Newsletter — Office of the Provost

Monday, February 2, 2026

Happy spring semester! Locked in the grips of this wintry weather I’m looking forward to the spring part of this semester. Hopefully, it arrives just in time for spring break. Until then, we will enjoy the weather we have and celebrate the start of another semester. For those of you who were able to join me at the Academic Affairs Welcome Back, I want to thank you. If you could not attend but are interested in what I said here is my Spring 2026 Welcome Back Address. I hope you do take the time to read it because it highlights some of the great work that was done within the division last semester.

Acknowledging Accomplishments

With so many great things being accomplished, a couple of new ways to better highlight the accomplishments of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni have been created.

We have replaced the previous accomplishments newsletter that pulled from annual reports and only focused on faculty accomplishments with the Academic Affairs Points of Pride Newsletter that celebrates faculty, staff, students, and alumni accomplishments. Please use the Academic Affairs Points of Pride Newsletter Submission form to submit your own accomplishments, those of your colleagues, students, or alumni. Tiffany Jewell will then compile the submissions and distribute the newsletter mid-semester and again toward the end of the semester. We have a lot of wonderful things happening in our division and we need to let everyone know. The Academic Affairs Points of Pride Newsletter is one way of doing that. I would also encourage you to continue to make submissions to the Daily Eagle.

John Follaco and his team have also designed emblems that are now displayed on faculty and staff member’s website directory pages to indicate that they are either a Chancellor’s Award winner or a Presidential Excellence in Teaching Award winner. Chancellor’s Award winners are designated with a trophy and Presidential Excellence in Teaching Award winners are designated with a star.

AI, Pedagogy and the Curriculum Campus Team Hosting Focus Groups

The campus team enrolled in AAC&U’s Institute on AI, Pedagogy and the Curriculum is working on developing AI action plans that will help us respond effectively to the challenges and opportunities AI presents for higher education. Thank you to those of you who participated in their survey last semester. This semester they will be hosting a February Focus Group Series on AI. Faculty and staff are invited to a series of conversations about AI use at Brockport to help shape the development of institutional governance policies and practices. Please consider participating. If you have any questions, please contact Donna Wilkerson-Barker.

Position Requests

A new form and process have been created for position requests. The form asks that various information be included so that decisions can be more data informed. Each Dean will review all the position requests, not just those from their school or college, and evaluate them using a rubric. The Deans and Provost will then meet to discuss before putting forward requests to Cabinet for approval. Of course, we all know that our needs exceed the resources we have to hire new faculty. This process will help us to better identify our high-need areas. The call for positions will go out in late February or early March.

Stay Connected

I want to invite you to connect with me throughout the semester to share your thoughts, questions, concerns, or just to say hi. There are a few different ways to do this.

• Ping the Provost is always open for questions and ideas. A link to this can be found in the navigational bar on the Academic Affairs homepage.
• Cafe Chats with the Provost will be held Thursday, February 12th from 9:00 am - 10:30 am at Raj Madan Cafe, and on Wednesday, April 8th from 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm at Jitterbugs Cafe. Come by and say hi.
• And Brunch with Brasted will take place Wednesday, April 1st from 11:30 am - 1:00 pm at Harrison Dining Hall. It’s no April fools joke, you really can come dine with me at Harrison.

I look forward to seeing you at these gatherings and hope you will take advantage of these opportunities to share what’s on your mind.

Take Care of Yourselves

We are living in strange and stressful times. As I mentioned in the fall, Cabinet is monitoring how external factors may impact our campus community. However, I know that there is a lot more happening besides what may impact our campus. It seems at times that so much is going on that it may become overwhelming. I encourage you to take care of yourselves and be mindful of your physical and mental health. You can’t help others if you don’t take care of yourself. This may mean taking a break from electronics and constant news alerts, spending time with family and friends, or escaping in a book or movie. If you do find that you are feeling stressed and overwhelmed and just don’t know what to do or need someone to talk to, please consider taking advantage of our Employee Assistance Program.

Thanks for all you do and have a great semester.