Faculty meeting on Friday. The reports from the strategic planning committees. Not sure I understood all of the outcomes, since the verbal reports seems somewhat different from the written. I did object to lumping Bioinformatics inside "Life Sciences". I imagine escience is the grid computing. What came as an interesting outcome was "Technology for Values", though a suspect a fair number of us are still unsure on a number of levels what this actually is.
Indigene meeting was a smashing success--our integration is working and everyone is estatic.
We have a meeting with MeadJohnson in mid January.
Scott and I are attending a Requirements workshop for best practices.
Jean had a nice holiday gathering, as did Peter.
Our academic council was envoked, though I'm not sure if there was an outcome.
My first Gen. Ed committee was devoted to voting on less than six items, two of which were tabled because of confusing phrasing. I'm not sure if it's possible to have a roomful of PhDs and not find some group who'll find something ill-phrased. I've electronically voted--my intent was to make more classes more available--especially after the reports of the honors students.
The H101 class was a blast! One of the best experiences I had. Our final project was a short paper and presentation on a problem each student found (unexpectedly) important (these are not listed in any order)
(1) Jeff Capati (Senior Honors) examined injuries/cost of profession sports and how to anticipate and reduce this problem
(2) Charlie Clark discussed how difficult registration is for honors students--he (a pre-med) student finds it both discouraging and frustrating to have had to be waitlisted for three times for a basic chemistry class. His solution to was prioritize based on a number of criteria including GPA, standing, and even SAT ACT scores. Also, pre-registration (registration far in advance of the normal window.
(3) Lillian gave a poingnant assessment of the problems in Darfur--and how students can help this ongoing horrible problem
(4) Heather did a remarkable unusual report on civility--something very important to me--sensitivity to how people are treated. She discusses employing positive motivation to encourage civilitiy.
(5) Drew is focused on creating more school spirit during Little 500 by selecting a male and female student who embody the best at Indiana University. He has come to me during many off-hours to employ pert-chart techniques, for instance, to assess how to bring this to fruition.
(6) Tom gave a very unusual and controversal talk about global warming--and bravely (in my oppinion) sought to find the arguments to both sides of this attention-getting problem.
(7) Andy spoke about off-shoring and its positive effects.
(8) Morgan spoke on how to improve carpooling-especially in light of our connectedness in IT, but also brough a humanistic element. She proposed a very unsual system that I hope she suggests to UITS
(9) Logan spoke to a very practical, but difficult matter of certification--and employed several techniques in arriving at his solution. It is apparent he had been ruminating on this for some time.
(10) Kym spoke about how difficult it is for an honors student to pick classes without knowing what the student's intended major is--something she believes a number of honors students feel they need help with.
(11) Wesley addressed the controversial issue of raising minimum wage ant its effects on the different socio-ecomonomic aspects of our country.
(12) Linwood spoke about the pros and cons of legalizing marijuana, and provided the class with a number of fascinating statistics from the department of health, and many other governmental studies.
(13) Kurt addressed the frustration of registration as well--he, separately, arrived at a solution much like Charlie's, but also pointed out the latency between the number of actual open slots to slots shown through onecourse.
Some unsolicited comments (excerpts from emails w/ names removed) from studuents:
(I) Here is my final paper and powerpoint presentation. I hope you have a great break!!! I really enjoyed the class and you're one of the best professors I've had.
(II) I also wanted to thank you for the pizza on the last day and most of all for a great semester. I really enjoyed your class, and if my brother does come here next year I will try to get him into one of you classes (I will guarantee it if you can get some scholarship money sent his way : P). But seriously, you were an awesome professor and I wish you the best of luck in all of your endeavors. I will be sure to stay in touch, have a good break and rest of the year!
(III) I truly enjoyed your class first semester. As a freshman, it was nice to go to a class where the teacher cared more about the students and how much we learned than how much we could memorize. Even more than that I appreciated your help outside of class with in class, and outside of class projects. I hope you have a great break and I will see you when I get back with plans for our last project and an idea for a new one. Thanks again for everything.
The I519 had mixed results. It demonstrates to me the need for a separate track for biologists who want some dexterity with bioinformatics tools, but who don't want to be programmers. I was impressed with the number of simply outstanding MS students this year too.
I have finally submitted grades for both classes and am working on an ISMB paper.
Our football team is going to the Insight Bowl. Tickets are free to students--I hope we have enough folks attending. We beat UK in basketball, and my father called to suggest it might be good that his UT (Texas) team lose to MSU so IU would be ranked higher than UT. Nice.
- (edited December 16, 2007, 1:45 PM)
Scott and I attended the Seniors of IU Contemporary Dance Program on Sunday produced wholly by the students at the John Waldron Arts Center.
Bioinformatics meeting Friday--I still have emails to send out on topics.
Spoke with Andy--he's doing great and his wife is working on her MBA
Demonstrated CATPA added functionality for structure
Meet for School P&T (every Tuesday)
Visited IUPUI with Keith and Yaoqi to discuss curriculum. Met with the MD/PhD group Simon, Wade, and Maureen for the same. It was fun watching the students prepare for a histo exam--brought back some memories.
Drove home for Thanksgiving and drove back the same day ~ 8.5 hours, but absolutely worth it.
I guess ATT outsources their "you're over due buy a buck" people. I'm guessing the caller hails from somewhere near the Bay of Bengal. The issue I have (and I don't like to complain) is that I now have to pay two different ATT bills from the same website, each separately through two different accounts that have the same stupid information (stupid is duplication). Once I break my parents of their fax addiction, I'm moving completely to wireless like the saner people of the world. - (edited December 3, 2007, 3:52 PM)