Professor Salary Incentive Program (PSIP)
I am pleased to announce that President Smart and Provost Einhellig have approved the recommendations submitted by the Professor Salary Incentive Program (PSIP) committee. Click on the link below to view the recommended guidelines, application form, and an example of an evaluation tool that will be created in a web based format to be used by the committee members in reviewing applications. For those faculty who have applied for Foundations Awards, some common elements of the application packets will be familiar.
One of the recommendations of the PSIP committee is that the Provost Office will provide a couple of workshop opportunities early in the fall to assist professors who wish to submit an application which will be due to your Dean’s office this year on Friday, December 13th. Please stay tuned for some dates and locations for these discussions later in September.
I want to take this opportunity to thank the PSIP committee and all the various faculty and administrative groups that provided in-put on the guidelines. We look forward to working with our eligible professors to implement the first round of this program.
Take care,
Chris
Dr. Christopher J. Craig
Associate Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs
Office of the Provost
Carrington 209
Office 417-836-4589 – Fax 417-836-8432
ChrisCraig@missouristate.edu
Read about the Professor Salary Incentive Program
Transitioning to a New General Education Program in Fall 2014
As we indicated in a recent note to the campus community, the new general education program will be implemented next fall. All first-time freshmen will automatically come under the new program’s requirements. Continuing students who will not graduate until after Fall 2014, on the other hand, will remain under the current program unless they decide they want to switch to the new program. In an effort to assist students and their advisors as they assess their options, several helpful resources are now available.
The first of these is a draft of the new general education worksheet which portrays the structure of the new program along with all the courses to date that will be available to fulfill each of the program’s requirements. This worksheet along with the worksheet for the current program is available on the general education website.
The second useful resource is available within the degree audit system. Current students and their advisors can investigate the consequences of switching to the new program by running a “what-if” audit using the 2014 catalog. This will reveal how the student’s classes (both completed and current) will align in the new program.
Because students will discover that many of the same classes appear in both programs, they may conclude that it will be advantageous to switch. If this is done in consultation with the student’s advisor, it would be helpful to record the switch in the student’s advising notes. Students who decide to switch will need to notify the Office of the Registrar. A mechanism to do so will be established in the near future. This and additional updates will be sent out to the campus community as they become available. Stay tuned.
2013–2014 Faculty Writing Retreats
Dates: Friday’s on September 20th, October 25th, November 15th, Monday and Tuesday, December 16th & 17th
Time: 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Location: Meyer Alumni Center Hospitality Room
Dr. Stephanie Norander, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, will serve as the 2013–2014 Provost Fellow for Faculty Development—Writing. She invites you to please mark your calendars and register for the 2013–2014 Faculty Writing Retreats. Monthly Faculty Writing Retreats are open to all MSU faculty and provide dedicated time and space to write. Retreats include breakfast and a light lunch, opportunities to network with peers, and voluntary feedback sessions. Please register via My Learning Connection or contact StephanieNorander@MissouriState.edu for more information.
Citizen Scholar Award Nominations
Nominations due at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 19
The Board of Governors is once again soliciting nominations for the annual Citizen Scholar Award. Since the award was created in 2007, 35 exceptional students have been chosen to receive this prestigious honor, and the Missouri State University Board of Governors is expecting to recognize six more outstanding students this fall.
If you are a faculty or staff member who knows of a student who excels academically and exemplifies the Public Affairs mission, please download the nomination packet from the Citizen Scholar homepage and submit it to the Office of Student Affairs. Please be sure to read the “Criteria for Consideration and Selection” sheet, and provide sufficient details in your submission.
Recipients will receive an engraved memento, and recognition on a plaque in Plaster Student Union, Room 313. In addition, winners of the Citizen Scholar award are recognized at breakfast before the December Board meeting and at various times throughout the academic year.
Questions or comments may be directed to the Office of Student Affairs in Carrington 200 (836-5526).
CNAS Public Lecture Series
Ethical Dilemmas of Global Disease Eradication Programs
Date: Tuesday, September 10
Time: 7:30–8:30 p.m.
Location: Temple Hall 002
Speaker: Deborah Corcoran, Senior Instructor, Department of Geography, Geology, & Planning
Smallpox is the only infectious disease humans have successfully eradicated. Two diseases are currently tantalizingly close to eradication: Polio and Guinea Worm Disease. Other diseases such as AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis vie for scarce public health funds. Which diseases should have priority: those which affect the largest numbers of people, those with the highest mortality rates, or those with the greatest likelihood of successful eradication? Should military efforts be used to enforce immunization programs? Should religious and cultural beliefs take precedence over public health concerns? Should stocks of eradicated diseases be maintained? These and other issues will be addressed in this presentation.
New Voluntary Benefits Coming Soon!
Plan to attend one of the group meetings for details and enrollment information for our three new voluntary benefit programs: vision insurance plan, accident insurance and critical illness insurance.
