LAS Dean Michael Whiteford
FALL CONVOCATION REMARKS
Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Michael B. Whiteford
September 2, 2009
Good afternoon. Welcome to the LAS faculty and staff fall 2009 convocation.
We are here this afternoon for several reasons.
First, we celebrate the beginning of a new academic year by welcoming faculty, staff and students to the campus. For all of us this is an exciting time. The start of school year represents a new start and a fresh beginning. It’s invigorating. There can’t be anything better than that.
Second, we come together to hear about what’s going on in the college. Part of the time allocated to me will be used to talk about what we’ve done, and where we going. What does the year hold for us?
Third, this is a time for celebration. In addition to having some truly outstanding students, this college is honored to have, as part of its large family, some incredible faculty and staff. You are the ones that make this the great place that it is. We are proud to spend some time recognizing you for your good deeds.
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“May you live in interesting times” is reputed to be an old Chinese curse. Regardless of its authenticity or whether or not it is the first of a three-part condemnation, these are interesting times – not just here at Iowa State, not just in the State of Iowa or this country. For the issues we are wrestling with – while troubling to many of us – are minor when compared to what is taking place on a global scale.
Yes, these are “interesting times”. Last year presented us with some incredible challenges and some interesting opportunities. From the look of things, we’ll be grappling with similar challenges this year.
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When we met last September many of us were just beginning to comprehend the impact of the economic situation that was already rippling across the country. We were pretty immune to that stuff … or so we naively thought. We spent much of the spring semester responding and reacting to an ever-changing (and never in a positive direction) budget.
In a nutshell, because it is too discouraging to repeat in detail all the painful steps:
- The university lost $38 million from its permanent budget. It received approximately $31 million in one-time, one-year federal stimulus dollars. Robust student enrollments will plow much needed monies into the system.
- In a like manner, the LAS College had to cut $6.8 million from our permanent budget. We have received approximately $2.2 million in stimulus dollars and we because we teach so many students, we have and will benefit nicely from our new allocation of tuition dollars.
- The long and the short is that we are beginning this year with several million fewer dollars in our budget that we had last year.
- This year will be challenging for a couple of reasons. First, we anticipate a mid-year reduction and, second, we are expecting another permanent cut to our permanent (state) budget for next year.
- The LAS College is gearing up for with these eventualities and I will keep you posted via our weekly electronic newsletter.
Enough – for the moment, at least – about the depressing news. Let us talk about our points of pride:
Last year we made incredible progress on replenishing tenure-track faculty ranks. While universities across the country and other colleges on this campus have been closing searches, LAS has moved along … with close to reckless abandonment.
- We have made close to 40 hires.
- We hired faculty in all of the major disciplinary areas – and the candidate pools were very, very strong.
- This fall our faculty ranks have been strengthened by the addition of – as examples -- an econometrician, a creative writer, an environmental historian, a high energy physicist, a specialist in the African Diaspora, a sample survey statistician, an applied linguist, and philosopher of technology. Where else but in a College of Liberal Arts & Sciences could you find such a range of colleagues?
- We hired women in science areas – thus partially addressing an important issue in under-representation…and some men in areas usually highly represented with women. It was an excellent year for hiring.
Last January we reviewed 33 candidates for promotion to Associate Professor (with tenure) and others for promotion to full Professor. When we wrapped up the process, it was our collective feeling that was the strongest cohort – as a group – that we have seen. The Provost was highly complementary with the quality of candidate dossiers that we sent the central administration for review.
The college and the university are judged on this quality of its faculty. This recently completed year the bar for excellence set a new gold standard.
Last year was a banner for honors and other accolades that come to our faculty, staff and students. With apologies to the many who are not being mentioned, let me give a mini snapshot of what took place. We have absolutely world-class faculty:
• Mary Swander (Professor of English and Distinguished Professor in Liberal Arts & Sciences) is Iowa’s new Poet Laureate. She was appointed by Iowa Governor Chet Culver in February, and she is the first female Iowa Poet Laureate and the first one west of Iowa City
• Tom Greenbowe (Chemistry) was named Iowa’s Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
• Two from LAS received prestigious NSF CAREER Award for junior faculty.
- Malika Jeffries-EL (Chemistry)
- Alex Travesset (Physics and Astronomy)
- Honor recognizes junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholar.
- 5-year award and financial support for research.
- Research led by Gaya Amarasinghe (BBMB) and his team of scientists moved us a step closer to controlling the Ebola virus by solving the structure of a key part of its protein that interferes with the natural resistance of host cells against viral infections.
- Craig Anderson and Douglas Gentile (Psychology) continue groundbreaking research on video games, particularly violent video games. Violent video games can lead to aggressive behavior, in U.S. and elsewhere. Their work also shows that some non-violent games can teach kids to be more cooperative and helpful to others.
- Jill Pruetz (Anthropology) was a National Geographic Emerging Explorer for 2008 and continues her research of savanna chimpanzees in southeastern Senegal. That is giving us some unique insights into human evolution.
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LAS’ development team once again exceeded its fundraising goal. The goal was $10 million and they raised $12 million – an incredible feat in today’s economic climate. This is so very important in providing faculty support and student scholarships – among other things
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Our merit and P&S staff continues to be a source of pride for the college. This past year:
• ISU Award for Academic Advising Impact: Kathleen Timmons, Liberal Arts & Sciences academic advisor;
• ISU Award for Early Academic Advising: Denise Hix, Academic advisor in the Biology program (Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology);
• ISU Award for Professional & Scientific Research: Vladimir Kogan, Adjunct research associate professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy;
• Regents Award for Professional & Scientific Excellence: Jane Jacobson, director of Student Academic Services, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
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Students are terrific, too.
- ISU Computer Science student team to collegiate programming ‘World Finals’ in Sweden for the "Battle of the Brains". ISU was one of 100 collegiate teams from around the world in World Finals.
- The Iowa State Singers chosen to perform at the American Choral Directors Association National Convention in March.
- Highest honor a collegiate choir can get -- 72 mixed (male & female) collegiate choirs applied; only 4 accepted.
- Skunk River Navy – a biology learning community – removed 5.7 tons (11,400 lbs) of trash from the South Skunk River.
- Submitted biological and bacteria data from the river to the state this year
And the list of accomplishments goes on and on…
Let me wrap up by talking about some simple – but important -- goals for next year:
- Continue to move forward with replenishing our faculty ranks. Probably only about one-third the number as last year. Each one is very important.
- Continue to recruit excellent and diverse students at undergraduate and graduate levels. We will challenge our sibling institution to the east.
- Iowa State and the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is a primary destination for programs in the liberal arts and sciences.
- Continue to work with departments and programs make to make optimum use of the Resource Management Model – the new budget model. Because of all the students we teach, the impact of last year’s cuts was softened dramatically. So much so that we subsidized some of the other colleges when the final bill was assessed.
- We are a college with major research programs and we must (and we will) make sure these operations are not handicapped because of economic challenges in the academy.
This will be an interesting year. Take a deep breath, hold onto your hats and let’s go!
I invite you to join me with enthusiasm and optimism and we move this great college forward.
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