Carlton Daniel Jr.

After finishing a bachelor’s degree at Ohio University, he applied to the College of Visual and Performing Arts. ���ϲ����� reminded him a lot of his hometown of Cleveland. He saw this small-town community as a place that would nurture his artistic voice much like his roots in Ohio. Daniel chose the M.F.A. film program because it offered him a flexible environment to hone his craft as a writer and director.

“I really admired the interdisciplinary approach offered at ���ϲ�����. I was able to study disciplines outside of film that informed my storytelling, which I really feel made me a better writer and director,” he says.

His thesis film and 2017 directorial debut, “Monogamish,” explores identity, love and relationships as an openly gay Black man through narrative filmmaking. The film screened at more than 20 festivals both domestically and internationally.

“I arrived at ���ϲ����� just months after the shooting of Treyvon Martin. The classes I took in the African American studies department while learning the history of Rust Belt cities like Cleveland and ���ϲ����� were really eye-opening,” Daniel says. “Understanding how population shifts and institutionalized racism like redlining influenced my communities, and learning from Associate Professor Kishi Ducré about the effects of residential segregation inspired me to use storytelling to engage with some of these issues.”

“���ϲ����� was the foundation for me in really finding my voice, who I am as an artist, and the things I want to say to the world. It all started here,” he says.

Those studies informed his second short film, “Homegoing,” completed in 2020, which centers the story of a mortician’s son balancing the hardships of hypermasculinity, wealth disparities and everyday realities of Black life in America. The short script won the inaugural Central New York short film competition, netting $40,000 to make the project, which was shot entirely in ���ϲ����� with local actors and crew. The film has since won places at highly competitive film festivals across North America, including the American Black Film Festival, Outfest LA and Palm Springs Short Fest.

Most recently, Daniel wrote, directed and co-produced a horror film for 20th Digital Studio, “Rebecca,” which is currently streaming on season two of “Bite Size Halloween” on Hulu.

“I want to continue writing and directing films and creating opportunities for folks from underrepresented communities to have access to film sets to learn about the different opportunities that come with filmmaking,” Daniel says. “There are so many jobs on set that people don’t even know about. I want to be able to give back to ���ϲ����� and Cleveland so that young people can also feel empowered to make films and tell their own stories.”

Ultimately, Daniel wants to be a change agent, “If you can’t see different perspectives, if you can’t see different worlds, different characters and people of all experiences and backgrounds, how can we ever understand each other and our humanity? How can we strive for better futures? That’s part of my mission to make things better for the next generation.”

This spring, Daniel wrote and directed a short film in partnership with CNY Film Professionals’ inaugural youth program, “Call Time,” intended to pipeline inner-city Black and brown youth into jobs within the Central New York film industry.

Now, Daniel is developing “Homegoing” into a feature film with his creative partner, Evan Starling-Davis G’20. Both the short and the feature film script were inspired by his experiences growing up in the Rust Belt.

“After graduating from ���ϲ�����, I went home to Cleveland temporarily and started working at a funeral home. It was just a job to earn money, but I was so moved and inspired by the family who owned it and the community that I was meeting every day as they came to grieve their loved ones. I was just shocked by how so much love, so much joy and community were in this space. I was just engaging with those little slices of life and wanted to make something of it that’s heartfelt and personal,” Daniel says.

Daniel draws inspiration from his own experiences, conversations overheard and conversations with his late grandmother that he recorded while back home. “I take these things and craft them into notes and journal entries and make character descriptions, arcs, and story plots.

“I force myself to do this because I feel like if it’s uncomfortable for me to talk about, it’s probably going to be helpful for someone else—something others can relate to. I really push myself to step out of my comfort zone when I am writing and talk about things that aren’t easy. It’s not even always serious, sometimes even comedic moments that come from really tough places.”

“The main character in ‘Homegoing’ is haunted by nightmares and returns home from college to his family’s funeral parlor to salvage his grip on reality. In the process he reconnects with his grandmother, learning more about the business, while also learning about his family history, his identity and how the family migrated from the south to Cleveland in the 1940s. The main character begins to realize that there are larger forces—spirituality—at play in keeping him home. In doing so, he must come to terms with his family, community and the man that he loves.”

Daniel’s script was selected for the Outfest screenwriting lab in Los Angeles. “I spent two weeks with writers and executives from the film industry, getting script feedback and mentorship from professionals,” Daniel says. “The script soon after went on to be selected for Tribeca Film Festival’s, Untold Stories grant competition, where it placed in the top five projects, netting $10,000 as a constellation prize. ‘Homegoing’ has since made it to the final round of consideration for other incubation programs including the Sundance Creative Producing Lab and the Sundance Development Track.”

Daniel is now undergoing casting and seeking financing from private investors for the development of “Homegoing.” As a young, promising alum of ���ϲ�����, he’s also seeking to strengthen his network and support from the alumni community.

As a filmmaker, Daniel tries to engage with issues that are important to the next generation. “It’s really moving when I get feedback from other people—particularly other young people—who just felt moved or inspired by something that I wrote or directed. Being an artist is really powerful in that sense. Filmmakers reach such a wide array of audiences. Hopefully, my films and the stories I am telling will leave a little mark on the world and make things a little better for the next generation and for my community.”

Contact Daniel and find out more about his work via .

Eimbinder took advantage of academic coaching with CLASS and went from, “I actually might be in trouble here,” to becoming an academic coach himself, thanks to the skills he learned. “My coach, who now works in cybersecurity at a well-known company, was my role model. I made a connection with him and learned such skills as memorization techniques that I used to master the detailed information about sports commissions, rules and collective bargaining agreements that I needed to learn.”

Left to right: Joao Paulo Forman Murray, Sport Management Professor Dennis Deninger and Josh Eimbinder celebrating at 2022 Commencement.

Eimbinder found coaching so helpful that he wanted to get involved. He reached out to the CLASS leadership team. At the time he didn’t have the required GPA, but he was so persuasive that he was provisionally hired and trained as an academic coach—on the condition that he keep his GPA over 3.0.

That’s when his fellow women’s basketball team manager and sport management major, Joao Paulo Forman Murray ’22, got interested. The native of Sao Paolo, Brazil, was looking for different things to do on campus and had helped Eimbinder study math. Forman Murray came on board because, “I saw how Josh really evolved academically in the program.”

Both friends say they believe what they have learned as coaches will benefit them in their careers. “I think communicating with multiple audiences and diverse people with different backgrounds, interests, opinions and behaviors is the key to any job,” says Forman Murray. He primarily served as a coach for science and engineering students, which isn’t a field he knows well. Over the course of his time as an academic coach, he found ways to connect with students, encourage them to keep an open mind and learn to ask good questions that uncover the information they need.

“As someone going through coaching, I really learned time management, prioritization and how to hold myself accountable, in addition to the specific study and review techniques,” Eimbinder says. “As a coach, I learned how to connect with all kinds of people, meet them where they are and celebrate their successes. It’s super exciting as a coach to hear from your past students that they’re succeeding.”

Forman Murray is looking forward to taking his leadership skills into his summer capstone project and is hoping to find a job in the United States after he finishes. Eimbinder believes that his experience as a coach will benefit him in his post-graduate work at United Talent Agency. “In a job, you work with vague instructions.�� In school, every professor isn’t clear and concise.�� If you can understand how to ask questions and interpret vague instructions and run with them, it becomes super valuable down the road.”

Smith had read several of Professor Beth Ferri’s research papers while in her master’s program and saw a good fit with her own research interests. Ferri, professor of inclusive education and disability studies and associate dean for research in the School of Education, eventually became her Ph.D. advisor.

When asked about professors who have been instrumental to her success, Smith says, “Oh gosh, this question will get me in trouble. In so many ways my journey has been one big group project. So many people have poured into me.”

“Beth Ferri and Marcelle Haddix pushed opportunities my way, advocated for me and encouraged me to apply for or take part in things I didn’t think I was qualified for as an international student,” Smith says. “I am grateful that both of these women pushed me to imagine new possibilities and not count myself out based on my immigration status. I call Beth Myers my cheerleader. From the beginning she has been someone I could be open and honest about how I was feeling and that was extremely helpful.”

Academically, Smith found Eunjung Kim, associate professor in women’s and gender studies and cultural foundations of education and disability studies, to be a supportive mentor, “She challenged me in my writing and to see things differently. She led me through submitting my first piece to be published, which I thought was impossible, but she assisted me and let me know that you can be human in the academic process,” she says. Smith went on to create an impressive pipeline of publications as she completed a full five-course sequence in research methods.

Gretchen Lopez, director of the Intergroup Dialogue Program and associate professor in women’s and gender studies and cultural foundations of education and disability studies, also helped Smith find her way as a scholar. “She has a way of being present with her students that makes you feel seen when she is talking to you. She gives constructive feedback. I know she always has 10 million things to do, but I never felt like I was less of a priority whenever we spoke. I aspire to emulate this as a professor,” Smith says.

Smith defends her dissertation in July and will begin a tenure-track position at the University of Pittsburgh. Ferri believes that Smith will be a huge asset to Pitt’s program, “In my 20-plus years of working with doctoral students, Phillandra stands out in terms of her professionalism, her gifts as an instructor and her leadership in the field and university context. Phillandra is a gifted teacher who is steadfastly committed to student’s success—encouraging them but also respecting them enough to hold them to high standards. Her teaching evaluations are stellar!”

Smith also received several internal competitive research grants/awards—including a departmental award (Marsha Smith Lewis Memorial Dissertation Scholarship), a School of Education award (Joan Burstyn Endowed Research in Education Award) and two Universitywide awards—the Research and Creative Grant Award and an Outstanding TA Award. “Any one of these awards would be impressive, but to have received awards at every level is quite impressive,” says Ferri.

As a Black student at ���ϲ�����, Smith says she didn’t immediately find her community. “I was the only Black woman in my program and I wasn’t ready for that isolation. I met Tonya Wilson at a School of Education reception and she became my person in ���ϲ�����,” she says. “It was important for me to stretch out of my program and department to make those connections, which have been especially helpful during the pandemic.” Her close group of fellow graduate students has moved into an online space that they call “the office”—keeping each other accountable as they work toward their individual goals.

Her experience led her to help create the Graduate School’s BIPOC Alliance for Excellence, where she put her research skills to work holding focus groups to explore what support would be useful for BIPOC graduate students. “Dean (Peter) Vanable asked my opinion about what the Graduate School could do to support BIPOC students, so I went out and asked,” she says. “Out of those focus groups, we identified a great team of people working on the initiative.” Launched in the fall semester of 2021, the BIPOC Alliance has held informal mixers, social events and panel discussions on mentorship, thriving and overall wellness as a BIPOC graduate student. Smith hopes the BIPOC Alliance will help other graduate students “find their people” early in their ���ϲ����� experience. “I think I am leaving the organization in great hands because we had so many people on board with making it successful. Chelsea Bouldin will be taking over from me, and I am excited to see how GSBA expands under her leadership,” she says.

Vanable, dean of the Graduate School, agrees, “What Phillandra and the other leaders identified is that there wasn’t a built-in way for BIPOC students to connect with peers in other departments, programs and schools. The collaborative way the alliance operates means that there’s now a core group of student leaders who brought ideas to the table and will continue to engage with others to create programming that addresses the needs of BIPOC students,” he says.

Smith is looking forward to taking up her teaching and research at the University of Pittsburgh. “I’m going to learn the community and find collaborators. My primary interest is identifying evidence-based practices in antiracist teaching and inclusive education,” she says. “It’s exciting to have people be excited about the work that you are doing. I was excited about my research, but I didn’t know how other people would respond to it. The folks at University of Pittsburgh are excited. I’m joining a community that really engaged with these topics during my interview process and it’s been very energizing.”

The facility addition was designed to provide optimum environmental conditions for the storage and preservation of items from the Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center. Unique, rare and fragile materials that require cold (32°F, 40% relative humidity) or cool (50°F, 30% relative humidity) environmental conditions can be stored in Module 2 for secure and long-term preservation. Module 2 also has customized security technology, fire protection and environmental controls that will halt degradation and extend the life of these valuable collections by several hundred years, ensuring crucial access to materials for teaching, research and scholarship at ���ϲ�����.

Materials stored in Module 2 will include tens of thousands of films, photographs, negatives, recorded sound formats, tape-based media and 19th/20th century paper books and manuscripts on acidifying wood-pulp based paper.�� Responsive retrieval and access to materials will be provided by Libraries’ staff.

“We are grateful to Campus Planning, Design and Construction, Dean David Seaman, the staff of the Libraries and, particularly, the team from the Special Collections Research Center for their work in making this facility a reality,” says Gretchen Ritter, vice chancellor and provost. “I have seen some of the important objects and documents that make up the Libraries’ collections and am pleased that future generations of scholars and researchers will have access to these resources.”

The Libraries is planning an open house for faculty in the fall.

Additionally, dissertation fellowships were awarded to 40 doctoral students to facilitate progress towards the completion of their dissertation.

Candidates were selected by a panel of graduate faculty and staff who assessed each candidate’s academic standing and ability to make progress toward a significant program milestone such as coursework completion, qualifying exams or dissertation completion, depending on the candidate’s stage in their program.

The summer fellowships for students who have not yet reached ABD status were supported through��COVID relief funding�����ܱ��ǰ���.

“We are pleased to support both graduate students who are close to completion and those whose early progress toward their doctoral degree milestones was slowed due to the pandemic. Thanks to the University’s allocation of COVID relief funds, we were able to award additional academic year fellowships and project-based funding for faculty to support graduate students,” says Peter Vanable, dean of the Graduate School.

“I congratulate all of our summer fellowship recipients and hope that this funding enables them to reach their next milestone.”

Dissertation fellowship recipients include:

• Aatif Abbas, Philosophy
• Keshab Adhikari, Mathematics Education
• Siaw Appiah-Adu, Anthropology
• Sarah Araldi-Brondolo, Biology
• Alec Beaton Jr., Chemistry
• Christopher Bousquet, Philosophy
• Farrah Brown, Political Science
• Tony Chamoun, Anthropology
• Lauren Cooper, English
• Ayse Dalgali, Information Science and Technology
• Raj De, Physics
• Shawn Dormann, Chemistry
• Natalie El-Eid, English
• Xiwei Guo, Geography
• Sarthak Gupta, Physics
• Alexander Hartwell, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Md Shahadat Hossain, Chemistry
• Huseyin Zeyd Koytak, Sociology
• Athena Last, Sociology
• Riliang Li, Civil Engineering
• Ajaya Mali, Anthropology
• Mariah Maxwell, College Science Teaching
• Shea Meyer, Chemistry
• Adriana Mucedola, Mass Communications
• Sean Nalty, Philosophy
• Alex O’Connell, English
• Chen Quan, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Krishna Yashwant Ranaware, Social Science
• Hooman S. Abootorabi, Business Administration
• Sefa Secen, Political Science
• Subhasree Sengupta, Information Science and Technology
• Caitlin Smith, Human Development and Family Science
• Phillandra Smith, Special Education
• Nikolaus Wagner, Biology
• Chenyan Wang, Bioengineering
• Joseph Wasswa, Civil Engineering
• Jared Whear, Geography
• Tackla Winston, Bioengineering
• Jeongwon Yang, Mass Communications
• Kairui Zhang, Bioengineering

Pre-dissertation fellowship recipients include:

• Jeffrey Adams, English
• Sanup�� Araballi, Computer/Information Science and Engineering
• Johnson Agyapong, Bioengineering
• Emily Beauparlant, Social Psychology
• Roseanna Benser, Sociology
• Chelsea Bouldin, Cultural Foundations of Education
• Peter Brennan, Earth Sciences
• ParKer Bryant, Literacy Education
• Dylan Caskie. English
• Stephen Caviness, Teaching and Curriculum
• Burak Cilhoroz, Exercise Science
• Hannah Connolly, Social Science
• Jersey Cosantino, Cultural Foundations of Education
• Easton Davis, Cultural Foundations of Education
• Fatima Dobani, Clinical Psychology
• Xiaoyu Fu, Human Development and Family Sciences
• Kellan Head, Philosophy
• Curtis Jewell, Composition and Cultural Rhetoric
• Subodh Kalia, Computer/Information Science and Engineering
• Sawinder Kaur, Computer/Information Science and Engineering
• Kelly Kearns, Counseling and Counselor Education
• Kyle Leister, Exercise Science
• Jared Liebergen, Philosophy
• Jingzhi Liu, Chemical Engineering
• Claudine Lucena, Marriage and Family Therapy
• Cheng Lyu, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Samantha Maguire, School Psychology
• Zakery Muñoz, Composition and Cultural Rhetoric
• Felipe Oliveira, Philosophy
• Destiny Orantes, Clinical Psychology
• Yuri Pavlov, Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation
• Xiaoxuan Qu, Counseling and Counselor Education
• Carlos�� Ramirez Arenas, Religion
• Jared Rosenberg, Exercise Science
• Morgan Shaw, English
• Zhihan Su, Marriage and Family Therapy
• Naveed Tahir, Computer/Information Science and Engineering
• Cassidy Thomas, Social Science
• Nastassia Vaitsiakhovich, Sociology
• Alison Vrabec, Clinical Psychology
• Lei Wang, Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation
• Aliza Willsey, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Yiming Xu, Physics

Gretchen Purser

To fulfill their enduring mission to develop ethical and courageous citizens, Marvin and Helaine Lender provided a generous $5 million gift to create a multidisciplinary center that would include research support, symposia, and faculty and student fellowships. The Lender Center for Social Justice launched in September 2018. Marcelle Haddix, associate provost for strategic initiatives and Distinguished Dean’s Professor of Literacy, Race and Justice in the School of Education, and Kendall Phillips, professor of communication and rhetorical studies in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, were named inaugural co-directors.

