Baruch students and faculty gathered in the Sandra and Lawrence Simon Conference Room of the Newman Vertical Campus to discuss the launch of the college’s five year Strategic Plan.

Representatives from Baruch’s Undergraduate Student Government were in attendance.

The Baruch 2028: Unstoppable had several key speakers to introduce and explain each of the five values: collaboration and connection, excellence impact, inclusion and innovation.

Vice president for student affairs & dean of students, Art King, discussed how Baruch plans to maximize their student’s potential to succeed.

Dean King said, “We’re going to create [an] inventory of potential partners in industry, government, creative and cultural organizations as well. We also want to increase travel abroad and travel with participation. We want to make sure that students who don’t typically see this as an option, that they have the option to be able to ben – efit from this.” 

Dean King continued, “On optimizing student success infrastructure, to be nimble, and more effective through integrating student life advisement and peer mentoring.” He notes that faculty aims to achieve this goal within the 2023- 2024 academic year.

Baruch also plans to expand the services they have for transfer students, “[To] create a transfer advising roadmap for 6 [of the] largest transfer majors. We hope to design a sustainable suite of robust and comprehensive mentoring programs…Often times transfer students are left on their own so we hope to do more work in terms of creating mentorship and coaching for them.”

“As well as expand our alumni mentoring program, and provide department lesions as advisors for each department.”

Dean King mentioned the new support groups that will be available to students to improve cross campus collaboration and student support. The following areas of focus include Strategic Working Enrollment, Undergraduate Advisement, Graduate Student Suc – cess, Experiential Learning, Global Opportunities and Course Scheduling.

Lastly, Dean King mentioned there will be internal changes to the Academic Affairs, New Student and Family Programs and the Counseling Center departments to improve support for students.

The next speakers, Provost of Academic Affairs, Dr. Linda Essig and Dr. Dennis Slavin, Associate Provost and Assistant Vice of President Teaching and Learning discussed how Baruch plans to promote excellence in research and impactful teaching.

Dr. Slavin began by noting “… [W]e’re refining the faculty’s reassigned time program and supporting interdisciplinary knowledge clusters, including data science, climate studies and entrepreneurship.” 

Dr. Linda Essig that research opportunities in environmental sciences are expanding and are a prevalent interest for both faculty and students.

“Many faculty have expressed significant interest in tackling the big issues facing our world, and so they are engaged in research related to sustainability, climate and social justice. The strategic plan includes a goal to provide opportunities to build these topics in the course curriculum, as well as enhancing pedagogy across the college.”

Dr. Linda Essig noted how Baruch’s Public Relations team is planning on expanding their advertising for these research opportunities, “[We will also be] collaborating with the Office of Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs. I’m looking at RPP colleagues to amplify and publicize the impactful and innovative faculty research that our faculty do and we’ll be finding new ways to support more student research to increase their engagement with faculty and enable them to build transferable skills and to enhance our visibility.”

Dr. Slavin closed out their statements by noting that Baruch will be improving their online classes, “And finally, Baruch is continuing to roll out high quality, fully online programs to meet student demand, and keep the roof’s reputation for not only pedagogic, excellence, but also innovation at the forefront.”

Lakeisha Stein, Executive Director of Human Resources and Olga Carter Dais, Assistant Vice President of Executive Legal Counsel and Labor Designee discussed how Baruch plans to create a collaborative and engaged community.

Baruch intends to improve mental health services for their students, “We will analyze existing surveys from students, faculty and staff and identify their needs and concerns. This data will serve as our foundation guiding us through designing programs that enhance learning opportunities and resources and physical and mental health, wellness and work like them.”