Office of the Provost

October 2022 Senate Report

Presentation

Updates on strategic planning and educational effectiveness initiatives.

Updates

Executive Searches

Deans of College of Business and College of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Both searches are progressing on track. Finalist visits are expected later this fall.

Graduate dean

The Provost's Office will share a survey seeking feedback on this search in early October. The survey will be sent to faculty, staff, and graduate students. A search, wtih the specifics of its structure based on the feedback received, will follow the survey.

Initiatives

Stony Brook Simons STEM Scholars Program

The new executive director of the program, Erwin Cabrera, joins the university on Oct. 3. Dr. Cabrera is researcher and higher education administrator who has led initiatives with similar aims to bolster pathways to STEM careers for underrepresented students. Cabrera was most recently director of the Research Aligned Mentorship (RAM) program at Farmingdale State College, which serves first-generation, low-income, and historically minoritized students and provides them with access to undergraduate research experiences and intensive mentoring.

Strategic planning

The Provost’s Office will host public sessions on strategic planning in late October. An invitation with further details will be sent the week of Oct. 3. The Provost’s Office will also continue to work with the Visioning Committee, made up of a variety of faculty and staff representatives from across east and west campus, to help ensure the plan resonates with and supports our diverse community.

IDEA fellows

Positions are open for application for the Fall 2023 cohort of IDEA Fellows. The positions are structured around five interdisciplinary themes: Black, Latinx, and Indigenous diaspora studies; ethical AI, information systems, and data science and literacy applied to complex structures and networks; sustainable climate justice and solutions; health disparities and critical health: from molecules to health care systems across the lifespan; and quantum futures: discovery, technology, and societal change. Please share this opportunity with any candidates you think would be interested. 

Promotion and tenure working group

This joint initiative between the Office of the Provost and the University Senate is a time-limited working group that will review, assess, and recommend modifications to policies and processes related to promotion and tenure. The co-chairs will share progress updates at the November or December Senate meeting, and will report to the Provost and President of the Senate with the recommendations by the end of the fall semester. Axel Drees and Anissa Abi-Dargham are serving as co-chairs.

Academic Programs

Recently approved programs:

  • No new programs were approved.

Events and News of Note

Leadership updates

  • Alfredo Fontanini, vice provost for research and infrastructure, stepped down from this role at the end of September. Dr. Fontanini has been a highly valued member of the Provost’s Office and a tremendous partner with the Office of the Vice President for Research and with Facilities and Services.
  • Braden Hosch was named Vice President for Educational and Institutional Effectiveness. This change expands the scope of his role, with the addition of a reporting line to the Provost’s Office alongside his continued reporting line to the President’s Office.

Assessment and Educational Effectiveness

Assessment symposium

The Office of Educational Effectiveness is hosting its first annual Assessment Symposium on Thursday, November 10, 2022 from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. in the Student Activities Center. The event will give program assessment coordinators the opportunity to acquire and discuss assessment techniques and strategies with experienced assessment professionals and faculty. Faculty, department chairs, and administrators are welcome to attend. 

General Education Advisory Committee

12 faculty, 4 administrators, and 2 undergraduate students are charged with providing ongoing advice about the implementation, evaluation, and assessment of Stony Brook University’s general education curriculum.

Ad hoc committee to establish a program review process

6 department chairs have been selected and charged with recommending a process for a periodic review of Stony Brook’s academic programs.

Assessment Council

Faculty were sent a call for self-nominations to participate in this council. Nominations closed last week and are now under review. The council will be charged to develop campus-wide policies and procedures for academic assessment, including general education, and to provide ongoing oversight of assessment of student learning.

Research and Infrastructure

Research webpage

A research section has been added to the Provost’s Office website with the goal of consolidating all the information on provostial support to research and scholarly activities and communicating new initiatives and investments. 

Biomedical tiger teams

Biomedical Tiger Teams have been formed and the kickoff event is scheduled to occur soon. This is a project in collaboration with the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR).

Quantum research

The Provost’s Office has been working on an initiative supporting research in the field of Quantum Information Science and Technology. This effort has been informed by the Quantum Tiger Team report, by a report from Paul Goldbart, and by conversation with Quantum researchers on campus. This is a project in collaboration with OVPR.

Research space survey

The hiring of the consulting firm for the research space survey has been completed and the project will kick off imminently. This survey will allow us to inventory and assess the quality and use of our research spaces. This project is a collaboration with Facilities and Services.

Nassau Hall move

The Provost’s Office is involved in assisting academic units affected by the power failure in Nassau Hall. In collaboration with Facilities and Services, we are facilitating a relocation of the Masters in Fine Arts.

Faculty Affairs

Navigating SBU

The Office of the Provost hosted a mentoring workshop for junior assistant professors on September 16, 2022 as a part of the orientation program Navigating SBU. With the partnership of the Center for Inclusive Education and the Career Center, as well as with the Provost’s Senior Mentoring Team (Marci Lobel, Psychology; Lisa Diedrich, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Clint Rubin, Biomedical Engineering; Tom Weinacht, Physics and Astronomy), assistant professors and their mentors discussed the benefits of mentoring relations and best practices in mentoring. About 40 participants, mentors and mentees, participated in the workshop. Additional sessions of Navigating SBU program on topics of interest for our junior faculty will take place biweekly during the academic year. 

