Monday Memo November 16, 2015

Message from the Associate Dean for Graduate Education

Dear A&S Colleagues, Student success and highly effective teaching are highlighted as current priorities for the University, and they are certainly priorities for the College, which has a long tradition of leadership and commitment to these areas. Currently, we are faced with challenges that will require some innovative thinking if we are to continue to be successful in our teaching mission, and we cannot assume that new resources will be available. Here are some of the things we need to do relating to graduate students and graduate education (with thanks to Julia Dietrich, who has outlined similar priorities for undergraduate education):

• increase the number of funded graduate students;
• increase the number of students enrolled in our graduate programs;
• raise graduation rates “while remaining financially accessible to all who can be successful, paying particular attention to traditionally underrepresented populations” (A&S Priorities);
• raise the national and international visibility of our graduate programs, students, and faculty
• enable faculty to develop innovative courses, programs, or pedagogies with the expectation of being recognized and rewarded;
• reward faculty, departments and programs for leadership and mentorship in graduate education.

If you are willing to be part of a discussion of these and related issues, please let me know . I look forward to talking about how to best move our graduate programs forward in this very tight economic climate.

Sincerely,
Wendy Pfeffer
Associate Dean for Graduate Education

Announcements

A&S Awards: Nominations due Dec. 1
The deadline is fast approaching! Please nominate your faculty and staff colleagues for a 2015-16 A&S award. Awards will be given at the College’s first-ever Celebration of A&S Excellence at the Red Barn on March 10, 2016. In addition, the winners of each qualifying award category will be forwarded to the President and/or Provost’s Offices as the College’s nominations for the corresponding University-wide awards. The various awards include the A&S Distinguished Faculty Awards, the Outstanding Performance Awards for staff, the Supervisor Awards, the Diversity Champion Awards and the Hall of Honor, and faculty and staff award recipients receive a $500 stipend.

Food Bank collection through November in GAR 104
A&S Advising is collecting for the Dare to Care Food Bank this November (it is being coordinated by Kourtney Hall. If anyone in the Dean’s office would like to donate, we are keeping the boxes in out conference room (Gar 104). The top 10 most needed items are: peanut butter, soup, canned fruit, beans, rice, tuna, cereal, fruit juice, pasta, and canned vegetables.

Faculty Fellows applications due Friday, Nov. 20
Beginning next year, the Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society will be organized around an annual theme that provides the foundation for the academic year's scheduled events and for a Humanities Research Lab, involving a bimonthly colloquium. CCHS invites applications for up to six Internal Faculty Fellows around the selected theme for 2016-2017: Mapping the Humanities. Fellows will receive at least one course release as well as a modest supplemental research/travel stipend from CCHS. For more information, visit Faculty Fellows

Give the Gift of Giving this Holiday Season
The A&S Dean’s Office is supporting (through donations) Giving Day at Slaughter Elementary, held this year 12/18. Giving Day is the day every student at Slaughter has the opportunity to go “shopping” in the “Giving Store” for special gifts for family members. After selecting the gift(s), they return to their classrooms for a wrapping party.

Slaughter has an extremely high poverty rate and has one of the highest percentages of ESL students in Jefferson County, so there is tremendous need. Past donations have included a wide variety of new or gently used items including: jewelry, clothing items and accessories, puzzles, holiday decorations, toys stuffed animals, kitchen items, games, sports equipment, mugs, games, hats, CDs, DVDs, art supplies, small electronics, purses, wallets, books, etc.

Please bring all items you wish to donate, including wrapping paper for the wrapping party, to the A&S Dean’s Office by December 11. We will deliver the items to Slaughter in time for the Giving Day. If you have questions, contact Lindsey Ronay .

Items of Note

Annual GIS Day
The Annual GIS Day will be celebrated Nov. 18. The festivities will begin in the Shumaker Research Building (SRB 139) at 10:30am. Technical presentations, drone demonstrations, geocaching and maps will all be part of the celebration. Free to all faculty, staff and students! For more information please visit www.ulcgis.org. This event is sponsored by the UofL Center for GIS.

First Annual George R. Pack Award presented
On Nov. 11, the scientific, educational, and administrative contributions of Professor George Pack (1946-2013), former Chair of Chemistry and Associate VP for Research, were remembered with the presentation of the 2015 George R. Pack Award for Most Outstanding Chemistry Dissertation. Following donations from family, friends, colleagues, and students, this award was inaugurated in 2014 to recognize Dr. Pack’s achievements in building the research program both in Chemistry and at the University, and his appreciation of the key role of graduate student researchers in this process. A reception was held in honor of 2015 Award Recipient Ralph Knipp, PhD, who presented a brief talk on his current research activities.

A&S on LinkedIn
Are you on LinkedIn? If so, be sure to go to “University of Louisville College of Arts & Sciences” or search for and follow us. This new page is an official university page, so if you are a student or alumnus/a, you can actually list us in your profile under education! If Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram are your druthers, follow us at one or all of those!

In the News

I got slimed by Marco Rubio: The massive debate fail shows off his ignorance (Salon, 11/11/2015) – Prof. Avery Kolers (Philosophy) on the Republican presidential debate.

Art Pick | August Wilson’s ‘The Piano Lesson’ (The Courier-Journal, 11/12/2015) – Theatre Arts’ performance of ‘The Piano Lesson’ a must-see.

Visually Speaking: this week’s art news and events (11/9) (LEO Weekly, 11/9/2015) – On the Third Annual Open Studio Weekend.

Did You Know?

The University of Louisville has an undergraduate population of 15,702, and 47% are students in the College of Arts & Sciences.