Newsletter Editor Jane Weiss
Department Meeting Tuesday 28 November 2023 3:00-4:30 in V219
Our department will meet next Tuesday afternoon for our third, and last, department meeting of the fall 2023 semester. This is a call for agenda items and/or announcements for that meeting. Please email those directly to Annie: Ann.DelPrincipe@kbcc.cuny.edu.
Already on the agenda are the following:
• Election of our English department Curriculum Committee (see email from the Nom Com for further information)
• Discussion of the new draft Promotion & Tenure addendum for English (which has been emailed to department faculty).
Invitation to Join the English Department on the CUNY Academic Commons
A message from Elizabeth Dill:
Last semester, an invitation to join the Kingsborough English CUNY Academic Commons group should have arrived in the inbox of your KCC email account. If you haven’t already accepted this invitation, please do so! And if you can’t find it, please email Elizabeth Dill so she can get you signed up. With the issue on Monday 4 December 2023 – one week from today — our weekly department newsletter will shift to the Commons; the department newsletter will only be sent as a blog post from this group. So to continue receiving the Newsletter in your inbox, please join the CUNY Academic Commons! If you don’t receive an invitation at all, please let Elizabeth know at Elizabeth.Dill@kbcc.cuny.edu
A Query from Hope Parisi, Requesting Feedback on Mentoring and PD Sessions
Hope is sending out a Google-form survey requesting feedback from new or new-ish faculty who might have felt assisted in a Faculty Mentoring context, as well as to faculty who attended any of the three Professional Development sessions that Hope facilitated this term. Please take a moment to fill out the form if/when you get Hope’s email to offer feedback. Thank you.
ALP Portfolio Review Workshops
A message from Tony Iantosca:
KLC’s Writing Center has launched a series of ALP Portfolio Review Workshops, facilitated by our very own Daniel Perrone. Please note that this is a stand-alone workshop. The same material will be shared with students each session. That said, students are welcome to attend more than one session as their portfolios develop. Please share this information widely with your 12A0 classes!
ALP Portfolio Review Workshops are designed to support any student in English 12A0 with the process of assembling the portfolio, reflecting on the development of specific essay assignments and grasping the overall purpose of these interrelated tasks. We hope to reach students who are struggling in the final weeks of the semester to complete their portfolios, and to offer crucial assistance to students who otherwise may feel stymied or overwhelmed by the process of assembling a portfolio and writing a self-assessment.
Schedule: Tuesday Nov. 28th 2:30-3:30 PM; Thursday Nov. 30th 4:30-5:30 PM; Tuesday Dec. 5th 2:30-3:30 PM; Thursday Dec. 7th 4:30-5:30 PM
How students can sign up: Step 1: Website: https://kingsboroughcc.okta.com/ ; Step 2: Enter your Username and Password. Your username and password will be the same log-in credentials as your Kingsborough College email.; Step 3: Once you have successfully logged-in, click the icon that says KCC TracCloud; Step 4: Click “Schedule an appointment.”; Step 5: In the “Schedule an appointment” box you’ll need to select Eng. 12A-Composition 1 ALP; select essay review, and then hit search; Step 6: Now the “Schedule appointment” page will load. Select English 12 ALP workshop under center/services; Step 7: The schedule appointment page will load. A drop-down menu with the available tutoring times will appear. Choose the tutoring time and hit confirm.
KCC Spirit Day: 28 November 2023
A message from Christine Marchese:
Tomorrow is the day: time to show your spirit for KCC. #KCCSPIRIT is a longstanding tradition of annual giving that coincides with #GIVINGTUESDAY, an international day of charitable giving that is held every year the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Kingsborough staff, faculty, board members, alumni, retirees and friends get together to raise funds for the Annual Fund that helps bridge the gap between current year needs and funding received from state assistance, tuition or fees. Join us is providing much needed support and help fuel our students’ dreams. Every gift–large or small–is appreciated and needed. It is not too late to buy raffle tickets. You can buy tickets here until 12:59 PM on Tuesday November 28: https://e.givesmart.com/events/zKA/
Please note that participation/donation is 100% voluntary. For more information, contact Christine Marchese at Christine.Marchese@kbcc.cuny.edu
Safe Zone’s Ally Certification Training Thursday 30 November 2023 3:00-5:00 PM
Safe Zone’s Fall 2023 Ally Certification Training will take place on Thursday, November 30, 2023, from 3:00 – 5:00pm, in M M239. During this training, we will discuss and practice a number of strategies for supporting the LGBTQ+ members of our community. We will also hear from a panel of allies who will discuss what they have done to foster safer and more inclusive spaces on campus. If you are not already an ally, please join! Refreshments will be served. Please RSVP by Monday, November 27, 2023 to either Jennifer.oliveri@kbcc.cuny.edu or Michael.smith@kbcc.cuny.edu
Book Orders Needed for Winter & Spring Courses
A message from Annie:
The bookstore has reached out to Annie because nearly all of our department’s Winter and Spring courses currently provide no book or course material information on CUNY first. As we should all know by this point, we are under a legal obligation to provide this information to students before they register for our courses. In order to comply with this obligation and provide students with this needed information, please do the following ASAP:
