• The Learning Recovery Program, launched in the summer, offers focused services to first-year students entering freshmen as they begin their college journey. The program, led by Elin Warring and Althea Forde, is supported with philanthropic funding and funds provided by the College through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 (CRRSSA). As you know, the fall 2021 new freshman class, numbering 1,587 students, is the largest full-time freshman class at Lehman.
• Initial results of our Student Success Course Redesign Initiative (SSCRI) to support improvements in pedagogy in lower-division General Education gateway courses with high drop/withdrawal/incomplete/failure (DWIF) rates show promise. The results released in spring focused on ten courses piloted in fall 2020 of the 27 courses selected for the initiative. For example, the MAT 132 DWIF rate fell from 17.9% during fall 2019 to 8.1% during fall 2020; the JRN 211 DWIF rate fell from 12.0% to 6.0%; the DWIF rate for BIO 173 fell sharply from 22.5% to 10.0%, and the CMP 168 DWIF rate fell from 30.0% to 26.0%. There was an increase in the DWIF rates for both CMP 167 and PHI 171, but caution is required as the impact of having moved all the courses online could have outweighed the potential benefits of the course redesign. Funding for this College initiative led by the Offices of Academic Programs and Educational Effectiveness and Online Education came from the college, with an additional investment of $100,00 allocated for AY 2021/2022 to redesign at least 17 other lower-division GE courses with high DWIF rates. Improving student performance in core elements of our undergraduate GE program will become increasingly crucial as incoming student enrollments continue to increase. Similar redesign for upper-division GE courses with our large transfer population is equally important for improving retention and degree completion progress.
• Taken together, DWIF patterns in several gateway courses also suggest a pressing need to prioritize additional improvements in GE curriculum and assessment to strengthen critical thinking and quantitative reasoning consistent with our GE Learning Outcomes. For example, we secured a planning grant from the Teagle Foundation to launch ATLAS (Anchored in The Liberal ArtS), a structured program of transformative classes in General Education for transfer students enrolled in the traditional liberal arts and professional programs at Lehman. A total of 98 faculty participated in four meetings held in spring 2021 to discuss the connections among anti-racist pedagogy, intersectionality, and transformative texts in expanding students’ minds and transforming their lives. Faculty-led by Professors Mila Burns and LaRose Parris (both PIs on the grant) as well as Associate dean Karen Beck (Arts and Humanities), are now focusing efforts to develop a set of criteria for a Lehman transformative text and to use the criteria to develop a diverse and inclusive list for integration in a select list of LEH upper-division courses. During summer, planning also took place to implement a pilot ATLAS in Fall 2021, with discussions centered around learning outcomes, syllabi, assessment, and specific support for transfer students. Both Associate Provost Brown and I participated in a number of ATLAS meetings with Associate dean Beck to provide guidance and support, and in summer, the college submitted our first progress report on the initiative to the Teagle Foundation.
• Planning began in summer for our second college-wide Student Success Summit (S3), scheduled for October 15, 2021, focusing on transfer students. The day-long event will build on the successful 2019 Summit and highlight Lehman’s faculty and staff who have championed student success strategies that have been impactful. John Gardner of the Gardner Institute for Undergraduate Education will be the keynote speaker.
• In summer 29 faculty completed the Association for College and University Educators’ (ACUE) Course in Effective Online Teaching Practices, a 25-module course offered fully online asynchronously to empower faculty to be impactful online instructors and ensure student success today and in the future. This 8-month ACUE course, which began in October 2020, complements the shorter intensive in-house workshops and webinars we offer through our Office of Online Education. It is the most extended faculty development workshop on pedagogy we have offered to Lehman faculty. The initiative was funded through a successful proposal submitted by Academic Affairs for participation in a joint CUNY-NASH (National Association of System Heads) initiative titled Scaling Instructional Excellence for Student Success. Lehman is one of five CUNY colleges selected for the initiative. 
• Lehman is also one of five colleges in the nation selected by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) to participate in a new Gates Foundation-funded initiative on student success. Planning for the 18-month initiative has begun (with several meetings held in summer) and will focus on the professional development of faculty on digital learning-related course redesign, with technical support from Every Learner Everywhere (ELE), a network of 12-partner organizations that collaborate with institutions of higher education to improve equity-minded student outcomes through innovative teaching strategies, including the adoption of adaptive digital learning tools. Developing effective teaching strategies to meet the needs of our diverse student population, 93% of whom are students of color, remains a strategic priority for Academic Affairs. By providing professional development opportunities such as ACUE and ELE training to more faculty, we will be able to scale out and scale up to more innovative pedagogies that will help accelerate our 90x30 challenge and our efforts towards increasing social mobility.
• We were delighted to receive New York State approval in spring 2021 to put the College’s Teaching and Learning Innovation Center (TLIC) to construction bid. The center will be located in the basement of the Old Gymnasium and will provide a space that will help accelerate our efforts to support faculty and enhance evidence-based teaching and innovative pedagogies that enhance student learning, improve retention, and increase graduation. The 6,200 square foot facility, designed by award-winning New York City firm, Curtis and Ginsberg Architects, will serve as a collaborative space for research, learning, and presentations. It will include movable walls and flexible furniture to accommodate faculty, staff, and student groups as well as projects of all sizes.  Construction is supported with $1.475 million funding from the New York City Council, which was championed by Bronx Councilmember Andrew Cohen. A portion of the funding ($525,000) will support the Department of Social Work office expansion to meet accreditation needs.  
