Message from Dean Howard

Dean’s Reception

Being in a position to recognize and reward hard-working and dedicated students, faculty, and staff is one of the most gratifying aspects of the job of a dean.  Therefore, the Dean’s Reception that was held this past Friday was one of the high points of the academic year for me; I hope it was a high point for the CLAS award recipients, as well.  Below I list award recipients and provide a brief quote intended to capture some of the qualities that cause each of them to stand out.  Before doing so, a special note of thanks to all the nominators—your selfless recognition of the good work of your colleagues is truly inspiring.

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Outstanding Student Winners pictured left to right: Sharon Devine, Sara Pettit, Elise Willett, Mary McAllister, Kyle Morin, and Steve Flink (not pictured: Stephanie Webb and Jeff Larson)

STUDENT AWARDS

Fall 2008 Outstanding Bachelor of Arts Student
Stephanie Webb, English Literature and Communication
Dr. Suzanne Stomberg wrote, “is an outstanding student, has a well-documented and impressive track record of leadership, and has contributed to the community through many of these leadership roles."

Fall 2008 Outstanding Bachelor of Science Student
Mary McAllister, Biology
Dr. Leo Bruederle wrote, “…I have been most impressed with her critical thinking, organizational and leadership skills, as well as her professionalism and dedication…”

Spring 2009 Outstanding Bachelor of Arts Student
Kyle Morin, Elementary Education and History
Dr. Donna Langston wrote, “It is hard to think of enough superlatives to describe his scholarly accomplishments and abilities.  Kyle is extremely bright, responsible, and visionary.”

Spring 2009 Outstanding Bachelor of Science Student
Elise Willett, Psychology
Dr. Susan Linville wrote, “Elise is a wonderfully gifted individual with wide-ranging intellectual interests, an exceptional academic record, exemplary dedication to community service, and future career plans which testify to her character and dedication.”

Fall 2008 Outstanding Ph.D. Student
Steve Flink, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences
Dr. Stan Payne wrote, “Since beginning work on his doctoral thesis he has shown remarkable independence, perseverance, and thoroughness in his research.”

Fall 2008 Outstanding Master of Science Student
Jeff Larson, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences
Dr. Stephen Billups wrote, “Jeff has distinguished himself in several ways while a graduate student at UCD:  His grade point average is a perfect 4.0; He earned perfect scores on both of his Ph.D. preliminary exams (a very rare feat); He has made a very favorable impression on nearly all of his instructors, and is consistently one of the top students in each of his classes.”

Spring 2009 Outstanding Ph.D. Student
Sharon Devine, Health and Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Richard Miech wrote,  “…Dr. Devine has also provided valuable training to health departments and communities around the State of Colorado.  In her work with HBS faculty she has become an expert in program evaluation.”

Spring 2009 Outstanding Master of Arts Student
Sara Pettit, Modern Languages
Dr. Devin Jenkins wrote, “She has been exemplary in every facet of her graduate career.  She has improved the students who have surrounded her and made the classes better; she has been an excellent teacher for us; and she is a shining example of what a graduate student should be.”

Faculty and staff award winners pictured left to right: Sally Thee, Tod Duncan, Devin Jenkins, Joanie Kuczwara, Heather Sours, Conxita Domenech, Lisa Johansen, Steve Medema, Tammy Stone and Brad Stith. (Not pictured: Tony Robinson, Paul DeMarte)

FACULTY AWARDS

Teaching Excellence Award
Assistant Professor Devin Jenkins, Modern Languages
Dr. Diane Dansereau wrote, “Student comments from FCQs as well as letters from students and from faculty who have visited Dr. Jenkin’s Classes praise his skills as a teacher. Common themes that they mention include Dr. Jenkin’s animation, high levels of student engagement, the clarity of his presentations, the rigor of his demands and his innovative teaching methods.”

Teaching Excellence Award
Assistant Professor Lisa Johansen, Integrative Biology
Dr. Greg Cronin wrote, “Her courses require students read the primary literature, formulate research questions, conduct actual research experiments, and communicate their findings to peers.….students initially balk at the readings and labs, but usually come to realize the value in this teaching approach.”

Teaching Excellence Award
Associate Professor Tony Robinson, Political Science
Dr. Jana Everett wrote, “Tony has excellent relations with students, and he works hard at being accessible, establishing a good rapport, and engaging students in creative learning opportunities.” 

