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HomeAbout CommunicationsFebruary 2023 senate report

February 1, 2023: University Senate Report

Office of The Provost

Updates

Executive Searches

Graduate School:

The Provost’s Office shared in a message on Dec. 15 that this search would move forward as an internal search. This decision was made based on community feedback shared via a survey earlier in the fall semester, as well as through consultation between the Provost and University Senate Executive Committee colleagues on next steps. Additionally, the Provost’s Office has convened a committee and will launch this search in the coming weeks. The list of committee members is listed on the Provost’s Office website. Click here to view the list. 

Continuing, Professional and Executive Education:

Our office announced on Dec. 23 that we will conduct a national search to fill this new role of Vice Provost for Continuing, Professional and Executive Education. This decision was informed by community feedback shared in a survey earlier in the fall semester. The survey feedback also helped identify members invited to join the search committee. The membership of this committee includes broad representation from stakeholders across the university. Click here to view the search committee list online. 

Colleges of Business, and Engineering and Applied Sciences:

Finalists for dean of these colleges visited the university in November and December, meeting with a broad variety of stakeholders and making public presentations. The search committees have shared their feedback with the provost, who is taking next steps in recruiting leaders to fill these critical roles. Information on each of these searches is available via the Provost’s Office website. 

Initiatives

IDEA Fellows:

The search committees for each theme have been interviewing and hosting finalists for visits on campus throughout December, January and into February. Offers are in progress for several candidates, and the target is to complete all hires before the end of February. The Provost’s Office plans to announce the complete cohort of hires in March. 

Events and News of Note:

ATR/Hiring Process for West Campus:

The University’s Fiscal Year 23/24 budget cycle and the related Authorization to Recruit (ATR) process is underway and the Office of the Provost continues to maintain open communication and transparency around the process. Colleges and Schools, Administrative Units, and Centers and Institutes under the Provost area will meet and make presentations with the Office of the Provost the last week of March. 

The Provost team will present to the University SBET during the second week of May and we anticipate by the end of June that communication of hiring decisions will be finalized. At the same time, the FY23/24 detailed budget will be entered into the Campus Budget Module (CBM) and submitted to the University Budget office. The University Budget Office will validate the budget submission against the Office of the Provost’s multi-year forecast and prior years’ budgets and actuals trending data. There are quarterly review meetings throughout FY22/23 between the Provost’s Office and University senior budget leadership that will compare budgets to actuals, addressing variances where needed. 

The Provost’s Office has sent communications sharing information to leadership of all Colleges and Schools, Administrative Units, and Centers and Institutes under the Provost area. In addition, the Office of the Provost will be updating the provost’s budget website to include all related instructions, an infographic timeline, and required forms and templates needed to navigate the process. The hiring process builds upon the lessons learned from previous years, which established the new framework based on a strategic and all-funds, multi-year budgeting model. A survey to Deans and Chairs, input from the Senate and CAPRA and a self-evaluation have helped identify areas of improvement that are being implemented for this process. 

December Commencement:

In a message to the community on Jan. 19, the Provost’s Office announced that going forward, Stony Brook will host one university-wide commencement ceremony and one doctoral hooding ceremony each year, in the spring. This will allow the university to invest maximum effort and resources into these signature events. Schools and colleges will continue to host their personalized department convocations the week of spring commencement. 

This does mean that the university will no longer host a December commencement and December hooding ceremony. We have adjusted eligibility requirements so that students can participate in the spring ceremony if they have graduated in the summer or fall before the ceremony or anticipate graduating in the summer or fall after a spring ceremony. This will ensure students will not have to travel back after their graduation to participate in commencement. All students who have already applied for Spring 2023 commencement remain eligible to attend. 

We have created a set of FAQs to answer additional questions and we will continue to add to these as needed. Please click here to view the FAQs.