Download schedule and meeting registration information
Study Away Exploratory Travel Funds and Short-Term Faculty-Led Program Spring Break Deadline
In 2013–14, the Provost and Vice President of Research and Economic Development will provide $20,000 in funding for faculty exploratory travel. The aim of the exploratory travel funds is to increase the number of faculty-led short-term Study Away programs towards an end of increasing students’ cultural competence. Additionally, funded travel will help to ensure faculty preparedness in safety measures for future short-term Study Away programs. The deadline for the fall round of funding is October 21, 2013. Please review the request for proposals here. Separately, the deadline for Study Away short-term faculty-led spring break 2014 programs is September 6, 2013. Please download the proposal template here. Contact Study Away Director Elizabeth Strong, 836-6368, if you have any questions about either the exploratory travel funds or the faculty-led program proposal.
Submit Your Public Affairs Student Work to the Quality Initiative Project
The Quality Initiative Project (QIP) is a continuous and non-intrusive system for assessing (not grading) student work related to the public affairs mission. By collecting student work across all disciplines, course levels, and both curricular and co-curricular units, this project will provide campus constituents with a sense of our students’ understanding and integration of the public affairs mission themes and our diversity goals.
How the process works:
- Fill out the online Intent to Participate Form
- Collect student work as usual
- Either submit copies electronically to assessment@missouristate.edu, or
- We can come to you, make copies, and return your originals in 2-3 days
- Faculty and staff reviewers score the work using a scoring rubric, and we send you a report
- Office of Assessment staff report aggregate data to the Assessment Council and Faculty Senate
As a bonus, everyone who submits student work will receive a Starbucks gift card and a certificate of participation that can be included in a promotion and tenure dossier or ADP!
To submit student work: complete the online Intent to Participate Form
To become a QIP reviewer: fill out the online application
For additional information: visit the QIP page on the Office of Assessment website, or contact us at assessment@missouristate.edu or 836-6300.
Missouri State Test Prep
Missouri State Test Prep is here to help you achieve your academic goals. With preparation courses for the GRE®, GMAT®, LSAT, we are Springfield’s leading test prep solution. For more detailed information, visit the test prep webpage.
LSAT Prep Course
Dates: August 29–October 1st
Time: 6:00–9:00pm
Location: Alumni Center 4th Floor
Cost: $899
GRE Prep Course
Dates: October 2–28
Time: 6:00–9:00pm
Location: Alumni Center 4th Floor
Cost: $799
GMAT Live-Online Prep Course
Dates: October 23–November 18
Time: 6:00–9:00pm
Location: Online
Cost: $799
Free Workshops for Students
We offer several on-campus and online workshops for students at no fee to help with sections of each test and a math and writing review. Course can be viewed on the noncredit website.
Blackboard Feature Spotlight: The New Content Editor
The Content Editor in Blackboard is better than ever! Have you ever struggled to copy and paste a paragraph from a word document to a Blackboard page? It’s been fixed! Yes, you can now copy and paste from Word without it appearing as though it’s been possessed by evil computer ghosts. The new content editor reads, writes and renders modern HTML—so the content you created in Microsoft Word and the course pages you designed so carefully in Dreamweaver will transfer accurately into Blackboard Learn. All sorts of improvements have been made to the content editor in Blackboard. You can now edit in a full screen, giving you a lot more real estate to build rich content, and you have the choice of a basic view of the editor or an advanced view depending on your needs.
The content editor still contains all the basic tools in the interface including cut, copy, and paste if you don’t like to use keyboard shortcuts. You can also create tables, resize images, and embed video with the new editor. Using the mash-up tool you can still easily add rich content by searching for content from YouTube, Flickr, Slideshare, and more rather than just creating a link. Even record and share a video from your webcam straight into the editor with the Video Everywhere button!
Check out this video from Blackboard about the New Content Editor:
[youTubeVideo url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMB365sPIEA” width=”220″ height=”140″]
To find out more about all the opportunities for Blackboard training and learn how you can become a Blackboard Black Belt visit us on the MSU Blackboard website.
Music Professor to Present Paper at the New Beethoven Research Conference
Dr. James Parsons, professor in the music department, will present his paper “Once more Beethoven and Schiller: the Choral Fantasy’s Philosophical Program” at the New Beethoven Research conference in Pittsburgh on November 6. Dr. Parsons is an internationally-known Beethoven scholar and music historian.
Digital Professor Academy Fall 2013 is Open for Enrollment
The Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning is accepting enrollment for the Digital Professor Academy. This program is designed to guide faculty through the course development process and share important insight into effective online teaching. Participants will learn and practice new strategies through a community of practice model.
To learn more about this program and online course development, please plan to attend one of the following DPA Orientation Meetings:
Monday, September 9th 2:00–3:00 p.m.
Tuesday, September 10th 9:30–10:30 a.m.
Wednesday, September 11th 9:30–10:30 a.m.; 3:00–4:00 p.m.
Thursday, September 12th 9:30–10:30 a.m.; 2:00–3:00 p.m.
Friday, September 13th 9:30–10:30 a.m.
Meetings will be held in the FCTL, Meyer Library, Room 204.
Please sign up for the DPA Orientation meeting of your choice through My Learning Connection. Click on Course Catalog and select Show All Classes; under Choose Category, highlight “Digital Professor Academy.” Select the meeting date and time you would like to attend by clicking on Add to Cart; then Check Out and Finalize.
If you have difficulty in registering or would like more information, please contact the FCTL at 836-3059.