- Committee on Administrative and Trustee Appointments (CATA)
- Committee for International Programs
- Community for Community Based Learning and Collaboration
- Committee on the Status of Faculty of Color
- Educational Programs and Policies Committee
- Faculty Senate Editorial Board
- General Education Executive Committee (GEEC)
- University Honors Program Oversight Committee
- Lectures and Forums Committee
- Personnel Committee
- Presidential Advisory Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics (PACIA)
- Research Programs and Policies Committee
- Student Award Selection Committee
- University Study Leave Committee
- Report of Committee on Administrative and Trustee Appointments (CATA) Activities for the 2008-2009 Academic Year
The Committee on Administrative and Trustee Appointments (CATA) had no requests to recommend faculty members for either administrative or trustee appointments during the fall and spring semesters of the 2008-2009 academic year. On Monday, May 18, 2009, the committee was asked to assist in identifying faculty members who might serve on the search committee for the Vice President for Institutional Advancement. Our search for appropriate faculty members is ongoing as I file this report.
Anthony J. Ranere, Chair
Committee on Administrative and Trustee Appointments (CATA)
This academic year the committee again sponsored a 'Global Temple' Conference in November. The one day conference included, paper presentations, panel discussions, poster exhibitions, film presentations and a performance hour. The International Programs staff report that approximately 400 people were present for the various sessions.
The committee also met to advance the goals of the new Office of International Affairs and met with the Provost and her staff about concerns over the need to search for a new director of that office. Currently the committee is involved in planning for a 'Global Temple' Conference for November of this year and in making recommendations for Temple's involvement in The Center for International Initiatives at the American Council on Education (ACE).
The committee also voted to elect Rita Krueger and J. Brooke Harrington as co-chairs of the committee starting in January of 2009.
Brooke Harrington
The Senate Committee for Community Based Learning and Collaboration accomplished three primary objectives during academic year 2008-2009.
First, the committee finalized a set of institutional criteria for Community Based Learning at Temple. These criteria were approved by both the EPPC and Provost Staiano-Coico. Section numbers are currently being assigned and the new criteria will begin identifying courses as CBL beginning in Spring, 2010. The criteria are attached.
Second, the committee has established a ‘community planning group’ to work with the committee to institutionalize community based learning and campus-community partnerships in the spirit of reciprocal collaboration. Both the faculty committee and the planning group have identified a set of guiding principles for a campus-wide Community Based Learning Initiative. This group is composed of a diverse group of community based organization staff from a broad range of service providers throughout the city. The roster of planning group members is attached. (See below)
Third, the committee developed a budget proposal to support a set of outcomes to continue institutionalizing Community Based Learning at Temple. The budget and outcomes were developed as the result of research into similar initiatives at comparable universities across the country. The budget and the outcomes were presented to Provost Staiano-Coico in March. The committee’s proposed budget was included in the University’s budget, which was recently approved by the Board and is expected to be finalized in July. The budget and outcomes are attached.
Eli Goldblatt (committee chair for 2007-2008) and Novella Keith (committee chair for 2008-2009) were also awarded a seed grant of $50,000 to support the committee’s activities in the coming year.
Faculty Senate Committee for Community Based Learning: |
|
| Darcy Sebright | Treehouse Books |
| Carolyn Placke | Project Home |
| Karen Warrington | Congressman Brady's Office |
| Philip Lai | Coffee Cup Senior Center |
| Tara Schwartzendrubber-Landis | Nationalities Service Center |
| Cartherine Blunt | PPS, Parkway Center City High School |
| Stacey Woodland | Girl Scouts of Eastern PA |
| Veronica Joyner | Mathematics, Civics and Sciences Charter School of Philadelphia |
| Taehoo Lee | ROCK Project (Temple Adjunct) |
for 2008-2009
The Committee on the Status of Faculty of Color worked to foster a community of inclusive excellence through intercultural dialogue and education programs.
Two weeks before the historic election of Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency, we presented a forum on race and the race for the White House which attracted hundreds of students, was broadcast live on the Internet, and received front-page coverage in the local news section of the Philadelphia Inquirer. In the spring, we hosted a faculty reception to celebrate the diversity of our distinguished faculty that featured greetings from Provost Lisa Staiano-Coico and an address from former mayor John F. Street.
