| November/December 2005
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Progress in Undergraduate Education Two weeks ago, I made a presentation to the Board of Trustees about the progress in, and challenges to, the College of the Liberal Arts. In that presentation, I discussed our strategic plan, the increase in stature and accomplishment of most of our departments, improvements in graduate and undergraduate education, and financial challenges facing us. I thought it might be useful to share some of the facts from this report with our faculty and staff—as a way of increasing awareness of the achievements of our departments, colleagues, and students. The next paragraphs focus in particular on our undergraduate programs. Let me begin by putting our undergraduate programs in context. With more than 5,000 majors, we now graduate more undergraduates each year than any other college. Last year we awarded more than 1,800. But that's not all: an average University Park student, regardless of college, takes more than three of our courses each year, on average. Obviously, the quality of what we do is critical to undergraduate education at Penn State. Enrollment challenges In the midst of our advancements on our strategic plan has come a huge enrollment surge, one that presents significant challenges. What is remarkable is that even as our enrollments have increased substantially, we have still increased the quality of our undergraduate experience. We now have by far the largest enrollment of any college at University Park, and nearly double the next largest. As you can see on the left side of this chart, our enrollment jumped especially dramatically in the past decade. We are now teaching about 125,000 students annually, nearly 27,000 students more than we did a decade ago. By the way, this includes a small increase in the number of students coming from the campuses at their junior year. Our growth alone—of 27,000 students—is larger than the total enrollment of several of our sister colleges (Agricultural Sciences, Arts and Architecture, Communication, Earth and Mineral Sciences, and Education, for example). But the right side of the graph also shows that we are efficient; our real costs of instruction fell significantly during the past decade. How do costs of instruction decline? An obvious way is to increase class size, but we did not take that approach. Our classes are the same average size as a decade ago. Rather, our increasing efficiency is due to reduced administrative costs, to department heads' attention to class sizes and closing under-enrolled sections, and to increasing the proportion of our classes taught by full time, non-tenure line faculty. Curricular Developments Our undergraduates are an important part of our advancement, and we are providing more opportunities for them than ever before. Let me just outline a few highlights. A Liberal Arts' curriculum is, at its core, international, as our faculty members study the cultures, languages, economies, histories, and politics of countries around the world, as well as focus on international political and economic conflicts. Foreign language enrollments have skyrocketed during the past decade. (As elsewhere, Spanish is leading the pack, but we have also seen substantial growth in Asian languages and significant growth in most of the other languages we offer.) The study of other countries and of globalization more generally is also growing in many other fields, as this chart (showing the growth of enrollments in international courses in economics and political science) indicates. Our freshman seminar program is vibrant, and I am confident that each of our freshmen has the opportunity for an outstanding classroom experience with a fine teacher. The table shows a sampling of the interesting freshman seminars offered this year and illustrates the intellectual breadth of our faculty and departments. About half of our students have also been participating in out-of-classroom experiences—what we call enrichment—these experiences include study abroad, internships, and research with faculty. This year, Jack Selzer and Sylvia Neely are working with departments to help them integrate study abroad into their majors more seamlessly in order to reduce institutional barriers to study abroad. Of course, some students face financial barriers, and we are making this need for support a priority in our coming fundraising campaign. We are also working to better prepare students for their study abroad experiences, with language and cultural training, and to help students be more than tourists and be able to use their new skills upon their return. For example, we are hoping we can offer some courses in “traditional fields” in a foreign language, such as a history course taught in German. We are also exploring ways to diversify the study abroad experiences such that a whole class might go for two weeks, or enjoy research experiences or internships while abroad, etc. A significant number of our students also