Provost Message - November 2, 2016

Memorial for David Dowell

The campus community is invited to attend a memorial service for our former Provost, David Dowell, on Saturday, November 12 from 2-5 p.m. at the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden. The family requests that attendees wear Hawaiian shirts to the service to honor David.

Remember to Vote on Tuesday

The election on Tuesday, November 8, is an important one for our community, our state and our nation. The polling location closest to campus is the Los Altos United Church of Christ, 5550 E. Atherton Street. The Los Coyotes and Beachside shuttles will stop at the church on their way to campus.

Voters may cast provisional ballots at any polling place in the county in which they are registered to vote. Please note that only the contests a voter is eligible to vote for will be counted.

If you would like to discuss local and statewide initiatives as well as youth voter turnout, the College of Liberal Arts is hosting a forum tonight from 5-6:30 p.m. in the Anatol Center (AS-119). The Vote 2016 Initiative is a series of public forums in which the campus community can gather for thoughtful conversations and responses to issues related to the 2016 election. A dialogue on the post-election wrap up will be held on November 9.

White House Visit Highlights The Promise

Last week I represented the campus and the CSU, highlighting our Long Beach College Promise as a panelist at the White House Community College Convening in Washington D.C.

Hosted by Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, and other White House administration officials, the convening showcased best practices that strengthen community college access and success. Attendees—including college presidents, policymakers, elected officials, foundations, business leaders, researchers and students—described effective solutions that can improve college-readiness strategies like dual enrollment and pathways to a college degree and good-paying job. Following the convening, I attended a reception at Dr. Biden’s and the Vice President’s Residence at the Naval Observatory.

I was honored to be the only one representing a four-year college at the event, and I think this shows the high esteem in which the Long Beach College Promise is held nationally. We are truly leaders in ensuring access to higher education for all.
 

Veterans Day Celebration

The campus community is invited to attend the university’s annual Veterans Day Celebration on Thursday, November 10, featuring a presentation of the colors by our Army ROTC Color Guard, as well as remarks from student veterans and the Director of our Veterans Services, Marshall Thomas.

The event begins at 11 a.m. at the POW/MIA flagpole located on the upper quad on campus. The U.S. Marine Corps’ 241st birthday and cake-cutting ceremony will take place immediately following the Veterans Day event.

Academic Senate Retreat a Success

More than 100 faculty, students, staff and administrators attended the Academic Senate retreat on the topic of “Inclusive Excellence” last week. We discussed and reported on what the campus is doing well in this regard and collected ideas for improvement. The Senate will compile this information and share it across campus offices and initiatives.

New Labs for Behavioral Research and Instruction in the Neurosciences

I am pleased to share with you that construction will begin on three planned labs to support the Psychology Department’s Behavioral Research and Instruction in the Neurosciences (BRAIN) initiative. This is an important part of our ongoing commitment to improving research facilities for faculty and students, in particular undergraduate students typically underrepresented in STEM fields. These labs represent a key investment by the campus to fulfill the promise of the NSF BUILD award. Many people think STEM means only engineering, natural sciences and mathematics, but in fact, it is much broader than that and includes the field of psychology.

The three new labs will be established in unused space on the fourth floor of the Psychology building. They will include state-of-the-art equipment to facilitate cutting-edge research and training activities that will foster cross-disciplinary problem solving. The labs will also provide opportunities for instruction in Behavioral Neuroscience and mentoring of students engaged in research. Such mentoring will provide the Psychology Department’s highly diverse students the opportunity to develop skills necessary to successfully compete for admission to biomedical graduate programs.

We expect to see great things coming out of these labs when they are up and running.

CSULB Creates National Academy of Inventors Chapter

CSULB has become an institutional member of the National Academy of Inventors. As a result, we are able to establish a campus chapter of the National Academy of Inventors, celebrating our university’s inventors and their inventions.

If you are named on an invention, an invention disclosure or a provisional patent, please send a note to Ameeta Perera at Ameeta.Perera@csulb.edu so that you can be invited to the inaugural meeting of our chapter on November 17 at 4 p.m. Location to be determined.

Artworks Highlight California Indian Genocide Awareness

The American Indian Student Council has two public artworks on display this month to promote California Indian Genocide Awareness.

The “flag project” consists of small marking flags arranged to create three images of the state of California—one full of flags representing the number of California Indians at the start of the Gold Rush, another with a smaller number of flags representing the number of California Indians years later and another representing the numbers at the end of the Gold Rush. It is located on the grass in front of the History Department on the Upper Quad.

The “Blind to History Project,” which has been installed for the past two years, consists of a blindfold on the “Forty-Niner Prospector” sculpture and a temporary paper plaque that reads Blind to History, followed by the dates of the Gold Rush in California.

Both artwork installations were overseen by Craig Stone, a professor of art and the director of the American Indian Studies Program.

In conjunction with this artwork, the student council will be organizing a lecture by noted UCLA Historian Benjamin Madley entitled, “An American Genocide: The California Indian Catastrophe” on Tuesday, November 8, from 2–3:15 p.m. in the USU Ballrooms.

ASI Students Win in Marketing and Promotional Contest

Last week, our Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) won six of the top prizes in the 2016 Steal This Idea competition sponsored by the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) Region I, including first place for their new website and first place for their 60th Year Anniversary promotional video. ACUI Region I includes all collegiate student marketing teams in California, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Australia and the Territory of Guam.

The competition seeks to recognize students and to discover the year's best marketing and promotional ideas throughout the region. The awards are as follows:

  • 1st Place Websites: "ASI Corporate Website" - Sarah Beltran (Graphic Designer), Daniel Esquer, Meet Trivedi (Web Developers)

  • 1st Place Motion Graphics: "ASI 60th Logo Motion Graphic" - John Van Unen (Graphic Designer) and Nathan Zankich (Music)

  • 2nd Place Motion Graphics: "How Sustain U Works for U" - Travis Baker (Video Producer), Andy Khong (Graphic Designer)

  • 2ndPlace Signs and Signage: "SRWC Outdoor Banners" - John Crump (Graphic Designer)

  • 3rd Place Motion Graphics: "2016 ASI Year in Review" - Andy Khong, Nathan Zankich, John Van Unen (Graphic Designers), Sarah Beltran (Art Direction), Erik Kim, Travis Baker, Bradley Dickinson (Video Producers)

  • 3rd Place Video Promotion: "Not Alone @ the Beach PSA" - Bradley Dickinson (Video Producer)

Geological Sciences Students, Faculty Receive Awards

Two CSULB research presentations won awards at the recent joint meeting of the Pacific and Rocky Mountain sections of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM).

Michael Thompson and his advisor, Dr. Dan Francis (Geological Sciences), won the AAPG's H. Victor Church Award for the best poster presented at an annual meeting for "Tectonic Evolution of the Palos Verdes Fault - Lasuen Knoll Segment, Offshore Southern California."

Ryan Weller won SEPM's Patrick Abbott Award for outstanding poster by a graduate student for "Compositional and diagenetic relationships and controls of mechanical behavior in siliceous mudstones of the upper Monterey Formation, Belridge Oilfield, San Joaquin Basin, California,” which he co-authored with his advisor Dr. Rick Behl (Geological Sciences).
Congratulations to all of them on these outstanding achievements.