OAA THIS WEEK | Feb 10, 2022
A news update and community connection for the Office of Academic Affairs of The City University of New York
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Today: Live Briefing from IEVC Lemons on return to office
Interim Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost Daniel Lemons will hold a virtual live briefing for OAA staff today from 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. The briefing will specifically address on-site work schedules to take effect later this month and related COVID-19 policies. The briefing will feature a live Q&A session, during which OAA staff are welcome to ask IEVC Lemons about these matters or other OAA business.
_____This live briefing is a priority communications effort from the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor; OAA staff are strongly encouraged to attend. This event will not be recorded.
_____This Zoom link can be used at the time of the event (RSVP is not required). Staff can also phone in to: 646-558-8656, webinar passcode: 879 0811 9440.
Vaccination mandate
The CUNY Board of Trustees voted to authorize a vaccine mandate for faculty, non-teaching instructional staff, and employees in the Executive Compensation Plan in compliance with a public policy directive issued by Governor Kathy Hochul.
_____The mandate requires all non-teaching staff (which includes, among others, NTAs, CLTs, and those in the HEO series), and personnel in the Executive Compensation Plan, to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to remain employed by the University, except if a medical exemption, religious exception or reasonable accommodation has been granted. Booster shots are not required at this time.
_____Staff who have not already done so, are asked to upload proof of vaccination via CUNYfirst as soon as possible.
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CITY, STATE & NATIONAL NEWS
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CUNY colleges named top in country for economic mobility
_____Lehman College and John Jay College were among the top 10; three others made the top 20: City College, Brooklyn, Hunter, and five others were in the top 50: Baruch College, Queens College, York College, the College of Staten Island, and Medgar Evers College.
_____Building on the work of economist Raj Chetty, whose 2017 study established CUNY’s unparalleled effectiveness in moving students into the middle class, the study looks at the proportion of students from low-income families at a college, and how quickly they pay down the cost of their education. “This new study from the Third Way organization is the latest to validate CUNY’s success in lifting students into the middle class,” said Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez in Campus News. “In focusing on the return students get on the investment they make in their education, the researchers have affirmed the high value of a CUNY education.”
Lehman College plans new scholarship fund from gift
Lehman College, which received a transformational $30 million gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, was featured by an Inside Higher Ed article titled ‘Use These Dollars to Change Lives’ showcasing how philanthropic support from her surprise gifts to colleges around the country in 2020-21 is being put to use. (Scott, who was formerly married to Jeff Bezos, gave away billions of dollars to non-profits and higher education institutions in 2020 and 2021, including $30 million gifts to Lehman College and BMCC in 2020 detailed on the CUNY website. She gave $15 million to Hostos CC in June 2021.)
_____Lehman President Fernando Delgado told the publication that $26 million was transferred to Lehman’s endowment to fund long-term priorities including scholarships; a new MacKenzie Scott Opportunity Scholarship Fund will launch this year and is expected to provide an estimated $400,000 per year for scholarships. Funds from the gift will also support short-term priorities including a campus climate study, new mentoring and career training programs, and hiring a consulting firm focused on fundraising and development to build the college’s fundraising infrastructure and multiply the impact of Scott’s gift. “We got a $30 million gift, so now we can legitimately talk aspirationally about a $100 or $125 million campaign.”
CUNY scientists seek COVID-19 clues in NYC wastewater
Researchers from Queens College and Queensborough Community College are searching for evidence of coronavirus in New York City’s wastewater. Monica Trujillo, a microbiologist at Queensborough Community College, and John Dennehy, a virologist at Queens College, were co-authors of a paper published in Nature Communications last week. The paper describes an unexpected finding: viral fragments containing mutations never reported before in human patients — a potential sign of a new, previously undetected coronavirus. The New York Times reported on the findings in an article titled “In New York City Sewage, a Mysterious Coronavirus Signal.”
______For the past year, oddball sequences, or what the scientists call “cryptic lineages,” have continued to pop up in the city’s wastewater. There is no evidence that the lineages, which have been circulating for at least a year, pose an elevated health risk to humans. But the researchers still have no idea where they came from. “At this point, what we can say is that we haven’t found the cryptic lineages in human databases, and we have looked all over,” said Trujillo. “I think it’s really important that we find the source, and we have not been able to pin that down,” added Dennehy.
