Category: News

IntFest your weekend!

Kick off your weekend on a global scale! Come to International Festival at Highland Learning Center, building 4000, starting at 6 PM! Think of IntFest2019 as a global party thrown by Arts and Digital Media and Liberal Arts: Humanities and Communications.

Today!!!

IntFest2019 includes performances and demos from around the world, refreshments, tables by students and faculty from departments that have international themes (like ESOL and languages, for a start), plus organizations right here in the Austin community.

And if that isn’t enough enticement: Salsa for an hour with ACC’s Jazz Band! Don’t know how to salsa? We have basic lessons compliments of our dance department to get you in the groove!

See you there!

Honors Painting Student Exhibit!


The poetry of edges

I’m excited to announce an exhibit of artwork by students in our new Honors Painting course!

The artists in the show are students from the inaugural
year of a unique studio art course now offered at ACC, Honors Painting. Guided by Professor Shawn Camp, students in the course develop a body of work through an enhanced curriculum that challenges and expands their perspectives as artists and painters. The exhibition is curated by the students themselves.

Featured Artists in this exhibit are Jess Butler, Cindy Cannon, Jennifer Conroy, Judy Conroy, Terry Cowen, Lin Flores, Alison Hall, Erin Leary, Leticia Mosqueda, Juliette Nickel, Tammy Mabra, Alexis Schoelkopf, Gabriela Vidal, Debbie Ward, Clover Watson, Aimee Williams, and Janie Zackin. 

Continue reading “Honors Painting Student Exhibit!”

November Global Issues Speaker

ACC welcomes Dr. Ghislain Potriquet, one of our collaborating professors at The University of Strasbourg, our partner for ACC Government Department’s Study Abroad Program in France. Dr. Potriquet is delivering the November lecture in The Global Issues Speakers Series, Wednesday, November 14, EVC 8500, 5:00-7:00 PM.

Economic and Societal Changes in The United States and Europe

In both the United States and France, two unlikely candidates won the last presidential elections: Donald J. Trump and Emmanuel Macron. As the two leaders met for the first time in the spring of 2017, their differences were eclipsed by a strong relationship. Their so-called “bromance” continues to puzzle observers on both side of the Atlantic. What do the two leaders have really in common? Ghislain Potriquet will attempt to answer this question by putting their elections in perspective. He will argue that they are evidence of broad economic and societal changes in the United States and Europe.

Ghislain Potriquet is associate professor of American studies at the Université de Strasbourg, France. He holds a PhD in American studies from Université Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle. He teaches American history and political sciences classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels. His research interests include language diversity and historiography. 

Selection Process Update

As you probably know, we are implementing many of the recommendations of the DC Compensation workgroup, including a newly defined job description for assistant deans and the new role of Registration Liaison. Letters of interest were due earlier this week. Here’s what you need to know about the selection process:

Assistant Deans

Each dean area will have two assistant deans, selected according to these guidelines from our AVP, Gaye Lynn Scott:

  • use a hiring committee of at least three
  • look for expertise or familiarity with programs in the dean area
  • look for expertise or familiarity with student learning outcomes and assessment, program planning (planning in general), continuous improvement, etc. for the AD Pathways
  • look for expertise or familiarity with teaching in an online environment, Quality Matters, good practice in distance education for the AD Distance Ed
  • consider asking for a presentation or a written overview along the lines of “how would you help the programs in this dean area systematically and effectively meet QM standards for all DE offerings by Fall 2020?” for the interview

We want to have our assistant deans in place for the spring semester, and so I am in the process of forming selection committees in the next week. Once I have the letters of interest from HR, we will review and select interviewees. My plan is to have the selection completed before Thanksgiving.