“Professor Purser’s perspective on social justice is rooted in her experience using qualitative and multi-method research approaches to better understand the root causes of work and labor disparities and a constellation of related issues,” says Ritter. “Her work on urban poverty, precarity, community-based action, law and punishment, and housing and homelessness will bring a fresh new perspective to the Lender Center’s work with students and faculty to address pressing social justice concerns.”

Purser’s research focuses on work and labor disparities, urban poverty, precarity, social theory, ethnography, community-based action, law and punishment, and housing and homelessness. Purser is also a member of the Maxwell School’s Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration Labor Studies working group, where she is the research director of the program’s Advocacy and Activism working group. In the community, Purser chairs the board of the Workers’ Center of Central New York. Known for her courses that connect scholarly knowledge with real-world experience, Purser received the Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award in 2020 and the Meredith Teaching Recognition Award in 2013. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Purser’s appointment will begin on July 1. She will serve alongside co-director James Haywood Rolling, Jr., professor of arts education in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and teaching and leadership in the School of Education, who was appointed co-director in September 2021. Purser succeeds Phillips, whose term ends on June 30.

“Professor Phillips’ enthusiasm for the Lender Center and its mission has resulted in a four-year track record of quality research and programming, which expanded its reach through virtual symposia and presentations during the pandemic,” said Ritter. “I am grateful for his leadership and the continuity he has provided during these transitions.”

When founded, the Lender Center was administered by the School of Education. When Haddix was named associate provost for strategic initiatives, the administration of the Lender Center moved to Academic Affairs. “In talking to faculty and students across ���ϲ�����, it quickly became clear that there are vibrant social justice initiatives in almost every college, school and program,” says Ritter. “Given the breadth of these efforts, it makes sense to place the Lender Center under the umbrella of Academic Affairs, where it complements the social difference, social justice research cluster. As part of a portfolio of academic community outreach, the center’s student and faculty-driven programming will be an important way for the University to connect with the community.”

“Working with Kendall Phillips to imagine and set up the center’s initial programs was a great experience, as we each brought our own disciplinary perspectives to the work. Each new co-director brings their life experience and disciplinary lens to the position, resulting in a rich research environment for student and faculty fellows,” says Haddix.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity for continued collaboration with the Lender Center,” she added. “Professors Purser and Rollings offer rich perspectives and I am excited to see what their collaboration brings.”

Those from ���ϲ����� attending the ACC Academic Leaders Network meeting were, from left, Gladys McCormick, Ryan O. Williams, Kira Reed, Jamie Winders, Amy Criss, Marie Garland, Julie Hasenwinkel and Melissa Luke.

Five ���ϲ����� faculty leaders participated in the 2022 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Academic Leaders Network.�� The ACC Academic Leaders Network is designed to facilitate networking across member institutions and foster collaboration among academic leaders. ���ϲ�����’s 2022 participants are:

• Amy Criss, chair, psychology, College of Arts and Sciences
• Julie Hasenwinkel, chair, biomedical and chemical engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science
• Melissa Luke, provost faculty fellow, School of Education
• Gladys McCormick, associate dean, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
• Ryan Williams, associate dean, College of Professional Studies

���ϲ�����’s participants joined 90 faculty members and administrators from each of the 15 ACC universities. The ALN debuted in 2018 after ACC leaders decided to create a program that would leverage the diversity of innovation and ideas among the ACC’s many top-tier research universities. Each ACC school selects five faculty leaders—deans, department heads, associate provosts and other academic administrators—to join a year-long cohort focused on leadership development, collaboration and understanding of trends and challenges in higher education.

At the March 10–12 event on the Virginia Tech campus, participants enjoyed a dinner with Provost Cyril Clarke; a campus tour; networking activities; panel discussions about topics such as diversity, self-care and leading in a time of transition. They also met to build communities of practice centered around common challenges in higher education, like student mental health or recruitment and retention of diverse faculty members. Two more ACC Academic Leader Network conferences will take place later this year at Boston College and the University of Virginia.

One of those interactive installations is . Led by Heath Hanlin, associate professor of film and media arts in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, Kairos translates enormous amounts of scientific data to present global warming hotspots to audiences in a multisensory virtual reality (VR) environment. “I have been working on this for three years, with the idea that this project would engage with science museums,” says Hanlin. “The logistics of presenting VR in a museum are kind of daunting.”

Hanlin reached out to Emily Stokes-Rees, associate professor of museum studies and director of the School of Design. “The initial conversation was about how to make a VR experience visitor friendly, including elements of interpretation for people who aren’t actively using the VR. We talked about the user experience, crowd control, the way it flows through and timing of how people view the exhibit,” says Stokes-Rees.

With a team of students, Hanlin and Stokes-Rees will be collecting data about how the experience works in the context of an interactive exhibit.�� Their goal is to understand how the VR environment and experience can be structured and integrated the mission of science museums. “The Museum of Science and Technology in ���ϲ����� has been a great partner and has helped us learn from their experience with technology, but it’s been limited due to the pandemic,” says Stokes-Rees. “I can’t imagine a better way to work the bugs out of the system than the ACCelerate festival,” adds Hanlin. “The students immediately grasped the opportunity here and started asking the right questions.�� ACCelerate will give us real-world data that we can apply to iterate on how we present this powerful experience focused on climate change, with the ultimate goal of educating people and inspiring them to take action.”

Bruce Kingma, professor of entrepreneurship in the School of Information Studies and Whitman School of Management, is taking his Innovation, Design and Startups program students to lead an interactive invention experience designed to spark creativity in festival-goers.�� “I teach the creativity course and the first assignments that students encounter is to create a new toy that meets the needs of a demographic similar to that of a favorite toy they had in their childhood,” Kingma says. “The students come up with just amazing things and we have video clips of these presentations from the last few semesters.”

Inspired by these ideas, kids who visit the ACCelerate festival will be able to fill out an idea sheet with a new toy idea. “We’ll pick three of the best ideas and the winners will receive some ���ϲ����� swag,” says Kingma. He sees the ACCelerate experience as a great way to think about creativity, “The whole goal of the IDS program is to create new ideas, encourage innovation, and help students start new ventures. We want to enable students to make their ideas real,” he adds.

The University’s third team isn’t an exhibitor. Seth Gitner, associate professor of magazine, news and digital journalism and visual communications in the Newhouse School, will mentor a team of visual communications students who will be creating journalistic coverage of the festival. “It replicates the experience of being parachuted into an event, which is always an interesting endeavor because you don’t know what they’re going to get, says Gitner.” Gitner is deliberately leaving the desired outcome vague. Students might choose to do a photo documentary or a video, but he sees it as their choice. “As a journalist you have to talk to people, get the story, figure out your angle, connect with your characters. I will be in an executive producer role, there for support and advice. But this is really the students running their own show and figure out how they are going to convey what it’s like to be at this event and what stories come out of it.”

“We’re excited to support five faculty and 20 ���ϲ����� students—through competitive grants provided by the Office of Research and the SOURCE—to enable their participation in the ACCelerate Festival,” says said Ramesh Raina, interim vice president for Research. “The Office of Research is proud that we can give students a mechanism to partner with faculty in new ways to experience hands-on learning themselves, and to create ways for the public to learn in turn. It’s a wonderful opportunity to gain exposure to new research and creative ideas from other ACC schools, as well as to show off some of the incredibly innovative work that ���ϲ����� is known for.”

Nine graduate students have been selected to receive the Graduate Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Work. Award recipients represent a broad array of disciplines and were selected based on students’ outstanding accomplishments in research and creative work, as well as the quality and impact of proposed presentations.

A total of 53 submissions were reviewed within broad disciplinary categories by a panel of faculty members serving on the Graduate Faculty Council. All winning entrants will receive $500 and an award certificate, and will briefly present their work at a the .

“Our 2022 recipients and honorable mentions are tremendous examples of talented and resilient scholars who have produced exceptional work. They are excellent representatives of the graduate student community as a whole and of their specific disciplines. We can’t wait to see what they will do next,” says Peter Vanable, dean of the Graduate School.

2022 Recipients

• Oluseyi Agbelusi, “In Search of the Ancestors: British Anti-Slavery, Trade, and Nascent colonialism in coastal Sierra Leone,” anthropology
• Nina Benway, “Speech Classification and AI-Guided Treatment for Residual Speech Sound Disorder,” speech-language pathology
• Manya Gadhok,”Soulmates,” film
• Jessica Powers, “Longitudinal Associations Between Pain and Use of Cigarettes and E-Cigarettes in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (Path) Study,” clinical psychology
• Andrew Ridgeway, “Fostering Information Literacy Through Competitive Speech and Debate,” composition and cultural rhetoric
• Phillandra Smith, “W(h)ite Out: An Analysis of Presentations of Race and Ethnicity in U.S. Inclusive Education Textbooks,” special education
• Chenyan Wang,”Stem Cell-Derived Models with Spatial or Temporal Heterogeneity for Heart Disease Modeling,” bioengineering
• Noah Wason, “How Do You Study a Black Box?,” composition and cultural rhetoric
• Xiaoyan Zhang, “Loneliness and Depression Among American Older Adults: Can Resilience Resources be Buffers?,” human development and family science

2022 Honorable Mentions

• Kent Jason Cheng, social science
• Julia Giannini, physics
• Derron Hilts, counseling and counselor education
• Christopher “Seth” Knievel, communication and rhetorical studies
• Yingya Li, information science and technology
• Kelsey Olney-Wall, museum studies
• Sweta Roy, bioengineering

Information sessions will be held virtually. Advance registration is required:

• March 23 at noon:
• April 13 at noon:

FYS 101 lead instructor applications for fall 2022 are open and can be accessed via the . Deadline to apply is June 1. For more information, email the First-Year Seminar team at firstyear@syr.edu.

To fulfill its mission and continually evolve to serve faculty, the CTLE conducts a periodic needs assessment in which the center surveys faculty to understand how they would like to engage and what events or services may be most helpful to them in adopting evidence-based teaching and learning techniques.

Next week, faculty will receive an email with a link to the CTLE’s 2022 Faculty Needs Assessment. The survey, which takes approximately 10 minutes to complete, is an opportunity for faculty to reflect on their experiences over the past three years and help the CTLE to identify services that meet ongoing and emerging faculty needs.

“Even for veteran faculty, the last few years have been challenging. In addition to pandemic restrictions, faculty are now teaching students whose formative experiences in high school may have been online. The environment that affects teaching and learning is rapidly changing, and CTLE is constantly evolving to meet faculty needs,” said CTLE Director Martha Diede.

The needs survey will shape the center’s offerings for the next three years, though the CTLE offers flexible offerings that can meet the needs of individuals, communities of practice, departments and schools and colleges.

In an effort to make this process transparent, faculty from across the University are adding tags to each course. Students will be able to use these tags to work with their advisors and choose courses within their major requirements to support these learning goals.

“The course tag applications are flowing in, the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Shared Competencies is reviewing them and we’re sending out approvals! Despite the pandemic, ���ϲ����� is on track to incorporate the into the online course catalog and MySlice course registration starting in 2023,” says Anne Mosher, Provost Faculty Fellow and associate professor of geography and the environment in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

“Undergraduate faculty in each school and college started this work during the Fall 2021 semester to demonstrate to students how individual courses relate to the Shared Competencies,” Mosher says. “Course tags are simply labels that indicate that at least 30% of a course’s grade relates to a specific competency. A tag means that students are going to have a chance to practice and get useful feedback on the competency-related work they do in class.”

Course tags in every school and college help students connect the dots between what they are learning in different classes so they can see how they are building skills needed to succeed after graduation, Mosher says.

“All of this makes the Shared Competencies course tags a critical strategy to ensure that the University brings transparency to undergraduate education that enables every student to navigate their experience and use it to its fullest,” she says.

Faculty can tag courses with at least one and up to three of the Shared Competencies.

“We have a responsibility to demonstrate that we’re delivering a learning experience that is worth the time, effort and overall investment that students put into it,” says Maureen Thompson, associate professor of public health in the Falk College and a member of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Shared Competencies.

William Robert, associate professor of religion in the College of Arts and Sciences and an early course tag adopter, agrees.

“We can be more transparent about what we are doing in the classroom. We’re not just dumping a bunch of content on top of our students. There is a certain skill set and a set of methodological practices that are underneath how we deliver the content,” Robert says. “These shared learning goals help students see what they’re learning more concretely in ways that are practical, so that they can tie in the world that they live in.”

While tagging close to 3,000 courses over a two and a half-year period may seem intimidating, the University has provided resources for faculty, including a , , and .

Thompson and Robert both say that the process of course tagging helps them be better teachers and have clarity about how to meet course objectives. Through this process, faculty are being exposed to different ways of approaching material and exchanging ideas about how to connect what they are teaching to what students need to learn to reach their career aspirations.

“Course tagging has forced me to articulate in clear and accessible language what I’m actually doing in the course and how I am doing it. I have to write it down; I think it makes me a better teacher,” Robert says. “When I go into the classroom, I go in with a clarity about exactly how this plays out in the course, depending on the particular shared competency—like communication skills or ethics, integrity and commitment to diversity and inclusion.”

Faculty who are participating in course tagging find that it yields positive dividends for just a little work.

“In my department we have an assessment committee that decided to use a team approach where we’re pairing faculty members with another faculty member who has done the professional development on course tagging. It’s a coaching model and provides someone to dialogue with and help faculty think about issues like how and when they give students feedback, how different parts of an assignment fit together, how they can address timely topics within the structure of the overall course,” says Thompson, who recently received tag approvals for several public health courses.

“Faculty come back after we’ve reviewed their syllabi together and tell us that they know their course is better after a structured session thinking about what their course addresses, the appropriate tags and how students can connect activities to the skills they are acquiring,” Thompson says.

“Other institutions—like Stanford, Harvard, the University of North Carolina—have found that integrative learning approaches like the one we’re adopting with the Shared Competencies helps students know what to expect in a course, connect what they are learning and how they are learning across their courses, while simultaneously meeting their requirements,” says Mosher.

“Within the scholarship on teaching and learning in higher ed there’s mounting evidence that students learn better when they know not just what they are supposed to do in a class, but also why they are doing it,” Mosher says. “This helps them not only make better sense out of their path through ���ϲ�����, but also enables them to tell their ���ϲ����� story in ways that really highlight the skills they picked up in their courses, major, co-curricular and extracurricular activities. That is something that prospective employers and graduate schools value.”

Thompson says that understanding this aspect of the Shared Competencies helps drive student engagement.

“In the past we’d recommend that public health majors take statistics as one of their math classes because our accreditor wants you to have a stats course. Tagging that same course as teaching scientific inquiry and research skills opens the door to talking about how the foundations of an introductory stats course will help you interpret data to recommend a public health intervention or understand epidemiology,” Thompson says. “It’s not checking a box, it’s showing how the courses can be strung together as building blocks.”

Robert says, “I have a rule in my classes that anyone can raise their hand at any time to ask why we are doing what we are doing. Then we stop and we, as a class, will articulate a response.

“I need to be able to tell students why we’re doing the activity, how it connects to other activities, the skill set it’s building and how it’s going to help them succeed. Then all of a sudden what seemed an opaque activity becomes clear. Even if they don’t like the reason we’re doing it, they know that there is one and can appreciate the method and logic behind it. It helps to make teaching more transparent.”

To ensure that a course’s tags will appear in the 2023-24 course catalog and in MySlice for Fall 2023 registration, course tag applications must be submitted to the Senate Ad Hoc Committee via the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment by Sept. 1, 2022.

