State of the Fisher College, November 30, 2007
Presented by Acting Dean David A. Vanko at the Fisher College Fall Forum
Good afternoon. I am pleased to be able to address you all today. What a strange situation we find ourselves in this year! We have an acting dean, an acting associate dean, and three acting chairpersons. The trouble is… …none of us have ever taken acting lessons!
Before we continue with today’s festivities, let’s begin with some introductions. First, I’d like to acknowledge some important visitors who are here with us: Provost Jim Clements was able to attend. Jim – welcome! Please say hello to everyone! We also have Ms. Donna Mayer from the TU Foundation. Please welcome Donna. And President Robert Caret has indicated that he will try to stop by a little later, perhaps during our reception.
Next, let me introduce the new faces you will encounter in the Dean’s office. Professor Howard Kaplon from Mathematics is our Acting Associate Dean. Mrs. Phyllis Brown is now the Executive Administrative Assistant for the dean’s office.
At this time I would like to invite our five department chairs to introduce their new faculty and staff. I will call upon them in alphabetical order of their last names (this will send Biology to the end of the line, for once). First, Professor Shiva Azadegan, who is our acting chairperson of the Department of Computer and Information Sciences. [Dr. Azadegan introduces Nancy Helen Harrison, her new secretary.]
Professor Raouf Boules from the Department of Mathematics. [Dr. Boules introduces Ming Tomayko, Alexei Kolesnikov, Mircea Voicei, and Tatyana Sorokina.]
Professor Richard Preisler, the acting chairperson of the Department of Chemistry. [Dr. Preisler introduces Anna Marie Soto and David Ownby.]
Professor David Schaefer is our new acting chairperson of the Department of Physics, Astronomy & Geosciences. [Dr. Schaefer introduces Rommel Miranda.]
And last, but not the least of our departments, Professor Rich Seigel will tell us about the Department of Biological Sciences. [Dr. Seigel introduces Cindy Ghent.]
Thank you! Now, back to the state of the Fisher College. No one would have predicted the odd leadership situation that we find ourselves in today. We are all grateful to Jerry Intemann for his seven plus years of dutiful service to the college, and we certainly wish him all the best. But changes have occurred, and it’s important to press on and to perform our best work in service to the Towson University mission, in service to our academic programs, our students, and our disciplines (or our interdisciplines if you happen to be Dr. Jane Wolfson in Environmental Sciences or Dr. Jim Saunders in MB3).
There are a number of pressing issues that require our attention in the Fisher College. I’ll go over some of them and comment on ways that we need to tackle each issue, each challenge.
The first of course is Enrollment Growth. No matter what the latest enrollment target is, you can be sure it represents an increase. Our challenge is to serve well our college’s majors and the broader GenEd student population, to offer the needed classes, to enlist the needed faculty members, both full time and part time, and to do all this without sacrificing quality. And I don’t just mean the quality of education available to our students; I also mean the quality and quantity of research that we conduct, and our quality of life. We want to work at Towson University because it’s a good place to work – we need to protect that “quality of life” aspect of TU. This will not be an easy task. Your assistance in meeting this challenge is crucial.
Fortunately, President Caret and Provost Clements authorized 24 additional new faculty positions for Fall 2008, for which new searches can begin immediately. The Fisher College was allotted 5 of those positions, and we will be using these to shore up growth-related needs in biology, chemistry, information technology, mathematics education, and science education. Thank you, Dr. Clements!
Here is some more great news. As you know, with higher enrollment comes increased resources, mostly from student tuition. Dr. Clements and others have worked hard to see to it that Academics gets its fair share of these new resources, and he has just announced two more significant additions to the Fisher College budget. He is increasing our operating funds by $76,500, and hopefully this will be added to our base budgets (depending on how the state budget fares in Annapolis this winter). And, he has announced over $200,000 of one-time funds that will be made available to the College. These will support smart technology in chemistry classrooms, 36 new computers for the Mathematics Satellite Lab, equipment for an additional Biology 201 lab, equipment for an additional Anatomy & Physiology lab (so we can help the College of Health Professions satisfy the state’s critical shortage in nurses), a cryotome for research and teaching in biogeochemistry, and a spectrophotofluorimeter for chemistry, biology and MB3. Dr. Clements – thank you so much for your strong support!
