1. Announcements
Addendum: We are sorry for the impression created in Thursday’s Notes concerning online instruction next semester. It is not only the full-time, tenure track faculty who have the opportunity to teach online in the Fall. All faculty have the right and ability to request online classes. Further, we do not yet know what modality the campus will be in for Fall and we look forward to receiving guidance from the University-wide coronavirus task force in the coming weeks. When we have more information, it will be shared with all.
The English Department application process for the Spring Awards ends today. Please encourage students to apply. For detailed information on the many student awards we offer, please visit Spring Awards.
Please note the following opportunities available to refine online teaching abilities and techniques:
Option 1: Get Up To Speed with Online Teaching at CSUN
May 4-22
Faculty Development, the Faculty Technology Center and the Tseng College Distance Learning team are organizing this three-part program with a combination of synchronous and asynchronous meeting times in the following date ranges:
WEEK 1 (May 4, 5 or 7): Attend one orientation session. We will orient you to online materials to review at your own pace the following week. (Synchronous on Zoom)
WEEK 2 (May 11-15): Learn on your own in self-paced modules (Asynchronous on Canvas). Visit our event page for details about the topics.
WEEK 3 (May 18, 19 or 21): Participate in hands-on, teaching lab sessions with instructional designers and technologists for Q&A. (Synchronous on Zoom)
Open to all CSUN Faculty: register for this programming now.
Option 2: Introduction to Teaching Online Using the QLT Instrument by the Chancellor’s Office
June 8-28
July 6-26
The Office of the Chancellor’s Academic Technology Services is offering three-week intensive program options, Introduction to Teaching Online Using the QLT Instrument. This course, also facilitated is intended for anyone who is interested in and/or plans to teach a hybrid or online course. Faculty who can dedicate 15-20 hours total are encouraged to sign-up. Please note that not all their summer courses are available to CSUN faculty; only these two dates listed below:
● Introduction to Teaching Online Using QLT: June 8-28
● Introduction to Teaching Online Using QLT: July 6-26
To learn more about this opportunity, visit the Quality Assurance Training Page or go directly to the summer registration link to enroll in one of the sessions.
Do you Prefer Self-Paced Learning?
If you don’t have time to commit to a formal facilitated program, you can still learn the basics of teaching online. We have a menu of options listed on our Faculty Development Self-Paced Training webpage. Some of the options include:
Option 1: Online Teaching & Learning Featured Tracks
Option 2: Remote Teaching Canvas Community
Option 3: Teaching with Canvas Workshops
2. Reminders
Please note the following recommendations from the Provost, which were also conveyed in an email from Beth Wightman dated April 9, 2020:
Student Evaluations for faculty during the Spring 2020 semester: Our campus, in conjunction with the Senate Executive Committee, has endorsed the ASCSU Resolution 3418-20. As such, we agreed that faculty may choose to remove Spring 2020 SEF from their PAFs.
Peer Observation Letters: With the campus transition to virtual modalities of instructions we understand that peer observations this semester may not be an accurate reflection of faculty performance. We recommend that peer observations not be held for the Spring 2020 semester.
Post Tenure Reviews: Considering the disruption, we recommend that post tenure reviews scheduled for Spring 2020 be postponed until next Academic Year. In cases where the review had been completed prior to the COVID-19 crisis the PTR will be placed in the PAF.
Request for Tenure Clock extensions due to the COVID-19 crisis: Article 13 of the CBA allow faculty to request an extension to the tenure clock due to exceptional circumstances. The COVID-19 disruption may be considered an exceptional circumstance. Tenure clock extensions may be requested by submitting a letter to the Provost and the Office of Faculty Affairs. Extensions to the tenure clock cannot be revoked. Under Article 13.8 of the CBA, requests for extension of the tenure clock must be made no later than thirty days prior to the beginning of the following academic term. For the COVID-19 disruption, requests must be made no later than thirty days prior to the beginning of the Fall 2020 semester.
Retention, Tenure and Promotion Reviews: We will be continuing with the deadlines established in Section 600 Administrative Manual and have agreed that the Provost letter will be sent to their CSUN email address. We will be sending out a communication email to those faculty under review to inform them that they will need to check their CSUN email regularly and that they will be receiving the RTP Review letters as per Section 600 by June 1st or earlier. The 10 day right to respond will apply from the date the letter is emailed to the faculty member.
Amber Norwood is working with Faculty Development as a resource for faculty who want a hand, a sounding board, or one-on-one chat about what’s happening in your classes, what could be happening, and how to make it happen. Feel free to email her at amber.norwood@csun.edu to chat or zoom.