SPRING BREAK TESTING HOURS
All tests will be conducted at Kimmel Hall:

Sunday, March 13: 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Monday, March 14: 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Tuesday, March 15: 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Wednesday, March 16: 10 a.m.–3 p.m. and 4–7 p.m.
Thursday, March 17: 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Friday, March 18: 8:30 a.m.–10:30 a.m.
Saturday, March 19: Closed

As always, testing hours and locations can be found on the .

The group will study the 2015 “Trajectory to Excellence” academic strategic planning process, evaluating the methods and steps that yielded the University’s Academic Strategic Plan. They will also evaluate the effectiveness, transparency and integration of the planning processes that followed at the college, school and unit level. The group will consider academic planning best practices used by peer institutions and will use these findings to develop a roadmap for the refresh of ���ϲ�����’s Academic Strategic Plan next year.

In her charge to the ASPP, Ritter asks the group to consider how to develop a process that fully integrates University goals and values and current market dynamics. These include diversity, equity, inclusion and access goals, graduate and undergraduate enrollment objectives, the effect of the pandemic on higher education, post-graduation outcomes for students and areas of distinctive academic excellence.

Members of the ASPP Group include:

• Lois Agnew, associate dean of curriculum innovation and pedagogy, interim chair of African American studies and professor of writing, rhetoric and composition in the College of Arts and Sciences
• Steve Bennett, co-chair, senior vice president for international programs and academic operations and chief of staff, Academic Affairs
• Rick Burton, David B. Falk Endowed Professor of Sport Management in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics and the University’s faculty athletic representative to the NCAA and Atlantic Coast Conference
• Elisa Dekaney, associate dean of research, graduate studies and internationalization in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) and professor of music education in VPA and the School of Education
• Jerry Edmonds, senior assistant provost, institutional effectiveness and assessment, Academic Affairs
• Amy Falkner, senior associate dean for academic affairs and associate professor of advertising, Newhouse School of Public Communications
• Lauryn Gouldin, Crandall Melvin Professor of Law and director of the ���ϲ����� Civics Initiative, College of Law
• Julie Hasenwinkel, professor and chair of biomedical and chemical engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science
• Kira Reed, associate professor in the Whitman School of Management and Provost Faculty Fellow
• David Van Slyke, dean and Louis A. Bantle Chair in Business-Government Policy, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
• Jennifer Stromer-Galley, professor and senior associate dean for academic and faculty affairs, School of Information Studies
• Ryan C. Williams, vice president for enrollment services
• Ryan O. Williams, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of practice, College of Professional Studies
• Amanda Eubanks Winkler, professor of music history and cultures and chair of art and music histories in the College of Arts and Sciences
• Jamie Winders, co-chair, associate provost for faculty affairs and professor of geography and the environment in the Maxwell School

Amy Fulford of enlight Advisors will facilitate the process and provide professional development to ASPP members and other participants.

The ASPP will map a planning process based on the findings of their review, advice of subject matter experts both on and off campus, study of higher education strategic planning and facts and circumstances relevant to a contemporary strategic plan. Based on this analysis, the ASPP will issue a specific set of recommendations to Ritter by the end of May. These recommendations will outline the design of pre-planning workshops for academic leadership and stakeholders and clearly outline the design and execution of strategic planning at the University, school or college and unit levels.

The FSP is a 12-week online program designed to teach tenure-track and tenured faculty the skills to increase their research and writing productivity while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

The next installment of the will be summer 2022 (May 15 through Aug. 6), with future installments planned for the Fall 2022 (Aug. 28 to Nov. 19) and Spring 2023 semesters (dates forthcoming). The cost per participant is $4,950, with discounts available for early registration.

for participation in the summer 2022 FSP must be received by 5 p.m. on Monday, March 7. All other applications will be held for future program offerings. To be considered, faculty members must have with the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, made possible through the ���ϲ����� Institutional Membership.

Typically, the cost of participation is shared equally among three entities: the faculty member (through startup funds or other professional development funds designated for individual use, including internal grants); their department, school, or college; and by Faculty Affairs. Other proposed funding arrangements can be considered but are not guaranteed. Requests for funding from Faculty Affairs must include details of other available funds in support of participation.

Interested faculty members must indicating their interest in participating, including their specific reasons why participation at a specific time is desired, if applicable. Responses are limited to 1,500 characters (approximately 250-300 words).

For more information, please contact Marie Garland, Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs, or by calling 315.443.0362.

Lauren McCormick

Lauren McCormick is finishing her doctoral dissertation in religion, but the path to her fundamental reinterpretation of an ancient Judean artifact draws on a broad base of multidisciplinary expertise that she has acquired over the course of her intellectual journey. Talking to her takes you on a journey through biblical history, ancient languages, archaeology, museum work, cultural studies and art history. On this journey, McCormick has found evidence to reassess the religious and cultural significance of nude female figurines, called Judean Pillar Figurines, which date back to the 8th-6th��centuries BCE.

Judean Pillar Figurines are a specific form of female representation found in the kingdom of Judah (now within modern Israel) during the Iron Age. Over a thousand of the clay figurines have been found whole or in fragments. “These items are real material evidence from the biblical world, but they’re not deemed to be part of official religion as outlined in the Hebrew Bible. If you dig at almost any given site from this era in Judah, these figurines show up. More than a thousand of them have been found—well above the totals for any other kind of figural art,” she said. McCormick was fascinated by the disconnect between the sheer numbers of Judean Pillar Figurines that have been found and their absence from these key texts.

“The conventional wisdom was that the figurines represented fertility goddesses. A concern with fertility has some merit, given the high infant and maternal mortality rates in the Iron Age, the figurines’ partial nudity and the fact that they were found mostly in homes. But the evidence I have pieced together suggests that they didn’t represent high goddesses, but instead are ‘attendant figures’ like angels—intermediaries between the Hebrew god Yahweh and humans.”

McCormick’s evidence comes from multiple disciplines. With an undergraduate degree in psychology and religion from Rutgers, she went on to complete an M.A. in religious studies at New York University, where she learned the ancient Semitic languages of Hebrew, Akkadian and Biblical Aramaic. She earned a second M.A. at Duke University, where she added an additional language related to ancient Canaan called Ugaritic and participated in a half-season of archaeological excavation of Iron Age Tel Dor in Israel. McCormick has been able to bring together and expand upon her multiple skillsets working with James Watts, Zachary Braiterman and Virginia Burrus in the religion department. In the course of her Ph.D. program, she also became a visiting scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Penn Museum and the Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology.

The quick assumption that these figurines represent fertility goddesses, McCormick notes, is based on their pose—holding nude breasts—which is an ancient gesture at-times utilized for representations of goddesses. However, the Judean Pillar Figurines do not display the typical regalia expected of a goddess, like wings or a horned cap, leaving their iconography quite ambiguous. “Angels are defined by the jobs they perform and are not mentioned by name in the Bible until the Book of Daniel, unquestionably one of the latest books of the Hebrew Bible,” she says. “This is the type of conceptualization that seems to suit Judean Pillar Figurines, which are not given individualized identity and are defined instead by the jobs they do.”

Judean Pillar Figurines. Courtesy: Badè Museum at Pacific School of Religion. Photograph by Lauren McCormick.

McCormick has examined over 100 figurines and fragments. She collaborated with a research scientist to find that the clay used to create the majority of figurines sampled from a site called Tell en-Naṣbeh were not sourced locally, but from the Jerusalem area. For a current article in a book she is co-editing, McCormick reconstructs faded paint on one exceptional figurine head through a technology called “Decorrelation Stretch” imaging. Through the support of the religion department, the same figurine head is scheduled for more detailed testing in March. This “Reflectance Transformation Imaging” will flash lights from controlled angles while taking pictures to reveal surface details not visible to the naked eye.

On this figurine head, red paint is preserved on the face and black and white color animate the eyes, which run the length of the face. McCormick also discovered an indentation from a bead in the eyes that would reflect light. She hadn’t found any discussion of this particular detail by other scholars, or in general any theorization of the Judean Pillar Figurines that treated the eyes as if they were as important as the breasts.

With additional information from this analysis, McCormick will be able to work at the level of fine detail as she investigates the significance of the red face and shining, oversized eyes. “In the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Near Eastern literature, we find the idea that ‘looks can kill’ when it comes to divine encounter. The concept of Yahweh as too bright or awesome to look upon is common. Individuals who stand before divine presence fear death, but, particularly in the Psalms, if they are able instead to receive blessing, their eyes start to shine. When Moses came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, his face was described as shining.” So might other intermediaries between God and the ancient inhabitants of Judah, like the pillar figurines, who McCormick argues were figures allowed to stand before Yahweh to see him. “In this culture, the ability to look in some capacity at the face of God was reserved for special people such as priests and prophets—also intermediaries. There’s a concept in Akkadian literature of gods with shining cloaks, which finds eventual echo in Christian traditions about saints, who are depicted with halos.”

By putting together disparate expertise from religion, art history, ancient languages and texts, archaeology and the science that is allowing a re-evaluation of surface decoration on Judean Pillar Figures, McCormick is marshaling a persuasive suite of evidence that may lead to a new interpretation of the role of these ancient artifacts in Judean religion at a time when monotheism was just beginning to emerge.

The funding program, administered by the Graduate School, will provide 32 academic year fellowships and research assistantships to new and continuing doctoral students in 17 academic departments. Funding decisions were based on the strength of the academic department’s strategic proposal for increasing the number of doctoral degrees conferred and supporting recruitment and retention of diverse doctoral students, as well as current indicators of program quality and success.

Applications were reviewed by senior leaders from each of the school and college applicants, as well as by Vanable, Interim Vice President for Research Ramesh Raina and members of the Graduate School leadership team.

“I want to particularly congratulate the departments receiving funding for the first time in 2022, including chemistry, civil and environmental engineering, geography and English,” said Vanable.�� “Doctoral education is an essential part of our mission. I am impressed by the thoughtful proposals for growing doctoral degree conferrals and recruiting and retaining diverse doctoral candidates.”

Funding will be provided to awardees annually for a period of three years, beginning in the 2022-23 academic year. All doctoral degree-granting departments will be invited to apply for additional REDF awards after three years of funding.

Funding awards including departments in the science and engineering, humanities, social sciences and education.

Departments Receiving REDF Funding:

Biomedical and Chemical Engineering
Biology
Chemistry
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Composition and Cultural Rhetoric
Cultural Foundations of Education
Earth Sciences
Economics
English
Geography
Information Science and Technology
Physics
Political Science
Psychology
Public Administration
Sociology

Cameron’s courses link theory and practice for aspiring child life specialists, demonstrating the importance of collaborating between faculty and students.

Through the —launched in the Fall 2020 semester—those collaborations are coming together to create culturally responsive learning environments for all students while opening dialogue on how students and faculty perceive teaching and learning.

The program provides faculty with the opportunity to work with one student each semester who is not enrolled in their course. The faculty member and the student share their unique perspectives on teaching and learning. With the input of the student consultant, faculty can reflect on their teaching goals and strategies in the context of one specific course.

Colleen Cameron was part of a collaborative effort that helps students gain the skills to partner with people receiving services.

“My background is in patient- and family-centered healthcare and child development. I apply theory and practical knowledge as a Certified Child Life Specialist in different contexts. When I heard about the Partnership for Inclusive Education, I immediately was attracted to the idea that the students I work with every day and am here to serve would be given an opportunity to collaborate right in the classroom to elevate the student learning experience,” says Cameron.

Rachel Hill, a senior biology major from Rochester, New York, came to the program through her own experience as well.�� “The idea of partnering with a faculty member to help them make their class more inclusive struck my attention. I have taken classes that haven’t been structured in a friendly manner and I wanted to help!”

Hill and Cameron collaborated on HFS 255: Interpersonal Competence, which helps students gain the skills to partner with people receiving services. Hill, who is also minoring in marketing and psychology, found it interesting to think about teaching and learning outside of her area of study.

Rachel Hill was part of a collaborative effort that helps students gain the skills to partner with people receiving services.

“Professor Cameron was a pleasure to work with. She really listened to me and respected my thoughts and ideas about how to relate to her students and help them better engage with the course material. I learned how to observe and work with someone on solving a greater problem while making impactful change. I can use this experience in the future when working on a team and needing to come up with useful strategies to address a problem we’ve identified,” Hill says of the experience, which will benefit her after graduation.

For Cameron, working with Hill represented a true partnership, providing a nonjudgmental space to think about restructuring part of her course and helping her be better at what she does.

“It’s really about the student experience and academic achievement. There’s a power dynamic in higher education. In my field, working with children and people with disabilities, we say ‘Nothing about us without us.’ The opportunity to make students part of the conversation and empower them to improve their academic achievement, their success and their interpersonal competence works extremely well,” adds Cameron.

For her part, Hill says, “I learned a lot about being transparent and how that creates trust. I didn’t think it would be so natural and easy working with a professor, but I always felt like an equal with Professor Cameron.”

Faculty who are interested in collaborating with a student in the program can learn more by emailing the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence. Students who are interested in being consultants and are looking for a rich reciprocal educational experience should contact Carla Ramirez.

���ϲ����� Vice Chancellor and Provost Gretchen Ritter today announced the members of the search committee for the University’s next vice president for research (VPR). The VPR reports directly to the provost and provides leadership for the University’s research enterprise, including support of scholarly and creative activity across the institution.

“Continuing to build research, scholarship and creative work is essential to enhancing academic excellence in a university that is welcoming and inclusive,” says Ritter. “I am pleased and grateful that the committee includes a cross section of campus stakeholders who understand the importance this role will have in shaping the future of research at ���ϲ�����. I am grateful to all of the committee members for participating in this search, which is so important for the University’s future trajectory.”

“I am grateful to Ramesh Raina, whose service as interim VPR began just as the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. ���ϲ�����’s scholarly community has benefited from his leadership and advocacy,” says Ritter.

Ritter has charged the search committee with consulting key campus stakeholders regarding the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the next permanent vice president for research. After development of a position description, the position will be advertised widely to develop a strong pool of candidates. The University is partnering with Paul Chou of Korn Ferry’s global education practice on the search.

The committee, which is composed of faculty, staff, student representatives and members of the Board of Trustees, will be led by Duncan Brown, Charles Brightman Endowed Professor of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences. Members include:

• Nicholas Armstrong, managing director, Institute for Veterans and Military Families
• Kristen Barnes, professor, College of Law
• Michel Benaroch, professor, Whitman School of Management
• Yousr Dhaouadi, Ph.D. student, College of Engineering and Computer Science
• Heidi Hehnly, associate professor, College of Arts and Sciences
• Sandra Lane, professor, Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics
• Christine Larsen G’84, University Trustee
• Regina Luttrell, associate professor, Newhouse School of Public Communications
• Jennifer Karas Montez, professor, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
• Daekwon Park, associate professor, School of Architecture
• Dacheng Ren, professor, College of Engineering and Computer Science
• Cole Smith, dean, College of Engineering and Computer Science
• Stuart Taub, Office of Sponsored Programs

Ritter hopes to have the search completed and an individual named to the position by the end of the spring semester.

Danial Nana Yaw Abankwah

Abankwah comes to ���ϲ����� from the University of Ghana, where he serves as a research development officer in the Office of Research, Innovation and Development, specifically serving the College of Health Sciences. As a UASP Fellow, Abankwah is participating in a competitively awarded, short-term U.S. based training experiences for key mid- and senior-level university research administrators and faculty, which is supported by the Carnegie Corporation and managed by IREX.

The fellowship seeks to deepen fellows understanding of a specific area of research management from observing in real-time how U.S. research management teams are structured and operate while expanding their professional networks. Fellows then refine implementation plans—developed through an initial 10-month virtual leadership course—to guide them and their colleagues in implementing sustainable research management reform at their home institution.

The fellowships provide participants with a fully funded, five-week U.S. based training program that builds on the UASP Research Management and Leadership online course and virtual exchange they completed October 2020 – June 2021. Abankwah will spend approximately three weeks collaborating in-person with counterparts at ���ϲ����� and Upstate, giving him opportunities to observe in real-time how U.S. research management teams are structured and operate. The program receives primary support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Abankwah’s primary interest in creating a non-paper-based review system for ethics review boards, as well as to discuss topics such as: competing for large grants, mentoring early career faculty, management of sponsored program and the processes and purpose for research data collection.

Faculty or research-related staff interested in meeting with Abankwah, or having him visit a laboratory, faculty meeting, research development discussion or other research-related activity should contact Christina Leigh Docteur in the Office of Research at cdocteur@syr.edu, or Abankwah directly at dabankwa@syr.edu.

The R1 distinction is based on an examination of 2019-2020 data. Criteria for research activity includes such factors as total research expenditures, full-time faculty and research staff, and number of postdoctoral fellows and doctoral degree conferrals. ���ϲ����� is one of 39 private doctoral universities classified as R1.

