November 15, 2013

TO: NYU FACULTY
FROM: NYU President John Sexton and Provost David McLaughlin
RE: Report from Faculty Common Day

Dear faculty colleagues:

We are pleased to report to you on our first Faculty Common Day, which was held on Friday, November 8, 2013.

This idea emerged last year as a possible mechanism to increase communication and understanding, in this case both among faculty across the schools and between faculty and senior academic leadership of the university. We created Faculty Common Days based on our experience of holding two- or three-day in-depth sessions three times each year for the senior members of the University leadership (deans, vice provosts, and vice presidents) in what we call Common Days. It is an opportunity to update each other on major initiatives and share perspectives on how to best advance the mission of NYU. Over the years, we have found this time to be incredibly productive and important as we build a shared commitment to the future of NYU – and thought a similar format might be useful for a faculty-administration interchange.

Thirty-four faculty attended our first Faculty Common Day (names listed below, based on our invitation to the faculty councils of each school (or -where there is no council- whatever elected group existed). Thirteen schools were represented. I (Dave) welcomed the group, and I (John) offered a set of framing remarks reviewing the major shifts and the challenges in the U.S. and the world that are shaping the landscape in which higher education exists, as well as the view that universities like NYU will not flourish if they hold to the status quo. There was a good exchange with faculty following these opening remarks.

Next we had a presentation with data about existing cross-school collaborations, including centers, grants, degree programs, faculty cross-appointments, and undergrad majors and minors. At lunch, faculty suggested topics for conversation, met in small groups, and reported out to discuss the following: contract faculty, cross-school collaboration, governance/transparency/communication, NYU’s global network, and technology.

We ended the day with presentations from Katy Fleming, Deputy Provost and Vice Chancellor, Europe, on the Provost-funded Global Research Initiatives, and from Cybele Raver, Vice Provost for Academic, Faculty and Research Affairs, on university support of teaching and research.

We have reached out to faculty who attended for their overall feedback. So far, 75% have said they would suggest another faculty common day this spring. We look forward to getting additional feedback and suggest you be in direct touch with any of them if you would like further detail.

Improving governance, communication, and consultation is a priority we set for this year. Our hope is that Faculty Common Days will prove to be a useful vehicle for achieving this. We look forward to continuing on this trajectory.

 

Faculty Common Days Attendees

Gwendolyn Alker, Associate Teacher, Tisch School of the Arts

Amy Bentley, Associate Professor of Food Studies, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development

John Billings, Professor of Health Policy & Public Service, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service

Adam Buchwald, Associate Professor of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development

Pamela Cowin, Professor; Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology and Cell Biology, School of Medicine

Ralph Cunningham, Clinical Associate Professor; Educational Coordinator II, College of Dentistry

Elise Eisenberg, Clinical Professor; Senior Director of Informatics, College of Dentistry

Trudy Festinger, Professor of Social Work, Silver School of Social Work

Brett Gary, Associate Professor, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development

Faye Ginsburg, David B. Kriser Professor of Anthropology; Director, Graduate Program in Culture and Media; Director, Center for Media, Culture & History; Co-Director, Center for Religion and Media; Co-Director, Council for the Study of Disability, Faculty of Arts and Science

Robert Hoffman, Professor, School of Medicine

Natasha Iskander, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service

Jim Jacobs, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Professor of Constitutional Law and the Courts; Director, Center for Research in Crime and Justice, School of Law

Tim Johnson, Librarian for Africana Studies, Anthropology and Food Studies, Bobst Library

Carolyn Kissane, Clinical Associate Professor and Academic Director, SCPS Center for Global Affairs, School of Continuing and Professional Studies

Nathaniel Landau, Professor; Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine

Ann Marie Mauro, Clinical Associate Professor, College of Nursing

Marjan Moghadam, Clinical Assistant Professor, College of Dentistry

Teboho Moja, Clinical Professor of Higher Education, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development

Vicki Morwitz, Harvey Golub Professor of Business Leadership, Stern School of Business

Michelle Munson, Associate Professor of Social Work, Silver School of Social Work

Vincent Renzi, Clinical Professor in the Foundations of Contemporary Culture, College Core Curriculum; Clinical Professor of Classics; Associate Director of the College Core Curriculum and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Foundations of Contemporary Culture, Faculty of Arts and Science

Shelley Rice, Arts Professor, Tisch School of the Arts

Susan Rogers, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts and Science

Michele Shedlin, Professor, College of Nursing

Mark Siegal, Associate Professor of Biology; Director, Undergraduate Studies, Faculty of Arts and Science

Lisa Springer, Language Lecturer - The American Language Institute; Academic Director - NYU Abu Dhabi Summer Academy; - Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Scholars Program, School of Continuing and Professional Studies

Marti Subrahmanyam, Charles E. Merrill Professor of Finance, Economics and International Business, Stern School of Business

Arun Sundararajan, Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences NEC Faculty Fellow Doctoral Coordinator, IOMS-Information Systems, Stern School of Business

Jim Uleman, Professory of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Science

Frank Upham, Wilf Family Professor of Property Law, NYU Law Abroad in Shanghai, School of Law

Sharon Weinberg, Professor of Applied Statistics and Psychology, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development

Bill Wesbrooks, Music Associate Professor of Music and Music Education, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development

Lawrence White, Robert Kavesh Professorship in Economics Deputy Chair, Economics, Stern School of Business