By:  Greg Payne, Associate Dean of CASA

On August 16, just before the official beginning of Fall semester 2012, new tenure track faculty from the College of Applied Sciences and Arts (CASA) and the College of Science (COS) went on a New Faculty Orientation Trip. The purpose of the trip was get a “snapshot” of Silicon Valley, get a sampling of the many community partners we have here at SJSU, and get to know other new faculty coming into San Jose State. The day began early in CASA’s Student Success Center in MacQuarrie Hall for an official welcome and greeting from the College Deans, Charlie Bullock (CASA) and Michael Parrish (COS). The hosts for the trip were Associate Deans Alice Hines and Greg Payne (CASA), Associate Dean Elaine Collins (COS) and staff members Kris Ellithorpe and Stan Vaughn from CASA and COS respectively.

The trip included a number of stops. Matt Cano, Deputy Director, San Jose Parks and Recreation, introduced the leadership from his office and joined the group in a tour of neighboring City Hall. Similarly, a little later in the day, Dan Peddycord, Director of Santa Clara County’s Office of Public Health, introduced his leadership team and talked about key initiatives in his office. Fred Ferrer, CEO of the Health Trust, treated everyone to lunch and talked about the important work of the Health Trust with whom SJSU has partnered many times in the past. Timpany Center was the next stop where Dr. Nancy Megginson, Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, and Director of the Timpany Center, explained the center’s purpose, how the Department of Kinesiology came to operate this remarkable therapeutic aquatic center, how students can use the facility for various learning experiences, and how faculty might find the facility useful for their teaching, research, and community outreach activities. The last formal stop of the day was at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute where the Acting CEO and Director of Education and Public Outreach, Edna DeVore, and David Morrison, Senior Scientist, Lunar Science Institute and Director, Carl Sagan Center, delivered compelling talks about the work in which they are engaged. Dr. Monika Kress, faculty member in COS also discussed her work at the Institute and how it has expanded her scholarly pursuits and contributed to her teaching at SJSU. The day was culminated with dinner at Vaso Azzurro Ristorante in Mountain View where the owner, Mahmoud Sadri, entertained and served. Mahmoud, an alumnus of SJSU’s Department of Kinesiology (BS and MA), sang, socialized, and generally entertained the group throughout dinner.

Regarding the experience, Dr. Ruth Rosenblum (Valley Foundation School of Nursing) said, “Although I have lived in San Jose for 22 years, I had never toured City Hall, and was not aware of some of the resources out there. The day was great for making community connections and working together with local people with similar interests and goals. Also, meeting the other new faculty was great …..” Similarly, Dr. Miranda Worthen (Health Science) said, “The conversations in the van were really the highlight for me ….. Getting to talk with other new faculty and imagine ways we could collaborate through the year was really exciting.” Dr. Chris Hagar (School of library and Information Science) said, “How fortunate we are to have all of these connections. The visits to the City Hall and to Public Health were of particular interest to my crisis information management work. It was good to meet colleagues from the other CASA schools and departments and to hear about their teaching and research interests ….. it was a great way to begin the semester”.

New faculty members from CASA who participated included:

Jack Wall (Director, School of Social Work), Jane Pham (Health Science),

Miranda Worthen (Health Science), Christine Hagar (School of Library and Information Science), Lou-Ellen Barnes (Nursing), Constance Hill (Nursing), Ruth Rosenblum (Nursing), Megan Chang (Occupational Therapy), and Masaaki Tsuruike (Kinesiology). Faculty from COS who participated included: Aaron Romanowsky (Physics and Astronomy), Andrea Gottlieb (Mathematics), Cassandra Paul (Physics and Astronomy), Elly Washington (Biological Sciences), Ranko Heindl (Physics and Astronomy), Elizabeth Skovran (Biological Sciences), and Katherine Wilkinson (Biological Sciences).