Newsletter Editor Jane Weiss

Fall 2023 Faculty and Staff Convocation

            KCC will hold its Fall 2023 Faculty and Staff Convocation on Thursday, September 21, 2023 in U219.  Check-in begins at 2:45 pm. The program begins promptly at 3:00 pm. Please RSVP Here: https://rebrand.ly/KCCconvocation or call x5109

Verification of Enrollment (VOE) Rosters Due Monday 25 September 2023

            The CUNY Board of Trustees mandate is that faculty report any students who have never attended and or participated in courses for which they are officially registered using the “Verification of Enrollment (VOE) Roster.” All VOE rosters are required on or before the deadline. Your cooperation is imperative; there will be financial liability to both the student and the college if this information is not submitted on time. Please review the following dates and plan accordingly:

• The VOE rosters are now available in the Faculty Center.
• The VOE rosters are due Monday, September 25, 2023 at 11:59 PM.
• Just to add to the fun, CUNYfirst will be unavailable for monthly maintenance September 23, 2023, 7:00 PM until Sunday, September 24, 2023, 7:00 PM.
• For even more fun, the College will be closed on Monday, September 25, 2023, so the IT office will not be available on that day.

            Please ensure that you take the time to account for all of the students that have been attending your class and that they appear on your CUNYfirst roster. Report ONLY those students who NEVER participated in academically-related class activities by the time you submit the VOE Roster. Students reported as never having participated will be assigned the non-punitive grade of WN, Withdrawn/Never Attended. As a result, the student will NOT be able to count the course toward financial aid eligibility. WN grades are scheduled to post on the student record on September 26 per the VOE roster reporting.

            Per CUNY guidelines, logging into the online class is not sufficient to demonstrate participation.

            TO ACCESS THE VOE ROSTERS YOU NEED TO CLAIM (ACTIVATE) YOUR CUNYFIRST ACCOUNT IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO ALREADY. On the Kingsborough Website at http://www.kingsborough.edu, place the mouse over the QuickLinks button, and in the drop down menu select “CUNYfirst Portal”. If you prefer, you may instead type https://home.cunyfirst.cuny.edu in your web browser’s address bar. See attached step-by-step instructions to submit your VOE roster.

            Once the VOE roster is “Submitted to the Registrar’s Office,” any changes will need to be made by completing the appropriate forms. Please contact the Registrar’s Office for more information.

            Remember VOE rosters MUST BE SUBMITTED on or before Monday, September 25 at 11:59 pm. After the deadline lapses, the rosters will no longer be available in the Faculty Center in CUNYfirst. Any rosters that are NOT submitted by the deadline will be reported to your Department Chair and the Provost Office for their appropriate action.

KCC Chapter of PSC-CUNY Meeting Tuesday 26 September 2023 at 4:00 PM

            A message from Scott Cally, KCC Chapter PSC-CUNY Chair:

Please join us for our first union chapter meeting on Tuesday, September 26th at 4:00 PM via zoom. All PSC-CUNY members are welcome. At this meeting we will be joined by members of the PSC/CUNY bargaining team who have been hard at work negotiating with management for our next contract. Zoom information will be sent in a later email. Please also mark your calendars for our upcoming chapter meetings at 4:00 on October 25th and December 12th.

Contract for a People’s CUNY: Mass Online Meeting Thursday 28 September 2023 at 6:30

            PSC-CUNY is holding a mass online meeting via Zoom on Thursday 28 September 2023 at 6:30 PM. PSC-CUNY members can register here.

Creative Writing Program Meeting Tuesday 3 October 2023 3:00 in C217 and on Zoom

A message from Eben Wood:

            First, welcome back or to the fall semester. As many of you are aware, it’s a busy and exciting time for the Creative Writing Program, as the process of applying to become a concentration within Liberal Arts goes forward (more about that at the first meeting).

            Our first meeting is now scheduled for Tuesday, 10/3 at 3PM in Room C-217. We’d love as many participating faculty as possible to attend in person, but understand that this isn’t possible for everyone. Brian is arranging the tech to have the meeting be a hybrid, and we will be sending info and the Zoom link for the meeting shortly.