The Carnegie Classification, created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and first published in 1973, is the widely accepted industry standard for classifying schools by higher education researchers and others. The U.S. Department of Education and many higher education associations use the classifications to organize data as well as determine a school’s eligibility for grant funding. The classifications are also used by U.S. News & World Report in grouping institutions by type for its popular Best Colleges rankings guide.

For more information, visit the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education��.

But that’s exactly what happened. “Just like my former students, I realized that my lack of confidence was holding me back from developing my writing skills,” Trumble says. “All of us can succeed in subjects we dislike or fear. The key is putting your doubts aside and trying new strategies to learn the material.”

Samantha Trumble

Often, the best way to do this is with help from others who can sympathize and support you. Trumble knows this first hand. As as assistant director of ���ϲ�����’s Center for Learning and Student Success (CLASS), she oversees the talented undergraduate and graduates students the center hires and trains to become peer tutors and coaches.

“High-quality training standards are the key to high-quality tutoring and other peer-based academic support,” Trumble says. “Co-authoring new standards for our international professional organization required me to do a lot of writing. Writing has never been a subject I enjoyed or felt confident in, but I realized this was an opportunity to improve my writing skills while helping CLASS and learning centers at other universities strengthen their tutor training programs.”

Like many university-level student success programs, CLASS obtains tutor and other peer educator certification from the (CRLA), a membership organization for professionals in the fields of learning assistance, tutoring and academic support at the college level.�� Trumble became active in CRLA after returning to her home in Central New York in 2017 to accept a position with CLASS.

CLASS has an advantage in meeting CRLA standards, as Trumble co-wrote the Standards, Outcomes and Assessments document for CRLA’s International Tutor Training Program Certification. The certification is given to tutor training programs at colleges and universities, giving the programs the authority to recognize their tutors as having acquired an internationally accepted standard of skills and training for tutors. Currently there are more than 1,100 certified programs around the world and the certification has been endorsed by top educational organizations.

As the person who supervises and mentors peer tutors and educators at ���ϲ�����, Trumble sees the benefits of the international standard, which is used as a best practice in training CLASS tutors and other peer educators. “Tutors learn strategies that are course-specific, since we offer small-group tutoring for many of the most challenging classes that first- and second-year students take.�� Peer educators serve as academic coaches and provide broader advice to students including research-based study strategies, time management and active study strategies,” she says.

“Many of our tutors and coaches have used CLASS services. They’re empathetic because they have struggled and overcome challenges to their own academic performance,” she says. “Once they go through training and begin working with other students, they learn skills that they can apply to their future jobs or graduate programs. And the opportunity to gain international certification is a great resume booster.”

Trumble acknowledges that co-authoring the new edition of the standards for CRLA was a lot of work, but sees the program as truly beneficial to students working with CLASS.�� “I keep in touch with many of them after graduation, and they often tell me that particular skills they learned during their training are useful in their professional positions,” she says

“I love to mentor our student employees.�� It is rewarding to see them succeed and hear their feedback and appreciation for what they have learned,” she says.

Holohan will be responsible for the development and implementation of learning and engagement opportunities to further integrate the museum into the academic mission of the University.�� She will also work closely with the museum’s existing team to create public programs for interaction with the collection and special collections. Holohan will also oversee outreach for regional groups, and youth and K-12 schools like the Photography and Literacy Project.

“This is a pivotal position for the museum that will help us fill our academic mission as part of ���ϲ�����. Kate’s track record at Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center shows an impressive commitment to building relationships through campus and community outreach. I look forward to her leadership in growing our partnerships on campus and in the Central New York Community,” says Vanja Malloy, the museum’s director and chief curator.

Kate Holohan

Holohan’s most recent role at Stanford University was as interim director of academic and public programs, where she managed the museum’s academic programs. Holohan partnered with faculty for class visits and work with the collection, oversaw the student guides training program and managed several student-centered research and curatorial programs that reached over 1,000 students annually.�� Holohan also managed public programs such as curator and artist talks, symposia, hands-on art-making events and interdisciplinary conversations.

“With one of the largest collections among university-affiliated museums, the ���ϲ����� Art Museum offers deep and rich ways for faculty and students to collaborate both within and across disciplines. This position will be dedicated to forging those connections and we are thrilled to welcome Kate Holohan to ���ϲ�����,” says Gretchen Ritter, provost and chief academic officer.

Prior to her role at Stanford, Holohan was an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the department of the arts of Africa, Oceana and the Americas at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She holds a Ph.D. in art history from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.

“I look forward to drawing on ���ϲ�����’s significant collection of works on paper, ceramics, and textiles to further develop my interdisciplinary teaching, research, and curatorial practice. One of the true joys of a diverse collection like ���ϲ�����’s is discovering objects that can spark exciting conversations in the classroom, in the galleries, and through public programming,” says Holohan.

Elizabeth Su

When she saw the Kaish Fellowship opportunity with the Art Museum, Su decided to apply. “I have always been interested in art. I took a couple of art history classes and I volunteered at an art museum in high school. I saw that they were looking for interdisciplinary research,” Su says.

When she interviewed, she zeroed in on a topic that she has always been interested in—dreams. “In my career, I want to find a way to understand dreams—and maybe even record them. They’re my passion.”

���ϲ����� Art Museum Director Vanja Malloy knew what direction to point Su in. “For me, as an art historian, surrealism was obviously the place to start,” Malloy says.

Su took that idea and ran with it. “I started researching the surrealist movement and got really invested in it—particularly in how people see themselves in an irrational way,” Su says. “Then I looked through the ���ϲ����� Art Museum collection and was inspired by a few pieces. There are self-portraits that aren’t drawn in a traditional style, but not strictly abstract either. That’s the way surrealism is. I started looking into how surrealists come to understand self-portraits.”

This experience seems to be exactly what ���ϲ����� alumni and prominent artists Luise ’46, G’51 and Morton ’49 Kaish had in mind when they made a major gift to the University. In addition to establishing the Luise and Morton Kaish Gallery Endowed Fund, the gift created the Kaish Fellows program.

The program provides funding to enable undergraduate students from every discipline to undertake original research on the permanent art collection and to work with museum staff on exhibitions, scholarly publications and public programming. The philanthropic gift to support undergraduate research at ���ϲ����� is unique as few programs such as this are available for undergraduate level students at peer academic museums.

“This is my first real independent research project,” Su says. “I’ve learned how to contextualize research questions and conclusions. I wouldn’t have had time to follow my interests without the Kaish Fellowship.”

Following her interests led Su to look at the connections between perception and neuroscience. She found examples of artists with altered perception. One condition—prosopagnosia—is the inability to recognize familiar faces (including one’s own) without any accompanying visual impairment or visual processing issues.

Another—hemispatial neglect—causes a condition in which those affected can’t perceive the left side of their face, without any vision loss. “In thinking about surrealism, it’s interesting to think about thinking irrationally in a spontaneous way or how artists may put themselves in a mindset where they fundamentally perceive things differently or they understand the world through different kinds of logic,” Su says.

Su particularly enjoyed working with the artists’ files, bringing context to their work. “It’s really exciting, actually. I see those old newspaper clippings of an artwork that I have right in front of me, with the handwritten letters the artists have written to ���ϲ�����, then I’m able to follow what the artist does later in life,” Su says. “There are also materials that give insight into what the artist was doing when they created the work, like interviews with family members who sometimes infer inspiration even when the artist doesn’t seem to be aware of it.”

Su’s work—and the connections she is making—is exactly what the Kaish Fellows program was meant to evoke in its fellows.

“As the first Kaish Fellow to be chosen, Elizabeth has stepped up and really made the most of the opportunity to work with the art and artist materials, and applied her research interests to reveal the fascinating interdisciplinary connections that inform the creation and appreciation of artwork in the museum’s collection,” Malloy says.

Melissa Yuen

Melissa Yuen was appointed curator of the on Dec. 1, 2021. She joined ���ϲ����� from the Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and previously served as a curatorial fellow at Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center.

SU News sat down with her to learn more about her role and her vision for future exhibitions at the ���ϲ����� Art Museum.

Austin Peña

Austin Peña doesn’t like boundaries. He chose ���ϲ����� for graduate school because he wouldn’t be forced into a single educational track. “I question the traditional boundaries of architecture and it’s a very forward-thinking program. The faculty give us a lot of flexibility and leeway to go places with our designs and project that traditionally wouldn’t be found in an architecture program,” he says.

“I started an undergraduate degree in construction management, but then I took an economics course. I was fascinated by how economics relates to human decision making and to the social conditions in which all of us live. That fascination has continued into my graduate career in architectural design,” Peña adds.

Peña considers architecture one of the most human-centered fields out there. It encompasses individuals and their stories, communities, cultures and nationalities, “It’s a great process that requires a lot, but it gives a lot back in return.”

It’s not surprising that he chose a master’s project that puts people at the center. Focused on the four corners region in the American southwest, the homeland of Navajo nation, he says, “There has been a lot of research done on the poor quality housing conditions that exist on native lands, but there’s a gap in research on real, plausible and sustainable solutions. My hope is to produce a solution that contributes to the narrative and moves it toward solutions.”

Homes in the four corners region often don’t have access to electricity or have running water. Residents are exposed to radiation from adjacent abandoned uranium mines, contributing to high rates of cancer. “I want to design a housing system that alleviates the constant stress of not having daily needs met in terms of basic living conditions. We know this stress contributes to high rates of alcoholism, chronic disease—what if we could solve it? It is an egregious disservice to peoples who colonists have displaced and discriminated against for centuries.”

Peña feels a personal call to help solve problems with native communities. His great grandmother was a member of the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in New Mexico, but left her community as a child, eventually marring a Mexican immigrant and helping her family build generational wealth and success. This privilege doesn’t exist for many people in the four corners region and for native peoples generally.

He is looking at cutting edge materials and solutions for housing and infrastructure to tackle water scarcity, an underserved electrical grid and protection from residual uranium mine radiation.�� “It’s really a building systems project, heavily reliant on materials science and environmental engineering. It’s also an economic policy project, as I am looking at public policy, and sources of funding and whether that funding is accessible to the people in Navajo Nation.”

Peña’s objective is to take a sustainable approach that is consistent with the values of the community. A central factor of his research will be interviewing Diné (Navajo) makers and artists. He says, “There is a strong and rich Diné maker culture that can inform architectural design. It’s not just another affordable housing project, but one that listens to the people in a way that honors their culture and their heritage.”

Peña’s desire to cross boundaries isn’t limited to his studies. As someone taking an integrated approach to architectural design, he’s found that being a teaching assistant in architectural theory has improved his thinking. He says, “It’s really forced me to actually know the theory. In teaching, you can’t get by with a passing knowledge. It has really forced me to know it in depth.” Peña invites his students and colleagues to think outside traditional tracks and believes that teaching architectural theory allows him to apply it better in his own work.

He’s also keen to make connections between students. “One of the challenges in the architecture graduate programs is that there are numerous different lengths of programs depending on students’ previous experience—so there are several different cohorts that come in each year,” he said.�� As president of the Graduate Students of Architecture, he aims to help fellow students cross the boundaries of their cohort to leverage the broader, more divers, and rich network that exists at the School of Architecture.

“There are people from around the world here, and a big value of the education here is the professional connections and networks that you can build. So the GSA exists to foster connectivity across the entire program. It’s a rigorous program and it’s easy to get so caught up in your work that you don’t look to the studio down the hall to see what exciting and innovative things other studios are doing; the opportunities GSA tries to provide for students to find a sense of belonging are really valuable.”

“We’re turning the focus toward building the resources that will further enable our faculty to succeed,” says Chancellor Syverud. “We will be working to raise funds that jump-start new faculty research and provide seed funding for promising ideas. We will also be building the resources we need to attract and retain faculty in a highly competitive world. Doing this right will assure that ���ϲ�����’s academic mission will persevere and succeed for generations ahead.”

The major objective of the Forever Orange Faculty Excellence Program is accelerating the creation of endowments for professorships, chairs and faculty support funds, all of which are critical to recruiting and sustaining a high achieving faculty.

“Through this initiative, the University will set aside endowment funds to leverage private philanthropic donations establishing permanent teaching and research positions,” says Senior Vice President and Chief Advancement Officer Matt Ter Molen. “The University will add financial support to funds contributed by donors to endowments that establish permanent teaching and research positions.”

“Academic leadership from across ���ϲ����� collaborated with the advancement team to create the Forever Orange Faculty Excellence Program,” says Gretchen Ritter, provost and chief academic officer. “We know that faculty scholarly and creative works, discovery and invention have the greatest potential to increase ���ϲ�����’s institutional prestige, rankings and competitiveness for grant funding. We are excited to launch this initiative, which will speed creation of prestigious professorships and chairs.”

The University will contribute between one quarter and one third of the funds required to create endowed chairs, professorships, faculty fellowships, visiting professorships and postdoctoral fellowships. The program will emphasize cluster hires, high-growth or priority disciplines. Endowments may also be supported when funds are contributed to name existing, unnamed chairs and professorships or faculty fellowships.

“This initiative is also critical to our success in retaining talented and productive faculty who are already contributing to academic excellence at ���ϲ�����. Endowed positions provide resources that enable deans to retain our world-class faculty, who are frequently approached by our peer institutions,” Ritter adds.

“We hear frequently from alumni that ���ϲ����� and its world-class faculty enabled their success. Creating an endowed position is a great way to establish a permanent legacy that recognizes the University’s impact on their lives,” adds Ter Molen.

Along with the Forever Orange Faculty Excellence Program, the University will be working to attract philanthropic support for funds to jumpstart new faculty research and provide seed funding for promising ideas.

The Forever Orange campaign launched in Nov. 2018 and has since raised $1.14 billion. The campaign is focused on advancing academic excellence at all levels, including providing opportunities for talented students to excel, supporting new ways to deliver the learning experience, attracting and retaining faculty who are engaged in interdisciplinary and meaningful research, and ensuring that the Orange promise to create a better world is accessible to all.

Tracy Walker

This posed a real challenge, as field placement is a critical part of the social work curriculum. “Social workers are engaging with some of the most vulnerable individuals in our society, like people who are experiencing trauma or health-related issues,” she added. “Our students can’t just cognitively understand the concepts learned in class; they need to know how to make professional judgments and apply these concepts that they’re learning in the classroom so they can be effective and ethical in their practice.”

Walker is a dynamic presence in the School of Social Work, maintaining relationships with field sites both close to the ���ϲ����� campus and in far-flung places. She says the school had to quickly devise a way for students to have these critical fieldwork opportunities during the pandemic, and leadership believed that technology could provide an answer.

Building on an existing relationship with 2U, the School of Social Work and the Falk College were invited by partners at 2U to pilot a Virtual Field Experience (VFX) program, which provides a platform for students to engage with standardized patients to gain clinical skills.

Medical schools have long used standardized patient exercises to build clinical skills. By encountering an individual trained to act as a real patient with symptoms and a diagnosis, students learn the nuances of eliciting information and building rapport with the people they will ultimately serve during their careers. Until recently, these experiences were hard to find outside of academic medical centers.

“The live actors simulate what that real-world client interaction is going to feel like, when you have butterflies in your stomach and are wondering, ‘How am I possibly going to help this person?” Walker says. “The skill of managing your own anxiety as a social worker is key to stepping up to the challenges that our profession poses.”

Students and faculty have found that the VFX is a safe space to make mistakes in the moment and hear real-time feedback from classmates and professors. Students can watch themselves on the video playback, gaining insights about their strengths and potential areas for improvement before they interact with an actual client in the real world. “It allows M.S.W. students to finesse their skills before going out and working with vulnerable clients,” says Walker. “It also helps students get to a place where we feel confident about students’ readiness to engage with clients, and they will be more effective at their jobs because of the experience.”

The platform also makes it possible for more social work students to train and serve in their hometowns by alleviating the cost or burden of traveling to a placement site.

The School of Social Work plans to continue offering VFX as a way of supporting high-quality outcomes for students on campus. In addition, the will begin using the VFX later this year.

“As faculty, we know that we educate skilled scientists and engineers,” says BioInspired Director Lisa Manning, Kenan Professor of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“But what helps them stand out in the job market are a set of softer skills. To be polished, well-rounded scientists and engineers, there are things that aren’t taught in many programs.”

That’s why the BioInspired Institute recently partnered with to offer project management training. Ichor Life Sciences is a local biotechnology company that studies the fundamental mechanisms of aging to develop therapies to help people live longer and healthier lives. It’s the kind of company that ���ϲ����� graduates interested in working in the biotechnology industry might aspire to join after they complete their degrees.

BioInspired’s director of operations, Jeremy Steinbacher, says that project management is at the center of what experienced research scientists do—but they often don’t recognize it. Steinbacher should know, as he earned a Ph.D. in chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University. He has worked as a faculty member with the U.S. Department of Defense and consulted for industry in his area of expertise.

