Welcome to the third issue of GEMSUpdate. My name is Robert Crane and I am the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the College.  As most of you probably know by now, Eric Barron left the College earlier this year to take on the task of Dean in a new College of Geosciences at the University of Texas, Austin.  The appointment came with a $400 million dollar endowment and the challenge to build one of the leading geoscience programs in the world.  That was too much for Eric to resist–so he moved to Texas in July.  For the time being, I’m serving as the Interim Dean while the University searches for a permanent replacement.  The search is national and is progressing rapidly.  The search committee has been collecting nominations and reviewing dossiers, and hopes to conduct interviews in December or immediately after the holidays.  The University is anticipating that we will be able to announce a new Dean early in the New Year.  We’ll keep you informed as the search progresses.
 
Meanwhile, the College is not standing still and this newsletter will bring you up to date on some of the more recent news.  I thought I would mention a couple of additional items.  Those of you who were here for Obelisk Weekend, heard me talk about a new EMS Academy of Scholars–this idea is beginning to take shape.  Faculty from all disciplines across the College are meeting to discuss what this program will look like.  At this stage, the consensus is that we should be looking at activities that build problem solving, teamwork and leadership skills, while promoting global competency in a program that integrates across disciplines.  The idea is to have ongoing projects that will evolve through the two to four years that students are in the program (depending on when they start at University Park), and projects that will involve seniors and graduate students mentoring freshman and sophomores.  The ideas are still somewhat amorphous, but when the concept is a little more defined, we’ll send a draft out for comment and ask your help in shaping the final program.
 
Some of you are aware of the College’s initiatives in online professional education.  The Department of Geography, in cooperation with the Dutton eEducation Institute, developed a very successful post-baccalaureate certificate program in Geographic Information Science that has transitioned into a Professional Master’s Degree.  We reached another milestone over the weekend when we held a “graduation” ceremony for our first graduates in the new on-line weather forecasting certificate program.  There are eight students in the cohort that just completed the program, and six of them came to University Park to celebrate (coming from as far away as Missouri and Montreal).  Only one has a professional interest in weather, the others were doing this purely for fun.  Each of them has an on-line portfolio and you can take a look at some of their work at Mark Thorton, Winn Soldani, and/or Sophie Splawinski.  Those of you convinced that your local weather forecast is always wrong may want to enroll and see if you can do it better!

(L-R) Debra Jarvis-Ferguson, Peculiar, MO; Catherine Marie Smith, Harrisburg, PA; Sophie Splawinski, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Shoshannah Cutler, State College, PA; Mark Thornton, Cleveland, OH; and Winn Soldani, Evanston, IL.