In addition, we engaged in a couple of successful collaborative ventures. Working with Paley Library and the Temple University Press, we organized four “Chat in the Stacks” events that offered faculty from diverse disciplines, including History, English, Theater, Biology, and Kinesiology, to share research that excited dynamic exchanges over issues of diversity in American culture. We also helped the Temple University Black Alumni Alliance and the Development Office to put together a spring recognition ceremony on honor of Dr. Molefi Asante.
A recent AAUP national faculty survey found three-quarters of the respondents believed that gaining an appreciation for diversity is a vital part of higher education and a comparable number called for hiring more faculty of color to promote intercultural competency. Accordingly, we have maintained a dialogue with the provost, seeking to establish best practices for recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty.
Our plans for next year include the following programs: 1) graduate symposium, 2) undergraduate forum, 3) faculty dialogue, and 4) recognition ceremony. In addition, we will organize four more “Chat in the Stacks” events.
Dr. Roland L. Williams, Jr.
Chair
The Educational Programs and Policies Committee (EPPC) met approximately every two weeks during the 2008-2009 year. Among the topics we focused on were:
- Faculty Development for instructors of Writing Courses
- New procedures for identifying and promoting Community-Based Learning Courses
- Review of the work of the new Student Feedback Form Committee
- Recommendation to the Provost’s office of a policy on multiple repeats by a student of the same course. The final recommendation reads: “Any student who fails a course twice has a hold put on their registration and must see an advisor. A student who has failed a course three times cannot register for that course the fourth time without the permission of his/her dean”.
- Review of current policies on the acceptance of AP, CLEP, International Diploma, and Military course credits
EPPC still has one more meeting scheduled for this year. We will be discussing the granting of credit for Life Experience.
Mary Anne Gaffney
Chair
- Faculty Herald Editorial Board of the Temple University Faculty Senate May 2009 – End of Year Report
Submitted by: Frank Friedman, Committtee Chairman
David Waldstreicher, Editor
Aaron Sullivan, Assistant to the Editor
Board Members: JoAnna Moore, Linn Washington, SCT, Bill Woodward, Law, Steve Zelnick, CLA
Lewis R. Gordon, CLA (Past Editor), Joan Jasak, CLA (Past Assistant to the Editor)
Note: This report contains much the same material (with some expanded content) and follows the same format as the interim (December 2008, Herald Advisory Board report. Comments and corrections may be sent to Frank Friedman, mailto:frank.friedman@temple.edu.)
A. New Herald Stewardship
We are pleased to report that the Herald began the year under the very able stewardship of Professor David Waldstreicher of the History Department and Assistant Editor, Aaron Sullivan. David and Aaron to continued the fine work of Lewis Gordon and Joan Jasak, providing enhancements, new initiatives and unique flavor of their own, as we continued to work to improve the Herald, increase its responsiveness and readership, and increase faculty interest and participation in University and community affairs. The Board is extremely appreciative of the consultation Lewis provided David as well as Joan’s efforts in bringing Aaron up to speed (See Joan’s summary, below). Their efforts have been instrumental in making the editor transition as seamless as possible. David and Aaron are now, and have been for some time, “their own men.” The Advisory Board believes that David and Aaron have accomplished much of what they and we had hoped for with regard to the above goals. We look forward to an even better Herald next year.
B. Position Descriptions – Editor and Assistant to the Editor
At the request of the Faculty Senate officers, position descriptions, vetted by current and immediately past Herald Editors and Assistants to the Editor were submitted to Senate President Karen Turner midway through the Fall Semester.
C. Herald Issues for 2008-09
The first issue of the Fall, 2008 Herald (Vol 39, No. 1) came out early in October. The Herald editorial addressed two key issues related to the contract negotiations (the role of department chairs, and merit), as well as pro and con issues related to the new Gened program. Terry Halbert authored an article on Gened, and Ken Ihrer of University Computer and Information Services wrote about Phishing. We expect to continue to seek out reports on key University initiatives such as the Gened program, and to provide more information on technology. The second Fall, 2008 issue (Vol 39, No. 2) appeared in early December, and contained several extremely evocative Letters to the Editor, an editorial on University-Faculty negotiations, and a main article (by Assistant Editor, Aaron Sullivan) on the new Banner Enterprise System.
