HSU General Faculty
December 4, 2003
Dear Colleagues:
My November letter to you has turned out to be a December letter. I can't remember a busier semester. How about you?
First, a few congratulations are in order to several of our colleagues in the news:
Congratulations to Professor Susan Armstrong, Philosophy, who has been awarded Outstanding Professor of the Year for 2003-04. The recommendation letter by the committee, read and accepted in the Academic Senate several weeks ago, was an impressive document of her excellent contributions to HSU.
Congratulations, too, to Mary Greta, better known to all of us as Greta, Office Manager of the Academic Senate. She has been promoted to the Office of the President where she has begun her duties half time. Our plan is to find a replacement for her by the first of the year, and the interview process is underway.
Congratulations, also, to Professor Luke George, Wildlife Management, who was elected by you, the general faculty, to the Humboldt Foundation Board of Directors.
Dates to Remember
- Yes, regardless of budget cut planning and other dismal scenarios, we still plan to party-down on Monday, December 15th at the Annual Holiday Party sponsored by the General Faculty and the CFA. It will be held in the Plaza Grill room at Jacoby Storehouse from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Come and celebrate with us.
- Update: Fall grades are due online on January 5th at 12 noon. (Offices are closed on January 2nd.)
- Spring advising for both freshmen and transfer students is scheduled for Friday, January 16th. The latest draft from the HOP folks indicates that transfer advising is scheduled for 8:30 until 11 am; freshman advising from 11 - 12:30 pm.
Academic Senate
An important agenda item will be considered at the next Academic Senate meeting on Tuesday (December 9). Ken Fulgham and the Faculty Affairs Committee members have finished a series of community forums, dealing with alternative strategies to the existing RTP process. It would be good to have departmental representatives at this presentation, scheduled ~ 5 p.m. that day.
Provost's Council
The two November meetings in the Provost's Council were spent reviewing and then approving the subcommittee reports on program and departmental reviews for Communication, Wildlife Management, and Rangeland Resources/Wildland Soils. Being a relatively new member to faculty governance, I was unaware of what happened to those program reviews once the departments had spent those many hours and resources on developing and writing them. Perhaps you are also unaware of the committee review process that occurs, prior to the funding committee recommendations, which, by the way, will be reviewed in this very council, come December 17. In other business, the proposed Master's in Social Work Program also was approved. Early January meetings will review proposed 2004-05 budget cut scenarios presented by each Dean and other academically-related program administrators.
Other Meetings
The Master Planning Committee has had two meetings focused on campus/community housing needs in the coming decades, and on current and future parking needs. A group of students did a remarkable presentation on alternatives to driving to the campus. Strong support from committee members for strategies to eventually include bicycle paths and storage, as well as improved bus transportation were voiced. To Be Continued.
President Richmond called a meeting with CFA representatives and other campus representatives to a "family friendly" committee meeting to plan for ways to implement the growing needs on campus for maternity/paternity leaves, departmental scheduling of them, and space issues that support the needs of both student and faculty families. He will appoint a committee to continue this discussion.
HOP/Orientation committee has Gwen Robertson, Art, and myself, on a subcommittee on major advising at HOP sessions. We have had a number of suggestions from you colleagues, as well as from the Provost and Assoc. Provost, on ways to improve what takes place at these sessions, especially about how to integrate what faculty do with what else goes on during HOP. We would love to have feedback on what you like, as well as what doesn't work well at all. For starters, we have suggested that freshmen and transfer students be separately advised, and that only transfer students with SOTCs in hand should show up to the major advising meetings. We will implement these on a trial basis in the coming January advising sessions.
That should be more than enough for you to read for now!
Happy Holidays,
Lou Ann Wieand
Professor of Psychology
Humboldt State University
Arcata, CA 95521
Phone: 707-826-5263
Fax: 707-826-4993
E-mail: law3@humboldt.edu