I don’t. Seriously, I don’t. I’ve had this nagging cold for a couple of weeks now and it has settled in my throat causing me to alternate between sounding like Lauren Bacall or a raspy whisper. My husband, while sympathetic, I’m sure is secretly happy that I am a lot quieter these days.
When I first started as Chair of the ECE-EDU program, I was told I should attend various meetings but not say anything. Just go and be quiet! Ten years ago, the online program was not looked upon as a fad. However, now, online learning has become an accepted part of education.
So where’s your voice at faculty meetings? Do you attend? We’ve been invited to become more involved at faculty meetings such as the upcoming 2:2 meeting on Feb 19th. These meetings are an excellent opportunity to meet other faculty in your discipline and network with other Program Chairs. I feel we should work in cooperation with our campus programs to provide courses that fill a need and that will be supported by campus faculty. For example, the EDU program provides courses that our sister campuses can’t fill because of lack of faculty or minimal students. When we aggregate students from all around the system, we have enough to run a class and therefore provide this class to students who wouldn’t normally have it available. I’ve also helped my colleagues understand online learning and technology. Over the last decade, I’ve made it a point to get to know each campus chair and as a bonus, I’ve made a lot of very nice friends in the process.
What are you waiting for? An invitation? We did receive a personal invite to the 2:2 conference from Lisa, Donna and the System Office. Are you going? Use your voice for promoting your program. It will probably be a lot louder than mine these days.
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