Two Herald issues have already come out this Spring and one more is due (probably before this report is completed). The first issue, Volume 39, No. 3, appeared in mid-February and covered the following items: a profile on Beasley School of Law Professor David G. Post and his new book, In Search of Jefferson's Moose; notes on the State of Cyberspace; and an article on the Office of Sustainability by Sandra McDade. It also included an open letter to President Hart by Vallorie Peridier on merit and performance pay in private industry and academia, a letter from Frank Friedman on assessment, values and whether Temple is” doing any good", and a letter Laurence Steinberg on TAUP's new contract proposal.
Volume 39, No. 4 appeared in April, 2009 and included an in-depth interview and discussion with Joe Schwartz, in light of his new book, The Future of Democratic Equality; a look inside Alter Hall and its new classroom technologies; guidelines for textbooks and other instructional material from the President's Cost Savings Committee, and letters from Frank Friedman (on the ongoing negotiations), Paul LaFollette, Jr. (on budget cuts and changes in the administrative structure), other letters from Michael Neff, Daniel O'Hara, Shannon Miller, and a letter from a group of 51 faculty in response to Laurence Steinberg's letter from the previous issue
D. Letters to the Editor
This past Fall, The Herald Advisory Board discussed the handling of letters to the editor and ways to ensure that the letters are a) current and accurate and b) that efforts are made, as appropriate, to ensure that members of the University community that may be affected by such letters be informed of their content. We are aware of the ease with which the line between ensuring awareness and censorship can be crossed, but we believe it is better that members of the community who may be impacted by specific letters be informed of their content prior to publication rather than be caught by surprise. Rebuttals to letters, editorials, and articles will continue to be welcome, but only after the original item has been published.
Bill Woodward suggested the possibility of a point-counterpoint forum in the Herald, especially concerning controversial issues. It was agreed that the most practical approach to providing a venue for on-going discussion throughout the year was to encourage additional correspondence in the form of Letters to the Editor. The editors of the Herald have already begun to do this, by inserting new letters into the most recent Herald and calling attention to these letters through an email to the entire Faculty community. The first such announcement of new letters went out in mid-December, and several more have appeared in 2009. We are excited by the increases in interest that these letters have generated (and the increase in readership, too -- yes – we have numbers to back it up). Bill’s suggestion to announce between issue letters new perspectives have stimulated on-going discussions and helped keep important issues in the forefront of debate on the campus. As expected, they have also had the added benefit of increasing “circulation” by drawing readers to recent issues the Herald.
E. Support for the Assistant to the Editor
The Board discussed assistantship support (stipend and tuition) for Aaron. Cheryl Mack and the FSSC, working together with Bill Wilkinson in the Provost’ Office, found the funds needed to support Aaron. We are now working toward establishing a budget that reflects the new realities of an electronic Faculty paper and an Assistant to the Herald Editor who plays a critical editorial and technical role in the publication of the paper. The Assistant not only provides the usual assistance in gathering, writing, and organizing material for publication, but now also plays a major role in the mechanics of electronic publication of the paper. This work is critical to the timely publication of the paper as well as the appearance and ease of navigation through each issue.
F. The Herald and TAUP
In a correspondence to the Board dated 31 October, Steve Zelnick raised the matter of opening the Herald to TAUP matters. At that time, and again in late April, Steve expressed his concerns that the Senate and the Herald had at least partly blurred the line between Union and Senate matters.
The Board reviewed Zelnick’s comments at its November 5th meeting and again at the April 30th meeting. The Board shares Zelnick’s concerns about blurred boundaries. However, we feel strongly that the current contract impasse is about far more than just the contract – that faculty consultation and governance are also at stake. The Advisory Board agreed that the Herald belongs to the entire faculty, and that Union matters (particularly the current contract negotiations) were often of concern to the faculty as a whole.
G. Report from Joan Jasak on Summer Work re Faculty Herald (by Joan Jasak)
Chairman’s Note: In Spring of 2008, Joan Jasak, Lewis Gordon, and the Herald Advisory Board agreed on a statement of work to be performed by Joan over the Summer, 2008. Below is Joan’s summary (from Fall, 2008) of this work. The work was supported from funding agreed to by the then President of the Faculty Senate, Dr. Robert Aiken.
