Newsletter — Office of the Provost

Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Volume 2 - Issue 6

For those of you who had a chance to get away during Spring Break, welcome back to Brockport. From what I hear, the weather here during the break was typical Brockport March, cold with snow. Hopefully, that was the last gasp and spring weather arrives quickly. There’s a lot to catch up on.

Organizational Effectiveness Task Force

The task force has received the input that chairs collected from their departments and is in the process of assimilating this information and developing its recommendations. These are still expected on April 1 and will be posted to the Academic Affairs Division website. I am meeting with the task force on April 5 and looking forward to hearing directly from them about how they used your input to arrive at their recommendations.

Following the release of the Task Force report, there will be several opportunities for the campus to provide feedback. Approximately one hour of the April 12 Chairs meeting will be set aside for Chairs to offer their input. We have scheduled an open forum for faculty and staff to provide feedback on April 17, beginning at 3 pm in McCue Auditorium. Beginning at 4:30 pm, also in McCue auditorium, there will be a similar opportunity for students to share their thoughts. During these sessions, I plan to listen and take notes. I look forward to the conversation.

As I’ve shared previously, the Cabinet will review the final proposal and my hope is that, beginning in Fall 2025, we should be able to start moving the approved initiatives forward, taking care to ensure that we have sufficient time to minimize disruptions to students, faculty, and staff.

Committee updates

Several other committees have been working throughout the academic year. Our Brockport Downtown Utilization committee completed their assessment of opportunities to better use the Brockport Downtown facility with a list of 11 specific recommendations including increased staffing to fulfill the proposed mission: “the intended purpose for Brockport Downtown is to serve the educational mission of SUNY Brockport as well as serve the city, county and region.” We will continue to look for opportunities to serve the Rochester community through our Brockport Downtown facility.

The Research Council has been working diligently to develop recommendations to address faculty research and scholarly needs and to identify innovative ways to increase the productivity and quality of research and scholarship on campus. The Council is considering issues associated with external fellowships, including scholarly activities as part of the faculty profile on departmental pages, and enhancing administrative support for faculty and students engaged in active research, scholarship, and creative endeavors. Currently, the council is in the process of gathering faculty input through an online survey. The plan is to analyze the data, prepare, and submit a comprehensive recommendation to me by end of May 2024.

The experiential learning committee, in collaboration with career consultant Dr. Emily Carpenter, continues to collect information and evaluate opportunities. They conducted an initial activity with Chairs and Directors to better understand the state of engaged learning on campus, with a specific focus on engaged learning integrated within the curriculum that promotes equity. The committee is developing a set of recommendations to foster connections between faculty/departments and the new Career Design Center, to recognize and reward current engaged learning champions, and to develop future engaged learning champions. We will have a brief follow-up during our chairs meeting on the 12th.

Academic Planning Seminar

With the Academic Success Center now being separated into individual reporting units, responsibility for the Academic Planning Seminar (APS) course (GEP 100) has been assigned to the Academic Division. As a result, scheduling classes and assigning instructors will be placed in the domain of the academic departments, with oversight through the Associate Deans and ultimate responsibility with the Vice Provost for Curricular Innovation. We will continue the work started last year of organizing these courses by department or affinity group, which will increase flexibility for faculty to embed program-specific content into their course. While the structure continues to evolve, the goal remains to help incoming students successfully transition to college, building a foundation for academic success, personal growth, and career achievement.

Simultaneously, we are developing the pilot for Academics, Career & Experiences (ACE), a new two-course sequence. In ACE 1 (Fall, 2 credits), students will build skills to successfully navigate their academic transition, including tools to learn effectively and connect with the campus community. ACE 2 (Spring, 2 credits) will focus on professional growth, career readiness, resilience, and well-being. Curriculum development is currently underway by a team of 9 pilot instructors. Feedback has been solicited through several forums (faculty, alumni, student) to ensure that this new course will meet our students’ needs. First-year students will be able to opt into the ACE sequence using the course preference form that will soon be distributed to new students, which will enable us to compare the effectiveness of this 4 credit course sequence to the crurrent 1 credit APS using an IRB approved research study.

Events and Activities

Don’t forget that the total solar eclipse comes to campus (yes, literally comes to campus) on April 8, beginning at 3:19:44 pm. Classes are fully remote for the morning of the 8th and completely cancelled after 1:10 pm, recommencing for evening classes beginning at 5 pm. More information about campus events and activities for the eclipse are on the webpage.

Scholars Day is scheduled for April 15, beginning at 8 am and concluding with the poster session by 1 pm. Classes will be cancelled in the morning, but will recommence at 1:25 pm. More information about Scholars Day, including the schedule of presentations, is available on the webpage.

Also coming up in April is our Honors and Awards ceremony, beginning at 3:30 pm in the Seymour Union Ballroom on April 19. This event recognizes academic excellence, honoring students for their outstanding achievement. Please make plans to attend this annual celebration by completing the Faculty RSVP. In keeping with past tradition, academic regalia will be worn by faculty participating in the ceremony.

Finally

I usually try to finish these communications on a positive note, but I am persuaded this month to reflect on the many members of our academic community whom we have recently lost, and the many more faculty and staff who have lost close relatives. It seems that this academic year has seen more loss than in a typical year. These losses can be especially hard when they come over a short period of time. Our Employee Assistance Program is here to support you with free, confidential, and convenient assistance should you need it. For work-related issues, I encourage you to speak with your chair or Dean, or to reach out to me directly, and we will do what we can to support you through these challenging times. Please look out for friends and colleagues, and especially remember to take care of yourself. There is a good community that is here to support you in these challenging times. Be well, and remember to take care.