February 2005 -- Vol. 1 No. 3

Dear Faculty and Staff Members of the Baruch College Community:

The first day of classes for the spring semester got off to a smooth start in late January with 15,500 students enrolled. The campus was very active during the winter “break.” The Zicklin School offered a number of master’s degree courses in January, including courses for the Executive MBA and Executive MS in finance programs. The Graduate Career Management Center offered well-attended career workshops. More than 500 high school students attended the day-long Academy of Finance annual conference at Baruch College, and hundreds of elementary school children watched theater productions in Mason Hall. Executives on Campus continued its meetings, while the School of Public Affairs held an all-day conference on the federal budget.

Several new people joined the College, including Sharon Chambliss-Alvarez, the new director of human resources; Donna Haggarty, executive director of strategic partnerships; David Shanton, executive director of development; and Boo Yun Choi, Budget Analyst for the Baruch College Fund.

At the same time, Vice President Sam Johnson announced that on June 1, he will step down as vice president for student development and dean of students after 14 years and resume his faculty appointment. We are grateful to Dr. Johnson for his work in developing student services at the College and for the innovative programs he introduced. A search to recruit a successor will be opened immediately.

Dean Stan Altman, dean of the School of Public Affairs, has also announced that he is stepping down at the end of this semester to resume his faculty appointment. During his six-year tenure as dean, the school’s enrollment increased by 40 percent, and the school launched innovative programs that applied Baruch’s intellectual resources to important issues and challenges facing the city.

Academic Issues

The campus is busy preparing for two important accreditation reviews. From February 27 to March 1, Dean John Elliott and the Zicklin School faculty will host an external four-member team to review the school’s AACSB International accreditation. It has been 10 years since the last review, and many positive changes have taken place in that time. The school is now housed in a new, award-winning building. The quality of the student body has improved dramatically and the faculty has been infused with new tenure-track members, who are making names for themselves in scholarly journals. In the last two years, the Zicklin faculty has published 48 articles in the 40 most prestigious academic journals. Nearly half those articles were written by Baruch’s newest faculty members. This year the review team will be looking for “learning assurance.” Each of the school’s eleven undergraduate, graduate, and executive programs must have a set of educational goals, and Baruch must assess the effectiveness of these programs by measuring how well students are achieving those goals.

Baruch is also preparing a periodic written review for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Provost David Dannenbring is chairing a steering committee that is looking at the progress Baruch has made since its last Middle States site visit in 2000. While there will not be another campus visit until 2010, the review serves as a useful way to assess how well we are achieving goals set after the last visit. By and large, the changes Baruch has made in response to that visit are significant. However, we still need to pay particular attention to enhancing student services, securing sufficient resources from the state, and developing an all-funds budget.

Baruch College has made significant progress on developing two new programs: a joint master’s degree program in public administration and nursing with Hunter College and a BBA in business real estate. The program with Hunter College addresses the critical need for educating nurses who are well prepared for managerial responsibilities. Students in the program, which is expected to begin in Fall 2005, will receive an MPA from Baruch College and an MS in nursing degree from Hunter College. CUNY has made a major commitment to upgrading nursing education, and this program takes advantage of a natural synergy that exists within the University by pairing its preeminent public administration program with its preeminent nursing program.

By next fall, we also expect to offer the new BBA in business real estate in Zicklin. Demand for the BBA in real estate is high. Real estate is one of the most dynamic industries, especially in New York; it also accounts for nearly half of the nation’s overall wealth. Our School of Public Affairs will move its bachelor’s program in real estate and metropolitan development with a public policy focus to the new Department of Real Estate. Several new faculty searches are underway.

We also decided to close out our MA in business journalism program in light of the opening of the Graduate School of Journalism by CUNY. The Baruch MA program has fewer than 20 students, so the closing of the program will have virtually no impact on our overall enrollment. Our English department will continue to offer an undergraduate business communication major with a specialization in business journalism.

In a recent survey published in the journal The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, Baruch’s PhD program in industrial/organizational psychology was ranked No. 13 in the nation. The survey is based upon student ratings of doctoral programs.

