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Professor
Bruce Berg (Criminal Justice) passed away on Friday, February 20 after many years of dedicated service to CSULB, higher education and the discipline of criminal justice. It is a tremendous loss for the Department of Criminal Justice, for our students, and the campus community. Our sympathies go out to his family members and friends. The memorial service will be Tuesday, February 24, at 11 a.m. at Shir Ha Ma' Alot Synagogue, 3652 Michelson Drive, Irvine. The burial will follow at Pacific View Cemetery, 3500 Pacific View Drive, Corona Del Mar.
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Next month, California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) will be visited by a team of colleagues from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) as part of our reaccreditation process. CSULB Professor David Hood, who serves as the accreditation liaison officer and co-chair of the WASC Steering Committee, offers information on the accreditation process, what accreditation means to CSULB and what students, faculty and staff can expect during the visit in March. More.
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More than 270 Scholarly and Creative Activity Committee (SCAC) awards worth $1.3 million have been granted to support faculty research, scholarly and creative activity for the 2009-10 academic year. One hundred sixty-seven were assigned-time awards, 22 were mini-grants and 86 were summer stipends. More.
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Several offices and programs in the Division of Academic Affairs have new sites on the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) Web site. Undergraduate Studies and Academic Advising, General Education (GE) and Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR) Web sites were launched recently to provide faculty, students and staff with the latest news and information. University Honors Program (UHP) and Interdisciplinary Studies Program (ISP) Web sites have been redesigned.
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California State University, Long Beach has received approval from the California State University Board of Trustees to begin offering a master's degree in applied sociology beginning this fall. More.
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Xianhui Bu, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Thomas Gredig, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy were among the recipients of 2009 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF). According to the agency, CAREER awards are the "most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations." Bu received $597,707 for his five-year project titled "Synthesis, Structures, and Properties of Crystalline Boron-Based Porous Materials," and Gredig was awarded $449,871 for his five-year program on "Morphology Control to Build 3D Magnetic Nanostructures and Tune Organic Solar Cells."
Geography Department Chair Vincent Del Casino published Social Geography (Wiley-Blackwell), which explores how urban and rural spaces are organized in ways that construct and maintain social inequality. Del Casino is also book review editor of the journal Social and Cultural Geography and co-edited the book Mapping Tourism with Stephen Hanna.
College of Engineering Dean Forouzan Golshani and Professor Wayne Dick (Computer Engineering and Computer Science) are guest editors for a special issue of IEEE Multimedia. An Accessible Lane on the Information Superhighway appeared in the October-December 2008 issue addressing the topic of accessibility and assistive technologies. More
Dr. Karen L. Gould, Provost & SVP
This spring we have a number of important initiatives and planning efforts underway and, finally, a state budget. Because of the Chancellor’s announced hiring freeze I know that many of you are wondering about its impact on our hiring plans for this year. Fortunately, the deans and chairs worked conscientiously with department faculty in the fall to focus our hiring efforts this year in areas of the most serious need. We are therefore continuing with over 55 of our planned searches, provided the pools are strong. Likewise staff searches in areas of critical need will continue.
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As you know, the Academic Senate at its December meeting passed without dissention a revised University RTP document , which has been distributed. This proposed revised document will be presented to the full faculty (tenured and tenure track) for a vote in March. If the revised document is accepted by a simple majority, the new revised document will be sent to the Provost and to the President for approval.
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Given that we may have a revised University document in place in the near future, the next step in the RTP alignment process will be to develop new or revised college and department RTP documents that align appropriately with the new University RTP document. Associate Vice President Holly Harbinger and I will soon be visiting with each of the college deans, college RTP committees, and department chairs to discuss development and implementation of new or revised college and department documents.
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Finally, during the fall semester I visited all of the college advisory councils to discuss a plan for decentralizing to the colleges workload reassignment for research, scholarly and creative activity. I also visited with the Chairs Advisory Council, the Faculty Personnel Policies Council (FPPC) and the Academic Senate Executive Committee on more than one occasion to discuss changes to the workload reassignment program. I will share what I have learned from these conversations and our planning for the program at the Academic Senate at a February or March meeting. In the meantime, Interim Associate Vice President Jim Till and I will be working with the deans to plan a series of forums for college advisory councils and college SCAC committees on this initiative.
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I am looking forward to our conversations this semester about these and other important issues for our campus community.
The University Library is now open on weekdays at 7 a.m.
"We hope that this extra time at the beginning of the day will make it convenient for our customers to use our collections and services at a time that's best for them," said Roman Kochan, dean of Library Services. "It's just another way to demonstrate our commitment to being a user-friendly and welcoming place that provides great service to the campus community."