Log into CUNY first and go to Faculty Center and then My Textbooks and then, when you are viewing the correct course in winter or spring 2024, fill in your book or course material information. If you do not require students to purchase any books for your course, please click the box that signals this. If your course is zero textbook cost (ZTC), please add something like this under “course material notes” and “special instructions:” “This course will use a variety of online, free, open-access resources.” Of course, then you must ensure that the teaching materials you plan to use truly are open-access
2023 CUNY Ethics and Morality Student Essay Contest
The deadline is approaching for the CUNY Ethics and Morality Student Essay Contest, founded by William and Noelle Chin.This is an annual award intended to promote and stimulate thinking by CUNY students about ethics, morality, and virtuous behavior in their lives. The Asian American / Asian Research Institute will award the top three essays these prizes in 2023: Best Essay ($1,000); First Runner-up ($300); Second Runner-up ($200).The deadline for essay entries is Friday 1 December 2023 at 5:30 pm ESt. Applicants should choose one Virtue to discuss in detail: Prudence/Wisdom; Justice; Fortitude/Courage; Temperance/Self-control; Faith; Hope; Charity; Ren (Benevolence, Love); Yi (Righteousness); Li (Propriety, Loyalty, Filial Piety, Chastity, Respect) Zhi (Wisdom); Xin (Integrity, Honesty, Fidelity). In discussing the selected Virtue, applicants should incorporate these points: Their own experience in practicing the Virtue they have chosen to write about and what personal reward or satisfaction they have gained from it; why they think the Virtue was an important one to practice in their life; what obstacles they encounter in practicing this particular Virtue and how they still strive to overcome the difficulties.
Submissions must meet these requirements: Applicants must be currently enrolled CUNY undergraduates or graduate students. Applicants must submit a copy of their college ID and current semester program; and a cover page containing topic of the essay, name of the student, name of the CUNY college, and date. Length: 1,000 to 1,500 words. Typed, 12-size Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins, and double-spaced. Works cited: Include at least five sources. Students must reference all materials that are not their own. All work must be original material. Attribution and references to quoted materials must be included. Essay submissions should be sent online to info@aaari.info by Friday December 1, 2023, 5:30pm EST. Please send the essay in Word format, along with the completed application form, copy of college ID and current semester program from CUNYFirst. In the email subject header, type “2023 CUNY Ethics and Morality Essay Contest Submission.” For more information, view the essay guidelines and entry form here: https://aaari.info/assets/2023/08/Ext-2023-CUNY-Ethics-and-Morality-Essay-Contest-Form-1.pdf
Sing Out, Shout Out for CUNY Saturday 2 December 2023 1:00-3:00 PM
A message from Rachel Ihara:
As most of you know, the PSC has been working hard to negotiate a better contract. Some of us are planning to show our support at an upcoming rally at Governor Hochul’s NYC office (633 3rd Avenue NY, NY 10017) on Saturday, December 2nd, from 1-3pm, and it would be great to have a strong showing from KCC’s English Department. You can sign up here to attend https://psc-cuny.org/calendar/sing-out-shout-out-for-apeoplescuny/, but please let Rachel, Emily or Rick know as well, if you think you can make it.
New and Different PSC-CUNY Signs
A message from Emily Schnee:
As many of you know, the PSC is currently in contract negotiations with CUNY! One super easy and simple way to raise awareness on campus and support us getting the best contract possible is to put a PSC contract poster on your office door. There are now new and different contract signs (“Respect” “Quality Education” “Real Raises,” to name a few) in the English department office. Please feel free to swing by the office and pick up a sign for your office door!
Mailboxes in C309
As the semester winds down, please be sure to stop by C309 to empty your mailbox.
Final Exam Schedule
After a hiatus of a couple of years, the Registrar’s office has just NOW released the final exam period schedule for this fall. You and your students can find the schedule at this link: https://www.kbcc.cuny.edu/registrar/finals-schedule.html For the most part, courses and sections have been assigned a meeting time that is very close to their normal class time during the semester. If you’ve already invented a meeting time for your classes during finals week, please realize that students may have conflicts with that time due to another class having been assigned that same time slot per the Registrar’s schedule.
Please note that all faculty are obligated to meet with their students at some point during finals week, December 12-18. The schedule provided at the link above shows you when & where your particular class and section has been assigned to meet during that week.
PSC-CUNY Grant Applications Due Friday 15 December 2023 11:59 PM
PSC-CUNY Grants Proposal System is now open for Cycle 55 applications. The final, non-negotiable deadline to apply is Friday, December 15th, 2023 at 11:59pm. Please visit this PSC CUNY Webpage for important details about the process, or check your KCC email for detailed instructions: https://www.rfcuny.org/rfwebsite/principal-investigators/explore-pre-award-resources/psc-cuny-award-program/ .
