Following Patricia Ingraham’s retirement in June, professor Laura Bronstein has taken over as the interim dean of the College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA).

Bronstein, formerly the associate dean of CCPA and the current director of the Institute for Intergenerational Studies, came to Binghamton University in 1999 as a human development professor and helped found BU’s social work program.

She received her Ph.D. in social work from Barry University.

Bronstein said she is optimistic that the skills students gain through CCPA will help them in examining various social problems.

“I look forward to expanding our ability to address social problems that impact our world by maximizing the expertise of students and professionals coming together from diverse backgrounds, educations, cultures and experiences,” Bronstein wrote in an email.

Bronstein expressed hopes to improve the program using staff input.

“This summer I began meeting individually with faculty and staff to hear their ideas about how to continue the College’s positive growth and potential for new areas of development,” she wrote.

In response to the negative results of a student satisfaction survey conducted last year by students in the human development program, Bronstein said the faculty is introducing changes to improve results.

“The [human development] faculty met last academic year and made several changes to increase course offerings in the senior year, including improving scheduling to better meet student demand and assigning faculty advisers to all [human development] majors,” Bronstein said.

Changes include the addition of introductory level courses, which are in the planning stage, according to Bronstein.

As interim dean, Bronstein said she hopes to remain receptive to any issues students may find with the program.

“Being responsive to students and valuing continuous improvement is critical to CCPA’s efforts to give all of our students the best possible experience,” Bronstein wrote.

Bronstein mentioned that she welcomes CCPA students to meet with her and discuss their concerns about the program.

“I am very much an ‘open door’ dean and invite you to come by my office, introduce yourself, let me know what’s going well and where we need to do better to give you the best college experience possible,” Bronstein said.