returns to the newsletter this week, following the rest of the news.
Best wishes,
Linda Essig
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Campus Updates
Artificial Intelligence Forum on Thursday, Nov. 7
The Baruch Artificial Intelligence Think Tank will be hosting an interactive presentation led by Dr. Michael J. Jabbour, Chief Innovation Officer at Microsoft. The event will be held on Thursday, Nov. 7, from 3 to 5 pm, in the Newman Vertical Campus (NVC), Fifth Floor, Room 5-150. Dr. Jabbour will cover AI use cases for education, AI governance, and AI prompt architecture. The presentation will be followed by a hands-on “prompt-a-thon,” which will be announced at a later date. Seating will be limited to 150 people and is expected to fill quickly, so please RSVP at this link.
Faculty Affairs
First Faculty Interest Group Meeting on Gender Studies on Friday, Oct. 18
Please join Shawn Grant, Assistant Professor, Department of Law, and Katherine Pence, Associate Professor, Department of History, for the inaugural meeting of the Gender Studies Faculty Interest Group (FIG) on Friday, Oct. 18, from 3 to 4 pm via Zoom. As the Supreme Court starts its new term and we approach the presidential election, this group aims to have a conversation about where we are regarding reproductive healthcare access and where we might be going. Click here to register in advance. For more information on FIGs, click here.
Teaching and Learning
Reminder to Submit Progress Reports
Progress Reports, formerly known as “Early Alerts,” communicate feedback to students who may need to change their attendance or assignment behaviors or seek tutoring to achieve a grade of C or above. Faculty can also use Progress Reports to provide positive feedback to students, encouraging them to continue to perform well in the course. Through Progress Reports, students are connected to advisors, tutors, and counselors as early as possible to lead them to support services that have a proven record of enhancing student success. Please submit your Progress Reports as soon as possible. For more information, click here.
Center for Teaching and Learning Faculty Advisory Committee
The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) Faculty Advisory Committee was formed in Fall 2024 to ensure that faculty guide and shape the CTL. This academic year, the committee will be supporting an analysis of CTL programming and writing a strategic plan reflective of faculty needs across all learning modalities and all phases of the faculty career cycle in partnership with Senior Director Meechal Hoffman. The inaugural committee members are Hilary Botein, Associate Professor (chair), Marxe School of Public and International Affairs; Felicia Arriaga, Assistant Professor, Marxe School; Shane Clark, Lecturer, Department of Mathematics; Stephanie Hershinow, Associate Professor, Department of English; Diogo Hildebrand, Assistant Professor, Aaronson Department of Marketing and International Business; Helaine Korn, Professor, Loomba Department of Management; and Jessica Webster, Associate Professor, Newman Library.
Getting to Know Brightspace: Export and Import Quizzes from Blackboard
As the semester progresses, faculty may need to import additional tests and quizzes from Blackboard over to Brightspace. To do this, you will first need to export your test from Blackboard. Access your course in Blackboard and navigate to the “Tests, Surveys, and Pools” section in the Course Tools menu. Click on Tests and locate the test you want to export, then click the dropdown arrow next to the test name and select Export to Local Computer. A .zip file of the test will download to your computer. Do not unzip this file—you’ll upload it as is. Now that you have the test exported from Blackboard, navigate to your course in Brightspace, go to Course Admin, and select Import/Export/Copy Components. Select Import Components and click Start. Upload the .zip file that you exported from Blackboard by selecting Upload and then selecting the file on your computer. Click Continue and proceed through the steps to map the quiz to the appropriate area in 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
Call for Presenters: Faculty Research Symposium Fall Showcase PechaKucha Presentation Slots
Full-time faculty from across Baruch College are encouraged to apply to present their work at the Fall Showcase of the Faculty Research Symposium, which will be held on Monday, Nov. 4, from 1:30 to 5 pm. Please see the Call for Applications here and submit your application by Monday, Oct. 21. Two faculty presenters are eligible for a $1,000 research award each to be chosen by the audience. If you have any questions about the showcase or the application process, please contact Associate Provost Raquel Fich.
New Video Provides Tips on How to Create an IRB Application
As part of the continuing compliance education efforts of the Office of Research and Compliance (ORCO), Christopher Stults, Faculty IRB Liaison, has produced a “Top 10 Tips” video, which provides researchers with guidance on creating an IRB Application. This video has been posted under Step 4 of the Researcher Guide on ORCO’s website. Please contact Professor Stults or Dr. Elliott Larson, HRPP Consultant, to schedule research methods class visits and presentations, assist with the creation of human subjects applications, and review draft proposals.
