2025-26 Welcome Back Address

Kick-Off Speech—Fall 2025

Welcome to the Academic Affairs Kick-off event. For those of you who may not know me, I’m Monica Brasted, Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Welcome back to those of you who were off this summer and thank you to those of you who worked all summer keeping the place going.

I want to give a special welcome our new faculty and staff. If this is your first fall semester with us, I ask that all new full-time and part-time faculty and staff stand. I am so pleased that you have joined our Brockport community and look forward to the contributions you will make. Let’s all give them a warm welcome with a round of applause. You may sit down.

The start of the fall semester is one of my favorite times of year because it is when the campus comes back to life with activity. Each semester is a new beginning with students (and faculty and staff) excited and maybe a little nervous about the opportunities and experiences the semester will bring. For Academic Affairs this semester brings change. Our restructuring is in place, and we now have a College of Arts and Sciences, a College of Education and Health, a School of Business and Management, and a brand new School of Nursing. (applause)

Another change is that I am now the interim Provost. I know that a change in leadership can make people nervous and can raise many questions. I want to spend a little time talking about myself to help ease some of the uncertainty anyone might be experiencing. First, I have no plans to restructure even though that seems to be what Provosts like to do. (please laugh).

Seriously though, I graduated from Brockport with my BA and MA in Communication. I returned to Brockport in 2001 as an Assistant Professor after attending Penn State University for my PhD in Mass Communication/Media Studies. I served as chair of the Communication Department for over six years, as Associate Dean for TAHSS and A & S for eight and a half years, and Interim Dean/Dean of Arts & Sciences for two years and change before becoming Interim Provost at the end of July. This means that I’m older than I like to think. Really, it means that I have some experience and institutional knowledge. That’s not to say that I know it all because I don’t. But I do know that I’m surrounded by great colleagues, who I can reach out to. As a leader, I don’t need to know it all, I just need to admit what I don’t know and ask the right people. This speaks a little to my leadership in general. I prefer to hear various perspectives and to work collaboratively.

Let me tell you a little bit about myself and my leadership style for those of you who haven’t worked with me before. I’d like to do so by discussing two signs that hang in my office.

The first sign was made for me by my daughter, and it reads, “Laugh when you can, Apologize when you should, and Let go of what you can’t change.” This reflects how I try to live my life.

Let me explain. Laugh when you can. I think it is important to try and not take life too seriously. Our jobs can be stressful, and the world is stressful, so it is important to laugh. Laughter is good for you. I will joke around when it is appropriate and maybe even when it isn’t. Like this speech am I supposed to be completely serious? As my attempts at a few jokes already show, I think not. Humor and laughter is important in our lives. I don’t know what my colleagues in the A & S Deans office miss more, me or my funny stories about my family. Of course, maybe they don’t miss either and they can get more work done. Now this is not to say that I don’t take my job or the work of Academic Affairs seriously. I do, but there is always room for some laughter.

Second, apologize when you should. This speaks to how you should treat people. I believe that we should treat one another with respect. One way to show respect is to apologize when you should. If I mishandle a situation or make someone feel a certain way, even if it was not my intention, it is important to apologize. No one is better than anyone else, and we all make valuable contributions to the success of our students. I will always try to treat people respectfully and apologize when I should.

Third, let go of what you can’t change. This is not always easy to do. But there are many things beyond our control. I can either waste my energy on worrying about things I can’t change, or I can let it go and focus on what I can do. (Which is a little more now that I’m Provost). Doing this might be why colleagues have often commented about how calm and even keeled I am. (Of course, they don’t see me at home).

Another sign in my office is in the shape of an eye exam chart and reads, “Work too long and you can lose sight of what is important in life.” This was given to me by my husband when I first started working at Brockport. I’ve taken it with me from office to office as a reminder. It is easy for us to put in too many hours at work and to lose our life/work balance. Some of you have heard me say before that, we do important work and make a real difference in the lives of our students, but this is just a job. There are other things that are important in our lives that we need to make time for. We don’t want to get so caught up in work that we miss out or have regrets.

Let me tell you a true story. One that I live with every day. A hard story. Some of you may know it. It was a Sunday and it was my sister’s birthday so I texted her early in the morning. A few hours later, she texted me back. I was going to call her since I knew she was by her phone, but since I was in the middle of grading papers, I decided I would call her later. I never got that chance. And I really regret that. A little over an hour later she was killed. I never got the chance to call her, because I prioritized a small task over an opportunity to connect, to tell her I loved her. As you can imagine, to this day, I regret prioritizing grading over calling her back. This is an extreme example, of course, but it’s why I am so firm about wanting you not to have regrets.

