30 April: Deadlines for faculty development opportunities

Date: April 30, 2003

To: The Faculty

From: Madelyn Burchill, Chair, Professional Growth Committee Sabine O’Hara, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College

Regarding: Deadlines for faculty development opportunities

The Professional Growth Committee, in conversations with Dean O’Hara, has made changes in the schedule of deadlines for virtually all of our competitively awarded faculty-development grants. We will be assigning one application deadline in the fall for the majority of programs, and one deadline in the spring for programs, which are dependent on faculty members’ knowledge of summer plans.

On the first day after fall mid-semester break (in 2003, this date will be October 22), applications will be due for the following programs:

Sabbaticals

Centennial Grants

Bush Grants that do not involve retreats

Research Grant support through the Undergraduate Assistant Program

Strategic Initiative Grants & Regents Scholars Grants

Applications for the following programs will be due on March 15:

Summer Study Grants

Degree Completion Grants

Bush Grants involving retreats (interdisciplinary retreats and department/program retreats)

Our goal in making these changes is to improve communication and allow for a more careful planning and review process for faculty, departments, the professional growth committee, and the academic affairs office. The fall deadline, for example, will allow ample time for department chairs to work out release time issues related to the release time awarded to recipients of Centennial grants. The change in the application schedule is also linked to the emphasis that we would like to see placed on thoughtful formation of goals by faculty members, encouraging them to make the best use possible of the opportunities available to them.

We wanted to alert you now to this change, so that you will have time to plan your applications for grants that will now have earlier deadlines. If you have any questions about these changes, please contact Sabine O’Hara or members of the Professional Growth Committee:

Madelyn Burchill, Chair

Jim Forde 

Heidi Goldberg 

Linda Keup 

Gregg Muilenburg 

Jim Postema.

25 April: Appointment of department chairs

Subject: Appointment of department chairs
April 25, 2003
From: Sabine U. O'Hara, Vice President and Academic Dean
To: Faculty and Administrative Staff

It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of the following department chairs for three-year terms from 2003-04 to 2005-06:

Jon Clark - German

George Connell - Philosophy

Mark Jensen - Chemistry

Barbara McCauley with Ed Schmoll serving as interim chair for 2003-04 - Classics

Larry Papenfuss and Bob Nick serving as interim co-chairs for 2003-04 - PE/Health and Athletics

Mary Rice - Spanish

Bill Tomhave - Mathematics

Mike Wohlfeil; with Noell Reinhiller serving as interim chair for the fall of 2003 - Education

Please accept my sincere thanks for your willingness to serve on behalf of the college and your department colleagues. My thanks also go to outgoing department chairs Eduardo Gargurevich, Marilyn Guy, Stan Iverson, David Mork, Gregg Muilenburg, and Armin Pipho, for their service and valuable contributions.

My sincere thanks also go to Jonathan Steinwand who has served with dedication and creativity as chair of Principia. Your contributions will be missed, Jonathan. Thank you for all you have done in leading our principia program to a new focus. Dan Breedon, Chair of the Division of Core and Integrative Studies will begin his work with our Principia faculty to provide continuity and coordination and I expect to be announcing the appointment of a new principia director in the near future.

And last but not least thanks to Scott Olsen for his leadership and many contributions to our environmental studies program. Per Anderson and Keith Landa have agreed to co-chair the environmental studies program and I am grateful for their willingness to serve in this capacity.

Thank you all for your many contributions during this busy academic year and best wishes for a successful conclusion of the academic year 2002-03.

24 April: Summer Task Force

Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003
To: Faculty
From: Marsha Hendrickson for Senate Coordinating Committee
Re: Summer Task Force

This is a reminder that, at its April 28 meeting, the Faculty Senate will act on a motion to create a Summer Task Force to continue the current work of the Core Committee, the Curriculum Task Force, and the First-Year Experience Task Force. This motion is included in the meeting agenda, which was recently published. If the motion is approved, we expect that the Faculty Senate will seek to elect four at-large faculty members to serve on this Summer Task Force.

We encourage you to consider participation in this very important process. If you are interested in participating, please contact a member of the Senate Coordinating Committee to nominate yourself to be on the ballot for this anticipated election.

Thank you.

Senate Coordinating Committee

Per Anderson

Polly Fassinger

Larry Papenfuss

Barbara Ronningen

Ron Twedt

10 April: Division Chairs

Date: April 10, 2003
To: Concordia Community
From: Sabine U. O'Hara, Academic Vice President and Dean of the College
Re: Division Chairs

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Concordia's first Division Chairs.

Jim Aageson, Arts and Humanities - 3 year term

Dan Breedon, Core and Integrative Studies - 4 year term

Stan Iverson, Literatures, Languages, and Cultures - 2 year term

Mark Covey, Natural Sciences and Mathematics - 3 year term

Marilyn Guy, Social Sciences and Professional Disciplines - 4 year term

My sincere thanks to the members of the advisory committees for their invaluable and thoughtful comments and considerations and to the members of Senate Coordinating Committee for their tireless efforts in assessing and recommending our division structure. My thanks also go to the entire Concordia faculty for their generosity and trust that have allowed us to complete the ambitious task of implementing a division structure before the end of this academic year. Thank you all! I look forward to our continued working together in this new structure of shared decision making and collaboration.

3 April: Handbook Revisions

Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2003
To: Faculty
From: Sabine O'Hara, Academic Vice President and Dean of the College
Re: Handbook Revisions

The changes to the Faculty Handbook that were first proposed in February can be viewed on the Academic Affairs web site at http://www4.cord.edu/acadAffairs/handbook/Default.htm.  Revisions to these originally proposed changes can also be viewed at the site.

The changes to Chapter 1 require a constitutional change. We have received the necessary signatures of more than 10% of the faculty to open discussion on these proposed changes.

I look forward to seeing you on Friday, April 4, at Community Time.