President Holds Office Hours

President Clara Yu will hold open office hours on Tuesday, October 7 from 12:00PM – 2:00PM in the President’s Office in the Segal Building.  Individual meetings will be scheduled with her for every 15 minutes on a first-come, first-served basis.  If you have a desire to meet with Clara, please e-mail Barbara Burke (barbara.burke@miis.edu), with the time that might work best for you during the two-hour period.  Barbara will respond confirming your scheduled time.

International Policy Studies Curriculum Revised

On September 22, Dean Ed Laurance announced the first major curriculum revision for international policy programs since 2001. There will be three international policy degrees:

MA in International Policy Studies (MAIPS)
MA in International Environmental Policy (MAIEP)
MPA in International Management (MPA/IM)

The MA in International Trade Policy has been integrated into the MAIPS as one of three tracks: International Trade, International Development and International Security.

Other key features of the new curriculum are: optional focus areas within each track, individualized study plans, a portfolio process that demonstrates the acquisition of core competencies, and an exit evaluation.

Based on a year long review, this streamlining of policy programs is not directly related to the reorganization at the school level announced a week ago, but is consistent with the aims of the reorganization. Laurance notes, “The addition of the MBA program to the MAIEP, MPA and the three tracks of the MAIPS will only further the direction of these changes in the [IPS] curriculum, creating even more opportunities for the student to shape his/her program into one that creates the optimum opportunity for job placement upon graduation.”

Read the full text of the curriculum revision announcement.

Sunder Ramaswamy Outlines Process for Administrative Appointments

In a message to faculty and staff, President-designate Sunder Ramaswamy thanked the community for its participation in discussions of the administrative reorganization announced last week, and described the process he will follow for making administrative appointments. In case you missed the message:

Dear Colleagues:

I would like to thank you for your time during last week’s Town Hall meeting. Clara and I appreciated the opportunity of being able to present the roll out of the administrative reorganization and take questions.  I would also like to thank members of the community who sent follow up questions and comments. I very much look forward to being a part of this community and to work with all of you to build on the positive momentum gathered in so many areas of the Institute.

With regard to the process of next steps, let me spell it out in a bit more detail.  A finalized version of the organization will be presented to the MIIS Board of Trustees during their October meeting.  Once that is approved, I will begin in earnest the search for a number of the key administrative (both academic and non-academic) positions. As I mentioned at the Town Hall, I will look at current administrators, some external and other internal nominees.  In a process that is more aligned with the Middlebury practice, I plan to vet my decisions with the faculty representative group, the Senate.  As we all know, the current Faculty Handbook in many ways does not reflect the unfolding reality of MIIS becoming a part of the Middlebury, starting at the level of the Board of Trustees, and including the appointment of the President and other administrators. We will have time and opportunity to work through governance issues in a timely and methodical manner to meet the integration timeline of June 30, 2010 that we have set forth to NEASC and WASC.

I will be back on campus third week of October but in the meantime, please do not hesitate to e-mail me any questions you might have.

Sincerely,
Sunder Ramaswamy

J-term@MIIS

Winter Term, which many call J-Term for short, will run from January 5-30, 2009. We have extended its length this year to four weeks to offer more courses needing additional time, as well as to provide extended time for off-campus activities.  J-Term is considered part of our Spring Term, so students may receive financial aid and/or use their comprehensive tuition fee to cover the tuition cost of these opportunities.

J-Term is designed to offer both students and members of our faculty unique opportunities for intensive, often immersive, study and learning that reflects and reinforces our commitment to immersive, higher order, and/or and open architecture learning.  Thus, students may study at the Institute or away from it, independently or as participants in a course; they may also find opportunities for short term internships, group activities, and field trips abroad or locally.  The goal is to provide students with innovative and diverse educational opportunities beyond what can be offered during our regular fall and spring terms.

For more information about what courses and activities are being offered during J-Term this academic year, please contact the deans.

Advancement Announces Reorganization

The Office of Institutional Advancement is pleased to announce some organizational enhancements designed  to build an even more effective division working to support the Institute’s goals.

Tony O’Brian has agreed to take on the position of director of advancement information services.  In this expanded role, he will provide leadership for ongoing business process analysis and other advancement services integration initiatives with Middlebury.  We have all benefited from the great skill and energy he brings to his responsibilities, and we are fortunate that he has agreed to take on this position.

