Monday, January 17, 2022
News
Reducing Commitments During Advising Days
Advising days are scheduled from February 14 through February 22. In an effort to create some space for faculty appointments with advisees, the Dean’s office is rescheduling or canceling most meetings between February 14 -18, if possible. Unfortunately, we cannot easily reschedule the Faculty Meeting on February 14.
- The Academic Standing Committee will meet on Feb. 14 only if necessary
- The Budget Committee meeting on Feb. 14 will be rescheduled
- The Faculty Personnel Committee meeting on Feb. 15 will be canceled
- The Education and Curriculum Committee meeting on Feb. 16 will be canceled
We recommend that departments and programs lighten their meeting load if possible, while recognizing that faculty interviews, department/program reviews, and other existing events cannot be rescheduled. This is a voluntary effort that could become more widespread when we have more time to anticipate conflicts with advising days in the future.
Testing with the Office of Accessibility Resources
Test room booking appointments with the Office of Accessibility Resources (OAR) are now open for students with approved testing accommodations for Winter Term. They require no less than 72-hour notice in all cases. Faculty and advisers should remind their students and advisees to book their exams before this 72-hour window.
The OAR has limited space and proctor resources, especially given the potential for staffing disruption due to the Omicron variant, so some requests may be denied due to these constraints. In the event that an exam request is denied, OAR staff will communicate with faculty in a timely manner to ensure that alternative arrangements will be made with faculty that meet the student’s accommodation needs. It is always helpful when students can work with faculty to find alternative spaces and proctors.
For more information about accommodations and the faculty, see the Disability Accomodations information maintained by the Dean of the College Office.
COVID Recovery
KN95/KF94 Masks Available
The Dean’s Office has a good supply of KN95 and KF94 masks available for faculty. Stop by Laird 131 to collect up to four masks at a time.
Student Attendance Policy Concerns
Students have raised concerns about course attendance policies that they interpret as leaving them with little choice but to attend class when they are ill, as long as they have not tested positive for COVID. Now that the term is well underway, we encourage you to have a conversation with your students about your expectations around illness and attendance in your classes. You might have already discussed this on the first day of class; if so, it can still be helpful to have a follow-up conversation about how those expectations are playing out in their experience of your course.
Advising
Announcing the NEW PATHWAYS!
For many years, advisers and their advisees have enjoyed access to the Pathways resource, a useful tool to help students explore career trajectories related to majors of interest. The Director of Advising has updated the resource over the years with the help of a student worker. In an effort to make Pathways always timely and useful, we have shifted the resource to the Career Center Career Pathways page and have automated the tool.
Drawing on Carleton alumni data, the new Pathways tool shows the paths that Carleton students followed from their majors (and sometimes their minors) to arrive at their employment fields. Pathways has been modified to include alumni data from the early 1970s to the most recent academic years. Users may select either a major or a field of employment and see the paths of connection in either direction. Select one of those paths and see each broad field of employment further broken down into sub-fields. Drilling down into an individual sub-field allows users to connect with Carleton alumni working in related positions.
The new Pathways tool will enable students to build their networks by providing data on alumni in their areas of interest. All alumni with contact information have already agreed to be approached by Carleton students. Departments and programs may use the new Pathways tool to assemble career panels of alums from their discipline. Advisers may assemble profiles of key alums in career areas to help guide their advisees. We hope that the new Pathways tool will produce many new collaborations while it continues to inform Carleton students about the variety of professional fields associated with the liberal arts curriculum.
Information Sessions on OCS Opportunities
Information Sessions on OCS opportunities are in full swing with multiple events being held every week. Encourage your advisees to attend those of interest to them.
Applications for 2022-23 programs are open with the deadline for Carleton summer programs on January 24, fall programs on February 7, Winter Break programs on April 11, and Winter and Spring programs on April 18. Carleton Global Engagement program deadline is March 15. Non-Carleton application deadlines vary by program with approvals processed by the OCS office on a rolling basis and a deadline of April 14 for all submissions. All “Home School Nomination” forms or similar for non-Carleton programs are processed by the OCS office.
