NJIT Community Updates and Announcements 11/16/20-11/20/20

Here you will find a weekly listing of updates and announcements for members of the NJIT campus community. Announcements are to be submitted through the form found at https://forms.gle/V6PBxUy5b3jkErMc8. Those submitted by each Thursday will be included in the following week's Updates and Announcements email.

Campus Learning to Move to Remote-Only Instruction — Office of the President

Starting Nov. 30 following the Thanksgiving break, NJIT will transition to fully-remote instruction. This mode of instruction will continue through the balance of the fall semester and is consistent with our Pandemic Recovery Plan. Residence halls and on-campus amenities will remain open. This proactive decision was made in the interest of maintaining the health and wellness of our university community members. To read this announcement in full, visit the pandemic recovery website.

Faculty and Staff

Leir Research Institute (LRI) Weekly Seminar Series  — Martin Tuchman School of Management

In this week’s virtual seminar at 1–2 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 18, the LRI hosts Majeed Simaan, assistant professor, Stevens Institute of Technology to discuss his paper “Estimation Risk and Implicit Value of Index-Tracking.” Ex-ante, index-tracking portfolios are deemed mean-variance (MV) inefficient. However, MV optimization is contaminated with estimation error. Studying the index-tracking problem under estimation concerns, we show that the index-tracking portfolio corresponds to higher MV efficiency ex-post. This finding is consistent with Roll’s (1992) conjecture of the implicit value of index-tracing. The empirical results show that such implicit value is associated with a higher risk-adjusted return and lower transaction cost. To join, go to https://njit.webex.com/meet/rroy. Upcoming seminars can be found at https://centers.njit.edu/leir/Fall-2020-and-Spring-2021-Seminars/.

Applied Math Colloquium — Department of Mathematical Sciences

On Friday, Nov. 20, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., the Applied Math Colloquium will feature Distinguished Professor Lou Kondic as the keynote speaker, and will focus on recently developed models and computational techniques for thin films, with a focus on nematic liquid crystal films. To join, go to the event Webex. To see the full schedule of our upcoming colloquium speakers, please visit our website: https://math.njit.edu/applied-math-colloquium-fall-2020

Seasonal Gift Reminder — NJIT Ethics Office

Please be reminded that the State of New Jersey’s gifts policy does not permit NJIT employees to accept gifts from people or entities doing business with NJIT, or gifts offered due to their NJIT employment. Any gifts received related to your NJIT employment should be immediately forwarded to Keyannah Watkins, legal and ethics assistant, in Fenster Hall room 480, along with the donor’s name and contact information. Gifts will be returned or donated to a local charity. Please notify Watkins (x5448) of perishable gifts so that these items can be donated to a local charity while still fresh.

NJIT officers, faculty and staff may give or receive gifts from a co-worker, subordinate, or supervisor, so long as the gifts are neither excessive nor inappropriate, and do not need to be reported to the Ethics Office. NJIT employees considering securing outside seasonal jobs must obtain ethics pre-approval by filing an Outside Activity Questionnaire.

We hope to keep the holiday season festive while maintaining the public’s trust and confidence in NJIT and its employees. For questions regarding holiday gifts or events, contact Christine Li, associate general counsel and ethics liaison officer, at lic@njit.edu or Keyannah Watkins at keyannah@njit.edu.

Students

Library Group Study Rooms Now Open  — Van Houten Library

Group study rooms in the Van Houten Library are now open to students. You can reserve a study room up to seven days in advance by using the online booking system. A maximum of two people are allowed in each study room. Rooms will be available for limited times and will be closed every three hours for cleaning. For the online reservation system and more information please visit: https://researchguides.njit.edu/services/group-study-rooms. 

Graduate Seminar  — Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering 

On Monday, Nov. 16 at 4 p.m., the CEE graduate seminar will feature Colleen Naughton's (UC Merced) virtual talk "Water, Health, and Environmental Justice in California’s Central Valley: Geospatial Analysis of Water Contamination and Health Disparities." Learn more and how to join at civil.njit.edu/graduate-seminars.