To better reflect the demands of building a robust event program for both advancement and the Institute as a whole, Linae Ishii-Devine’s role will shift from manager of events and advancement services to manager of events and administrative services.  In addition to her leadership in the events area, Linae will partner with Beth McDermott on identifying and implementing continuing education opportunities for the group, the first of which is the guest speaker series at bi-weekly Advancement staff meetings.  Her organization, enterprise, and institutional knowledge have been and will continue to be key components of our success.

Finally, at the end of this month, Leah Gowron and alumni relations will shift their reporting from the provost’s office to institutional advancement.  This move will enable us to more effectively strengthen our ties with alumni and other constituencies as we build broad-based support for the Institute.  We are lucky to have had Leah as one of our closest campus partners, and look forward to all that we will accomplish in the years ahead.

–from the Institutional Advancement Office

TLC Friday Sandbox Review: The BLOGosphere and YOU

http://mariamusic.blogspirit.com/images/medium_blog-cartoon.jpgOn the afternoon of Friday, September 12, a group of 15 staff, faculty, and students joined the TLC for its weekly Sandboxing session.  During these informal ‘play and learn’ dates, we talk, question, tinker, and snack.

In the sandbox that week was the timely topic of campus communications and the developing role of the web-blog, or ‘blog.’

You’ve heard of blogs, maybe you read one or two, and just maybe you have your own.  During this session, we heard from Ann Flower, renegade reference librarian and blogger at MIIS, Amy McGill, Associate Vice President for Planning and Special Projects who is coordinating the MIIS@Work blog and others on campus who have begun to explore blogging as a platform for communication, collaboration, archiving and expression at work.

Our discussion was streamed live using Ustream.tv.  Click: Ustream Archive of our Blogging Discussion

Helpful Materials We Looked At

Common Craft YouTube Video: Blogging in Plain English
Common Craft YouTube Video: RSS in Plain English

Establishing a Middlebury WordPress Blog
1. Activate your faculty or staff Exchange account at http://go.middlebury.edu/activate If you have an activated e-mail exchange account you should okay here.
2. Login with your Exchange username and password to activate your WordPress account.
3. E-mail [dmc at miis dot edu] to come and talk to us about customizing your blog.

Tip from HR

It’s Payday!  A good time to remind everyone that there are things you can do with Banner besides submitting your time sheet. Here’s a quick guide to what you’ll find below the time sheet link.

AACSB Accreditation

Clara posted the following supplementary information on the MBA to a First Class conference, in response to some student concerns.  We though we would share it here as well, in case there are faculty and staff have similar questions.

1. The MBA degree will continue.
2. The reorganization does not put the AACSB accreditation in jeopardy.  We have already had preliminary conversations with AACSB, have notified them of our upcoming merger with Middlebury, and have started proceedings to request a substantive change that would officially transfer accreditation to Middlebury upon the completion of the merger in 2010.  AACSB personnel have expressed an eagerness to work with us, as they, like we, are interested in the outcome of a rigorous and vital MBA program.
3.  Current students will have the same curriculum, the same degree, and the same accreditation.
4. The two school model of administrative organization does not preclude any program being appropriately distinguished by specific admissions requirements or degree requirements, or the engagement of appropriately qualified faculty in curricular decision making. Nor does it preclude program-specific data collection, resource allocation, or tracking of expenditures.
5.  Attached are the AACSB accreditation standards, for those who are Interested.  They are focused on program quality, not administrative structure. As they state, “The administrative structure within which the
programs are offered is at the discretion of the institution. While no particular administrative structure is mandated, the organizational structure and procedures must foster strategic management and continuous
improvement.”

Open Enrollment Ends Friday!

Please be aware that there are only two more days left in the Open Enrollment period for benefits.

To date, only half our employees have returned the Flexible Spending Account election agreement.  We require this form from all employees, regardless of whether or not you wish to take advantage of opportunity to spend pre-tax dollars on certain approved expenses.

We would really appreciate it if you would get your form in today!  If you are not sure how to fill it out, please don’t hesitate to take it to the HR office and request assistance.