Project 1: Digital Archive of Issues
Time frame: continuous throughout June 2008 – August 2008
Status: ongoing
Spent first portion troubleshooting how to / the best way to get the archived issues up:
Locate copies:
contacted George Miller at Evergreen to see if they have digital copies of issues published at their site (sales response)
contacted Joyce Joyce (response, but no follow-up)
contacted History editor (no response)
Scanning the issues:
realized that I’d have to scan in each issue, began planning best way to do this, lots of trial and error
contacted Johanna, Curator of the Visual Resources Library at Tyler, for help
each scanned issue is memory-heavy and incredibly time-consuming to scan, so I decided to scan in the first issue of each volume
spent the rest of the summer scanning in issues piecemeal, while completing the following two projects
Project 2: Redesign Site Structure
Time frame: continuous throughout June 2008 – August 2008
Status: completed in August 2008
This involved re-organizing the site to accommodate multiple volumes for the purpose of ease of access by the user. I began researching how other sites accommodate multiple volume publications and started to lay out the architecture conceptually. I incorporated the redesign into Aaron’s training, which leads to Project 3.
Project 3: Train the new GA, Aaron Sullivan
Time frame: Mid-July 2008 – August 2008
Status: completed in August 2008
Aaron’s training consisted of four incremental parts:
an introduction to the fundamentals of the process (an overview of the pre-publication tasks and of the steps in the publication process)
a hands-on look at site editing in Adobe Contribute (here is where Aaron and I updated the site design to accommodate multiple volumes)
training to create the PDF publication in Microsoft Publisher (the preparation of a mock-issue)
training to edit the site with the content from the PDF publication
H. Faculty List Serves
The Board has been concerned about the electronic distribution of the Herald, and whether the paper was reaching all Temple University Faculty, including NTTs and adjuncts. At the time of this report, it appears as though separate NTT and adjunct email lists have been made available to the Senate and are being used for Herald distribution. The Board welcomes additional suggestions for expanding the electronic reach of the Herald beyond the Faculty to other University community groups. Of particular interest might be readership among graduate students, faculty emeriti, the Board of Trustees, and oversees faculty not normally members of the U.S. (Pennsylvania) campus faculty. It does seem as though the Herald is reaching faculty at other campuses although it is not clear at this point if non-Philadelphia employees are receiving the Editor’s email announcements.
I. Shortage of Board Members
The Board remains concerned about the shortage of active members.
NOTE TO FSSC STEERING:
Four additional Board members are needed to fulfill the member count mandated by the Senate rules. We would appreciate some help in this regard. If the FSSC wants suggestions from the Board, we would be happy to try to provide some.
J. Next Meetings
As of April 30th, 2009, no additional meetings of the Faculty Herald Advisory Board re planned for this Spring.
The GenEd Executive Committee divided into subcommittees to more effectively address its tasks. The subcommittees accomplished the following:
Awards Subcommittee
The GEEC awards subcommittee evaluated 19 applications to select 3 winners of the Provost¹s Award for Innovative Teaching in General Education; it evaluated 27 applications to select 18 pairs for the Peer Teaching Program; two interdisciplinary teams were selected to team teach existing GenEd courses in Spring 09. After this first award cycle, changes were made to the language in the applications based on this group’s recommendations. In early June further award decisions will be made regarding Peer Teaching and summer stipends for interdisciplinary and PEX course development.
Assessment Subcommittee
This group participated in the AAC&U meta-rubric project, providing feedback on six draft rubrics and using them as models for ongoing work. The group drafted a rubric for critical thinking and a time-line for testing the rubric against Temple student work.
Peer Observation Subcommittee
Focusing on the vital GenEd learning goal of communication, this group decided to concentrate within that on identifying teaching practices that would enhance good classroom discussion. Their first step involved viewing videotapes of faculty leading discussion, and reaching consensus on a number of issues and traits. Each subcommittee member then contacted a faculty member still in the piloting phase of GenEd teaching with the offer to provide observation in three phases: a meeting before viewing the class to get oriented and hear from the faculty member as to goals and challenges; a classroom observation; a follow-up meeting for developmental (as opposed to evaluative) feedback. At the conclusion of this process the subcommittee then discussed moving forward with the TLC’s guidance, building a peer observation into a learning community of faculty interested in supporting one another in better understanding best teaching practices.
In addition, the plenary GEEC approved two waivers in Human Behavior, for Nursing and for Secondary Education, and reviewed and approved 12 new courses, four in the area of Human Behavior--the area in which GenEd most needs new courses.