Teaching Excellence Award
Instructor Paul DeMarte, English
Dr. Nancy Ciccone wrote, “Mr. DeMarte supports the CLAS and university strategic plans in his efforts to engage students in their own learning, to encourage them as life-long learners, and to formulate service-learning as an integral part of his classroom but also as a way of inserting oneself in the world.”

Teaching Excellence Award
Instructor Conxita Domenech, Modern Languages
Dr. Diane Dansereau wrote, “Talented, inspiring…naturally gifted teacher who achieves success in the classroom through a combination of personable and energetic teaching style with superb organizational skills.”

Teaching Excellence Award
Senior Instructor Tod Duncan, Integrative Biology
Dr. Greg Cronin wrote, “Dr. Duncan is extremely professional with his interactions with students.  He demands respect and hard effort from his students, and returns respect and his best efforts to them.”

Faculty Service Award
Assistant Professor Devin Jenkins, Modern Languages
Dr. Jenkins may have said it best himself, “I have long believed that in order to be a productive member of any community, one must provide service to that community.”

Research/Creative Activities Award
Professor Brad Stith, Integrative Biology
Dr. James Maller wrote, “Dr. Stith has an impressive record of maintaining significant momentum, productivity, and funding in his research using as personnel almost exclusively undergraduate students.”

Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award
Associate Professor Tammy Stone, Anthropology
Dr. Mary Coussons-Read wrote, “Tammy has a remarkable record of service to her department, college, campus, and is an outstanding teacher and scholar to boot.  She is the type of faculty member that we all aspire to be—engaged, thoughtful, respected, productive, and authentic.”

STAFF AWARDS

Outstanding Staff Award
Ms. Heather Sours, Human Resources Coordinator, CLAS
Ms. Gay Freebern wrote, “In just over a year, Heather has become an indispensable expert on the very complicated world of HR within CLAS.  She is both personable and professional, inspiring confidence in her work and in her advice.”

Outstanding Staff Award
Ms. Sally Thee, Program Assistant II, Communication
Jennifer Williams, Sue Sethney, Christine Lukvec, Cory Gruebele wrote, “Sally has been with our university since 2000, and she always has been a dedicated, enthusiastic employee and colleague.  In addition to being an outstanding program assistant for the Department of Communication, she has gone above and beyond her duties to help PAs and AAs establish better relationships with one another and with entities such as the PSC, HR, and AHEC.”

PRESIDENT'S TEACHING SCHOLAR

Professor Steve Medema, Economics (this is belated recognition of a system-wide honor won by Dr. Medema in 2008)

Dr. Laura Argys wrote, “Professor Medema’s teaching in the classroom is a thing to behold.  His style at first strikes one as reminiscent of a traditional liberal arts college professor.  He often wears a coat and bow tie, teaches with chalk on a blackboard, assigns many of the classic works in economics to his undergraduate and graduate students alike, and embraces the notion that even students who specialize in a quantitative field such as economics must be well-rounded enough to write persuasively to make their case in a way that reaches those beyond the discipline.  However, lest one think that this is a teacher entrenched in old, perhaps out-of-date methods, Professor Medema is constantly reinventing his lectures, assignments and methods of evaluation.  Innovative ideas for teaching all of his courses constantly occupy his thoughts.”

RETIRING STAFF

Ms. Joanie Kuczwara, Advisor, CLAS Advising
Co-workers wrote, “Among Joanie’s personal strengths is her ability to interact with students from a holistic perspective and her genuine ability to recognize each student for his/her unique qualities and talents”

Ms. Sue Sethney, Program Assistant, History
As winner of the 2005 Service Excellence Award given by University of Colorado Staff Council, Sue was described as an incredible person… She served on the Denver Staff Council for 11 years, and was council chair for two terms and council secretary for four terms.  She also served as staff representative on the initial Administrative Streamlining Project Task Force, the Chancellor's Marketing Committee and the Vision 2010 Committee.  Over the years, she has been instrumental in the planning of staff events by making costumes, name tags and door prizes.  

