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Office of the Provost
HomeAbout CommunicationsDecember 2022 Senate report

Office of the Provost

University Senate Report

Updates


Executive Searches

College of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    • Five finalists visited campus in November and met with a variety of stakeholders in CEAS and across the university. Each candidate also made a public presentation, and the community was invited to share feedback on finalists. The search committee and provost have reviewed the feedback and are moving forward with next steps.

College of Business

  • The university has invited five finalists to visit campus Dec. 7 through 19. Each candidate will meet with a variety of stakeholders in COB and across the university. Each candidate will also make a public presentation, and the community will be invited to share feedback on finalists. More information on visits is available at https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/business-dean/.

Graduate School

  • The Provost’s Office received more than 200 responses to its feedback survey, seeking community input on next steps in the search for a permanent leader of the Graduate School and graduate and professional education at Stony Brook. The Provost’s Office is reviewing this feedback and will share updates soon.

Initiatives

 IDEA Fellows

  • The application period has closed for these positions. The search committees for each theme have been interviewing candidates and are working toward identifying finalists and inviting them to campus.

 

Academic Programs

Recently approved programs:

  • Revision of the MS in Technological Systems Management (TSM) with a new Distance Education modality. SUNY also approved the accelerated BS/MS in TSM due to revision of the MS [pending NYSED approval].
  • A CIP code change was approved for the PhD in Economics. The PhD program is classified as a STEM discipline going forward, and graduates who are international students will qualify for additional time in the U.S. under Optional Practical Training. SBU will continue to classify the Economics Department as a whole as social and behavioral sciences.
  • The MS and PhD in Data Science, approved last spring by SUNY and NYSED, has now been greenlit by the campus and will be accepting applications for Fall 2023.
  • Name change of IESE: Effective November 30, 2022, the former Institute for Electrochemically Stored Energy (IESE) has changed its official name to Institute for Energy Sustainability and Equity (IESE). The Provost approved this change with consent from the University Senate.

 

Faculty Affairs

Navigating SBU

  • The Office of the Provost continues to run this orientation program for junior assistant professors. A workshop on Research Foundation Resources was offered on November 18, 2022 and a networking social 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. A detailed schedule is available on Faculty Pathways. We continue to encourage 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. 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 first workshop of the program took place on November 11, 2002 and focused on Leadership Styles and Skills. A second workshop on Communication and Building Trust was offered on December 2, 2022.

Participants of this program have been nominated by the Deans of Colleges and  Schools from West and East campus. There are currently two cohorts of participants part of this program:

Cohort 1 (started Fall 2021):

  • Abena Asare (Africana Studies);
  • Julia Bear (College of Business);
  • Sean Clouston (Preventive Medicine);
  • Carlos Colosqui (Mechanical Engineering);
  • Jennifer Heerwig (Sociology);
  • Pei Fen Kuan (Applied Mathematics and Statistics);
  • Matthew Lerner (Psychology);
  • Chioma Okeoma (Pharmacological Sciences);
  • Fan Ye (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

Cohort 2 (started Fall 2022):

  • Kate Aubrecht (SoMAS / Chemistry);
  • Lily Blocker (College of Business);
  • Ana Carolina Botta-Maltese (General Dentistry);
  • Brooke Ellison (School of Health Professions);
  • Stacey Finkelstein (College of Business);
  • Helen C. Fox (Psychiatry and Behavioral Health);
  • Sonia Harmand (Anthropology / Turkana Basin Institute);
  • Robert Hough (Mathematics);
  • Peter Khost (Writing and Rhetoric);
  • Alan Kim (Philosophy);
  • Hyungjin Kim (Pharmacological Sciences);
  • Reuben Kline (Political Science);
  • Ting Liu (Economics);
  • Benjamin Martin (Biochemistry and Cell Biology);
  • Peter Milder (Electrical and Computer Engineering);
  • Aprajita Mohanty (Psychology);
  • Josh Plotkin (Neurobiology and Behavior);
  • Michael Rubenstein (English);
  • Emre Salman (Electrical and Computer Engineering);
  • Stacey Scott (Psychology);
  • Markus Seeliger (Pharmacological Sciences);
  • Jessica Seeliger (Pharmacological Sciences);
  • Shyam Sharma (Writing and Rhetoric);
  • Brian Sheridan (Microbiology and Immunology);
  • Jason Trelewicz (Materials Science and Chemical Engineering);
  • Anja von der Linden (Physics and Astronomy);
  • Ken Weitzman (English);
  • David Wiczer (Economics);
  • Jennie L. Williams (Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine);
  • Qiaojie Xiong (Neurobiology and Behavior);
  • Wei Yin (Rubenstein) (Biomedical Engineering)

Pilot program for West Campus full-time Lecturer Reappointments

  • A new pilot fulltime Lecturer appointment/reappointment process has been launched to improve the previous system, reduce the administrative burden and provide more support to the lecturers. All initial appointments as well as reappointments are expected to be for two years. However, a one-year term can be used in cases where only a one-year or shorter term is expected and two-year terms are not operationally feasible. Three-year reappointments will be permitted, with agreement/approval from all relevant parties, for full-time Lecturers who have continuously served for six or more years. The Office of the Provost will continue to provide regular updates about the status of full-time Lecturers in West Campus units to facilitate the process.

