Previous Postings
September 7, 2012
Board of Visitors, October 31 & November 1
The SIS Board of Visitors will be arriving at lunch time on October 31. We will kick off the BOV session with a lunch buffet and poster session. This is a format that has proven to be successful and engaging for Board members, faculty, and students. We invite five posters or demonstrations from each of the graduate programs, highlighting the research of our students. The undergraduate program is invited to display the innovative work that students have done over the past year, as well.
The poster session will run until mid-afternoon, at which point the Board will convene in an open administrative session to review progress related to their recommendations from last year and to meet our new faculty members and hear of their interests and work. It is my expectation that the routine business components of the Board meeting will be completed prior to dinner, when the Provost meets with the Board to present a university update and deliver her charge to the Board.
The next morning (November 1) the Board will be addressing (1) issues related to re-accreditation of the MLIS program, (2) assessment processes and outcomes throughout the School, and (3) diversity initiatives and results. Given that the i3 program is now approaching its third (and final) year of funding as a pilot program, particular attention will be devoted to reviewing its accomplishments, with the objective of shaping a follow-on proposal to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for longer term support.
The morning session is open to all SIS faculty members. The afternoon session will be closed, enabling the Board members to review their findings and develop their report and recommendation to the Provost.
We welcome several new faculty members to our School this year. Sheila Corrall has joined us from the University of Sheffield to chair the Library and Information Science program. Brian Beaton has joined the LIS program as an assistant professor after completing his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. Rosta Farzan has joined the IS program faculty as an assistant professor after completing two years as a post-doctoral researcher at CMU. We also welcome Elizabeth Mahoney to the LIS faculty, following many years of service as the head of the IS Library. Brian Cumer will also be working with the LIS program in an expanded capacity as he approaches the completion of his doctoral studies.
I am preparing to submit this year’s faculty recruitment request to the Provost in the next week or so, and look forward to your recommendations. My current thoughts are to recruit two new assistant professors: one in information assurance and network security, and the other in digital stewardship. The recruitment for the Doreen E. Boyce Chair in Library and Information Sciences will also continue until we fill that position.
We have teaching needs that I am proposing to address through non-tenure-stream appointments. I am considering recruiting an assistant or associate professor (NTS) to teach in the Archives, Preservation, and Records Management (APRM) program, and a professor of practice (clinical professor) who can bring contemporary industry practice and experience to the undergraduate program.
This has been a rather busy summer for building upgrades and repurposing. We’re not done, but much progress has been made:
- Renovations to 502/522 –
- painting and electric complete
- waiting for AV cabinets from carpenter shop (AV equipment is ready to be installed)
- ceiling mounted projector (522)
- Large TV screen (502)
- Water testing for window leaks
- LDA is the selected vendor to work on sealing the windows in the building
- Several tests have been performed
- Dale Jones – Facilities Manager has put in a request for a new roof for the IS Building (waiting on approval)
- IS Building is now a ‘card reader’ building - you must have an active Pitt ID to access the building on off hours and Sundays
- Building hours
- Monday –Thursday 7 am – 10 pm
- Friday 7 am – 6 pm
- Saturday 8:30 am – 6 pm
- 3rd Floor Library – renovations
- Shelving has been removed
- ULS has removed some items to be re-purposed for Hillman Library
- Items left will be re-purposed throughout the building and on the 3rd floor
- Plans for 3rd Floor – updated electric, painting and carpeting
- Collaborative space
- Former Nesbitt room – quiet study space
- 2 conference/meeting rooms
Rich Thompson has officially retired from Pitt, but he will continue to work with several Tele Ph.D. students and anticipates being on campus about once a week in the fall. I anticipate that we will be celebrating his accomplishments at Pitt and, particularly, his formative role in the formation and development of the Tele program later this fall.
We thank Mary Kay Biagini for ably leading the work of the Peer Review of Teaching committee. Through her leadership and the contributions of the committee members (Marek Druzdzel, James Joshi, Mike Lewis, and David Tipper), this important activity has been streamlined and reinvigorated with rigor. Marek and Mary K completed their terms of service in August.
iConference 2013 to be hosted in Fort Worth by UNT
The iConference is an annual gathering of scholars and researchers concerned with critical information issues in contemporary society. iConference participants advance the boundaries of information studies, explore core concepts and ideas, and create new technological and conceptual configurations—all situated in interdisciplinary discourses. These issues will be addressed during a four-day event in Fort Worth, Texas, February 12-15, 2013. The conference theme is Scholarship in Action: Data • Innovation • Wisdom
Important Announcement from OMET
Starting Fall Term 2012 the Student Opinion of Teaching Surveys will be available for administration online. This decision was based on a recommendation by the Provost's Advisory Council on Instructional Excellence (ACIE) and supported by the Council of Deans following a review of peer institutions and a pilot study. The recommendation was that the Student Opinion of Teaching Surveys will be administered exclusively online starting in AY2013-14, with a transition year AY2012-13 in which participating faculty may choose to continue to use paper-based surveys. See www.omet.pitt.edu for details. The deadline to request an in class survey is October 5.
Period of performance during the academic year
In response to a question that arose this year regarding expectations of faculty participation in events that precede the official start of classes (e.g., student orientation), I sought clarification from the Provost’s office. The relevant portions of the University’s policy follow. The university does expect that faculty will participate in such events.
Policy 02-02-12
The length of service of a faculty member appointed for two terms, nine, or ten months, encompasses:
- The calendar period of the appointment.
- Whatever additional time is necessary before the start and after the end of the period, for preparation, grade reporting, or other work related to that of the term itself.
Faculty Handbook
Length of Appointments
Full-time faculty appointments are for 12 months, two terms, nine months, or ten months. The length of service of a faculty member appointed for two terms, nine months, or ten months encompasses the calendar period of the appointment plus whatever time may be necessary before the start and the end of the period for preparation, grade reporting, or other work related to that of the term itself, including, specifically, the start of classes prior to September 1 or the end of classes or turning in of final grades after April 30.