September 2008 Articles
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Decisions That Will Shape COD's Future by Glenn Hansen
Faculty Action for Positive Change in COD Board Elections by Tom Tipton
FaST Times at Argonne High by Richard Jarman
Nurture | Nature In Your Classes This Year by Linda Elaine
CODFA Quiz by Mike Losacco
Accolades - Praise Colleages (Send Us Items) by Mary Konkel & Ida Hagman
Decisions That Will Shape COD's Future by Glenn Hansen
The summer went by quickly, and it's already September! I hope everyone's semester is off to a
good start. This will be a very busy fall for all of us. Your input and
participation are needed in many important decisions, some of which will impact our lives for many
years.
This fall we will have two elections. At the end October we will select our CODFA President and Treasurer, five Senators, two IEA Regional Council Representatives, and the new position of an Executive Director for our PAC. In late November or early December we will elect three representatives to the IEA Representative Assembly held in March. These are all excellent opportunities to become involved in shaping the direction of the Faculty Association. If you're interested in running for a position, I'd be happy to talk with you.
The schematic design phase of the BIC/SRC renovation project is nearing completion. The current Schematic Design is available as a PDF file. These diagrams represent the blocking out of space at this point. With these plans, the architects are now working with cost estimators before moving to the design and development stage. Your feedback is important now as the plans continue to evolve. The further the process moves along, the more difficult it will be to make changes.
Later this fall, the Board of Trustees will be hiring a new President for COD. We and members of the public have asked for the process to be open and inclusive. We will continue to call for the process to be open. Perhaps as a result of the public pressure, we were included in the committee that formulated the profile for the next president. The Trustees have now said there will be an advisory committee of constituent leaders before three Trustees decide on the finalists. They have also stated that there will be forums. We are asking for details on these steps in the process. If there is an opportunity for input, we must be ready to provide it.
Above all else, we must think about the future and how it will be shaped by the Board of Trustees election to be held in April. I urge everyone to become involved in some way. There will be a variety of opportunities in the next seven months! Please watch the discussion board for information about these important events and PAC activities.
Faculty Action for Positive Change in April COD Board Elections by Tom Tipton
Part of the mission of the College of DuPage is to educate our students in the role of
"responsible citizenship." Between now and April 7, 2009, COD faculty
will have an opportunity to live what we teach. We will have an opportunity to promote the best
interests of our students and our community. Four seats of the seven member Board of Trustees will
be up for election. The terms of Chairman McKinnon, Vice Chair Mark Nowak, appointee Joseph Snyder,
and appointee Kory Atkinson will expire. It is yet unclear whether these individuals will run again
as incumbents. We will not know for sure until the end of January when candidates must file their
petitions. However, the CODFA Political Action Committee (PAC) believes that all faculty should
participate fully in the democratic process of this election no matter who runs or doesn't run.
Who to contact if you are interested in...
- Fundraising: Denise Kruckenberg
- Donations: Kathy Horton
- Recruiting: Tom Tipton
- Endorsement: Ben Whisenhunt
- Volunteering: Lauren Morgan
- Campaigning: Jim Allen
- Communications: Jackie McGrath
For those of you relatively new to the College, PAC may seem like a mystery, but its mission is simply to promote collective involvement of faculty in the democratic process, especially as it relates to our own locally elected officials, the Board of Trustees. Our mission statement, soon to be presented to Senate reads: "The CODFA PAC is the primary committee charged with addressing legislative and political issues which affect the faculty as a whole, including but not limited to gathering and distributing information, organizing faculty for specific political actions, and endorsing/campaigning for candidates for the Board of Trustees."
PAC is also defined by its status with the DuPage County Board of Elections. Monies flowing into the PAC are kept completely separate from Association funds. Moreover, PAC does not participate in federal elections. We are focused on state and local politics. Within the College the PAC must adhere to the Board of Trustees' Ethics Ordinance.
Given these restrictions, we have been meeting every other week and working hard over the spring and summer term to develop greater continuity of PAC leadership and better coordination with the Faculty Association leadership. As a result, look for the election of the newly created office of Executive Director of PAC in this fall's Association election ballot.
We've also been busy recruiting candidates for the BoT. Our hope is to recruit candidates we may be able to go on to endorse in the spring. We have been guided by the endorsement criteria that we have used in previous election cycles. These have been posted on our CODFA discussion board. If you know of anyone who might meet these criteria, please let a member of PAC know.