 

Academic Programs

Recently approved programs:

  • MS in Professional Nutrition Practice: New program (Approved December 2022)
  • MPH in Public Health: New concentration in Climate Solutions and Health (Approved January 2023)
  • MS in Technological Systems Management: Curricular revision and addition of distance education format (Approved January 2023)

 

Faculty Affairs

Navigating SBU:

The Office of the Provost continues to run this orientation program for junior assistant professors. An End-of-the-Year networking social was offered for participants and their mentors on December 1, 2022. Additional sessions of the Navigating SBU program on topics of interest for our junior faculty will take place biweekly during the academic year. Upcoming sessions include best practices in mentoring, communications training, experiential learning workshop and career conversations. A detailed schedule is available on Faculty Pathways. We keep on encouraging our assistant professors to take advantage of this opportunity not only to learn about resources and best practices but also to connect with peers. 

Emerging Leaders:

Emerging Leaders is a program for associate professors at Stony Brook University who have been nominated by the Deans of Colleges and Schools from West and East campus. The program is designed to support the next generation of higher-education 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.

A retreat of the program took place on Friday, January 27, 2023, and included a negotiation workshop, a panel discussion with campus leaders moderated by Provost Lejuez, a lunch with President McInnis and speed networking with academic and administrative leaders on campus.

Next offerings of this program will include managing conflict training, leadership conversations, and ways to promote teamwork.

Enrollment Management

Domestic UG Admissions

  • Admitted Student Days will be held on April 15 and April 22. We expect 4,000 to 6,000 students and their families to attend from all over the US. Each Dean has been asked to provide tours of their facilities, information sessions, presentations, and student showcases. As we hope to increase our yield on admitted students, we would love to have as many volunteers as possible from across campus. Please reach out to Richard Beatty to express your interest in helping us bring in the class.
  • We are up in applications by 30% across many majors for the Fall 2023 class. Expanded efforts for out-of-state and in-person international recruitment are contributing to the increases, as did the two weeks of free application submission for the SUNY system

International Admissions

  • In-person recruitment trips to India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, boarding schools, Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey as well as attendance at more than 200 virtual fairs.
  • International applications have increased 40% for freshmen, 24% increase in transfer, deposit is 117% increase compared to 2022 academic year.

Registrar

Important Dates:

  • Enrollment snapshots for the spring term will be:
    • Day 01: Jan. 23 beginning of day, distributed 1/23
    • Day 05: Jan. 27 close of business, distributed 1/30
    • Day 10: Feb. 3 close of business, distributed 2/06
    • Day 15: Feb. 10 close of business, distributed 2/13 (official census)
      • Fall 2022/Winter 2023-degree conferrals in progress.
      • Spring Break - Monday, March 13 - Sunday, Mar 19, 2023

Graduate Degree Audits:

  • Due to the efforts of the Registrar's Office graduation team, we have implemented graduate degree audits. This effort was put in place to expand our services to students. These new audit tools will provide timely guidance to graduate students as they move toward degree completion. The goals of our team were to reduce the time to graduation, reduce time to degree conferral, assist with course demand projections, provide students with the information needed to complete their degrees, and discuss future potential enrollment. Kudos to Brian Nucci and Robin McCarthy for their dedication and efforts to make this a reality

Financial Aid:

Federal Changes:

  • $7,395 is the maximum Pell Grant scheduled award for the 2023-2024 award year 5
  • Federal Student Loan Repayment is scheduled to begin 60 days after June 30th or after a decision on federal student loan forgiveness.

Graduate & Health Science Admissions:

  • The new process of review and release of decision notifications for summer and fall 2023 is being completed daily.

