March 7, 2022: University Senate Report
Office of the Provost
Updates
Budget and Finance
The Office of the Provost has been preparing for the imminent Strategic Hiring cycle. The revised process is based on the feedback from the survey delivered to Deans and Chairs, feedback from CAPRA and an internal analysis of the Strategic Hiring pilot run in 2021. Updated guidelines emphasize principles for decision making, transparency and communication. Internal procedures have been streamlined with the goal of communicating final decisions to the units by June 30, 2022. The Office of the Provost is also developing a website with a repository of documents and forms for the entire campus community. Communications were sent to Deans of Colleges and Schools on March 3, 2022. Communications to Center and Institute directors will be sent out by March 8, 2022.
Research
Over the past month, the Office of the Provost has continued to work in collaboration with OVPR on four initiatives: Tiger Teams, Biomedical Tiger Teams, the new ProFund Seed Grant, and Creative Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities support.
The current Tiger Teams (in areas of interest defined by the USICA proposal) are currently holding town hall meetings to disseminate the results of their due diligence to the campus community.
Biomedical Tiger Teams are in development. Deans have been asked to provide names of candidates for the various teams.
The ProFund Seed Grant has been launched, the Request for Proposals distributed to potential PIs. The deadline for submissions is April 4, 2022.
Finally, the Office of the Provost is now working on a Seed Grant for interdisciplinary teams in Creative Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. The Request for Proposals should be released soon.
Space Quality Survey
The Office of the Provost has continued to work on recruiting a consulting firm for a space quality survey to assess the quality of our research space, infrastructure, and facilities; to identify swing space (including space for Chemistry); to develop metrics; and to suggest management and governance structures. This survey does not duplicate the ongoing F&A rate survey, but it is complementary. Final bids are expected by April, 2022.
Faculty Affairs
Stony Brook University is participating in the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) survey of faculty job satisfaction. Hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education since 2003, this survey is designed to offer schools detailed job satisfaction data compared to peer institutions, and will help us enhance our faculty experience, as well as attract and retain the best and brightest talent.All eligible faculty must have received a link by now. If you have not received the link, please check your spam folder and contact us if the link is missing. This serves as a reminder to complete the survey as participation of faculty is critical in this matter.
Nominations for the Stony Brook Trustees Award are being accepted until April 1, 2022. This award is designed to encourage and support promising early career faculty, and their research, scholarship and art-making. Five Stony Brook Foundation Trustees Faculty Awards of $20,000 each are competitively available to early career faculty. More information on this award may be found on the Faculty Pathways website.
The Office of the Provost launched the search for the next Dean of University Libraries. Nancy Tomes, Distinguished Professor of History and Andrew Wackett, Associate Dean of Student Affairs in the Renaissance School of Medicine, will co-chair the search committee. The committee will be aided by Academic Career and Executive Search. A website has been launched to host updates, including contact information for inquiries and nominations.
Undergraduate Education
In December of 2021, Stony Brook University initiated a spring pilot with D2L/Brightspace under the guidance of SUNY. Faculty volunteers from across campus began working with DoIT and CELT on December 2021 to offer 25 courses in an SBU Brightspace pilot instance in Spring 2022. CELT staff members have been working with faculty on their design questions, and DoIT staff have been answering technical questions and facilitating issues with D2L/Brightspace and SUNY IT. Both teams have been jointly compiling FAQs and best practices based on questions and discussions with faculty, which will be shared with instructors. SUNY is working with SBU representatives to create a variety of training opportunities for faculty, staff and students. For more information about training and Brightspace functionality, faculty may sign up for a Fireside chat with SUNY. Faculty may also sign up for a Brightspace Sandbox through SUNY until our production instance goes live. The university plans to keep Blackboard available through May of 2023.
Enrollment Management
Graduate Admissions is reporting both a larger volume of applications and quicker processing. Applications to Graduate programs increased 12% for the Summer and Fall 2022 semesters, and Admissions has assisted departments in processing twice the number of offers YTD compared to this time last year.
Global Affairs
The Office of Global Affairs is launching new support initiatives for international students and scholars. In addition to our international students, there are more than 200 international scholars on campus. OGA is expanding its support and services, including expanded workshops, events, and a new International Student Success website.
Graduate School
SBU Three Minute Thesis has recruited its largest slate of speakers yet: 27 students will compete, representing a variety of programs including Music, Philosophy, Chemistry, and AMS.
Final competition for Presidential Dissertation Completion Fellowships is now underway. Doctoral students who have experienced a delay in progress due to circumstances beyond their control may apply for academic year funding for 2022-23. Applications are due March 31.
The Provost Office and the Senate are working together on forming a working group to plan the future of graduate school / graduate education. With the current Dean of Graduate School stepping down at the end of this semester, the charge of the working group is to evaluate and propose the administrative structure of the unit and the portfolio that it should encompass moving forward. We expect that the working group will be completed by next week and once formed, it will provide recommendations in a timely fashion to request resources accordingly and immediately engage in the search for the next leader.
University Accolades
Four SBU Faculty Are Named 2022 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellows
Chao Chen Wins Prestigious NSF CAREER Award
First Georges E. Fouron Education Legacy Scholarship Awarded to Juliacie Dieuvel
Six at SBU Win Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching
Megan Craig Wins APA Philosophy Op-Ed Contest
Carol Carter Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology
Stony Brook Students and Faculty Pioneer International Virtual Exchange
Fourteen SBU Students Receive SUNY GREAT Award for Graduate Research
Four SBU Faculty Mentored Three Regeneron Science Competition Scholars
Two from SoMAS Chosen as ESA Graduate Student Policy Award Recipients
Journalism Students Start 2022 with Two Hearst Awards
Wallace Selected to Present at United Nations Conference on Africa
Four SoMAS Research Projects Receive Funding from New York Sea Grant
Gabriella Mayers (’21) Wins Rockefeller Institute of Government Future Leaders in
Policy Competition