PAC has also been busy working with the IEA to make the upcoming election a truly district-wide effort. We want to involve as many of our sister-locals in our district as possible. If we can rally our IEA members come election day, we could go a long way towards winning our slate. We'd also like our sister-locals to contribute their time and money, as we ask you as well.
Under the leadership of Denise Kruckenberg, fundraising efforts are well underway. In fact, more funds have already been raised than in all previous elections. We ask each individual to contribute at least $10, but the level of participation is perhaps more important than the amount raised, so please contribute whatever you can. Whether you live in district or not, you work here. With 100% participation in our fundraising we can turn to our sister-locals with much greater moral suasion when we ask them to contribute as well. Information about where to send your check can be found in our secure discussion board.
After Ben Whisenhunt leads us through the endorsement process, Jim Allen will lead the campaign effort, coordinating with the candidates. Lauren Morgan will coordinate our own volunteers. Each individual faculty member should plan to commit at least three hours around spring break for campaign activities in addition to the financial contribution. At the same time Jackie McGrath will be leading the communications of our PAC.
PAC believes that we can positively affect the outcome of this election with sufficient participation of faculty. We can positively shape our own future, while we positively shape our students' futures. We don't need to tell you that this is one of the most important elections in our College's history-a make-or-break election. All hands on deck!
Want to get the inside scoop on the Board of Trustee elections? Faculty Association members can login to our secure discussion board.
FaST Times at Argonne High by Richard Jarman
It has been my custom these past three years to sojourn at Argonne National Laboratory during the
summer term, engaging in research with a couple of COD students. FaST
is the acronym for Faculty and Student Team - a program managed jointly by the Department of Energy
and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Its intent is to provide opportunities for faculty and
students from institutions that aren't normally involved in scientific research. After joining the
COD faculty full-time in 2003, I had rather drawn a veil over research, consigning that part of my
career to the dust of history, fully expecting that no such activities would ever constitute part of
the COD chemistry experience. There was after all the teaching of students to consider and the lack
of resources and so on.
However, the possibility of exploiting the proximity of Argonne, and my long association with it, nagged at me constantly. The introduction of Honors Chemistry 1551 provided the opportunity to do some experiments with the Division of Education Programs back in 2005, a tradition that continues today. But the FaST program offers something even more valuable: the opportunity to provide COD students with genuine research experiences at the top level. I was able to secure a position for the summer of 2006. Although funding the venture became an adventure I did not wish to repeat, I and my students, Matthew Hamedani and Laura Jane Elgass, successfully made our debut in June of that year. Subsequently, my participation in the NSF-funded Undergraduate Research Collaborative (along with Harper, Oakton, and the City Colleges of Chicago) has secured funding of our FaST adventures for some years to come. We are now Argonne fixtures during ten hectic weeks in the summer.
Though I have appreciated the opportunity to dabble once more among the crucibles and the chemicals, far greater is the pleasure of contributing to the development of our students. I have been blessed to work with five wonderful individuals who have never failed to astonish me with what can be achieved with a little dedication and effort. Of the fourteen FaST groups that populate Argonne over the summer, ours is normally the only one from a community college. The students from universities have normally taken more science courses than ours. Yet every summer the COD students shine like stars in the firmament in their midst. They have been wonderful ambassadors for the college and fully give the lie to the image propagated by the likes of Jay Leno that community college students are inferior beings.
We have been able to contribute in a very real way to the efforts of the cash-strapped Argonne scientists to advance the science of fuel cells - a subject that resonates with my goal of raising scientific literacy in relevant issues in the classroom. The students are not simply cleaning test tubes and holding the great scientists' clipboards as they go about their cerebral business. Rather they take considerable ownership of each project and contribute ideas and suggestions based on their own observations; they are able to work with almost complete independence. When you think that their scientific background may have amounted to just one term of a non-science majors' chemistry class, as was the case with Amanda Manley in 2007, it's just brilliant, and slightly mind-boggling, to behold.
