HIGHER ED TODAY
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Caribbean Life, A 18 ug. 28-Sept. 3, 2020
CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
million to improve housing conditions,
invest in urban transformation and
respond to the impact of the coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic.
Trinidad and Tobago has recorded
more than 1,000 COVID positive cases
and 15 deaths so far.
The Washington-based financial
institution said a US$50 million investment
loan for households and will support
the enhancement of living conditions
for low-income households and
invest in urban spaces as part of a strategy
to foster more sustainable development.
The IDB said the program will be
executed by the Ministry of Housing
and Urban Development’s Program
Monitoring, Coordinating and Evaluation
Unit.
The second loan, valued at US$100
million, is titled “Program to Strengthen
Fiscal Policy and Management in
Response to the Health and Economic
Crisis Caused by COVID-19 in Trinidad
and Tobago.”
— Compiled by Azad Ali
Continued from Page 4
Barbados PM nominated to chair
World Band and IMF committee
By Azad Ali
Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley
has been nominated to serve as
Development Committee chair for the
World Bank and International Monetary
Fund (IMF), according to a government
statement.
It said that Mottley, who is also
Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs
and Investment, has been nominated
to serve on the committee, along with
Mesdames Azucena Arbeleche, Minister
of Economy and Finance of Uruguay.
“In line with the nomination by the
chairs of the Latin American and the
Caribbean region, the board of the
World Bank has approved Prime Minister
Mottley and Minister Mesdames
Azucena Arbeleche to serve as chair
of the joint World Bank Group and
International Monetary Fund Development
Committee,” the statement, adding
that Mottley has been nominated to
serve as chair for the period November
2020 to October 2021 and Arbeleche for
the period November 2021 to October
2022,” the statement added.
The first term will become effective
Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley.
Photo by George Alleyne
following the October 2020 annual
meetings of the World Bank and the
IMF.
The Development Committee is a
ministerial-level forum of the World
Bank Group and the IMF for intergovernmental
sensus -building on development.
Williams welcomes court ruling on
officer misconduct information
By Nelson A. King
Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams
on Thursday welcomed the
United States Second Circuit Court
of Appeals’ decision to lift a gag order
that prevented the publication of a
database of Civilian Complaint Review
Board complaint records obtained by
the New York Civil Liberties Union
through a Freedom of Information
request.
“This is what transparency looks
like,” said Williams. “And while it’s
gratifying that this information is
finally public, it’s disheartening that it
takes a federal court order to mandate
what should be common sense and
standard practice.
“New Yorkers have a right to know
about allegations and instances of misconduct
by the officers that are meant
to serve their communities, and to
know whether there has been accountability
for that misconduct,” he added.
“Transparency and accountability are
not in opposition to better policing
and safer streets; they are essential
for both.
“Unfortunately, for too long, disingenuous
actors, including the leadership
of several law enforcement unions,
have sought to shield bad actors within
the department from scrutiny or consequence,
and have, too often, had the
backing of city and state elected leaders
in that effort,” Williams continued.
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Like universities across the country,
CUNY has worked intensely these
past six months to keep our students on
track for graduation despite the unprecedented
obstacles of the pandemic. It’s
the technical challenges of teaching and
learning from a distance that get most of
the attention, but we are just as focused
on helping our faculty become more effective
teachers — and our students, better
learners — in ways that have nothing
to do with laptops, digital platforms
or video conference apps.
In the education world, the word for
this is pedagogy: How teachers teach,
how students learn and what methods
and approaches have proven most effective
at elevating student achievement and
outcomes. It’s a recognition that teaching
is an art, a science and a craft. That consideration
is one of our key priorities at
CUNY — a way to both boost student success
and support the invaluable resource
that is our faculty. Improving and innovating
our teaching strategies was front
and center before the coronavirus, and
we haven’t let the scramble to put courses
online throw us off track.
CUNY students began the fall semester
this week, and the vast majority of
their nearly 50,000 course sections — 98
percent — are being delivered virtually.
They will surely benefit from the work
their professors, their campuses and
their university have done to adopt instructional
practices that put a priority
on the needs of online learners. For obvious
reasons, much of the professional
development training we have offered to
faculty in recent months has focused on
the improvement of distance learning.
But that effort is part of a bigger project at
CUNY that will far outlast the pandemic.
Studies have supported the notion
that improving pedagogy can make a
significant difference in student success.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise, but
this should: Most college faculty undergo
almost no professional development to
build these skills, or to improve their
teaching methods, while in graduate
school. It’s just not something that universities
have traditionally emphasized
as much as they ought to. I began my career
as a history professor and taught for
many years, and whatever training I got
in pedagogy was not something promoted
by the University. That is why I have prioritized
a long-term series of initiatives to
fill a demonstrated need.
At the top of the list is the CUNY Innovative
Teaching Academy, which will
serve as a hub for professional development
and the vibrant exchange of ideas
for new approaches to student engagement
and success. Last year, we forged
partnerships to launch several pilot projects
for the academy aimed at helping faculty
master best practices for both online
and in-person teaching.
For starters, we are teaming with
the Association of College and University
Educators (ACUE) and the National
Association of System Heads (NASH)
on a 25-week program in which 300 faculty
from CUNY senior colleges will be
trained in practices that improve student
achievement and close equity gaps.
This fall, another 420 faculty will be
trained and credentialed in online teaching
methods that focus on areas such as
creating an inclusive learning environment,
inspiring inquiry and designing
learner-centered courses.
More recently, we announced a $10
million gift from the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation that includes $2 million to
train humanities faculty in ways to make
their classes more participatory and prepare
students for a world that requires
collaboration, communication, analytical
reading and cross-cultural thinking.
We hope the Innovative Teaching
Academy will become a national model.
The pandemic has required us to focus
our professional development efforts
on training that helps our faculty improve
student engagement and foster an
inclusive, encouraging instructional atmosphere
in the online modality. It’s been
an all-hands-on-deck effort this summer
to provide programs with noted experts
and partnerships with other academic institutions.
Leveraging the expertise of the CUNY
School of Professional Studies, a longtime
national leader in online degree programs,
CUNY created online developmental
workshops for more than 2,000 faculty
members across the system to improve
their online instructional practices. I’m
confident that the benefits will be apparent,
and that they will be just one part of
our long-range commitment to improved
teaching.
We’ve been confronted this year by
enormous challenges to our broad educational
mission, and to our specific efforts
to help our students complete their
courses, earn enough credits each semester
to graduate on time and pursue
careers that will allow them to climb the
economic and social ladder. But even as
health and budgetary circumstances remain
uncertain, CUNY’s commitment to
improving student outcomes and supporting
our faculty is unwavering.
After all they’ve endured in coping
with the challenges of the pandemic, our
students, faculty and staff deserve nothing
less.
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