Message from Dean Howard

Task Force Report

Because several faculty members have asked me whether CLAS initiatives in the area of differential loads and alternative faculty tracks are on hold because of budgetary concerns, I thought it would be good to bring faculty and staff up-to-date on the current status of these initiatives.  The Alternative Tracks Taskforce, led by Modern Languages Chair Diane Dansereau, prepared a draft of the criteria for appointment, reappointment, and promotion for the clinical teaching track (C/T) that has now been approved by the CLAS Council.  After review and approval by department chairs and the Provost, the criteria will be distributed to all faculty members and discussed at an open forum that is likely to occur by mid-March.  The forum will be followed by a vote of the faculty.  If approved by all parties, we plan to implement the clinical teaching track in the fall semester of 2009.

The Differential Load Taskforce began its work in January, led by Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs Mary Coussons-Read.  The taskforce will meet every other week during the spring semester until it develops a model for differential loads that it believes will be fair to all faculty members and will advance the research, creative activities, and teaching mission of CLAS.  Once a plan has been proposed, it will be thoroughly vetted by the CLAS Council and the Council of Chairs.  The program would only be implemented if approved by the faculty. 

Now for some thanks and congratulations.  First of all, we owe Professor Pam Laird many thanks for her untiring service as Chair of the CLAS Council.  There are few people who have had as profound an influence on the University of Colorado Denver as Dr. Laird, and I am grateful for the guidance she has provided to the college during her term as chair, which ended in December.  The Council is now chaired by Associate Professor Jeff Franklin of English.  I look forward to working with Dr. Franklin and other members of the Council as we seek to continue the upward trajectory of CLAS during these uncertain times.  Finally, congratulations to Katy Brown and everyone associated with Pinnacle, the alumni magazine of CLAS, which won two awards from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (District VI).  The first was a gold award for the cover illustration by Assistant Professor Bryan Leister of CAM and the second was a bronze award for a four-color magazine. 

With all best wishes,

Dan

NEW! Outcomes Assessment Meeting Request to Discuss Goals and Objectives

CLAS, as a college, has been talking about assessment of learning outcomes all year. We hope you have gotten involved in those discussions in your department and that your chairs and assessment representatives have also brought up conversations about the CLAS graduation requirements. 

This semester we are putting together the plan for the CLAS graduation requirements and have been discussing the goals and objectives of these for the last four months.   When it comes to outcomes assessment a cardinal rule is that we do not have to measure every goal on every student every year. We should not add extra work to our already busy loads, but use assessments that are embedded in the existing classes. What we need to decide now is what we would like to measure and how.  

On both of these, remember that what we are talking about are issues that a student would walk away from the totality of the core knowing, not all of the content of every class, but what we share.  This makes it different from your department and individual class objectives, though there may be some things that overlap. 

As such Associate Dean Tammy Stone would like to invite you to a meeting where to discuss the timing and how to measure these goals. Please send your availability the last week in February and first week in March for a faculty discussion on these issues and the area of the core you would like to participate in to Tammy Stone. Since you teach the classes and will collect the information, it is crucial that your voices are heard. 

Now the good news--don’t worry, you will not need to write an assessment report. That is Tammy’s job, but she will need you to provide her with the data from your courses. Then we can begin the discussion of what we do well (many things, but this will clarify it for us) and where we can improve.

NEW! Maymester and Summer Deadlines and Policies for Syllabi

Click here for the Maymester deadlines and policies

Click here for Summer deadlines and policies

NEW! CLAS ACT Grant

The Dean and Associate Deans of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) at the University of Colorado Denver are pleased to announce the 2009-2010 CLAS Advancing Curricula and Teaching (ACT) grant. 

CLAS ACT funding is designated to further develop a campus environment which supports and encourages approaches to teaching and learning that advance goals of the CLAS Strategic Plan for 2008-2020.  

Proposals must be related to either or both of the following objectives from the strategic plan: a) infusing diversity into the curriculum, or b) problem-focused learning. 

The college intends to award a maximum of 10 proposals.  CLAS ACT awards of up to $3,500 are available.

For more details on the grant, including deadlines, click here.

