The Semester Begins!

Ready or not, school starts next week!

Sunday is Setters Day on the Pleasantville campus. The program begins at 4:30 PM-I'll be there to welcome new students and I hope to see some of you there. I went last year and enjoyed the event.

Tuesday is Academy Day. I'll be in NY in the morning and Pleasantville in the afternoon. I hope to see many of you at Academy Day, possibly at the CIS 101 meeting in the morning or at one or the other of the Academy Day events on either campus. I hope to finish the Common Reading, Mountains Beyond Mountains, before we discuss it on Tuesday. Please join your colleagues to welcome 29 first year students and transfer students to the New York City campus, and 18 first year students and transfer students to the Pleasantville campus. They join the 114 full time and 40 part time undergraduate students who will be returning to both campuses.

Mark your calendars NOW for convocation to be held on Friday, October 24. Details will be forthcoming but as of right now Tracey Kidder, the author of Mountains Beyond Mountains, is expected to be on campus.

Next week I'll be on the Pleasantville campus on Wednesday and Friday, and on the New York campus on Thursday. I'll be at the Graduate Center on Friday evening to welcome a new cohort of Educational Professionals to our DPS program.

The following week I'll be in New York on Monday and Thursday, Pleasantville on Tuesday and Friday and at the Graduate Center on Wednesday (got that 8:)?).

Some things that I'm currently working on:

The Strategic Planning Commitee report, which we hope to release in early October.

Reporting against the Three Year Plan, for President Steve Friedman-each Dean is monitoring activities in the five areas outlined in Steve's three year plan: growth, retention, academic reputation in selected areas, strategic repositioning and management culture.

Working with department and program chairs to define the role of a chair as we review administrative and academic structures.

I've been thinking about curricula, especially as I look at opportunities for interdisciplinary work. Other schools are offering "dual majors" in areas such as digital art and music, and Provost Brackett, Dean Hermann and I met to explore areas such as computer forensics, digital art, and other areas of mutual interest. I intend to meet with Deans Bazcko and Feldman to have similar conversations.

Finally, we are planning a memorial for our colleague Mike Gargano. Some of you may know that Mike and I worked together in the Management Science Group at the Equitable Life Assurance Society in the early 70's. I knew him for over 30 years. He was a wonderful colleague and a great friend, and we all miss him.

I wish all of us a productive semester.

Week of August 18-22

Hard to believe but the fall semester is nearly underway. Please make sure to get your office hours to Fran-we'd like to be able to publish them as soon as possible.

This was a week that began in Pleasantville and ended in New York, with a day at the Graduate Center. Yesterday was devoted to Dean's Council and matters related to that; Thursday I spent trying to finalize graduate assistantships and schedule issues. I sent a note to everyone about graduate assistants, but it bounced back-here's the note:

" I have some additional graduate assistant time available for faculty who need research/project support. If you have not already requested a graduate assistant please send me, Louise or Jonathan a brief description of:

1. the work to be done
2. the amount of time you would like

For example, if you have a project that you think will require 15 hours of someone's time for a lit review, write a paragraph briefly explaining that you need lit review help for 15 hours.

Please send me your requests as soon as possible. I'll assign help in the order in which I received the requests. Please make sure that I hear from you BEFORE Friday, August 25 so that we can award the assistantships in a timely manner."

I'll try sending it again but meanwhile if you are reading this and you have a project that a graduate assistant can help with, let us know.

Next week I'll be in Pleasantville [Correction: New York] on Monday, New York on Tuesday, Pleasantville on Wednesday, the Graduate Center on Thursday and I'm not sure where I'll be on Friday-probably Pleasantville.

Tuesday the second of September is Academy Day-I'll be in New York at 11 AM to welcome students, then I'll head up to Pleasantville for the afternoon to welcome students. I look forward to seeing many of you then, if not before.

Enjoy these last days of vacation-I biked six miles along the North County Trailway today and it was beautiful. Some of the leaves are already turning-fall isn't far away at all!

Mid August Doldrums

Seems like we all might be in the mid-August doldrums (in case you're wondering what doldrums are click here). I enjoyed my short time in Maine, and now it's really back to work for me.

This week I spent Wednesday in Pleasantville cleaning up my office and getting organized. My docking station was installed and is working well-I now have docking stations at each location which is great. My move to Microsoft Exchange went smoothly-I hope everyone else's did as well. I have much to learn about Outlook, and I'm not ready to give up my Yahoo account, but so far I like having my calendar integrated with my e-mail.

Thursday I was in New York, where I met with the folks planning Academy Day for our new students. I'm almost finished reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, the book that is being read by our new students, and I'm struck by what Dr. Paul Farmer can teach us about leadership. He's a charismatic doctor, a man with a mission, who gets people to "buy into" his vision, and he also leaves behind sustainable structures that function well even when he is not around. That impresses me.

I look forward to seeing many of you at Academy Day, which will start around 11 AM on both campuses. Right now I'm planning to be in New York in the morning and in Westchester around lunch time. Be sure to join us as we welcome our new students and kick off the new semester.

Today I was at the Graduate Center, where I got quite a bit of work done - everyone else must be on vacation!

Next week looks like this:

• Monday, Pleasantville;
• Tuesday, Graduate Center;
• Wednesday and Thursday, NYC (which includes Dean's Council from 1-5 on Thursday).

I'm hoping to take Friday off.

Enjoy the weekend!

Back from Vacation

I've been back for three days and now I'm heading off to Maine. Trust me, these plans were made way before I ever even thought about applying to be interim dean!

I spent Monday in Pleasantville catching up on mail and budgets, Tuesday in New York meeting with the New York folks, Jeanne Dennison from Philanthropy, and Bill Caldwell and Chris Cory from Public Relations. Here's a link to the blog entry at The Journal News announcing the naming of the interim Dean.

I've spent all day today, Wednesday, at the Graduate Center meeting with the Pace Computer Learning Center staff, Karen Robilotta (the new Vice President for Human Resources), and folks to discuss CLOUT, NACTEL, commencement, and other activities that your school is involved in.

I'll be on the Pleasantville campus on Wednesday, August 13, in New York on Thursday, August 14 and at the Graduate Center on Friday morning, August 15.

Enjoy the waning days of summer!