Message from the Interim Dean
Interim Dean, Jim Hageman
Dear CLAS faculty and staff,
As the new interim dean of CLAS, I want to offer my belated welcome to all the new members of the college, as well as to those returning this fall term. It will be my pleasure to serve in the capacity as interim dean for the coming year along with the outstanding team of assistant and associate deans and college staff built by Dean Harbor. I very much look forward to working with all members of the college in launching and extending the excellent initiatives collectively identified last year.
The day before my recent surgery, I had the opportunity to meet briefly with the central staff in the Dean’s Office. In addition to many ongoing efforts in teaching, scholarship and service, we planned that the key efforts for this coming year will be to fully develop the college’s “Signature Areas” from the Strategic Plan, to undertake a national search for a new dean and to focus our very best energies on hiring a record number of new faculty members. I believe that we were also in agreement that while it is essential to hire faculty with excellent records of scholarship and creative activity, we must only hire people who are deeply committed to teaching in all of its forms. My own preference would be for departments to hire folks who will have areas of interest that overlap to some extent with those already in the department. Being the only representative of a major sub-discipline in a department can be discouraging to a new junior faculty member. I do recognize that for the smaller departments such a consideration may not be possible.
How do we achieve the goals which all of you so carefully developed over the past year? One element, of course, is tenacious, purposeful work. A story is told about Louis Pasteur working at the bench amongst his large staff at the end of his long and illustrious career, having by then founded modern microbiology, developed the foundations of immunology and saved the wine industry of France. He was observed by a group of the junior staff, walking up and down a gallery over the noon hour, muttering things quietly to himself. Being very curious as to what wise words the great man might be saying, the staff selected one of their members to hide behind a curtain near the gallery to catch his words. The observer reported back to the group that Professor Pasteur was repeating over and over: “Il faut travailler! Il faut travailler! Il faut travailler!” (One must work! One must work! One must work!) I am eager to work alongside all of you in the coming year to achieve our ambitious and worthy goals.
Sincerely,
Jim Hageman
Interim Dean
Prehistoric Tour with Dr. Martin Lockley
RSVP by Friday, Sept. 7!
Join us for a walk through prehistoric history on Saturday, Sept. 22 with acclaimed CLAS paleontologist and dinosaur tracker Dr. Martin Lockley. Either meet us at Dinosaur Ridge to participate in the free tour only or come early to campus for a tour of the UCDHSC Dinosaur Tracks Museum, a chartered bus to Dinosaur Ridge and a picnic lunch. The bus will return to campus following the tour. Parking passes for campus will be provided if you take the bus. For full appreciation of Dinosaur Ridge, we suggest walking about a ½ mile. The hike is not strenuous, but there are moderate short inclines to negotiate. Please wear hiking boots or comfortable walking shoes. The event is rain or shine. No refunds will be given. This event is sponsored by the Alumni Association and is open to all university faculty, staff, alumni and students.
Dinosaur Tracks museum tour (10:00 am): FREE
Bus Ride to Dinosaur Ridge (11:00 am) and Lunch (11:30-12:30): $10 for adults; $5 for children
Dinosaur Ridge Walking Tour (12:30-3:30pm): FREE
Please RSVP by September 7. Contact Katy Brown with questions about how to RSVP.
Request for syllabi copies
Submit by Friday, Sept. 7
Due to students recreating and changing syllabi to support their requests for special consideration, it is necessary for the Dean’s Office to retain a copy of each syllabus for your classes. Chairs and faculty, please send a copy for each syllabus this semester to Associate Dean Charlie Ferguson by Friday, Sept. 7. He does not plan to review them for content; he plans to keep them filed to cross-check student claims.
Official Function guidelines and procedures
Questions about official functions? A link has been added to the CLAS policies page that briefly outlines the signatures required for official function forms, dollar thresholds and other relevant information.
Academic Early Alert System
Academic Early Alert is the university’s new way of identifying and contacting students in need of assistance early in the semester. It will replace the midterm grade reporting starting Fall 2007. We are all partners in the process, so your participation is crucial!
Faculty will be asked to log into the system starting the 4th week of the semester. Alerts will then be sent to academic advisors who will contact the students during the 6th week and make appropriate referrals. More specific information and instructions will follow by email on September 4. For more information, contact John Lanning.
