Author Archives: Office of the Provost

December 2016 Newsletter: Spartans Supporting Spartans Campaign Funds Student Scholarships and More

Photo: Christina Olivas San Jose State University staff and faculty gave more than $80,000 in donations to the Spartan Supporting Spartans Campaign in 2016. The 2017 campaign will launch in March.

Photo: Christina Olivas
San Jose State University staff and faculty gave more than $80,000 in donations to the Spartan Supporting Spartans Campaign in 2016. The 2017 campaign will launch in March.

In 2016, the Spartans Supporting Spartans Annual Giving Campaign raised $81,700 in gifts and pledges from 287 faculty and staff at SJSU. The annual fundraising campaign raises money that directly supports students through scholarships, the student emergency fund, and expanding research, scholarship and creative activity opportunities for them to engage with faculty.

The Spartans Supporting Spartans Campaign Committee has already started preparations for the spring 2017 donation drive that is anticipated to kick off onMarch 2. The committee is again planning to bring mobile coffee carts to more than half a dozen locations on campus in March and April, with hot beverages, treats and donation forms in hand. The co-chairs this year include Michael Kimbarow, the chair of the Academic Senate and a professor of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, and Elisabeth Thomas, an outreach librarian.

“I received my bachelor’s and master’s degrees,” she said, “And have made a career here at SJSU. I continue to make great memories full of wonderful people, places and events.”

Thomas joined the committee in spring 2013 and became co-chair in spring 2015. She gives back as part of the Spartans Supporting Spartans campaign because it feels good to give back “to a place that has given me so much.”

“These donations will help give current and future SJSU students the resources they need for academic success so that they too will one day look on the good memories they made at SJSU,” she said.

Kimbarow is serving for the third year as co-chair and he donates because he believes every dollar raised to support students and the mission is a dollar well spent. He donates to his department to support its mission of providing speech and language assessment and treatment to individuals with communicative disorders.

“It’s my way of showing potential donors that I’m not asking them to do anything that I’m not willing to do myself to support SJSU,” he said. “In my opinion, the best reason for faculty and staff to give to the campaign is that it feels good to know that in some small way we are making a positive impact and statement to the campus about our students and programs.”

Faculty and staff may designate their donation to any fund on campus, including one within their own department, college or division. Popular funds in recent years have included SJSU’s General Scholarship Fund, the Support Our Staff Scholarship Fund (a scholarship for SJSU employees who are completing a degree), and the Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity fund.

December 2016 Newsletter: Emeritus and Retired Faculty Fund Two Grants in 2015-16

Assistant Professor Faustina DuCros is using an Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association's Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity grant to complete the second phase of her research on the presence and depth of Asian American and Pacific Islander characters on prime time television and streaming shows.

Assistant Professor Faustina DuCros is using an Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association’s Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity grant to complete the second phase of her research on the presence and depth of Asian American and Pacific Islander characters on prime time television and streaming shows.

By Adam Breen

What started in 2014 as a one-year initiative to support the scholarly, creative and artistic work of professors, the San Jose State Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association’s (ERFA) Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Grants now annually provide up to $2,500 to support faculty endeavors.

This year’s recipients are Dr. Faustina DuCros, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, and Dr. Katherine Harris, an associate professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. The awards are intended to support research, fund travel to conferences and help professors acquire equipment related to “scholarly and creative endeavors.” The awards can also be used, as DuCros has, to hire student assistants for research help.

DuCros’ research assistants are helping with the second phase of her project that is systematically investigating the presence and depth of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) characters on prime time television and streaming shows — such as those on Netflix — during the 2015-2016 season. The project is analyzing whether the “quality, quantity and complexity of AAPI characters is comparable to that of whites and other groups,” according to the project’s abstract.

Having to analyze nearly 100 shows, DuCros said the research assistants’ work frees up the project’s primary investigators “to focus on more in-depth qualitative coding and analysis.”

ERFA Past President Dr. Joan Merdinger said her association sees the value in supporting faculty research because “We remember the efforts we made to keep current in our disciplines and active in our research and/or creative activities, and we wanted to help our next-generation faculty colleagues with financial awards to advance their scholarly and creative work. This is our way as an organization affiliated with the university, to both honor our organizational mission and to assist our very talented faculty.”

Harris used the grant for travel funds to conduct research this past summer on the far-reaching impacts of British literary annuals and their pirating by American publishers. She visited archives in Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York for her book project addressing unanswered questions about the “global reach and subversion of boundaries” inspired by these annuals.

Through her award-funded research at Princeton University, the New York Public Library, and elsewhere, Harris in her proposal said, “I will be able to assess the commodification of British authorship in America during a century of immense colonial expansion and a struggle to control the cultural representations of the British empire.”

Ji-Mei Chang, Ph.D., professor emerita in the Department of Special Education and 2017 president-elect of ERFA, said the 39 applications received by the ERFA Faculty Award Committee reflects “that we have diverse and vibrant scholarship and creative activities conducted among faculty across colleges.”

“Given the large number of applications submitted this year, we hope we can bring the awareness to campus communities regarding the needs of fundraising in support of the scholarship and creative activities among active faculty.”

