April 2019 Announcements

• The Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost recognized 12 outstanding staff members at the 2019 Provost’s Unit Awards for Excellence on March 26. The University Awards for Excellence represent the NC State’s highest honor for non-faculty members. Each nominee demonstrated excellence in one of the following areas: customer service, efficiency and innovation, human relations, outstanding state government service, public service, heroism, and the spirit of North Carolina.
• NC State’s Office of Outreach and Engagement hosted its annual awards celebration on Friday, April 12. Twelve faculty and staff members were recognized for their commitment to teaching, research and public service. The awards honor the commitment of NC State faculty and staff members to fulfilling NC State’s land-grant mission alongside community partners.
• April is Earth Month at NC State. This annual focus on sustainability features 50+ sustainability-related events. From fairs and service opportunities to workshops and film screenings, there’s something for everyone. Learn more at go.ncsu.edu/earthmonth.
• Dollars and Sense at NC State is a financial wellness program committed to educating NC State students, faculty and staff on managing finances and addressing financial concerns unique to college life. The program equips students with the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain lifelong financial wellness. During the month of April, there will be a series of workshops and events free to all students, faculty and staff at NC State to attend. For a full list of events and clickable calendar links, visit: go.ncsu.edu/financialliteracy.
• As a Land-Grant University, engagement is core to the mission and identity of NC State. Service-learning is a dimension of engagement that connects student learning within a course to a social issue and community need. The Office of Outreach and Engagement is surveying our campus needs and gaps for service-learning and welcomes your participation: NCSU Service-learning Needs and Gaps Assessment.
• NC State is calling on graduate students, undergraduate students, postdocs, faculty and staff to take part in Envisioning Research, the university’s annual research image contest. Help us highlight the beauty and importance of the work being done at the bench and in the field, both on campus and around the world. Submissions are due by June 7. Learn more about the contest and how to submit an entry.
• Nominations for the Fall 2020 Common Reading Program book are now open. While fall 2020 seems far away at this point, the Common Reading Selection Committee will begin the process of selecting the 2020 book in June and are accepting nominations through May 31, 2019. To learn more about the goals of the Common Reading Program, click here. Nominate a Common Reading book today!
• The Poole College of Management has launched summer programming called “Summer at the Poole” –– business education for non-business majors, including online stand-alone business courses, the Online Business Essentials Certificate and the business minor. It’s open to all currently enrolled NC State students except business majors. If you are a faculty or staff member who knows of a student who may be a good fit for this program, please direct them to the Summer at the Poole website for more information.

From the Office of Global Engagement:

• Registration is now open for the Global Engagement Exposition on Tuesday, April 23 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in Talley Student Union. The event will include an awards ceremony for the Outstanding Global Engagement Award and Jackson Rigney International Service Award, a poster session and lunch.

From NC State DELTA:

• The Instructional Design Interest Group will hold its next meeting on Tuesday, April 23 from 3:30-4:30 p.m. at the Center for Technology and Innovation. “Building Community to Connect Online Learners” will allow attendees to discuss and share ideas on the following questions: What do we mean by community and connection when it comes to online learners?; Why are communities and connections so vital for student success?; and different ways to build community and connections and ideas to incorporate into classes, programs and institutions. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2qsD69j.

From the Office of Assessment:

• Each year, every academic program offering a degree or certificate is evaluated by its faculty to improve the effectiveness of the program. We periodically highlight examples of what a selected program has done to become even stronger. Under the broader rubric of professional development of students, the graduate program in biomedical engineering included the outcome that students should “demonstrate that they are able to contribute as scholars to the field.” To determine how well students were meeting that outcome, the program surveyed doctoral students, gathering evidence of the number of refereed published manuscripts, full-length conference proceedings, oral presentations at national and international conferences, and grants awarded. Faculty found that among the strengths of the program were that students were meeting faculty expectations for papers published, poster presentations, and grants received. However, the data showed that the program could be improved by encouraging students to give more national and international presentations. This not only enhances professional development of students but also elevates the visibility of the program. To meet this goal, faculty decided to: provide substantially more financial support for students to travel to present papers; require that students have presentations accepted in order to attain travel support; offer a seminar on writing proposal abstracts so that more abstracts are accepted by conferences; and engage faculty more in encouraging students to submit abstracts and provide constructive feedback on the abstracts.