PSC-CUNY Research Awards are designed to encourage the scholarly and creative pursuits of CUNY faculty, especially junior faculty. Funds for research and creative projects are available to all Permanent, Full-Time members of instructional staff, and untenured members of the faculty in particular (untenured associate professor, assistant professor, instructor, lecturer); and Full-Time staff in HEO series. For the purposes of the PSC-CUNY Awards, junior faculty comprise those at the rank of untenured associate professor, assistant professor, instructor, and lecturer.
The Grants Proposal System no longer allows attachments as Word Docs, only as PDFs. If you are unable to convert your project narrative to PDF, please send it as a Word document to Kathy Giaimo, who will then reformat it as a PDF and upload it to your application. Kathy will be happy to assist you with this or to answer any questions you may have. She is on campus every day except Mondays, when she works remotely. You can call her at 718-368-6858, or email her at Kathryn.giaimo@kbcc.cuny.edu.
As always, the Advancement office strongly advises applicants not to wait until the last minute to submit their application. The earlier you submit your proposal, the more time Kathy will have to review it and help you to address any issues with your submission. Again, the deadline for Cycle 55 applications is 11:59pm on Friday, December 15, 2023. Please click here to apply: https://rfcuny.org/gp/welcome.aspx
22 December 2023 and 26 December – 28 December 2023: English Department Office Open Remotely
The English Department office will provide services remotely on Friday 22 December 2023; C309 will not be open. The office will be closed 23 December through 25 December 2023. The office will provide services remotely Tuesday 26 December through Friday 29 December 2023 and will reopen on Tuesday 2 January 2024.
Brightspace Sandbox
A message from Neil Kernis:
The Brightspace “sandbox” is live and ready for us to use. You can now access Brightspace, create a course, and play around as you wish to get a feel for our new Learning Management System (LMS) that will replace Blackboard. Please note that it is only for training purposes, so nothing that you create in the sandbox will be transferred to your actual course shells once they become available.
Here is how to access the sandbox (Note: You can just skip to step 3; Steps 1 and 2 are not necessary, but Neil is including them because everyone should be aware of the CUNY LMS transition page, as it contains lots of useful info):
1. Go to the CUNY LMS transition page: https://www.cuny.edu/academics/brightspace-transition/
2. Scroll down to FAQ and click “How Do I Access D2L Brightspace?”
3. Click on https://brightspace.cuny.edu/d2l/home
4. Log in using your CUNY credentials (xxxxxxxx@login.cuny.edu)
5. You are now in Brightspace. Scroll down a bit, and on the right hand side of the screen click, “Create a Course.”
6. Have at it.
This is a link to CUNY’s recent Brightspace Demo. You may want to have a look before you start playing around with your own course. Neil thought it left much to be desired, but something is better than nothing: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/lgTlx4yqaL7t6wdWBDRhfiLMUU_dzBw5JrGThpEYa3w3rGxJs8hSKBBEIVfPBckU.rBEfSHebnoeWEzwo
Your courses from the past two years will (erm, “should”) migrate on December 15. Neil has have not seen a migrated course yet, but the word is that while most material does migrate, it end up in odd or unfamiliar places. You will likely need to do some rearranging if you plan to use that material for future courses. Note that only course material migrates; student work, your feedback, discussion posts, grades, etc., do not. We will need to preserve that material on our own. Neil will address this in a separate message.
KCC’s training period will begin in Spring 2024 (exact dates TBA) and Brightspace will officially launch on our campus in Summer 2024. You will still have access to Blackboard until the contract expires in December 2025, but you will not have new course shells starting in Summer 24. So if you plan to teach this summer, it is especially important that you get well acquainted with Brightspace in the spring.
Please let Neil know if you have any questions: Neil.Kernis@kbcc.cuny.edu
Sunshine Fund
A message from Elroy Esdaille and Enid Stubin:
We’re asking for contributions to replenish the Sunshine Fund, the means by which our hardworking and dedicated staff members receive a holiday gift, joyful and sad milestones are acknowledged, and anyone in the department suffering from a natural disaster—fire or flood—can be helped. Our request:
$30.00 from full-time faculty (an increase of $5, the first in many years)
$10.00 from part-time faculty
Because the Sunshine Fund doesn’t have a PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle account, we ask that you make your contributions in cash. Those of you teaching off campus may send either Elroy or Enid a check or electronic payment, which we will then convert to cash and place in the Sunshine Fund. You’ll receive e-mail acknowledgment of your contribution. Please feel free to contact Elroy or Enid with any questions.
KCC Information Technology Services Office
You can call KCC’s ITS Help Desk at (718) 368-6679 or email helpdesk@kbcc.cuny.edu 9:00 – 5:00 on weekdays. For Blackboard support during hours when KCC’s Help Desk is not available, call 1-646-664-2024.
A Note about the Newsletter
The next issue of the Newsletter will come out on Monday 4 December 2023. Please send newsletter items by Friday, 1 December 2023 to Jane Weiss at Jane.Weiss@kbcc.cuny.edu. Please keep items brief (preferably 100 or fewer words). Longer items will be abridged. Items about publications and achievements are very welcome.
