Friday Updates:

Friday October 3, 2008:

• Division Dues have still not been paid by 10 faculty members.  Please take care of this right away.

• The demand for Mailroom production is at an all-time high.  As a result, requests for a one day turnaround can no longer be met.  Please allow for 2 or 3 days to get materials back from the Mailroom.

• Rails for the new vertical files in the Social Science Building have arrived.  They are available in the Division Office. 

• Interest has been expressed in reviving the Division Discussion Group this semester.  Lots of political, social and philosophical topics are out there waiting to be talked about.  If you have a topic suggestion, send it to me and I'll get out a list of possibilities.

Friday September 5, 2008:

• Don't forget your Division Dues.  Still a meager $25 for a full year of fun. 

• Please continue to refrain from using regular tape on doors in the new Social Science Building.  Painter's tape is available in the Division Office until bulletin boards are installed.

• The lunch room and work room both now require your regular classroom key and the door locks automatically when you leave.

• Janet is working on a solution to the sound transfer issue between classrooms.  In the meantime, please play videos at a volume level that is the minimum necessary for your students to hear.  Otherwise everyone in the adjoining room can hear it as well.

• Demo station equipment is continuing to be left on overnight and/or for long periods when the room is not in use.  Especially with the document camera, make sure it is returned to the blue (off) position when you leave the room.

• Also regarding the document camera, there is no reason to move the switch on the side of the device.  The only buttons you need are on the face of the camera. 

• Thank you to Scott Ung for his patient demo station training on Thursday.  Twelve faculty participated.

Friday August 22, 2008:

• The refrigerator is now in place in the first floor faculty lunch room in the Social Science building.

• Don't forget to consider the Division Basic Skills Coordinator position that Chris described at the Division meeting.  Three units of reassign time are the compensation.

• Please be sure to power down the document cameras when you leave the classroom.  Several have been left on all night.

• PAEE's and thanks to those who assisted students this term at the information booths.  Anu Mande, Jeff Vanderpool, Jeana Wolfe and Chris Lamm participated.  Special thanks to Josh Ashenmiller who made it both days.  I appreciate your willingness to make time for this during an especially busy period of the semester.

Friday August 15, 2008:

• Convocation Day -- events begin at 8:30 am in the Social Science Building courtyard.

• Division Meeting -- begins at noon in 1416.

• COB Dedication & Open House -- begins at 3:00 pm in the building courtyard.

Friday February 8, 2008:

• The faculty office arrangements in the new Social Science Building are nearing completion.  Within the next week or so Janet Portolan needs to know with certainty not only who is moving but what the office mate arrangements will be.  I'll be working with the Department Coordinators to complete this task so if you have had some recent change of mind let them know right away.

• Each faculty office in the new building will be roughly 150 square feet and each office mate will have a faculty desk, a faculty chair, a student chair, a 5 drawer lateral file and a 72x36 book case.  Janet has indicated that faculty could opt to replace the lateral with a second bookcase if they preferred.  Above each faculty desk is a wall-mounted cabinet for additional storage.  The color palate and general look of the furniture is the same as the offices upstairs in the new College Center.  Check it out if you are interested.

Friday January 25, 2008:

• Several instructors have yet to inform the Division Office of their office hours for the Spring semester.  Please get those to Pam right away.

• The Online Task Force has completed a set of recommended guidelines for online instructors in the Division.  As we agreed, those guidelines will go out to the Division for a vote.  Be looking for the guidelines to come as an attachment to an email from me as early as next week.  We would then have the February Division Meeting to discuss them and the vote would take place soon after that.  If approved by the Division, the guidelines would go into effect in the Fall 08 semester.

Friday January 11, 2008:

• Welcome back to the Spring Semester.  Hope you had a happy and restful break.