participate in internships, and the number and variety of their experiences has enriched their educations. Our students appreciate it as a career planning move and as a boost to their confidence and transition to adulthood, so our departments are being asked by students to provide more opportunities and our alumni are offering more and more such experiences—many of them quite remarkable. This year our Undergraduate Studies Committee, under the leadership of Rich Carlson, is taking up the task of finding additional ways to involve more students in undergraduate research experiences—either in support of faculty research or in pursuit of their own research projects. I look forward to hearing their ideas, and I'm sure our departments do as well. Finally, you should know that we are also offering a quality Liberal Arts education to students around the world. Liberal Arts has developed the first three bachelor's degree programs to be offered by the World Campus, so students can get either a bachelor's degree in Letters, Arts, and Science; Law and Society; or Organizational Leadership. These degree completion programs have proved to be extremely popular, with more than 1,000 enrollees. Shown here is one recent graduate, Kelly McKee, who enrolled in our Letters, Arts, and Sciences program after a terrible accident that disabled her. A master's degree in organizational leadership is now being prepared, and the College is also serving our Commonwealth campuses with thirty courses offered or in development through Penn State online to campus students as well as our own University Park students. So far, University Park students have been most of the enrollees in these online residential instruction courses, however. I have only skimmed the surface of what are many exciting developments in undergraduate education around the College. (Two of them involve ethics and excellence in communication, and in the future I will have a chance to report on initiatives in these areas that are now in the planning stages.) I appreciate that the College's undergraduate committee and many of our departments are hard at work to improve even more the quality of education we offer our undergraduates. With regards, Susan Welch College faculty and staff are invited to the College holiday party, Monday, December 5, 2005, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Hintz Family Alumni Center. Mark your calendar. We hope to see you there! Faculty Grants and Honors Grants The Africana Research Center 's Emerging Scholars Speakers Series, with Beverly Vandiver, Director of the Center, and Philip Atiba Goff, assistant professor of psychology, as leaders, has won a grant of $10,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for use over approximately two years. The Hewlett Foundation has extended their funding to Francis Dodoo, professor of sociology and demography, to develop population training at the University of Ghana for an additional three years. Mark D. Shriver, associate professor of anthropology, subcontracted from the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Science Center, for “Genetic Regulations of Hypoxyia-Induced IUGR.” Honors Cheryl Glenn, professor of English and women's studies, was elected to the post of assistant chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), a professional association of some 6,200 members. The assistant chair becomes chair the following year. Cheryl's election is the latest in a series of leadership positions attained by our rhetoric and composition faculty in the Department of English. Jon Olson, assistant professor of writing, is president of the International Writing Centers Association; Jack Selzer, professor of English, is president-elect of the Rhetoric Society of America; Stuart Selber, associate professor of English, is vice president (scheduled to become president) of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing; and Keith Gilyard, is the former president of the CCCC. Another faculty member who works in the area of rhetoric, Elaine Richardson, associate professor of English and applied linguistics, has been named co-winner of the National Reading Conference's 2005 Edward Fry Book Award for her recent book, African American Literacies (Routledge, 2003). Alan Walker, Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology and Biology, and Pat Shipman, adjunct professor of anthropology, were jointly awarded the 2005 Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology (CRAFT) Award for Outstanding Research from Indiana University at Bloomington. The CRAFT Research Center is directed towards investigating the archaeological origins and evolution of human technology over the past three million years. The WebEvents Calendar features lectures, talks, and conferences sponsored by units within the College of the Liberal Arts and by the College. If you have something that you would like posted to the calendar for your department, please send entry submissions to Carol Sonenklar at cas499@psu.edu.
