Wednesday, March 11, 2 – 3pm
University Club, 107C DEV
Register here under Teaching and Learning.

When civil rights issues and unrest are rampant in greater society, faculty may (or may not) feel compelled to engage in open discussion about these events with their students. While it is important to unpack these issues with students, not knowing what to say and/or not knowing how to say it can be a barrier for faculty to engage with students in meaningful ways. Despite the best preparations, intentions, and group discussion skills, it is common for discussions to be superficial in nature, involve few rather than all students, and end with a demonstration of inherent difficulties rather than a meaningful shared understanding.

Using case study analysis, this session will explore ways that faculty can engage in more meaningful conversations about sensitive issues with students. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to reflect on barriers in their own teaching that prevent them from facilitating crucial conversations relevant to contemporary oppression and bias.

Friday, March 20, 10 - 11:30am
Kirkhof Center, Rm 2270
Register here under Teaching and Learning. 

In contrast to static, disciplinary problems, many of the issues we face in the world today can be characterized as “wicked,” as dynamically complex, interdependent, high stakes issues with no simple or obvious definition (let alone any simple or obvious solution). These wicked problems confront us with high levels of uncertainty in situations where both action and inaction carry serious long-term consequences. Current top-down, siloed, and abstract pedagogical strategies do not provide students with the tools for collaboratively managing such problems.

• How can we prepare students within our own fields to tackle large-scale wicked problems?
• What pedagogical methods can be used to address interdependent, high-stakes systemic problems?

This colloquium will suggest we need to pursue an experiential, collaborative learning model in the classroom: working across networks, disciplines, and institutions in order to tackle our social messes. Methods for employing such a model will be put into practice. Come and discover strategies for better preparing students to collaboratively tackle the wicked problems within your field.

Hosted by the Statistics Department                                       Saturday, April 4, 9am - 3:30pm
Mary Idema Pew Library

The world of "big data" is dramatically impacting the way researchers explore systems and examine hypotheses. The amount of data (or information) in our world has been exploding, and analyzing these large data sets will become even more critical. Every sector of the economy will have to grapple with the implications of big data.

Data analysis is the process of finding the right data to answer your question, understanding the processes underlying the data, discovering the important patterns in the data, and then communicating your results. The purpose of this workshop is to provide a brief overview of how to organize data and perform some of the most widely-used statistical methods using the R statistical programming language.

This workshop will be a hands-on guided exploration, and the participants will have the opportunity to reinforce the material discussed by performing analysis in R. This workshop will not assume that participants have prior experience with R.

Overall Structure of the Workshop:

Session 1: Getting Started Analyzing Data in R

• Introduction to R, R Studio and Data Structure
• Basic Statistical Methods
• Data Cleaning and Manipulation

Complimentary Lunch

Session 2: Predictive Modeling and Visualization in R

• Predictive Modeling
• More Advanced Visualization

Facilitators: John Gabrosek, Laura Kapitula, Paul Stephenson and David Zeitler. To register, please contact Contact Cheryl Smalley at smalleyc@gvsu.edu.

Pablo Mahave-Veglia, Music and Dance
The GVSU Early Music Ensemble was awarded a Pew Technology Enhancement Grant to purchase a set of baroque style bows and one baroque style oboe. The objective of this purchase was to expose GVSU students to tools of the trade that are, regrettably, no longer part of mainstream musical instruction. Using the “old” technology, GVSU Symphony Orchestra was able to include one piece of baroque repertoire in two different concerts this season. Having the opportunity to use both the baroque and the modern tools in the same concert for appropriate works allowed the students to experience the evolving nature of music and its symbiotic relationship with their tools.

Being a part-time faculty member at GVSU does not mean you are an outsider. In fact, because the university values the service and expertise of all faculty, there are many free support resources available to assist part-time faculty, both professionally and personally.  Feel free to just walk in...

For Teaching Support

• Walk in to your department head and discuss your ideas; you are valued here at GVSU!
• Walk in to a "PT Power Hour" and let your voice be heard
• To the bigger list...

For Personal and Career Services

• Walk in to Human Resources to get more information about how part-time faculty can contribute to a 403b/457b retirement fund; you can also register for free HR workshops or seminars
• Walk in to one of our ENCOMPASS providers--free to part-time faculty and family members: ENCOMPASS provides focused support to employees and their family members for a variety of issues that may interfere with work or life satisfaction and productivity
• To the bigger list...

For Discounts or Fun Events

• Walk in to any of our participating retailers for discounted goods and services.
• Walk in to your local Verizon/AT&T/Sprint-Nextel store for your GVSU discount on your monthly bill; you can also get discounts on the purchase of a variety of software and Apple, Lenovo, and Dell products online.
• To the bigger list...