Financials

As of December 31, 2004, the midpoint of the fiscal year, Baruch College’s revenue from all funding sources was $111 million of the total $152.4 million budgeted. The first half of the year traditionally sees accelerated revenues due to heavier fall tuition receipts and the timing of CUNY funding. Expenditures are on target at $76 million of the $152.1 million budgeted. Included in these amounts are the Baruch College Fund budgeted revenues and expenses. At the beginning of this fiscal year, we faced a tax-levy deficit, which was not sustainable. Reductions were made that now place the tax-levy portion of the budget in balance.

We continue to devote considerable time and resources to fundraising. Baruch has enormous potential, given the quality of its alumni, faculty, and students and its wonderful location. Vice President for College Advancement David Gallagher and I recently returned from a 10-day fundraising trip in Florida. We attended the Florida alumni association annual events and met with 70 people on the Gulf coast. On the Atlantic coast, we attended an event with 210 alumni, ranging in class years from 1937 to 2003. Enthusiasm for Baruch College is strong, and some individuals made new commitments.

Students

Our career development efforts continue to help Baruch graduates gain entrée to great careers. For the first time, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs included Baruch among the colleges where they conduct firm-wide recruiting. This means that they will be considering students for positions within all company divisions, including investment banking.

Credit Suisse First Boston recently invited Baruch freshmen and sophomores who are members of underrepresented minority groups to apply for a three-day program to introduce them to current trends in business. CSFB limited its invitation to 20 other colleges, including Harvard, Duke, Berkeley, Stanford, Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Many new employers are also recruiting our MBA and MS students. This year, American Express, Cadbury Schweppes, the SEC, Towers Perrin, and Goldman Sachs are actively recruiting our graduate students. Other companies, like Bear Stearns, Deloitte & Touche, Verizon, and HSBC, have expanded the number of divisions recruiting Baruch graduates. A more complete review will be available in late summer 2005.

Finally, I thought you would like to know how some of our students spent their winter break. Senior Guowei “Wade” Li organized a group of his fellow students to collect money on street corners in Chinatown to help victims of the recent tsunami. More than 40 Baruch students helped with the effort, and together they raised $70,000. The students then joined in a talent show and telethon organized by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, which raised an additional $110,000. We are proud of their example and that they are members of the Baruch College community.

New Advisory Committees to the Cabinet

To ensure that the Cabinet, whose members include the vice presidents of academic affairs, advancement, finance, legal, student affairs, the three academic deans, and the Faculty Senate president and thus represent the college’s main decision-making body, has broad input in areas key to Baruch’s future, five new, permanent advisory committees have been established.

The Finance Advisory Committee, co-chaired by Robert Myers (Communication Studies) and Toby Winer (Budget), will provide guidance on resource allocation, budgeting, and revenue enhancement.

The Student Affairs Committee, co-chaired by Glenn Albright (Psychology) and Phyllis Zadra (Zicklin), will recommend ways to enhance student service, satisfaction, and engagement.

The Facilities Committee, co-chaired by David Birdsell (SPA) and Frank Antonucci (Facilities), will develop a Master Facilities Plan, as well as short-term priorities for improving space utilization.

The Human Resources Committee, co-chaired by Valerie Watnick (Law) and Sharon Chambliss-Alvarez (Human Resources), will advise the cabinet on policies to improve the development of the non-instructional staff and to guide overall human resource activities on campus.

The Productivity Committee, co-chaired by Bill Ferns (Statistics/CIS) and Art Downing (Library), will benchmark productivity at the College and propose ways to improve academic and administrative productivity.

Upcoming Conferences, Addresses, and Performances
For detailed listings, remember to visit This Week @ Baruch/Calendars on the College’s homepage.

In the coming months we will host many events and here are some highlights:

On March 15, at a School of Public Affairs Policy Breakfast, former Governor Mario Cuomo will discuss the values and future of the Democratic Party.

On April 14, the Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity will host a lunchtime talk by William McDonough, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, on changes in the accounting profession and how these changes might affect the teaching of accounting.

BPAC has a series of events planned for the spring semester. The Milt Hinton Jazz Series presents the Andy Laverne Trio on March 10. The Fine and Performing Arts Department presents the spring student musical production, “Zombies from the Beyond,” from April 12 to 16.

Commencement is scheduled for June 1, as is the Class of 1955’s Fiftieth Jubilee Reunion.

Sincerely,
Kathleen Waldron