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HomeAbout CommunicationsFebruary 2017 senate report

February 6 , 2017: University Senate Report   

Office of the Provost

Appointment of the Senior Assistant Provost for Finance, Budget, and Operations

Ms. Heather A. Montague, currently the Associate Dean for Finance and Administration in the College of Arts and Sciences of the University at Buffalo-The State University of New York (UB), has accepted appointment as the Senior Assistant Provost for Finance, Budget, and Operations in the Office of the Provost at Stony Brook University. Heather will formally start in her new position on February 27, 2017, but she has already begun a series of visits to the campus to facilitate the assumption of her new duties and responsibilities. Heather will be working closely with the Associate Vice President for Budget, Mark Maciulaitis, and members of the Office of the Provost in that transition process.

Heather began her tenure at UB in 2005, assisting faculty in the Departments of Geology and Physics with pre- and post-award support, and budget development. During this time, she also managed departmental alumni relations, served as editor of the Department of Geology’s alumni magazine, and coordinated the College of Arts and Sciences Professional Science Management Program. In 2010, Heather moved into a newly-created Grants Coordinator position within UB’s Office of Sponsored Projects to provide both pre- and post-award support for many departments across major academic units, including the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. A year later, Heather joined the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office -- where she also ultimately assumed duties as the Chief of the Dean's Staff. UB’s College of Arts and Sciences is the University’s largest academic unit, with 27 departments, 23 centers and institutes, 470 tenure-track faculty, and an annual operating budget of $100M. Heather holds an M.B.A and a B.S. in Business Administration from the UB School of Management, and she currently serves as a SUNY Senator.

Call For Proposals for the 2017 SBU-BNL Seed Grant Program

The SBU-BNL Seed Grant program serves to foster collaborative efforts between scientists at the University and BNL. It is a key opportunity for developing synergistic activities that can grow joint research programs aligned with the strategic plans of both institutions. For this 19th year, a minimum pool of $200K will be distributed to proposals submitted jointly by SBU and BNL scientists. The subject of a proposal can be any scientific topic that is of joint interest to BNL and SBU. Proposals should be innovative and exploratory, in line with the seeding character of the program. Successful proposals in areas of high interest to BNL may be eligible
for matching funds from BNL. Successful proposals are typically funded at the level of $30,000- 45,000. At Stony Brook, these funds are free from all overhead, and no tuition is charged for graduate students that are supported by a Seed Grant. The funds will be available on or about
 
July 1, 2017, and should be expended within 18 months of award. All awardees will be required to provide a brief (two-page) progress report after 12 months, and must submit a brief final report (two pages with references) on the results of the project. Publications and grant submissions that resulted from the project are of particular interest.

Proposals will be judged on the following criteria:

  1. Scientific innovation and excellence;
  2. The benefits of the project to the research missions of SBU and BNL;
  3. The clarity and efficiency of the budget;
  4. The opportunities created by the project for attracting follow-up external funding.

Proposal package:

Proposals must be submitted electronically as a single pdf file and include the following items:

  1. 2017 SBU/BNL Seed Grant Program Cover Sheet. This cover sheet must clearly provide the names and home departments of collaborative partners at SBU and BNL, including phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
  2. Proposal narrative (no more than eight pages [exclusive of references], 11-point font, standard margins)
  3. CVs of SBU and BNL co-PIs (no more than four pages each), plus a list of additional research participants.
  4. Proposal budget (including fringe benefits, but no overhead for the SBU portion of the requested funding) and budget narrative  margins). If BNL support is sought, a separate budget should be submitted by the BNL PI.
  5. List of current funding held by the PIs (such funding does not diminish chances of obtaining a seed grant)

The Office of Brookhaven Affairs at SBU will handle proposals, and oversee decisions on awards. Proposals should explain the significance of the project to scientists who are not experts in the field, and should clearly lay out a vision for the strategic value of the proposal and the potential for future funding. The SBU funds are administered by the Research Foundation. SBU PIs will be required to provide a copy of an approved Conflict of Interest form prior to receipt of funds. If a proposal obtains joint funding from BNL, these funds will be administered by the respective ALD’s office.

Additional application information is posted on the Office of Brookhaven Affairs website http://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/bnl/seed/seed.html. Please email your completed proposal package to Ann Ozelis at Ann.Ozelis@stonybrook.edu by 5:00 p.m. on April 7, 2017. Receipt of proposal will be acknowledged from the Office of Brookhaven Affairs upon submission. All inquiries should be addressed to Ann Ozelis at 631-632-4889. Proposals will be reviewed by senior scientific staff from SBU and BNL. Results from the proposal review will be announced in late May 2017.

2017 SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants (IITG) Request for Proposals Since 2012

SUNY has awarded 168 campus-based Innovative Instruction Technology Grants (IITG), totaling over $3.5 million, to enable faculty, librarians, and instructional support professionals the opportunity to demonstrate the Power of SUNY. The founding program goals remain the same: to incubate “technologies in service of pedagogy” and to encourage faculty and staff to reach outside of departmental and campus boundaries to share and “scale up” innovations. The 2017 RFP, round six of this program, builds on previous rounds, and expands last year’s theme of “Taking Collaboration to Scale” by funding scalable projects that have the
greatest potential to make a transformational impact on teaching and learning SUNY-wide by:

  1. Seeding faculty-level start-up projects that have potential to significantly impact student learning and success;
  2.  Rewarding evidence-based strategies that are aligned with SUNY’s completion agenda and SUNY Excels performance framework (Access, Completion, Success, Inquiry and Engagement);
  3. Further scaling previously funded projects; and
  4. Aligning with campus Performance Improvement Plan goals and leveraging Performance funds, or foundation and federal grant opportunities.

