Baruch College Faculty Senate Plenary Meeting
Minutes of September 3, 2015
MINUTES
Senators Attending: M. Carew (Eco/Fin), A. Croker (S/CIS), S. Dishart (COMM), B. Ferns (S/CIS), K.
Frank (ENG), R. Freedman (ZSB), A. Grein (Mkt/Int’lBus), K. Guest (Soc/Anth), C. Hessel (Eco/Fin), R.
Jain (S/CIS), S. Johnson (PSY), C. Kulatilleke (NatSci), G. Jurkevich (ModLang), T. Main (SPA), T.
Martell (Eco/Fin), W. McClellan (ENG), B. Murphy (HIS), J. O'Keefe Bazzoni (COMM), R. Ormsby
(LIB), M. Ozbilgin (ACC), A. Pearlman (PSY), G. Petersen (Soc/Anth), L. Rath (LIB), R. Sawant (Mkt –
Int’l B), M. Seltzer (SPA) P. Sethi (MGT), M. Stark (SPA), A. Vora (Eco/Fin), R. Yue (S/CIS) X. Yin
(MGT).
Senators Absent: E. Axelrod (Law), C. Bellamy (Soc/Anth), C. Christoforatou (ENG), W. Finke
(ModLang), C. Gengler (Mkt/Int’lBus ), M. Goodman (COMM), D. Howard (Math), D. Jones (PolSci),
S. Korenman (SPA), A. Levitus (CNSLNG/PSY), J. Weiser (Law), S. Wine (S/CIS),
S. Wong (MTH), J. Ye (ACC).
Twenty-six additional members of the faculty noted their presence. Making a total attendance of 56.
The meeting was convened at 12:45 p.m. in VC 14-250 by Professor Chris. Hessel, Chair of the Baruch
Faculty Senate.
I.
II.
Approval of Agenda: The agenda was approved by assent.
Approval of the Minutes: Minutes of Plenary Meeting of May 7, 2015 were approved by
assent.
III.
Report of Chair of the Faculty Senate: Chair Hessel introduced his thought that the Senate’s
process has been improved by regular brief reports of the three Deans and that we will continue
that. Secondly, the next meeting on October 1, will be devoted as an “open” meeting of the
Executive Committee devoted to hearing the issues and concerns of the faculty to be distilled
into future Senate agenda items. He subsequently commented on President Wallenstein’s report
of Michael Barnett that such would include the examination of methods by which members of
the faculty might be have clearer prospects of promotion to administration positions.
Finally, Chairman Hessel indicated that future Plenary Sessions of the Baruch Faculty Senate
will meet at 12:30, in room VC 14-250 rather than at 12:45.
IV.
Report of the President; President Wallerstein welcomed the student government
representatives and the faculty returning from their summer activities. He provided a summary of
the demographics of the new freshman class. Acting Vice President Gorman will be providing
more details in her report. He reported that “preliminary final approval” for the design of the 25th
street plaza. Further substantial progress has been made in the funding for the Library master
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plan including a substantial grant from the City Council. Finally, considerable uncertainty
remains as to the final details of the State and therefore the CUNY budget, In conclusion he
reported on the progress in the searches for the Dean of SPA and the Vice President of
Enrollment Management. Next Tuesday an “ACE” fellow Mr. Michael Barnett will be joining
Baruch concentrating on the interface between the Baruch Administration and the business
community.
Vice President Mary Gorman reported on Enrollment Management progress; total enrollment is
18,303; new freshman class 1,460 students. Other statistics are presently in “flux.” From 313
underrepresented to 384, or a 24% increase.
Professor Michael Seltzer requested details, of underrepresented minorities in the enrollment
data; such was assured to be forthcoming.
Report of the Provost: Provost Christy Reported;
Welcome back. I have delayed posting a welcome letter on our website until later today because
I want to share some ideas with the Senate first. Let me comment on four broad areas of activity:
Job Satisfaction and Workplace Climate
Last spring CUNY contracted with COACHE, a survey of job satisfaction limited to full
time faculty conducted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, to survey all CUNY
Colleges and Professional Schools. Our participation arte was outstanding. Last week COACHE
provided me with our Baruch data, and data for several comparison schools. Later this month we
will receive the data for all CUNY units. Today, I am inviting the Senate leadership to formulate
a small group of our faculty who are skilled at data analysis to have access to this full data set,
and for that group to take a first crack at developing conclusions or indicators regarding what this
data says about faculty job satisfaction at Baruch. While the data is not confidential, it is also not
for publication, and I feel confident that experienced researchers will treat it as such. Let’s see
what we can learn, and how we might proceed as a College.
We have also contracted with the survey research group within our School of Public
Affairs to develop a survey that we can administer to all of our faculty, including those on adjunct
appointments, regarding the climate in our college, schools and departments regarding diversity,
inclusion, equity, and academic support. We are committed to increasing the diversity of our
faculty while insuring that all persons work in a positive, developmental environment where each
can take initiative and have a voice in decision making. We have a sample survey that will be
tested soon, and hope to administer the final version in October. Later we will develop a similar
instrument for students. There is an existing survey for staff.
Assessment/CTL
We submitted our periodic review report (PRR) to Middle States Commission on Higher
Education in June in an effort led by Mary McGlynn of our English Department and Associate
Provost Dennis Slavin. All of the accrediting agencies are focused on assessment of learning, and
we continue to invest in collecting data on the effectiveness of our curriculum and providing this
data to faculty for their consideration in revising the curriculum. The big question is this one: is
the curriculum for each of our degrees capable of enabling a large portion of our students to
achieve the stated learning goals?
