Most important

Make sure you contact information including email is correct in CUNYfirst and Blackboard.  Ideally you will use your Lehman email, but if not, please make sure what you have listed is correct. Make sure the First Year program has your correct email.  Otherwise you will miss important information that is sent to whatever email is in the system.  If that happens to be to a CUNY you are not teaching at this semester, you may not get the messages at all.

Processes, jargon and other matters.

Rosters

There are (at least) three places where you can access your course roster and download a spreadsheet.

1. In the faculty center in CUNYfirst.   This is where you also need to submit text books, verification of enrollment and grades.
2. In Lehman 360.
3. In your Blackboard course shell.

It’s important to know that you can email students through any of these, but that they may not all have the same email address. Indeed one thing you can do is to ask students to be sure to check their email in Blackboard and their email in CUNYfirst to be sure it is set to a working email, preferably their Lehman email.

Verification of Enrollment (VOE)

• What “Never Attended means
  If a student has never attended your course or in an online course has not submitted some piece of work to indicate participation, the student should be marked as never attended.  This grade is non punitive (does not go into the GPA) but can have financial aid implications.
• Correcting Verification errors
  If you make an error on your VOE roster, you can correct it via Lehman Forms which is accessible through Lehman 360.
  You have the discretion to change a WN with this form, but you should only do it if you feel comfortable that a student could pass the course.
• Importance of reaching out to students
  We strongly encourage you to contact any student who is at risk of receiving a WN grade and that you submit an early alert for them. In fact, it is a great idea to email any student not present on the first day. There may have been confusion about days, times or location. This give you a chance to provide needed information,
• Late Enrollment
  Lehman does allow late enrollment (past the enrollment deadline),  but only if the instructor agrees.  This is a manual process.  You should only agree if it is possible for the student to pass the course.

Early Alerts

• You will get an email telling you when early alerts open up.  The email will have instructions, but most important is that you do them through Lehman 360.
• Options on alerts vary based on the point in the term but you usually can select from a list of issues or give words of encouragement.
• When you submit an early alert, an advisor or other appropriate person will reach out to the student.

Textbook submission

• You submit your textbook order or indicate that there is no book to purchase via the Faculty Center in CUNYfirst.  This is required even if you do not have a book to order.  For LEH 250 faculty often have a book related to their disciplinary topic.  We also provide and OER Student Success book.

Grading

• WU grades
• INC grades

Where things are

How to get help

Often you will find that you need help or information to help students.  Here are some basics.

Help for you

LEH does not have a department chair, but you can always talk to Steve Wykcoff, Elin Waring or.  Bridget Lepore about issues (which one depends on what issues they are).  We also try to build a community of faculty teaching 250 so that we  can build collective knowledge and support.

Resources for faculty supporting students

Step Up/Learning Recovery
(Special program focused on first year students and retention)

First Year Support Specialists

• Avena Ramautar AVENA.RAMAUTAR@lehman.cuny.edu
• Aisha Williamson AISHA.WILLIAMSON@lehman.cuny.edu

Academic Coordinator

• Markela Khosrowshahi <MARKELA.KHOSROWSHAHI@lehman.cuny.edu>

All three have meetings scheduled with specific learning communities over the course of the semester. You should know who is working with your learning community at this point.  Aisha and Avena are also assigned individual to specific ESL students.

Aisha and Avena are both MSWs and are good people to talk to about specific concerns with an individual student or group of students.  They can address both social and emotional issues and basic needs, and they provide referrals to other offices at Lehman and in the community. Please note that they do not do therapy, but will assist students with connecting with the counseling center as needed.

Markela is the person to speak with in the case of academic struggles, and she can work with individuals aned groups.

Co-directors

• Elin Waring, elin.waring@lehman.cuny.edu
• Marisol Jimenez Marisol.jimenez@lehman.cuny.edu

Feel free to contact us if needed and also if you have ideas about how we can support faculty. Elin handles a fair number of the typical “department chair” issues.

Other Resources

If there is an urgent situation with a student or student is disrupting class or seems to have changed in some way (e.g. become depressed) please contact the BIT team using this form:

https://lehman-cuny-advocate.symplicity.com/public_report/index.php/pid495020?rep_type=1001

They are trained to assess and intervene those situations.

Student Disability Services

If a student discloses a disability of some kind, please tell them that they can receive support services and accommodations from the SDS, but only if they register.  Please encourage them to do that. They can possibly also help if a student needs evaluation, but no promises on that.

Shuster Hall 238 https://www.lehman.edu/student-disability-services/

Basic Needs

Food, shelter, health insurance, emergency grants and so on.
Old Gymnasium Building (Suite 302) w/Urban Male Leadership Program

https://www.lehman.edu/student-affairs/basic-needs-center/

General Tutoring

https://www.lehman.edu/academics/instructional-support-services/index.php

https://www.lehman.edu/academics/instructional-support-services/ace-writing.php