During the Spring semester, we spent most of our time discussing ways in which the Honors Program could be enhanced. We will make the following proposals to the Provost:
1. Honors students should be allowed to priority register one day before their cohorts. Thus, for example. sophomore Honors students would be allowed to register on the same day as non-Honors juniors, etc. This is not only a perk offered my many other schools (and, as such, it is important if we want to compete for the best students - in fact some schools offer Honors students priority registration independent of class), but it is necessary for our Honors students, because they often have little or no choice of Honors sections for certain courses and they have to complete these courses in a timely manner in order to graduate on time.
2. Honors students in good standing should be allowed to register for up to 19 credits, with approval of the Honors Program directors, without having to pay for an overload. Again, this is a perk that is needed in order to make us competitive. In particular, many Honors science majors must take four 4-credit courses in addition to English during their first semester in order to stay on track, and it is unfair to asked them to pay for an overload. Further, such an arrangement would enable capable Honors students to broaden their education with a wider range of Gen Ed and other courses.
3. There should be an Honors Faculty Fellows (HFF) program, under which five faculty members per semester, preferably from different areas of the university (Sciences, Social Sciences, Humanities, Business and Arts) should be assigned to spend one-fourth of their workload in the Honors Program, mentoring, advising, programming and helping to identify and prepare Honors students to compete for national and international fellowships. HFF's should normally serve for a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 3 semesters in any 3-year period. HFF's should also normally teach an Honors course during each semester of their fellowship. In exchange for accepting this responsibility, HFF's will receive either a one-course reduction from their normal teaching load or a stipend (as yet to be determined) during each semester of their fellowship. Whether to receive the teaching load reduction or the stipend would be the choice of each fellow.
In addition to these three proposals, the committee has begun work on two proposal to go into effect in the future:
a) The Honors Program should be granted control of all of 1300 Cecil B. Moore Avenue, so that they can offer housing to Honors students throughout their undergraduate career.
b) An office of fellowships and scholarships should be established within the Honors Program to help identify and prepare students to compete for national and international fellowships.
These two proposals require further work, and will be put forth in the future.
Finally, in addition to the proposals above, the committee has approved an new Honors Program for the College of Engineering.
Orin Chein
Chair, HOC
Summary:
The Lectures and Forums Committee awarded $4,900 of its $5,000 budget to lectures and forums sponsored by departments from across the university on a wide variety of topics (see below)
Awards:
$5000 Budget
Proposer |
Speaker/Topic/Date |
Requested |
Awarded |
Total |
|
Rickie Sanders Geography/Urban Studies |
Rob Kitchin- “Soft Cities: Software and the remaking of the American City” 10/24/08
|
$500. |
500 |
4,500. |
|
Peter D’Agostino Film & Media Arts |
Antoni Muntadas - Post Election Review” 4/23/09- Nora Ligorano, Marshall Reese -“Post-Economic Meltdown?” 4/30/09 |
$500. |
500 dept. transfer (3 lecturers) |
4,000. |
Seth C. Bruggeman History & Amer. Studies
|
Bill Turkel “Public History” 4/22/09 |
$350. |
350 |
3,650 |
|
Chris Harper Journalism, Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab
|
Adam Ellick Afghanistan & the U.S.: Who’s Changing Whom?” 3/09 |
$500 Awarded but lecture postponed |
[500.] |
3,650. |
|
Brian P. Daly Dept. of Public Health College of Health Professions
|
David B. Sarwer Psychosocial Status & Eating Behavior before & after Bariatric Surgery” 3/19/09 |
$200. |
200. |
3,450. |
Rob Lamendola (student) Fox School of Business T.L.Hill (fac. adv.) General & Strategic Mgmt. |
Dr. Dickson Despommier - re: “vertical farms” Conference headline: “Can Local,Healthy Food Transform Our Community?” 4/8/09
|
$500 |
500. |
2,950. |
|
Sneha Patel Tyler School
|
Chris Taylor“Measures of Time, Travel, and Space: Exploring Land Arts of the American West” 2/4/09
|
$500 |
300. |
2,650. |
|
Eran Preis Film & Media Arts |
David Polonsky “Waltz with Bashir” 3/5/09 |
$300. |
300. |
2,350. |
Kara Clevinger, et al. Center for Humanities |
Dr. Paget Henry “Pleasures & Pitfalls of Interdisciplinary Work…” 4/2/09
|
$500 |
500. |
1,850. |
Gerald Silk Art History |
Dr. Cher Krause Knight “The Afterlife of Contested Public Art” - 3/30/09 |
$500 |
500. |
1,350. |
|
Aneta Pavlenko TESOL, CITE College of Education |
Dr. Panos Athanasopoulos “Linguistic Relativity and Language Learning” 4/8/09
|
$500. |
500. |
850 |
Cynthia Folio Music |
Germaine Ingram Bobby Zankel 3/17/09 |
$200. $200 |
400. |
450. |
|
Scott Ciammaichella MBA Student Assoc |
Gary German Business Challenges & Strategies in the Global Market 4/25/09
|
$250. |
150. |
300. |
|
Lois Millner Social Administration |
Dorothy Johnson-Speight & Bryan Miller - “Stories Behind the Statistics: The Human Cost of Philadelphia Illegal Gun Trade” 4/27/09
|
$100. $100. |
100. 100 |
200 100
|
The Faculty Senate Personnel Committee, during the Academic Year 2008-2009, considered four cases.