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One place where CUNY has concluded that we are unsuccessful is in mathematics
remediation and instruction in the lower level mathematics courses. At Baruch, the proportion of
students earning D, F or W grades in these lower level courses in 50%; we must address this issue
by examining our curriculum, our instructional processes, and our placement of students into the
correct courses.
We have initiated discussions with an international firm with operations near our campus,
Knewton LLC, to test their adaptive learning software approach to mathematics instruction.
Their approach attempts to customize instruction to the individual learner, so there are multiple
paths through the material. This is not a guaranteed approach, but is an example to the kind of
innovation with which we must experiment. This summer Luke Waltzer left our Center for
Teaching and Learning to lead a new initiative at the CUNY Grad Center providing teaching
support to the doctoral students who teach 7000 CUNY course sections each year. I am pleased
that Kannan Mohan, professor of CIS, has agreed to serve as Interim Director for this academic
year, at which time we should have recruited a successor for Luke. He is part of our exploration
of Knewton and adaptive learning, as is Dean Huss, Arthur Downing, and faculty from
accounting and mathematics. Our interest in teaching and learning technologies must be driven
by improved learning outcomes, not just convenience or efficient use of space. Hopefully we’ll
learn something from this initiative.
Executive Vice Chancellor Vita Rabinowitz will also chair a task force on mathematics
remediation, and I have agreed to serve on that task force. Our very poor record at math
remediation at the community colleges is an example of where our curriculum delivery does not
enable students to meet our learning goals, and is not sustainable. The CUNY math council will
be involved, as will all of the resources of academic affairs.
Global Initiatives
Last spring Myung-Soo Lee was selected to serve as Vice Provost for Global Initiatives
when Jeff Peck announced his retirement from Baruch. He has identified categories of
educational programs, services, programs that engage the campus community, and partnerships
that will be needed. Our goal is to globalize Baruch, and we measure success by observing
within faculty, staff and students indicators that they have developed a global mindset. This will
link to high impact practices, new graduate program priorities, and our involvement in WC2
(World Cities, World Class Universities Consortium.)
Weismann School of Arts and Sciences Dean Search
The search committee has been charged and they are reviewing applications. We expect
to bring candidates to campus between Thanksgiving and Final Exams: Nov 30-Dec 16. Please
plan to attend the open forums and other recruiting events during that time.
V.
Report of the Vice President of Finance: At the request of the Chair the Vice President of
Finance, Katherine Cobb graciously agreed to defer her report until the next Plenary Session of
the Faculty Senate.
VI.
Reports of the Deans:
1. Dean Huss reported: Reporting for Dean Huss, Associate Dean Qing Hu previously dean
at Iowa State University. As to the Cyber Security Initiative the progress to date was
recounted. The Graduate Program “rebranding” efforts were detailed, specifically
revitalizing the M.B.A. program. Lastly, reported the “rebranding” of the Zicklin “brand.”
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The details of this effort will be reported at the Zicklin Faculty Meeting later this month.
The last effort he reported on was the progress in growing the Zicklin graduate programs to
corporate New York as well as to the Baruch alumni. By the fall of 2016 the results of this
effort should be evident in reversing the decline of the graduate programs.
Professor Kevin Frank inquired as to any consulting firms whether students will be
consulted; the Dean responded in the affirmative.
2. Dean Birdsall reported: Thematic linkages of the goals of the SPA program, with a focus
on the U.S. News survey. With reference to the College Strategic Plan, a Master in
International Affairs will be the initial focus launching in Fall 2017. Secondly, “on line”
education; SPA will be moving its production mode to 57 class enrollments. While we
pursue “engaging in our community,” there are 600,000 employees in “Not for Profit,”
including government/civil service employees SPA will serve the “strivers” in New York
City. A new Ackerman Chair in SPA Stephen Ackerman Chair.” Turner Forty Strategies is
being employed to make the faculty of SPA more visible.
Professor Mindy Engle-Friedman inquired of the use of consultants, and she was assured
such would include students.
3. Dean Griffiths reported: her background and qualification to be “acting dean.” She
indicated that twenty three new majors have initiated, and a substantial growth in graduate
enrollment. She then outlined the Creative Initiative day this past Spring, and the “Study
Abroad Program. She concluded outlining the progress of the Global Initiative Effort.
Professor Kevin Frank inquired as to the goals that the faculty will be better informed if the
actual data is provided in reports, not mere percentages.
4. Dean of Division of Student Affairs - Arthur King: The division is comprised of seven
sections and over two hundred staff. He explained the “mission” of the Department and the
standards of service which serves the department’s efforts. He indicated the results of a
recent survey of student concerns, specifically student safety. He recounted the “Bear-Cat
Pledge, a commitment of students’ to integrity respect, and engagement. He also outlined the
functions of the Petrie Foundation grant. He concluded by recounting the work and
population of students be served by the Department of Students with Disabilities. Finally, he
requested that the members of the faculty consider becoming a “faculty advisor for one of
the 190 student organizations.
Professor Glenn Petersen commended and emphasized the importance of student focus.
Professor Michael Seltzer inquired as to the details of the Petrie Foundation grants, such will
be forthcoming.
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VII.
VIII.
Old Business: None
New Business: Professor Alan Pearlman described and urged attendance at next Tuesday’ PSC
meeting.
IX.
Announcements: None
Meeting Adjourned at 2:32 pm
Respectfully Submitted
Michael G. Carew,
Baruch Faculty Senate Secretary
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