Dean Gary Olson

Dear Faculty and Staff

 I would like to welcome you back following what I hope was a pleasant and productive (in whatever sense you wanted to be productive!) holiday break. We are on our way to another great year in the College of Arts and Sciences. Below is a mid-year update on a few of the important initiatives we will be pursuing this spring.I am pleased to report that in December, the College allocated over $352,000 in mid-year enhancement funds. The funds came from resources provided by both the Provost's Office and the College. We distributed these resources to departments within the College based on strategic needs identified by the departments. Special consideration was given to those departmental initiatives that clearly furthered the College's new strategic plan. This is a positive sign that the University is well on the road to fiscal health.

I'm delighted to announce that funds are available for a new Program of Excellence in the College. The successful program will receive up to $25,000 in funding. The application will be available on the College website this week, and the winner will be announced at the Spring Address on April 20^th. The new Program of Excellence (POE) will join four existing POEs in the College: The Scholar-Educator Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program in Neuroscience and Behavior; Biomathematics: MS Sequence and Cross-Disciplinary Research at the Interface of Biology and Mathematics; The Mind Project Learning and Research Center; and Nanotechnology Education and Research.

I would also like to remind you of a few upcoming deadlines. Applications for the College’s Travel Supplement Grant Program are due March 31^st. These grants are intended to supplement a travel grant provided to a faculty member by his or her department to help defray the costs of professional travel. Travel to conduct research at libraries, archives, labs, or other off-campus sites will have highest priority. In addition, applications for the two newest faculty awards in the College—the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarly Achievement and the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Teaching—are due March 10^th. Finally, applications for the College's new Outstanding Staff Awards, which recognize an A/P and a civil service staff member for his/her significant contributions to the College, are also due Friday, March 10. The winners of the Dean’s faculty and staff awards will be announced at the Spring Address. Applications for the Travel Supplement Grant Program as well as the Dean’s Awards for faculty and staff are available on the College website at http://www.cas.ilstu.edu/faculty/awards.shtm

Two new University distinguished professors have been named, and both are professors in our College. Congratulations to Professor Scott Sakaluk, Biological Sciences, and Professor John Shields, English, for earning the highest honor bestowed upon faculty. You can learn more about our two newest distinguished professors in this issue of CASNews.

The College continues to strengthen our relationships with external constituencies. Last fall, we held meetings of our new Community Advisory Board and Emeritus Faculty Advisory Board. The creation of these two new boards has served to strengthen our ties with the Bloomington-Normal community. In December, the College’s newly formed Chicago Advisory Board, which is comprised of business and community leaders in the Chicago area, met for an introductory reception in Chicago. The Board will hold its first formal meeting in March. I am confident that this Board will create many new opportunities for the College in the Chicago area. Finally, the College’s Attorneys Advisory Board continues to thrive. The Board recently amended its bylaws to allow for vastly expanded membership to further its goal of providing Illinois State students with the highest quality pre-law education. Each of these Boards is important as we attempt to make our successes and opportunities known beyond the boundaries of this campus.

Finally, I encourage you all to participate in your department's strategic planning and governance document development processes. These are very important initiatives and their success depends on full and serious faculty and staff participation and engagement. I look forward to reviewing each of these documents at the end of the semester, and to seeing you all at the Spring Address on April 20 for a more in-depth summary of what we have accomplished and what we have planned for our future.