In two of those cases, the faculty member involved declined to file a written petition for relief from the Committee.
The remaining two cases, in which the Committee prepared a written opinion, involved an appeal from a promotion denial and a faculty disciplinary matter.
Respectfully submitted
Rafael A. Porrata-Doria, Jr.
Professor of Law
Chair
The President's Advisory Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics successfully completed its work as the core of the Steering Committee for the second cycle NCAA Re certification of Temple's Intercollegiate Athletics program. The Committee hosted the NCAA peer review team which visited campus for several days during the fall. In April 2009, the NCAA announced that Temple's athletics program had been fully certified without conditions, based on its self- study and the results of the peer review team's report.
The Committee meets three times a year and will be pursuing initiatives it developed this year, including increasing non athlete student enjoyment of the intercollegiate athletics program, creating a faculty mentoring program for student athletes, and coordinating with the Provost's office to explore the possibility of more flexible class scheduling, if feasible. In addition, the Committee created subcommittees on gender and racial equity, admission and graduation rates, APR and academic performance, and compliance and student athlete well being. Faculty representatives serve on each subcommittee.
Prof. Eleanor W. Myers
Temple University Beasley School of Law
1719 N. Broad St.
Phila. PA 19122
215-204-1923
Professor Marina Angel, Chair, Law School
This committee has existed for over thirty-five years. It has two major charges; 1) to advise the University on all research programs and policies, and 2) to distribute $50,000 a year in Faculty Senate Seed Money Research Grants.
Senior Vice President for Research Larry Lemanski has never consulted RPPC on any research programs or policies. In December 2008, by telephone call, I was notified by his Chief of Staff Rhonda Karp that administrative support supplied by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research to RPPC for over thirty-five years was being unilaterally withdrawn. RPPC was able to function this year because I had no teaching or research responsibilities Spring 2009 due to back surgery and because I have part time use of a secretary due to disabilities. A full time faculty member chair of RPPC cannot continue to function without the substantial, experienced administrative assistance that was supplied for over 35 years. The Senate President and Vice President have not been able to set up a meeting with Vice President Lemanski despite attempts over the last two months.
Research costs and grant requests have increased, but RPPC’s budget has not been increased in over thirty-five years. Senior Vice President for Research Lemanski has not provided any additional funds. Provost Lisa Staiano-Coico mentioned at a Faculty Senate Meeting that she was going to set up a research fund for the Arts and Humanities on Main Campus. RPPC volunteered to provide faculty screening and recommendations.
There are ten committee members, four elected by the Senate and six appointed by the Senate Steering Committee. The ten members are all respected and active researchers from schools throughout the University.
The names and affiliations of RPPC members follow:
Research Programs and Policies Committee (2008-2009)
Elected Members:
Marina Angel, LAW
Philip W. Harris, CLA, CRIM JUSTICE
Roberta A. Newton, CHP, PHYS THERAPY
Eva Surmacz, CS&T, BIOLOGY
Appointed members:
Z. Joan Delalic, ENG, ELEC ENG
Dan A. Liebermann, FELS INSTITUTE and CS&T, BIOCHEMISTRY
Jin Jun Luo, MED, NEUROLOGY
Laszlo Otvos, CS&T, BIOLOGY
Bassel Sawaya, MED, NEUROLOGY and NEUROVIROLOGY
Dennis Silage, ENG, ELEC ENG
This academic year, RPPC received twenty-nine applications for Faculty Senate Seed Money Grants. We made the following three grants in the Fall and four grants in the Spring.
