Provost Communication, Monday, September 16, 2024

Good morning and happy Monday. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. It was great to see so many of you on Friday at College Colors Day. It was a beautiful day with food, good conversation, and of course, kickball! Congratulations to Athletics/Advancement for winning (again). Much gratitude for the valiant efforts of my Academic Avengers teammates who included:

Ruben Antilla, Student Assistant, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs 

Cindy Bumgarner, Dean for the College of Extended Education and Global Engagement (CEEGE)

Enoch Hale, Director for the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL)

Tyler Hooker, Instructional Support Technician for the College of Natural Resources and Sciences (CNRS)

Alyssa Hughlett, Administrative Support Coordinator (ASC), World Languages and Cultures

Sei Hee Hwang, Program Coordinator for CEEGE

Cyril Oberlander, Dean of the Library

Justice Ortega, Acting Dean for the College of Professional Studies (CPS) 

Jen Maguire, Professor and Chair for the Department of Social Work

Genevieve Marchand, Associate Professor of Recreation Administration

Garrett Purchio, Librarian for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS)

Betsy Rogers, Student Support Coordinator for CEEGE

Mari Sanchez, Associate Professor of Psychology 

Erin Scofield, Oscher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) Program Specialist for CEEGE

Henry Solares, Retention Through Academic Mentoring (RAMP) Coordinator 

Julie Stewart, ASC for the Provost’s Office

Binta Wright, Office Manager, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

While it’s no secret that I love sports and competition, I look forward to kickball each year because I have the opportunity to connect with academic affairs colleagues in a way that I usually don’t get to throughout the year and laugh, banter, get some fresh air, and be in community with the wonderful folx in academic affairs.

REMINDER: University Senate and Promoted Faculty Reception, this Wednesday, September 18, 2024, at 5 pm at the Great Hall

Don’t forget to join us this Wednesday for our celebration as we honor our faculty who have been promoted to Associate Professor, Full Professor, or Range Elevation as well as our Distinguished Faculty Award recipients and ERFSA Grant recipients. Whew, there’s a lot to celebrate so please join us at 5 pm in the Great Hall for the joint celebration, with beverages and light refreshments to enjoy. You can RSVP here. See you there. 

GI 2025 Update

The campus has received $419K in new ongoing GI2025 base funding to advance our evidenced-based graduation initiatives as outlined in our Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) plan. The Inclusive Student Success group is reviewing initiatives that were funded in the previous cycle but have demonstrated a need for additional resources and sorting out previous requests that were not funded. All initiatives funded are aligned with the SEM plan and support retention efforts. Recommendations and outcomes will be communicated to the campus later this semester. Please note that no new projects or initiatives will be considered at this time.

Current members of the steering committee include:

Peggy Metzger - Director Financial Aid & Executive Director Enrollment Management.

Carmen Bustos-Works - Associate Vice President (AVP) of Academic Programs

Sarah Long - AVP Financial Operations and University Controller

Jenni Robinson Reisinger - University Registrar

Rosamel Benavides-Garb - Chief Diversity Officer 

Mitch Mitchell - Dean of Students 

Michael Le - Director of Institutional Research and Reporting (IRAR)

Stephanie Souter - Lecturer in Psychology and IRAR Analyst 

Additional faculty representation is still pending through collaboration with the senate and previous faculty members.  

Thank you and Updates for Academic Personnel Services (APS)

• Academic year 2023-24 concluded the first full year of the faculty mentoring program, led by Geology faculty member, Melanie Michalak, and coordinated by CTL and APS. New faculty feedback was overwhelmingly positive and suggests that this experience enhanced first-year faculty belonging and will improve faculty retention. Thank you to all of the faculty mentors and Melanie for supporting our new faculty.

• This year, APS, in partnership with Information Technology Services (ITS), moved faculty personnel processes, including Retention, Tenure, and Promotion (RTP), Post Tenure Review (PTR), sabbatical and range elevation applications, etc into Google Drive. This strategic move not only simplifies these processes but will save the university over 35K per year on software subscription fees. APS thanks you for your patience during this transition. 

• APS continues to improve support for international faculty hires. In the 2023-34 academic year, APS supported seven international tenure-track faculty members, seven active J-1 exchange visitors, and two TN visa applicants. 

Have a great Monday.

Jenn

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Jenn Capps, PhD 

Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs 

Cal Poly Humboldt