3rd Annual First-Year Experience Symposium
Undergraduate research, internships and experiential learning
This year the symposium will be held on Friday, Oct. 5 in St. Cajetan's from 8:30am until 3:30pm. There will be three guest speakers this year, Eugene Alpert, Washington (DC) Center for Interns and Academic Services, Mary Crowe, Undergraduate Research at University of North Carolina - Greensboro, and Lynne Montrose, Experiential Education, Regis University. They will jointly be presenting strategies for implementing undergraduate research, internships, and experiential learning.
For more information, contact Liz Pruett.
CLAS committee openings
There are openings on several CLAS committees due to resignations, retirements and sabbatical leaves. Please send your name to Mary Coussons-Read if you are interested in serving on one the following committees:
Dean’s Advisory Committee (tenured social sciences opening)
Academic Ethics Committee (social sciences opening)
Scholarship Committee (integrated sciences opening)
Smart-Girl seeks interns
Exciting new mentorship program
This year we are starting a new partnership with Smart-Girl, Inc., a non-profit Colorado organization that provides peer-mentoring and leadership training for middle school girls in the public schools. We are seeking 15 students (female) to participate in the program this year, and plan on expanding the program to include all students (not just girls) in the future. Enrolled students will participate in a mandatory 2-credit hour training course (offered over a weekend) and will then work as part of a leadership team with girls at Kempner Middle School for approximately 3 hours per week through the remainder of the academic year, for which they will earn 3 hours of academic internship credit by the end of Spring 08. Please post the attached flyer in your department and/or announce the program in your classes if you are comfortable doing that, and pass the word on to students whom you think might be interested in this exciting program. The attached flier includes meeting times and registration information, and you can learn more about Smart-Girl at their website and ours. Please contact Mary Coussons-Read if you have further questions.
University Scholarship Team Grants
Call for proposals due September 28
The Office of Research Services and the Center for Faculty Development at the Downtown Campus of the University of Colorado Denver announce a new grant program, The University Scholarship Team Grants, with total funding up to $18,000. The purpose of the UST Grant program is to provide resources for collaborative, scholarly and creative work. Funding will support teams composed of faculty and students who identify scholarly or creative problems of mutual interest and who jointly seek solutions to these problems in informal environments outside of the classroom. Teams may be disciplinary or interdisciplinary and are encouraged to involve members from both campuses.
Applications must be received by the Research Services Office, Lawrence Street Center 300 (Campus Box 120) by 5 pm, Friday, Sept. 28.
CCHE Faculty-to-Faculty Conference
Friday, Oct. 12, at the Sheraton Denver Tech Center
This year the Faculty-to-Faculty conference will feature a P-20 theme, while accommodating the yearly content group faculty-to-faculty discussions during the afternoon schedule of the conference’s agenda. The conference will focus on how 1) to focus on the state’s education systems’ role in the P-20 education pipeline; and 2) to provide a context within which two-year and four-year faculty can discuss issues of transfer articulation, credit by examination, assessment and accountability and the re-calibration of the Pathways process within their respective disciplines.
UCDHSC has a record of consistent faculty participation in this CCHE conference, and I encourage all undergraduate colleges to participate. It would be very helpful if at least one UCDHSC faculty member from each of the afternoon breakout content areas below could attend.
Arts and Humanities
Natural and Physical Sciences
Mathematics
Communication (English composition)
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Business
Engineering
Teacher Education (Secondary)
Please have interested faculty contact Vicki Leal at CCHE no later than Wednesday, 10 October 2007 with their RSVP. Please copy John Lanning on your e-mail reservation to CCHE.
Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP)
Please encourage your students to participate in the 2008-2009 student grants program. UROP enhances undergraduate education on the Downtown Denver Campus by providing funding for students engaged in research, creative, and entrepreneurial activities in collaboration with UCDHSC faculty members. Projects may be designed around the scholarly activities of a faculty member, or designed independently by a student and endorsed by a faculty sponsor. All undergraduate students enrolled in a degree program on the Downtown Denver Campus of UCDHSC and who are in good academic standing are eligible for participation in the program. Furthermore, any regular UCDHSC faculty member is eligible to sponsor one or more UROP students.
For more information (the application and other dates will be updated as we enter the fall semester), please visit the UROP website.
Free chairs to a good home
The Department of Modern Languages is giving away 12 metal chairs with cloth padding on the seats and backs (six red and six blue). Although they are old, they are still in good condition. If you are interested in seeing them, please contact their computer lab director, Ileana Gross.
Their lab, located in room 115 in the Plaza building, has open hours on Mon.-Thurs., 9am-6pm and Fri., 10am-2pm.
