April 3, 2023 English Department Newsletter
Newsletter Editor Jane Weiss
English Department Meeting Tuesday 4 April 2023, 3:00-4:30
The English Department will meet on Tuesday 4 April 2023 from 3:00-4:30 PM in V202 and on Zoom. The Zoom link and agenda have been sent to your KCC email address and they are available in the English Department Outlook calendar (which is accessible through your KCC email/Outlook account by clicking the square at the top left corner of the screen). The agenda includes discussion of our hopes for the English Department’s future: Where do we want and need to go? What needs attention? What are our assets (what should grow)? What are our pain points (perennial challenges)? What are the most urgent priorities right now? And save the date for our English Department meeting on Tuesday 9 May 2023 on Zoom at 3:00 PM, when we will hold the election for the English Department chair.
Opportunity to Learn More About Online Teaching Methods: OTE Course
A message from Hope Parisi, Faculty Mentor: As per an email of March 23 by Cynthia Olvina, KCC’s OTE Liaison, CUNY is offering the OTE (Online Teaching Essentials) course on online instruction, from April 25 to May 15, with registration open until April 16. The course comes with a $500 stipend (for instructors as first-timers to an OTE course post-2019) after completion. Online courses continue to be important for many students who now look for these options, and CUNY’s emphasis on online certification seems to be ongoing as well. Faculty should indicate their interest in the upcoming course by completing this linked form: https://bit.ly/OTE_April2023. More information about the course is available on the Online Teaching Essentials Workshop site.
Faculty Mentor and Support Hours in E219
Hope Parisi will be in E219 this semester, available for informal chats with new and experienced part-time faculty, and all faculty, on Wednesdays, from 1pm – 3pm, with more availability by phone or Zoom, along with Tuesdays as another on-campus day. Please come by this welcoming environment, on Wednesdays, if you’re on campus, or get in touch for a time convenient for you.
Composition Coordinators Spring 2023 Office Hours
Gregory Bruno
Tuesdays in C309B: 12:30-1:15
Wednesdays via Zoom: 10:30 -12:30
Thursdays in C309B: 12:30-1:45
Rachel Ihara
Tuesdays and Thursdays in C309B: 9:00 am – 10:00 am.
Fridays via Zoom: 9:00-11:00
CUNY Undergraduate Research Symposium
A message from Gordon Alley-Young: CUNY’s Undergraduate Research Symposium will be held on May 31, 2023 at BMCC. We are looking for students to showcase KCC’s research at this symposium, and have extended the deadline for nominations to April 10, 2023. This is a wonderful opportunity to highlight KCC’s rich research environment with students that have conducted research. If you would like to have your students participate in this symposium, please complete this Google Form by April 10, 2023. Please email Professor Farshad Tamari (Farshad.Tamari@kbcc.cuny.edu) if you have any questions about the symposium.
CUNY Leadership Development Fellowship Program
The CUNY Office of Faculty Affairs is now accepting applications for the 2023-2024 Leadership Development Fellowship Program. This program aims to increase CUNY’s pipeline of faculty who are well prepared to thrive and serve in an academic executive leadership role at CUNY. The program is designed to provide faculty with an interest in pursuing a career in academic administration the opportunity to explore this path and develop their administrative skill set. The fellowship will provide a platform for fellows to broaden their experience in the daily demands, expectations, and responsibilities of executive leadership positions in the CUNY system. Applicants must be full-time tenured professorial rank faculty or full-time lecturers with CCE with at least seven years of experience at CUNY. Faculty from all backgrounds, abilities and experiences are encouraged to apply. For more information, please see CUNY’s Leadership Development Fellowship Program site. The call for applications has also been sent to eligible faculty members’ KCC email addresses. Applications are due by 5pm on April 10, 2023. For questions, please contact University Dean for Faculty Affairs and Leadership Development, Dr. Annemarie Nicols-Grinenko, at Annemarie.Nicols-Grinenko@cuny.edu.
