Schedule for March 30 through April 10

I'm in Pleasantville today, I'll be in NY tomorrow and Wednesday, back in Pleasantville on Thursday, at the Graduate Center on Friday morning and then in Pleasantville for the Westchester Faculty Council meeting on Friday afternoon.

Tomorrow Jonathan will be at Microsoft for DigiGirlz day; I'll be there in the afternoon.

Wednesday evening I'll be attending the NYCSPIN (Software Process Improvement Network) meeting.

The following week I'll be off on Thursday for Passover and on Friday to observe Good Friday (nothing like an interfaith relationship to remind you of the proximity of these two holidays). Monday and Wednesday I'll be a the Graduate Center, and Tuesday I'll be in Pleasantville.

School Restructuring

The project that is currently consuming most of my time and effort (aside from next year's budget!) is evaluating the structure of the school. We've currently got two task forces going-one on the academic side and one on the administrative side.

Some of you are wondering why I am handling these as two separate issues. I see the focus of the two groups as very different; the academic side of the School is charged with determining an academic structure that will foster and facilitate interdisciplinary programs while keeping a strong, focused computing/IT core. Much of that work will involve thinking about academic programs. The administrative structure needs to support faculty, staff and students on multiple locations at all levels-undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, external.

The Academic Restructuring Group will be meeting every Wednesday from now until April 29. Our goal is to have recommendations in place by May 1.

We had an excellent meeting and I believe that we are all very positive about our ability to coalesce around a set of recommendations. We also agreed that I would use my blog to post summaries of our meetings.

Here is what we've worked out so far:

Outcome from Week 1: What kind of school do we want to be?

“We want to be a school that offers strong, relevant, and attractive programs leading to degrees and minors internal and external to Seidenberg that are simultaneously (a) mutually beneficial and (b) leverage the interests of faculty.”

What is a strong core program? Technically challenging and intellectually stimulating

What is a relevant core program? Relevant to student body, and to the external community (both for-profit & not-for-profit)

What is an attractive core program? It draws enrollment, attracts potential students and is generally appealing to non-computing and administrative personnel.

What are the interests of the faculty? Research, teaching, etc…

To realize this vision, we need to consider ways to make this happen. Over the next weeks we will be discussing the following issues/topics:

Week 2:

Focus on core programs that are responsive to the needs of

• External Schools (interdisciplinary)

• Internal (core programs)

Week 3:

Special programs – DPS, NACTEL, Online, International, CLOUT, CIS 101 (enrollment, cost, margin)

Week 4:

Structure and governance of the school

Week 5:

Resources and faculty issues

Week 6:

Marketing above 5 outcomes to University Administration & Seidenberg Faculty

I also met with my direct reports, and we are looking at the administrative side of the school. In particular, we are defining what functions need to be done, which of the functions are location specific, and which are school wide. We will be using this to identify what resources are available where, and how we might make the best use of all of the talent in the School. We will be producing a set of recommendations by May 15.

I extend my thanks to everyone who is working with me in this transformation of our school.

Addendum

Two things that need to be added:

1. I'm at the Grad Center on Monday and Thursday, downtown on Tuesday, midtown on Wednesday and in Pleasantville on Friday
2. The Faculty Restructuring Team and I had our organizing "meeting" on Friday. We will be meeting every Wednesday from now until April 29. I'll be using this blog as a way to keep everyone informed. I am also working with an Administrative Restructuring Team to review the administrative structure; we are meeting on Thursday and will continue to meet over the next 7 weeks or so.

Spring Break

For some of us there really hasn't been a break; some faculty have been catching up, or working on new initiatives, or learning new things. And of course the staff have been here every day.

But as spring arrives, and the crocuses start coming up in my yard, I'm reminded that tomorrow is the first day of spring-new growth, new beginnings. Thanks to the faculty who participated and voted for six representatives to work with me to redefine the school. As you know, you elected, in no particular order, Jim Gabberty, Richard Kline, Frank Marchese, Paul Benjamin, Linda Jo Calloway and Dan Farkas. And thanks to you for your willingness to serve.

I put a poll on my blog for students http://deanknapp.blogspot.com asking what students wanted to study. Twelve students responded, as follows: three want to study games and simulation, three want to study medical informatics, one wants to study computer forensics, one wants to study digital art, and one wants to study "other." Interesting.

I've been thinking about education, technology, Web 2.0 and how it all fits together (or doesn't). And then there was this tweet on Twitter "Who needs a university when we have Google?" - Jeff Jarvis #hackedu http://tinyurl.com/d5dyj7

Gives one pause, or at least it should. Comments, anyone?

Spring Break - already?

Yes, next week is Spring break even though today it was cold here in Westchester.

Full time faculty make sure to submit your faculty activity report no later than March 30 (and of course earlier if possible!)

Tomorrow the Seidenberg Faculty Council is meeting. I look forward to seeing you there.

Next week I'll be at the NYC campus on Monday and Thursday, at the Graduate Center on Tuesday, and on the Pleasantville campus on Wednesday and Friday.

A few highlights:

• Jonathan and Bernice are attending the annual conference of National Consortium of Specialized Secondary Schools of Science, Technology Engineering and Math along with Brian Cosgrove of our Advisory Board
• Dawn Rigney has joined us as our Director of Development
• Help is needed for commencement-please volunteer to help out

Enjoy the break!

Interdisciplinary Work

"When you are up to your a** in alligators it's difficult to remember that your original mission was to clear the swamp." American business saying.

I realize that our main focus needs to be on supporting interdisciplinary work, in all its forms: learning communities, service learning courses, minors, sequences.

The second task is to restructure in a way that supports that work.

What do faculty think about these ideas?

• faculty who teach service learning courses earn four credits for a three credit course.
• faculty who teach learning communities can bank a credit of release time.
• faculty will be expected to teach or develop an interdisciplinary course, learning community or service learning course once every three years

Let me know what you think. Comment, e-mail or respond to the poll. Thanks.

Faculty Meetings

Thanks to all of you who attended this week's faculty meetings, and for your feedback on the proposed organizational structure changes. I'm working on a "revised" structure and will be asking the faculty council to elect a "transition team" of faculty to work with me on the implementation details.

I haven't forgotten that I've asked the staff to set goals, too, and I'll be working with staff leadership over the next few weeks to develop a mechanism for goal setting.

And the next few weeks will be busy ones-Susan Downey and I are knee deep in budget discussions with the Provost, President and Finance and Administration.

I'll be emailing faculty evaluation material next week; I'll be asking for self evaluations to be returned to me and the department chairs after the break.

And I'm pleased to announce that we have a Development Director. Dawn Rigney will be joining Pace University on Wednesday March 4. She reports to me and to Philanthropy. She'll be based in Pleasantville during the Spring while she and I get to know each other. Once she gets settled she'll be based in White Plains at the Graduate Center.

This has been a busy couple of days at the downtown campus. Ivan Seidenberg visited the Computer Club and the Seidenberg Scholars on Wednesday. Joe McKay was the guest artist at last night's Digital Gallery reception-the evening was fabulous and provocative. We also had Ernest Von Simpson conducting a four week IT entrepreneurship seminar.

I'll be in Pleasantville on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, New York on Thursday and at the Graduate Center on Wednesday of next week.