Winter provides a time of reflection on the accomplishments of the faculty and students in the college and I would like to recognize their hard work, cooperation and perseverance. Here are a few representative examples:
The Institute for Language Information and Technology moved into its quarters in the Cooper Building last summer and held its first international working conference in February. The Institute is setting global standards for the representation, visualization and archiving of languages.
This past fall, the inaugural cohort of students began study in the online master’s program in Integrated Marketing Communications, a success of close and intense cooperation between faculty of the colleges of Arts and Sciences and Business.
In February, the colleges of Arts and Sciences and Education conducted a second Winter Summit. We took stock of how far we have traveled already on the path to re-accreditation of our education curricula and learned about effective implementation of assessment from our science faculty.
And as I write this column, more than half of the new faculty searches for fall have been successfully completed, including three searches that failed in previous years.
The end of the academic year is the time when our students demonstrate their learning and academic excellence. Our student team in political science participated with great success in Mock Trial competitions in Columbus, Lima and Cincinnati, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Pa., Notre Dame, Ind., and Evanston, Ill. Meanwhile, the forensics student team had an impressive sweep at the state championships, and finished second nationally. Congratulations to senior Chris Griesinger, who earned three national championships (prose interpretation, after-dinner speaking and persuasive speaking).
In March, I attended the theater production of “The Good Person of Setzuan” by Bertolt Brecht with set design and lighting conceived by our 2006-07 McAndless Scholar N. Scott Hofmann. It was a truly impressive collaboration of our theater students and faculty with our scholar in residence.
The college also hosted Undergraduate Symposium XXVII at the EMU Student Center March 30. More than 240 students participated along with 147 faculty sponsors. A special exhibition of sculptures created by our Symposium luncheon speaker Brent Collins was on display in the Student Center Gallery. I am particularly pleased that through the generosity of college friends and supporters, we have funding to offer 25 Symposium Research Fellowships. Reaching this milestone in only the second year of our Research Fellows program demonstrates that student learning and faculty mentorship is a central value for the academy, and is valued internally and externally.
Students and faculty are elated that the EMU Board of Regents approved the science complex construction program (see cover story, page 4). When complete, the estimated $100 million project will directly affect five of the college’s 18 departments (biology, chemistry, geography and geology, physics and astronomy, and psychology), including 90-plus faculty and thousands of students.
In addition, the Pray-Harrold expansion and renovation project has been submitted to the state for approval and funding. Furthermore, we are in the initial stages of formulating a program proposal request for an arts complex/village project.
I look forward to working with all of you to advance the success of our students, to enhance the academic excellence of our faculty, to foster our interdisciplinary and intercollegiate entrepreneurship, to expand cooperation agreements with universities overseas, and to implement the pending renewal projects.
Students first: Dean Hartmut Höft and Angela Lucas review class registrations together.