SUNY Poly is proud to launch its new “Open Classroom Initiative,” which serves to highlight the depth of faculty expertise and encourage cross-pollination of educational concepts and opportunities at and across both its Albany and Utica campuses.

For the fall 2022 semester, previous recipients of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching will open their classes to visits by junior faculty, who will be able to participate in a portion of courses, from “Phase Equilibria for Nanoscale Systems,” “Organization Behavior,” “Perspectives on Knowledge,” and “Critical Perspectives on Digital Society,” to “Environmental Engineering,” “Data Structures,” “Introduction to Health Information Management,” “Digital Ethnography,” “Methods of Inquiry in Health and Well Being,” and “Computing Fundamentals.” A full list of courses is available here.

“As we welcome many new faculty members this fall to SUNY Poly, we hope to further build a supportive environment for them,” said Interim Provost Dr. Zora Thomova. “Connecting new faculty with our expert teachers who are all Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence recipients will allow them to experience top-tier approaches to teaching, enabling the junior faculty to create their own unique teaching style and ultimately foster student success.”

Professors teaching the open classroom courses initially include:

• Dr. Robert Brainard, Professor of Nanobioscience
• Dr. Kathleen Dunn, Associate Professor of Nanoscience
• Dr. Robert Edgell, Professor of Technology Management
• Dr. Daryl Lee, Associate Professor of Humanities
• Dr. Ryan Lizardi, Associate Professor of Digital Media Design and Humanities
• Dr. Carolyn Rodak, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering
• Dr. Ron Sarner, Distinguished Service Professor of Computer Science
• Dr. Donna Silsbee, Adjunct Professor of Health Information Management
• Dr. Kathryn Stam, Professor of Anthropology
• Dr. Veronica (Ronni) Tichenor, Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of the Community and Behavioral Health Program
• Christopher Urban, Lecturer and Coordinator of the Computer Information Systems program

All new and junior faculty are strongly encouraged to participate and to include observation from the participation in OCI as part of their teaching portfolio. Faculty are encouraged to visit/observe at least two classes, and observing classes outside the primary discipline is also recommended.