Guru's Verification engine ensures consistency, confidence, and trust in the knowledge your organization shares. Learn more.

New Hire Checklist - 2. Your First Week

Welcome to The New School! Below are some items you will want to review in your first week at The New School. As always, speak with your manager or supervisor for any additional tasks specific to your role at the university. Feel free to print this page or save as a PDF if you would like to check things off as you complete them.

Reminder: Before you proceed with the below instructions, ensure you have completed everything in New Hire Checklist - 1. Before Your First Day.

Refer to Onboarding Help for assistance unless noted otherwise below.


5) Meet with Your Manager

  1. Role & Responsibilities: Your manager should set up time to meet with you and review your role and responsibilities. Ensure you understand the university's performance competencies, your manager's expectations, and any specific priorities for the next 30-90 days.
  2. Set Goals: As part of the Introductory Period (staff only), you and your manager should establish goals for you to target over the next 90 days. Review these in MyDay (overview of the system below) and recommend any changes as necessary.
  3. Departmental Overview: Meet your colleagues! You should start to get a feel for what they do at the university and their areas of expertise. Discuss with your manager and team any work norms such as work hours, meeting-free time, collaboration methods, etc.

6) Confirm Contact Information & Availability

Contact IT Central if you have difficulty accessing or using the below services - you may submit an IT Service Request ("ticket") online or contact IT Central.

  1. Newcard: Pick up your newcard (New School ID) if you have not done so already by visiting Card Services located at 39 West 13 Street, 2nd Floor.
  2. Preferred Name: Update your preferred name if you identify by a name other than your legal name. Preferred name may be updated in MyDay (Workday) at any time. Click "Personal Information" and then the Preferred Name link. Learn more about preferred names and legal name changes on our website.
    1. Follow the instructions to create a secondary "alias" email address, if desired.
  3. Pronouns: Enable and select your preferred pronouns in MyDay (Workday). We also encourage you to specify your pronouns in Zoom and your Email Signature (below).
  4. Email Signature: Create your email signature using the Email Signature Generator.
  5. Faculty Bio (full- and part-time faculty only): To update your bio, research interests, portfolio, and other relevant information on your Faculty Profile page, visit the University Faculty Bio Manager. More information on updating your faculty bio may be found here.
  6. Phone: Setup your telephone extension and voicemail. You may also want to request access to Jabber, which will allow you to make and receive calls to your New School phone number to/from your smartphone, computer, and/or tablet.
  7. Calendar Availability: Review Hybrid Work Tips and Tricks for tips and instructions for setting your working hours and location, sharing your calendar, blocking "focus time," and collaborating in a hybrid work environment.
  8. Alerts: Confirm your contact information for New School Alerts, a notification system for campus emergencies.
    1. Tip: To ensure messages are received as quickly as possible, we encourage all students, faculty, and staff to enroll in SMS (Text to Cell) alerts and indicate that mode of contact as their #1 preference. Please note that message and data rates may apply. You can update your contact preferences anytime.
  9. Business Cards: Speak with your manager or supervisor to see if you need business cards.

7) Navigate the Campus

Even if you will be working hybrid or remotely, you are welcome to visit and work from campus. Tours are also available.

  1. Working on Campus: Familiarize yourself with our wayfinding resources if you work on campus. Shared workspace and meeting facilities are available to hybrid and remote individuals who elect to be on campus. You may also see your assigned work location in MyDay, where applicable.
  2. Tour: Come see our wonderful campus! You may sign up for a tour or attend one when you attend New Hire Orientation. A virtual and audio tour are available as well.
  3. Campus Safety: For those who work on campus regularly, we recommend installing the Campus Safety App.

8) Review University Materials

We hope you will take some time to familiarize yourself with the materials listed below.

