Contact information:
Academic First Year Experiences
Sierra Hall 440
818-677-6535
Email: cheryl.spector@csun.edu
Current positions:
Professor of English
Director, Academic First Year Experiences
Coordinator, CIELO (Center for Innovative & Engaged Learning Opportunities)
Course Director, University 100: The Freshman Seminar
Vice-President of the Faculty and Member of the Senate
Recent presentations:
"Engaging CSUN Freshmen and the Faculty Who Teach Them." Teaching & Learning Bytes, CSUN. Mar. 30, 2009.
“Regional & System-Wide Partnerships: Bridging the Gap between the Local and the National.” Roundtable presentation (program chair). National First Year Experience & Students in Transition Conference. San Francisco, CA. Feb. 17, 2008.
“Cultivating Innovative & Engaged Learning Opportunities for Students: CIELO.” CSUN Faculty Retreat, January 2008.
“A Look Back at the Vietnam War: With Special Attention to The Things They Carried.” Panelist for Center for Ethics & Values Event, September 19, 2007.
“Off to a Good Start: Cross-Divisional Support for First Year Students.” Plenary presentation with Scott Evenbeck (IUPUI) and Orenthia Mason (Jarvis Christian College), IHEP/BEAMS Summer Academy, Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico, July 24, 2007.
“Information Competence as Festival: Working with a First-Year Experience Librarian.” With Susanna Eng. National First Year Experience & Students in Transition Conference, Addison, TX. Feb. 16-20, 2007.
“Linking and Learning: The Freshman Connection and Supplemental Instruction.” With Sheryl Thompson. Faculty Retreat, January 2006.
“FIGs, First-Year Clusters, Linked Classes, Learning Communities: Institutional Barriers and Institutional Support.” With Lisa Riccomini and Tina Bertacchi Love. Regional First Year Experience Conference, Costa Mesa, CA. November 6-8, 2005.
“Powers of Two: Using Graduate Student Mentors in the Freshman Seminar Program at CSUN.” Co-presented with Merril Simon and Toni Aho. Annual First Year Experience Conference, Phoenix, AZ. Feb. 7, 2005.
“The ABCs of First-Year Student Learning: Goals, Outcomes, and Challenges.” CSUN Faculty Retreat, Oxnard. January 2005.
“Students on Academic Probation: A Campus Conversation.” Organizer and Moderator. CSUN. Oct. 27-8, 2003.
Publications:
"Freshman Focus at Cal State Northridge." ITL Connections 2.1 (Fall 2008). Institute for Teaching and Learning, California State University. Online: http://www.calstate.edu/itl/newsletter/archives/archives_index.shtml
“CSU Northridge Transforms Its Approach to Information Competence.” Co-authored with Susanna Eng. E-Source for College Transitions 4.5 (May 2007).
"Instructional Strategies for Teaching CSUN Freshmen: Gum and Glory." C.E.L.T. Letter, Fall 2003 (.pdf file).
Editor, Aftermath: Essays in Response to September 11, 2001 by Freshmen at California State University, Northridge. Northridge, CA: CSUN, 2002.
Articles on Maxine Kumin, Adrienne Rich, and Muriel Rukeyser. Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Twentieth Century. Chicago, IL: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001.