By Ché Pérez

 

September 26, 2013   12pm - 2pm

 

Student Affairs Presentation:

 

• Presentation by Dean Baker and Associate Dean Chamberlin

• Student Services has now converted to Student Affairs and plans to be more integrated in the Cooper and NYC community.

• Student Engagement:

• The new model will focus on viewing Cooper students not just as students at the school but also as individual persons on track to become a professional and responsible member of society.

• With the increasing number of nation-wide tragedies due to ‘disturbed students’ lots of focus will be put on increasing the mental health services using on-site and other NYC resources to stay within budget.

• The role of Career Services will be modified to make students more confident in their abilities to find jobs and internships. The goal is to make Career Services an ongoing resource for students instead of a one-stop-shop for ‘that one resume review.’

• Trustee Suggestions: Career Services needs to start reach out more to alumni with their own companies, firms, etc. Cooper students need more connections in the job world

• How to Address this Model:

• JSC and Athletics already show that there is a substantial amount of student engagement across campus but we should add more and make it even better.

• Spice up orientation by creating trying to create a new Green Camp. Already in contact with nearby spaces that could support outdoors activities and provide facilities to house students and bring in alumni and faculty. The new orientation would not conflict with Cape Cod and involve moving into the dorms, going to this camp, then returning to campus for other orientation activities and then starting school.

• Dean Germano and Professor Mintchev: Requested specific time set aside to conduct placement exam and find room in the budget to bring back the Writing Diagnostic Workshop.

• Try to bring more events into the dorms: talks from Alumni, workshops with Professors, interactions with upperclassmen etc.

• Student Affairs will also now be attending events for Student Affairs from different schools in the NYC area to both learn and engage Cooper in the larger NYC community.

• Their office is also organizing a Student Affairs Leaders Colloquium (possibly as a banquet for graduating student leaders within Cooper near graduation) and a NYC Career Development Conference (for the Career Development staff from various schools to get together)

• Conclusion:

• Integration between all these different aspects of the Cooper experience is key to a successful Student Affairs.

 

Engineering Dean Dahlberg Presentation:

 

• Presentation about the new Dean’s vision for the Nerken School of Engineering

• Aspirations for the Engineering School:

• Increase ranking from #7 to #1 Undergraduate Engineering Program

• Maintain and improve rigorous curriculum

• Encourage interdisciplinary work within the engineering school, and with art and architecture programs

• Create an atmosphere known for innovation and entrepreneurship

• Experimental Learning: Encourage and find ways to give students credit(s) for research, internships, co-ops and other ‘non-traditional’ educational opportunities

• Conservative Style of Education: Create more faculty-student collaboration, develop a more project-oriented curriculum, and help students build portfolios

• NYC Visibility: Make the area aware of our students’, faculty, and alumni contributions to start-ups, health care and businesses (Wall Street) in the area

• Make us a pipeline from elementary age through graduate and professional schools (put Cooper more on the map)

• Free Initiatives:

• Articulate our identity, develop co-curricular themes, modify curriculum to support experimental learning, emphasize undergraduate research, design and competition, educate to create innovate leaders, streamline undergraduate programs – augment with visible distinctions, and make strategic faculty hires

• Fee-based Initiatives:

• Masters Program (thesis-based), Masters Program (non-thesis-based), Undergraduate tracks and certificates, feed to REU, grad schools and professional schools, implement slide-scale fee for pre-college program (the ones that can’t afford to pay won’t), grants for the underserved, and align pre-college, undergraduate and masters program

• Student Recruitment:

• Outreach to increase yield

• Advertise our visible program distinctions

• Communication and Rankings:

• Messages, website, newsletter, social media, videos

• We have fantastic program yet so few people know about us[M1] 

• Faculty Involvement:

• Promotion, Tenure and Retirement Criteria – all of these currently unclear, which is unfair for professors

• Increase flexibility to Professors with work outside of Cooper

• CV Starr Research Foundation:

• Research, industry, tech-transfer, and entrepreneurship

• Building Community:

• Engage students in campus, with alumni, in industry and in NYC (basically develop professionals)

• Professor Grossman and Dean Germano: Requested more elective space for H&SS credits in engineering curriculum

 

PRR:

 

• Presentation by Professor Davis

• A 1604 page document was created (the report was 62 pages while the remaining pages contain appendices and supporting evidence) documenting the school’s progress from the 2008 self-study.

• Since then the school has formed an Institutional Review Board, began planning an intellectual copyright policy for student work, and formed an IT committee

• The school still needs to develop Promotion and Tenure guidelines, an Academic Integrity Policy, and hire a Provost.

• A follow-up report will be produced in another five years.

 

ABET Results:

 

• Presentation by Dean Dahlberg

• The school received a 6-year renewal (the maximum!)

• Strengths included talented students and faculty and an atmosphere that fosters innovation and high academic achievement.

• Each department, besides Civil Engineering, had minor weakness but these have since been corrected.

 

STE(A)(A)M(HSS) Committee:

 

• Che Perez (student representative) asked if Cooper was preparing methods to deal with integrating tuition-paying students with non-tuition paying students? Specifically, if they are concerned about this, are they planning to change how things are conducted in the classroom/studio?

• Dean O’Donnell (architecture) eloquently stated that the rigorous teachings of each school are what make Cooper so great. She has no intentions of requiring less studio time for her students and that the same should go for art.

• Dean Bos and Dean Dahlberg agreed and decided to form a committee, along withDean Germano, to create a universal statement about current qualities that make Cooper the fantastic school that it is, with the intention to keep them constant as Cooper moves to a tuition based model.

• The name was developed from STEM (Engineering), Art (A), Architecture (A) and Humanities & Social Sciences (HSS)

 

Code of Conduct:

 

• The Code of Conduct is about to be under its annual review by the Board of Trustees

• Associate Dean Chamberlin mentioned we need a better method of showing it to the students

 

Working Group Update:

 

• Information provided by Lawrence

• An email will be sent out later in the day that will provide the specific roles, definitions, and goals of the working group as decided upon by the Board of Trustees

• Also the Board will be releasing details about the Student Representative on the Board of Trustees in that email/report too.

 

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 [M1]Yet=but?