            This will be an important meeting for a number of reasons. First, it will be our first opportunity in some time to gather–as much as possible–in person to catch up, share news about our work, and feel the energy of the program on campus. Second, we will outline and establish some benchmark dates for this academic year, including a possible fall reading or open mic event, the spring Creative Writing Fair, and other events. We welcome all contributions and suggestions for expanding outreach to the KCC community and students. We will also give some updates on the concentration.

            All faculty who are interested in creative writing activities on campus are welcome and encouraged to attend, and if you know anyone teaching outside the department who might be interested, by all means share this email or the meeting time and location.

            Brian and I look forward to seeing you on 10/3, and look for the email with link information if you will be joining us remotely.

Wednesday October 4 2023 at 3:00: AI discussion

A Message from Steve Amarnick and Matthew Gartner:

            We invite you to save the date of Wednesday, October 4 2023 at 3:00 for a discussion of what we are seeing and what we are doing in our classrooms in relation to generative AI. Lots to say! We will send a reminder and a Zoom link as the date approaches. Happy beginning of the semester, all. For more information contact Steven.Amarnick@kbcc.cuny.edu or Matthew.Gartner@kbcc.cuny.edu.

Knowledge Needed: Pre-Islamic Poetry and Proverbs

A message from Tom Lavazzi:

            A student applying to the CUNY Research Scholars Program asked me to mentor him in a project involving translations of pre-Islamic poetry and proverbs. I could help him with thinking about aspects of translation, but the subject matter itself is not my field. I thought he might be better served by someone with expertise in the field, so sending out this call. It may still be possible to serve as a mentor in the program (the orientation meeting is 9/22). It will earn you 1 teaching credit and about $500.00—not a big deal, but a good resume credit you need it. If interested, email me (tlavazzi@kingsborough.edu) and I will put you in touch with the student. You should also contact Dr. Farshad Tamari, director of the CRSP (Farshad.Tamari@kbcc.cuny.edu) to see if it is still possible to enroll as a mentor; he will send you all the necessary information.

Save the Dates: English Department Meetings

A message from Annie Del Principe:

            This is just a short note to request that you save Tuesday, October 17 3-4:30 (room TBA) and Tuesday, November 28 3-4:30 (room TBA) for English department faculty meetings this fall. I will also add these to our department calendar in Outlook and will send you invitations to save them as events in your own calendars.        

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 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. Our excellent weekly department newsletter will be shifting over to the Commons format! Soon, the department newsletter will be sent as a blog post from this group rather than as a department email; eventually, you will stop getting department newsletters as separate emails (unless you subscribe to the Academic Commons group). So please join! If you don’t receive an invitation at all, please let Elizabeth know at Elizabeth.Dill@kbcc.cuny.edu

Humanities Faculty Scholarship Circles

A message from Ryan McKinney:

            In response to faculty requests, KCTL and Academic Affairs developed the Scholarship Circles as a space to support scholarly and creative activity for faculty who are seeking advancement to associate or full professor. These circles are wonderful, inspiring, supportive spaces where many faculty have found meaningful collaborators and insightful feedback on their projects.

            The Humanities Scholarship Circle is facilitated by Professors Robert Cowan (ENG) and Caterina Pierre (ART) who are excellent mentors and have extensive experience in running such faculty communities. Previous participants have greatly benefited from their insights and feedback.

            If you are at all interested in applying, I enthusiastically invite you to do so after consulting with your chairperson. You can apply using this Scholarship Circle Application Form: https://forms.office.com/r/HE0tPznKpJ . If you have any questions regarding the scholarships circles, please feel free to email Ryan: Ryan.McKinney@kbcc.cuny.edu

PSC-CUNY Grant Applications Are Open        

            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 the PSC CUNY Webpage for important details about the process, or check your KCC email for detailed instructions.

            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.

            Applicants are encouraged to attend one of these four PSC CUNY Cycle 55 seminar dates:

• Tuesday, October 17th 1PM EST
• Wednesday, October 25th 12PM EST
• Thursday, November 2nd 1PM EST
• Friday, November 10th 12PM EST

            Sessions will be held via Microsoft Teams; instructions to log on are at the bottom of the email announcing the Grants Proposal System.          

            Please remember that the Grants Proposal System no longer allow 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 re-format 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 to not 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. 

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 Tuesday 26 September 2023. Please send newsletter items by Friday, 22 September 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.