NEW! CLAS Welcomes Carol Achziger, Grants Development Coordinator

Carol Achziger

Carol Achziger began work as CLAS’s new Grants Development Coordinator on February 9.  A Colorado native, Carol returns to Denver from Logan, Utah.  During her time in northern Utah over the last seven years, Carol worked solely in programs that were sustained by external funding.  Carol’s most recent employment was with Utah State University’s Center for Integrated BioSystems where she was the Grant Coordinator and Business Group Leader.  She assisted Principal Investigators in the Center in improving their pre-award system by coordinating the grant writing, editing, form filling and submission process.  Carol also oversaw the post-award management by working closely with the business and communication personnel in the Center.  Prior to her work at Utah State, Carol worked for a small school district as the Afterschool Program Coordinator.  While there, she wrote grants for all the afterschool programs that were funded by federal, state, foundation, international, and local sources.

Carol’s background varies from working with adults with disabilities in postsecondary environments to running programs for adults and youth to assisting others with finding, applying for and managing external funding.  Carol has a B.S. in special education from Brigham University.  She specializes in fostering sponsored program funding in support of research, education, and community based services.

Carol lives in Littleton with her mom and sister while she considers her housing options.  She is thrilled to be back in Colorado where she is working hard to re-establish her title as the World’s Best Aunt to her two nephews and niece.

carol.achziger@ucdenver.edu
303-556-6368
NC 5022

NEW! Undergraduate Advising Updates

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Advising Office is thrilled to share some updates in the operation. CLAS Advising has a new location on the fourth floor of the North Classroom in Room 4002. If you have not already visited the new location, please stop by and see our new set up.

We have expanded our advising team to seven General Academic Advisors.  We are proud to introduce Bethany Kellogg, Brett Lagerblade, and Jeff Schweinfest. The new additions have prompted us to make some changes in the academic advisor assignments along with other assignments related to our working relationship within the College.  Click here for the new assignments.

Bethany Kellogg

Bethany comes to us with over five years of higher education experience with an emphasis in academic advising, first year experience and orientation.   She has a Master of Science degree in Executive Leadership and Change –Specialization in Non-Profit Management with Concentration in Student Development from Daemen College, Amherst, NY.    She also has a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications from State University of New York College at Brockport.   Bethany served as the Co-Chair of the Colorado/Wyoming Academic Advising Conference in the spring 2007.  Bethany’s transition to CLAS Advising has been outstanding and her recent experience working at Metropolitan State College has fostered her quick transition in her new role. She has made positive steps to establish working relationships with students with last names beginning with I, J,K,L,X,Y,Z. Bethany will serve as the Academic Liaison to the Sociology and Philosophy departments. 

Bethany.Kellogg@ucdenver.edu
303-556-6120

Brett Lagerblade

Brett may be new to the CLAS Advising operation but he is not new the University of Colorado Denver. Brett joins our team from the Academic Success and Advising Center after four years supporting our CLAS undeclared, pre-business and pre-engineering students. Brett’s background in higher education expands over eight years of advising, mentoring, and counseling students from diverse student populations. Brett has a Master of Arts Degree, Social Foundations of Education from the University of Iowa along with a Bachelor of Arts, Marketing, Minor, Spanish at the University of Northern Iowa. He also attended Tecnologicos de Monterrey in Colima, Mexico where he completed his minor in Spanish through a partnership with the University of Northern Iowa. Brett is making outstanding progress with his new caseload of students with last names beginning with A,B, V. Brett will be the Academic Liaison to History, Ethnic Studies, and Physics and will represent CLAS Advising on the University’s Tuition Appeals Committee.

Brett.Lagerblade@ucdenver.edu
303-556-3396

Jeff Schweinfest

Jeff brings to the College outstanding higher education experience with four years of direct academic advising experience and 14 years of teaching/training experience.  We are especially proud to have one of our own CLAS graduates as part of the advising team.  Jeff received his master’s of Social Science from the University of Colorado Denver in 1999.  His educational background also includes a Bachelors of Arts in Foreign Civilizations/Languages from Antioch University, Yellow Springs, OH and a Certificate in Applied Linguistics and ESL from San Diego State University, CA.  Jeff speaks five different languages including English, Spanish, French, German, and Mandarin Chinese and his language skills will serve him and the College well as he works with students with last names beginning with M, N,O.  Jeff is also the Academic Liaison to English and Modern Languages.  Jeff will also be the CLAS Advising liaison to the Office of International Education and Affairs. 