David B. Silver Poetry Competition
Student entries are invited for the David B. Silver Poetry Competition. Student entries will be accepted beginning Monday, March 20, 2023. The deadline for submission of entries is Sunday, April 16, 2023. Rules for competition: Only KCC students may participate; each student may submit a maximum of two entries; poems must be fifty lines or fewer; all entries must include the student’s full name, address, telephone number, and email address. Entries should be emailed to SILVERFUND@KBCC.CUNY.EDU The poems will be judged on these criteria: originality of perspective; appropriateness of English language, form, and content; evocative trigger of emotional reaction; economical use of language. Awards: First Prize: $500; Second Prize: $300; Third Prize: $200. The David B. Silver Scholarship Faculty Committee will evaluate all entries. Awards will be presented during the KCC Awards ceremony on Tuesday, June 20, 2023. Questions about the poetry competition should be directed to: SILVERFUND@KBCC.CUNY.EDU
Good News
Robert Blaisdell’s book, Chekhov Becomes Chekhov: The Emergence of a Literary Genius was published by Simon and Schuster in December 2022, and has been admiringly reviewed in the New York Review of Books. Congratulations, Bob!
Maxine Krenzel has successfully defended her dissertation, “Who Are Our Teachers? The Impact of the Composition Teaching Practicum on Writing Studies,” at the CUNY Graduate Center. Congratulations, Dr. Krenzel!
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.
Sending Email to Your Classes: Additional Ways to Do It
For KCC communications – with department staff, with students, with Annie – please use your KCC email address, not personal email accounts, whenever possible. You can send email to any or all of the students in your current classes by logging into CUNYfirst, clicking Faculty Center, and then the class roster; check the boxes in the column headed “Notify” to select individual students, or click “Notify All Students” at the bottom of the roster to send an email to everyone in the class. In Blackboard, you can send emails to all students or selected students by clicking “Send Email” in the course menu. The KCC IT office has also created email lists for each of your classes in Inside KCC on the KCC website, in the following format: SubjectClass.Number@groups.kingsborough.edu
For example, if you are teaching Art 100 and the class number is 123456, your email distribution list would look like the following: ART100.123456@GROUPS.KINGSBOROUGH.EDU
You can view email distribution lists for your courses by clicking Inside KCC at the top of the KCC website and selecting KCC Notices, Faculty and Staff Notices, and then log in to Inside KCC using your KCC email username and password; select Email Groups. You will see a table that will list all the courses you teach. You can also click on Members to view all the students that are enrolled in that particular course distribution list. You can send test emails to your students. If you do not see any courses listed or some are missing, please notify the IT Services office support@groups.kingsborough.edu Include these in your email: your EMPLID, the subject, the catalog number and class number for the courses that are missing. If there are students missing, please provide the same information above as well as the EMPLID for the student(s). Send this information to support@groups.kingsborough.edu . Requests will be responded and replied to within 48 hours.
In addition, KCC IT has added the student-provided cell phone number as part of the group email listings. You can send texts to the class or to individual students. The revised listing provides you with the student cell phone in case you need to get in touch with the student.
Campus Reopening Hub
For information about KCC’s reopening, visit the new KCC Campus Reopening Hub. You can find information about the reopening plan, mask policies, on-campus COVID-19 testing, Cleared4 campus entry passes, and visitor policies.
CUNY Alerts
To receive notifications by phone, text, or email regarding campus conditions, sign up for CUNY Alert by logging on to CUNYfirst. Once you have logged on, the CUNYfirst Main Menu will be near the top of the screen on the left side. Click CUNY Alert Subscription to sign up; you can update contact information at CUNY Alert Preferences. You can check KCC’s home page for updates about campus conditions.
A Note about the Newsletter
The next issue of the Newsletter will come out on Monday 17 April 2023. Please send newsletter items by Friday, 14 April 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.
