It's time to talk turkey!
--Thanksgiving turkey, that is. I hope that you all have a restful and peaceful holiday break this weekend with your friends and family. Gobble, gobble
In this Head's up post, I've got a couple of news, reminders and "to do" items for you to be working on.
Department Conditions Survey
You should have received at least two emails about this online survey so far this week. One is the description of the survey and a link to take it online. The second email came on 11/20 and is an FAQ of sorts to help you understand the purpose of the survey and how results will be used. Go to this link to take the survey. Please try to complete the survey by the end of the semester. Results will be shared with the faculty in spring and we will develop a short response to it.
Final Exams
You know the drill--see the full email from the Provost from last week.
"Please remind your faculty that the final examination period is to be used either for the administration of final examinations or for such other course-terminating activities as may be appropriate. If a faculty member plans to conduct an activity other than a final examination during this period, a report is to be filed with the department head requesting approval and indicating what the activity will be and where and when it will take place. Copies of these reports are due to the Provost's office NLT December 5, 2007." That means I have to have your report by December 3. So, if you are NOT conducting a final exam, you may email your report to me.
BearCom Lab Proposal
You all should have received an
email from Ryan Childress with an update on the status of the proposal. He has
consulted with John B. and included many of his suggestions, including
that we not pilot the program in spring. We'll discuss this briefly
again at the faculty meeting next month. Thanks again to everyone who
provided comments to Ryan both in the meeting and afterwards.
Faculty Meeting, December 5 at 3:00
Among other items that will pop up between now and December 5, the agenda should be short. We will have brief administrative area reports first, a brief discussion about a change to the merit committee structure, and then the main discussion point will be to continue to work through our departmental response to program review. I am consulting with the administrative team the week before to flesh out a draft of the report. Then I will have a draft of the report to you by Friday, November 30. That should give you enough time to read it and come to the meeting with your suggestions to be included in the final report.
At the NCA conference last week, Susan was elected vice-president of the Public Relations Division at the National Communication Association Conference in Chicago for 2008. The Public Relations Division is a large division with seventeen formal panel and paper slots and two poster slots available for next year's conference. She will likely be planning the 2009 conference. Congrats Susan.
Congrats to Randy! His proposal to teach in the Council on International Education Exchange program has been accepted. He'll be teaching in South Africa next summer, so cool.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our departmental reception in Chicago last week. The response was great; we had alumni, grad students, faculty, and job candidates all together in a lovely room with good food and wine. Here are a few pics for you. I'll post more when I get a few pictures from Jordan's camera. All in all it was a great turnout and I hope we can repeat it next year.
Kelly