Cybersecurity Procedures and Curriculum Changes Discussed at the First College Council Meeting of the Spring 2025 Semester

Alexandra Cortese, Editor-in-Chief

March 3, 2025

Campus News

Moot Court room

New cybersecurity procedures and curriculum changes were among the topics discussed on February 13 as the John Jay College Council held its first meeting of the Spring 2025 semester.

The meeting agenda specifically stated plans to incorporate provisions at the college that change cybersecurity operations, responses to cybersecurity attacks, and updates to the college Outlook email system. Altering academic programs at the college was also a priority of discussion at the meeting.

While giving an information technology update, Chief Information Officer Joseph Laub announced a new policy towards information technology and the opening of a new security operations center at the college.

“Because of incidents around the world, many organizations getting broken into and some at the university, the university board has decided to adopt a zero-risk tolerance towards IT,” he said.

“The university [John Jay College] has opened up a new security operations center where they’re watching all of our systems, along with members of my department, and they’ve outsourced that monitoring and that response to a third-party Unit 42 of Palo Alto Networks,” said Laub.

Laub elaborated that the third party has been using technologies to monitor communications on desktops and firewalls in the college. He continued to explain that the new security operations system allows for immediate action to be taken against a vulnerability on the college website, in comparison to the previous system where a 24-hour waiting period was in place.

President Karol V. Mason shared at the meeting that she has been a victim of cybersecurity violations and stressed the importance of being vigilant about online security.

“One day I got a notice from Google that they had shut my account down,” she said. “They [Google administrators] had said ‘a foreign government has tried to infiltrate your device,’ so I literally shut it off. It was really bad. We had to call [the] DOJ [The Department of Justice] and let them know,” said Mason.

Mason and Laub also continued to share that a computer in the college was compromised with a cybersecurity vulnerability and the Department of Homeland Security called the college administration to notify them.

The college community has also been experiencing numerous issues with the Outlook email server.

When questioned about the poor functionality of the current Outlook email system, Laub said a Russian breach of Microsoft is to blame.

Laub shared that during the Fall 2025 semester, John Jay’s email server will be moved and the Outlook app is expected to operate normally while not changing user experience.

Aside from information technology updates, the meeting also consisted of numerous academic program changes.

Interim Dean of Academic Programs Andrew Sidman represented the Undergraduate Curriculum and Academic Standards Committee while he presented changes to the Middle East Studies minor.

The changes to the Middle East Studies minor include the ability for students to repeat the topics course HIS 228 Critical Perspectives on the Middle East twice and the removal of the two-limit language restriction to count toward the minor. Both provisions were unanimously approved by the committee.

Sidman also presented the title change of SOC 232 Social Stratification to SOC 232 Social Inequalities to reflect the various sources of social inequality, which was also unanimously approved by the committee.

Revisions to the titles and descriptions of Honors classes HON 202 Leadership & Common Good and HON 301 The Idea of the Common Good Across Disciplines were also a priority.

Sidman presented that the title of HON 202 Leadership and the Common Good will be changed to HON 202 Shared Futures, Research for the Common Good and the description be changed to include an introduction of research skills.

As for HON 301, Sidman presented the title to be changed to HON 301 Capstone Seminar I: Common Good Research Across Disciplines and the description to also reflect a more research-oriented curriculum.

Both provisions were unanimously approved by the committee.

Honors Program Director Raymond Patton commented on the reasons for the changes to the Honors Program curriculum.

“Faculty realized that we had separated the common good part of the curriculum from the research part of the curriculum,” he said. “In fact, understanding and addressing justice and the common good ought to be integrated with research skills, since understanding an issue in depth and addressing it are closely connected: action and knowledge should go together.”

The next College Council meeting will be held on Monday, March 10, 2025 at 1:40 p.m. in the Moot Court on the sixth floor of the New Building.

About the Contributors

Alexandra Cortese, Editor-in-Chief

Alexandra Cortese is a junior at John Jay College. She is majoring in law & society and is minoring in English literature.

Alexandra has previously served as the web editor for The Sentinel during the 2023 spring semester, as the managing editor for the fall 2023 semester, and is now the editor-in-chief. Alexandra’s love for writing motivates her to still write freelance and has been doing so since September 2022.

Alexandra is also a member of The John Jay Honors Program, Sigma Tau Delta international English honor society, and is a tutor at The Alan Siegel Writing Center at John Jay. She was also featured as a guest on an episode of CUNY TV’s Let It Rip.

Alexandra’s favorite story she has written is “Greek Life at CUNY.” She feels Greek life is controversial and her story pushes the envelope on that subject matter in the voice of John Jay students. Alexandra’s story dives into the stained reputation of Greek life and how John Jay sorority and fraternity members are challenging that narrative by emphasizing diversity, equity concerns, and community service.

Alexandra hopes to capture the vibrant community within John Jay in her role as editor-in-chief.

Alexandra’s favorite quote is “Nothing is impossible. The word itself says I’m Possible!”— Audrey Hepburn.

Laila Mansour, Visuals Editor

Laila Mansour is a sophomore at John Jay College and is double majoring in forensic science and English. Laila previously served as a writer in the Fall 2023 semester and now serves as the visuals editor since. At John Jay, she is a part of the Macaulay Honors Program at John Jay and also writes for the Macaulay Messenger. She also works as a Visit Guide through CUNY Explorers, is a student researcher through PRISM, and is also a part of CUNY Inclusive Economy Initiative and Sigma Tau Delta, the international English honors society. She has published an article on the Girls Who Code chapter that has opened up at John Jay and looks forward to continuing to bring awareness to STEM opportunities and student achievements as well as bringing the school’s mission of advocating for justice to life through the paper. Laila’s favorite quote is “It takes courage to see the world in all its tainted glory and still to love it” — Oscar Wilde.