The summer ends with each student presenting a paper on their work before the other students, their mentors, and Argonne staff. For some it is their first ever public presentation. Papers are also written and submitted to the Department of Energy. Some of them have also presented papers at the national Argonne Undergraduate Research Symposium held every November. Lily Santos from 2007 became a co-inventor on a patent application on polymer electrolyte fuel cells filed earlier this year by Argonne scientists. She has been able to parlay her Argonne experience into a research opportunity this summer at her new home at Loyola University in Chicago; it would not have happened without it. I was awash in pride hearing the praise heaped upon her by her new advisor during a recent visit. All have learned of the enormous value that internships like these have in their education as scientists as well as the advancement of their careers. Although it makes for a busy summer, I have been grateful to share in the experience and blow the dust from my research interests.
Nurture | Nature In Your Classes This Year by Linda Elaine
One morning this past August, as I drove out of my subdivision, the sweet scent of something green entered my nostrils. Where'd that come from, I asked no one. Did an early breeze blow this delicious scent from the corn growing a mile down the road or from the nine acres of soybeans growing outside my front door? Unless I'm on that long drive across flat farmland south to Terre Haute, all I typically smell in my neighborhood is exhaust and many-times reused cooking oil that belch from the passing trucks and franchise restaurants crowding Route 59 south of 75th Street. Or, maybe I'm not paying attention. The scent I enjoyed that day was a welcome treat. For a few brief moments, I was enthralled and instantly transported back to a long ago favorite time and place: college in that southern Indiana town where I had always enjoyed inhaling the perfumes of soy, corn, and wheat as they quietly grew tall. I wanted to keep the scent with me as long as I could. But as quickly as the joy of the natural came, it went. Just like that. I continued driving to my destination, lost in a muddle of swirling thoughts about the day's agenda.
Too often, incessant thoughts about our crowded agendas prevent us from engaging with the natural. Unless we're intentional - leisurely riding our bikes, meandering forest preserve paths, or sitting in our backyards listening to the buzz of flies - we can completely miss the beauties and joys of the environment that surrounds and sustains us. Our students' thoughts are no less incessant. If your students are anything like mine, very few of them take time to connect with and explore nature around them. In fact, until I require them to compose an observation/description essay, few have heard of nearby Morton Arboretum, let alone have explored it. Once they go, they become like children, curious to know more about the trees and plants that come from all over the world, disbelieving that such peace can exist right alongside noisy Route 53, and surprised they've enjoyed their time there. Many want to talk about their discoveries long past the completion of their assignment.
We can help our students as well as ourselves engage with life beyond routine classroom activities through participation in the college-wide initiative 3D: Discover, Develop, Do. Its primary purpose is to encourage the entire College - faculty, students, administrators, staff, custodial operations, and the community - to discover, appreciate, find out more about, and take action on a social concern. For the next two years, the 3D focus, Nurture | Nature, offers us an opportunity to discover the relationships between our environments and ourselves within, outside, and surrounding us; develop our analysis and thinking skills about those relationships; and take specific action on an aspect of our physical environment, locally, nationally, or globally. Next year, as we continue to Nurture | Nature, we will focus on nurturing our personal physical, psychological, and spiritual health and wellness.
To help engage us, the Library has chosen as our One Book/One Campus/One Community book, The Future of Nature: Writing on Human Ecology from Orion Magazine, a collection of essays that challenge the separation we humans place between ourselves and our environments. A TLC workshop will be offered to show us ways to use these essays in our classes.
This year, discover what's hiding in your syllabus that you can focus on to discover, develop, and do something about to Nurture | Nature. You and your students are likely to discover something old or something new in the natural and take action on that discovery, as Sociology professor, Shaheen Chowdhury, a member of the 3D Visionary Force, did. This past summer, she purchased the pictured coconut boat in her home country, Bangladesh, where Bangladeshi women make products from coconut shells, woods, and other natural resources and sell them in the marketplace to help reduce their poverty. Her purchase of the coconut boat, which represents the riverine country of Bangladesh, not only helped to financially support the women but also showed a perfect example of the ability to use all the parts of something natural: The coconut meat is eaten and the coconut shell is repurposed to make something beautiful.
Now, it's your turn. During the week after mid-term - October 13 through 17 - blog your experiences and have your students blog their experiences on the 3D blog. To give us your ideas and join the Visionary Force for 2008-2009, send us a message.
