Teaching Tips | August 22, 2025

Advice for New Instructors at Hunter

Are you a new instructor at Hunter College? Welcome! Your ACERT team is here to support your teaching and research, and we have an abundance of resources for you, including advice from your colleagues.

In 2023, we asked Hunter faculty what advice they would give to new colleagues, and yesterday we hosted an event, “What I Wish I Had Known Before I Started Teaching at Hunter.” Below you’ll find some updated tips and resources from your Hunter colleagues.

Uchenna Itam (Art and Art History) recommends joining writing groups: “Online and in-person weekly writing groups, which have been really great for me to calendar out my writing time and balance my teaching, service, research, responsibilities. Same with the online writing retreats, so being able to have 3, 5, 7, even 12 weeks of community, writing together online, checking in, that has been really supportive.”

In Fall 2025, ACERT is offering four weekly writing meetup times: Monday afternoons (in person), Tuesday afternoons (in person), Wednesday mornings (online), and Friday mornings (online), starting the week of September 8. This is a chance to put dedicated writing time on your fall calendar, with the benefits of accountability and community support! All faculty, including those writing dissertations, and staff are welcome to join one or more writing groups.

If you are a parent, Uchenna also has recommendations for you! “There is a Children’s Learning Center. It is on the 68th Street campus. It is in Hunter North. And it offers high-quality childcare for the Hunter College community. And so this is a resource that’s not just for us as faculty and staff, but also for your students. So if you notice that maybe one of your students needs support in this area, this is an amazing resource.”

View Uchenna’s Slides Here

Shiao-Chuan Kung (Center for Online Learning) shared that if you need help with Brightspace, the Center for Online Learning has easy video tutorials for you to get acquainted and make your course visible to students: Brightspace Resources for faculty.

They also have resources to help students get acquainted with Brightspace: Brightspace help for students.

Xuemeng Li (Sociology) shares advice for those teaching large enrollment courses: “I highly recommend everybody check CUNYfirst about the registration info before you start taking any override students. So when I was teaching the 100 students, I did not check, because I assumed it’s probably not gonna be full. So my class was full, and then I still took so many override students, so I think I started with 112-ish, and then eventually, I think it was 108 that I passed. Definitely check before you start taking more students into your class.” This was Xuemeng’s first time teaching a “double” which is lingo for double the number of students you would typically have in a class.

Xuemeng knows now that there are a variety of classroom settings for large lecture classes: “The second thing is I want to mention is that there are several big classrooms that can hold more than 100 students at Hunter. I did not know, so the classroom assigned to me … when you walked in, it felt like a theater, I would say. Like, it’s very dark, and it has dim light. And then eventually I found out I could turn on the lights, but anyhow, in the beginning I couldn’t really see the students’ faces. Eventually, when I talked to my chair, I learned that there are other large classrooms that are a little different in setting. Instead of an auditorium style, you could have movable tables so I started booking those classrooms for the future semesters, and that worked really well. So that’s another thing I wish I knew before I started teaching the double.”

Lastly, she recommends being in touch with Hunter Equipment and Support (A/V): “There is this awesome office, it’s our audio and visual support, and they’re at N333. They have a name card–definitely grab that card!”

 

Colleagues at Hunter wave from their Zoom boxes at our Lunchtime Seminar "What I Wish I Had Known Before I Started Teaching at Hunter" on Aug 21, 2025.

Colleagues at Hunter wave from their Zoom boxes at our Lunchtime Seminar “What I Wish I Had Known Before I Started Teaching at Hunter” on Aug 21, 2025.

 

Meagan Washington (English)’s advice is to have some important numbers in your phone: “I have been locked out of my classroom before and had to call campus security a couple of times. Not very many, but I also teach 8:30AM classes, so sometimes my classroom’s just not open yet. I also think that having the number for IT and AV is important in case your monitor isn’t working, if your audio isn’t working. They are really quick, and they’re really helpful. Sometimes it’s really simple what they have to do, and sometimes it’s much more involved, so it’s always good to have those numbers just already in your phone so you can call. I also have the lab department, so if you ever work in a computer lab, that’s the PCS IT, and they are different. They come and they help in the labs if you ever need a door opened, or if you need any of your technology to be fixed. I also have the help desk in my phone as well, just for any sort of tips. There’s always something that is happening.”

 

Important Phone Numbers: 

Faculty Help Desk (212) 772-4357

Campus Security (212) 772-4444

Hunter PCS- IT (212) 650-3272

Classroom Technology (212) 772-4943

 

More Offices and Resources Available to You

CUNY Arts Initiatives

Office of Business Services

68th street campus information

Student engagement grants – Ask for funds to engage your students in exciting, inspiring experiential learning opportunities like bringing in an outside speaker or hosting a public event.

Resource Share and Care for Students Padlet – Hunter resources you can share with your students

Hunter College Rockowitz Writing Center info for faculty

Hunter Early Alert, with photos! You can use to find some student info and to refer students to tutoring services

Hunter Employee Benefits, including benefits for adjuncts

Faculty & Staff Union, PSC-CUNY

 

Food, etc. Recommendations in the Area

You’re welcome to bring your lunch to the Faculty Center on the 5th floor of the Library. Come stop by E540!

Bedford Falls (happy hour)

https://maps.app.goo.gl/eJXq2QRT75ZEVsva8

Just Salad

https://maps.app.goo.gl/G4wckS2TE5YYZ8Sd7

Mariella Pizza

https://maps.app.goo.gl/q56bENK2PynL7sBV7 

Ouri’s Market (easy grab-and-go options)

https://maps.app.goo.gl/EQNE1ntZxJeEfpGe8  

Padoca for coffee and some gluten free pastries, 67th between 3rd & 2nd, next door to the bar

https://maps.app.goo.gl/4bMnJRNMxXmrZ1UXA 

Peng’s Noodle Folk

https://maps.app.goo.gl/6q5ijSXdvnZgX3zr9 

Pho on Lex

https://maps.app.goo.gl/9Y2GELHLbD3s6eQT7 

Tacombi

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZrfTskcLmxeVMXnZ6 

Tompkins Square Bagel

https://maps.app.goo.gl/cNqTm2P66NiU8DQ46 

York Grill and Juice Bar

https://g.co/kgs/CkemFGb 

Whole Foods

https://maps.app.goo.gl/6ngAcYGc9kri8LXf8

  

 

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