This week marks the introduction of the Nelson Institute blog. Please check it out at www.nelson.wisc.edu/blog. From here on, I will only post the message there. We hope you will all not only visit the blog, but also add your comments and concerns.
And the good news is … Eileen Hanneman has been chosen as the first ever recipient of the Martha Casey Award for Dedication to Excellence! The award is one of nine awarded by the Chancellor for Academic staff excellence. Eileens nomination was supported by a group of faculty and staff, and I am delighted. There will be a formal award ceremony in April and a celebration at the Institute then. I am sure you will join me in offering her our warmest congratulations on this much deserved recognition.
A change in faculty governance — We had our first governance meeting of 2006 and among other things formally voted on a change in our rules for membership in our governance committee and our executive committee. This change was provoked by a desire to return to a more inclusive approach to faculty governance in the Nelson Institute. After our last governance meeting in April, I will be inviting all affiliates to signify if they wish to be part of the Nelson Institute Governance Faculty for 2006-2007. If you wish to be part of our governance group, you will only need to respond with an indication of your interest, and your willingness to attend all four Governance meetings. The new guidelines will be posted in full on the blog.
UW Madison encourages online offerings — A study is currently underway at the campus level re: the possibility of increasing online offerings in order to both improve course delivery and to increase revenue streams to the units. I think that short coursesin the area of the environment would be of interest not only to alumni but also to others in the State and might represent a strategy to increase the resource base of Nelson Institute, in order to support new teaching and research initiatives.
Update on geospatial teaching at UW-Madison — For those of you who have been involved in the effort to engage the central administration in a discussion of the future of geospatial teaching on campus, the interim Provost, Gina Sapiro has will soon announce the names of those she has appointed to a committee to explore options for meeting teaching needs and outreach needs in this area.
And lastly — I had the opportunity last week to visit the west coast (Seattle and San Francisco). The first part of the trip was an invitation to present to a group of environmental grant makers including Wilberforce Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Brainerd Foundation, the Christensen Foundation and the Moore Foundation, among others. This is the second in a series of workshops that I have given under the auspices of the Resilience Alliance (with Steve Carpenter and Ann Kinzig of ASU), with the intent of underlining the application of ecological theories to innovation in the social sector and the importance of training programs. The presentations were very well received and I believe that we have created some relationship with these Foundations. Please let my office know if you feel you have a proposal that would appeal to any of their funding programs.
I also had a chance to meet several people at Stanford School of Earth Sciences, including Pam Matson, their Dean. She has agreed to join our Board of Visitors, and I think will be a great addition.
Frances