Updates in Academic Affairs: January 18, 2016
Inside Updates: A status report on the College of Arts and Sciences dean search, help needed with the Medallion Scholarship selection process, general education reform is the topic of upcoming meetings and the campus community is invited to a presentation and discussion on suicide prevention.
Search for College of Arts and Sciences dean to continue
My thanks to all who have been engaged thus far in the College of Arts and Sciences dean search. We continue to need your engagement. After careful consideration and diverse input, I have decided to continue the search. All of our initial candidates and finalists have been informed of this decision.
Many in the campus community were involved in the initial visits with the five finalists for the dean position. Shortly before the winter closure, two of the finalists returned to campus for a second visit and more extensive meetings with key constituents. Candidates also had the opportunity to engage in detailed discussions regarding the vision for the college.
The search goes on for the candidate who is the best fit. But I’m pleased to report that Dr. Keith Hearit has agreed to continue serving as interim dean of the college. Join me in thanking Keith for his continued leadership and service to the college and to WMU.
I will meet with the search committee within the next week to discuss details regarding our next steps in the search process, including the timeline. We plan to have additional candidates visit campus later this semester for your consideration, and we will provide ongoing updates regarding the search process and timeline.
Please accept my best wishes for the new year and the new semester.
Evaluators needed for upcoming Medallion Scholarship selection process
To support the Medallion Scholarship recipient selection process, we are seeking faculty members who are willing to evaluate student extracurricular and co-curricular activities.
The caliber of students at the Medallion competition is exceptional, and we want to award this prestigious scholarship to well-rounded students who are likely to fully engage and take advantage of all that WMU and our region have to offer.
Each year, some 750 high school seniors come to WMU’s campus to compete for the Medallion. Those invited to the competition are admitted students who have at least a 3.7 high school grade point average and a composite ACT score of at least 26 (or the SAT equivalent). In 2016, approximately 20 finalists will receive a $60,000 scholarship that can be used for four years of undergraduate or graduate study.
At the competition, students complete an essay and a group problem-solving exercise intended to assess their leadership potential. After we review students’ ACT scores, GPAs, group problem-solving scores and essays, about 50 semi-finalists are then invited back to campus to interview with a selection committee.
In recent years, we have given competitors the option of submitting information online regarding their extracurricular and co-curricular activities. This year, however, we will make this a required and scored portion of the competition.
As you can imagine, it is very difficult to narrow the pool of 750 competitors to 50 semi-finalists on the basis of ACT, GPA, problem-solving and essay scores alone. Thus we seek to include this additional personal information in student activity reports.
Reading and scoring these reports will require significant effort. If you would like to see the instrument we use to survey students about their extracurricular and co-curricular activities, a draft is available here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2016Medallion
Each activity report needs to be read and scored. Graders will be provided with a scoring rubric. We ask that graders consider such things as student leadership, engagement in school activities, engagement in community activities, significant work or home responsibilities, and initiation and accomplishment of significant projects.
The competitions this year will be held on Saturday, Jan. 23, and Saturday, Jan. 30. The first batch of approximately 375 activity reports will be distributed to graders on Monday, Jan. 25, and Monday, Feb. 1.
We will need scores returned no later than the following Sunday evening (Jan. 31 and Feb. 7). No more than 50 reports will be allocated to any one grader. But if there are sufficient volunteer graders, fewer reports will be sent to each grader.
If you are interested in reading and scoring student activity reports from either the Jan. 23 or the Jan. 30 competition, please contact me at carla.koretsky@wmich.edu.
General education reform the focus of upcoming luncheons
Faculty and staff are encouraged to participate in informal brown bag lunch sessions focused on general education reform. The meetings are set for noon to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 20, and on Tuesday, Jan. 26, at the University Center for the Humanities in Knauss Hall.
For additional information, please contact Dr. Dave Reinhold, associate provost for assessment and undergraduate studies, at david.reinhold@wmich.edu or (269) 387-4564.
Campus encouraged to attend suicide prevention presentation
Dr. Kathryn Lewis-Ginebaugh, director of the Campuswide Suicide Prevention Program, will be the featured presenter. Her talk is titled "Campuswide Forum on Student Mental Health Difficulties and Suicidality." Following her presentation Lewis-Ginebaugh will moderate a panel of campus and community representatives focused on student mental health and assisting students who may be in crisis.
The forum will be live-streamed and will include online discussion so that staff members at off-campus locations can participate. Additional information regarding the forum and how to request the live-streaming link are available from the following website: www.wmich.edu/suicideprevention/forum. Download a printable poster here.