“Partnering with Ichor Life Sciences to offer project management training is hugely beneficial to students and postdoctoral fellows. They bring a real-world focus to the key highlights of project management that really speak to our students’ training here at ���ϲ�����,” he says.

Kelsey Moody, the company’s chief executive officer agrees. He says, “It was our privilege to take part in the project management workshop series with ���ϲ�����’s BioInspired Institute and support its mission to provide real world training to students and faculty in the life sciences.”

Project management is just one of the that the BioInspired Institute offers, but Amanda Campbell, who is completing her Ph.D. in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, says it attracted her attention because, “I know how crucial ��the skill set is and how valuable it is to future employers, especially in the private sector. I want to become more proficient in the lingo and tools used in project management.”

Campbell’s Ph.D. research focuses on naturally dissolved methane in groundwater, which can change over time and make it difficult to assess impacts of natural gas production. She found that some well water changes significantly and one sample is not necessarily representative of overall conditions, implying that water wells should be tested on at least three different occasions to be able to identify those that naturally change. She has also developed a model that can predict which domestic water wells are likely to have naturally high methane concentrations based on water chemistry. The work has implications for the oil and gas industry, and she appreciates the applied aspect of it. She says her career aspiration is, “to solve problems, whether that is in private industry, through consulting or in the government sector.” She learned that project management tools don’t just help solve problems more efficiently but can also help scientists sell trust in their expertise. “Stakeholders don’t need to be as informed as you are, but they do need to know that you understand their problem and can solve it for them.”

“These are skills that many scientists and engineers learn on the job,” says Jay Henderson, associate director of BioInspired and associate professor of biomedical and chemical engineering. “In deciding how BioInspired could really add value for our students and postdoctoral trainees, our faculty identified skills like project management, research communication and scholarly publishing as key assets that can help ���ϲ�����-trained scientists and engineers stand out in the job market.�� You can have the best technical skills and still struggle to succeed without the ability to gain trust, organize big projects and communicate about your research.”

Opioid use disorder is one of the leading public health problems in the United States. Dessa Bergen-Cico has spent her career working to combat addiction and find solutions that work.

“Trauma, stress and addiction are all related. To have sustainable recovery from addiction, we have to help people understand what they are feeling, what contributes to their stress and learn healthy ways of regulating emotions,” she says.

Dessa Bergen-Cico

is a professor in the department of public health at Falk College. There, she coordinates the addiction studies program. She is also a faculty member in the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program.

The rate and cost of relapse for people in recovery is high, with a large risk of fatal overdose. Opioids create physical dependency and change people’s brains in terms of how they process reward and motivation, self-regulation and how people react to stress. Even years after discontinuing drug use, stress and anxiety can trigger the urge to use opioids and other drugs.

Research has found that mindfulness-based strategies can prevent relapse and foster sustainable recovery. “We are trying to demonstrate how and why it works. Our preliminary research, which was funded by two CUSE (Collaboration for Unprecedented Success and Excellence)��grants, measured changes in neural correlates associated with stress addiction and trauma,” says Bergen-Cico. “We found significant changes with a relatively short period of practice for key areas of the brain related to attention, working memory and emotional regulation.” Neural correlates are brain activity that corresponds with specific regions of the brain and are associated with similar brain functions.

Asif Salekin

“The findings from both CUSE grants helped pinpoint how and why mindfulness can help change the stress reactions that can lead to the development of an addiction as well as increased risk of relapse. We used fNIRS (functional near infrared spectroscopy) sensors to measure areas of the brain that regulate the ‘stop’ and ‘go’ signals that contribute to addiction. Using data from the fNIRS sensors, we were able to identify patterns of change in regions of the brain associated with the stress response. The data from the fNIRS sensors enabled us to measure significant changes in the mindfulness intervention study participants that were present before changes in self report measures,” says Bergen-Cico.

Bergen-Cico is working with , assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Computer science and a larger team at ���ϲ����� and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst to validate whether they can reliably predict the stress response in a larger group of participants. “By comparing results across three cohorts and interventions, we’re hoping to determine if making participants aware of the physiological stress response can cue them to interrupt the stress cycle using mindfulness and other cognitive behavioral techniques,” says Bergen-Cico. “The National Science Foundation award will fund this stage of the research.” The grant itself was awarded to Prof. Salekin, who serves as the principal investigator.

“In partnership with Professor Asif Salekin in the College of Engineering and Computer Science and his ongoing NSF-supported research, Professor Bergen-Cico’s investigation in addiction recovery demonstrates both the need for research in areas such as addiction, trauma and mindfulness, as well as the vast potential impact research has to inform policy and practice and improve our broader health as a population” says Falk College Dean Diane Lyden Murphy. “In addition, our faculty integrate new research and theory into the classroom, preparing students for successful careers as allied health workers, social service managers, policymakers and advocates.”

“Our ultimate hope is that we can provide a sustainable recovery tool that gives people insight into their own physiological and psychological reactivity to stress and life outside of a structured rehabilitation setting,” Bergen-Cico says. “We know that applying these techniques consistently, over time can help sustain people’s abstinence. If we can create a wearable or in-home monitoring device that predictably detects the stress responses that lead to cravings and then cues the use of cognitive and mindfulness techniques, it could be an important tool for sustainable recovery from addiction.”

CUSE grants, managed by the Office of Research, are intended to grow the research enterprise, enhance interdisciplinary collaborations and increase both extramural funding and high-quality scholarly output by ���ϲ����� faculty. The program was launched in 2017 as part of the $100 million Invest ���ϲ����� initiative to enhance academic excellence. For the 2022 CUSE Grant Program, the total award amount will be $500,000, as the University’s research operations undergo a thorough review, including an analysis of the impact of the first four years of the CUSE Grant Program on advancing the University’s strategic priorities for research and scholarship.

For the 2022 funding cycle, the CUSE Program will continue to focus on enhancing the University’s reputation and leveraging extramural funding, scholarship, creative work and prestigious awards, utilizing the previously established four main grant types: 1) Seed Grants; 2) Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grants; 3) Good to Great Grants and 4) Interdisciplinary Seminar Grants. However, there are changes from the 2021 program.

The 2022 cycle introduces a priority area for proposals related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA), and discontinues the COVID-relief mechanism introduced in 2021. There are also changes to the requirements for Principal Investigators and proposal documents. With a few exceptions, there must be a one-year gap between CUSE award cycles for a given principal investigator. The 2022 cycle also makes changes to conflict-of-interest certification and acknowledgement of intellectual property policies. Full details can be found in the on the Office of Research website. A list of is also available to assist applicants. All proposals must be submitted through the University’s .

The CUSE grant program supports faculty research in all disciplines, including basic, translational and applied sciences; social sciences; physical and life sciences; engineering; liberal arts and humanities; and professional studies, as well as creative and other scholarly activities. Priority is given to strategic interdisciplinary initiatives at the University and disciplinary research areas with great potential for extramural funding and institutional recognition.

Faculty are strongly encouraged to attend one of two information sessions in January:

• : Wednesday, Jan. 19, 10-11:30 a.m.
• : Wednesday, Jan. 26, 10-11:30 a.m.

The CUSE grant program is made possible through the dedicated service of our peer reviewers. Faculty who are not submitting for this round of CUSE grants and are interested in serving as CUSE grant reviewer, please contact Stuart Taub.

Those selected:

• Amy Criss, chair of psychology, College of Arts and Sciences
• Julie Hasenwinkel, chair of biomedical and chemical engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science
• Melissa Luke, provost faculty fellow, School of Education
• Gladys McCormick, associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion, Maxwell School
• Ryan Williams, associate dean, College of Professional Studies

“The higher education landscape changes quickly, and ���ϲ����� needs academic leaders who have a keen sense of current and emerging issues,” says Gretchen Ritter, vice chancellor and provost. “The ACC Academic Leadership Network provides this context in a setting that encourages collaboration across institutions. I am grateful that our faculty and administrative leaders are eager to invest in their own professional development.”

���ϲ����� participants were chosen from academic leaders who have one to two years in their current leadership role and have received foundational leadership training. Leaders from each ACC institution participate in three on-site sessions over the course of the year, held at different participating university campuses. This year’s class will travel to the campuses of Virginia Tech, Boston College and the University of Virginia.

“As a past participant, I can confidently say that this is an outstanding opportunity for some of our key academic leaders to broaden their perspectives in collaboration with peers from across the ACC,” says Jamie Winders, associate provost for faculty affairs. “Today’s leaders are faced with tough decisions and the need to innovate to build great departments, programs and approaches to academic excellence.�� This program is a unique opportunity to share knowledge across the 15 excellent institutions that make up the ACC.”

Scott Manning Stevens

, associate professor and director of the Native American and Indigenous studies program, will serve as executive director of the new center. He is a 2021-22 fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Stevens says, “Even though there is tremendous diversity among Indigenous peoples, there are global Indigenous issues that span places like Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, Canada and the United States and some parts of South America, there are common experiences of settler colonialism and common environmental challenges with a global reach.”

Provost Gretchen Ritter says, “I congratulate the ���ϲ����� team that created this compelling proposal for the Mellon Foundation’s highly competitive grants process. The project addresses all aspects of teaching, research and service in global Indigenous studies. It will create opportunities for faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students to explore how Indigenous cultures can add to perspectives from across academic disciplines and provide insight into solutions for some of the world’s most pressing problems.”

Stevens says that the center will explore options for Indigenous communities to take on common challenges such as cultural heritage preservation and language revitalization, defending political sovereignty, and climate change and the environment.

“Today’s students realize that they are on the front lines of climate change and environmental justice issues. They have a sense of urgency because they know that they will witness real life situations in communities in the Arctic, the Andes and other marginal climates throughout the world.”

“This generation and, in particular, our Indigenous students recognize that their cultures and others from around the globe offer wisdom that can contribute to solutions for these very urgent problems,” says Regina Jones, assistant director of the Native Student Program.

Student engagement is at the heart of the center’s design. , associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion in the College of Arts and Sciences and associate professor of African American studies, whose research and teaching focuses on race, gender and environmental justice, will contribute to the center’s efforts as faculty advisor. In this role, she will support curriculum development, facilitate student engagement activities and lead assessment of the center’s research framework.

“I want to thank everyone involved in this proposal for their tremendous efforts to help us realize this exciting goal,” says Karin Ruhlandt, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “We’re so energized about the opportunities that the new center will bring our students, faculty and the whole campus, as well as for meaningful collaboration with our Native and Indigenous neighbors. Professor Stevens has the vision and relationships to make the center a wonderful academic and cultural asset and will work across disciplinary boundaries to facilitate opportunities in Iroquois linguistics, art history, museum studies, environmental science and policy, food studies and more.”

Stevens says, “Students minoring in Native American studies tell us that it helps them stand out in the job market in all kinds of fields. It gives them a whole set of talking points and perspectives that can be interesting to a future employer. We have also found that museums, galleries and cultural institutions are specifically asking for individuals who are trained in Indigenous issues and have experience working with the source communities regarding appropriate display and preservation of cultural artifacts.”

He adds, “Now, more than ever, is the time we can reach people who are concerned about and involved in these pressing issues. I am excited to get started.”

Full guidelines for the Chancellor’s Citation awards and nomination requirements are available on the Chancellor’s Citation . Completed nominations may be submitted via email to Ramesh Raina (vpr@syr.edu, cc:��lmaddalo@syr.edu).

The Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence seeks to recognize members of the University community who have made invaluable contributions to ���ϲ����� in two overarching ways—first through commitment to scholarship and research that contributes to new understandings of the world and creative responses to its needs; and second, through advancing the four pillars Chancellor Kent Syverud has identified to foster excellence at ���ϲ�����. Those four pillars of excellence are: (i) providing an outstanding undergraduate experience; (ii) empowering research excellence; (iii) fostering change and innovation; and (iv) positioning ���ϲ����� as the best university in the world for veterans.

The four categories of awards are:

• Faculty Excellence and Scholarly Distinction
• Outstanding Contributions to the Student Experience and University Initiatives (faculty, administrative/professional staff and support staff award)
• Award for Excellence in Graduate and Undergraduate Student Research
• Lifetime Achievement Award

Recipients of the Chancellor’s Citations for Excellence are honored at the One University Awards Ceremony, which will be held in April 2022. Past awardees can be found in the .

The program provides faculty with the opportunity each semester to work with one student who is not enrolled in their course. The partners focus on only one course, sharing perspectives on teaching and learning. Faculty reflect on their teaching goals and strategies in the context of that specific course with the input of the student consultant.

Faculty who are interested in collaborating with a student can learn more by emailing��ctle@syr.edu. Students who are interested in being consultants and are looking for a rich reciprocal service learning experience should contact Carla Ramirez at��ccramire@syr.edu.

In 2020-21, 16 student consultants and 19 faculty partners practiced the partnership principles of respect, reciprocity and shared responsibility for student-faculty dialogue. Faculty partners report spending about 10 hours per semester. Over the course of the project, student consultants drawn from the Shaw Center’s ���ϲ����� Literacy Corps and the Selected Studies in Education course devoted more than 1,850 hours to partnering with faculty from the College of Visual and Performing Arts, College of Arts and Sciences and College of Engineering and Computer Science. Twenty courses enrolling 1,891 students were included in partnerships.

Past partnerships have explored student well-being, inclusivity, academic success, educator growth and student-faculty relations as a way to enhance the learning experience.

���ϲ����� initiated the Future Professors Fellowship Program in early 2021 with multiple objectives. The program seeks to increase the number of scholars from underrepresented groups entering academia after completing their doctoral studies and position them to transition to faculty positions in the future. It also aims to bolster the overall strength and size of the cohort of postdoctoral scholars at the University–an important factor in the Carnegie R1 designation for research institutions.

The program is open to talented postdoctoral scholars in any academic field, but particularly in engineering or other STEM fields. Scholars with interdisciplinary teaching and research are especially encouraged to apply. Each fellow is paired with one or more faculty mentors and provided networking opportunities in their field. The University may award up to five fellowships annually. Each fellow works on one or more independent projects, teaches one course per year in their area of expertise, and participates in the production of manuscripts and grant proposals with their mentors.

“We are pleased to add four highly qualified postdoctoral scholars over the next two academic years,” says Ramesh Raina, interim vice president for research. “We’re grateful to their faculty mentors and eager to see their contributions to scholarship and creative activity at ���ϲ�����.”

Chaz Barracks will be a fellow in the department of communication and rhetorical studies in the College of Visual and Performing Arts in fall 2022. He will also work with the department of writing studies, rhetoric and composition in the College of Arts and Sciences and with the Lender Center for Social Justice and the Engaged Humanities Network. He will be mentored by Professor Kendall Phillips and Associate Professor Brice Nordquist. His postdoctoral project is related to engaged critical rhetoric, visual culture and public memory.

Barracks is a Black queer scholar and media artist who received a Ph.D. in philosophy, media, art and text from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2020. He is a former Consortium for Faculty Diversity Fellow at the University of Richmond in the department of rhetoric and communication studies, and scholar in residence in the University’s Bonner Center for Civic Engagement. He currently serves as a postdoctoral fellow with the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Through his work, which integrates film and media-making, Barracks will make an impact in interdisciplinary fields related to memory studies, critical race studies, African American Studies, performance and rhetoric.

Michael Dunaway is a fellow in the department of sociology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He also works in the Center for Policy Research in the Maxwell School. He is mentored by associate professor of sociology Rebecca Schewe and is actively building collaborations with other academic units on campus. His postdoctoral project is centered on developing a research agenda focused on sustainability initiatives in Indigenous communities in New York as well as community-based participatory research on flood risk and water pollution in Central New York.

Dunaway is an indigenous scholar who earned a Ph.D. in natural resources from Cornell University in August 2020. His methodological expertise is in Indigenous community-based participatory methods designed to build strong relationships with Indigenous and marginalized communities advancing their development agendas by collaborating with academic researchers. Dunaway’s primary research focus explores Indigenous energy sovereignty and how tribes can determine which renewable energy technologies are best suited for their reservation as a means for those tribes to empower themselves.

Dorcas Idowu will join the department of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science in Jan. 2022. She will also work with the department of earth and environmental sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences. She will be mentored by assistant professors Elizabeth Carter, Tao Wen and Samuel Tuttle. Her work as a fellow will include accessing and processing gridded satellite data, gridded outputs from general circulation models, ancillary/crowdsourced geospatial data, and in-situ photogrammetric survey data to develop flood disaster informatics using appropriate geographic information system software.

Idowu is a native of Nigeria who received a Ph.D. in geological engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 2021. Her areas of expertise are geological engineering, geographical information systems and remote sensing.