Faculty on the Move
Brenda J. Allen was the kickoff presenter on August 29 and 30 for the combined sections of First Year Seminar courses, sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Education. The topic of her interactive lecture was “Diversity Matters at UCDHSC.”
Assistant Professor Maria Talero from the philosophy department will present at two conferences this fall: the 32nd Annual Meeting of the International Merleau-Ponty Circle (sponsored by the University of Memphis) from September 27-29 in Memphis, Tenn. and the Conference on Cognition: Embodied, Embedded, Enactive, Extended from October 20-24 at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla. (Information)
Professor Diana Tomback from the department of biology was quoted in “Good news for griz – for now” in the Jackson Hole Star Tribune on August 31 regarding her research on whitebark pine.
Reminders & Events
Colorado Center for Public Humanities Lecture Series
Don't miss the inaugural lecture!
Thursday, Sept. 6
Michael Berube, Paterno Family Chair in Literature at Penn State University
“Intellectuals and Publics”
Tivoli Turnhalle
12:00 noon
“What Happened to Cultural Studies”
The Laboratory of Art & Ideas, Belmar
404 S. Upham Street, Lakewood
6:30 pm
Economics: ‘Uninsured Children: Do Child Support Policies Make a Difference?’
Thursday, Sept. 6
Laura Argys, PhD
4th Floor Conference Room, Lawrence Street Center, 1380 Lawrence St.
4:00-5:15 pm
INFORMATION: Department of Economics, 303-556-4413
Grader requests due by Friday, Sept. 7
Please submit your grader requests for classes with enrollments greater than 100 students to Tammy Stone by the end of the week.
Economics: ‘Complete Mean-Variance Preferences’
Tuesday, Sept.11
W. Henry Chiu, Ph.D. from University of Manchester, UK
4th Floor Conference Room, Lawrence Street Center, 1380 Lawrence St.
4:00-5:15 pm
INFORMATION: Department of Economics, 303-556-4413
Philosophy Department Lecture
Thursday, Sept. 20
Guest lecturer: Michael Zimmerman, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Humanities and the Arts University of Colorado at Boulder
"Will technological advances lead to a transhuman era?
Plaza Bldg. M108A, Haber Library
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
“The Art of Search Committees: Increasing the Quality and Diversity of UCDHSC Faculty”
Friday, Sept. 28, 2007
CU Building Room 490
2:00 pm– 4:00 pm
Audience: Individuals who are chairing or serving on search committees
Presented By: Kevin Jacobs, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Human Resources
Please RSVP by sending an email to Julia Agazio with your name and department by September 25.
Ethnic Studies Open House
Monday, Oct. 1
12:00 – 1:30 pm
Lawrence Street Center Terrace (2nd Floor)
For more information, call 303.556.2700.
Colorado Center for Public Humanities Lecture Series
Thursday, Oct. 4
Stephen Prothero, the chair of the Department of Religion at Boston University
“Religious Literacy: What Americans Need to Know”
Tivoli Turnhalle
12:00 noon
The Laboratory of Art and Ideas, Belmar
404 S. Upham Street, Lakewood
6:30 pm
Poetry Festival, hosted by the Copper Nickel
Thursday, Oct. 18
King Center Recital Hall
5:00-9:00 pm
Friday, Oct. 19
King Center Concert Hall
12:00-5:00 pm
Final Exhibition
Friday, Oct. 19
The Lab at Belmar
4004 S. Upham Street, Lakewood
7:00-10:00 pm
More event details to come. Contact Jake Adam York with questions.
UCDHSC Fall Open House
Sunday, Oct. 28
11:30-2:30 pm
PE/Event Center
IN THIS ISSUE:
Interim Dean
Jim Hageman
Prehistoric Tour
Request for syllabi
Official Function Guidelines and Procedures
Academic Early Alert
3rd Annual First Year Experience Symposium
CLAS committees
Smart-Girl
University Scholarship Team Grants
CCHE Conference
UROP
Free chairs
Faculty on the Move
Reminders & Events
ARCHIVES:
Past issues since Jan 21, 2007.
USEFUL LINKS:
Campus News (PostExpress archives)
The CLAS Deans' Notes is a weekly newsletter
for department chairs and staff.
EDITORS:
Rick Wilson
303.556.2557
Rick.Wilson @cudenver.edu
Katy Brown
303.556.6663
Katy.Brown @cudenver.edu