DEAN’S NOTE

As has been our tradition in COLS, we will be holding an all-college meeting on Opening Day, Tuesday, September 3, immediately following the university Opening Day Honors 8:30-10:00 am in the Culver Family Welcome Center on the Oshkosh campus. At this meeting, I will give a few remarks looking towards the upcoming academic year, and we will recognize and celebrate COLS award winners. I hope that everyone will be able to join for both events.

IN THE NEWS

Yesterday, the Board of Regents approved both our academic restructuring plan and funding for the much-needed renovation of Polk Library on the Oshkosh campus. Department chairs and program directors have been meeting this summer to begin planning for our new academic structures, but now the work can move forward in earnest with Regents approval. Existing COLS faculty and staff will be part of four new schools (Nursing and Health Professions; STEM; Public Affairs and Global Engagement; and Media, Arts, and Communication), and everyone will be involved in the implementation work for the new schools this fall.

DEPARTMENT UPDATES

• Kirstin Ihde (Music) performed at the International Horn Symposium held in Fort Collins, CO from July 29-Aug 2. She and Katie Johnson-Webb premiered two new pieces: Rise by Andrea Clearfield and Contemplation by Aliyah Danielle. Both composers were at the premiere.
• Jonathan Gutow (Chemistry) gave two presentations at the 2024 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education: “Open Source Tools to Facilitate Teaching of Skills Needed by Chemists” (poster) and “Combining Computer Algebra Systems and Data Analysis using Open Source Tools” (oral). He also released non-beta (1.0+) versions of Algebra_with_Sympy, a software package to facilitate on-paper-like algebraic manipulations utilizing the Sympy symbolic math package and updates to multiple packages in the open source software suite Jupyter Physical Science Lab to make them compatible with the current implementation of Jupyter Lab (interactive scripting notebooks used for data collection and analysis, as well teaching to code).
• Whitburn Center research on the viability of fire districts in Wisconsin recently received positive media attention in WPR, WBAY, and CBS58 Milwaukee. The report was co-authored by MPA graduate Renee Christensen and based on a survey conducted in collaboration with the Wisconsin State Fire Chiefs Association.

FACULTY RESEARCH

• Julia Chybowski (Music) has published “Joshua McCarter Simpson’s Songs and Mid-Nineteenth Century Antislavery Activism“ in the Journal of the Society for American Music.
• Sam Larson (Sociology and Public Administration) recently had a co-authored article published in the Journal of Public Affairs Education entitled “Keeping the Academy Queer: Lessons from the Queer Community for the Future of Public Affairs Education” and a co-authored book chapter entitled “The Contribution of Feminist Theory to Policy Implementation Analysis” published in the Handbook of Public Policy Implementation.

STUDENT NEWS

• Titan Film Society’s Cappuccino directed by Jacob Lefeber won Best Student Film at the MLC Awards in Green Bay on August 12th.

• Save the date: the deans (me, Renae Swanson, Seon Yoon Chung, Frank Braun, Kathy Zuckweiler, and Larry Carlin) will be sponsoring a welcome back mixer/social on Thursday, September 12 (which is also the anniversary of the first day of classes at Oshkosh Normal School and our annual Day of Giving), 4:30-6:30 pm at Lakeshore Park Pavilion in Oshkosh. A more detailed invitation will follow.