Academic Affairs Happenings
Honors Program
Dr. Balint Sztaray, Associate Professor of Chemistry, has been appointed Director of the Freshman Honors Program for 2014-15. Dr. Sztaray will build on the current freshman honors program by developing intellectually rich programming to expand students' educational experience and foster a close-knit honors community. Dr. Sztaray brings past honors program experience, thoughtful ideas, and great energy to the position.
At its March meeting, the Academic Affairs Committee approved the School/Program-based honors program revision. Academic Council will take final action at its May meeting. The projected timeline for the development and implementation of the School/Program-based programs is the following:
| Aug - Nov 2014 | Development of School/Program-based programs based on sharing of ideas across Schools/programs |
| Nov 26, 2014 | Schools/Programs submit catalog descriptions of their honors programs toAcademic Affairs Committee for action at its 12/4/14 meeting |
| Dec 11, 2014 | Academic Council reviews and takes action on catalog descriptions |
| Feb 2015 | School/Program-based program catalog descriptions submitted for 2015-16 University Catalog revision |
| Fall 2015 | School/Program-based Honors Programs implemented |
Undergraduate Research
The Annual Pacific Undergraduate Research & Creativity Conference (PURCC) takes place in April and May, composed of the Senior Art & Design Show (4/14 - 5/9), Oral presentations/ Poster Sessions/Drama performances (4/26), Composers Club Concerts (4/29 & 4/30), Engineering Senior Project Day (4/30), and Student Film Festival (5/6). For more information, contact Lydia Fox.
Exploring Data Analytics
Join industry data science experts Ken Collier and Suman Bhattacharya to learn about the vision and plans for a M.S. in Analytics at Pacific. Ken is the Director of Advanced Analytics and Suman is a Lead Data Scientist with ThoughtWorks, the tech firm that is helping Pacific shape a competitive analytics degree program. This session is intended to help you understand the competitive landscape in analytics, Pacific's competitive advantages, the student demand, the graduate profile, and the vision for how the program will be delivered. This is chance to have your questions answered and to gain some insight into the university's plans for being part of this exploding field. Interested faculty members are encouraged to attend. When: Thursday, April 17 at noon in the Presidents' Room, Anderson Hall
Fellowship Program
John Langdon, a history major, has been selected for a 2014-2015 Fulbright U.S. Student Award toIndia. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program of the United States. John will research the history of Jazz in India, from its beginnings in the 1920s through the 1960s, including American jazz musicians who performed as part of the US State Department sponsored tours to India during the Cold War and African American Jazz musicians who fled racism and segregation in the US to perform to integrated audiences in luxury hotel ballrooms.
University Writing Programs
The search committee for the Director of University Writing programs met this week to formulate its ratings of the three final candidates who interviewed on campus in March. Its ratings will be forwarded to the Provost this week via the Assistant Provost of Academic Affairs.