A Message from the Dean: January 2023

Happy New Year all! Welcome back to campus. I hope that you all had an opportunity to rest and relax over the break. As always, it seemed far too short.

As this is the time of year when many of us make resolutions relative to things we intend to change in the new year, I thought it only appropriate that I also set a handful for the college. In particular, mine are designed to highlight the great work that both you and our students are doing, and to put the college in as strong a position as possible for our next Dean.

With those goals in mind, I resolve to:

1) Step up my efforts to highlight (to both internal and external audiences) the tremendous things happening here in CASL. A great example is the tremendous success that our faculty had in teaching our new CPBL courses. The information shared about student engagement and the projects they undertook is truly inspiring. I have already shared these stories with senior leadership and am currently sharing them with external audiences and donors.

2) Continue work on the 3 to 4 credit initiative. We already have disciplines piloting the transition and it is my intention to put every CASL major on a path toward this goal before my term is finished.

3) Work with my team to make sure that the college’s finances are in as strong a position as possible when the new Dean takes over July 1, including the assembly of available resources that can be employed by the next Dean to launch new initiatives.

4) Leverage the talents of our staff to their fullest to ensure both the smooth and efficient operation of the college and to support our student success and faculty excellence goals.

5) Continue our important DEI work and look to approve strategic faculty hires to advance this work.

6) Take the time to appreciate and acknowledge all of you and to make it very clear how much I have appreciated your hard work and ongoing support over my years as Dean.

I wish you all a very healthy and successful 2023!

- Martin Hershock, Dean