13 Making the Wheels Turn

Service at Gustavus is the thing that makes the wheels turn. In our small department, everyone does a bit of everything, and we don’t have many formal service assignments. This team-oriented approach has allowed us to develop a culture of continuous communication about our curriculum and has allowed us to examine and modify the geology program, frame and revise learning objectives, and implement a program-level assessment strategy. Like other departments this year, we’re undertaking a major revision to those outcomes and that strategy, and I am serving as Program Assessment Liaison this year as we navigate those changes. The conversations about curriculum, past and present, have served to catalyze a number of initiatives about departmental goals, and we have a running list of curricular priorities as we continually adjust to the needs of our students and the demands of the employers and graduate schools they will eventually join.

Since returning from sabbatical, I’ve served on committees and working groups at the College level. I was nominated to and served on the Strategic Action Team, helping to craft the framework for the new Gustavus Acts Strategic Plan. I served on the Curriculum Committee and chaired the Course Approval Subcommittee. I was invited by then-dean Darrin Good to join (and then to chair) the Course Evaluation Working Group, charged with proposing a revision to the Student Evaluation of Teaching instrument used by the Personnel Committee for evaluating faculty in third-year review, tenure, and promotion. The work of this committee completed in early 2016 and the Personnel Committee is considering a shift to the new instrument, the Student Reflection on Instruction.

Most recently, I’ve served as Associate Provost and Dean of Sciences and Education. Thinking back to my last sabbatical, I certainly did not spend any time preparing myself for this path! The events of Summer 2016, with a nascent strategic plan, with Brenda Kelly stepping forward to lead the Faculty, and a novel structure in the Provost’s Office, called me to apply. The past year and a half have been a remarkable experience in service and leadership. I have learned a tremendous amount about the College and about myself; I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to its future, and the work has stretched me in ways I am only just beginning to understand. When I return to the faculty full-time this summer, it will be with a fresh sense of who we are as an institution and what we as faculty can do, individually and collectively, for our students.