• Please do your part to help with the information booth that has been assigned to the Division.  It is located on the north end of the 500 building.  We are expected to staff it on Monday the 14th from 9:00 am to 11:00 am and on Wednesday the 16th from 7:30 am to 9:00 am.  Even if you can only be there for part of the time, that would be helpful.  No need to RSVP.       

Friday October 19, 2007:

• In celebration of the great work done by the Division on Student Learning Outcomes, we will be having a pizza party during the Division Meeting next Tuesday.  Plan to have a slice and enjoy having this major project completed.

• Thankfully, we now have our Division Curriculum Committee rep in place.  PAEE's go out to Naji for his years of service on this committee, and to Ricardo and Kelly for being willing to step up and help out the Division.  We all benefit from your professionalism and commitment.

Friday September 28, 2007:

• By now election ballots for the Division Curriculum Committee rep should be in your faculty mailbox.  Be sure to vote and return the ballot to Faculty Senate for tabulation. 

• Several Departments are now either finished or well on their way toward finishing SLO's for all courses.  Just as a reminder, each course should have 4 to 8 SLO's per class and they need to be specific, so that they can be measured/assessed in the next step of the process.

• We had an interesting preliminary discussion at the Division Meeting this week about the process of allocating faculty offices once we get into the new building.  For those of you who are teaching during the Division Meeting, let your opinion be known either to me or to a colleague who can voice it at the next meeting.

• At the PAC meeting this week it was announced that the opening of the new Campus Center will be delayed approximately one month.  It had been scheduled to open around October 15th.

Friday September 14, 2007:

• Thanks for the quick response by many of you to the inquiry about moving to the new building.  I've attached the spreadsheet to the Friday Update so you can see what your colleagues are thinking.  Several of your responses included comments or suggestions on the issue of how specific offices will be allocated.  We probably need to settle on a system fairly soon so let's plan to discuss it at the next Division Meeting.

Friday September 7, 2007:

• Many of you either take students off campus or ask students to attend off campus events.  When doing so, always  be aware of the College field trip procedures.  I will send them to you as an attachment to the Friday Update.

• Please bring any empty Interoffice envelopes to the Division Office for reuse.

• The faculty workroom in the 500 building (523 P1) has been left unlocked recently.  It is important that this room be locked at all times.

• Questions have been asked about the vacant Curriculum Committee rep for the Division.  The position currently receives two units of reassign time per semester.  It is possible that we may be able to take that to three units per semester but the result would be that virtually all Division reassign time would be committed every semester.  That would seriously limit the other kinds of projects we try to accomplish with reassign time.  Still, if more people would be interested in the position with 3 rather than 2 units, I'm willing to consider it.  Let me know soon and we will conduct a Division vote on the position.

Friday August 31, 2007:

• We still need faculty dues from many of you.  Please pay soon.

• There was a predictable response to my email seeking a replacement for Naji as the Division Curriculum Committee Rep. i.e. none!!!  If you are not interested, at least put pressure on one of your friends and colleagues to volunteer.  This is an extremely important position and we need someone to step forward.

Friday August 24, 2007:

• Thanks to all for helping get the semester off to a smooth start.  As a Division, we  are offering over 300 sections and have filled just over 14,500 seats.  Our fill rate as of this morning is 95%. 

• PAEE's go out to the following volunteers for staffing the Information Booths this week .... Josh Ashenmiller, Patti Green, Jeana Wolfe, Adela Lopez, Karen Rose, Tom Chiaromonte, Derry Seaton, Callista Lee and Julie Felender.  Psychology wins the prize for the highest level of participation by a department.

• Don't forget to identify your office hours for this semester and get that information to Pam.

• Please pay your Division Dues ($25) as soon as possible.

• The first Coordinator's Meeting of the year will be Tuesday September 4th.  We meet the first Tuesday of every month so keep that in mind if you have an issue you'd like to have the Coordinators discuss.

• The August Division Meeting is next Tuesday at 1:30 in the Faculty Lounge.  See the web page for the agenda and the list of faculty who are excused because they are teaching at that time.