David Hernández Uribe will join the department of earth and environmental sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences in Fall 2022. He will be mentored by Thonis Family Professor Suzanne Baldwin and associate professor Jay Thomas. His work as a fellow will include investigation of the petrogenesis of metamorphic rocks in the subduction complexes of Baja California, Mexico,to investigate their thermal and tectonic evolution.

Hernández Uribe is a native of Mexico who received a Ph.D. in Geology from the Colorado School of Mines in 2020 and is currently serving as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the department of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Michigan. He is already a key scientist who is working to develop a new paradigm for the formation of Earth’s crust that has wide-ranging implications for numerous geologic processes that operate on the terrestrial planets.

Luke Elliott ’25

“I heard about it during Welcome Week and then again in my First-Year Seminar. It’s a little bit overwhelming at first to think about the skills we’re supposed to learn in the next four years. But when we really started talking about it and we went in depth on each of them, I understood that it’s not that you’re starting with nothing. You have some of these skills and you can hone in on the others as you move through your time at ���ϲ�����,” he says.

The are six shared educational goals that characterize the skills every ���ϲ����� undergraduate student should have by the time they graduate. They help students communicate what they have learned, provide pathways for academic development and integrate different aspects of a ���ϲ����� education. Not limited to courses, the Shared Competencies can also be achieved through co-curricular activities, leadership and volunteer opportunities. First-Year Seminar students watched a and discussed their academic goals.

The First-Year Seminar (FYS) instructor for Elliott’s section, Brooke Tyszka G’03 says learning about the Shared Competencies early in their academic career benefits students. “As an advisor, I’m trying to have conversations with students about what they really want to achieve in their time at ���ϲ�����. Sometimes they don’t think about it until they no longer have time to achieve their goal.”

“In FYS, there was more time to talk about what the Shared Competencies mean, to go in depth and to show students how they give them a way to talk about their skill development when they talk to potential employers, to really tell their own story about what they have learned,” Tyszka adds.

Elliott says the conversation helped him think differently about scientific inquiry and research skills. “I never thought about it before but scientific inquiry doesn’t mean just STEM fields,” he says.�� “It can be any problem where you have questions, you do research and use evidence to figure it out.”

Elliott feels he has great skills in some areas and needs to focus on others. “For example, I find technology super interesting, but it’s not something that I have ever been great at,” he says. I felt like technological agility meant being able to code, and I’ve never been good at it.” By thinking about the full definition of information literacy and technological agility, Elliott has been able to consciously identify the skills that he needs to excel in the fields he is interested in.

“Looking at the impact of technology on communications and thinking about the things I am doing in my classes right now, I recognize where I can gain skills that will help me prepare for the kind of career I want. I like that it’s integrated,” adds Elliott. “No matter what you do, the Shared Competencies are part of the clubs you’re in, the extracurriculars you choose.”

Brooke Tyszka G’03

Tyszka hopes that students will use the Shared Competencies to explore all of the opportunities that the University offers to undergraduates. “It gives them the language to talk about how they are developing these skills,” she says. “I hope that talking about the Shared Competencies in FYS spurs them to learn about all we have to offer and take advantage of those experiences.”

Tyszka adds, “I find that it’s an honor to be a person helping first year students transition to college, to be another trusted adult who can help them navigate the opportunities in front of them. I feel lucky to be able to do it. It’s the best part of the job.”

“The University has committed to the Shared Competencies as a framework for the essential skills that students need to acquire while at ���ϲ�����. This is a key part of how the Middle States Commission on Higher Education evaluates how we design and deliver the student learning experience,” says Associate Provost Chris Johnson. “This professional development series is a valuable opportunity for faculty to enhance their teaching skills to prepare for the University’s self-study and site visit in 2026-27.”

All sessions will be offered on Zoom and each program will consist of a kick-off class and two working sessions aimed at putting principles into practice. By the end of each series, each participant will have created a deliverable: a redesigned syllabus reflecting best practices in equity-minded pedagogy, a “signature assignment” for a course, or robust feedback rubrics embedded in Blackboard. Space is limited.

“These collaborative learning sessions will provide a deep dive into three aspects of the current Shared Competencies course tagging effort that is taking place across campus between now and Sept. 1, 2022.���� Participating faculty will be equipped to understand how learning goal alignment, signature assignments and meaningful feedback contribute to more effective student learning,” says Anne Mosher, associate professor of geography and the environment in the Maxwell School and Provost’s Faculty Fellow for Shared Competencies and High Impact Practices.

Martha Diede, director of the , adds, “To develop a Shared Competency, students need regular feedback throughout the semester. As part of this series, we’ll be helping faculty to make equity-mindedness a foundational element of their course designs, develop competency-focused rubrics, set up and use the Blackboard tool, learn techniques for reducing the anxiety that students experience from summative feedback and engage in a high-impact teaching and learning practice—signature assignments.”

The professional development tracks are:

Designing Equity-Minded and Aligned Syllabi ()

Jan. 13, 2022, 1–3 p.m. Kickoff featuring Mary-Ann Wilkelmes, director of the .

Feb. 16, 2022, 10-11 a.m. Working Session 1

March 23, 2022, 10-11 a.m. Working Session 2

Giving Game-changing Feedback on Student Work ()

Feb. 4, 2022, 12-1:30 p.m. Kickoff, “Rubric Roadmap–Focus on Teaching and Learning”

Feb. 10, 2022, 2-3:30 p.m. Working Session 1, “Build Your Rubric in Blackboard with Michael Morrison”

March 31, 2022, 2-3:30 p.m.�� Working Session 2, “Ungrading with Martha Diede”

Transforming an Assignment into a Signature Assignment ()

March 4, 2022, 9 a.m.–noon. Kickoff featuring Natasha Jankowski, former director of the .

April 1, 2022, 9:30-10:30 a.m. Working Session 1

April 29, 2022, 9:30-10:30 a.m. Working Session 2

The Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence seeks to recognize members of the University community who have made invaluable contributions to ���ϲ����� in two overarching ways—first through commitment to scholarship and research that contributes to new understandings of the world and creative responses to its needs; and second, through advancing the four pillars Chancellor Kent Syverud has identified to foster excellence at ���ϲ�����. Those four pillars of excellence are: (i) providing an outstanding undergraduate experience; (ii) empowering research excellence; (iii) fostering change and innovation; and (iv) positioning ���ϲ����� as the best university in the world for veterans.

The four categories of awards are:

• Faculty Excellence and Scholarly Distinction
• Outstanding Contributions to the Student Experience and University Initiatives (faculty, administrative/professional staff and support staff award)
• Award for Excellence in Graduate and Undergraduate Student Research
• Lifetime Achievement Award

Recipients of the Chancellor’s Citations for Excellence are honored at the One University Awards Ceremony held in April 2022. Past awardees can be found in the .

The recommendation committee will be chaired this year by Elisa Dekaney, associate dean of research, graduate studies, and internationalization in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and professor of music education.

Other members of the selection committee are:

• Dympna Callaghan, William Safire Professor of Modern Letters and University Professor, College of Arts and Sciences
• Diane Crawford, executive director of institutional culture, Whitman School of Management
• Regina Jones, assistant director of multicultural affairs, Office of Multicultural Affairs
• Soren Lowell, professor, communication sciences and disorders, College of Arts and Sciences
• Quinn Qiao, professor, mechanical and aerospace engineering site director, College of Engineering and Computer Science
• Maria P. Russell, professor emeriti, Newhouse School of Public Communications
• Nathan Carrington, Ph.D. student, political science

Advance registration is required. Information sessions will be held virtually:

• Dec. 7 at 3 p.m.
• Dec. 8 at 11 a.m.

Those interested in applying for a lead instructor position for the fall 2022 semester may . The deadline for applications is Jan. 31, 2022. For more information, email the First-Year Seminar team at firstyear@syr.edu.

Q: How has your own experience in mentoring graduate students helped to shape your vision for graduate education at ���ϲ�����?��

A: Graduate students are a critical part of every university that values research and creative work. I have worked with graduate students as a professor, as a director of graduate studies and as an academic dean. My personal experience is that mentoring and collaborating with graduate students makes me a better scholar and teacher.

Working with graduate students ensures that I am always learning, and I know many of my colleagues would agree that our graduate students often prompt faculty to evaluate new approaches and perspectives. One of my top priorities is high-quality mentoring of graduate students. Ensuring that our graduate students are challenged, supported and ultimately successful makes every part of the university better.

Gretchen Ritter

Q: ���ϲ����� is home to excellent online graduate programs, primarily at the master’s level. How do you view the importance of online education in the graduate space?��

A: We have a robust portfolio of outstanding online graduate programs, with more than 2,000 students enrolled across the University. We know from experience that access to well-designed online graduate programs help students to advance in their fields of interest.

Many students at the master’s level are working professionals who want to earn a graduate degree on a part-time basis. Their real-world perspectives can enrich the graduate school experience for their peers. Others are not able to move to ���ϲ�����, but still have access to the outstanding faculty and key advantages of our graduate programs.

I am excited about the range and quality of the online graduate programs and credentials that the University offers–and expect that there will be more to come in the years ahead. They will continue to broaden ���ϲ�����’s reach and impact.

Q: Why are Ph.D. programs critical to the University’s mission, both as a research university and as a top university for undergraduate education?

A: Ph.D. programs are critical across multiple dimensions. The University has many highly ranked doctoral programs that bring distinction to the University and train highly accomplished independent scholars.

It’s hard to understate the role of Ph.D. students in a top-tier research university like ���ϲ�����. They are a critical part of our research and creative ecosystem. In collaboration with our outstanding faculty (and often post-doctoral students),�� doctoral students can make important original contributions to their fields. They also train to become excellent teachers and student mentors. Undergraduate students, in turn, benefit from the mentorship and expertise of our graduate students.

Q: What is the role of terminal master’s degrees like the M.F.A. at a research university such as ���ϲ�����?

A: Master’s of fine arts degrees, whether in creative writing, performing arts or the visual arts, are key credentials for individuals who want to expand their creative practice or who want to teach in their area of expertise. Creative artists learn from other creative artists, and their work enriches the university experience for everyone that is part of the community.

Q: The Graduate Student Organization is quite active at ���ϲ�����. Can you speak to the importance of the GSO partnership with the Graduate School dean and others campus leaders in terms of elevating excellence in graduate education?��

A: I have been very impressed by the GSO. I think it’s critical for the graduate student organization to partner with the graduate dean and other administrative leaders to advocate for expanded opportunities for graduate students.

Hearing directly from our students about their needs helps us in our efforts to find solutions to common issues like dissertation completion, summer funding opportunities, and–as we saw recently–relief funding for students whose progress was slowed by COVID. I look forward to working closely with the GSO to continue to enhance the graduate student experience.

Q: If you could give ���ϲ����� graduate students one piece of advice, what would that be?

A: Look for opportunities to meet people and have experiences outside of your core discipline. I once heard a vice president for Google talk about how valuable it was for him that he completed a graduate minor in English literature while he was pursued a�� Ph.D. in computer science.

���ϲ����� is rich with opportunities to network, collaborate and experience the full range of what a great research university has to offer. Go to a performance, walk through the art museum, attend a lecture outside of your field. You will be glad that you did.

The ombuds is an informal, confidential, impartial and independent resource for faculty, staff and graduate students. The ombuds is meant to be a place employees and graduate students can go, outside of formal channels like Human Resources, the Office of Equal Opportunity Inclusion & Resolution Services, the Office of University Counsel or Risk Management, to address concerns or questions without fear of retaliation or judgment.

The ombuds operates on the principles of confidentiality (to the extent permitted by law), independence, impartiality and neutrality and informality.

The ombuds provides reports to University leadership on general trends and patterns of complaints without breaching confidentiality so that problems can more effectively be prevented from escalating or recurring.�� The annual report provides a general summary of trends for the period of the report and summary statistics about users of the ombuds office, common categories of concerns and the nature of the concerns.

While students from across the University are mixed together in the First Year Seminar, Home College Experiences are different. Held in weeks 4, 9 and 12 of the semester, the Home College Experiences bring together students interested in similar majors or disciplines, giving them an opportunity to develop a sense of affinity and belonging.

“No college or school has approached the Home College Experience in exactly the same way,” says Kira Reed, associate professor of management and provost faculty fellow. “It has been really interesting to see the creative ways that disciplines within the University take in pursuit of similar goals.”

“We know that a sense of belonging contributes to student success and retention,” says Chandice Haste-Jackson, interim director of the First Year Seminar. “Activities that promote community, involvement in extracurricular activities and a knowledgeable approach to planning their academic programs are all important for students.”

Deborah Nosky, who helped design the Home College Experience at the iSchool, agrees. As a professor of practice and past director of undergraduate programs, she has a strong sense of what students need to succeed in their first year at ���ϲ�����.

“Based on what we understand about student persistence and success, we tried to structure our Home College Experience so that, first and foremost, students don’t feel alone. They begin to build communities that make sense for them.”

The iSchool is balancing academic and professional needs with less structured activities. “Recognizing that this year’s cohort spent a lot of time in high school isolated due to COVID, we did a tour of campus because many of them were not able to visit in person before they arrived at ���ϲ�����,” says Nosky. ”They were able to understand history and traditions, and they love it because it helps them build a story around their community.” Other activities included a pizza tailgate before a football game, getting a headshot done for their LinkedIn profile and participating in interactive panels with iSchool alumni.

At the Whitman School, Lindsay Quilty, assistant dean for undergraduate programs, adds, “We’ve always done a lot of community-based activities, so making the Whitman Mixer a part of the Home College Experience is a logical extension. This involvement fair allows students to talk to representatives from the school’s undergraduate clubs, understand resources in the school and meet community partners from outside the school to talk about opportunities for students.”

Both schools focused on academic advising and planning in the second Home College Experience. “The timing was just right, because it’s before registration starts. It was an opportunity to work in small groups with the academic advising team to build confidence about how registration works, opportunities they should be looking for and empower students to take responsibility for their program,” says Quilty. Another session focuses on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility from the standpoint of the business world, including how diversity can deliver better business results and how our corporate partners and alumni apply these principles in business.

Nosky says that the iSchool has similar goals, “We have always worked hard to make sure that students understand their academic degree program so they can finish in four years. Employers desperately want to hire our graduates, so we want them on track to succeed.” In addition to describing the three major degree programs and required courses, the iSchool helps students find services that they need to succeed, whether it’s mentoring youth, study strategies, ways to get help with their research and advanced activities or to work with a peer mentor. “One of the keys for us is to help them take an early look at their career goals and shape their academic program to help them meet that goal. That’s where our recent alumni come in. They’re talking to people who graduated three to five years ago so they can take a critical look at their career goals and how to get there,” says Nosky.

Consuelo Endrigo-Williams

Endrigo-Williams has been a part-time instructor of Italian in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics for the past seven years. “My approach is to teach Italian in a light and fun way, to create an environment where students feel comfortable learning,” she says. Endrigo-Williams is using some of the same techniques as a lead instructor for the First-Year Seminar (FYS 101).

“I create an inclusive class environment that encourages first-year students to address difficult social topics through sharing their ideas with respect and openness,” she says. “Students can openly and respectfully share their ideas without feeling like they are putting themselves at risk. I enjoy helping students understand the ���ϲ����� philosophy of inclusion, which contributes to building the SU student experience.”

A group of first-year students visit the stadium.

Endrigo-Williams always liked to meet first-year students and work with them, but says the new FYS 101 has developed in a way that really helps students take advantage of the campus experience.

The First-Year Seminar course is part of a change to the undergraduate curriculum approved by every ���ϲ����� school and college in 2020. Along with the diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) course requirement, the First-Year Seminar is part of a commitment the University made to students in the 2019-2020 academic year requiring all students to take courses covering DEIA topics.

Chester, the United Methodist Ecumenical Chaplain for Hendricks Chapel, sees her role as a FYS 101 lead instructor as different than her primary role in providing spiritual care, but ultimately aligned with her goal of contributing to a community where students can be comfortable being themselves and connecting with people from different backgrounds. “Chaplain Rhonda,” as she is called on campus, reflects on her six years with the University and approaches her classes with empathy.

“I think a lot of our students are still struggling with the world that we live in,” she says. “One of the things I tell my students every week is to be gracious and gentle with themselves. They’re in college for the first time, during a pandemic, and the rules keep changing. There’s a heightened sense of frustration because they want to be normal, but it’s not a normal time.”

Rhonda Chester

The FYS 101 curriculum encourages self-reflection through activities, journaling and other activities. Endrigo-Williams says the new curriculum is effective.

“My students are very engaged during the class-time activities and discussions and in their writing assignments,” Endrigo-Williams says. “They seem very introspective and relate to discussions of identity, values and the experiences of others.”