Call for Proposals: Howard J. Samuels State and City Policy Center Fellowships
The Howard J. Samuels State and City Policy Center at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs invites proposals for their 2025 fellowships. There are two fellowships available: the Samuels Doctoral Fellows program and the Samuels Public Affairs Fellowship. The Doctoral Fellows program is intended for PhD students who have defended their dissertation proposals, and the Public Affairs Fellowship is intended for academics, researchers, and community leaders who work in the field of public affairs. Up to four fellows in each category will be awarded unrestricted grants of $5,000 each. The application deadline for both fellowships is Monday, Nov. 11. To apply and learn more about the Doctoral Fellows Program, click here. To apply and learn more about the Public Affairs Fellowship, click here.
Responsible Conduct of Research Training and Research Integrity Office Reminders
All faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and research-active undergraduate students are required to complete the online course on Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) offered by the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI). To take the course, navigate to the CITI Program website, click “Register” and select “City University of New York” as your institution. Upon completing the RCR course, please send a copy of your certificate to the Research Integrity Officer for Baruch. Certificates are valid for four years. The Research Integrity Officer (RIO) for Baruch College monitors compliance with the RCR online training requirement and also serves as the point person for allegations of research misconduct against members of the Baruch community. For additional information or inquiries, please visit the RIO website or email rio@baruch.cuny.edu.
Faculty Achievements
Natural Sciences Professors Adrian Dumitru and Jamal Jalilian-Marian have received a $1.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy as Principal Investigators for a project that involves the research and understanding of the structure of protons and nuclei at high energy. Congratulations!
Zachary Calamari, Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Sciences, has been invited by the National Academy of Sciences to present his research “Building a Single-Nucleus Atlas of the Fetal Horn Bud” at the Japanese-American-German Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium in Kyoto, Japan, at the end of October.
Els de Graauw, Professor, Department of Political Science, co-authored the book, Advancing Immigrant Rights in Houston, recently published by Temple University Press.
George E. Mitchell, Professor and Director of the Center for Nonprofit Strategy and Management, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, co-authored the article “Is Governance Aligned with Rhetoric? Exploring the Board Composition of Leading Transnational NGOs,” which has been recently published in the Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs.
Lin Peng, David Krell Chair in Finance, Wasserman Department of Economics and Finance, co-authored the paper “Unleashing the Crowd: The Effect of Social Networks in Crowdfunding Markets,” which has been recently published in Management Science.
Jason Spicer, Assistant Professor, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, has had his book Co-operative Enterprise in Comparative Perspective: Exceptionally Un-American? published by the Oxford University Press this past September.
Do you want to share something you published, exhibited, performed, or presented with the Baruch community? Submit your information here.
Focus on Funding
Call for Proposals: Incentive Grants for Joint Projects from Faculty in Strategic Research Clusters
Full-time faculty in any of the three strategic research clusters (Climate Studies, Data Science, and Entrepreneurship and Innovation) are invited to form an interdisciplinary cross-departmental team and propose a joint research project. Promising early ideas for joint research projects aligned with the theme of the cluster will be considered for a $5,000 research award. Awards can only be used for research-related expenses for this project and must be spent before Monday, Jun. 30, 2025. The goal of this seed funding is to help teams develop a viable proposal for submission to an external funder by the end of the award period. For more information, please see the full details in the “Cluster Research Interdisciplinary Incentive Grants” section of the Faculty Grants and Awards for 2024-2025 webpage. The deadline for the proposal application is Friday, Nov. 15. For more information and questions about this call, please contact Associate Provost Raquel Fich.
In Memoriam
Remembering John Emerson Todd
It is with great sorrow that I announce the passing of John Emerson Todd, Associate Professor, Department of English. Dr. Todd was part of a substantial cohort that helped build the growing Baruch College. He served first as a professor, and then as Deputy Chair of the Department of English, before beginning his 18-year tenure as Chair of the Department of English. Dr. Todd was a true believer in the unique mission of the department and always touted what he saw as its extraordinary faculty, of which he was very proud.
