December 07, 2009
Vol. II, No. 5
remembered, connections made, problems
solved in your competition later today will
be available to you ten years from now;
much of what you learn in your classrooms
will not. Indeed, some of the things you get
wrong in your competition today will
become powerful parts of what you know
ten years from now.
WheelerNotes
9000 and Counting: Because they are not here to
say it, I would like to issue 362 hearty thank-you’s
for the 362 high school students who competed in
this year’s academic contest. Dr. Knighton, the 61
faculty members, the 17 staff members, and 9
students whose labors made this year’s contest
possible should feel a great sense of
accomplishment at the valuable gift they gave to
these students. The notes below are borrowed
from my comments I issued as I welcomed the
students this year. The comments identify three
good things that I promise will happen during
their participation in the contest; the comments
also reflect my estimation of the value of the gift
that this college community gives year after year.
1. Over the 30 year history of this program,
more than 9000 students have ventured to
Gordon College to challenge their minds.
Alumni from this competition are now
scattered across the country in leadership
positions in the arts, sciences, education and
public service. At the end of this day you
can add your name to this distinguished
roster.
2. At the end of the day some of you will be
winners. You can return home with an
award in your hand and with confidence in
your mastery of the material in which you
excelled.
3. At the end of the day none of you will be
losers. This statement may require a bit of
explanation. You are going to learn more in
this day of competition than you learn in a
month of classes. Ideas used outside the
classroom are so much more powerful than
those you use in your classes. Things
Thank you for the good gift.
Bureaucratic Nonsense … but Important: The
faculty members on the calendar committee asked
for clarification as to the possible grades for
persons who are still on the roll of a college-level
course but have not been successful. Here is an
attempt to provide that clarification. Let’s use
these as the working rules for this semester. If
further clarification is needed, we will seek the
wisdom of the Academic Policy Committee.
• F – If the student takes the final examination
and is unsuccessful in the class, the student
should receive a grade of F.
•
WF – If the student has established a pattern
of poor attendance, does not come to take
the final examination, and is unsuccessful in
the course, the student should receive a WF.
•
In some cases, students will not attend the
final examination because of illness or
emergency. In these cases, it is important to
award a grade of I and facilitate
compensating arrangements for the student.
If the grade of WF is awarded, it is important to
estimate the “date last attended” when reporting
the WF at the end of the semester. If you do not
take attendance, please use the date of the last
assignment that the student handed in. Failure to
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include a “date last attended” results in the
college having to return financial aid monies to
the Federal government.
Always at your Fingertips: We have received a
request that DeaNotes be available electronically
as well as on paper. [That request is very
confirming to this editor who sometimes wonders
how many folks avail themselves of the wisdom
(?) on these pages.] The person seeking the
electronic copy will be pleased to know that all
back issues of DeaNotes are available at the
Academic Affairs webpage:
http://www.gdn.edu/departments/academicaffairs/
index.asp
CranfordNotes
Christina Quinn attended the Annual Scientific
Meeting of the Heart Failure Society of America
(in Boston, MA). She presented her research on
determining the role of symptom assessment
congruence between heart failure patients and
their caregivers along with family context factors
on heart failure health resource use. The title of
her presentation was: Symptom Assessment,
Family Factors, and Heart Failure Acute Care
Visits. Dr. Quinn also has had a recent manuscript
published related to the statistical analysis of her
research with heart failure patients and their
caregivers: Quinn, C., Haber, M., Yi, P. (2009).
Use of the Concordance Correlation Coefficient
when Examining Agreement in Dyadic Research.
Nursing Research 58(5), 368-373.
Michelle McCormick was awarded the 2009
Meritorious Service Award from the Georgia
Sociological at their annual meeting on Oct. 30.
Elizabeth Watts Warren will present “The
Transition from High School to College” at the
Business and Social Science Forum in April.
Jeff Knighton will make a presentation on
Academic Freedom at the Business and Social
Science Forum in March.
Joe Mayo has been accepted to present a 60minute symposium, “Cooperative Learning:
Intersecting Cognitive and Social
Constructivism,” at the 17th Annual Georgia
Conference on College & University Teaching to
be held at Kennesaw State University on February
12 & 13, 2010. Additionally, his presentation,
“The Colleague Swap: Peer Review as a Means to
Improve the Quality of Student Writing,” has been
accepted for the 2010 Teaching Matters
Conference.
