From the Chair
Jim Wolfe
Since I took over as chair in May, I have discovered a lot
of things I didn't know about this position. One is that
the intensity of interruptions is far greater than I had
imagined. It is a rare day in which I can go to the office with a
plan for what I'm going to do and then actually get that done. It
is much more likely that by 10:30 am I will have encountered so
many little crises involving students, faculty, and/or
administrators that most of the rest of the day will need to be
devoted to these crises, leaving what I had planned to do for the
next day. And the next day, it all happens again.
The extreme variety of actions necessary as chair was another
discovery. There are times when I deal with need to deal with 1)
a prospective student asking about our programs, 2) a student
asking for a letter of reference, 3) a student trying to register
for a closed section, 4) a new faculty member trying to learn to
use the IUP network, 5) a faculty member to be talked into changing
his teaching schedule, 6) a faculty member wanting to reserve a lab
for a class, 7) an administrator wanting to know who is the
department's representative to this or that, 8) an administrator
wanting to know where the paperwork for our temporary faculty is,
9) an administrator wanting input for some report, 10) an office
getting a lock changed, 11) a luncheon meeting for which the menu
must be chosen . . . and more. This may all happen is a little as
two hours.
A third discovery is that dealing with the budget is very,
very messy. Even though most information is now available online
and can be nicely formatted into Web pages, many of the actions
necessary to buy something, pay someone, or transfer funds were
devised by evil geniuses who were looking to inflict as much pain
and confusion as possible. And when confusion is not possible, the
procedures are designed to be awkward or tedious - just what I need
to help me while away my day. So far, I have come to the
conclusion twice that I understood what was going on with some area
of the budget, only to be proven wrong within 24 hours.
But, despite all this, I haven't become discouraged. Maybe,
after what some of the faculty refer to as my "honeymoon period,"
it will get worse. They are talking about the Fall after classes
begin. For now, things are ok; so let me get on with a report of
what is happening in the department.
Since last Spring, we have managed to do what most of us in
the department thought would be impossible. We hired well-qualified
faculty to fill all three of our vacant positions. Last
year, we hired Soundararajan Ezekiel who will be joining us
finally; he is coming to us from Ohio Northern Unversity. This
year we hired Leem Shim, who was teaching at xxxxxx, near Chicago,
Rose Shumba, who was an visiting professor at Hope College in
Michigan, and Waleed Farag, who is just finishing his PhD at Old
Dominon in Virginia. I'm sure that The Debugger editor (me) will
encourage each of them to write self-introductory articles for up-coming
issues so you can find out more about each of them. As the
new faculty arrive, we (the department old-timers) are trying to
make them welcome, show them the ropes, and have them adjust to the
way IUP works.
The transition to Windows XP and Studio.NET are going
reasonably well so far. Joe Shyrock is getting the labs converted
to the new environment; and some of the faculty have begun
investigating the environments to see what needs to be changed in
various courses. I'm sure there will be a lot more that will need
to be done but which will not be discovered until we begin using XP
and .NET in earnest.
The new track in Information Assurance was approved at the
beginning of May and will be officially available for our majors
starting this Fall. That change, in combination with the other
curriculum change that was approved last Fall will be causing
advising headaches for the next couple of years. The incoming
freshmen and transfer students will have a stable curriculum - the
new curriculum and now three BS tracks will be the only ones that
see. However, continuing students will need to be advised on how
to adapt the degree requirements which applied when they
matriculated to the courses being offered under the new curriculum.
Getting the word out to the students and keeping what they hear
consistent will be a challenge for the faculty and for me.
Mary Micco and Bill Oblitey have been successful in getting a
follow-up grant to help the new Information Assurance track and the
Information Assurance minor too. The grant provides scholarships
for four students and includes "capacity-building" funds to help
fund faculty development in information assurance. Incidentally,
Mary and Bill just finished putting on their second Cybersecurity
Workshop which brought together faculty from IUP and around the
country to learn various ways to introduce information security
into their programs.
Homecoming Breakfast
9 am October 5, 2002
Contact Carol Miller to RSVP
Do It Now!