Teaching CSUN's Freshmen: What's New, What's Ongoing
Latest news: Barbara Ehrenreich will be the keynote speaker at Freshman Convocation this fall: Thursday, September 4, 2008, at 6:00 p.m. on the Oviatt Lawn at CSUN.
Additional details about Freshman Convocation will be available as the spring semester progresses. Stay tuned!
Other news:
New "Technology for Faculty" Website at CSUN
Online Instruction is now part of Information Technology (IT) at CSUN. The IT Faculty website offers information about a variety of "Teaching Resources" (such as WebCT), "Quick Links" to key technology topics (like passwords, wireless connections, and SOLAR rosters), and "Training/Support" links to faculty technology workshops and materials for accessible web design. URL: http://www.csun.edu/it/faculty.html
Teaching University 100
Applications are now being accepted from faculty who would like to teach University 100, the Freshman Seminar, in Fall 2008. For more information: http://www.csun.edu/afye/Teaching_University_100.html
We have a winner: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is CSUN's Freshman Common Reading for 2008-2009.
In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich reports what happened when she attempted to "match income to expenses" as a minimum wage employee in various jobs across the country. At the beginning of her project, she half-expected that "some supervisor or co-worker" might suspect that she was actually a nationally known journalist with a PhD in biology. However, she explains, "this never happened, I suspect because the only thing that really made me 'special' was my inexperience. To state the proposition in reverse, low-wage workers are no more homogeneous in personality or ability than people who write for a living, and no less likely to be funny or bright. Anyone in the educated classes who thinks otherwise ought to broaden their circle of friends." See Ehrenreich's website for additional information.
Book Groups for Nickel and Dimed
Faculty & Staff who would like to read Nickel and Dimed this spring are invited to join one of two Book Groups. For more information or to sign up, check the Book Group page.
Teaching and Discussing The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
For additional information, check CSUN's Common Reading website
Academic Self-Esteem: Ex.C.E.L.
Mark Stevens, University Counseling. (PowerPoint Presentation)
Freshman Convocation Archive
Speech by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: "Our Environmental Destiny"