3. Opportunities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently announced $22.2 million in grants for 224 humanities projects across the country. These grants will enable the production of a 90-minute documentary on singer and civil rights pioneer Marian Anderson, support a Norman Rockwell Museum exhibition on Rockwell’s Four Freedoms series, and bolster the digital infrastructure of the Walt Whitman Archive to allow greater access to this online scholarly repository. For more information, visit NEH.
Digital Humanities Advancement Grants (DHAG) support innovative, experimental, and/or computationally challenging projects at different stages throughout their lifecycles, from early start-up phases through implementation and sustainability. Experimentation, reuse, and extensibility are hallmarks of this program, leading to innovative work that can scale to enhance scholarly research, teaching, and public programming in the humanities. This program is offered twice per year. Proposals are welcome for digital initiatives in any area of the humanities. For more information, visit https://www.neh.gov/grants/odh/digital-humanities-advancement-grants.
4. Achievements
Joseph Galasso’s research on child possessive structures appears in the latest edition of The Oxford Handbook of Developmental Linguistics (Edited by Jeffrey L. Lidz, William Snyder, and Joe Pater)
(The following achievements by our alumni are generously shared by Martin Pousson.)
Moncho Alvarado (CSUN: BA in CW 2016, Sarah Lawrence College: MFA in CW 2018) recently had their poems published in Emerge: 2018 Lambda Fellows Anthology, Meridian, Foglifter, Lunch Ticket, and elsewhere. As winner of The Academy of American Poets prize, their work also has been published on the academy’s website. They are the recipient of the Thomas Lux Scholarship for community service, as well as fellowships and residencies from The Helen Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, Lambda Literary, Poets House, Troika House, and other places. They’ve worked with youths in Sunnyside Community Services in Queens, NY. Moncho currently lives in Brooklyn, NY and works as a poet, translator, Mexican-American queer activist, and educator.
Cristian Castro (CSUN: BA in CW expected 2020) has been accepted into the USC Master of Arts program in Postsecondary Administration and Student Affairs, and he was named a finalist in the national competition for placement in Teach for America. He also won a $10,000 scholarship from USC, and he’ll enter their MA program in Fall 2020.
Paaez Coleman (CSUN: BA in CW 2019) has been named a finalist in the national competition for placement in Teach for America.
Kelly Geiger (CSUN: MA in CW expected 2020) won the Associated Retired Faculty Award with a prize of $2000.
Joshua Khabushani (CSUN: BA in Philosophy Summa Cum Laude 2016, Columbia University: MFA in CW expected 2020) has completed his studies in the Columbia University Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. While at CSUN, he took classes in the Creative Writing program and won the Outstanding Graduating Senior Award. While at Columbia, he worked with writers from the New Yorker, including Hilton Als.
August “Auggie” Samie (CSUN: BA in CW Summa Cum Laude 2011, University of Chicago: MA in Middle Eastern Studies Magna Cum Laude 2013 & PhD expected Magna Cum Laude 2020) has just finished his doctoral dissertation, The Shibanid Question: Reassessing 16th Century Eurasian History in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan. He will defend the dissertation in June and is expected to graduate thereafter from University of Chicago with a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies. While at CSUN, he earned the Dean’s Scholar Award and the Wolfson Scholar Award. While at UoC, he founded Lights: The MESSA Quarterly, and he taught Islamic History at Loyola University Chicago and various History courses as well as the Persian language at University of Chicago.
Naomi Trantu (CSUN: BA in Screenwriting 2013) has been accepted into the American Film Institute Screenwriting Program. She enrolled in several Creative Writing courses while an undergraduate at CSUN.
Leticia Valente (CSUN: BA in CW 2014 & MA in CW 2018, CSULB: MFA in CW expected 2020) in the past year served as Fiction Editor for RipRap, the literary magazine housed at CSULB. She also worked as Graduate Assistant in the College of Engineering, teaching English Composition to Engineer majors, and she won an internship appointment at Golden West College in the Coast Community College District, teaching Freshman Composition. This Spring, she finished her thesis and will graduate from CSULB with a MFA in Creative Writing.
Doug Weissman (CSUN: BA in CW 2010, University of San Francisco: MFA, 2013) recently had short stories published in several literary magazines, including “Blackbird” in Kingdoms in the Wild, and “Whistle in the Baobab” in Wild Musette. He also won second-place in a national travel essay contest with an essay entitled, “Not Your Mother’s Travel Porn.” In addition, he works as Lead Travel Writer for Zicasso, an award-winning luxury and travel company based in Mountain View, and as an instructor for Southern New Hampshire University’s online Creative Writing program. He and his wife, Lisa, are the proud parents of Eloise, a beautiful baby girl
A big congratulations to our alumni and faculty!