Fall 2008 Grantees
Angelika Dimoka, Fox Bus, Marketing
- “The Potential of Functional Brain Imaging to Understand the Neural Correlates of Online Consumer Behavior”
- $10,000 Award
Marjatta Lyyra, CS&T, Physics
- “Measurement of the Permanent Dipole Moment of Ground State LiSr and LiYb Molecules for Applications Involving Ultracold Polar Molecules in Optical Lattices”
- $10,000 Award
Joanna Maselko, CHP, Public Health
- “Social and Spiritual Capital and Violence Risk Factors in Philadelphia”
- $10,000 Award
Spring 2009 Grantees
Matthew Greenbaum, Boyer Music & Dance, Music Studies
- “Nameless” Recording
- $2,600 Award
Jeremy Jordan, School Tourism & Hospitality
- “Running to Stop: Smoking Cessation, Physical Activity, and the Homeless”
- $6,000 Award
Christine Woyshner, College of Ed, Curriculum, Instruction, and Technology
- “Organizing Education: Voluntary Associations and the History of Schooling, 1870-1970”
- $4,400 Award
W. Geoffrey Wright, CHP, Physical Therapy
- “Virtual Environment Head-Mounted Display for Research in Sensorimotor Adaptation of Postural Coordination During Linear Acceleration”
- $7,000 Award
This year we revised our notices, grant application forms, notification letters, and review forms. We established ethical rules for our own proceedings. Since all of our members are active researchers, any RPPC member who submits a Faculty Senate Seed Money Grant application as a Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator may not participate in the any of the deliberations of RPPC during the relevant semester. Any RPPC member who has worked with a Principal or Co-Investigator may not participate in the decision involving that application.
As in years past, the Student Awards Selection Committee for 2008-09 had two main tasks: 1) to recommend a student speaker for Spring Commencement, and 2) to select or recommend students for Memorial Awards. After reading through the application materials and interviewing six applicants for student commencement speaker, we recommended to President Hart that she select Kendrick Davis, from the College of Engineering. I am happy to report that she agreed with our recommendation. We also selected recipients for the Feinstone, Walker, and Wachman awards and made recommendations to the Kean family for the award that they generously sponsor.
It was a real pleasure to chair this committee. Not only was it a delight to meet with the applicants for commencement speaker and to distribute funds to deserving students, I had the good fortune to work with a dedicated, wise, and congenial group of colleagues. Margaret Jones and Dean Ainsley Carry of Student Affairs were also very helpful in assisting us. In carrying out both of our tasks, we did realize that there may be ways to improve the procedure both for applying to speak at commencement and for the Memorial awards, and I have a memo in process to Dean Carry on both of these issues.
Steve Newman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of English
Temple University
The University Study Leave Committee evaluated 81 study leave proposals, 27 summer research award proposals, and 48 grant-in-aid proposals. These numbers were all up compared to the 73 study leave proposals, 24 summer research award proposals, and 38 grant-in-aid proposals last year.
Of the 156 proposals, 153 were recommended and subsequently awarded or will be shortly. This was the second year in a row that the Provost extended the deadline for study leave proposals which contributed significantly to the larger number received this year.
For last year and this, all grant-in-aid funds were used up for round I grant-in-aid awards which were funded at recommended levels. For both years, the Provost provided additional funds for round II grant-in-aid awards. Last year all were funded at recommended levels. This year, although all were recommended and funded, due to more round II proposals and fewer funds, it will not be possible to fund them all at the recommended levels. The committee would like to see just one round of grant-in-aid instituted from now on.
The committee hopes this trend toward more faculty applying and receiving each of these awards will continue. The committee would like to thank Chris Wolfgang, who was Associate Director, and Nelia Viveiros, Assistant Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, for their help and support. Finally, the committee welcomes Marsha Zibalese-Crawford as next year’s newly elected chair for 09-10.
Jim Korsh, Chair University Study Leave Committee 08-09