The next challenge on our plate, also stemming from our unprecedented enrollment growth, is space. We are running out of places to put people! Now occupying all of Smith Hall and much of the 7800 York Road building, we nonetheless have seen fit to move the Hackerman Academy, the Center for Science and Mathematics Education, and Environmental Sciences and Studies, to the Administration building. While the offices there are nice, the distal location is not ideal. Although we don’t have a clear solution for our long-term space needs, it seems obvious that we must be pushing for and planning for new space at every opportunity, including a Smith Hall addition and renovation.
The third pressing topic is a hot one nationwide, and that is the topic of STEM education – science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The national need for more STEM majors, and for more and more effective STEM teachers at all levels from elementary through high school, was highlighted in the famous “Rising above the Gathering Storm” report earlier this year. This influential report, by the way, was co-authored by Dr. Nancy Grasmick, Maryland’s State Schools Superintendent, and TU alumna.
Locally, the projected need for STEM education is linked to Maryland’s robust and long-standing strengths in aerospace engineering, biotechnology, information technology and other areas. The need for STEM education is also linked to the more recent stimulus of the BRAC initiative. BRAC stands for “base realignment and closure,” and with BRAC, the anticipated expansion of activities at Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Meade should result in numerous high-tech jobs for Marylanders. The Fisher College is leading Towson University in STEM education. By definition, we have always been nothing but STEM education. But with this new national attention to STEM, we can highlight ourselves as the go-to college. We are inaugurating a STEM Steering Committee, to include members from units and colleges throughout the university, whose purpose will be to coordinate our many STEM activities, to record our activities in a comprehensive database, and to evaluate and communicate our success. The committee will help ensure that all facets of our STEM profile – and by this we include STEM teacher preparation, teacher professional development, STEM outreach, recruitment and retention in the STEM majors, the overall quality of undergraduate STEM courses, and STEM funded research – all of these will be addressed. I have asked Dr. Don Thomas, the Founding Director of our Hackerman Academy of Mathematics and Science, to co-chair the STEM Steering Committee, and we will be asking for your help and input this year. Dr. Thomas could not be with us today, for he was asked to attend an invitation-only, day-long STEM education meeting being run by Dr. Grasmick and the Maryland State Department of Education.
A somewhat related task that remains before us is to decide how to inaugurate a School of Technology at Towson University. The potential to raise the profile of our strengths in information technology and perhaps other technologies makes the creation of this school, within the Fisher College, an attractive goal. We will ask for you help and input for this task this year.
The final issues that I wish to discuss are monetary. State funds and tuition together are still not enough to support all that we want to do. Towson University has an ambitious external funding goal, one that will elevate us closer to a “research-extensive” category. In the area of science and technology research grants and contracts, the Fisher College is TU’s workhorse. For the past five years we are averaging $1.4M in external funding yearly. We need to keep striving for more external funding. We do this because it serves our students, our programs, our colleagues, and our disciplines. And we do it because that’s what we have trained to do as scientists and mathematicians. Each of us must really have a very good excuse if we are not actively seeking outside funding to support our activities.
The other financial challenge is fundraising. As your acting dean, I must now act like a fundraiser. I’ll be talking with donors, seeking members for a board of visitors, and working with the gracious people of the Robert M. Fisher Memorial Foundation, who so generously endowed our college with the Jess & Mildred Fisher moniker. Likewise, I wish to recognize the more recent, million-dollar gift from Mr. Hackerman to launch the Hackerman Academy of Mathematics and Science. But, my friends, it’s not just million-dollar gifts that count. All of our gifts count, and to that end I would like to recommend to you account number 14459 – the Dean’s Discretionary Account, and number 35745 – the Fisher College General Scholarship Fund. Your gift, no matter how large or small, to these or any of the Foundation accounts at Towson University, could materially improve the life of a TU student. And, you will feel good after logging on to the TU website, choosing a fund, and keying in your credit card number. It’s simple. Please do consider a gift this year to TU.
Well, I’ll reiterate the main points for those who have just been nudged awake: our challenges to keep on the front burner, in one word each, are (1) enrollment, (2) space, (3) STEM, (4) grants, and (5) gifts. Please help us out in all five areas.
The Jess and Mildred Fisher
College of Science and Mathematics
Smith Hall, Room 312 (campus map)
Phone: 410-704-2121
Fax: 410-704-2604
E-mail: fcsm@towson.edu
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