— Human Resources Office

Saving Trees

One of the great things about working here is that I learn something new from my colleagues almost every day!  A couple of days ago I noticed this tagline at the bottom of Tony O’Brian’s email signature:

I’ve added this line to my signature and invite all of you to join me in this gentle reminder that we can all work toward a culture of conservation.

(The tagline is created simply by typing it in, using the Webdings font “P” to create the image at the beginning.)

Are Your Retirement Investments Safe?

The recent volatility in the stock market, and the liquidity crisis that is swirling around some large financial institutions may have some of you concerned about your retirement investments.  This is particularly so as one of our retirement choices, VALIC, is a subsidiary of AIG Insurance Company, around which there is a lot of discussion.

As is explained in a “Talking Points” memo from AIG Retirement, under the “Asset Safeguards” section (bottom of page 1), individual funds invested in VALIC mutual funds are in segregated accounts protected from any claims other that yours.  VALIC itself appears to be well capitalized and strong financially.

The economic turmoil of the last six months has created a volatile stock market.  There have been lots of ups and downs.  History tells us that the better long term strategy is to ride it out, and not try to “time” the market’s ups and downs.  However, how you react to your individual investments is a personal decision, based on your comfort with taking risk in the pursuit of a greater reward (they usually go hand in hand.)

Should you have questions, our VALIC representative, Rodney Smith, is available to talk with you.  He can be reached at 595-2588.

–Jim Graber,CFO

Revised MIIS website

The Monterey Institute has a bit of a new look.  Anne Marie Steiger and Lynn McDonald have been working over the summer on making our website easier to navigate and a better experience for our prospective students.  This should be visually more pleasing but there have also been some changes made to help our web users find what they are looking for faster.

Main Changes:

New homepage design:

  • A flash file of revolving pictures with the five curricular focus areas of the Monterey Way 2.0 highlighted
  • Academics – where you can find everything to do with academics – faculty, library, calendar, course descriptions, Moodle, TLC, DMC, ect
  • Offices and Services – A place to find links to all the offices and services on campus, links go to homepages or just pages with contact information (please contact Anne Marie if you’d like your office to have its own page or be added to this list)
  • Language Programs & Language Teacher Education – these were once one button but now the degree programs have been separated from the language programs so that their site is easier to navigate and our language programs highlighted
  • Explore – this section is a place where we can highlight exciting things on our website.  These will change so start to build up your website and send Lynn McDonald an email if you’d like to be highlighted in the explore section.  We hope to showcase departments that are truly doing exciting things online.
  • Quick Links – some common links that people just need quickly like emergency contacts, directions, ESL, events
  • What’s New – A place to put news but also a place to highlight new programs or interesting events.  This should change regularly so please contact Lynn McDonald with any “What’s New” items.
  • Be The Solution – Our great new tagline!
  • Online Directory, site map and banner web can now be found in the footer.

Admissions:

  • New Organization – Six easy to navigate categories
  • Language Requirements – All the information on languages in the graduate programs can now be found here, rather than each school having its own language information.
  • Student Life – a section for the student voice to be highlighted.  This section will hopefully soon include more digital media

If you see any mistakes in the website, PLEASE let your departmental web editor know.  There are bound to be some mistakes so we’d love to take care of them quickly.  Also, double check any URLs that you send out in mass emails or letters – they may have changed with this re-organization.

Lynn and Anne Marie will soon be offering a web training for anyone who writes for the web (including workstudy students).  Please stay tuned for more information.

run DMC

Digital Media Commons logo The Digital Media Commons, or “DMC” in campus-speak, was one of fifteen pizza groups established last Fall during the first innovations campaign last year.  The DMC is now a part of the Teaching & Learning Collaborative with an emphasis on innovation and project development supporting academic excellence on campus.

Our Mission

The mission of the DMC is to connect the Monterey Institute with the world through digital media by creating opportunities for students, faculty and staff to develop, produce and distribute digital media projects in order to document achievements, strengthen professional skills, and raise the Institute’s visibility.

Since April, development of the Digital Media Commons has continued to move forward, and activities here have been greatly bolstered with funding and support from the Academic Excellence initiative.

What the DMC does

DEVELOPMENT: We support your terrific ideas by first having a conversation with you about what you would like to create and about the media project cycle.

