NCP Member-Only Blog > A note from the Dean
News from APT, May 20, 2025
The Faculty met on May 1 for a lively and productive discussion about possible future directions for APT. How to bring in more students remains very important, for the health of the NCP fisc and also for the vitality and diversity of our school. A number of PT concerns about pedagogy and NCP policies were included at the beginning of the Dean’s Report and reviewed in the meeting, especially PT wishes for more structured lectures to help them understand the claims being presented in their reading, and free time for questions and answers in which student viewpoints and curiosities are taken seriously.
Another topic was the timing of classes. Both local and international PTs have asked for a shift from morning to afternoon classes, and the Faculty expressed some openness to this idea. We also discussed ideas about separating Zoom from local, in-person classes to avoid the difficulties of the combined (aka “hybrid”) classroom. Another point raised at the meeting was whether our current TA/SA system was still serving the Institute well. The Faculty agreed that a poll would be a good way to take our temperature on these points as a basis for moving forward. We sent out a first poll shortly after the meeting and responses are coming in. If you haven’t yet sent in your responses, please do so as soon as you can. We want to hear from you. We want to hear from each other.
Also at the Faculty Meeting, Ronnie Kaye and Beverly Feinstein were honored for their many contributions and years of service to NCP. It was discovered that both had attended Barnard College in 1964 but had not known each other. Your Dean finds their nonetheless shared attachment to NCP perfectly beautifully psychoanalytic. Please give them your thanks again when you have the opportunity!
And so much more…The Lake Arrowhead Conference will be funded again next year, so please let the Dean know as soon as possible if you are interested in attending and/or presenting. PTs are busy with classes, cases and changes, writing theses, getting ready for graduation, helping us make NCP a better place. We’re working on the curriculum to make it particularly strong in the first year, to help with retention of PTs.The Guest Faculty policy is ready for lift-off. Phil Blumenshine and Alex Lewin have been nominated for PTO Co-Chairs this summer (election materials will be arriving soon), Jade Yu will join the Admissions Committee when this cycle ends, Angel Cienfuegos and Travis Tanner will join the EC as Junior Faculty Reps, Travis is also going to Co-Chair Curriculum with Jennifer Flores this coming year, Yangzi Huang (YoKo) will be joining the Virtual Library Committee of IPA, and Debbie Kirschbaum will be cycling off the Progression Committee. We owe her much gratitude for her hard work, generosity and enormous willingness to think through conundrums carefully.
We’re looking forward to the Annual Membership Meeting. And APsA and the IPA. And, we hope, a new incoming class; the AC is hard at work.
Finally, as always, huge thanks to Cheryl Difatta. Without her creativity, loyalty and eye for detail, we would all probably be in the Correctional Institute for Feckless Administrators. At least I certainly would. Brava Cheryl!