• Lehman is one of eight CUNY colleges on the Chief Academic Officers’ Planning Group for the Chancellor’s major initiative to improve student success outcomes. Dubbed Academic Momentum Campaign 2.0 (AcMo 2.0), the initiative to be launched in spring 2022, builds on AcMo 1.0 and will focus on improving the transfer student experience at CUNY. Brooklyn, Queens, BCC, QCC, BMCC, Hostos, and KCC (with Lehman) Provosts are on the planning group, along with staff from CUNY Office of Academic Affairs led by Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Donna Linderman and Senior University Dean and Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Policy Lucinda Zoe. The group held several meetings in spring and summer to develop draft goals and strategies for implementation over the next three years that will be presented to the Chancellor and the Council of Presidents later this fall. 

• Internal meetings and discussions included the following: President’s Cabinet, President’s Advisory Board (PAB); Faculty Personnel and Budget Committee (FP&B); Provost’s and Deans’ Council (PDC); Deans,  Academic Affairs Senior Leadership Team;  Provost’s Staff; Strategic Plan Implementation and Budget Work Group; SGA President (outgoing and new); School of Education Executive Committee; Lehman Auxiliary Enterprises Executive Committee; Fall 2021 Convocation Planning Committee; Lehman Vacancy Review Committee; conversations on Program Review Action Plans with Provost for Chemistry and Health Sciences with respective School Deans, Department Chairs, Associate Program for Academic Programs and Educational Effectiveness, and Manager for Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment; Campus Internationalization with President Delgado and Teresita Levy, Executive Director, International Programs and Community Engagement; Lehman Extension Task Force; Cabinet Budget Working Group (BWG); School of Natural and Social Sciences SMART MDs Graduation; Spring Commencement and Honors Convocation; New Faculty End-of-Year Seminar with Provost; FY 22 Budget meetings with Schools and units in Academic Affairs and Administration and Finance; Faculty Celebration of Achievements ceremony; and College Senate and Governance Committee meetings. 
• External meetings and discussions included the following: Braven on the implementation of a career accelerator services’ program to enhance Lehman students’ career path; Teagle Foundation on the ATLAS initiative on General Education; Petrie Foundation for funding support for our Bronx Recovery Corps (BRC) Program, which includes paid internships for students; NYC Jobs CEO Council (with President Delgado and Karrin Wilks, Chief Learning Strategist), which has set a ten-year goal of hiring 100,00 New Yorkers, with 25,000 set aside for CUNY graduates; The CUNY Leadership Institute (TCLI) Planning Group for the launch of the inaugural program (link) at Lehman at the end of September 2021; CCS Fundraising on College funding priorities; Hunter College Provost and leadership team regarding the Graduate Center Ph.D. Nursing Program, a consortium program involving Lehman and three CUNY colleges, and program’s transitioning  to Hunter; national Association of Chief Academic Officers (ACAO) to participate in Board and committee meetings; AASCU to participate in the Academic Affairs Summer Conference, the Advisory Committee on Academic Innovation and Transformation (board member), New Provosts’ Academy (as mentor and speaker); Provosts’ Student Success Institute, Executive Leadership Academy, and Student Success Pilot Cohort meetings; Bronx Community Foundation on JPMorgan Chase Advancing Cities Initiative; CUNY Academic Council; Committee on Academic Policy, Programs, and Research; American Council on Education (ACE) Fellows Professional Development Committee; NYC-CUNY-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) in STEM Program; The Stellic Group on a Gates Foundation-funded academic advising initiative; the Gardner Institute for Undergraduate Education on our Fall 2021 Student Success Summit; CUNY Presidents’ Student Success Roundtable; Bronx Transfer Affinity Group (BTAG); CUNY Mexican Studies Institute (MSI) Board and CUNY Institute for Health Equity (CIHE). 

• Completed the search for the permanent dean, School of Education (SOE), with the appointment of Dr. Rene Parmar.
• Pleased to announce the appointment of Kim Kendall, director of Workforce Programs in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS), as the school’s interim associate dean. Kim brings tremendous experience and expertise to this role and will work closely with Dean Jane MacKillop and provide much-needed leadership to advance our workforce and continuing education programs in ways that further serve the Bronx and the region. Would you please join me in welcoming her to this new role? 
• Continued the searches for the following: associate dean, School of Health Sciences, Human Services, and Nursing, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, and the Director of Strategy, Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research (SPAIR).
• College FP&B Committee approved the faculty appointments of the following at its August 17 meeting effective fall 2021: Melissa Garcia Vega (ECCE), Michelle Ehrenpreis (Library), Jason Noble (MMT&D), Theresa Lundy (Nursing), Andrea Honig (Economics and Business), and Amy White (Health Sciences). Congratulations to our colleagues!
• FP&B also approved the following faculty appointments with tenure at its August 17 meeting: Rene Parmar, Professor in the Department of Counseling, Leadership, Literacy, and Special Education (CLLSE) in the School of Education, on leave from faculty position while serving as dean effective August 18, 2021, and Katelyn Angell, Associate Professor, Leonard Lief Library. Congratulations to our new colleagues.