Jeff.Schweinfest@ucdenver.edu
303-556-5922

NEW! Early Alert

The downtown campus of the University of Colorado Denver participates in a campus-wide Early Alert program to identify undergraduate students needing assistance from academic and student service offices.   Providing assistance early in the semester is very important to student success in their baccalaureate program. 

The Early Alert program is designed for faculty to identify students in the 5th-6th week of the semester who need assistance because of academic performance, class participation, and/or behavior issues.  Assistance is provided to students identified by faculty through academic advising and through referrals to appropriate UCD student service offices.

Goals of the Early Alert program are to:

- Increase student academic success
- Improve student persistence and graduation rates
- Increase communication between students and faculty
- Increase communication between students and academic advisors
- Increase student utilization of student service offices

Providing intervention assistance early in the semester is very important to enhance undergraduate student persistence and graduation rates.  The faculty role in this effort is to identify students who may need assistance. 

For questions about early alert, please contact John Lanning at john.lanning@ucdenver.edu or 303-315-2134.

NEW! Celebrate Copper Nickel's 11th Issue

Copper Nickel, the journal of art and literature published by the Creative Writing program, will publish its 11th issue and celebrate five years of publishing on Friday, March 13th, from 6-10pm at The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar, 404 S. Upham Street, in Lakewood. (Press release)

NEW! Visiting Fulbright Specialist Available for Lectures and Talks

As part of the Fulbright Visiting Specialists Program “Direct Access to the Muslim World”, the BA in International Studies Program and the Office of International Affairs will host Dr. Dildora Abidjanova from Uzbekistan’s University of World Economy and Diplomacy, Department of World Political History. Dr. Abidjanova holds a Ph.D. in History from the Institute of History, Uzbek Academy of Sciences. Her research specialties are History of Muslim Civilization; Social, Political and Economic History of Central Asia; History of Religion and Culture in Central Asia, and Women’s Rights in Post-Soviet Countries. She has also served as a consultant for the United Nations, co-authoring the Millennium Development Goals Report for Uzbekistan, and for the European Union, coordinating a research group that analyzed the structure and impact of neighborhood communities (Mahallas) in the Fergana Valley. Before this short-term Fulbright Fellowship, she already received a year-long fellowship from Fulbright and a fellowship from Harvard University.

Dr. Abidjanova will arrive on March 15th and leave Denver on April 25th, 2009. During this period, the Fulbright Program expects her to give guest lectures on and off campus. Christoph Stefes, Interim Director of the BA in International Studies Program, will organize her activities in Colorado.

UC-Denver faculty is kindly asked to propose guest lectures in graduate and undergraduate seminars and/or as part of faculty brownbag lunches.

Please send an e-mail by March 1 to christoph.stefes@ucdenver.edu and ucinternationalstudies@gmail.com, proposing a date & time with a couple of sentences briefly outlining a topic for a guest lecture and (if applicable) how the guest lecture fits into the general theme of the seminar.

CLAS in the Spotlight

Online etiquette*
KMGH-TV CH 7 (ABC), 2.9.09
Brenda J. Allen, PhD, professor of communication, was interviewed about online etiquette in the age of Facebook and MySpace where you can accept, reject or ignore requests for "friendships."
*video unavailable

Brenda J. Allen was a keynote speaker at CU-Boulder’s Annual Diversity Summit on February 17. The title of her talk was “Inclusive Excellence in Higher Education.”

Brenda J. Allen was a presenter on a panel entitled, “Climbing the Ivory Tower: From Fairy Tale to Reality,” at the Western States Communication Association’s annual conference in Mesa, Arizona on February 16.

Assistant Professor Thomas Andrews of the history department has received great praise for his book, "Killing for Coal: America's Deadliest Labor War." On January 19, The New Yorker reviewed his book (There Was Blood) and on February 15, the Denver Post reviewed it ('Killing for Coal' mines history of labor in west). Also, in addition to the George Perkins Marsh Award it received recently, Andrews was just notified that it has also been awarded the Vincent DeSantis Prize from the Society for the History of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era for the best book on the period written in 2007 or 2008.

Staying up while the economy is down
KCNC News 4 2.13.09
Mary Coussons-Read, PhD, professor of psychology, shares some tips on staying positive in these tough economic times.  

