We're off to a good start

for the Spring semester.

Some highlights so far:

1. The Advisory Board met and discussed the Seidenberg Curriculum Task Force Report. I've sent the overview to department and curriculum committee chairs for review and discussion with their respective faculty. I'll be delivering a copy to the Provost tomorrow at my regularly scheduled meeting with him.
2. We are also busy planning the Leadership in Service and Technology Award evening, tentatively scheduled for Tuesday June 9 (very tentatively).
3. Thanks to a recommendation by one of our board members, we are now affiliate members of NCSSSMST and will be including those secondary schools in our outreach.
4. The Building Livable Communities in Second Life Competition was held on the Pleasantville campus on Friday, January 24. Thanks to Jean Coppola for serving as a faculty advisor, and to Matt Ganis for providing technical support. Three teams competed, and finished in the following order: Pace University, Monroe College and Manhattanville College.

This current economic environment will certainly challenge us as we work with admissions to bring in a fall class. I know I can count on all of you to help as needed with our outreach efforts.

I'm planning on scheduling an "all school" meeting for February 13 at the Graduate Center. Please mark your calendars now-details will follow early next week.

See you on campus one of these days:
Monday and Friday next week I'm in Pleasantville, Tuesday and Wednesday I'm at the Graduate Center, and Thursday I'm in New York.

Blog for Students

I love blogging so much that I am now blogging specifically for students. You can see that blog here: Dean Knapp's Blog

Please let your students know that they can read the Dean's Blog at http://deanknapp.blogspot.com where I will be blogging every Thursday.

The Semester Begins!

and is off to a running start.

Happy 2009 everyone! It was wonderful that so many faculty and staff were able to join Anne and me for our open house. Thanks to all who came-it was a wonderful day.

We had an Advisory Board meeting today and I'm pleased to say that the Advisory Board recommendations regarding curriculum are just about ready to be distributed. I will be sharing them with the Provost next week, and then I'll distribute them widely. In addition we've formed an Academic Review and Enhancement Committee of the Board which will provide us with other perspectives on our curricula renewal.

We've also formed an Outreach Committee, and Jonathan and I visited Brooklyn Tech High School right after Christmas, thanks to Brian Cosgrove, a member of our Board, who has done some consulting work with the Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation. We are looking to develop a partnership there-more as that develops.

I'll be in Pleasantville tomorrow with the morning taken up with a Budget Committee meeting. Monday morning I'll be in NYC at a Strategic Planning Committee meeting, and then hosting Dr. Wesley Chu, a colleague of Chienting Lin, who is visiting from Taiwan. Tuesday and Friday I'm in Pleasantville and Wednesday and Thursday I'm at the Graduate Center.

I'm working on a draft discussion document for distribution in early February that will serve as a "blueprint" for our reorganization. I've blocked off most of Tuesday of next week to write the first draft; the rest of the week includes meetings with Philanthropy to discuss plans for this year's LST (we're currently looking at the second week of June) and my regularly scheduled meeting with the Provost.

We're watching our fall enrollments and hoping that they will at least hold flat for next year. As more information becomes available I'll share it with you. Faculty, try to attend the location Faculty Council meetings where much of this information is disseminated, and staff, try to attend the Staff Administrative Council.

I wish us all peace and happiness (and lots of students!) in this new year!