 

Enrollment Management

Admissions

  • Admissions released the first batch of admissions decisions for the fall 2023, roughly 5200. This is significantly larger than previous years.
  • Students will be notified of their initial scholar at the point of admission rather than in March.
  • Spring applications and accepts are up compared to last year. Admissions and advising are in full swing trying to yield as many of these students.

International Admissions

  • Upon the recommendation of Stony Brook counselor training from 2013-14, China established China Institute of College Admission Counseling. ChinaICAC https://www.chinaicac.org/#/home)
  • Participated in a panel on “The Future of Chinese Student Mobility”
  • Dr. Yu-wan Wang was invited again by Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) as a peer-evaluator for an on-site visit to an institution in May 2023
  • Presented at the International Educator (NAFSA) regional conference.

Office of Financial Aid & Scholarship Services

  • Implementing OTHOT as a prescriptive enrollment analytics platform.

Graduate & Health Sciences Admissions

  • 2023 Admission cycle is in full swing. Decision notifications have been going out steadily to students
  • CAS integration into Slate continues. ATCAS, PTCAS, and OTCAS have all been integrated. Currently working on CSDCAS (Speech Language Pathology)
  • GHSA continues to attend recruitment events to promote university graduate programs
  • A communication campaign is underway to increase the submission of applications, the application completion rate, and yield.

 

Undergraduate Education and Curriculum

  • The Division of Undergraduate Education is pleased to announce the first Call for Applications for the Faculty Fellows Program. The program offers professors the opportunity to develop and implement creative, innovative, and/or experimental teaching strategies at Stony Brook. Faculty Fellows are provided with teaching replacement funds for each semester of the fellowship period (4-semesters, over two years), to dedicate time to honing their pedagogical skills and producing a peer-reviewed work of scholarship based on

    their teaching. We will be offering four fellowships for the 2023-2025 cohort. The application deadline for the 2023-2025 cohort is Friday, January 13, 2023. More information, and the application details, can be found by visiting the Faculty Fellows website, linked here.

 

Graduate School

  • The Graduate Directors retreat was held on Nov 18, 2022. GPDs discussed a range of issues with a focus on holistic admissions and mentoring graduate students.
  • The Graduate School is offering modest awards to help recruit students to Master’s programs. Applications for the Master's Recruitment Enrichment Fund will be accepted on a rolling basis from December 1 until the funds are expended.
  • The Graduate Council has recently approved an updated academic integrity policy as well as a policy that will allow ABD doctoral students to take a limited degree of coursework after candidacy. Those policies will be included in the spring semester Graduate Bulletin.


Institutional and Educational Effectiveness

Middle States Accreditation Reaffirmation

  • Faculty, students, and staff were invited to attend a Town Hall Monday, December 5, at 10am in the Wang Center Lecture Hall 2 to learn about reaffirmation of our accreditation through the Middle States Council on Higher Education. The Provost moderated a panel

    of faculty and administrators leading our accreditation efforts. Links: Stony Brook’s Middle States websiteTown Hall update announcement. Email for questions about accreditation and future events: middlestates@stonybrook.edu

Committee Updates

  • The General Education Advisory Council has been charged and has met two times during fall 2022; they have been outlining a research agenda and action plans.
  • The Ad Hoc Committee to Establish a Program Review Process has met three times and will meet a fourth time to finalize recommendations to the Provost.
  • The Assessment Council was charged by the Provost on December 2.
  • The Office of Educational Effectiveness sponsored a well-attended full-day assessment symposium on Nov. 10, featuring renowned assessment experts Dr. Peggy Maki, Dr. Carol Van-Zile Tamsen who serves as Director of the Office of Curriculum, Assessment, and Teaching Transformation at the University of Buffalo, and a panel of assessment experts from Stony Brook: Dr. Brenda Anderson (Psychology) Dr. Peter Gergen (Ecology & Evolution and Undergraduate Biology), Dr. Peter Khost (Writing), and Dr. Debbie Zelizer (Health Sciences). The four panelists were honored as the inaugural recipients of the inaugural Excellence in Educational Effectiveness (EEE) Award.