Dear Colleagues,

A warm welcome to our new and returning students, staff, and faculty. I hope that the new year has started well for all, and I am excited to be serving in my new capacity as Dean ad interim.

This past fall, the Dean’s Office shared a series of messages to highlight resources available in our community. These included who does what at the School, how we communicate, health and wellbeing resources, what to do if bad things happen, and information on benefits.

I encourage you to read the full versions of the messages to orient yourself to the ongoings and operations at the School, but recognizing that many new faces have joined us this spring, I am reaching out to share an overview of this information, below.

Who does what at the School

Centrally, we have built the school to mirror our core purpose: Think. Teach. Do. For the Health of all. That means that our senior leadership team is structured with an Associate Dean who leads each of our core areas of Education, Research, Practice, and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice. Rounding out the Associate Dean group is our Associate Dean for Administration, responsible for the operational and financial well-being of the school.

Much work at the School is done at the department level, but the above outlines the central administrative structure hoping to shine some light on school functioning.

How we communicate

In terms of my direct communication, I will carry on regular communication through notes to the community in SPH Today and SPH This Week. This will include a new series of notes titled “Public Health Matters.”

Below are two key resources to monitor to stay informed about the School:

  1. SPH Today: This is a single, daily email that includes announcements and information relevant to our internal community. If you are having any trouble with receiving SPH Today, please reach out to Erica Augustine, at erica@bu.edu. Please note that SPH Today does not run on days with no events scheduled on the SPH calendar.
  2. SPH Calendar: All events and programs at the School are added to the SPH Calendar. In addition, the Office of the Dean manages an Outlook calendar that includes all Community Events and Dean’s Office programs. To add the sph@bu.edu calendar to your own Outlook calendar, open your Outlook calendar, click the three dots next to People’s Calendars, click Add Shared Calendar, search for sph@bu.edu, select “Public Health, School of”, and select open.

Mental Health and Wellbeing Resources

For our students, the Office for Graduate Student Life (GSL), under the leadership of Assistant Dean Mary Murphy-Phillips, is the central place for support for students.

GSL has an abundance of resources and information to support our on-campus students with health and well-being resources throughout the graduate school journey. For online students, the Student Success Team is available for any questions or support you may need.

For our faculty and staff, the Faculty and Staff Assistance Office (FSAO) is the central resource through which all may find assistance on a range of personal and work concerns.

What to do if bad things happen

Sometimes bad things do happen, and it helps us all to be prepared for them, and as a School it is our responsibility to provide support, resources, and resolutions to the greatest extent possible. We are fortunate to work within a university with extensive resources dedicated to ensuring our safety. Please do read the full note on what to do if bad things happen, here.

If an incident occurs in the classroom, we encourage students to first talk to the course instructor. If that does not work, please reach out to our Assistant Dean of Students, Mary Murphy-Phillips at mcmurph@bu.edu or at 617-358-1750. If needed, as a next step, the Associate Dean of Education, Lisa Sullivan at lsull@bu.edu, will be informed, and finally Dean Michael Stein.

For any event related to public safety or medical emergency, Boston University Police Department/Public Safety can be reached at 617-358-4444. If anything is critical, please call 911.

Benefits

The Faculty and Staff Benefits Handbook is a comprehensive guide that provides information on the benefits available to all our employees. Separately, information regarding time off from work and other employment policies, may be found in the Staff and Operations Handbook for our staff members, the Faculty Handbook for our faculty members.

I hope that this was a helpful summary.

Again, welcome to the new semester!

Warm regards,

Michael D. Stein
Dean ad interim
mdstein@bu.edu

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