Greetings from Provost Steve Everett

February 21, 2023

To the Graduate Center community,

As was mentioned in the fall in our first newsletter, we have initiated a periodic newsletter to continue sharing significant achievements and activities taking place at the Graduate Center and to solicit community feedback.

The Graduate Center has always been a place of rigorous and critical inquiry where freedom of thought and an unbounded culture of discovery are held as paramount. The controversies being currently debated around the country involving restrictions of free speech, censorship, and political intrusions into higher education have become commonplace. It is difficult to witness the erosion of critical thinking occurring in our society today.

As a community of scholars, the Graduate Center is committed to an intellectual environment where the free expression of ideas is not only valued but is encouraged in all its diverse forms – including freedom of thought, inquiry, speech, artistic expression, scientific discovery, and activism. Once again, academic freedom and the respect for diversity within our communities in the U.S. need strong advocates and defenders.

I believe the Graduate Center is a place in which both faculty and students engage in serious intellectual debate without fear of retribution or censorship and will continue to defend these core principles. This intellectual integrity of the Graduate Center is one of the primary foundations that makes our community so vital. Every day, I appreciate hearing of the amazing research and critical debates taking place at the GC. This is the fabric that unites us and makes our work so critical as a defense to the increasing number of restrictive intrusions happening throughout the country.

Steve Everett, Provost and Senior Vice President

Updates and Information

Dissertation Showcase
“Inside the CUNY Graduate Center: A Dissertation Showcase” will be presented on May 17, 2023. Doctoral students who have defended or will defend this academic year are invited to apply. Applications are due by March 12. More information including how to apply is here.

Finance Workshop Series
The Office of Fellowships and Financial Aid will continue to host its Sense and Cents Personal Finance Workshop Series during the spring semester. The full calendar of events can be found on its website. Looking for more personalized information? Email financialaid@gc.cuny.edu to set up an appointment.

Strategic Planning Process Continues
We recently held two information sessions on the strategic planning process with over 100 students, faculty, and staff in attendance. If you are interested in the work of the task forces and are considering ways to participate, we encourage you to complete this form.

Yoga Classes for Students, Staff, and Faculty
The Doctoral and Graduate Student Council is offering free Zoom yoga classes for students, staff and faculty Mondays at 8 a.m. and Thursdays at 7 p.m. Register here.

Counseling Referrals for Students, Staff, and Faculty
The Wellness Center, Student Counseling Services announced a partnership with Care Solace to offer confidential referral services to Graduate Center students and families and is currently offering its services to staff and faculty as well at no cost. Care Solace helps individuals find mental health providers and substance use treatment centers. Get started via this website.

Scholarship for the Public Good Event Series

“We believe that knowledge is a public good.” This statement of institutional values is emblazoned on the Graduate Center website. But there are many ways to interpret the statement, and many ways to enact the belief. How can we move from words to action — or to greater action — in the context of our scholarship?

• How can we ensure that the public, as a matter of course, has cost-free access to scholarly works authored by Graduate Center researchers?
• What changes could we collectively bring about if we centered our values in decisions about where we publish, peer review, and how we serve in editorial roles?
• How can the library and the institution as a whole support these efforts and resist high-profit publishers’ exploitative practices?
• How might we reimagine “impact” and rework systems of evaluation and reward?
• How does considering these questions and contributing to these changes benefit our students, our colleagues, our fields, and the public?

Hosted by the CUNY Graduate Center’s Mina Rees Library and the Provost’s Office, the “Scholarship for the Public Good” event series examines these questions and more and explores possible ways that everyone in the Graduate Center community — faculty, students, staff, and administrators — can foster a positive, public-minded ecosystem of scholarship.

The first event in the series — Paths to Open Access — was held on February 9, and the recording is now available. The second event — What We Value, How We Evaluate — is being planned and scheduled now. Stay tuned for announcements!