Chaplain Rhonda Chester agrees. “All of us who lived through 2020—how could you not have been affected mentally, spiritually and emotionally? So now they are here engaging in a curriculum that is challenging them to think about tough issues contextually. The students have a sense of open-minded curiosity, they want to lean into the issues and know how they can do and be better.”

“Students bring their whole selves to ���ϲ�����,” she adds. “FYS 101 recognizes that. I think the students see it. And when I speak to people who have already graduated from the course, the feedback I always get is, ‘I wish I had that in my first year!’”

Cluster hires are hires of multiple scholars into at least two schools/colleges in related areas, based on shared, multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary research interests. Cluster hires and academic cluster creation serve to align the University’s research to extramural funding trends, strengthen research, scholarship and creative activity, enhance faculty diversity and develop opportunities for student research and learning that responds to societal challenges. Seven interdiscipliary clusters were originally created in 2018 through a faculty-led process. Three additional clusters were designated in early 2020.

The purpose of the working group’s review is to ensure the program is structured to meet its original objectives. These include aligning research to extramural funding trends, increasing research, scholarship and creative productivity, fostering valuable and sustainable interdisciplinary programs, and bringing new scholars into the University’s areas of existing or emerging distinctive excellence.

The working group is co-chaired by Jamie Winders, professor of geography and the environment and director of the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute, and Cole Smith, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Other members include:

• Duncan Brown (ex officio), Charles Brightman Endowed Professor of Physics, College of Arts and Sciences; chair of the Senate Committee on Research
• Carol Faulkner, professor of history, associate dean for academic affairs, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
• Lisa Manning, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Physics, College of Arts and Sciences; director of the BioInspired Institute
• Katherine McDonald, professor of public health and associate dean of research, Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics
• Ramesh Raina (ex officio), professor of biology, College of Arts and Sciences; interim vice president for research
• P. Raj, Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Chair, Department of Marketing, Martin J. Whitman School of Management
• Dacheng Ren, Stevenson Endowed Professor of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering and associate dean for research and graduate programs, College of Engineering and Computer Science
• Danielle Smith, professor of African American studies, College of Arts and Sciences; director of the Renée Crown University Honors Program

These workshops will be presented by , program coordinator and instructor in the Citizenship and Civic Engagement Program at the Maxwell School.

In these workshops, you will utilize visual images to create inclusive, equitable, student-centered discussions. These techniques work in all disciplines. No prior experience is necessary.

Registration for the virtual workshops is available via the links below:

• , Oct. 22, 10-11 a.m. – This session is geared toward classes with 80 or more students.
• , Oct. 25, 2-3 p.m. – This session is geared toward classes with fewer than 40 students.

“Postdoctoral scholars make significant contributions to the University’s research, creative, scholarship and teaching missions. They mentor undergraduate and graduate researchers, collaborate with faculty and develop their own independent scholarship,” says Provost Gretchen Ritter. “I am impressed with the depth and breadth of the projects that will be supported by these postdoctoral awards.”

For the 2021 awards, a committee of 10 peer reviewers evaluated 43 applications from 27 different units. were funded across the College of Arts and Sciences, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, Newhouse School of Public Communications, School of Education and ��School of Architecture. Two of the awards will fund positions co-sponsored by two schools and colleges.

“It is particularly exciting that so many of these awards are in areas where ���ϲ����� has exceptional strength or the opportunity for multidisciplinary collaboration,” says Ramesh Raina, interim vice president for research.

The goal of the Postdoctoral Scholars Program is to provide financial incentive for programs, departments, schools and colleges to increase the number of postdoctoral scholars across the University. It provides incentives for productive faculty to grow their research program, thereby increasing mentoring capacity for undergraduate and graduate research. Postdoctoral Scholars awards are funded through Invest ���ϲ����� for a period of two years. The previous round of awards was made in 2019. Applications are open to research programs, departments, schools or colleges, but not to individual faculty. Each award must increase the total number of postdoctoral scholars in the unit.

“As an Institute, we pledged to develop and implement actionable plans to promote diversity in our ranks and support people of color. The CAREER program is the first effort to come out of this commitment, and we are thrilled to have launched this pilot program with our partners at Hampton University and North Carolina A&T,” says Lisa Manning, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Physics and director of BioInspired.

“We looked at programs here at ���ϲ����� and at other institutions, and what seemed to be missing were pre-college and post-baccalaureate programs that would really help promising students transition well from high school to college, succeed during college and then proceed to similar success in graduate school admissions and job placement,” says Jay Henderson, associate professor of biomedical and chemical engineering and associate director of BioInspired.

As both Henderson and Manning have previously worked with Hampton University, a historically black private research university in Hampton, Virginia, and with faculty at North Carolina A&T State University, a historically black public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina, Henderson reached out to colleagues at each institution to create a virtual summer program to help students embrace the opportunity to do original research as undergraduates. Their goals are to strengthen high school-to-college pathways in STEM, providing research opportunities, mentoring and other supports to keep diverse students in STEM during their undergraduate careers and provide professional development and networking to enable a successful transition to graduate school.

The result, known as the CAREER (Career Acceleration via Rigorous Educational Experiences in Research) , is a one-week intensive experience that took place over the Discord online collaboration platform. CAREER programming included interactions with researchers, help developing a personal statement, discussions of how scientific research works and career planning for incoming undergraduate students.

“We covered topics like creating a professional profile and resume, reaching out to faculty for opportunities, taking advantage of resources on campus and how to apply for financial support for summer research during college,” says Henderson.

Fourteen students drawn from Hampton, North Carolina A&T and ���ϲ����� participated in the summer program.

Melanie Salas, a first-generation college student from ���ϲ�����, plans to attend veterinary school after graduation. She chose to participate to meet potential mentors and test out her commitment to STEM to see if it is the right fit. “The most valuable part of the program was seeing the support that professors give students. I have already been accepted into a lab to work with Professor Latha Ramalingam in the Falk College. I also learned to never be afraid to seek help. There is always someone willing to help, but it’s on us to reach out.”

While students gained from what they experienced during the program, faculty development is another program goal. “We want to improve how we mentor diverse students and increase collaborations between minority-serving and predominantly-white universities,” says Henderson.

After this summer’s successful pilot, program faculty plan to look at outcomes, such as how many students participate in research during the year and each summer, internship and fellowship applications and long-term outcomes such as successfully earning a STEM degree and admission for graduate programs. Faculty at all three institutions hope to form collaborative research programs where students can get real-world experience in multi-institutional scientific research.

“Our next step is to seek additional funding,” says Henderson. “We’re investing our time and expertise because we believe that STEM disciplines can only gain from broader representation. The partnerships with Hampton and North Carolina A&T can help us broaden the pool from which we recruit graduate students and postdocs and the program has already taught us ways we can improve how we work with undergraduate students.”

Gretchen Ritter

Gretchen Ritter was named vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer in June 2021 after a competitive global search. As she begins her tenure at ���ϲ�����, we asked her a few questions to help the community get to know its newest leader.

The campus community is invited to a celebration and reception for Ritter, which will be held Tuesday, Oct. 12, from 10:15-11:15 a.m. in the Ilene and David Flaum Grand Hall, Whitman School of Management.

American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) will be provided. For accommodations, please contact the Office of Special Events at 315.443.2016 or specialevents@syr.edu.

The event will be .

Madeline Krumel (Ph.D. student, English) used the ���ϲ����� ’s collections to create teaching-specific finding aids that will make it easier for instructors to teach with art objects. Emily Dittman, associate director of the Art Museum, emphasized the range of topics covered by the objects that Krumel worked with, “from pedagogical tools to critical race theory, from literary afterlives to psychoanalysis” and their potential educational value. According to Krumel, “My hope is that these finding aids will make Humanities instructors (and beyond) feel encouraged and empowered to reinvigorate their teaching via SU Art’s extensive collections.”

Alex Hanson (Ph.D. candidate, composition and cultural rhetoric) interned at , working with several of its departments–Acquisitions, Marketing, and Editorial/Production–and carrying out a wide variety of work, such as writing proposals for the editorial board, researching outside readers for manuscripts and securing permissions for reprinted text and images. “I am so grateful for the very clear directions Peggy [Solic], Deb [Manion], and Kelly [Balenske] provided, their patient, kind, and generous mentorship. I felt like this was a very ‘intern-centered’ experience, ” says Hanson. Deb Manion, acquisitions editor, added that the internship was “a tremendous collaborative opportunity for the Press, the Graduate School and, most importantly, the graduate student, who can train in an academic-adjacent field that they have real interest in as part of their job market goals.”

The Graduate School also partnered with the College of Arts and Sciences’ Engaged Humanities Network and Dean’s Professor of Community Engagement Brice Nordquist to create four additional Engaged Humanities Summer Internships. These internships are connected to ongoing Engaged Communities projects across the city and region.

Jordan Brady Loewen (Ph.D. candidate, religion) worked at the , editing and producing the “Mapping the Doctrine of Discovery” podcast series, in addition to developing the Virtual Onondaga Project, overseeing a team of programmers, artists and designers. “It was wonderful to have focused time to do creative and public-facing scholarship,” Loewen says. “The pay was also an important motivator.”

Zakery Muñoz (Ph.D. candidate, composition and cultural rhetoric) worked at , digitizing and producing content for the organization’s Cultural Memory Archive and an upcoming exhibition. In addition, Muñoz led a writing workshop for Latinx youth from the local community. Teresita Paniaguia, executive director of cultural engagement for the Hispanic Community, enthused that Muñoz’s work was “absolutely critical to the agency at this particular time, as we were preparing to reopen our Center after closure due to Covid19. His contributions had a direct and very positive impact on the life of Center, on the lives of these kids, their families, and on the relationships between La Casita and its community partners.”

Jacob Gedetsis (MFA student, creative writing), worked with directors and teachers at the on the ongoing community writing project “Write Out,” leading daily writing sessions for middle-school students. Kofi Addai, associate director at North Side Learning Center, notes that Gedetsis helped the students “to think outside the box and be creative in their writing,” while Gedetsis affirmed that “this internship challenged and excited me like nothing else during my academic career.”

Aley O’Mara (Ph.D., English, 2021), worked with Joann Yarrow, ’s director of community engagement and education, on the theater’s housing policy project, “” O’Mara collected oral histories to fill archival gaps around housing insecurities and reform in ���ϲ�����, contributing to the larger project of using art to shift current housing policy in the ���ϲ����� area.

More than 150 students attended the Sept. 3 event.

“One thing felt certain, after being online or isolated for much of last year, students are eager to make connections with others,” says Phillandra Smith, a Ph.D. candidate in special education who helped coordinate the event.

The event achieved one of its initial goals, which was to bring together students from departments across the University. “Those in attendance spoke with optimism and excitement about the initiative and the opportunity to connect with other students of color on campus,” says Smith.

The panel discussion featured graduate students Tyler Bell, a Ph.D. candidate in cultural foundations of education; Vito Laia, a Ph.D. candidate in physics; and Riansimone Harris, a Ph.D.candidate in sociology. The panelists shared�� the challenges they face as BIPOC graduate students and strategies they used to build community on campus.

Sadie Xiao Hua Novak, a PhD candidate in chemistry, says she is choosing to get involved because she likes the idea of a broader community home base for graduate students of color.

“I am hoping for networking opportunities where we can meet graduate students, not just from our department, but from across campus,” she says. “I would like to see professional development opportunities for graduate students of color and opportunities to explore career paths both in academia and industry.”

GSBA’s next event, “,” is Oct. 14 and will be conducted in a virtual format. BIPOC faculty members will share their experiences with mentoring in higher education and engage in small group discussions with attendees. Students and others interested in attending may by Wednesday, Oct. 13.

���ϲ����� is providing $1.5 million in additional funding for graduate students whose work has been directly impacted by the pandemic.

Labs were closed for some of the pandemic and their capacity was limited. Research involving human subjects was also delayed or faced logistical obstacles. With schools and childcare centers closed much of the 2020-2021 academic year, some graduate students found that their time to write became scarce. Some students expecting to travel to other countries to examine archives or work with collaborators found themselves stymied by travel bans, onerous testing and quarantine requirements or visa issues, among other challenges.

Recognizing these impacts, ���ϲ����� is providing $1.5 million in additional funding for graduate students whose work has been directly impacted by the pandemic. The funding takes several different forms, according to Peter Vanable, dean of the Graduate School.

“In talking to faculty members on the Graduate Faculty Council and through consultation with student leaders from the Graduate Student Organization, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. We developed a small number of options that should help a good number of graduate students whose degree completion has been delayed by the pandemic,” says Vanable.

This fall, the Graduate School provided full funding in the form of dissertation completion fellowships to 15 students for the 2021-22 academic year. Fellowships support doctoral students who have reached the limit of their guaranteed funding and, through no fault of their own, have been unable to complete and defend their dissertations.

“Degree completion at the Ph.D. level is a strategic priority for ���ϲ�����. By supporting outstanding graduate students who were impacted by the pandemic, we hope that they will defend their dissertations, graduate and go on to successful careers. I want to thank Chancellor Kent Syverud for his support of this important program,” says John Liu, interim provost.

Additional funding for Ph.D. students under this program will be announced soon, including small grants to offset dissertation-related expenses that can’t be covered by the student’s home college. Examples include travel or small equipment needed to complete dissertation research.

The summer dissertation fellowship program, normally awarded to 30 students who are close to completing their dissertation, will be doubled to include 60 awards in summer 2022. “We hope that more awards will help graduate students to get their dissertations over the finish line next summer,” Vanable adds.

In addition, supplemental funding will be soon made available to select faculty who funded students on grants during a time when the students couldn’t be fully engaged in research because of COVID. The funds will go to support graduate student research assistantships for the current academic year.

“For faculty who want to retain an experienced graduate student on a project that was delayed by COVID-19, this is an excellent option that helps both the student and the overall research program,” says Ramesh Raina, interim vice president for research.

In 2020-21, 16 student consultants and 19 faculty partners practiced the partnership principles of respect, reciprocity and shared responsibility for student-faculty dialogue. Faculty partners report spending about 10 hours per semester. Over the course of the project, student consultants drawn from the Shaw Center’s ���ϲ����� Literacy Corps and the Selected Studies in Education course devoted more than 1,850 hours to partnering with faculty from the College of Visual and Performing Arts, College of Arts and Sciences and College of Engineering and Computer Science. Twenty courses enrolling 1,891 students were included in partnerships.

In the first semester, students and faculty were deliberately paired to mix disciplines. In the second semester, the project piloted some partnerships with the student and faculty drawn from the same or similar fields, while avoiding the conflict of interest that might come from a future student-faculty relationship in the student’s course of study.

“We evaluated these partnerships along the way and at the end of the semester. Faculty told us that they received valuable input from the student consultants, who, for example, served as a sounding board for potential changes to communication and assignments, gave advice on conflict management in the classroom from a student perspective and helped tailor mid-course evaluations to target specific areas for improvement,” says Laurel Willingham-McLain, consulting faculty developer, who led the project through CTLE.��“Faculty members also learned how to spot anxiety in students and make changes to their interactions to allow their students time and space to express their questions and thoughts.”

Carla Ramirez of the Shaw Center is the advisor for student consultants. She says, “Through this experience, our student consultants learned about all of the work that faculty put into teaching and how much they value student feedback. They learned responsibility through their role as a dialogue partner and improved their communication skills through email and Zoom exchanges with faculty. As a result of these dialogues, faculty partners made changes to aspects of their courses. The student consultants were able to see both the faculty and student experience in each course and were proud that they were able to contribute to their partner’s understanding of potential barriers to student success.”

Past partnerships have explored student well-being, inclusivity, academic success, educator growth and student-faculty relations as a way to enhance the learning experience.

Faculty who are interested in collaborating with a student can learn more by emailing ctle@syr.edu. Students who are interested in being consultants and are looking for a rich reciprocal service learning experience should contact Carla Ramirez at ccramire@syr.edu.

Jo O’Gorman ’21

Jo O’Gorman’s decision to leave Tennessee and come to ���ϲ����� wasn’t a big departure. With parents who met at ���ϲ����� while earning their master’s degrees, O’Gorman grew up hearing stories about the campus. On their campus visit, they reluctantly went on a tour of the Newhouse School—where their mother earned a graduate degree. “I thought I absolutely didn’t want to go to my parents’ alma mater, but I saw how cool it was and I just had to apply.”

That wasn’t the first surprise though. “It was really funny. I always thought that I was not a math person, but then I took a statistics class, and found that I was pretty good at it and liked it. After I got an A in the class, I was approached by the Center for Learning and Student Success [CLASS] to be a supplemental instruction leader for that same statistics class. I tutored in high school, really enjoyed teaching and liked the subject, so it was an easy yes.”