Please make time to go to your children’s events, to spend time with your spouses, family and friends. And don’t forget to make time just for yourselves. The work will always be here, but it shouldn’t be consuming all your time. It is important to strike a balance. Of course, I don’t think it falls solely on each of you to find that balance. It is my job as well to support you and to identify changes that can be made to lighten some of the workload. This may include not asking the same people over and over to serve on committees, looking to reduce redundancy, or supporting some of our structural changes with course releases. (course releases, embedded advisors). One of my personal goals is to work to create an environment in which faculty and staff feel supported. This includes an environment in which faculty and staff feel heard.

So, I’ve talked a lot more about myself than I normally would, but I thought it was important to try to let you learn a little more about me.

I’d like to now turn our attention to Academic Affairs and some of the great things that we accomplished last year as well as some plans for this year.

What follows are a few highlights of accomplishments from last year—you can read about more in the Academic Affairs Divisional report.

Academic Affairs Divisional Goal 1:

Provide a diverse array of high-quality academic programs that foster intellectual growth and creative expression in an inclusive and welcoming environment.

We developed several new academic programs that will be initiated this semester: MA Healthcare Administration, MS Chemistry, MS Computing Science and Finance (online). New ODC approved for SOC. Ed.D Educational Leadership (approved this summer incoming class of almost 30),
We created a welcoming environment for new students in the first six weeks when departments partnered with the Division of Student Affairs, and offered activities in the first six weeks of fall term to promote student engagement and a sense of belonging. Many of you are doing this again this semester.

Academic Affairs Divisional Goal 2:

Increase community engagement within the curriculum to support the needs of our students, Brockport, Greater Rochester, New York State and beyond.

Departments reported over 260 outreach/engagement activities with community partners/alumni.
Through Community-Service Federal Work Study (Golden Eagle League) we were able to partner with 13 local employers and place 45 students in paid roles within partner organizations. This exceeded the required 7% of FWS money being allocated to community service roles.
Brockport’s Small Business Development Center experienced growth. Now one of the leading SBDCs in NYS in terms of economic impact, clients served, and business starts. Brockport’s SBDC is also opening doors to local and regional high schools to help improve our recruitment, connecting students with service-learning projects for SBDC clients, and creating internship and networking opportunities for our University. In addition, SBDC has helped create a connection to local Brockport downtown businesses, serving as a host to local business events.

Academic Affairs Divisional Goal 3:

Produce graduates prepared for success in a contemporary society.

The revised Periodic Program Review template created last year focuses on growth opportunities for student success such as student success indicators, student perceptions of learning experiences, and experiential activities.
Academic Affairs and Enrollment Management collaborated regarding the National Institute of Student Success (NISS) at Georgia State University partnership. Recommendations to improve recruitment, retention, and student success will be provided at the culmination presentation on Aug 27th.

Academic Affairs Divisional Goal 4:

Create a diverse, inclusive, and supportive working environment that fosters faculty and staff success.

The Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Scholarship (CELT) expanded regular offerings beyond Everything DiSC, CliftonStrengths, and Crucial Conversations to include two-part Grants Basics sessions, an IRB Workshop, and EagleSUCCESS training each semester.
The College of Arts & Sciences held its annual faculty/staff recognition event.

Other notable accomplishments last year include:

