June 2022 Announcements
COVID-19 Updates
- You can still get tested and vaccinated on campus. To schedule a vaccine appointment, click here. On-campus testing remains available for students, faculty and staff throughout the summer. For information on locations and hours, click here. If you get a positive test result off campus, we encourage you to voluntarily self-report so the university can provide support as needed, particularly around leave and absence verification.
Administrator Updates:
- Rob Dunn has been named Senior Vice Provost for University Interdisciplinary Programs, effective June 1. Dunn took on the role of Interim Senior Vice Provost for University Interdisciplinary Programs in January, following the retirement of Senior Vice Provost for Academic Strategy and Resource Management and Chief of Staff Duane Larick, and organizational changes within the Provost’s Office. In addition to his senior vice provost position, Dunn will continue to hold the William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professorship in the Department of Applied Ecology, where he will devote 20 percent of his time.
- Erin Seekamp, a professor of parks, recreation and tourism management and an extension tourism specialist in the College of Natural Resources, has been appointed Goodnight Distinguished Professor of Coastal Resilience and Sustainability, and director of the Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (CRSI). The appointment is effective August 16. The professorship was made possible by a gift from longtime NC State supporters Dr. Jim and Mrs. Ann Goodnight.
- NC State Faculty and Staff Ombuds Roy Baroff has announced that he is retiring effective June 30. Baroff, with 40 years in the conflict resolution field as a mediator, attorney, educator and ombuds, joined NC State as the university’s first faculty ombuds in December 2014. He also took on the title of staff ombuds in January 2017.
- Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences search: The nomination committee is currently conducting first round interviews of a competitive group of candidates. Once the first round interviews are completed later this month, the committee will make a recommendation to the provost on two to four candidates for in-person finalist interviews during the weeks of July 11 and 18. Stay up to date on the search by visiting the search page on the Provost’s Office website or go.ncsu.edu/cals-search.
- Tommy Holden, teaching professor, has been named interim head of the Department of Health and Exercise Studies in University College.
- Gavin Williams, interim department head, has been named head of the Department of Chemistry in the College of Sciences.
From the Data Science Academy:
- Emily Griffith, an associate professor of the practice in the Department of Statistics and director of consulting for the Data Science Academy, will be presented with the Outstanding Mentor Award from the Statistical Consulting Section of the American Statistical Association.
From NC State DELTA:
- DELTA is offering Summer Workshops for faculty, staff and graduate students who want to improve their knowledge of NC State’s instructional tools and better use them to suit their classroom needs. These free workshops will explore topics such as the new Moodle 4 update, Panopto and Gradescope.
- The new Moodle 4 Playlist is now available on DELTA’s LearnTech YouTube channel! It includes new navigation videos which showcase the major functionality of this update. In addition, a new version of Teaching with Moodle, our self-paced course, has been released to coincide with the course material used in our workshops.
- Anxious to learn more about the pros and cons that Moodle 4 has in store for you this fall? Several DELTA Faculty Fellows, past and present, who began using Moodle 4 as a pilot shared their reactions with our Associate Director of Instructional Technology Training Bethany Smith.
- What makes the learning active or passive is not the modality (Zoom vs. prerecorded videos vs. text-based lessons), but the structure of the lesson the instructor creates. Faculty Fellow Claire Gordy shares tips for keeping students engaged.
- Social science research tells us that we need to talk ourselves up, but it’s easier said than done. Career professional (accountant, lawyer, general counsel), Giselle Galper, likens learning career skills to learning salsa dancing. You can get the idea, but you can’t do it unless you put yourself out there and do it. In our Women in Technology discussion on June 10, “Master Talking Yourself Up,” Giselle will help us open up our mindset to the power of talking yourself up, teach us simple methods that make it easier, and, if we’re game, work with us as a group to practice old-fashioned workshop style.
From the NC State University Libraries:
- The NC State University Libraries is pleased to announce the appointment of the 2022-25 class of Libraries Fellows. Amir Blair, Beatrice Downey, and Hiva Kadivar will join the Libraries later this summer. The Libraries Fellows Program develops the academic library leaders of the future, giving new librarians the opportunity to build their knowledge and expertise in a home department and to play a leadership role in an initiative of strategic importance for the Libraries. Fellows are appointed for a three-year term as members of the Libraries faculty.
- Ever notice that the carpets that the movie stars walk down are Wolfpack red? NC State’s Department Head of Art + Design Derek Ham likely did when he showed his latest VR title Barnstormers: Determined to Win—an immersive experience about Negro League Baseball—at the 2022 Cannes XR program in France. The Libraries is proud to host Barnstormers and the other Cannes XR finalist projects, as well as stream a virtual version of the festival, in the Hill Library AR/VR Studio from June 8-12, after which time Barnstormers will remain available in the space. The AR/VR Studio is open to the campus community.
From the Office for Faculty Excellence:
- Save the date for the Office for Faculty Excellence’s New Faculty Orientation, which will be held Wednesday, August 17. More details will be available in July.
- After the success of our asynchronous #NCStateUnplugged series last summer, the Office for Faculty Excellence is once again offering a summer series to engage faculty, staff and graduate students in a learning opportunity designed to advance professional development. Idea Camp will focus on how to generate ideas and take them from generation to implementation. The focus will be on innovative pedagogy and educational research. The asynchronous, four part series will take place on each Tuesday in July, starting on Tuesday, July 5. Each installment will include a blog post, short podcast, relevant readings, activities, and more.
You access the content at your own pace, in your own time, and using your favorite device. If you want to, you can join us on Twitter using #NCStateIdeaCamp to chat about the theme of the week. If you are interested in receiving our four installments of the #NCStateIdeaCamp Summer 2022 series, you can sign up here. We hope that you will choose to spend some time this summer with us.
From the Office of Global Engagement:
- Tayseer Almatter, class of 2012, began his career at NC State to complete his Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. Little did he know that his experiences would lead him to build TforDesign, a design innovation brand. Both inside and outside the classroom, Tayseer says he was allowed the opportunity to “re-discover” himself. Learn more in the Global Alumni Spotlight.
From the Office of Information Technology:
- The Office of Information Technology will perform extended IT maintenance from 6 a.m. Saturday, July 9 to 6 p.m. Sunday, July 10 which will involve the shutdown and movement of equipment, hardware replacement and infrastructure configuration. Campus IT services that might be degraded or unavailable during this time include, but are not limited to: MyPack Portal (Self-Service); WolfTime, including Kaba web-based timekeeping; other human resources, financial and student systems; self-service password management; OnBase document management system; and RedHat network satellite service.
From Institutional Strategy and Analysis:
- Reports on results from NC State’s triennial survey of second-semester sophomore students are now available on the ISA website. The Spring 2022 Sophomore Survey asks students about their overall satisfaction, faculty contributions to their educational experience, academic and non-academic support services, campus climate, self-rated knowledge, skills, and development, and participation in co-curricular activities. Reports on results include those for all overall respondents, as well as interactive dashboard reports with results broken out by college, gender, and race/ethnicity. Also included are students’ comments in response to open-end questions asking them what they think is going well at NC State and what improvements they would like to see, categorized into various topical areas (e.g., academic advising, safety, diversity). Interactive dashboard reports are also available with trend data from 1998 to 2022. For more information, contact ISA at studentsurveys@ncsu.edu.