  1. Welcome Guide: Take a look through the Welcome Guide to learn about our university history, philosophy, leadership, and more!
    1. Tip: We recommend adding the cards to your favorites (i.e. bookmarking) so you can refer back to the resources easily.
  2. Policies: We have a number of policies at The New School. Familiarize yourself with the policies listed in University Policies as well as the Academic Catalog and Policies: A-Z on our website. Additional employee information may be found in:
    1. Employee Handbook
    2. Full-Time Faculty Handbook
    3. College Handbook Supplements
  3. Guide to Teaching & Learning (faculty only): Prepare to teach your class/es by accessing our Guide to Teaching and Learning. Here you will find a comprehensive list of faculty resources, student support services, and academic technology resources. You should also be in touch with your academic department, program or contact for your course's syllabus template, start of term memo, and any other information that is specific to the course you've been assigned.

In addition to the above, new faculty members should also review any related college or faculty affairs onboarding materials or resources, such as:


9) Login to Technology

The New Hire Technology Reference Guide has some great IT information, as does the A-Z List of IT Services. Below are some key programs you should familiarize yourself with. A list of major systems and platforms used at The New School are found in the Systems Overview.

  1. Administrative Tools
    1. DUO: Many of the university applications require multi-factor authentication via Duo for added security.
    2. MyDay: MyDay (Workday) is our university human resources and finance management system where employees manage their benefits and time off, appointment letters (part-time faculty only), expense reports, and more.
    3. Guru: Review Guru, the university's employee knowledge base, for information regarding policies, processes, and other administrative resources. New content is added daily.
    4. Zoom: The university leverages Zoom for most hybrid/virtual meetings and gatherings.
    5. Google Workspace: G Suite (Google) is our provider for email, calendar management, and primary method for file development and sharing. Review File Sharing Systems for additional information on file storage and sharing.
    6. FortiClient: The FortiClient Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a secure network used to access specific systems and services.
      1. Tip: The VPN is required to access a number of university programs and services. Confirm with your manager if you need to use the VPN. If so, you must complete required training and request access via the form listed.
  2. Academic & Student Support Tools
    1. Banner (staff only): Banner is our student information system (SIS).
    2. MyNewSchool: The main student and faculty portal of The New School is MyNewSchool, where you'll find links for many of the university's systems and Faculty Course Information, including your Course Schedule, Class List, and Grade submission. We recommend faculty bookmark the listing of Academic Resources found in MyNewSchool.
    3. Canvas: Canvas is a web-based learning management system (LMS) that makes it easy to host recorded lectures and facilitate instruction remotely, including course announcements, assignments, discussions, quizzes and exams, and grading.
    4. Starfish: Starfish is the student success and retention network at The New School. Its purpose is to keep the campus community engaged with students, and to contribute to students' success.

10) Complete Required Virtual Trainings & Tutorials

The below are training/tutorials most employees need to complete. Confirm with your manager if you have any other required trainings to complete that are specific to your role or department.

  1. Privacy & Security: All employees are required to complete Privacy & Information Security Training. In addition to providing an overview of privacy practices and responsibilities, this training is required to access the Virtual Private Network (VPN). Training will take approximately 30-40 minutes to complete.
  2. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA): You will need to complete the FERPA Tutorial if you will be working with student records and information. This tutorial will walk you through the Student Records Privacy Policy and should take 10 minutes to complete. Please confirm with your manager if you should complete this tutorial, which is required to access a number of systems.
    1. See also the FERPA at a Glance: A Guide for Faculty and FERPA at a Glance: A Guide for Staff
  3. Sexual Harassment: You will receive an email from Vector Solutions with instructions for completing Preventing Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Training (either your first week or the following). Please follow the instructions and submit as requested.
  4. Protecting Youth: All employees who work with non-matriculated minors must complete Protecting Youth training before they may begin related work. HR will contact you if this is mandatory for your specific position. See the Minors on Campus Policy for additional information. A background check is also required.

>> Next Step

You must have Author or Collection Owner permission to create Guru Cards. Contact your team's Guru admins to use this template.