Newsletter — Office of the Provost

Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Volume 2, Issue 11

The last newsletter of the semester is a time to reflect on prior success and plan for the future. It’s been a bit of an unusual semester for me, as I spent a lot of time away from campus with multiple family activities. These continue through this month, but then it looks to be back to the routine for the foreseeable future. I’ve been fortunate to be able to support my family and celebrate with them, with good and positive outcomes, while remaining engaged remotely. I appreciate the support that I have received from everyone on campus. So many people have managed to accommodate my crazy and changing schedule, for which I remain grateful. I am looking forward to being more fully engaged and back on campus starting in January.

To conclude the semester on a strong footing, I will be hosting an open forum for faculty and staff at 2:30 pm on Tuesday December 10 in the McCue Auditorium (refreshments to be served). I will use the open forum to provide additional context to the goals that I described in my previous newsletter. As I mentioned at the time, there are many activities underway that I believe to be connected in supporting students and faculty. I want to use this opportunity to promote dialogue as we work together to improve the success of our students and relieve some of the stress that faculty are experiencing.

Good news

Before getting further into other matters, I wanted to share some good news that I received from SUNY within the last several days. I get communication from them on a regular basis, but when I get several positive outcomes in rapid succession, it makes for a particularly uplifting week.

1. We received notice of award of a 2024–2025 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Academic Excellence Grant for our program “Advancing DEI in Career Design: Clifton Strengths and Inclusive Coaching for SUNY Brockport’s EOP Students.” Emily Marchese, Director of our Career Design Center, worked with Lisa Thompson in EOP to develop and submit the proposal.
2. We received a $50,000 award to participate in SUNY’s community of practice pilot initiative for embedding “Grow with Google” industry certifications into credit courses and degree programs. Mehruz Kamal, chair of Computing Sciences, and Darson Rhodes, Interim Associate Dean in the School of Business and Management collaborated on this interdisciplinary proposal.
3. Jessica Sniatecki, Chair in Healthcare Studies, was selected as a fellow for the inaugural 2025 cohort of the SUNY Accessibility Advocates and Allies (AAA) Faculty Fellowship Program. As described in the announcement from SUNY, “The SUNY AAA Faculty Fellowship Program is a community of faculty leaders committed to promoting and growing accessibility practices in and out of the classroom on their campuses.” Congratulations, Jess.

I have also spent significant time over the last several weeks interviewing faculty candidates in several departments. Some of these are replacements for faculty that have recently resigned or retired, while others are for new positions to support areas of growth. I am grateful to the faculty who have participated in the search committees and worked diligently throughout the Fall semester to identify these outstanding candidates that will add to our teaching and scholarship portfolios when we are successful in finalizing these hires. I am pleased that we are able to expand our faculty to address the increase in our student population and look forward to working with the CELT staff and department chairs and faculty as we welcome these new faculty to the University next Fall.

Reorganization update

We continue to move forward with our reorganization efforts, as we have settled on the structure including the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education and Health, School of Business and Management, and School of Nursing. These new names will become effective July 1, at the beginning of the new fiscal year. Committees are currently working to recruit a Dean for A&S, E&H, and Nursing. Each of these are moving at their own pace and should bring candidates to campus beginning this month.

Beyond the College structure, I have also brought together a number of department chairs to identify the best way to support large and/or complex departments. We currently have Associate Chairs in some departments, and Coordinators and Directors that support specific programs. However, we do not have uniform job descriptions, performance expectations, or compensation models. While I recognize that each department is unique, I have asked this group to develop general guidelines that we can use to ensure the administrative work of our academic programs can be successfully carried out and that faculty who are assigned those responsibilities are appropriately compensated. I should have more information to share early in the Spring semester.

Scholars Day

Matt Kotula and his committee are working hard planning for Scholars Day to be held April 9, 2025. Our goal is to add significantly to the activities during the day so that we can truly celebrate the academic excellence of our students and faculty. In addition to the oral presentations in the morning and the major poster session that we have had in prior years, we are developing a series of new activities for the afternoon and evening. Our afternoon session will take the form of an academic fair featuring performances, club-based activities, food trucks, and similar types of events to provide a broader perspective on the excellence on our campus. We are also working to finalize arrangements for a keynote speaker who will feature in a directed workshop with students in the afternoon and provide a lecture for students, faculty, alumni, and community members in the early evening. We will soon be announcing the schedule in more detail so that faculty can work Scholars Day activities into their Spring semester syllabus, encouraging students to participate and attend the full slate of activities that are being developed.

Assessment

I want to expand a little on why I continue to emphasize the importance of assessment and continuous improvement. One of the concerns that is frequently raised by faculty is that today’s students have a different set of needs than they did prior to Covid. They have had a high school experience different from their predecessors, with different expectations for attendance, timeliness, self-motivation, and resilience. To accommodate a population that has changed, we should take the time to reconsider how we are delivering education. This can help our students gain the skills and resources needed to succeed in the college environment. A holistic approach will allow us to consider all those needs and identify the best opportunities to help our students acquire the tools they will need to be successful.

During the summer, I coordinated with the leadership in Arts & Sciences to identify how we might engage in a more holistic assessment review. We agreed that bringing faculty together in a collaborative environment could be beneficial, and thus developed the Assessment Day event to be held on May 22, 2025. At the beginning of the semester, I met with the chairs and program directors during the A&S retreat to further discuss and refine these plans. Our objective is to create an environment in which faculty can interact with their departmental colleagues and throughout the School, allowing faculty to engage in a more holistic review of their activities, looking beyond their individual courses and crossing boundaries to evaluate prerequisites and related courses. If we are successful in aligning the curriculum to student needs, we can reduce the amount of extra time that faculty invest in helping all our students gain the skills that could be taught in the classroom, increasing student success and faculty satisfaction.

Closing remarks

One of the initiatives in which I engaged this semester was to begin a dialogue with the Full Professors forum to discuss how I can better share information with faculty and staff and receive information and ideas from you. They provided some excellent concepts that we will begin to investigate in the Spring semester. In the meantime, I encourage you to reach out to me either through email or through my “Ping the Provost” link. Beyond these electronic means, I will continue to host open forums for faculty and staff to highlight specific initiatives, and meet with departments to hear directly about issues impacting your programs.

Thank you for your many efforts during the semester and enjoy some much needed time to recharge and refresh.