News for the week of October 27, 2019
An Update from Interim Dean Nicole S. Sampson

Dear Colleagues,

Last Monday, I had the privilege of presenting to the Arts and Sciences Senate and I recap some of the highlights below. You can see my full presentation  here under "Update on the College of Arts and Sciences."

As mentioned in earlier newsletters, 43 faculty received tenure and/or promotion this past year and we welcome 19 new faculty to the College this fall and spring. Our faculty includes many rising and established stars who have received major awards in their disciplines. Our students are equally meritorious and we had a record number of students (both undergraduate and graduate) receive NSF Graduate Fellowships.

I am happy to report that both our student enrollments and our budget are stable this year. Through investment by the President and Provost, combined with expense reductions in the College we are projecting to end the 2019-2020 fiscal year in a budget neutral position for the first time in many years. As salary savings occurs through retirements and resignations, we are using those funds to hire new faculty and staff and to pay contractual salary increases. This year we are running 20 faculty searches across the College.

The College (and University) now engage in a multi-year budget planning process and we are in the process of setting departmental budgets for fiscal years 2020-2021, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. Achievable goals for savings and revenue growth have been set in order that we can continue to plan our academic offerings, hire faculty and staff strategically, and pay for contractual salary increases in the coming years.

Over the summer, CAS leadership worked to harmonize the many excellent and thoughtful proposals that emerged last spring from our faculty groups who reported out concept papers for the 10 elements of the CAS Shared Vision. We have begun implementation of roadmap steps for all three pillars: Global Processes, Connections and Flows; Digital Revolution and Beyond; and Scholarly Creativity and Exploration. These steps include research and education initiatives for strategic investment and also serve as the basis for our philanthropic initiatives. Roadmap steps may be viewed on our Strategic Vision website that will be updated as we progress. I want to specifically mention two initiatives that are well underway.

The BA in Globalization Studies and International Relations is now housed in the  Institute for Globalization Studies  with Sophie Raynard-Leroy serving as Director. The first majors will be enrolled in Fall 2020, and we are actively working with undergraduate admissions to promote the program. Special thanks to Professor Adrian Perez-Melgosa who has stewarded this program through a multi-year launching process, and thank you to all the departments who are coordinating their own course offerings with this interdisciplinary program.

The  Digital Intelligence  initiative successfully launched IAE 101: Introduction to Digital Intelligence co-taught by English and Computer Science faculty with 250 students enrolled. The next step is launching project-based research courses. If you are interested in meeting faculty working in CEAS, IACS or GIS (SOMAS) to form a multi-disciplinary research team, please fill out this  Google form  and we will schedule you in one of the speed-dating lunches we are holding next month.

Thank you for reading, and best wishes for continued success in your own scholarly and creative endeavors this semester.

Nicole 
NSF System Upgrade

Please be advised that FastLane and Research.gov will be unavailable from Friday, November 8 at 8:00 PM EST until Tuesday, November 12 at 6:00 AM EST.

During this outage, there will be no access to these websites, proposals cannot be prepared or submitted in FastLane and Research.gov, and project reports and cash requests cannot be submitted in Research.gov. However, previously saved information and uploaded documents in FastLane and Research.gov, including in-progress proposals and project reports, will be accessible after the migration is completed.
Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery Exhibition

"Artists as Innovators: Celebrating Three Decades of NYSCA/NYFA Fellowships"

Saturday, October 26, 2019 -
Thursday, February 20, 2019

Salon Talk
Monday, November 4, 2019
2:30 pm | Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery, Staller Center for the Arts
 
A panel discussion moderated by Professor Katy Siegel.
"The Writer, the Madman, and the Native"
Juan Duchesne-Winter, PhD

Hispanic Languages and Literature Alumni Lecture Series

Thursday, October 31, 2019
4:00 pm | Humanities 2036

Juan Duchesne-Winter, PhD, HLL, is the author of 12 books and numerous articles related to 20th and 21st century Latin American literature in its cultural and political contexts.

Co-sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations, LACS and the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature.
Astronomy Open Night
"Unmasking the Dark Universe with Galaxy Clusters"
Lucie Baumont, PhD candidate, Physics and Astronomy

Friday, November 1, 2019
7:30 pm | Earth and Space Sciences 001

Click for more information.
"Alterity, Intimacy, and the Possibility of the Other: A Critical Phenomenology of the Minute Interruptions of Everyday Life at a Dementia Ward in Denmark"
Rasmus Dyring, Aarhus University, Denmark

Tuesday, November 5, 2019
4:00 pm | Humanities 1008

This talk gives an account of alterity as it issues forth in the minute interruptions that interweave and give shape to everyday life at a dementia ward in Denmark.
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