College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Unit Head Mailing 3-31-09
2. Continuing Conversation on Open Access – Dean VanOrsdel
1. Advisory Board Webinar - (webinar attachment; advisory board attachment)
Colleagues, if you have a unit advisory board, I'd like to invite you to join me, Monica and other colleagues at this webinar about how to work more effectively with it. Please respond to Cindy by April 3 if you have such a board and would like to go, or send a surrogate to represent your department. If you don't have a board and might like to, perhaps we should talk sometime soon about how to begin that work.
~Fred
2. Continuing Conversation on Open Access – Dean VanOrsdel (attachment)
I'm attaching a press release that may be of interest to you and your faculty. I don't know if you've heard of Flatworld Press, but it's an open access textbook publisher who is getting tremendous accolades. I heard one of their executives in Denver in January and was thoroughly impressed with the company's history, philosophy and rigorous approach to making textbook content free. I looked on their website and found that your disciplines are represented in their list of titles. If your faculty will visit the website included in the attached press release, I think some of them will be impressed and intrigued at the possibilities of using Flatworld's texts and relieving students of the burden of paying high prices for commercially-produced texts. From all I am hearing from my colleagues nationally, this is a first-class textbook producer whose online products are free and freely adaptable by the professor. Hope you'll urge your faculty to take a look.
The reason this publisher came to my attention (I know little about the textbook industry other than the high cost of books) is that I work with an advocacy group on scholarly communications reform. This publisher is at the front of the open education movement and is achieving financial success based on a model of providing free, good quality textbooks with the specific intent of going head to head with the high-priced competition, all on the principle that information can be shared under a more reasonable financial model. Hope this is helpful to you and your faculty.
Best,
Lee
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Important Dates |
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Location |
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April 1 |
Affiliate faculty recommendations due |
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April 1 |
CLAS Sabbatical Showcase and CLAS Spring College Meeting |
11-:00-2:00 (GRR-KC*) |
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April 3 |
Year End Equipment Requests due |
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April 6 |
Awards Banquet |
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April 8 |
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April 8 |
Unit Head Meeting |
(3:00-5:00) Alumni House |
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April 9 |
The Scholar’s Life: Pursuing Scholarship Amidst the Demands of Teaching and Service ** |
3:30-4:45, (2266 KC) |
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April 13 |
Projections for Year End Close due |
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April 17 |
Year End Equipment Allocations by Dean |
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April 20 |
Banner Opens for grading |
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April 22 |
Unit Head Meeting |
(3:00-5:00) 2215/2216 KC |
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April 25 |
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April 28 |
Final Grades are due at noon |
*Note location change
** See attachment on The Scholar’s Life
Page last modified March 31, 2009