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Please offer your congratulations and best wishes to the award winners and the retirees, should you have the opportunity.  Before closing this message, the last and longest of the semester, allow me to apprise you of some changes in the Dean’s Office.  Assistant Dean Rose Chang has given up her oversight of the CLAS Extended Studies Program in order to devote more attention to: the International College of Beijing Program, the development of a Chinese Studies Program (working with Dr. Stephen Thomas), and her teaching.  Associate Dean Brenda J. Allen has assumed overall responsibility for the Extended Studies Program, but the Program will be run on a day-to-day basis by Managing Director of the Signature Areas, Ms. Laurel Dodds. 

Have a wonderful summer,

Dan

NEW! Four Corners Conference on Immigration: Call for Papers

Topic:  Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice – a Dialogue on Immigration

Mesa State College
Grand Junction, CO
9 October – 10 October 2009
www.mesastate.edu/spanish/fcc

Abstract deadline: 20-July-2009.

On October 9-10, 2009 Mesa State College will host a conference on immigration issues that seeks to bridge the gap between academic scholarship and the experience of immigration in the field.  Papers or panels that explore the interaction between scholarship and action on immigration issues are most welcome.  How do theory and practice relate to each other in social services, national security, criminal justice, identity, art, literature, language or culture?  This conference is intended to be multi-disciplinary. Scholars and practitioners in the humanities, social sciences, human services, business and criminal justice are encouraged to submit proposals.  The goal of the conference is to:
- to offer a venue for the convergence of theory and practice as related to immigration
- to explore multiple approaches to issues surrounding immigration
- to provide opportunities for multi-disciplinary exchange
- to promote understanding, encourage thought and further scholarship related to issues of immigration.

Conference organizers also invite proposals for complete panels or roundtables related to immigration.

Submission guidelines

NEW! Partnership for Research and Education in Plants (PREP)

Thursday, May 21
North Classroom Atrium
11 am – 12:30 pm

Approximately 30 high school students from Steamboat Springs High School will be presenting their research on Arabidopsis stress response.  This is a collaborative project through Lisa Johansen’s PREP program.  PREP (Partnership for Research and Education in Plants) was started at Virginia Tech and is designed to promote authentic research projects in the high school.  Through a partnership between university scientists and high school classrooms, students design and execute experiments to look at phenotypic changes in plants undergoing environmental stress.  The students collaborate with Dr. Johansen to tease out phenotypes from her mutant plants.  

Dr. Johansen has been participating in PREP for the past 4 years and works with seven different high schools and over 500 students throughout Colorado.  Please take a few minutes and come see the posters the students have made and ask them about their research.

Sexual Harassment Training

Faculty and staff must complete online course regarding preventing sexual harassment

Sexual harassment in the workplace is bad news for everyone. Knowing what constitutes sexual harassment is an important step toward prevention.

Chancellor M. Roy Wilson has mandated that all UC Denver faculty and staff -- classified staff as well as exempt-professional staff -- must participate in sexual harassment training. The focus is information and resources to enable you to recognize behaviors and situations that constitute sexual harassment. 

Many of you may have already satisfied this requirement. If the Human Resources Management System (HRMS) lists you as having taken this course since July 2000, you have met the training requirement and do not need to take it again. Please review your training summary in the CU portal. Please log in using your same login and password that you use to log into your computer or to check your UC Denver e-mail. Once logged in: 
--click on My.Training tab
--click on “click here for SkillPort”
--click on “CU Learning Programs” on the left side under “My Shortcuts”; list of classes will appear on right side--scroll to the bottom for “Preventing Sexual Harassment” 
--click on course then “play”

If you have questions, contact Human Resources at 303-315-2700.

CLAS in the Spotlight

Teague Bohlen, assistant professor of English and 2007 Colorado Book Award winner, is one of the Fiction judges for the 2009 Colorado Book award. Last night, the finalists for the Poetry and Fiction awards read at Baur's Italian Restaurant downtown. Dr. Bohlen emceed the event, which was sponsored by Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book and UC Denver's English Department.

EVENTS

Commencement
Saturday, May 16
9:00 - 11:00 am
Auraria Field

Commencement Reception
Saturday, May 16
11:00 am
Tivoli Turnhalle

2009 Annual Staff Luncheon
Monday, May 18
11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Tivoli Turnhalle
$5 entrance fee, payable at the door

IN THIS ISSUE:

Message from Dean Howard

Four Corners Conference on Immigration

PREP Event

Sexual Harassment Training

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