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Susquehanna University Annual Report 2000 | |||||||||||||
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President's Letter
ARCHIVES
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A Conversation with Susquehanna's Academic Deans
Spend an hour with Susquehanna's four academic deans and one thing becomes clear: These people are passionate about education. A year after the reorganization that led to the creation of the School of Arts, Humanities and Communications and the School of Natural and Social Sciences that join the existing Sigmund Weis School of Business, the deans shared candid conversation about what attracted them to Susquehanna, some of the challenges facing higher education today, and their vision for the University's future. The Deans
Warren Funk has been dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs since 1997 after two years as acting vice president. A professor of philosophy, he holds the doctorate from Columbia University and is former provost and dean of the faculty at Upsala College. Dean of the Sigmund Weis School of Business James L. Brock is a former vice president of marketing at Pacific Steel and Recycling in Great Falls, Mont., and former dean of the College of Business at Montana State University. He earned a doctorate in marketing from Michigan State University and came to Susquehanna in August 1996. Laura Niesen de Abruña, a former professor of English at Ithaca College and American Council on Education fellow, arrived in 1999 as the dean of arts, humanities and communications. She holds the doctorate in modern American and British literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lucien T. ("Terry") Winegar, former professor of psychology and assistant dean of Randolph-Macon College, also arrived in 1999 as the dean of natural and social sciences. He earned a doctorate in human development from Bryn Mawr College. Why They Came "What attracted me was the student focus of the institution, the immediately recognizable kindness of people who show genuine concern for one another, and the small size of the place and feeling that I can make a difference here," says Brock. "My personal vision as someone who has been in and out of industry and the academic world is really one of relevance -- that students will be getting a broad-based and relevant background for lives of continued learning, service and success." One of the most powerful influences attracting Winegar to Susquehanna was "listening to the students talk about their relationship with the faculty … Students clearly believed that they were getting all they need and more from the faculty," says Winegar. "I think that the most important thing I bring personally is an unflinching commitment to liberal arts," he adds. "There is no question in my mind that a liberal arts education is the best preparation for the future, not only for the individual student but for the larger community."
The type of school being created -- combining the visual and performing arts with the humanities, education, and communications -- appealed to Laura de Abruña. "This gave me an opportunity as a dean to focus all my energies on things that I knew well and that I valued most personally," says de Abruña. "My mission is to be an advocate for this area, so that the school becomes a vital part of a Susquehanna education." Funk refers to his own undergraduate career at St. Olaf College. "It was the sort of place that is particularly capable of providing students with an excellent, broad education and can also be personally transforming," says Funk. "It was for me, and I always wanted to be at a place where I could work together with others to foster that kind of educational environment." New Structure Advantages
The 1998 academic reorganization enabled the University to correct an imbalance in the size of the three schools, explains de Abruña. A very large arts and sciences school and small fine arts and communications school have been divided into two new schools, each closer in size to the existing Sigmund Weis School of Business. "Restructuring this way allows for both Terry and me as deans to be much more focused on a smaller group" than the former school of arts and sciences, she says. "I think departments in each school have benefited from the individual attention." "One of the roles that deans can play is to help faculty cultivate a beyond-the-specific and a beyond-the-immediate perspective that faculty often face when on the front line of the academic operation," says Winegar. "Deans can ask questions like, Where do you see yourself in two years or five years? What are the University's needs going to be? … How can we think about this department or your contribution in a way that extends beyond those boundaries and to the university at large?" The Technology Challenge Changes in the past year also included the fall 1999 opening and July 2000 naming of Apfelbaum Hall, home for the Sigmund Weis School of Business and the department of communications. The debut of this new high-technology resource for the entire campus poses challenges and opportunities for the use of information technologies in teaching and learning.
"Students are extremely grateful for the multimedia capabilities in our new building," says Brock. "We continue to believe in a greater emphasis on information technology, particularly with respect to the way e-commerce is revolutionizing many aspects of business." The school is exploring the possibility of a new program that will combine entrepreneurship and e-commerce. In communications, de Abruña points to music classes using software to help students compose on the computer, art classes using computers both to create graphics or view computer art, and broadcasting classes using video- and audio-editing equipment in Apfelbaum Hall's television studios. "These are three obvious ways in which the disciplines themselves demand more technology," says de Abruña. "We also have faculty in all the other departments who will be integrating use of the computers into their teaching style," she says. "One of the important issues in information technology is evaluating information. Evaluating information is something faculty have been doing forever," says Winegar. "In some ways, it doesn't matter if that information comes from a journal or the Internet. Evaluative questions need to be asked, and our faculty is especially skilled in teaching students to do just that." "We also need to know when is engaging in technology to our advantage in teaching and learning and when, in fact, should we just leave it alone and talk to each other, looking across the table," stresses Funk. "Reaching that point of judgment is something that only comes from experimenting and experience with the technology." The Multicultural Challenge Providing multicultural experience and exposure to diversity is another challenge facing Susquehanna and other relatively small, rural colleges and universities. "We have some way to go here in terms of people not just learning to tolerate diversity with the white, middle-class center but of de-centering that perspective," says de Abruña. "I think we need to become much more committed to a discussion about what diversity really is."
Broadening students' international perspective is just one of the University's priorities. "By and large, experience tells us that there's nothing like 'going there' to experience the full spectrum of international exposure," says Brock. A recent example found five business faculty and seven business students joining a June trip to China led by Assistant Professor of History George Wei. The business school has also offered a semester-long London Program for five years. In all three schools, numerous opportunities to study abroad complement multicultural initiatives such as new programs in diversity studies and Jewish studies and recruiting efforts to increase minority representation on campus. "These things are not simply important, but fundamental matters as to what we are individually and what we represent as a university to the community both nationally and intellectually," stresses Funk. Enhancing Collaboration All four deans share examples of programs that cross disciplinary lines: A philosophy course on aesthetics draws on sources from music, arts, communications and humanities. English presents an annual Shakespeare conference with help from theatre arts. A pilot program exposes interested science and business students to cross-disciplinary perspectives, and a health care studies minor explores biology and ethics. Such efforts illustrate that "education is a transforming experience that can't be contained by a single subject matter or discipline," says Funk.
Collaboration among students and faculty remains a key priority at the University. "We just had a Senior Scholars' day that had participation from nine different departments across the areas of arts and sciences," says Winegar. "This level of collaboration is usual for students here, unlike at many institutions where those opportunities are reserved for only the best of the best." While growth and academic trends will invariably provide pressures for change at Susquehanna in the future, "one of the things that I would hope does not change is the connection between students and their teachers," says Funk. "Despite the enormous possibilities posed by information technology, the important ability to study abroad or off campus, and extensive internship opportunities, the proximity of the faculty and their close working relationships with students will remain a hallmark here."
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