In this week's Communiqué you'll find links and details about the first Public Affairs Professoeship award recipient, the Provost Research and IDS110 Forums, the Pepsi-Cola Public Affairs Scholarship recipients for 2008, a film showing sponsored by the Philosophy and Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology Departments, and other professional development opportunities.

How to Submit Information Each person submitting information is responsible for ensuring that all content is appropriate, informative, and brief in keeping with the intent of the Communiqué. Submissions for this communication will be accepted by e-mail and should be directed to Mike Fisher, Webmaster, Office of the Provost. Items must be submitted by Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. to be eligible for review and publication in the subsequent Thursday issue. Please provide as much lead time as possible when submitting your items for distribution.

University Awards First Public Affairs Professorship

Missouri State University today (May 1) awarded its first Public Affairs Professorship to Dr. Sandra Byrd, professor of accountancy. Missouri State Provost Belinda McCarthy presented the award during Byrd’s Principles of Accounting class this morning.
> Link to complete story

Message from Provost

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Kris Sutliff as Associate Provost for Student Development and Public Affairs, effective June 1. Due to the restructuring of academic affairs and student affairs, the office for student success is being reorganized to focus more on total student development from the point of enrollment through graduation . Kris will work with faculty from the colleges and a broad team of staff from across campus, using the public affairs mission to both facilitate student development and shape student learning outcomes . > Link to complete story

iGrade Request for Students

Students receive request from Provost Office to go to the iGrade option

Dear Faculty,
 
As you have probably heard, SB 389 was enacted into law and includes a number of provisions involving public institutions of higher education. We have been working closely with Faculty Senate and other groups on campus to develop the approach for our compliance with the law to post information on our faculty credentials, which includes our per course faculty and some general evaluation information. For now, the credentials piece is very basic and has been primarily drawn from the catalog, with additional information on per course faculty provided by departments. The evaluation information will be provided through the five questions on iGrade. These general questions have been approved by the Faculty Senate and the SGA. 
 
On Friday, May 2nd, our students will be contacted by the Provost Office and asked to participate in collecting the general information or the evaluation piece by going to the iGrade option on the web and completing the five questions for each of their professors. There is a very tight window for student access to this feature, and we will be monitoring the completion rates early next week. This will be completed before grades are posted.  
 
We would very much appreciate your help in encouraging our students to help us comply with this new state law by completing the questions and by answering any questions the students may have about the process. We appreciate your time and support of this effort.
 
Dr. Christopher J. Craig, Associate Provost for Faculty
(417) 836-4589
Fax: (417) 836-8432

Pepsi-Cola Public Affairs Scholarship Recipients for 2008

Five Missouri State University undergraduate students who exemplify the university’s statewide mission in public affairs were recently awarded the Pepsi-Cola Public Affairs Scholarship. The students who receive these annual scholarships are undergraduates who have a demonstrated record of service, leadership and qualities consistent with the goals of the public affairs mission.

The following are recipients of the 2008 Pepsi-Cola Public Affairs Scholarship. 

• Kelsey Beck, a Junior and Cell & Molecular Bio/Chemistry major.
• Jessica Cecil, a Senior and Dietetics major.
• Lindsay Coats, a Junior and Dietetics/Chemistry major.
• Brooke Heischmidt, a sophomore and Communication Sciences & Disorders/Marketing major.
• Andrew Keaster, a Senior and Cell & Molecular Biology/Political Science & Chemistry major.

As part of the application process, students submitted an application form, a one page personal statement addressing the role and importance of public affairs in their lives and one letter of recommendation addressing their record of service. Application eligibility guidelines require that the students must have completed a minimum of 45 hours at Missouri State by the beginning of the spring semester, be enrolled at the university for consecutive semesters and have an overall GPA of 3.25 or higher. Scholarship winners must be enrolled in at least 12 hours each semester.

Faculty Help Needed With NSSE Response

We are in the final weeks of data collection for the 2008 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). A random sample of freshman and senior students have been asked (via email) to participate in this survey. Information from the survey will be used to look at student engagement on the Missouri State University – Springfield campus and will help inform decisions about strategies to improve student retention rates, graduation rates and student learning outcomes. It is very important for us to obtain as much student feedback as possible so that we can have useful information from a proportionate number of representative students in each department. From that perspective, if you are teaching courses for freshmen or seniors, would you please read the following statement to your classes and encourage their participation in the survey –--

As part of Missouri State University’s efforts to provide a supportive academic learning environment, randomly selected freshman and senior students have been asked to participate in a survey called the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). If you have been randomly chosen to participate in the survey you would have been invited to do so via an email sent to your Missouri State University email account. Please check your email account! If you have been invited to participate in the survey, we would encourage you to complete the survey as soon as possible. It will only take 15 minutes to complete. Student responses are very important to us!  We will be using this information to help better understand student experiences at Missouri State and to make decisions about future programs and initiatives.