Spring 2015 Welcome

Posted on: January 12th, 2015 by jpeliss No Comments

Dear Faculty Colleagues,

Welcome back for the Spring 2015 semester. I trust that your Christmas and holiday break brought your families together for celebrations, some needed rest, and the time to reflect on the past year and on the semester ahead of us.

I write to share some information about a few key university matters that will shape the coming months. One of the most important events taking place is the Higher Learning Commission’s (HLC) Accreditation site visit, February 23-24.  A great deal of effort by many individuals has gone into preparation of our Quality Assurance argument, a key component of the new Open Pathways process to secure reaffirmation of our HLC accreditation.  A copy of our reports and the list of contributors will soon be available on our website: http://www.luc.edu/accreditation/index.shtml. I urge you to familiarize yourself with both our quality assurance argument and the excellent quality improvement project related to Capstone Courses for which Loyola was recognized by the HLC for making outstanding progress.

We are actively engaged in accreditation activities, curricular development, faculty hiring, and facilities planning to successfully launch Arrupe College in August 2015.  As a new college within Loyola, Arrupe initially will serve about 200 students from underserved backgrounds who will be pursuing an Associate of Arts degree in one of three areas: liberal arts, social and behavioral sciences, and business administration. We expect the college to grow to about 400 first and second year students, who will study year round, while working part-time.  Fr. Stephen Katsouros, S.J., is the Dean and Executive Director of the college and he is recruiting a leadership team for academic and student support areas that will help to ensure the success of these students. We expect to begin with five full-time faculty and some adjunct faculty to provide the core curriculum that provides the breadth of learning in each of the associate degree programs. Arrupe College will be located in Maguire Hall at the Water Tower Campus.

The past Fall term saw significant work on the next strategic vision and plan for Loyola. Under the leadership of Dean Sam Attoh and Professor Therese Lysaught, the plan is beginning to take its final shape, thanks in no small part to the hundreds of pages of suggested strategies and actions that were offered by the faculty, staff, and students from our schools, departments, and divisions. With an emphasis on leveraging the university’s assets for social justice, a number of big initiatives have emerged to position Loyola for the next five years. The final touches will be made to the vision and plan in the coming weeks with the goal of achieving approval from our Board of Trustees by March. I will have more to say about the 2015-2020 plan later this spring.

Finally, I want to commend our new shared governance bodies, particularly the University Senate, for a productive beginning for collaboration among our faculty, staff, students, and administrators. The University Senate by-laws were approved last fall and formalized the inclusion of the leadership of Faculty Council in the body. And an Extraordinary Committee on Faculty has been constituted with 16 faculty and three administrators to review and recommend changes to the Faculty Handbook of 2009. Professor Noah Sobe, School of Education, was elected to chair both the University Senate and the Extraordinary Committee on Faculty, and he has launched an effective communication plan through the new senate website: http://www.luc.edu/universitysenate/index.shtml

I trust that by now you have adjusted to the array of new systems that were introduced into the teaching and learning environment at the beginning of this academic year, and that you have found value in the Sakai learning management system and the new tools for course evaluation and assessment. I’m always happy to hear from faculty about their experiences with the enhancements that have been provided for student learning and development.  I wish you a very successful spring semester.

Sincerely,

John Pelissero

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