International Enrollment: For the 2024-2025 academic year we welcomed 85 new degree seeking students, bringing our total international enrollment to 123 students. They were enrolled in over 20 academic majors and represented 25 different countries. Our largest student cohorts were from Nepal, Canada, Nigeria, and India.
Total graduate enrollments for fall 2024 and spring 2025 both surpassed our graduate growth goals for those semesters and greatly exceeded our total enrollments as compared to the prior year for each term. Fall 2024 total graduate enrollment of 1666 surpassed the projection (1660) by 6 and exceeded fall 2023 enrollments (1502) by 164. Spring 2025 total graduate enrollment of 1662 surpassed the projection (1639) by 23 and exceeded the spring 2024 enrollments (1568) by 94.
Special Sessions: There has been a steady increase in total enrollment in Summer Session and Winter Session from the 2024 and 2025 academic years. This indicates success with a robust course schedule that accommodates both current matriculated Brockport and non-matriculated visiting students’ needs. We had a 13.7% increase between WI24 and WI25 enrollment with a 26% increase in graduate and 10% increase in undergraduate numbers.
Career Design Center: Last year, the Career Design Center expanded their support of students by hiring additional staff within a liaison model of career development which establishes a designated staff member for each academic school or area. With this new model, they were able to directly reach students through: 101 professional development workshops conducted in 46 unique course sections and additional student groups, touching roughly 2,297 students; 1,260 individual student appointments in the Career Design Center. They also supported students financially through 227 Internship and Professional Experience Stipends, totaling $273,019.
The Thriving Institute, housed in the Department of Psychology, Philosophy & Neuroscience uses psychology-based research to plan activities and initiatives that aim to help students thrive (not just survive). With assistance from two students who worked as peer mental health educators paid through the Empire Service Corps, the Institute hosted multiple events and activities throughout the academic year including, a Survival Pantry housed in Holmes Hall, workshops on test anxiety, a Wellness Fair, planting event, posts on thriving to social media (via the Institute’s social media accounts), guided meditations, collaborations with Drake library, and therapy dog visits.
In the fall the School of Business and Management hosted over 25 women business leaders who were interested in mentoring our students at a networking event. This event, called Harvesting Success was run in conjunction with the Women in Tech students’ group. At the event, women business leaders at various career levels shared those experiences in both small table settings and a large room presentation.
Faculty Scholarly Activity indicates that faculty had a productive year. According to Faculty Success reports for 2024-2025- there were 308 peer-reviewed publications, 11 books, 59 book chapters, 90 creative works of which 36 were referred. According to Laura Merkl in the Research Foundation we received 21 new grants last year, totaling $1,052,691. Excluding these, we have 47 other ongoing grants, with a total dollar value of $10,874,578.50.

As you can see, our Division was busy last year, and a lot of great things were accomplished. I really appreciate everyone’s hard work that contributed to a successful year. I’d like to pause and ask you to give yourselves a round of applause.

Next, I’d like to briefly discuss the coming year and our goals. First, I don’t plan to make any radical changes. I plan on learning more about the various units in our division and how best I can support them as well as the faculty and staff. The goals for the year are largely to build on the good work that is being done.

Goals for the year:

Goal One: Continue Integration of career awareness into the curriculum.

Implement the revised APEX pilot program.
Review and expand experiential learning opportunities for students.
Explore the integration of career awareness into APS sections

Goal Two: Continue efforts to revitalize the SUNY Brockport research culture

Departmental review and revision of APT documents including an evaluation, and possible expansion, of what counts as scholarly activity.

Goal Three: Expand continuous improvement efforts.

Implement the new periodic program review process with a template for an annual continuous improvement process and a revised Periodic Program Review template for A & S programs.
Provide financial support (visit expenses and accreditation fees) for accreditation reviews with select programs.
Begin preliminary preparation for the Middle States accreditation process

Goal Four: Continue to increase graduate and international enrollment.

Continue to expand graduate offerings and to develop new program opportunities, particularly in-person programs that might be appropriate for international students.
Continue to advance recruitment efforts for international students in critical locations including India, south Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. Of course, international enrollment might be challenging this year.

Goal Five: Continue efforts to improve student success, retention, and graduation.

Complete the revised APEX pilot program implementation and evaluate its success in improving student outcomes.
Continue to evaluate the performance of students completing MTH 110 and CHM 260 with the inclusion of recitation sections relative to prior years.

I also want to mention that I will be working to identify investments to make in Academic Affairs. To do this I will be inviting input about where it makes sense to dedicate resources to support our vision of promoting student success and creating lifelong learners. More to come on this.

Finally, I know that these are uncertain times with all that is happening in the world. These are tough times, but we can’t allow uncertainty to consume us and prevent us from doing our jobs. Cabinet is setting aside some time every week to discuss the federal landscape and other areas. We are monitoring the ever-changing situation and any potential impact, as well as receiving guidance from SUNY. We are doing this so Academic Affairs and others can be focused on staying the course and doing what they do best. For us, that’s providing an excellent education for our students. We will continue to work collaboratively across the university with our great partners. We all have the same goal—student success. My guiding principle is to do what is best for our students to help them succeed and to have a great Brockport experience. As I navigate this new position, I understand that I don’t know what I don’t know. I ask for your patience and assistance. I want to make well informed decisions and do what is right for our students, Academic Affairs and the University. I can only do that by encouraging dialogue and listening to various perspectives. (I will be visiting departments over the course of the year.) I’m excited about this opportunity to serve as your interim Provost and look forward to working with you to have a great semester. Thank you.

I would now like to open it up for questions. I may not have all the answers but will do my best.