VCAA Newletter

Dear Colleagues,

Our nation has much for which to be thankful during this season of thanks. We have participated peacefully in a democratic process to elect our president and other national leaders. Through the American Democracy Project over five hundred students registered to vote. I sincerely hope that each of them exercised his or her privilege of independence by voting. Although our country faces many challenges, we are a land of enormous prosperity; we enjoy riches of human and natural resources and we are fortunate to have an abundance of civil liberties. As we prepare to spend time this holiday season with family and friends, may we remember those across our globe who do not share our gifts of freedom and prosperity. I offer my own thanks to each of you for the work that you do daily for our students. Best wishes to you during the Thanksgiving holiday.

Graduate Faculty Membership

On October 4, 2004, the University Graduate Council approved new policies regarding graduate faculty membership and new procedures for nominating faculty for membership. All tenure-track faculty will now automatically become members of the graduate faculty. Information about the new policy and procedures for nominating faculty in other categories may be found at the link below. http://www.indiana.edu/~grdschl/faculty.html

Assessment

Several IUSB faculty members attended the Assessment Institute in Indianapolis earlier this month. They returned inspired with new assessment ideas and tools. Aurora Chase, Nancy Colborn, Randall Davies, Linda Fisher, Hossein Hakimzadeh and Barbara Peat learned, among other things, about the role of assessment in accreditation, the NSSE survey, assessment of student teachers, assessment of general education, electronic portfolios and assessment plan development. Barbara Peat also had the opportunity to spend time one-on-one with a HLC expert discussing student outcomes assessment.

Overall, the participants found the Assessment Institute to be beneficial and enjoyable. The experts at the conference gave the participants insight into all of the facets and stages of an effective assessment program both at a basic and a more sophisticated level. Linda Fisher returned with a new mantra for assessment at IUSB. As the presenter in one session succinctly summed it up, “1. Say what you do. 2. Do it. 3. Prove it. 4. Improve it."
The Assessment Committee urges academic programs to submit an updated assessment plan. These plans need to be developed and tested before the next accreditation visit of the Higher Learning Commission. A member of the Assessment Committee would be happy to discuss assessment plans individually with departments. There are also a number of resources available on line, (http://www.iusb.edu/~sbassess) or in print, (Assessment Office (x5598) or rculbert@iusb.edu)

Also, those programs which still need to submit an annual report for the 2003/04 need to do so as quickly as possible. If you have any questions or concerns please contact Linda Fisher, Chair of the committee, (x4442).

Search and Screen Committee members for the Dean of Business and Economics and for the Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences are listed for your information:

LAS Dean Search Committee
Mary Jo Regan-Kubinski, Chair
Jerry Hinnefeld
Jeffery Rhyne
Karen White
Morteza Shafii Mousavi
Monica Tetzlaf
Neovi Karakatsanis
Jim Wolfer

B&E Dean Search Committee
Tom Miller, Chair
Raj Kohli
Linda Blodgett
P.N. Saksena
Bruce Wrenn
Fred Naffziger
Douglas Agbetsiafa
Nancy Duncan
Mark Fox
Hossein Hakimzadeh
Mary Nurenburg
Ken Klimek

KUDOS

Mike Keen has been elected to the Board of Director's of the Association for Graduate Liberal Studies Programs. He presented the revisions we are making in our program and these were well received. We are seen as one of the leaders in responding to some of the problems that have been facing MLS programs across the country.

IUSB has the highest participation rate in the Cyberinfrastructure Research Study Survey initiated by President Herbert to study the appropriateness of IU's cyberinfrastructure for research. There is still a little time to respond to the survey (till 11/19/04). Please log on to https://secure.iue.edu/cybertech/ Congratulations and thanks for participating.

IU South Bend Marketing and Advertising Students Win National Award - Members of Dr. Monle Lee’s M418-Advertising Strategy, spring 2004 class scored big in competition sponsored by the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation, Inc. (DMEF) and the Advanta Corporation in the DMEF’s 2004 Collegiate Echo competition. Among 150 entries, two teams from Indiana University South Bend won awards. Congratulations to all!