Provost’s Reading Corner
I enjoyed quite a few books in August, but my reading pace always slows as the fall semester ramps up. Two books by or about Asian chefs made me hungry for more: Chop Fry Watch Learn: Fu Pei-Mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Cuisine and the bittersweet Savor: A Chef’s Hunger for More. The summer is also a good time—for me, the only time—for a thriller and with election season underway, I devoured State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny. The “Varsity Blues” admissions scandal is the backdrop for Michael Sandel’s exploration of moral philosophy in The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? Our Brooklyn College colleague, novelist Ben Lerner wrote one of my favorite books, The Topeka School, so I picked up his 10:04 when it was listed by the New York Times as one of the “100 Best Books of the 21st Century.” It’s not a book about Hurricane Sandy, but very much a book of Hurricane Sandy, and brought back memories of wandering the streets of Brooklyn Heights before it hit and lower Manhattan in its aftermath. A similar mood pervades the near future setting of The Morningside by Téa Obreht. Rounding out my nonfiction consumption, I’m finishing up Tim Alberta’s The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. There were some other books that I started and set aside… I’ll keep the “rejected” pile to myself.
Do you have a reading recommendation to share? You can submit yours here.
Reminders
Coffee Chat/Tea Talk on Wednesday, Oct. 23
The October Academic Affairs Coffee Chat/Tea Talk is co-hosted by Dr. Gary Dillon, Counseling Center, and Professor Ryan Coughlan, Marxe School. Join them on Wednesday Oct. 23, from 9:30 to 10:30 am in the Newman Vertical Campus (NVC), 14th Floor, Room 14-269.
Save the Date: Fourth Cross-College Faculty Research Symposium Fall Showcase on Monday, Nov. 4
All faculty are invited to attend the Fall Showcase of the Faculty Research Symposium. This showcase will take place in person on Monday, Nov. 4, from 1:30 to 5 pm and will be followed by a networking reception. Faculty presenters are eligible for two $1,000 research awards chosen by the audience. Faculty will learn about the exciting research projects that their colleagues are working on and vote for their favorite presentation. If you plan to attend, please RSVP here. If you have any questions, please contact Associate Provost Raquel Fich.
Save the Dates: Faculty Mentoring Network Gatherings on Monday, Nov. 4, and Thursday, Mar. 27
In addition to connecting faculty with mentors via the online portal, the Faculty Mentoring Network is working to create a culture of mentorship across the College, with in-person events for all faculty to encourage mentoring and networking. Please save the dates for our Faculty Mentoring Network Gatherings on Monday, Nov. 4, and Thursday, Mar. 27, from 5 to 7 pm. These will happen immediately after the Faculty Research Showcases and are opportunities to meet peers, mentors, and potential collaborators from across the College.
NCFDD Faculty Success Program Application Due Wednesday, Oct. 30
This year, there are two spots available for the Spring 2025 NCFDD Faculty Success Program (FSP). FSP is a 10-week virtual program that includes weekly small group meetings led by a seasoned faculty coach, additional self-led online modules, and access to support platforms and a peer community. The online application is now open. All Assistant Professors on tenure track are encouraged to apply. The College has several faculty members who have gone through the FSP and have shared its positive impact on their careers. Click here for more information. Please submit an application by Wednesday, Oct. 30.
Baruch Faculty Mentoring Network SharePoint Site Now Available
The College-wide Baruch Faculty Mentoring Network pilot SharePoint site is now available to support both professorial title faculty and lecturers at all career stages. The site is available to all full-time faculty via CUNYfirst login (firstname.lastname## @ login.cuny.edu). It includes faculty resources and contacts, as well as events, workshops, deadlines, and more.
Additionally, eligible full-time faculty interested in being mentored can select an area of support and a potential mentor on the SharePoint site. The mentee application will be available until all spots are filled, or Thursday, Oct. 31. Since this is the pilot year of our mentorship program with limited space, mentee applications will be open to Baruch faculty in these categories only:
- Full-time faculty (both lecturers and tenure track) who were hired in AY 2023–24 or AY 2024–25
- Faculty who participated in our mentoring focus groups conducted in Spring 2024
- Associate Professors who have been at rank for five years or more
If you’d like to learn more about the Baruch Faculty Mentoring Network, please contact Norene Leddy, Director of Faculty Affairs, and Dr. David Jones, Senior Mentor and Professor of Political Science.
Adjunct Community Space in Brightspace
The Adjunct Community Space is updated regularly to provide resources and announce events, trainings, and other critical information for adjunct faculty—please be sure to turn on notifications. If you are an adjunct faculty member and you do not see the Adjunct Community Space in your list of Brightspace courses, please contact Adjunct Services to be added as soon as possible.
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.