January 13, 2023
Summary
This is my first Friday message as your new Acting Dean, and I am honored to be the person sending it. It’s a joy and a privilege to work alongside you, and I look forward to supporting and learning from you all during my semester in this role. I am especially grateful to the wonderful team that Maria assembled in Ewell for all their advice, hard work and support as I transition into this new position. Here are some highlights of the work we’re doing now, and plan to complete or undertake in Spring 2023.
Full Description
Dear A&S faculty and staff,
This is my first Friday message as your new Acting Dean, and I am honored to be the person sending it. It’s a joy and a privilege to work alongside you, and I look forward to supporting and learning from you all during my semester in this role. I am especially grateful to the wonderful team that Maria assembled in Ewell for all their advice, hard work and support as I transition into this new position. Here are some highlights of the work we’re doing now, and plan to complete or undertake in Spring 2023.
We were delighted to welcome two new members of the A&S team to Ewell this week: Abbie Schaefer, our new Communications Director; and Janice Zeman, who will be the Acting Dean of Arts, Humanities & Interdisciplinary Studies for this semester while I am in the Acting Dean role. Thanks to both of them for the energy and vision they are already bringing to their new roles.
Our work for the spring semester will include (but will not be limited to…):
Enrollment management and predictions have been a complicated process recently, as you all know. Thank you for stepping up and accommodating all our students in courses for spring 2023. We will work to streamline our processes going forward, so that we’re all able to plan more efficiently.
We have three external reviews taking place this semester in English, Linguistics and Psychological Sciences.
We will continue to work on implementation of the new framework for Teaching or Research Faculty. More updates on that soon, but we are making excellent progress.
An A&S working group is developing syllabus language and guidelines for the use of AI writing tools (eg ChatGPT) in courses. We hope to have those ready to go in time for you to incorporate them into your syllabi, if you want to.
We are working on a new and improved matching process for pre-major advising.
Applied/experiential learning and internships are an important focus of Vision 2026, and we are working hard with EPC and the Career Center to improve the way we manage and fund these experiences for our students.
Plans are afoot to expand the Writing Resources Center in a Multi-Modal Communications Center. Thanks so much to Lori Jacobson, Director of the Writing Resources Center, and Len Neighbors, Lecturer of Speech, for their continued work on this.
Finally, the steering committee for the computing, data and applied sciences initiative will spend the spring semester exploring strategies for the future. We look forward to reaching out to you all to get your thoughts, views and advice as we move forward, including on planning for Arts & Sciences as a whole. Thank you to those of you who have agreed to serve on the committee.
Upcoming Events
Novelist Colum McCann will be visiting campus and giving a talk on Feb 16th. We will also be sponsoring a Story Exchange run by McCann’s group, Narrative4. Stay tuned for more information on that, and thanks to Wanjiru Mbure, Assistant Dean of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, for organizing these events.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or comments, and remember that the A&S dialogue box is always available for you to share your thoughts.
Best wishes for the long weekend,
Suzanne
Suzanne Raitt
Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences
Chancellor Professor of English
Pronouns: she/her/hers
