Annual Report 2023-2024

Publications Committee

Annual Report for 2023-2024

Membership/officers

• Patrick Byers (Social Sciences), Chair
• James Geasor (Marketing)
• Wenli Guo (Physics)
• Sushma Teegala (Biology), Co-Secretary
• Roumen Vragov (Business), Co-Secretary

Liaisons

• Stephen Di Dio (Marketing & Communications), President's Liaison
• Emily Diana, Student Representative
• Philip Pecorino (Social Sciences), Steering Committee Designee
• Julia Rothenberg (Social Sciences) CoC Designee

Committee Meeting Dates

• The committee met on the third Friday of each month (barring scheduling interruptions), including the following meeting dates 9/22, 10/27, 12/15, 2/16, 3/15, 4/19 and 5/17.

1. Geasor, James, Marketing (2026)
2. Adam Volin, Strategic Initiatives and Digital Transformation (2027)
3. Byers, Patrick, Social Sciences -- chair (2026)
4. Vragov, Roumen , Business -- co-secretary (2025)
5. Sanchez, Melida, Spanish (2026)
6. Marc Zelcer, Social Sciences (2027)
7. Emily Diana -- Student Represenative

Membership Composition Changes

• Sushma Teegala: On leave during Spring 2024 semester.

Patrick Byers, Chair

Roumen Vragov, Secretary

Committee Meeting Dates

• The committee met on the third Friday of each month (barring scheduling interruptions), including the following meeting dates 9/22, 10/27, 12/15, 2/16, 3/15, 4/19 and 5/17.

• • During the 2023-2024 academic year the committee focused on two main tasks. These are as follows.
    • First, the committee worked to identify and formalize viable procedures for communicating editorial suggestions concerning college publications in ways that would realistically result in the suggested changes being made, where this is deemed appropriate by the recipients of the recommendations. In doing this, one challenge that was identified was that it is often not clear who the appropriate recipient would be for a given editorial recommendation (i.e., it is not clear who is responsible for changing/updating many of the pages on the college website). Apart from the Department of Strategic Initiatives and Digital Transformation—which is responsible for overseeing and in many cases, actually implementing the changes—the other actors involved are very often not known. A second issue is that, although the Committee charges state (at least appeared to state) that the committee is to make editorial suggestions to the senate, many of the identified issues with the college publications are a multitude of minor, one-off issues (e.g., broken/inaccurate links) that would not be appropriate to bring to the attention of the entire Academic Senate. Based on conversations during committee meetings as well as with Adam Volin and Arthur Corradetti, the Committee considered the possibility of attempting to make a change in the bylaws that would allow for the Committee itself to actually make rather than simply suggest certain (minor) types of changes. Ultimately, a more modest bylaws change was drafted, voted on, and submitted to the bylaws committee. This requested the addition of the following to the committee bylaws:

  Make suggestions and remind responsible stakeholders to review and update as necessary individual department websites.

  With this proposed change to the bylaws, the intention was to ensure that the committee could directly contact relevant faculty and staff to make editorial recommendations, rather than having all requested changes be considered by the Senate. Ultimately, the proposed bylaws change was rejected by the Bylaws Committee, which felt that what had been requested was already allowed by the current bylaws. Subsequently, the Committee reached out to Steven Dahlke, who advised that editorial recommendations be distributed to their appropriate recipients via the Office of Academic Affairs. The Committee has begun distributing documents with editorial suggestions in this way, i.e., through OAA to individual departments. This includes the suggestions for improvement of departmental tenure and promotion guidelines.

  • Secondly, the committee conducted a review of the departmental websites of all academic departments in the college. This initiative was spurred by a suggestion by committee member James Geasor who noted the lack of standardization in formatting and content across the departmental websites. Additionally, student representative Emily Diana noted that students often had trouble locating professors’ office hours and would like to know more about the work and interests of their current or prospective professors. In the course of the review of departmental websites, Committee members compiled lists of what information is/isn’t provided by each department. Based on this, the Committee began working on a plan to compile a set of recommendations for standardizing departmental websites in terms of their formatting and in terms of the information that is provided. The recommendations in question would be communicated to the relevant departments. Over the course of the Spring 2024 semester, the committee repeatedly considered the sorts of recommendations that would properly be made and the ways in which these would be communicated. Ultimately, following a suggestion by Secretary Roumen Vragov, it was agreed that the committee would compile a booklet and/or tutorial detailing (1) recommendations on content that should be included on each departmental website (e.g., office hours), and (2) a timetable specifying how often each content area should be reviewed and updated (e.g., office hours updated every semester).
  • In addition to these two main tasks, the Committee also worked to compile an updated/accurate list of the chairs and webmasters for each department. Insofar as the Committee hopes to communicate editorial suggestions to those in the position to consider and possibly make them, it is necessary to have a list of the relevant personnel in each department. Discussions during Committee meetings made clear that departments differ in terms of whether or not they have a dedicated webmaster. In addition, the current directory of the chair and webmaster for each department published on the college website is inaccurate/out of date. Towards the end of the Spring 2024 semester, the committee compiled an accurate list of the positions in question for each department, which will be posted in the Fall 2024 semester.

  Assigned Committee work as per Bylaws Charge/Strategic Plan/Middle States Items/ or Actions of the Academic Senate

  • Recommend to the Academic Senate policies and procedures pertaining to College publications including the college website: Partially completed. The committee has continued to seek out college publications in need of editorial revision and where appropriate, would provide recommendations to the Academic Senate. During the 2023-2024 academic year, the focus of the committee’s work and recommendations were primarily on matters that were properly addressed by submitting recommendations to the Office of Academic Affairs for distribution to individual departments. Once the committee identifies editorial issues that merit attention from the Senate, recommendations will be made to the latter body. The Committee has reached out to Academic Senate officers on several occasions to determine the proper course of action for making editorial suggestions about various college publications.
  • Receive information on the college website and all publications associated with the College or bearing the College name, and report this information to the Academic Senate: Partially completed. At the end of the 2023-2024 academic year, the Committee forwarded reports detailing editorial recommendations to departments concerning tenure and promotion guidelines to the OAA for distribution to each department chair. This communication will be reported to the senate during a meeting in the Fall 2024 semester.
  • Serve as an advisory group for the college website and publications associated with the College: Completed.
  • Serve as an editorial board for the Queensborough Community College Newsletter, Community Calendar, the Faculty Handbook and other handbooks, and other publications of this nature: Completed

  Responses towards Steering Committee Charges

  • N/A

  Recommendations for Next Academic Year

  • The committee will work with Adam Volin (now a committee member) to provide editorial assistance as a part of the overhaul of the college website that is planned by the Office of Strategic Initiatives and Digital Transformation.
  • The committee will provide editorial suggestions to OAA related to errors, broken links and navigational issues on the college website.
  • The committee will conduct a review of departmental websites and compile a booklet/tutorial detailing editorial suggestions on the inclusion of certain types of content (e.g., listing office hours) and formatting.
  • The committee will monitor whether the system of submitting editorial suggestions through OAA for distribution to individual departments appears effective in leading to required editorial improvement on the college website.

   

  New Committee Members

  • Mark Zelcer (Social Sciences)
  • Adam Volin (Strategic Initiatives and Digital Transformation)

   

   

   

• Acknowledgments

  Respectfully Submitted,

  Patrick Byers

  Committee on Publications, Chair