Hi All,
Happy Friday! And indeed it has been another eventful “week in UR.” Personally, I’ve been trying to play catch up after our little excursion to Orlando last week, while also plugging away at the various things I need to do to keep our many UR projects moving. Quite a few of us have been doing just the same. Conferences are wonderful, but they do take time. This one was well worth it, though, and I’ll make sure to reserve a special place on the agenda of our next meeting for those of us who attended to share what we learned.
Among the many things that have transpired this week in UR: The PR and Workshops subcommittee held its first symposium information session of the academic year! By my count, there were seven attendees at this one. But the event was recorded, and there were many requests prior to the event to have it recorded and posted for later viewing. Thanks to Sam and all the members of the subcommittee for your leadership of these events. According to the Office of Marketing and Communications, these may be our most effective promotional tools, so the subcommittee is doing us a great service by organizing these, and I know I speak for the entire Council in saying that we appreciate everything that you all do.
Please also remember that the research mentoring subcommittee is hard at work planning the Lunch and Learn event for faculty research mentors, and those interested in becoming mentors. Now is the time of year when students are approaching faculty requesting that we serve as mentors, and faculty are once again wondering what research mentoring entails and if they have time for it. These are the kinds of questions that will be answered at the Lunch and Learn event. The event will be held Wednesday, January 22, in the Student Union Ballroom. Lunch will be provided! The time still needs to be confirmed, but more on that to come very soon. Please try to be present at the event, if you can. As important, please promote it to colleagues in your respective areas.
Additionally, please keep promoting abstract submissions for the symposium to both colleagues and students. It’s easy to do; just send people to our website: www.tsc.fl.edu/research. Thanks to the PR and Workshops subcommittee, we’ve got a highly informative and comprehensive website. And we’ve got one submission so far! It ain’t much, but it’s a start. We’ve also got loads of capacity this year. So let’s work together to fill the symposium venues with student participants.
And last, but not certainly not least, we’ve got money to spend! That’s a welcome change. As a reminder, our ongoing grant from the TSC Foundation has been increased to $6,000. Please continue thinking about how best to allocate these resources. This will also comprise an important agenda item for our next meeting. Remember to think beyond things like supplies for the symposium and catering for events, which the Office of Academic Affairs has so far been covering for us. Instead, please think about expenditures that more directly benefit students. The cash awards will need to come from this block of funding, but we may not want to allocate the entire amount to cash awards. All things to consider over the next week.
I look forward to seeing everyone again in just over one week’s time. Rember that our next meeting will be Tuesday, November 5, at 2:00. I’ll post an agenda by the end of next week. Thanks, as always, to everyone for your efforts and continued commitment to building a comprehensive UR program at TSC. I continue to believe that we’re building something that will be enduring and transformative for the institution, and I’m forever grateful to have the opportunity to work alongside all of your in this effort.
Dan