PRODUCTION ASSISTANCE: We offer scheduled group and individual just-in-time training and we point you to resources to help you through the project cycle.

DISTRIBUTION: We help you think about how to get your message out where you want it to go: streaming live, recorded for podcast, or burned to disc.

Our Location

As a result of collaborative discussions with ITS and Lab & Media Services, the DMC now has a physical presence in the upstairs foyer of the Kade Building (formerly a student work area).

Contact Us

Have an idea you want to develop that includes digital video, audio, or images?  E-MAIL to make an appointment: [dmc at miis.edu].

New Equipment

new iMacsSix 20” iMac computers have been purchased with Kade Foundation grant funds for digital media production.  These computers were installed in the new DMC space in August and will be a base for project development and production.  They each have 500 GBs of storage, 2GB of RAM and support digital video, photo, and audio editing.  They purposely do not run Microsoft Office, First Class e-mail or Outlook.  Additional Academic Excellence funding has also been allocated for equipment and software resources.  We are currently researching the purchase of a couple of digital audio recorders, a digital camera, a large plasma monitor for projection during trainings, a wireless microphone set-up, and a few others.

Awesome New Staff!
Academic Excellence funds have also enabled us to hire a fantastic team of graduate assistants working as  “Digital Media Developers,” and “Instructional Design Assistants.”  Together this team will greatly extend the reach of the DMC and the TLC this year!

Jeremy Robinson, DMC Manager, TFL Spanish ‘09

Digital Media Developers
Pilar Chaves, IEP ‘10
Sai Fernandez, IPS ‘09
Luis Gain, IPS ‘10
Ryan Gonzalez, IPS ‘10
DeVan Hankerson, ITP ‘10

Instructional Design Assistants
Anna Bellerson, TFL German ’10
Edie Furniss, TFL Russian ’10

Stay tuned for more news from the DMC!

Yu, Ramaswamy, Announce Administrative Reorganization

You should all have received today’s memo from President Clara Yu and President-designate Sunder Ramaswamy, outlining organizational changes designed to facilitate the Institute’s pursuit of academic excellence.

If you would like to have more information, several options have been made available for members of the community to address questions to Clara and Sunder.

  1. Attend the faculty and staff town meeting on September 18 (12:15-1:45 in Irvine).
  2. Submit a question to the question box located near the library circulation desk.
  3. E-mail a question to Clara’s official mailbox.
  4. Comment on this bog post.

Your engagement, as we move forward, is of the greatest importance!

Traveling? Connect with MIIS Alums and Prospective Students

Traveling for work this semester?  Interested in spending an evening with fascinating people?  If so, please contact Leah Gowron, Director of Alumni Relations, or Jill Stoffers, Director of Admissions, regarding your travel schedule!  You can make a tremendous contribution to our recruiting and alumni affairs efforts with a very small invstment of your time.

The Alumni Office regularly coordinates alumni reception and happy hours in conjunction with faculty and staff travel.  Fred Wehling (Vienna), Ed Laurance (New York), Laura Burian (Beijing) and Lynn Goldstein (Portland & Seattle) helped host events over the summer, and  there are many more events planned for Fall 2008.  We are particularly interested in adding European cities, locales in the Middle East, and Korea to our Fall event schedule.

Hosting a reception is easy, and only takes two hours of your time.  All arrangements will be managed by the Alumni Office; your role is to “host”, communicate the many exciting changes and activities on campus to the attending alumni, and collect business cards/contact info. Occasionally supplemental travel support can be provided if scheduling a reception requires an additional night’s stay.

Current alumni events can be viewed here.

The recruiting staff can also use your help recruiting future classes for MIIS. There are several ways you can help:

  • • Meet with prospective students for drinks or coffee. With enough notice, we can set this up in your hotel.
  • • Take MIIS recruiting material to your contacts. Let us know and we’ll give you a small supply before you leave!
  • • Give a substantive presentation on a topic in your area of expertise or information session about MIIS. In some cities, we have concentrations of students who would love to learn more from you.

Depending upon the location, the Recruiting Office may be able to help with some of your expenses. Please notify contact Jill Stoffers or work directly with an Enrollment Manger. Thanks for thinking of ways to help!
–from the Alumni Affairs and Admissions Offices