Tonight I learned about the CUNY system by watching the Open Ed 2021 session entitled “Open by Design, but to What End? Designing the Open Pedagogy Fellowship,” presented by Jill Cirasella, Associate Librarian for Scholarly Communication, CUNY Graduate Center, and Elvis Bakaitis and Katelyn Angell. The City University of New York (CUNY) is the largest urban public university in the United States with 25 campuses across New York. The Graduate Center offers graduate-only training to 3000 doctoral degrees in 31 programs. They received funding to help with the Graduate Center. The CUNY review panel awarded 20% of the ask and began editing in 2017 and more in subsequent years. Bakaitis spoke about the Open Pedagogy events they have launched with this funding. Fellows are graduate students and must create open resources and post on the library blog. The fellows come from several programs and learn about open, critique “open” as a presumable public good, and study critical librarianship. One example presented was a Spanish Speaking OER. Participants use Hypothes.is and post on the library blog. Some students released public websites. The items they share are the product of discussions about open. Angell spoke about the reading and reflection assignments of the program. Participants read and find open articles. They also learn about finding and accessing open materials. The workshops and OA Day included interactive activities and group work. This program provides valuable skills and access to resources to graduate students. The programming serves to build a vocabulary among participants and create community.