December 2016 Newsletter: Peer Connections Provides Mentors and Tutors

Photo: David Schmitz Students visit Peer Connections location in the Student Services Center during an open house event in September. The program offers mentors and tutors.

Photo: David Schmitz
Students visit Peer Connections location in the Student Services Center during an open house event in September. The program offers mentors and tutors.

During a Monday afternoon just before finals week, SJSU’s Peer Connections mentors and tutors were gathered at small tables in the Student Services Center, ready to help other students with last-minute study support. Sana Rahim, a third-year business marketing major, and Fatema Elbakoury, a fourth-year English major, were waiting for drop-in appointments.

“I like working with students, especially returning students,” said Rahim, a tutor. “We build relationships with them and see their growth throughout the semester.”

“It’s a cool community,” said Elbakoury, who completed the Humanities Honors program and now mentors other students in the program. “We have staff meetings to get to know everyone.”

Blake Lonero, a senior psychology student, learned about Peer Connections through his own mentor as a freshman. The program provides mentors and tutoring services to Spartan students at three locations on campus – the Student Services Center, Clark Hall and Living Learning Center in Campus Village B.

“I wanted to get involved with Peer Connections because I ultimately want to become a teacher and knew that I would be able to gain valuable experience,” Lonero said.

The best part of having a mentor for other students is the emotional and academic support they provide, he said. His favorite part of mentoring other students is when he can persuade them to try out a resource on campus that will help them.

“Peer Connections is a valuable asset to ease the experience of being a student and I hope that everyone takes advantage of the services that we offer,” Lonero said.

Rahimeh Ramezany, a communication studies graduate student specializing in intercultural communications, said she has gained skills as a tutor that will help her in the field of education after graduation.

“We try our best to help students become more effective learners and not just with the material they come in to work on,” she said. “They walk away with study skills that will help them when they can’t come in for an appointment, and eventually, hopefully, they won’t need to come in for tutoring at all.”

Joyce Lum, a senior business administration major, said she first learned about Peer Connections from a friend who worked there.

“My favorite part of being a tutor is knowing that I have developed genuine friendships with both my coworkers and my tutees alike, some of whom I see on a weekly basis,” she said. “Rarely are there jobs where you enjoy what you do, feel like you are truly making an impact on those around you and afford the opportunity to connect with such amazing people.”

At first, Lum struggled with being a full-time student, being involved on campus and juggling two jobs, including working at Peer Connections. Her supervisor noticed and offered her guidance, teaching her that it was okay for her to seek out help, too.

“I believe what my tutees get out of our sessions is more than academic help,” she said. “They often come into our sessions feeling uncertain and stressed but leave in a much more optimistic mood. I feel as if tutors are able to instill hope into their tutees and this alone makes me love what I do.”

December 2016 Newsletter: Provost Update – Spartans Help Spartans Year Round

Photo: David Schmitz A Peer Connections mentor works with students during the beginning of the semester.

Photo: David Schmitz
A Peer Connections mentor works with students during the beginning of the semester.

As 2016 comes to a close, I am grateful for the multitude of ways I see Spartans regularly supporting other Spartans. Our students, staff and faculty are engaged directly and collaboratively in efforts that benefit other campus community members.

At the Academic Affairs Staff Appreciation Breakfast this fall, we continued our practice of “Full Circle Giving.” In the past two years, staff and administrators have donated to SJSU’s Student Hunger Fund, contributing more than $11,000 to help students who struggle with food insecurity. These gifts enable students to focus on their studies without worrying about where they will get their next meal.

During this holiday season, I am especially thankful for how students, faculty and staff generously contribute their time and talent to fostering the success of other Spartans. I am pleased to share in this newsletter stories of students mentoring other students and helping them find their footing at San Jose State University; emeritus and retired faculty who are providing grants to further the research of current professors; and the many ways donations from faculty and staff to our Spartans Supporting Spartans campaign help fuel student success.

I appreciate your support of Spartan causes above and beyond your job duties, and I look forward to seeing more of this generous Spartan spirit in the new year.

Happy holidays!

Andy Feinstein
Provost and Senior VP for Academic Affairs

Faculty Invited to Apply for Active Learning Certificate Program

Beginning Spring 2017, eCampus and the Center for Faculty Development are pleased to offer an Active Learning Certificate Program. Participants will explore teaching strategies and activities designed to enhance their students’ academic success by increasing their engagement with their courses. The program builds upon the principles articulated in SJSU’s Four Pillars of Student Success planning document. We invite all faculty (full, associate, assistant and adjunct professors) to submit a proposal for the program. The goal of the certificate program is to create learning environments that are more welcoming, inclusive and supportive while still being academically rigorous; and to help students become more aware of how their own learning works and recognize study practices that will best enable them to master their course material.

Those who are accepted into the program will attend a kick-off session in February, attend three additional workshops on active learning topics during the spring semester, complete activities within Canvas, meet with an instructional designer, record and reflect on a class session that implements active learning strategies. Upon successful completion of all components, participants will receive a certificate, a badge, and $500 professional development funds.

Review the entire program description for complete program requirements and additional details. Proposals are due via online submission by Jan. 29, 2017.