VCAA Newletter

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back. I do hope that your summer was filled with many fun-filled activities with family and friends and that you had time to explore the marvels of the globe. I know that some of you were doing research in Europe and Africa; others were busily engaged in scholarship with colleagues from across the country. I, too, took time off to visit family in Portland, and while there attended my first meeting as a fellow in the Society for Values in Higher Education. Melanie and I took advantage of our time on the west coast to spend quiet time in the mountains north of Vancouver, a spectacular area.

But the summer was also a busy time preparing for the academic year. There was still more work to be done on Mission Differentiation. Among several tasks to be completed, the campus has been asked to identify four peer institutions and three aspirant ones. Dave Vollrath and I will be working with the faculty in determining that list. Work continues on the Higher Learning Commission Self-Study. Eileen Bender and Becky Torstrick are providing extraordinary leadership. Just yesterday, the steering committee and all the faculty and administrative chairs of the evaluation standards met in a retreat at Fernwood to discuss progress to date and to affirm the work plan for this academic year. Because of the team’s diligence, I’m confident that IU South Bend is well on its way to a successful self-study and re-accreditation visit. The Annual Report for Academic Affairs is complete and will, hopefully, be on the Academic Affairs webpage within the next month. This year’s annual report chronicles faculty and student success. Many thanks to each of the deans and academic directors who provided information to the report and special thanks to Associate Vice Chancellors Linda Fritschner and Salina Shrofel and Nancy Plennert who did the yeoman’s work in doing the report.

The academic deans, directors and I will spend more time this semester studying summer school. As you are aware, the changes in our summer school scheduling that we introduced this summer did not produce the desired outcomes. We need to determine why there was a decrease in summer school enrollment and to analyze the new changes in course delivery and how they may have affected enrollment. The deans and I will also spend considerable time charting progress of our Strategic Plan.

The American Democracy Project begins its second year. Thanks to the outstanding leadership of Elizabeth Bennion, the ADP has been a boon for campus dialogues among faculty, staff, students and community about issues of democracy and individual responsibility. The ADP Annual report and the list of activities for the Fall semester can be found here. Last spring, Ken Smith approached me about participating in the American Democracy Radio Series. You can read my remarks, which were done on Graduation Day, here.

The American Democracy Project is sponsoring a series of events celebrating the United States Constitution the week of September 17th in compliance with federal law. For a list of activities click here.

Elizabeth Bennion has invited all staff and faculty to participate in our campus American Democracy Project. She is seeking ideas and involvement in Table Talks, One Book, One Campus, the ADP Weblog, and public radio series on WVPE. If you are interested in participating in any of these four areas please contact Elizabeth at ebennion@iusb.edu.

Good news: Twenty-nine full-time faculty will be joining our academic community this fall. Of the twenty-nine, twelve are women and twelve are members of underrepresented groups. A list of these faculty can be found here.

The 2005-2007 Bulletin is now available on-line. Please check it out here and let Erika Zynda know if you see any problems.

CACREP The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs has accredited the IUSB School of Education's Community Counseling M.S.degree and School Counseling M.S. degree, both for a two-year period. Congratulations to everyone involved in this effort.

The meetings on General Education sponsored by the Professional Advising Council held by Joe Chaney in March and April, 2005 were a great success. There were 64 people total in attendance at the four meetings, representing numerous academic units.

International Student Services: As of today, we have received 10 applications from Julie Williams's two recruitment trips to Southeast Asia this spring. The majority of the applicants are graduate students from Thailand. One student has been awarded a full scholarship from the Ministry of Finance in Thailand. Her scholarship will cover all of her tuition, fees, living expenses, and miscellaneous expenses while she is a student here at IU South Bend.

We have also been hearing some great news about some of our recent graduates:

Hong Xia Wang, MBA, Aug. ’04, has been admitted to a Ph.D. program in Finance at Southern Illinois University this fall. Hong Xia is from China.
Leila Mbazogpho-Ndong, B.S. Biology, Dec. ‘04, has been admitted to four or five medical programs in the U.S. She hasn’t decided which school she will attend in the fall. Leila is from Gabon.
Meng-Fang Tsai, M.S. Education, May ‘05 will begin a Ph.D. program in Educational Psychology at Purdue this fall. Meng-Fang is from Taiwan.
Motonori Yamaguchi, B.A. Psychology, May ’05, graduated with a 4.0 gpa (highest distinction). He has been admitted to a graduate program at Purdue this fall. Motonori is from Japan.

KUDOS

Karen Ackoff, Associate Professor of Fine Arts, was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, an international group of scientific and medical illustrators. Congratulations to Professor Ackoff.

Tammy Fong-Morgan delivered the keynote address at SBC Leadership Forum. Her speech was informative and organized, as well as entertaining. Tammy did a great job representing IU South Bend in such a positive way, by both receiving the grant to develop her online course, and then sharing her experiences at the forum.