Emerging Leaders

Emerging Leaders is a program for associate professors at Stony Brook University. The program is designed to support the next generation of highereducation leaders in research, education, and administration. Discussions and workshops are part of the program and revolve around various themes including strategic thinking and decision-making, teamwork, career pathways, and managing conflicts. A wide range of topics are addressed through a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens to further our institutional pathway towards equitable success. At the end of this three-semester program, participants will complete a leadership project under the guidance of the university leaders.

The invitations to nominated participants of the Emerging Leaders program has been sent and the program will start on October 14, 2022. To date, 30 associate professors expressed their interest in participating in the program.

Enrollment Management

Admissions

With recruitment starting to return to normal pre-pandemic, admissions held a series of iin-person and virtual events:

  • 896 virtual HS visits and college fairs
  • 38 Virtual information sessions
  • 250 in-person information sessions
  • 269 in-person campus tours
  • 516 in-person HS visits and college fairs

ACE courses are now being offered in 51 participating high school districts.

International Admissions

Hosted 14 U.S State Department Education USA Advisors from a variety of countries for a two-day visit to campus this summer.

Enrollment communications

Jacqueline Rowe received the Student Affairs Frederick Preston Partnership Award. She was recognized as an exemplary campus partner for her hard work and dedication to immunization compliance, new student interest tracking, website updates and improvements, and family programs.

Registrar

  • Mon, Oct. 10 to Tues, Oct. 11 - Fall Break: No Classes in Session.
  • Mon, Oct. 31 Advanced Registration: Tentatively to begin for winter and spring.
  • Religious Holiday schedule/policy can be found on our website. 
  • Fall 2023, Javits is scheduled to be back online. ESS will come offline for repairs once Javits is open.

Graduate Health Science Admissions

Special acknowledgement goes to Stephen Hayes for matriculating the majority of the Grad School program admits while also assisting the Graduate School while their positions were still vacant. We are excited to be rolling out an automated process going
forward but we appreciate all that Stephen did.

  • CAS (Centralized Application Services) integration into Slate for the Health Sciences
  • BusCAS (Centralized Application Service) for the College of Business implementation and development
  • Nancy Glover, Admissions Coordinator, has consistently gone above and beyond to ensure that all students, faculty, and staff have their questions answered. Nancy leads our Customer Service/Communications team and continues to do an excellent job managing and supporting the team. Nancy works closely with all of the Graduate Program Coordinators, Directors, and Assistant Deans. Nancy's dedication to GHSA and Stony Brook University is commendable.

Financial Aid and Scholarship Services

  • During the first week of school, the office handled 1,708 student contacts throughemail, phone, and in-person visits.
  • The FAFSA for the 23-24 School Year became live on October 1. 
  • The deadline for Temporary Student Loan Forgiveness is October 31. Numerous faculty and staff from Stony Brook University have already applied. 
  • One-Time Student Loan Debt Relief information is available.

Graduate School

Online TA training

The Online TA training offered at the beginning of this semester resulted in 87% of participants (Ntotal=426) accessing the modules and 68% fully completing training to earn a completion badge.

Graduate program directors

The Graduate Program Directors Retreat has been scheduled for Friday, November 18 and an orientation for new GPDs will be held on Friday, October 21.

CIE grant

The Center for Inclusive Education was awarded $5.5 million from the NIH to renew their Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA) for 5 additional years. The Graduate School assisted with the submission of this grant. The IRACDA program provides a 3-year research and teaching training program for postdoctoral scholars in the biomedical sciences and includes collaborations with CUNY Brooklyn College, and SUNY College at Old Westbury, Farmingdale State College and Suffolk County Community College.

Global Affairs

F-1 student application

OGA (and Visa and Immigration Services) submitted the Recertification Application to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This is a biannual review process required by DHS to host F-1 students at Stony Brook University and entails a comprehensive review of SBU’s admission criteria, all degree programs and plans, time to completion, estimated annual costs, and a variety of other academic areas.

J-1 exchange visitors application

OGA (and Visa and Immigration Services) submitted the Redesignation Application to the U.S. Department of State (DOS). This is a biannual review process required by DoS to jost J-1 exchange vistors (students and scholars) and entails a thorough review of all SBU programs and admission criteria for J-1 scholars and students.

Study abroad fair

International Academic Programs hosted its annual Study Abroad  Fair on Wednesday, September 14. Faculty Program Directors met with interested students, as well as representatives from partner universities from a variety of locations including Australia and the United Kingdom.

Study abroad promotion in classes

International Academic Programs has visited over 75 classes this semester, and will continue to visit classes, to promote study abroad opportunities to students. Any faculty interested in a brief five-minute presentation can email the study abroad office.