Registration Liaisons

Registration liaisons are faculty who perform many of the same registration-related functions of the old assistant dean position. Instead of release time, Registration Liaisons will receive stipends. There will be 16 registration liaisons assigned to specific campuses and reporting to the academic dean for the assigned campus. As of this week, the projected assignments are:

  • Cypress:  2 (one for CYP, one for SGC), reporting to Matthew
  • Eastview:  1, reporting to PatHays:  1, reporting to Giao
  • Northridge, 3, reporting to Lorlie
  • Highland:  3 (also covering Elgin), reporting to David and/or Tom
  • Rio Grande:  1, reporting to Sam
  • Riverside:  2, reporting to Brandon
  • Round Rock:  2, reporting to Brandon and/or Pat
  • South Austin:  1, reporting to Linda

These projections are based on student population characteristics at the campuses, but note that registration liaisons will assist students in all AoSs. (For more information about this role, see Mike Midgley’s recent email about the recommendations of the DC Compensation Workgroup.)

We will likely adopt a selection process similar to that for Assistant Deans. I will update this post when I have more specifics.

In case you are wondering, LAHC department chairs also benefitted from the workgroup’s study. Beginning in the spring, all our LAHC DCs will have an increase in release time to support their work. In future, LAHC DCs will have 18 LEH per year release.

I am very pleased with the long-overdue “upgrade” to department chair compensation. I think the realignment of assistant deans to support departments and registration liaisons to support students is also a productive change.

Let me know if you have questions!

Congrats, faculty fellows!

Four faculty from LAHC are among the 2018-19 Faculty Fellows. Please join me in congratulating our faculty!

  • Susan Meigs, ENGL
  • Anne Fletcher, INRW
  • Aimee Finney, CommS
  • Erin Bannen, PRH

The Faculty Fellows is a project of ACC’s Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning. Learn more about this program on the FCTL website. Get involved! Find out about additional opportunities to be part of the action!

Building (Honors) Bridges

This fall, we’re piloting a new-ish type of course: the Honors Bridge.

When I became dean of LAHC, one of the programs in my portfolio is the Honors Program. I spent a good bit of time last year in conversation with colleagues, both here and in other institutions, thinking about Honors. I was very lucky to have a spirited group of faculty in the ad hoc Honors Workgroup, and they helped formulate a new direction for Honors, building on the great work of the past.

One of our major concerns is access — which is another way of saying that we were concerned about the inclusiveness of the program. I have often pointed out that decisions on the “front-end” of a decision-process often have unintended but destructive effects on the implementation end. I think that’s a good way to look at Honors programs.

Continue reading “Building (Honors) Bridges”

PechaKucha!

Check out this opportunity from Theresa Glenn and our Communication Studies department.

Join us for a student speech contest coming up early next month.  The date is set for Tuesday, October 9th — two weeks from today.  The theme for this year is “What’s Your Story” told in a 10X20 or 5X40 PechaKucha format.  If you’re not familiar with the Pecha Kucha format you may explore this special type of public speaking arrangement at www.pechakucha.org.  Basically, students will ‘tell their story’ using 10 PPt slides and speak on each slide for 20 seconds or a new option this year is to use five slides and speak on each slide for 40 seconds. Yes, the slides are timed.    Also, the theme is broad, but we are looking for students to tell a personal story of struggle, triumph, survival, and/or all of the above.  It must be a true story and appropriate for the college scene.

EXAMPLES:  

Prizes, prizes, prizes!  Yes, we have prizes for the top three student presentations.  A $100 Visa gift card is the first place, $50 2nd place, and $25 for 3rd place.  

Please contact: Prof. Gretchen Harries at gharries@austincc.edu if you have any questions.  Submissions are due to Gretchen by Monday, Oct. 8th.  She is willing to help the students as well with their entries. 

Thanks for your support.  Whether you encourage your students to compete or offer extra credit for just attending, I appreciate your support.  Last year was an amazing launch of the speech contest.  I’m looking forward to an even bigger, better event this year!!!

Here are two events to consider: The Austin Art Alliance is holding this year’s city-wide PechaKucha at 2003 Wheeles Lane, Austin 78723 (East I35, just south of 290). Communications Studies is hosting a PechaKucha for ACC students at HLC 4000, to kick off Comms Week. Join us and PechaKucha!

LAHC Convocation resources

Thanks to everyone who attended our LAHC Convocation last week! And I’d like to offer special thanks to those who presented. I’d like to make some resources available to you concerning these topics.

If you’d like to know more, you may contact presenters and view the materials they have provided us. If you have a question or comment for me, email me directly or click on Ask Matthew.