December 2008
Contents
Special Announcement
As students and faculty/staff prepare for the end of first semester, many programs are in the planning process for the 2009-2010 academic year! Learning Communities are busy planning for another exciting year with our existing fifteen Learning and Scholars Communities as well as the addition of two new programs I am excited to share with the UNL community and promote to incoming students! Learning and Scholars Communities provide first year students an opportunity to live on a dorm floor with other first year students with similar interests, take courses together and connect with faculty outside of the classroom in activities focusing on the theme of the community.
The first new program I would like to highlight for the 2009-2010 academic year is the Sustainability Learning Community, sponsored by the College of Architecture. The community plans to focus on developing in students a holistic understanding of the issues related to environmental sustainability. The membership of the community is not limited to students in the College of Architecture, but there will be a natural bias toward the role played by architects, landscape architects, and interior designers in the solutions to the sustainability challenges facing the world.
The second new program is the Women in Leadership (WIL) Scholars Community, sponsored by the department of Agricultural Leadership. This unique program is for students who are interested in exploring the evolving dynamics of women in leadership on a local, national, and international basis. The WIL scholars program provides opportunities for leadership skill development, community networking, civic engagement, and career exploration.
While I am excited to share the news of future communities, I would be remiss if at this time of the year I did not thank our current outstanding faculty sponsors who work with each of our Learning and Scholars Communities. These faculty sponsors have taken time outside of the classroom to help our first year students connect to the University in a unique way, sometimes traveling with them or opening up their homes to them or even just attending a campus lecture together.
Happy December and warm wishes!
AnnMarie Williams
Academic Learning Community Coordinator
awilliams6@unl.edu or 472-0698
Announcements and Events
Resources for Transfer Students
As the university expands recruitment efforts to more out-of-state students we have enrolled more students from outside Nebraska. Many of these students come with college credit either as dual credit while in high school or as transfer students. The Academic Transfer Coordinator works to increase the number of course equivalencies from regional institutions. Once individual courses have been reviewed by faculty they are added to the course equivalency list on the web (http://nebraska.unl.edu/tequiv/). This resource allows students to see which courses have direct equivalents at UNL and which will transfer as electives. Courses not on the list have generally not yet been reviewed. A number of courses have been recently added to this list from Western Iowa Technical Community College (WITCC) in Sioux City, Iowa and Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas.
Students from community colleges in Nebraska, and some of our Iowa neighbors can see how their courses would fit into requirements at the UNL degree colleges. The Transfer Guides (http://ucommxsrv1.unl.edu/dgs/ ) allow students to better plan courses that will apply to specific UNL degrees. Besides those community and tribal colleges and the College of Technical Agriculture in Nebraska, there are on-line Guides available for Hawkeye Community College, Waterloo, IA, Iowa Western Community College, Council Bluffs, IA, and Western Iowa Technical Community College.
In the transition to Achievement Centered Education new Transfer Guides will be developed to help students select courses at their home institution that will satisfy specific Student Learning Outcomes. Students who transfer to UNL will have until the Fall Semester 2012 to move from the current Bulletin including the Essential Studies program to the current Bulletin and the ACE program.
Questions about transfer credit may be directed to JoAnn Moseman, Academic Transfer Coordinator, Office of Undergraduate Studies, jmoseman2@unl.edu or 402-472-9455.
UCARE
The UCARE application deadline for the 2009-10 Academic Year will be Friday, February 13, 2009.
Application forms are on the UCARE website as fillable PDFs. An online application and submission form will also be available starting in January.
If faculty would like to post a UCARE opportunity on the UCARE website for students to browse, please send a brief description, contact information, and possibly a list of undergraduate majors for which the opportunity might be applicable to Sara Mattson, ucare@unlnotes.unl.edu.
PEARL
New PEARL Peer Reviewer
Mark Pegg, Associate Professor in the School of Natural Resources, has joined PEARL as a Peer Reviewer. Welcome, Mark!
Update on the Progress of PEARL Peer Reviews
The PEARL Peer Reviewers have been hard at work over the last several weeks providing feedback on the 2007-2008 PEARL results and the 2008-2009 PEARL plans. Jeremy Penn, Program Assessment Coordinator, will contact Program Leaders directly when the feedback on their PEARL plans is ready for viewing. Program Leaders are encouraged to respond to the feedback using the tools built into the PEARL software.
Survey of PEARL Program Leaders
To continue to improve PEARL and to provide feedback to the PEARL Peer Reviewers on the quality of their feedback, the Office of Undergraduate Studies will be conducting a survey of PEARL Program Leaders beginning in December. If you are a PEARL Program Leader, please carefully watch your email for the survey invitation. Thank you in advance for your time spent on this important survey.
Office of Undergraduate Studies |
(402) 472-1185 |
Dr. Rita Kean, Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Professor of Textiles, Clothing and Design
Dr. Tim Alvarez, Interim Director of OASIS
Dr. Patrice Berger, Director of NU Honors Program and Professor of History
Dr. Laura Damuth, Director of Undergraduate Research and Fellowship Adviser
Kelly Dick, Undergraduate Curriculum Associate
Dr. Donald Gregory, Director of General Studies and Associate Professor of English
Gail Hackwith, Administrative Assistant
Dr. Jessica Jonson, Director of Institutional Assessment
Sara Mattson, Administrative Technician
Dr. Nancy Mitchell, Interim Director for General Education
JoAnn Moseman, Academic Transfer Coordinator
Jeremy Penn, Assessment Associate for PEARL
Marcia White, E.N. Thompson Coordinator and Political Science Adviser
AnnMarie Williams, Academic Learning Communities Coordinator
