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Dear CUNY SPH colleagues,
It is my great privilege to welcome our students, faculty, and staff to the new Fall 2020 semester. We are once again functioning completely online in order to preserve the health and safety of every member of the SPH community and ensure that our learning environment remains stable, despite changing conditions in these unprecedented times. I invite you to visit our COVID-19 Guidelines and Resources for Fall 2020 page for comprehensive information and tools to help you optimize your learning and working experience.
You can be confident that our school is well-equipped and well-prepared to offer our full curriculum and array of support services online. In recent years we have been steadily expanding our online and hybrid course offerings, and as such we had the tools and expertise to facilitate a smooth transition to fully online learning last March. More than 90 percent of students who transitioned from in-person to online learning rated their experience as excellent, very good, or satisfactory, and fully 97 percent rated the school’s overall performance in making the transition as excellent, very good, or satisfactory. Our faculty, staff, and students have access to the technology, software, and methods required for optimal online learning, and are supported by expanded IT services to troubleshoot issues quickly and effectively.
Despite the challenges of the past year, SPH has continued to make strides in creating and maintaining a rich, innovative, and supportive learning environment for our students, preparing them for the rapidly evolving terrain they will serve in as future public health professionals. There is plenty of good news to share on this front.
New degree programs, including three online MS degrees in Population Health Informatics, Global and Migrant Health, and Health Communication for Social Change are filling unmet needs in public health education. New 4+1 options with Macaulay Honors College and the Albert Einstein School of Medicine are equipping students from a range of domains with the tools to understand and contribute to the health of populations. All five of our MPH degrees are now offered in traditional, hybrid, and fully online modalities. Last fall our doctoral program transitioned from the DPH to PhD. Eighty percent of eligible DPH students elected to switch to the PhD, and the first cohort of students in this program achieved a 100 percent graduation rate this spring.
Our research portfolio continues its impressive upward trajectory: we saw a 25 percent increase in research funding over just the previous year, and with this growth comes increased opportunities for student engagement and employment.
We continue to enjoy success in recruiting high caliber faculty. I’m delighted to introduce our two newest faculty members Associate Professor Sasha Fleary, an expert in health literacy and preventive health, and Professor Suzanne McDermott, who has 25 years of experience in researching and teaching about the lifelong intersection of disabilities and health.
Our focus on supportive services is paying off. Student satisfaction with our dedicated staff advisement has nearly doubled in just three years, and more students than ever are taking advantage of our writing and quantitative skills tutoring service. New data driven protocols enable us to identify cases where students are beginning to struggle and to intervene early, keeping students on track and graduating on time. We continue to provide virtual individual wellness support services and group workshops, more critical than ever in these trying times. Career services is offering expanded opportunities to work with and learn from potential employers, including the “Resumepalooza” scheduled for September 17. And we are committed to maintaining a vibrant social and intellectual life to connect students and faculty through virtual activities such as meet and greet events, brown bag lectures, and online mentoring arrangements. Student clubs and social events will also get a virtual boost this fall – keep an eye on your SPH email account for updates.
In March of 2021 we will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy as a consolidated and independent graduate college at CUNY. (Prior to 2016, the school existed as a consortial model with classes distributed across four colleges.) We have made extraordinary progress since those early days, and we will have much to celebrate in the Spring 2021 semester.
On a more somber note, the triple assault of the pandemic, its tragic economic fallout, and the racial injustice plaguing our country have taken their toll. We recognize that as a school of public health, and one that is particularly focused on social justice, responding to these crises is essential to our mission. We are committed to rise to these challenges through our COVID-19 research and advocacy and our pledge to become a truly anti-racist institution.
Despite the unprecedented circumstances with which we are all contending, I have great confidence that this will be a successful, productive, and enlightening year at CUNY SPH. The challenges we face compel us to self-examine, grow, and get better, and in doing that we advance the science and practice of public health. More than ever before, I look forward to working and learning together.
With my best wishes,
Ayman El-Mohandes
Dean