Individual advising is available every afternoon from 1-4:30. Students can also visit the OCS website at any time to learn more about upcoming programs, open an application, and be inspired by the stories and images of students who have just returned or are currently abroad.
Advising Quick Links
- Forms and Decision Trees
- Advising Contacts
- Graduation & Major Requirements
- Academic Rules and Regulations
- Off-Campus Study Programs
- Career Center Resources for Faculty & Advisers
- Office of Student Fellowships ‘For Advisors’ Page
Grants and Fellowships
NSF “Racial Equity in STEM Education”
The National Science Foundation’s new “Racial Equity in STEM Education” program seeks to support bold, ground-breaking, and potentially transformative projects addressing systemic racism in STEM. Proposals from faculty or staff should advance racial equity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce development through research (both fundamental and applied) and practice. Contact Christopher Tassava to discuss this opportunity.
Conferences and Workshops
Strengthening and Supporting Environmental Studies across the ACM
Twenty Environmental Studies faculty from Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) will convene August 6-9, 2022 at Coe College’s Wilderness Field Station near Ely, Minnesota to discuss their Environmental Studies programs and develop strategies for strengthening Environmental Studies programs across our institutions. Accommodations and meals are provided for the workshop’s duration, and travel expenses will be reimbursed for each participant.
Additional information and application.
About the Workshop:
This workshop is made possible by the ACM FaCE grant, “Strengthening and Supporting Environmental Studies across the Associated Colleges of the Midwest.” The purpose of the grant is to bring faculty together to address the challenge of meeting growing student interest in the field of Environmental Studies despite varying and oftentimes limited institutional funding devoted directly to Environmental Studies programs.
How can faculty whose tenure lines are linked to specific departments create more robust programs to serve this interdisciplinary major? How can Environmental Studies curricula contribute to the institutions’ growth of experiential, civically engaged, and place-based learning opportunities? How can Environmental Studies attract students who are drawn to studying environmental issues but concerned about the “hireability” of their major? This workshop invites participants to consider what role Environmental Studies programs play in the institutions of which they are a part. At a small liberal arts college, what is the purpose of the major? To what extent do Environmental Studies faculty and students truly engage in interdisciplinary work? And how can programs best accomplish their goals with limited staffing and resources?
Ultimately, our goal is to strengthen Environmental Studies programs in the ACM by creating pathways for faculty members to share experiences, learn from, and support each other. Working together toward the common goal of providing meaningful educational opportunities for our students, Environmental Studies programs across the ACM can collectively build on past successes, tackle current challenges, and anticipate future needs. As a result, ACM schools will be better suited to embrace and encourage the growing population of incoming students who are motivated to make a difference in our changing environment.
Post-workshop Expectations: Based on interests that participants identify during the workshop, participants will be expected to develop and implement a collaborative Environmental Studies opportunity of their choosing. Collaborations might include faculty providing guest lectures in Environmental Studies courses at other ACM institutions, developing off-campus experiences shared by multiple campuses, or implementing experiential learning opportunities, among many other possibilities. The workshop’s organizers will compile these resources to build a repository for all ACM Environmental Studies faculty, with the intent of maintaining long-term connections across ACM institutions.
Application: Please complete this Google form by February 1, 2022. If there are more qualified applicants than available spaces, there will be a cap of four faculty per ACM institution. By the end of February, accepted applicants will be notified and given additional details about workshop programming and travel arrangements.
For more information, please contact the workshop’s organizers:
Sarah Frohardt-Lane, Associate Professor of History at Ripon College, lanes@ripon.edu
Jesse Ellis, Associate Professor of Biology at Coe College, jellis@coe.edu
Tammy Mildenstein, Associate Professor of Biology at Cornell College, tmildenstein@cornellcollege.edu