Prathibha Joshi attended the USG Faculty
Development Workshop on “Encouraging
Academic Integrity: But, if Necessary, Detecting
and Dealing with Academic
Dishonesty,” September, 2009
Alan Burstein’s paper, “Teaching Financial
Literacy in the Introductory Accounting Class”
has been accepted for presentation at Teaching
Matters this spring, and a similar presentation,
“Teaching Media Comprehension in the
Introductory Accounting Class” has been accepted
for the TACTYC (Teaching Accounting in Two
Year Colleges) Conference in Phoenix this May.
GahrNotes
BursteinNotes
The Division of Business and Social Science has
recently awarded its first Faculty Choice Award to
business major James “Jay” Fletcher. The
division faculty has created the award to honor an
outstanding major in our division each semester,
and Jay was elected from a slate of three
outstanding nominees which included psychology
major Mary Rich and business major Rebekah
Carr, all of whom were honored at a pizza
gathering on November 18.
Following are some notes regarding recent faculty
accomplishments:
Dr. Richard Schmude, Jr. gave a talk titled “The
Schroter Effect and the Phase of Venus” at the 8th
annually Georgia Regional Astronomy Meeting at
North Georgia College on Nov. 7, 2009.
Dr. Lynn Rumfelt attended a regional
educational conference: West Central Georgia
Regional Science Technology Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) Education Institute on
December 4-5th, 2009 hosted by Columbus State
University and LaGrange College and sponsored
by the USG STEM Initiative and the NSF funded
program Partnership for Reform in Science and
Mathematics. It is designed to improve instruction
DEANotes is a quasi-weekly publication of Academic Affairs
in introductory science and mathematics courses
by developing STEM faculty learning
communities. A learning community is a variety
of approaches that link or cluster classes, during a
given term, often around an interdisciplinary
theme, and enroll a common cohort of students.
This represents an intentional restructuring of
students’ time, credit, and experiences to build
community and to foster more explicit
connections among students and their teachers,
and among disciplines.
Drs. Mustapha Durojaiye, Cathy Lee and
Phillip Jen attended National Association of
Biology Teachers (NABT) Professional
Development Conference representing Gordon
College Division of Math and Natural Sciences
from Thursday November 12th till Saturday
November 14th. Dr. Cris Fermin-Ennis organized a PrePharmacy seminar at Gordon College on
Thursday, November 12th. The speakers were the
Admissions Officers of Mercer University (Ms.
Jordana Stephens Berry) and South University
(Ms. Rachel Ridley). Approximately 45 students
attended the seminar.
O’SullivanNotes
Please remind your students and advisees who
plan to enter Gordon’s Early Childhood Education
baccalaureate program next year that the
applications for this program are now available in
Russell 104. These applications are due February
4, 2010, but we are encouraging students to begin
the process soon since it usually takes awhile for
them to get all of the paperwork and
recommendations they need for a complete
application. Thanks for your help in getting the
word to students.
Dates & Deadlines
Nov 23-Dec 18
Dec 7
Open Registration for Continuing
& Readmitted Students
Regents’ Test Results available
Dec 7
Last Day of Classes
Dec 8-11
Dec 21-Jan 3
Final Examinations &
Book Buy Back at Bookstore
College Closed for Christmas Holidays
Jan 4
Staff Report
Jan 6, 2010
Faculty Report
Jan 6-8
Jan 11
Open Registration for Continuing
& Readmitted Students
New Student Orientation, Group Advising
& Registration
Classes Begin
Jan 11-13
Late Registration
Jan 11 – 13
Drop-Add
Jan 13
Last Day to Register for Regents’ Test
Jan 13
Jan 18
Last Day to Receive Refund for Reduction
of Hours
Payment Deadline for Jan 6-8 Registration,
Drop-Add & Later Registration –4:00 PM
MLK Holiday
Mar 4
Mid Terms
Mar 9,10,11
Regents’ Testing Program-Std Cntr Audit
Mar 15
Furlough Day-College Closed
Mar
Graduation Fair
Mar 15-19
Spring Break for Faculty & Students
March 24
GA History & US Constitution Exam
Apr 5-23
Apr 27
Summer/Fall 2010 Early Registration for
Continuing Students
Summer/Fall 2010 Early Registration for
Readmitted Students
Summer/Fall 2010 Registration for
Continuing &Readmitted Students
Fall 2010 Open Registration for Continuing
& Readmitted Students
Regents’ Test Results Available
Apr 16-17
Alumni Weekend
May 3
Last Day of Classes
May 4-7
Final Exams – Book Buy Back
May 15
Graduation May 21(M)
Furlough Day
May 25(M)
Memorial Day Holiday
Jan 7
Jan 13
Apr 19-23
Apr 26-27
Apr 26-Aug 2
DEANotes is a quasi-weekly publication of Academic Affairs