Matriculation:

  • The new process of Graduate School admits being able to auto-matriculate themselves in SOLAR is in production. This is a big improvement from the manual process that was in effect for many years. Auto-matriculation benefits all students, ensuring a smoother enrollment process, and international students specifically, speeding up the I-20 process.
  • CAS integration into Slate continues. Four more CAS's were integrated into the application system, Slate, since the last report in November 2022. So far, ATCAS, PTCAS, OTCAS, CSDCAS (Speech Language Pathology), SOPHAS (public health), SOPHAS Express, and HAMPCAS (Health Admin) have all been integrated. We are currently working on DICAS (Dietetic Internship and the new Master's in Professional Nutrition Practice), and lastly, CASPA (Physician Assistant). The project is set to conclude in April 2023

 

Undergraduate Education and Curriculum

Teaching and Learning Symposium:

Join CELT for the return of the Annual Teaching and Learning Symposium on Friday, March 24th. For more information: https://www.stonybrook.edu/celt/celtsymposium.php

Finish in 4 now U-RISE:

The Finish in 4 program is rebranding as Undergraduate Retention Initiatives and Success Engagement (U-RISE). Now staffed with five Assistant Directors, U-RISE has an expanded portfolio that includes Reinstatement Advising, the Finish Line program (formerly Finish in 4), and the Student Success Through Applied Research (SSTAR) Lab.

Faculty Fellows:

The application cycle for the 2023-2025 cohort of Faculty Fellows has closed. Awards will be granted within the next two weeks. 

Evaluating Faculty Perception of “Academic Success”:

Last year, the Division of Undergraduate Education launched a Student Success Through Applied Research (SSTAR) team. This group conducts original evidence-based research, evaluation, and assessment on topics that impact students, faculty, and staff.

One such research project is evaluating faculty perceptions of “academic success.” Faculty are rarely given a forum to discuss the term “success” without it being tied to data or metrics. Through focus groups and interviews, this research will close the gap in understanding “success” from the faculty/instructor lens to create a more well-rounded picture in the higher education landscape.

The first portion of this research focuses on instructors that teach “foundational courses” - courses that are pivotal to the student’s experience at the University as they are often the first courses the student takes while enrolled here. For this research, we are defining foundational courses as any class that a student may take during their first year of study. We have pared down the list to include the courses with the most frequent enrollment. To this end, we will be reaching out to professors in your departments throughout the semester to request their voluntary participation in this study.

Participation is completely optional, and we welcome any feedback or suggestions. Any questions or concerns can be directed to richard.tomczak@stonybrook.edu, our Director of Faculty Engagement.

Graduate School

SUNY Dissertation Honor:

Josue Nassar, graduate of the doctoral program in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was named a finalist for the SUNY Chancellor’s Distinguished PhD Dissertation Award.

Research Mentoring Workshop:

The Office of Graduate and Postdoc Professional Development offered a two-day workshop on Research Mentoring for Postdocs in January. The sessions focused on building research mentoring skills as both a mentee and a mentor.

Fulbright Fellowships:

Stony Brook applicants for Fulbright Fellowships are clearing hurdles. Of the 21 nominees the campus put forward this fall, 15 (71%) have been advanced to semi-finalist status.

Global Affairs

Study Abroad and International Exchange:

About 150 students are studying abroad this winter and spring semester through SBU’s International Academic Programs - and about 75 visiting international exchange students were welcomed to campus for the spring semester. 

Welcome Events for Students:

OGA has already supported several January workshops and sessions for international students and scholars as they arrive back to campus; as well as Lunar New Year celebrations. 

Institutional and Educational Effectiveness

Data Resources in Stony Brook Analytics:

Data resources continue to be added through Stony Brook Analytics. Spring enrollment comparatives show same-time enrollment year-over-year; official spring enrollment data will be available during the week of February 13, 2023.

Academic Program Assessment Deadline:

Academic program assessment reports are due February 20, 2023. Consultations and customized support is available through 7 the Office of Educational Effectiveness (https://bit.ly/OEEConsult) 

Middle States CHE Accreditation:

Work groups submitted first drafts of self-study chapters on 1/31. Previews for input will be available in late spring. Additional opportunities for input will be available in the fall.