As one of a few members of the CLAS faculty participating in the symposium, "200 Years of Darwin: Darwin's Magnificent Legacy" honoring Darwin's 200th birthday, Charles Musiba, assistant professor of anthropology, presented a talk titled “Bipedalism and becoming human: Darwin’s Scenario,” in which he discussed what makes us human in terms of locomotion. Paleoanthropologists use bipedalism as a defining trait to place humans and their ancestors into the hominin clade. However, many explanations have been proposed for the origin of bipedalism, including energy efficiency, food provisioning, sexual selection, thermoregulation, carrying, hunting and tool use (which was initially proposed by Darwin in 1817).  Using the fossil record, he discussed the current scenarios for the origins of bipedalism, with a particular focus on the Laetoli hominin footprints and their current interpretations.

Whitebark Pine
Biology Professor Diana Tomback, PhD, was interviewed by the Society of American Foresters for her work to secure endangered species protection for the Whitebark Pine.

Jake Adam York, associate professor of English, was named this year's Summer Poet in Residence at the University of Mississippi. For a month this summer, he will live in a house owned by the university in Oxford, Mississippi, with a small stipend to help defray the costs of living and travel expenses. In addition to having time to work on his poems, he will be involved with the MFA program by giving poetry readings and visiting classes one to two times a week.

EVENTS

Philosophy Department Speaker Series
Wednesday, Feb. 25
1:00 - 2:15 pm
Professor John Russon, Presidential Distinguished Professor
University of Guelph
Title of Talk: "Why Sexuality Matters"
Location: Sigi's Cabaret, Tivoli
Co-sponsored by the Office of Student Life
(More information on the speaker series)

UCD Open House
Saturday, Feb. 28
11:30 a.m. - 2:30 pm
Auraria Events Center

Women's History Month: Catherine Rymph
Thursday, March 5
11:30 - 12:45 pm
Catherine Rymph, Associate Professor of History
University of Missouri
Title of Talk: "Sarah Palin, Feminism, and the Republican Party"
Location: Tivoli Multicultural Lounge

Philosophy Department Speaker Series
Title of Talk: "Sidgwick, Theism, and the Struggle for Utilitarian Ethics in Economic Analysis "
Thursday, March 5
11:30 - 12:45 pm
Steven Medema, University of Colorado Denver
Department of Economics
Title of Talk: "Sidgwick, Theism, and the Struggle for Utilitarian Ethics in Economic Analysis "
Plaza Bldg, M108
(More information on the speaker series)

Science Education in the 21st Century:
Using the Tools of Science to Teach Science
with Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Carl Wieman
Friday, March 6
1:00 - 4:30 pm
NC 1311
(Informational flyer)

Modern Languages Film Series
"Bolivia," by Adrian Caetano
Tuesday, March 10
12:15 - 2:30 pm
Plaza Bldg, Room 118P

Copper Nickel Release
Friday, March 13
6:00 -10:00 pm
The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar
404 S. Upham Street, Lakewood

Women's History Month: Listen to Our Voices
Thursday, March 19
Noon - 2:00 pm
Sharon Araji, Professor and Chair of Sociology
Title of Talk: "Listen to Our Voices" -- a 1 hour film on domestic violence and child custody, followed by discussion
Location: Alumni Conference Room, Lawrence Street Center , 14th Floor
Info: 303-315-2144 or sharon.araji@ucdenver.edu

Women's History Month: Marjorie Levine-Clark
Monday, March 30
1-2:15 pm
Marjorie Levine-Clark, Associate Professor of History and Director of Women's and Gender Studies
Title of Talk: "Femininity, Masculinity, and Body Images in Historical Perspective"
Location: King Center 318
Info: 303-556-2896

IN THIS ISSUE:

Message from Dean Howard

Outcomes Assessment Meeting

Deadlines and Policies

CLAS ACT Grant

Carol Achziger

UG Advising Updates

Early Alert

Copper Nickel 11

Fulbright Specialist Available for Talks

CLAS in the Spotlight

Events

ARCHIVES:

Past issues since Jan 21, 2007.

USEFUL LINKS:

CLAS Event Calendar

CLAS News

Faculty Resources

Staff Resources

Campus News

The CLAS Deans' Notes is a bi-weekly newsletter
for college faculty and staff.

EDITOR:

Katy Brown
303.556.6663
Katy.Brown @ucdenver.edu