What the 2021 graduate didn’t know then was that this experience, combined with their advertising degree from Newhouse and a minor in data analytics from the iSchool, would land them a rewarding job after graduation. As a digital analyst with Razorfish Health in Philadelphia, part of the Publicis Groupe, O’Gorman’s analysis work provides important market insights for health care companies.

Starting as a sophomore, O’Gorman was often teaching students who were older. This early start influenced their approach. “I had to be confident in my knowledge and in my teaching methods so that students took me seriously, and felt that I was taking their education seriously,” O’Gorman says. “I also wanted them to feel empowered, knowing that they have every right to ask all the questions. Learning is a collaboration. I learned from my students and if they said a topic didn’t make sense to them right now, I pivoted to what would most benefit them.” They also collaborated with professors, making sure that they and other tutors understood the curriculum.

Supplemental instruction is a peer-facilitated model where a CLASS employee attends the lectures for a course and designs sessions that emphasize active learning strategies. This meant that instead of tutoring once a week, they taught three times a week, designed lesson plans and taught larger groups of students.

“I discovered really quickly that you need to keep several different ways to explain a concept in your back pocket, because some students may not understand your explanation the first time around. You have to think on your feet,” O’Gorman says.

“I had to find the balance of being a leader and also being a peer, and it built my communication skills with both students and my supervisors immensely. Through this communication I built trust, allowing me to have a lot of independence to make improvements and even train a new SI [supplemental instructor] to create longevity for the position.”

This resourcefulness, along with skills learned at the Newhouse School, have been highly valuable in their first months on the job. “I think every person, especially for your first post-grad job, is nervous. My first week of work, I was asked to answer a research question using a specific dataset, and immediately realized, ‘I’ve done this before.’” O’Gorman adds that it’s not just having confidence in the technical skills you’ve learned, “Like I said earlier, I was given a lot of independence at CLASS as a supplemental instructor. I had to decide what to teach and plan how to teach it all on my own, so now when I am given a research problem to work on, I have the confidence that I can navigate to a valuable insight. It’s important because each client is different and has different tools. I can’t be afraid to ask questions.”

O’Gorman anticipates that the ability to explain data and concepts in several different ways will also be helpful, in addition to well-honed collaboration skills. “I learned the analysis skills in my major and minor, but I learned navigating an organization, presenting information to a group and helping others problem-solve at CLASS.”

“What I would say to students is that if you need a tutor, be empowered in that this is YOUR education, and take advantage of the services that are offered. CLASS provides great resources, and because it’s peer to peer, it’s flexible and you can discover the best way that you learn,” O’Gorman says.

“And if you are asked to be a tutor, never be afraid to apply. Not to be cliché, but teaching teaches you, and teaches you way more than just how to explain a specific subject. Nothing has taught me leadership, confidence and communication like being a supplemental instructor.”

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 981 9889 1065
Passcode: 592089

Faculty must authenticate their NetID and password to be admitted to the Zoom session.

Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) will be provided.

Faculty are invited to submit comments or questions in advance by emailing them to��provost@syr.edu. Questions and answers covered in the session will be posted to the “F�ǰ���Faculty” section of the Stay Safe website����page on or before Friday, Sept. 3.

Additional sessions of Workshop One: Inclusion in the Classroom and Beyond, will be held virtually on and .

DEIA Building Blocks Parts 1, 2 and 3

This three-part workshop series is designed to support participants’ exploration of a) the role that socialization and identity play in how we view ourselves and others, b) the relationship between bias, stereotype, prejudice and discrimination and c) ways to identify and disrupt various forms of microaggression that arise in educational contexts.

The three workshops are inter-related, but not sequential. They have been intentionally designed so that faculty can attend starting with any of the three sessions and proceed with the remaining workshops.

Transforming Hot Moments into Learning Opportunities Parts 1, 2 and 3

This professional development opportunity applies research-supported interpersonal group leadership strategies and focuses on responding to and transforming “hot moments.” The fast-paced workshops will offer a series of potential responses that participants choose and practice, peer to peer. Real-life scenarios from the college/school/department context will be employed.

The intermediate sessions give faculty ways to frame the intimate conversations that happen in classrooms when discussing race, class, gender, nationality, ethnicity, religion, ability, sexual and gender identity, as well as other pertinent topics.

Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms Parts 1, 2 and 3

This three-part workshop series is designed to give faculty ways to intentionally develop culturally responsive instructional materials and practices. Faculty will also learn strategies to increase student participation and to provide meaningful student feedback. In doing so, faculty will expand their abilities to consider how students’ culture, worldview, and diverse backgrounds influence their classroom experiences. applies research-supported teaching strategies and focuses on how faculty can expand their skills and increase their effectiveness with international students. These same instructional strategies have also been shown to improve educational outcomes for all students. Presenters will model high-leverage instructional strategies with opportunities to discuss and practice with peers.

High Leverage Teaching Practices in DEIA Contexts Parts 1, 2 and 3

This professional development opportunity focuses on High Leverage Teaching Practices (HLTP) as a set of instructional strategies that provide clarity and expectations for the teacher and support learning and accountability in the students (McLeskey & Brownell, 2015). Across the three interactive workshops, presenters will identify 22 HLTP within four domains, Collaboration, Assessment, Social/Emotional/Behavioral and Instruction. Case studies will be used to encourage attendees’ application of the HLTPs within a real world classroom situations.

The three-part High Leverage Teaching Practices (HLTP) workshop series is designed so that Parts 1, 2 and 3 are inter-related, but each stand alone. Therefore, faculty can attend the HLTP starting with any of the three sessions and proceed with the remaining workshops.

For more information or scheduling, contact��Jeff Mangram �ǰ���Melissa Luke.

For Fall 2021, CTLE is offering the following faculty professional development opportunities:

Wednesday, Sept. 29 from noon-1:30 p.m.

(Session will be held on Zoom. Follow the link above to register)

Bryan J. Hanson, ombudsperson in the Graduate School at Virginia Tech will address the complex nature of academic bullying. The workshop will develop a shared understanding of the definitions and attributes associated with academic bullying. Interactive exercises and case study analysis will equip participants with the skills to address peer to peer and other forms of bullying. Participants will also learn intervention strategies to apply when they observe bullying.

This series offers timely topics in an efficient, lunchtime format:

Pandemic Teaching and Learning Strategies:�� What Do We Keep and Why Do We Keep It?

(Session will be held on Zoom.�� Follow the link above to register)

Join a facilitated dialogue with colleagues centered around the questions:

• What teaching-related experiences from the pandemic should inform how we approach teaching and learning this fall?
• What is our rationale?

Getting the Most Out of Mid-Course Feedback

September/October

Asynchronous (session materials available )

Requesting and responding to student feedback are integral to creating engaging educational experiences. Students are best at voicing what it’s like to be a learner in your course and what small changes you can make midway to deepen their learning. Learn more about how the CTLE can assist you in gathering and using student feedback, as well as how you can use the University’s course feedback platform, EvaluationKIT, to gather input from your students.

I’ve got mid-course feedback: What do I do with it?

���Ի���, 2:15-3:15 p.m.

Hall of Languages 500

(Follow the links above to register)

Mid-course student feedback is powerful. Sometimes it is powerfully good. Sometimes it is a little anxiety-producing. Would you like to learn from what students are telling you without the angst? Join colleagues in a session where you read and reflect on student feedback privately and share and discuss possible course adjustments together in space and time. Participants will follow a guide for analyzing the feedback, reflecting on it and planning how to use it to enhance student learning as the course continues. CTLE and Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment (IEA) staff will be available to help you in this process. This session is offered twice to accommodate teaching schedules.

Other Offerings

��

This group is designed for people who answer yes to these questions:

• Do you benefit from having regular interactions with colleagues about your writing?
• Does thinking aloud with a colleague help you write?
• Are you motivated by setting specific goals, writing them down and reporting on your progress?
• Are you likely to write more if you plan times in your calendar for writing, use a timer and minimize distractions?

“I write” combines the benefits of a small biweekly accountability group with regularly blocked writing times. Register through the link above or contact Laurel Willingham-McLain (lwilling@syr.edu) for more information.

Offered in partnership with the

Friday, Nov. 5, noon-1:30 p.m.

(Session will be held on Zoom.�� Follow the link above to register)

Capturing student voices and providing opportunities for students to actively participate in the assessment process is mutually beneficial to both faculty and students. In this session, we will explore the benefits and strategies of engaging students in the assessment process.

Faculty Writing Communities

CTLE and the are partnering to create Faculty Writing Communities. Some sessions will be held on Microsoft Teams; some may be in-person; some on Zoom.�� ���ϲ����� faculty can participate in the Writing Teams group (blocked writing time only) by .�� For more information about other, contact Timur Hammond (

The program is designed to strengthen research capacity and capability at ���ϲ�����. These awards are intended to bridge the gap between major research equipment as funded through extramural grants (and requests for equipment in individual research project grants) and small items often purchased through faculty research accounts. Because the program is intended to support equipment not obtainable through traditional mid-to-large scale equipment grant programs from extramural funders, preference is given to proposals for equipment that fall between $5,000 and $100,000.

“This year’s awardees represent a broad array of research and creative disciplines and will jumpstart research and scholarship in fields ranging from environmental science to art and music,” says Ramesh Raina, interim vice president for research.

Small equipment grants in 2021 include equipment such as an acoustic recording array for studies of marine mammal acoustic behavior, a snowpack analyzer to support flood prediction and remote sensing research, medium format digital camera equipment, an ultrapure water purification system, a large scanning transient current technique system, a terrestrial LIDAR scanner and an automated histology system for paraffin based tissue processing, embedding and sectioning.

Faculty receiving grants represent the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, the School of Education and the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

The Small Equipment Grant Program pays 100% of the first $25,000 of equipment costs. For equipment costs between $25,000 and $50,000, costs are equally shared between the Grant Program and the department, school or college, with a maximum award of up to $37,500 from the Office of Research. The minimum amount for an equipment award request is $5,000.

The Small Equipment Grant Program was established in 2019. To date, the program has funded 61 projects.

For more information regarding the Small Equipment Grant Program, contact Christina Leigh Docteur.

As the University welcomes students back to campus, we caught up with Haste-Jackson for an update on the First-Year Seminar and her role as interim director.

Why were you interested in serving as interim director of the First-Year Seminar?

As an alumna of ���ϲ����� and someone who has served in staff and faculty roles, I saw the interim director position as a unique opportunity to contribute to the systemic change and development I have seen over the past 25 years. My experiences in those roles has led me to believe that while change in some areas has been very slow, it has been steady. We still have work to do and I am willing to do the necessary work to bring about that change.

What does it mean to be interim director?�� Can you describe your role?

As interim director I believe my role is to be a servant leader and build a sustainable program. What I bring to the First-Year Seminar is a knowledge of the history of diversity, inclusion, equity and access at ���ϲ����� and the ability to work broadly across campus to create a vision for moving forward.�� My history here helps me identify the strengths and challenges that exist on the path to achieving the vision of a University that is genuinely welcoming to all.

Making that vision a reality requires coordinating, integrating and creating opportunities for people, places and things to work together—both now and over the long term.

I have to believe in what we are doing and motivate others to join me in building it. Building what you can’t see requires a certain amount of inner resolve, trust in others and the ability to constantly adapt to change. In the end, my goal is to work with inspired and talented people to transform how people think and how our systems work.

The First-Year Seminar is an opportunity for the University to advance DEIA and student success. How would you describe that opportunity? Why is it especially important now?

���ϲ����� is a microcosm of the world, and students who live and study with us must have opportunities to develop their awareness, knowledge and communication ability around the critical issues in our society. The new course is designed to help students participate in active learning around topics that affect them as global citizens.

While students primarily come to ���ϲ����� for academic preparation, they bring their identity and experiences to our campus. The First-Year Seminar is an opportunity for them to familiarize themselves with the place where they will spend important years of their lives. While at the University, students are expected to expand their knowledge and ability to engage within their discipline as well as the campus culture. Being aware of bias, stereotype, prejudice and discrimination builds a foundation for students to develop knowledge of themselves and how they relate to others. This is critical and will help them to thrive during their time at ���ϲ�����, and subsequently put them in a position to succeed in their future professions where they may be called upon to work with people from all backgrounds and cultures.

If you were to give advice to a typical first year student about how to get the most out of the First-Year Seminar, what would that advice be?

Bring your whole self to the experience. This course will help you learn about ���ϲ�����, but also gives you the opportunity to focus on YOU—who you are and who you want to become. You will discover aspects of your identity and learn how to engage with peers and professors who come from all over the world. This is much more than a class to take and pass; it is a class in which you can set the stage for your own academic, social, personal wellness and cross-cultural goals.

If you talk to one of this fall’s First-Year Seminar students in Fall 2022, what do you hope they would say about their experience in the course?

I would hope that this student was able to say that the First-Year Seminar, including the discussions and activities they participated in during the course, ignited something within them to want to learn more about themselves and their interests. I hope they would see it as leading them to see how they uniquely fit into the Orange family, that they saw themselves as welcomed and wanted as a member of the campus community, and that they did not feel as if they were the ‘only one’ or an ‘other’ amongst their peers. If I could go even further, I would hope that this student told me that they were inspired to become an FYS 101 peer leader because of the experiences they had and wanted to encourage and inspire incoming first- year and transfer students!

���ϲ����� College of Arts and Sciences Dean Emeritus George Langford, who is also professor emeritus of biology and distinguished professor of neuroscience, participated in the Institute. He noted how important faculty are to achieving the University’s goal of fostering success among a diverse group of students who persist and succeed in the STEM majors, saying “Many of the required introductory courses are taught by non-tenure-track teaching faculty. Our students need these courses to persist in the STEM majors and we know that these ‘gateway courses’ disproportionately serve as obstacles to underrepresented minority students’ pursuit of STEM majors. Non-tenure-track STEM faculty are critical to what we are trying to achieve at ���ϲ����� in terms of diversity, equity, inclusion and access.”

Institute participants had the opportunity to hear from top experts whose research addresses the role of non-tenure-track STEM faculty in student success, systems thinking in higher education transformation and ways in which institutions can provide meaningful support to these faculty whose work is integral to the University’s success.

Jonathan French, assistant teaching professor of chemistry, was one of the Institute participants. He said, “For me, as a non-tenure-track faculty member, it was interesting to talk with my counterparts at similar peer institutions. I saw that we have common experiences and was able to hear about steps their universities are taking to support them. Even simple steps, like providing a mentor for teaching faculty, can have a big impact.”

He added, “Teaching faculty are, in many cases, the face of our departments because we teach the large enrollment introductory courses. We’re the faculty that students know in their first year and we can help guide those students into our department’s research labs. Instead of defining non-tenure-track faculty by what we don’t do, it would be great if we could define us by the value we bring to the classroom and the lab. We may not run a research lab but we do help students get through the introductory courses and on a pathway to STEM majors and careers.”

Laurel Willingham-McLain, a consulting faculty developer at the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, agrees. “There is a common misconception that these faculty want a tenure-track job. While this is true for some of them, it’s actually a much more diverse group that includes people who love teaching and have more job satisfaction in that role, people at the end of their careers who want to be useful, people in professional roles who want to teach part time or people who have been in these roles and have real-world expertise that benefits students,” she says.

French says one step in the right direction is a monthly meeting of non-tenure-track faculty chaired by Lois Agnew, associate dean of curriculum innovation and pedagogy in the College of Arts and Sciences.�� “We have speakers talk about different issues. I find great value in these meetings and the connections I am able to make. In the AAC&U Institute, some of our peers were still trying to figure out how to build a community of non-tenure-track faculty,” he says.

Langford said that the Institute helped participants think about non-tenure-track faculty from a systems perspective. “A two-tier system doesn’t serve students well. We need to elevate the status and recognition of good teaching. By thinking at a systems level, we examined how to convey the value of high-quality teaching and how to design policies, practices and procedures so that these faculty know what is required for career progression and advancement.”

One of those practices builds on the , an initiative funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. “We have a very good model of how to transform courses to improve the performance and persistence of students from marginalized identities. If we invest in non-tenure-track faculty, who teach so many of these introductory courses, and provide them with professional development opportunities, there’s a real multiplier effect. These faculty are incredibly valuable to our students and to the University as a whole.”

The team that participated in the AAC&U workshop also included Vera McIlvain, associate teaching professor of biology, and Martha Diede, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence. Their next steps will be to collect data on the non-tenure-track faculty at ���ϲ����� and reach out to them about the different roles they play and the kinds of supports that may benefit them. “The Institute was very inspiring and we want to continue to map the policies, practices and procedures so we can continue to work towards the University’s larger goals,” says Langford.