Dean's update

September 8, 2008

This past week I had the opportunity to meet with our government relations group to discuss our federal funding priorities and the timeline for proposal development for next year.  The call for proposals will be distributed as in previous years.  I also dedicated time to visit the Technology Incubator to discuss intellectual property, licensing agreements and faculty startups.  With the posting of the final edition of the Academic Plan, we must now turn our attention to the development of our college strategic plan to realign ourselves with the campus plan.  With a January 1 deadline, we have limited time to put together a comprehensive plan.  In concert with the associate deans, we will prepare a series of online questions for faculty and staff that we will use as a starting point for our college plan.  It is my hope to have this posted by next week at the latest.  I will ask the department heads to provide several nominees to serve with them to meet and begin to develop a draft plan.  We will post the draft online for further comment.  My hope is that everyone will take the opportunity to share their best thoughts and ideas as we move forward.

Gregory J. Weidemann

Dean and Director