The Red Weather Reading Series JOB TALK with Amy Winans Amy is a Ph.D. whose degree was in early American literature, with an emphasis in African American literature. She will host an informal discussion of her current research in global issues in imperialism, with particular reference to South African Apartheid and legal issues faced by African Americans in North America in the twentieth century. She will also discuss some job-hunting issues. The Red Weather Reading Series is supported by grants from the English department and Schreyer Honors College. CAMS Lecture Series-Fall 2005 December 2, 4 p.m. Lowell Edmunds, Professor of Classics, Rutgers University Afternoon Lecture Series Cecil Giscombe, professor of English
Luncheon Lecture Series Alexander Huang,
assistant professor of comparative literature and Chinese December 7, 12:15-1:30 p.m. Bénédicte Monicat,
associate professor of French and women's studies
Labor Studies and Industrial Relations Speaker Series December 1, 4–5:30 p.m. Ben Campbell, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania The Comparative Literature Luncheon Series December 5, 12:15–1:30 p.m. Sing-Along The German Christmas Sing-Along ("Weihnachtsliederabend") will take place on December 7, 8–9 p.m., at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in downtown State College. Musical entertainment will be provided by the faculty and students of the Penn State Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literature. Fall Commencement Fall 2005 Graduate School Commencement Ceremony Fall 2005 Baccalaureate Commencement Ceremony Our College campaign is well underway and our events have been very successful. Both faculty and staff members of the College of the Liberal Arts have a history of generous contribution to the annual United Way campaign. Please help us increase participation in the College-level events and our overall donation total by supporting the remaining activities and continuing to contribute at an individual level. Thanks go to our United Way committee, which sponsored the recent online auction, netting more than $1,700 for United Way, and to those departments that contributed baskets and other items for the auction. Both of the used book sales, which netted $1,230, were also a great success. Many thanks to all who helped: Chris Bundy, Tanya Hockman, Robin Robinson, Jan Wallace, Diane Snyder, Angie Auman, Betsy Will, Sandy Wingard, Missy Price, Christine Laur, Jennifer Glasgow, Erin Eckley, Alice Fogg, Marilyn Byers, Sherri Bumbarger, and the maintenance crew for set up. If you need to obtain or exchange parking permits, please come to Room 111 Sparks Building, Monday through Friday, from 9 to 11 a.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. only. Please remember to bring your license plate number(s) with you when you register for your permit. Once you have a permit, please be sure you report new or changed license plate numbers to Michelle Aitkin at mla12@psu.edu or 865-7691. As a reminder, if you are leaving the College, you will need to return your parking permit to 111 Sparks Building. Esther Benitez, staff assistant VI, psychology Vernett Brooks, staff assistant V, African and African American Studies, labor studies and industrial relations, and women's studies Theresa Heaton, staff assistant VI, undergraduate studies Maureen Mulenga, academic counselor, African and African American Studies, labor studies and industrial relations, and women's studies Barbara King, staff assistant VII, Center for Work and Family Studies Antonia Mooney, administrative assistant I, African and African American Studies, labor studies and industrial relations, and women's studies Sandra Moyer, staff assistant VII, history, religious studies, classics and ancient Mediterranean studies, and Jewish studies Diane Plummer, administrative assistant I, psychology, Child Study Center, Psychological Clinic Amy Yearick, staff assistant VI, psychology, Child Study Center, Psychological Clinic Paulette Rider, staff assistant IV, psychology, Child Study Center, Psychological Clinic Kerry Wiessman, project assistant, psychology December Holiday Schedule Announced Except for essential services and operations, University offices and operations will close at the end of normal business times on Thursday, December 22, and will reopen at normal starting times on Tuesday, January 3, 2006. In keeping with this schedule, biweekly payroll checks will be distributed on Thursday, December 22, and will be negotiable on that date. Monthly payroll checks will be distributed before the close-down begins, but will be dated Friday, December 30, and will not be negotiable before then. Automatic deposit to checking accounts will not occur early. Questions regarding this holiday schedule should be directed to the Liberal Arts Human Resources Office at 865-6487.
It is important that all faculty and staff maintain a current home address with the University. The only method for changing your home address is to file a new W-4 form. A current address assures that the University can communicate with all faculty and staff on a timely basis and also assures that the money that is being deducted from each pay for PA local income tax is being forwarded to the correct municipality. Please be sure your information is accurate. All employees can view their current home address information through the ESSIC system: LA Times is compiled by Carol Sonenklar, Alumni Relations and Development Office, 13 Sparks, 865-8085. LA Times is also available on the Web here. This publication is available in alternative media on request. Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please consult Michelle Aitkin 814-865-7691 in advance of your participation or visit. The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admission, and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. It is the policy of the University to maintain an academic and work environment free of discrimination, including harassment. The Pennsylvania State University prohibits discrimination and harassment against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Discrimination or harassment against faculty, staff, or students will not be tolerated at The Pennsylvania State University. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to the Affirmative Action Director, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-5901; Tel 814-865-4700/V, 814-863-1150/TTY U. Ed. LBA 06-130 |
