15 December - Winter Commencement

To: All Faculty and Administrative Staff

From: Office of Academic Affairs

Re: Winter Commencement

This year's Winter Commencement will be held this Friday, December 17 at 7:30 p.m. This is one of the four occasions during the academic year of particular relevance when academic garb is worn. As stated in the Faculty Handbook, all full-time faculty and administrative staff are expected to attend. The procession will form at 7:15 p.m. in the North Gym. Attached you will find the procession order. Thank you for your participation in this special event.

14 December - Grade Submission

TO: All Faculty

FROM: Carole Stalheim, Registrar

DATE: December 14, 2004

SUBJECT: Grade Submission

Final grades for the Fall 2004 Session will be due on or before December 21 at 4:00 P.M. You will be able to access your classes on the WEB beginning Tuesday, December 14 at 12:00 noon.

For any problems accessing the WEB, please contact Dr. Alex Sze, WEB Support Specialist at sze@cord.edu or at x4153.

Thank you for your continued support in this process

8 December - Budgets

To: Department Chairs

From: Mark Krejci, Interim Dean & VP for Academic Affairs

Colleagues,

You have or will shortly receive the budget packet for the coming year. In it, you are told that services and supplies will increase at the rate of 3.5%. This is how I plan to distribute the 3.5% in the Academic Affairs area. Each department can raise their budgets at 2.5% at the discretion of the department/director. The budget you submit should reflect that level of increase. If your needs are greater than this, I will have the remaining 1% as a mini-enrichment fund that I will use to increase budgets in dire need. You should submit this request to your Division Chair - stating how much money you need and for what it will be used. The DC's and I will review all of these requests and allocate these resources on an as needed basis.

Thank you for your work on the budgets.

7 December - Deadline for Grade Submission

To: Faculty

From: Mark Krejci, Interim Dean and VP of Academic Affairs

Re: Deadline for Grade Submission

As we bring another semester to a close, let me begin this message by thanking you for your efforts towards providing our students with such a rich academic experience. The purpose of this memo is to remind faculty that the deadline for submission of first semester grades is December 21 at or before 4 p.m. Please take care of this obligation in a timely manner.

There are two important reasons for enforcing this deadline: (1) so that academic decisions can be made about individual students and (2) so that grade reports can be sent to students while they are at home during the break.

The Academic Standards Committee meets on December 23 to determine which students will be placed on probation or dismissed from Concordia College due to poor academic performance. All grades must be in the system and reports generated before the committee can do its work. Further, students are waiting during break for their grades and I have heard of their disappointment when all grades do not arrive in the mail.

Thank you for your complying with college policy regarding grade submission.

Since this may be my last communication with you before break, please accept my best wishes sent in the spirit of the Christmas season: Peace on earth—Good will to all.

6 December - F.Y.I. Assessment and Institutional Research Newsletter

TO: Faculty and Administrators

FROM: Kay Schneider

RE: F.Y.I. Assessment and Institutional Research Newsletter

The December edition of the F.Y.I. Newsletter is online at: http://www.cord.edu/dept/acd/local/assess/dec2004.htm

Contents include:

--A profile of faculty by rank, gender, tenure status, etc.

--An executive summary of the TOCAR student survey results.

--An update on the senior survey.

Hard copy is available upon request.

6 December - Faculty development opportunities

Date: December 6, 2004

To: All Faculty

From: Jim Aageson, Chair, Division of Arts and Humanities

Re: Faculty development opportunities

Following is a list of programs, workshops, grants and conferences available for faculty professional development and growth. Some opportunities are also available for students, so please contact any students who may be qualified.

Complete information including descriptions, eligibility requirements, and registration deadlines about each of these is located in the Division of Arts and Humanities Office in BW247, or contact Shanda Schmidt at the Division of Arts and Humanities (4344 or sschmidt@cord.edu).

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The dean's office will sponsor three faculty members to attend the winter Collaboration Conference in Bloomington. "Assessment: Informing Teaching, Learning, & Institutional Change" will be held February 18-19, 2005. Please contact Jim or Shanda if you are interested in attending.

The AAC&U annual meeting. "Liberal Education and the New Academy: Raising Expectations, Keeping Promises will be held January 26-29, 2005 in San Francisco http://www.aacu-edu.org/meetings/annualmeeting/index.cfm

The International Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society will be held February 18-29, 2005 at the University of California, Berkeley. 

http://www.Technology-Conference.com

The Conference on Innovations in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at the Liberal Arts Colleges will be held April 1-3, 2005. Sponsored by St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/cila/InnovateConf/Innovations.htm

The AAC&U winter conference "General Education and Assessment: Creating Shared Responsibility for Learning Across the Curriculum" will be held February 17-19, 2005 in Atlanta, GA http://www.aacu.org/meetings/generaleducation/index.cfm

The AAC&U spring conference "Pedagogies of Engagement: Deepening Learning In and Across the Disciplines" will be April 14-16, 2005 in Washington, DC http://www.aacu.org/meetings/pedagogies/index.cfm

3 December - Nominations for the position of Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College

To: Concordia College Faculty and Staff

From: The Dean Search Committee

Re: Nominations for the position of: Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College

The vacancy announcement for the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College has been published in the Chronicle of Higher Education. A dean search website has been created and is available for review at the following address:

http://www4.cord.edu/deansearch/homepage.htm

The purpose of this memo is to invite nominations and applications for the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Concordia College. You are encouraged to nominate yourself, another person at Concordia, or a person off campus. Your nominations should include the full name and contact information of the nominee. Nominations and/or applications should be sent electronically to Dr. Ann Die Hasselmo at concordiavpaa@academic-search.org

The search committee will begin reviewing files at the end of January and continue until the position is filled. Our intention is to bring finalists to campus for interviews beginning the last week of March, 2005. Strict confidence will be maintained throughout the process until the finalists are announced. If you have any procedural questions related to the search, please feel free to approach any member of the search committees.

Dean Search Committee

Vincent Arnold, Committee Chair

Lois Cogdill

Sharon Hoverson

Susan Larson

Larry Papenfuss

Ron Twedt

Lisa Vang