The core 3D team is:
- Linda Elaine, 3D Faculty Fellow Co-Chair and Assistant Professor of English
- Steve Gustis, 3D Staff Co-Chair and Service Learning Coordinator
- Cynthia Johnson, 3D Coordinator Co-Chair and Community Development Specialist
- Meryl Sussman, 3D Advisor and AVP-Economic & Community Development
- Chris Picard, 3D Advisor and VP-Academic Affairs
CODFA Quiz by Mike Losacco
Since we've started class for the Fall term, I thought I would give you a quiz. I know, it's
early in the term and you want to know how long it's going to be and what
it's going to cover and
how many points it's worth and do I drop the lowest score (What??? No, this is COLLEGE!)
and ... sorry, I mistakenly thought I'd get the same reaction I get from my students (not my Web
Development for Educators students, mind you, they never complain).
The quiz covers the CODFA web site. Some of the answers can be found on the site. Some can be discovered in the pages of copious notes that you've taken from the discussion board. Some can be encountered by reading the book. You don't have the book? Did you plan on getting it before the final?. Some ... well, you may have to think through them logically (e.g., guess).
Rumor has it that Karin Evans, the chair of CommComm, has an astronomical sum of money to award to the faculty member who earns the best quiz score (considerations taken if your answers make us laugh out loud) ... or was it a $20 gift certificate ... or maybe it was just a gently used COD coffee cup? Regardless, here's the quiz:
- True or False: Comparing January through August, we averaged 2.4 times more visitors to the site in 2008 than 2007.
- True or False: More than half the people that visit the site are on it for 2 minutes or less.
- Of the following sections of the site, which one averages the most visitors: Committees, Documents, or Newsletters?
- As of the publication of the September 2008 newsletter, how many registered members are there in the discussion board?
- Name the top two people who have made the most posts to the discussion board.
- Who spends the most time online in the discussion boards?
- What topic in the discussion board was viewed the most?
- In what month and year did the most people view the discussion board?
- How many Welfare Notes are there?
- What is the target publication date for an issue of the Faculty Advocate?
- Bonus Question: How many people have earned the title "Contributor" because they have had at least 70 posts?
- Extra Credit: Am I the only person who gets to have 5 green stars next to their name when they post a message? If not, who else?
These deep, thought-provoking, and yes, even somewhat metaphysical questions may keep you up at night, pondering the answers, the delights of statistical information, and even the very essence of CODFA. Rest assured, all will be revealed in the next edition of the Faculty Advocate coming to your browser (btw, technically, a navigator) in October. Don't miss it!
If you'd like to take the quiz, submit your answers (no, you don't have to write the questions out, just record your answers in MLA format) to Mike Losacco by Friday, September 26th for a chance to win one of the fantabulous prizes listed above and see your name in lights at the corner of Fawell and Lambert on the big maroon sign (that really should be green but the people that make those decisions don't even know what the school colors are) or maybe in REALLY BIG TYPE in the October Faculty Advocate. Or maybe we'll just delegate it to a committee and nothing will ever come of it.
Accolades - Praise Colleages (Send Us Items) by Mary Konkel & Ida Hagman
Let's hear about COD faculty's praiseworthy achievements - brag about your own, or inform on your colleagues! We want to hear about personal accomplishments as well as academic ones. Tell us about your educational achievements and degrees, publications, program development, awards, athletic achievements, musical/theatrical accomplishments and more. Consider highlighting someone who has worked behind the scenes without recognition. Submissions should be forwarded to the Accolades column editors, Ida Hagman or Mary Konkel by Friday, September 19 for inclusion in the next issue of the Faculty Advocate's Accolades column.
The COD Faculty Association welcomes our newest colleagues. Congratulations to you all! Please let us know how we can help you settle in!
- Karla Aleman, Resident Librarian
- Debora Del Re, Nursing
- Michael Dietz, Anthropology
- Jessica Dyrek, Counselor
- Diane Gryglak, Medical Assistant
- Lubna Haque, Chemistry
- Kent Huffman, Humanities
- Jennifer Kelley, Reference Librarian
- Tracy Kopecky, Anthropology
- Gail Laurent, Mathematics
- Carlo Ordonez, Mathematics
- Michael Stack, Mathematics
- Eric Thompson, Criminal Justice
- Margery Walters, Counselor
Image of Karla Aleman, our new Resident Librarian, with Jennifer Kelley, last year's Resident Librarian and now Reference Librarian