IITG continues to offer three funding tiers:

  1. Tier 1 – Up to $10,000 for small, proof-of-concept projects. Campus or external in-kind budget resources are encouraged, but not required.
  2. Tier 2 – Up to $20,000 to develop and/or pilot proof-of-concept projects. Twenty-five percent of the requested project funds must be matched by the campus or an external partner through in-kind resources. Interdepartmental or cross-campus collaborations are strongly encouraged, but not required.
  3. Tier 3 – Up to $60,000 to develop and/or pilot proof-of-concept projects. Fifty percent of the requested project funds must be matched by the campus or a partner through in-kind resources. Projects that do not include a cross-campus/multi-campus collaboration at this level are rarely funded.

In addition:

  • Shared funding for multi-campus initiatives that exceed the $60,000 funding cap will be considered under very narrow, well-designed circumstances. If a shared proposal across multiple campuses supports a high-impact solution (e.g., shared courses, new programs, alternative credentialing), funding levels that exceed the $60,000 Tier 3 funding cap (not to exceed $100,000) will be considered.
  • IITG for planning of transformational change utilizing technologies to enhance student success will now be considered under very narrow and well-designed circumstances. Outcomes connected to planning grants must be “shovel ready” with all planning completed by end of the grant cycle. The guiding assumption is that all planning would result in a fully executable project upon receipt of next stage funding (e.g., performance improvement funding or other funding resources).



    Please review the RFP at https://commons.suny.edu/iitg/files/2016/12/2017-RFP-FINAL-CP.pdf for additional information on the IITG Program. All inquiries should be addressed to Wendy Tang, Associate Provost or Online Education, at wendy.tang@stonybrook.edu or 631-632-7012. Completed applications must be submitted electronically to Wendy Tang by February 24, 2017. IITG seed grants are limited to two rounds of funding. Awards will be announced prior to the May 2017 SUNY Conference on Instruction and Technology (CIT) to enable principal investigators time for project planning prior to the start of the summer months.

2016-2017 Stony Brook Online Learning Development Initiative (S-BOLD) Letters of Intent Selected for Full Proposal Development

The President and Provost of Stony Brook University, in support of the continuing evolution of educational excellence for our students and beyond, have established the Stony Brook Online Learning Development Initiative (S-BOLD), funded initially for four years at a level of $250,000 per year. The goals of the initiative are to:

  • Leverage online channels and technology to enhance and support SBU’s educational mission;
  • Improve the quality, flexibility and accessibility of SBU education to better serve the needs of residential, commuter and non-traditional students;
  • Emerge as a leader in pedagogical innovation to enhance teaching and learning outcomes;
  • Enhance SBU’s brand and global reach.

The S-BOLD Initiative seeks new and innovative proposals to develop both online and blendedlearning courses and tools that offer special opportunities for learners at Stony Brook University and beyond. A successful proposal must have significant curricular impact and advance understanding of effective practices for online learning. In 2016-2017, the initiative targets bottleneck courses that hinder degree completion and time-to-graduation. In addition, the review panels considered courses that contribute to innovative online education with enrollment of 200 or more students.

In response to the 2016-2017 S-BOLD RFP, there were 14 letters of intent submitted to develop online courses and tools. The review process entailed four review panels, and each panel was responsible for reviewing 3-4 LOIs. The panel summaries were discussed in two advisory groups: GOAL (Group for Online and Alternative Learning), and the Online Education Executive Committee. After reviewing recommendations from the advisory groups, as well as input from deans and chairs, the Provost and the Associate Provost for Online Learning have invited the following letters of intent (listed in alphabetical order according to lead PI) to advance into the full proposal round:

    • Anderson (Psychology) - PSY 201/Statistics for Behavioral Scientists
    • Aronoff/Antonenko/Repetti (Linguistics) - LIN 200/Languages in the USA
    • Carceles-Poveda/Ore-Monago (Economics) - ECO 108/Intro to Economics
    • Erster (Biochemistry) - BIO 314/Cancer Biology
    • Milligan (Business) - BUS 326/Organizational Behavior
    • Nehm/True/Finch (Ecology and Evolution) - BIO 201/Intro Biology, Organism to Ecosystems
  • Westerfeld (Electrical and Computer Engineering) - ESE 123/Intro to Electrical and Computer Engineering

All inquiries should be addressed to Wendy Tang, Associate Provost or Online Education, at wendy.tang@stonybrook.edu or 631-632-7012.

February 2016 Provost’s Lecture

The Provost’s Lecture Series is pleased to co-sponsor with the Department of Ecology and Evolution a Darwin Day Distinguished Lecture by Hopi Hoekstra, an internationally renowned biologist and the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard University. Her lecture, “What Darwin Didn’t Know," will be held on Friday, February 10, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. in the Earth and Space Sciences Building, Theater 001.

Hoekstra became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in 2013, and in 2016, she was elected into the National Academy of Sciences. She is an evolutionary geneticist who studies the molecular basis of adaptation in deer mice. Her research focuses on understanding how variation is generated and maintained in natural populations. In particular, she is interested in understanding both the proximate (molecular, genetic and developmental mechanisms) and ultimate (timing, strength and agent of selection) causes of evolutionary change. Thus, much of her research focuses on identifying and characterizing the molecular changes responsible for traits that affect fitness of organisms in the wild, in which ecological, developmental and genomic information can be combined to address questions about the evolution of morphological, behavioral and reproductive diversity. In her talk, she will describe her work studying evolution in action, as well as in linking genes to traits and to survival.