Dear LaGuardia faculty and staff,
The Spring 23 semester is underway, and we are delighted to see the campus buzzing with energy and excitement as classes begin this week.
We want to thank everyone for attending (in person or online) our Opening Sessions event on March 6. Shout-out to moderator Dr. Rochell Isaac, President of Faculty Council, and to our panelists: Dr. Assuanta Howard, Interim Assistant Dean for Adult and Continuing Education; Shahir Erfan, Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance; Dr. Gail Baksh-Jarrett, Interim Associate Dean for Enrollment Management; Dr. Eric Hofmann, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and Nayelli Valencia Turrent, Chief of Staff. Thanks as well to ASL interpreters Amy Rubinger and Susan Weinstein, the LPAC Staff, and the Communications and External Affairs Division.
If you missed it you can view the Opening Sessions program. It’s just under one hour. If you have questions or comments about what we discussed please contact us at your convenience.
As Gail mentioned at the event, we have seen an encouraging increase this semester in both new and transfer students. When it comes to continuing students we still need to do more to increase our Fall to Spring retention, but we have noticed a slight improvement over last year. Stay tuned for updates on Fall enrollment in the weeks ahead.
Big thanks to all of you who volunteered on our pre-semester strategic call campaign, including faculty and staff from across the college and members of the Enrollment Management and Student Affairs teams. Thanks, too, to the many volunteers who have been working this week as new student greeters, aides, and problem-solvers at the entrances to the E and C Buildings. Your smiles, kindness, and thoughtful assistance create a warm and supportive environment for all our students – new and returning.
A question was asked at Opening Sessions about class cancellations. This semester we are running 1,513 sections. Unfortunately, last week we had to cancel 34 sections because of low enrollment. Despite our budget challenges we are running a number of sections with fewer than ten students in order to meet students’ needs. Our intention is always to plan and offer a schedule that is as closely aligned with student needs as possible in order to minimize the number of cancellations. Alas, in this volatile post-Covid enrollment environment it is difficult to predict students’ plans. We know that class cancellations create hardships for adjunct faculty, and we truly regret that. LaGuardia’s academic chairs work very hard to maintain workloads for all their faculty and put extra effort into minimizing the impacts of cancellations on adjuncts.
Please pay close attention to the Campus Update newsletter published every Wednesday for information about important events and other campus news. If you have announcements for the Update please contact Dr. Manny Romero, Vice President of Communication and External Affairs at mlromero@lagcc.cuny.edu.
We want to thank all of you for your commitment and dedication to our students and community. We wish everyone a rewarding and successful Spring 23 semester.
Kenneth Adams
President
Dr. Billie Gastic Rosado
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs