Welcome Back Spring Breakers
Hope you had an enjoyable spring holiday break. I know a couple of you were in and out of the office, while others remained far away. We are in the home stretch now for the end of the semester. I told the students in the InCommon blog that there's still time left in the semester to get things done. Here we go:
Debate Squad SCORES BIG--and the hits just keep coming!
Our debate team is currently at the National Debate Tournament. Here are some preliminary results:
Martin Osborn won top speaker at the 2008 NDT (and last week top speaker at CEDA)! Applause lasted about 5 minutes. Congrats! Michael Mapes 17th Speaker.
Octofinals began this morning and we await the results. Eric reports that this is the first time in as long as he can recall that we had TWO teams into the octifinals. UPDATE: One team lost in octofinals and one is through to the quarter finals (like elite 8).
Faculty Meeting Wrap Up
Banner changes approved at the faculty meeting. There is still time for additional changes or modification, those need to be forwarded to Randy before May.
Faculty Senate elections were completed.
Department Conditions Survey discussion. I've attached a short summary of this discussion here Dept conditions summary.doc. Please review it and provide comments. As I mentioned at the end of the faculty meeting, I want this to be a living document. Please provide your comments and I will include them. By the end of the semester, I have to provide a summary document to the faculty senate outlining our discussion and the outcome thereof.
Program Review Followup: I have gotten some clarification from Dean Adams about how the program review response is to proceed next. He indicated that it's his responsibility to provide a written response to the department regarding the program review. I have invited Dr. Belinda McCarthy to attend our April 16 faculty meeting at 2:00 and she has accepted. As a result of our faculty meeting discussion it was decided that we should invite Dr. McCarthy in order to discuss program review. Now that we know she won't be providing the written response, it is still an opportunity to ask her to comment on her thoughts of the process and how she imagines that resources will be provided to departments who receive positive reviews.
Getting ready for pre-registration
I have posted on the InCommon blog for students to make appointments for advising WELL in advance of their registration window. Pre-registration begins April 4 for seniors and grad students.
Dr. Lynn Harter guest visit week of April 22
Details to come on this, but Lynn Harter is going to do a guest lecture while here part of that week as well as visit with a graduate class or two. Please notify your graduate students about this visit, especially for those interested in qualitative methods and health com generally. I think Lynn will arrive on Wednesday of that week and stay through the weekend.
Advisory Council Meeting planned for April 25-26.
Details on this to come later as well. I am plannng it currently for Friday dinner and then Saturday business meeting beginning in the morning.
Position Requests forwarded to the college.
Each year the department heads submit position requests to the college in order to identify what positions and how many we can search for in any given year. Based on program review and discussions with the administrative team, I forwarded the following position requests in order of priority.
1. Permanent funding for Associate Director of the Center for Dispute Resolution.
2. A three year temporary Instructor to assist the Debate Team. This would involve teaching 3 sections of public speaking per semester, with 1 course reassigned to assist the debate squad. This position will be using my faculty line (which I negotiated to keep during my three years as head).
At the department head's meeting last week, the Dean announced that he would support the 3 year Instructor position for the debate team. The Associate Director position is on hold for coming year and it will continue to be supported again with money from the department and college. I am meeting with Dean Adams to discuss his plans for this position for FY10.
Kelly