DEAN’S NOTE

The COLS Faculty Committee invites you to attend the last ever COLS all-college gathering, before we divide up into our new schools and colleges. The gathering will take place 4:00-6:00pm on Wednesday, April 30 at Fox River Brewing Company (1501 Arboretum Dr). There will be a farewell-to-COLS toast at 4:30pm, and anybody who wishes to address the group will be welcome to do so. I hope that everyone can attend!

IN THE NEWS

The School of Education and Human Services has launched an internal recruitment for an interim associate dean/school director to replace Renae Swanson. Because this is an internal search launching well into the semester, the deadline for submitting applications is next Friday, April 11. You can find details of the job requisition and the link to apply here. If you have questions about this opportunity please feel free to reach out to me. I would be happy to meet with anyone who is considering applying.

PROGRAM UPDATES

• Yoshiro Hanai (Global Langauges and Cultures) presented a paper, “A New Beginner to Intermediate Curriculum Design that Embraces Learner Variability,” at the 2025 Annual Spring Conference of the American Association of Teachers of Japanese, which took place in Columbus, OH.
• Bill Gillard (English) presented the paper “This Mechanical Age: The Surprising Origin Story of Climate Fiction” at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, which took place March 18-22 in Orlando Florida.
• Eric Hiatt (Geology) was invited by the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey to present his research on March 24, titled “Life Under the Ice During the Marinoan Snowball Earth: Insights into Seafloor Biochemical Processes from Western Brazil.” He spent the day at the survey’s Madison headquarters discussing research questions and problems to help survey geologists with their projects.

FACULTY AND STAFF RESEARCH

• Amber Lusvardi (Political Science) published the coauthored article “Transgender Bodies are the Battleground: Backlash, Threat, and the Future of Queer Rights in the United States” in PS: Political Science & Politics.

STUDENT NEWS

• Two senior BSW students have won awards: Katrina Shrewchoua Yang received the J. Edward Power Award for Academic Excellence in Social Work and Karisa Viberette won the Lois Miranda Social Work Advocacy Award.