NYC Must-See Week ends Sunday!
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The 2-for-1 tickets promotion to many of NYC’s iconic attractions, museums, tours, and performing arts ends this Sunday, February 13. Browse the many offerings and purchase tickets at NYC & Company. You can also use the Promo Code: MSW22.
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In each edition, OAA This Week asks our colleagues about the work their unit is doing in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, and how they’re personally faring in the era of hybrid work. If you would like to be featured as a Colleague Connection, please contact Duffie Cohen at Duffie.Cohen@cuny.edu.
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Russell Williams, Assistant Director of CUNY Internship Programs
What does your role as Assistant Director of CUNY Internship Programs involve? As the assistant director of CUNY Internship Programs (CIP), I provide leadership and managerial support to the overall success of 500-plus University students in paid internships and experiential learning opportunities across New York City.
_____For nearly two decades, CIP has partnered with New York City government agencies, boards, and commissions to provide CUNY students with internships in tech, engineering, public health, finance, business, and other burgeoning sectors. Outside of gaining early professional and technical experience, participating interns have been hired by their assigned agencies, some even moving into leadership positions where they oversee current CUNY interns. Students who are a part of CUNY Internship Programs gain valuable experience working to help their fellow New Yorkers, as well as becoming integral members of the future of NYC’s workforce.
You became assistant director right before the pandemic started. How did that impact your work and how has the work of the internship programs evolved over the last two years? What are some of the challenges you’ve faced and accomplishments you’re proudest of? Yes, I became the assistant director in January of 2020. This only allowed two months of normalcy and "adjustment" into my new role, before the pandemic hit. It was a huge challenge for the program and me.
_____The pivot to remote working and e-learning (I’m also a proud dad of four) took a lot of creativity, wit, and innovation. In such an unprecedented time, one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced has been combating the effect COVID-19 has had on interns, program partners, and CIP staff. Working with empathy has been a huge priority in the last two years. Through it all, we were able to maintain 80 percent of our internship roster with remote work capabilities and furloughing the remaining interns until their agencies had additional work capabilities for them.
_____Additionally, the pandemic unveiled a plethora of diverse internship opportunities across city agencies. Currently. we are operating under the new normal with hybrid internships, and have increased internship opportunities across old and new agency partners.
How are things are looking for student internships for the spring semester? Are more in-person opportunities resuming or has Omicron impacted plans? Most, if not all, in-person opportunities are aligned with NYC's COVID-19 vaccine mandates, therefore urging in-person work for applicable positions. With the rise of positive COVID cases due to the Omicron variant, in-person internship opportunities have wavered. However, partners have been providing a hybrid expectation to ensure interns are not hired with remote-only expectations.
What’s your home workspace like? How does it feel to be back in the office? Transparently speaking, my home workspace used to be wherever my laptop and I felt most comfortable (laughs out loud). More recently I have converted one of my basement rooms into a fully functioning modern home office. The home office has helped me tremendously with growth and productivity. Being back in the office felt strange, mainly because I’m so used to socializing with colleagues freely. Working out of 16 Court Street, the office wasn’t heavily populated prior to COVID anyway. These days the office is eerily quiet and can seem quite desolate. But I adjust with the times as many of us have.
What’s your daily routine these days? Do you have any self-care practices that have helped you deal with the pandemic? My daily routine consists of my wife and I waking our daughters up and getting them ready for the day. Depending on the day I make my way into the office or will head back home to begin (remotely) achieving the tasks for the day until it’s time to head back out for pickups. My form of self-care includes being a creative, digitally designing in Photoshop in my free time, drinking a hot cup of peppermint tea (splash of lemon, two sugars), and making sure to keep up with my barber appointments every other week, because well #thePandemicTaughtMe!
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OAA This Week is published every Thursday. OAA This Week's editorial staff is comprised of Jason Brooks, Duffie Cohen, and Karen Rostron. For comments, questions, suggestions, or news and event tips, contact the professional communications writer for the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost, at Jason.Brooks@cuny.edu.
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