Provost’s Newsletter: News and Updates from the Division of Academic Affairs for September 14, 2022

September 14, 2022

Dear Baruch Community:

Last week, our campus was closed in observance of the federal Labor Day holiday. The long weekend gave me the opportunity to enjoy a traditional Labor Day barbecue with family members upstate. I hope that you too enjoyed that long weekend! The Friday preceding the Labor Day weekend was a “no classes scheduled” day, which came as a surprise to me last year when I was new to Baruch. There are several more such days coming up in September and October as a well as a Thursday that follows a Monday class schedule on September 29. Whether you are new to Baruch, or have been here for decades, please be sure to check the Academic Calendar provided by the Office of the Registrar so that you can sync your course schedule and professional calendar with those dates.

If, like me, you also keep an eye on the research grants calendar, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipends program deadline is just around the corner. Also around the corner is the ninth annual International Conference of Undergraduate Research (ICUR) at Baruch. See details in the “Focus on Funding” and “Research” sections, respectively. In this issue, you will also read about the new Provost Innovation Fellow for Pedagogic Innovation, learn about the Starr Career Development Center (twice), and more!

Best wishes,

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

Campus Updates

Provost Innovation Fellow for Pedagogic Innovation and Special Initiatives
I am delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Caryn Medved, Professor of Communication Studies, as Provost Innovation Fellow for Pedagogic Innovation and Special Initiatives for the 2022–23 academic year. Dr. Medved will be researching hybrid master’s degree programs across peer institutions nationally, will be developing a program-level decision-making rubric for determining mixed modality programs at the graduate level, and will present on best practices for hybrid program development at the Second Annual Faculty Research Symposium, Friday, March 24, 2023.

Faculty Affairs

Increase in Workload Credit for Independent Study and Thesis Supervision
I repeatedly heard that the 0.2 unit workload credit for Independent Study was a disincentive for engaging students in research. Effective with the Spring 2023 semester, Independent Study workload credit increases to 0.3 units for independent study courses and 0.5 units for graduate thesis supervision.

In Memoriam: Fred Lane
With great sadness, the Marxe School wrote me of the passing of Frederick Lane. Fred was a scholar, practitioner, teacher, mentor, and friend to more people than we can imagine, not only at Baruch, but in the much larger space he occupied. Although he formally retired in 2008, that was only on paper. Fred never disengaged from the school, having recently participated in the open forums for the Marxe Dean Search last spring. We send our condolences to Fred’s wife, Madeleine Winger Adler, and his sons, Cary and Rand. You can learn more about Fred in this 2015 faculty highlight.

Student Success

Starr Career Development Center Resources for Students
Please make your students aware of the College’s Starr Career Development Center (Starr). The center provides free services, resources, networks, information, and opportunities that students need to launch successful careers, including online tutorials, career counseling, résumé reviews, mock interviews, vocational assessments, employment expos and fairs, and hundreds of new local, national, and international internships and jobs posted monthly. Students can find these and other robust resources by logging on to Starr Search, the online career-management portal, located on Starr’s website.

Teaching and Learning

Conversation Partners Program
Building community is important, especially as we transition out of the pandemic, and there is no better platform than Baruch’s Conversation Partners Program (CPP) to bring students together. CPP matches students who are native and nonnative speakers of English for informal conversations. Nonnative students gain confidence in English, native speakers gain experience in communicating across language barriers, and all expand their cultural knowledge, make friends, and build a network of professional contacts. For Fall 2022, all CPP participants meet their partners online at least six times this semester for about one hour. Learn more.

Starr Career Development Center Can Visit Your Class
Not only is the Starr Career Development Center an essential resource to Baruch students, it is also a resource for faculty. If you would like Starr staff to make a presentation in your class, you can request a Starr Speaker. Starr is also available for consultations on how to integrate career-ready competencies into your courses. Learn more.

Research

Innovation Seed Grant Award
Professors Rahul Pathak and Carolyn Abott, of the Marxe and Weissman Schools, respectively, are teaming up to collaboratively research “Fiscal Federalism and the Local Public Good Provision.” They have received a $12,000 seed grant from the Office of the Provost to support their early-stage research. They expect to develop two articles from their research and will be submitting proposals to the Russell Sage Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation for additional support.

Faculty Fellowships and Awards
In addition to the Innovation Seed Grant, Professor Rahul Pathak has also been awarded the 2022–23 Richard P. Nathan Public Policy Fellowship by the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

Professor Sankar Sen’s paper “Reaping relational rewards from corporate social responsibility: The role of competitive positioning,” co-authored with colleagues from the University of New Hampshire and University of Pittsburgh, has won the European Marketing Academy (EMAC) 2022 Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp Award for Long-Term Impact.

Student Research Wins Award
Marxe MPA student Gail Fitzer has been selected to receive the 2022 Pi Alpha Alpha Master’s Student Manuscript of the Year Award for her paper “The Connection Between Climate Change, COVID-19, and Infectious Diseases.” The paper was reviewed by faculty from across the public service education field and chosen as one of the best from a pool of applicants.

International Conference of Undergraduate Research 2022
Provost Innovation Fellow Katherine Pence (History) has been leading College-wide efforts to support undergraduate research as a high-impact teaching practice. An annual highlight of those efforts is Baruch’s International Conference of Undergraduate Research (ICUR), which this year will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 28–Thursday, Sept. 29. Organized by the Monash-Warwick Alliance and funded at Baruch by the Office of the Provost, the two-day conference—in its ninth year at Baruch—will showcase the work of nearly 600 emerging undergraduate researchers from around the world, including 15 students from across Baruch departments. Review the schedule of panels featuring Baruch’s presenters, and encourage students in your classes to attend to experience models of completed research. Sample audience participation assignments can be found here.

Focus on Funding

NEH Summer Stipends
The NEH Summer Stipends program aims to stimulate new research in the humanities and its publication. Recent Baruch College recipients include Professor Zoe Griffith (History) and CUNY Distinguished Professor Alison Griffiths (Communication Studies). The September 21 deadline is just around the corner! Learn more.

Assessment and Accreditation

The NSSE Survey Is Coming!
Baruch College will be participating in the 2023 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The College last participated in 2020. NSSE helps us understand how students are spending time in and out of the classroom, which guides decisions about to how improve the student experience.

Deadlines and Reminders

Recertification of Centers and Institutes
The City University of New York is implementing a recertification process that aims to ensure that all existing centers, institutes, and consortia are in compliance with the CUNY policy by Fall 2023. Materials are due to provost@baruch.cuny.edu by Friday, Sept. 30.

Stay Connected

Strategic Planning
You can follow progress on the Baruch College Community Strategic Planning process and submit comments and suggestions on the Strategic Planning page.

President Wu’s Blog
President Wu publishes a monthly 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 Newsletter, published each Friday, click here.