05-09-29 To Faculty and Staff

Dear Colleagues:

I have visited (or visits are planned) with every department in the College of Liberal Arts this Fall, but I thought you would find informative a letter highlighting a few announcements, issues, and accomplishments. As with previous communications to the College community, let me invite your comments or questions about information in this letter or about other matters that might be on your mind.

Announcements

 If you attended the Academic Convocation, you heard Dr. Gates refer to a series of Presidential Roundtables focusing on the humanities to be held throughout this academic year. The first roundtable will take place on Thursday, October 27^th, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon in 701 Rudder and the topic will be “The Value of the Humanities.” These roundtable discussions are part of a national initiative sponsored by the Association of American Universities and the American Council of Learned Societies and recognizes “both the critical role of the humanities in making us better people and more productive citizens, as well as the significant achievements made in the humanities here at Texas A&M over the last decade.” We look forward to a robust discussion among administrators, faculty and students.

In addition to welcoming 29 new faculty to the College, I am pleased to welcome two new department heads – Dr. Mark Fossett has assumed the headship in the Department of Sociology and Dr. Judith Hamera is the new head in the Department of Performance Studies. Dr. Fossett has been a member of the Sociology faculty and Dr. Judith Hamera joins us as a new faculty member from California State University–Los Angeles. 

The College has launched a new web site that aims to provide timely announcements and essential information for faculty, staff, and students. I’ve learned that website development is always an on-going process, and we are still in the early stages of development. Nevertheless, we felt sufficiently ready to post the new site and solicit reactions. A key feature of this site is the capability of various constituency groups to provide content information directly to the site. Leanne South will be consulting with departments, programs, and others in the College on how to utilize this new feature. In the meantime, please visit the new site at: http://clla.tamu.edu/.

Issues

Let me highlight three issues that are on the College’s front burner for this semester. Each issue contributes, directly or indirectly, to the College’s priorities of building nationally visible departments and programs, creating a diverse environment, and extending our international reach. Please watch for announcements about these issues, discuss them with your department head, and consult with members of the Liberal Arts Council when they appear on the Council’s agenda. Thanks in advance for your advice on these important matters.

First, many faculty and staff are familiar with initiatives by the College to strengthen interdisciplinary programs. Since the posting of the report from the Ad Hoc Committee on Interdisciplinary Programs and subsequent discussions in a variety of venues, we are moving deliberatively to modify our personnel policies to provide for faculty appointments that are interdisciplinary in nature. We are also working with the directors of interdisciplinary programs to develop a process for affiliated faculty with each program. And, we are planning to create an administrative office to serve the staff needs of interdisciplinary programs. (I have also discussed interdisciplinarity as the topic of a recent quarterly letter that I sent to friends and benefactors of the College. A copy of that letter is available at:

      http://clla.tamu.edu/publications/deanreports/quarterlyletters/0508interdisciplinarity

Each of these initiatives will strengthen existing departments and programs in the College, and will afford faculty and students opportunities for greater interdisciplinary work. As these plans develop, moving from discussion to draft documents to accepted guidelines and policy, I will be talking with the Liberal Arts Council and the Executive Council.

Second, a copy of the President’s Task Force on Enhancing Undergraduate Education has been posted to the web at the following URL:

     http://www.tamu.edu/president/documents/Enhancetheundergradexp.pdf

If you have not already reviewed this report, I recommend that you do so since we will be talking about its suggestions for the coming year. This report offers a variety of ideas for enhancing undergraduate education at Texas A&M University. I should underscore that the report seeks to enhance opportunities for undergraduates, and should not be read as a criticism of the current high-quality teaching that students encounter at this university. In the College, we will be exploring ways that we might expand opportunities for undergraduates and mark pathways for students seeking those opportunities. I will be keeping members of the Liberal Arts Council and the Executive Council informed of University plans, and we will begin to address College-specific items later in the fall semester.

Third, the College budget is not the most exciting topic and it is easy to become overwhelmed with details about accounts, base and temporary funding, and the like. Nevertheless, at $41 million, the College’s budget is obviously central to all we do and want to do. Despite a $1.5 million reduction in our budget in 2003, the College has experienced a substantial increase in its base budget with funds associated with my appointment, reinvestment hires, and retention/parity allocations. Virtually all of these funds have been allocated to departments for new positions, operating expenses, allocations for graduate assistantships, increased faculty salaries, and partner placements. As we enter an era of level funding, the College will need to develop funding strategies to generate modest base funds to cover new obligations while keeping base funding in departments to the maximum degree possible. These strategies will mean that Liberal Arts will adopt budget practices similar to those used in most other colleges at Texas A&M and many colleges at peer institutions in which base funding is drawn back to the college for new obligations. In this coming semester, I will be discussing with the Executive Council and the Liberal Arts Council options for pulling back modest amounts of base funding to cover new requirements.

Congratulations

Earlier this week the College celebrated faculty and staff achievements in the Fall Reception. On behalf of the several recipients of these awards, I want to say thank you for joining the celebration. If you were unable to join us on Tuesday, please take time to congratulate the following individuals for their exceptional achievements. We honored the following individuals:

 Association of Former Students College-Level Teaching Award:

    John Allen, professor of economics

    Richard Anderson, professor of economics

    Linda Putnam, professor of communication

College of Liberal Arts Research Awards:

     Leslie Morey, professor of psychology

     Winfred Arthur, professor of psychology

 College of Liberal Arts Superior Service Awards (CLASS):

     Paulette Bomnskie, senior office associate, English

     Ede Hilton-Lowe, administrative assistant, European and Classical Languages and Cultures

     Robyn Konrad, academic advisor II, History

     Sandra Maldonado, business coordinator I, Communication 

Undergraduate Student Services (team award): Terri Burger, David Coleman,

       Michael Hershberger, Roy Mitchell, Sarah Schuler, Judy Shear

Conclusion

Best wishes for the remainder of the Fall Semester. Please let me know if you have any suggestions about topics mentioned in this letter or other questions about the College.

 Sincerely,

 Charles A. Johnson

Dean and Professor of Political Science