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Latest News and Announcements

New Award Honors Legacy of Debra Haring: We are saddened to announce the passing of Debra Haring, former assistant dean of grants and contracts in the School of Arts & Sciences. Debra spent years working to support and promote the research of our faculty in Arts, Sciences & Engineering, and her legacy is evident every day in the research ambitions and accomplishments of our faculty, in the success of our research funding, and in the interdisciplinary connections that have been made among faculty. We have greatly missed Debra’s leadership since her illness required her to step down from this role. We continue to miss her daily and send our deepest condolences to Debra’s family and friends.

To honor Debra’s legacy, Arts, Sciences & Engineering is pleased to announce the creation of the Debra Haring Excellence in Research Award. The Debra Haring Excellence in Research Award will recognize a faculty member who has done research that is having a transformative impact on the field, or who has accumulated a body of research that has advanced the discipline in fundamental ways. This award will bring to light some of the truly outstanding research our faculty perform every day and celebrate the importance of this work in changing lives and impacting society in a myriad of ways. We will solicit nominations for this award later this semester. Anyone interested in contributing to the fund for this award can contact Lisa Hall. The Debra Haring Excellence in Research Award will ensure that Debra’s legacy, her strong work ethic, her intelligence, her humor, and her kindness, live on for generations to come.

Congratulations to Our 2022 AS&E ACE Award Winners: AS&E is pleased to share that we awarded nearly 50 ACE awards during 2022 and would like to offer our congratulations to each of the winners. Find the complete list of 2022 winners here. The University community is invited to nominate AS&E staff members who exemplify the University’s vision and values and go above and beyond their job to make AS&E and the University ever better. Successful nominations will highlight specific examples of tasks, projects, or activities where staff are exceeding their core functions. Staff can be nominated more than once, and winners will be chosen on the first of each month by Joan Saab, interim dean of the faculty.

Learning Center Names New Director: After an extensive search, Nic Hammond has been named director of the Learning Center. In this capacity, Nic will provide vision and strategic leadership for the center and will support student learning in equitable and inclusive ways.

Nic has been serving as interim director of the Learning Center since the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) was reorganized last year. He brings more than a decade of experience working with CETL to the role. He also was a student at the University, earning a PhD in chemistry. The Learning Center oversees all undergraduate-serving programs, including the PLTL Workshop program, Study Groups, tutoring, Study Zone, and academic success coaching (for both undergraduates and graduate students). Please join us in congratulating Nic on his new role.

Interim Senior Information Technology Officer Appointed: Jason Wagner has been named interim senior information technology officer, replacing Joe Pasquarelli who retired this past December after 46 years of service at Rochester. Jason began his staff career at the University in 1998 and most recently held the role of assistant director for AS&E instructional technology.

Career Center’s College Competencies: Students develop competencies valuable to employers and graduate schools through their coursework and co-curricular experiences. You can help students draw connections between the College Competencies and their in- and out-of-classroom learning by highlighting them on your syllabi, program descriptions, on-campus job descriptions, and performance evaluations, to name a few. Schedule a meeting with Cathy Caiazza or John DiSarro to discuss ways to highlight and assess student competency development in your office or department.

Events and Opportunities

Teaching Center Offers Two ChatGPT Workshops on Implications for Teaching and Learning: ChatGPT is an AI chatbot with a simple interface that can generate written responses to a variety of prompts. It has garnered significant attention during its period of free access, and it is already being used by students and instructors in higher education. Offered twice, this workshop will provide a brief look at ChatGPT, explore some relevant teaching and learning principles, and devote the majority of the time to Q&A. Sponsored by the Teaching Center; Academic Honesty; Department of Computer Science; Department of Philosophy; River Campus Libraries; and the Writing, Speaking, and Argument Program.

Offices of the President and Minority Student Affairs Sponsors Annual MLK Commemorative Event: The University’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Address will be held Friday, January 20, in Feldman Ballroom at Frederick Douglass Commons from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The event will also be available via Zoom. This year’s event will be a moderated discussion between two nationally recognized scholars who will discuss the intersection of social justice, politics, and religion—how they impact each other, and how they affected King and the civil rights movement in the 1960s. The event is free to attend; however, registration is required.

Spring 2023 Teaching Center Workshops: The Teaching Center is offering the following spring 2023 workshops on Fridays from noon to 1 p.m. EST via Zoom. Click on the workshop name to register for that session.

Effective Management & Mentoring of TAs, January 20
Designing Group Assignments, February 3
Evaluating Group Assignments, February 17
Writing Good Multiple-Choice Questions, March 3
Anti-Racist Feedback and Messaging, March 17
Asking & Answering Classroom Questions, March 31
Transparent (TILT) Assignment Design, April 14

Learn more on the Teaching Center website or contact the Teaching Center with any questions.

Spring 2023 Teaching Center Large Courses Discussion Group: Instructors of large courses (75+ students) are invited to join a 2023 spring semester teaching discussion group to share ideas and experiences. The theme will be “Taking the Pulse: Evaluating Learning in Large Class Settings.” It can be challenging to understand what students are learning and where they are struggling in large courses, especially between exams. Instructors will explore quick and easy-to-implement activities that can be incorporated into existing lessons. These activities enable instructors to assess students’ prior knowledge, recall, understanding, critical thinking, problem-solving, course-specific learning, and analytical skills. The group will meet in person every other Friday from 8:30 to 10 a.m. from January 20 to March 3. Register here or contact the Teaching Center with any questions.

Instructional Needs Survey Launching: The Teaching Center will be launching a survey of instructors on Monday, January 23. This short survey will take 10 minutes to complete, and responses will help the center shape its programs to meet current teaching needs, including supporting new instructors. Contact the Teaching Center with any questions.

Center for Education Abroad Updates: There are currently 71 students committed to going abroad for the spring 2023 semester across 10 countries. The fall application cycle is now open for any fall 2023 program. For a full list of programs please visit the education abroad portal. The Passport Fair will be held on Wednesday, January 25, from 1 to 4 p.m. in Hirst Lounge. No matter where students are in the application process, all are welcome.

Join the Teaching Center Podcast Club: Explore new teaching ideas in this informal monthly group for instructors. Participants will listen in advance and then gather to discuss a pre-selected podcast episode from top higher education teaching podcasts such as Tea for Teaching, Teaching in Higher Ed, and others. During the 2023 spring semester, Podcast Club will meet online on the fourth Friday of every month from noon–1 p.m., starting on January 27. Register here to attend.

When Students Get Stuck: Overcoming Bottlenecks Group Coming in February: Bottlenecks are places where students get stuck in the learning process—concepts and skills that consistently seem to stymie student understanding. In this group, instructors will learn to identify and describe student bottlenecks to learning, and design instructional strategies to help students overcome these barriers to understanding. The group will meet in person on Wednesdays, February 8, 15, and 22, from 8:30–10 am. Register here.

Coffee Hour with the Dean: Joan Saab, interim dean of the faculty, will be hosting a coffee hour each month to speak with faculty and staff in AS&E. On Tuesday, February 7, she invites staff to drop by the 317 Lattimore conference room from 10–11 a.m.

Staff Retreat 2023. We Want to Hear from You! As we enter the new year, it’s time to start planning our Summer Staff Retreat. We are looking for your ideas on staff development as well as fun activities you would like to see at this year’s retreat. Please submit your ideas no later than February 15.