VCAA Newletter

Dear Colleagues,

I will not be able to join you this Friday for the Academic Senate. I will be in Washington D.C. at the National Research Council reading Ford Foundation postdoctoral and dissertation fellowship proposals in the humanities. I've been a reader of these proposals several times during my academic career and enjoy reading about the exciting research of future scholars and university professors. Have a good meeting. I look forward to joining you at the April Senate meeting.

Budget: On Monday the deans and I, working with faculty leaders, narrowed the suggested budget reductions for the AY2003-04 into three tiers of roughly $300,000.00 each. In order to be more fiscally conservative, a few of the budget cuts may actually take place beginning AY2002-03. Once the deans have had a chance to reflect on what we have proposed, I will forward the document to the Senate budget committee for review and comment.

Searches: Internal searches are being conducted for directors in General Studies and UCET. Interested faculty are encouraged to apply. Within the next few days, we will be conducting interviews for the director of financial aid. I am encouraged by the strong pool and look forward to filling this critical position.

I will attend the next IU Board of Trustees meeting on April 4 and 5. Last year the board approved several new degree programs contingent on ICHE approval and appropriate funding. Because no programs were funded, we must demonstrate to the board how we will operate the programs without new funds before the programs may be implemented. I will ask for approval to move forward with the MS in Applied Math and Computer Science and the BS in Actuarial Science programs. I will also seek board approval for a new certificate program in Technology for Administration.

IUSB's 19th annual Job Fair will be held on Friday, March 22 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the new Student Activities Center on campus. The Fair promotes job opportunities for college graduates, alumni and is open to all degreed and soon-to-be degreed job seekers from any academic institution across the U.S. For additional information about the Job Fair, please visit

the following web site. http://www.iusb.edu/~jobfair/

The Centralized Services Committee was established to look at those services for students which should be administered centrally and has been meeting since early February. Committee Members are: Doug McMillen- CLAS (Chair), Karen White- SASS (Co-Chair), Pat Agbesiafa-Business, Wayne Bartholomew-Business, Mike Carroll -Registrar, Jacquie Caul-Academic Affairs, Melchor DeGuzman-SPEA, Rick Dennie -Academic Resource Center, Vicki Geschke-SASS, Janet Gilroy-Nursing & Health Professions, Jennifer Good-CLAS, John Lewis-CLAS, Tamea Rector-Arts, Christine Richardson-Career Services, Darrell Sanders-Education, Lisa Shaffer-Enrollment Management.

The Committee is currently discussing plans for the New Student Orientation programs this summer and how to best deliver this all-important service to our incoming student population. With the Direct Admit system now fully implemented, all new students to IUSB will have the opportunity to meet with a faculty member in their academic discipline at Orientation.

Other issues the Committee will address are fostering student retention, dealing with current students in academic difficulty, reinstating students to the university after being dismissed, and integrating other key offices into the first-year experience, such as Career Services.

Kudos:

Thanks and appreciation are extended to Linda Fritschner and Christine Chmielewski for their extraordinary direction and care of the Office of General Studies. They have assured that the office remains responsive to student needs during this interim period as we restructure the unit within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

And to Bill Schwartz for being selected as an external examiner by the Department of Accounting at the University of Technology in Jamaica.

Lectures:

Joan Metelli will be presenting the next Dean's Seminar this Friday, 15 March 2002. Her talk is entitled "The Art of Singing vs. The Science of Singing: Freeing the Bel Canto Sound." We will gather at noon in the Northside Main Auditorium and lunch will be provided by VERISMO, the IUSB Voice Student Organization.

The Lundquist Lecture, entitled "Interlocking Economies," will be presented by Paul Joray on March 22, 2002 at 7:30 in DW1001.

Receptions:

The Publication Reception will be held this year on April 12, 2002 at 3pm in the 5th Floor Lounge of the Library. This is being held in conjunction with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference again this year. We hope you will all join us in celebrating scholarship on our campus.

The reception to honor Retiring Faculty will be held on May 6, 2002 at 4pm in the Alumni Room. Faculty who will be honored at this reception include: Richmond Calvin, Ted Hengesbach, Len James, Curt Leggett, Romesh Mehra, and George Nazaroff.