Gari Melchers Home and Studio is prominently featured on page 42 in the Sept/Oct issue of AAA World magazine in “Side Trip,” an article about Fredericksburg.

UMW welcomes Dr. Tevya Zukor, Director of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). Dr. Zukor most recently served at the Thomas E. Cook Counseling Center at Virginia Tech. He earned his B.S. in psychology from James Madison University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. of philosophy in clinical psychology from George Mason University. He is a licensed clinical psychologist and a certified group psychotherapist. His office is located on the first floor of Lee Hall, 654-1035.

This traditionally has been the time of year that the Faculty, Staff, and Student Directory is printed and distributed. As part of the University’s support for sustainability and the overall initiative of the Commonwealth of Virginia to go ‘green’, we have made the decision to discontinue printing the directory. Instead, we are asking that all faculty, staff, and students use the existing on-line directory found on the UMW web site.

Using the on-line directory is very easy. There is a link to it at the top of the UMW home page, next to the search window at the top right, or you may type http://www.umw.edu/directory/ directly into your browser. Once on the directory page, there are several options:

The first is a general search option. By following the instructions at the top of the page, you can search for a student or staff/faculty member by entering the last name (first name is optional) and clicking the appropriate ‘Scope’ (Students or Faculty/Staff), and then clicking ‘Search’. A more detailed search can be performed by clicking on the drop-down menu below the ‘Faculty/Staff” option and choosing a department. For example, clicking on Design Services and clicking ‘Search’ will result in a listing of all staff members in Design Services.

An alphabetical listing of all department and office phone numbers is accessed by clicking on the second item on the sidebar menu. The third item on this menu provides an A-Z listing of academic department and program phone numbers. Also available in this sidebar menu are mailing addresses, information phone numbers, and a link to the Meet the Faculty pages.

Please contact Paula Wilder at pwilder@umw.edu if personal or department information (name, address, room number, telephone number, title) is incorrect. Changes to information in any of the sidebar directories should be submitted to Marty Morrison at mmorris3@umw.edu.

Some improvements are currently in the works for the on-line directory, and those will be announced as they are completed. Please be aware, however, that personal addresses and phone numbers will not be accessible through the on-line directory.

In a note to colleagues, Nina Mikhalevsky has announced plans to develop a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) as part of the process to prepare for SACS reaffirmation visit in 2013. Her note is available below along with a list of the QEP planning group.

Dear Colleagues, at our opening meeting on Thursday, August 19, Provost Harper and President Hurley announced the beginning of a planning process to prepare for our SACS reaffirmation visit in 2013. A major part of that process is the development of a QEP—a Quality Enhancement Plan. The focus of the QEP is on the enhancement and promotion of student learning at UMW, something that is at the very heart of what we do here. While developing and implementing a QEP is a SACS requirement, for an institution such as ours where high-quality teaching is at the core, the QEP is a wonderful opportunity for us to develop and enhance particular areas of our students’ educational experience, to draw from the commitment and expertise of our faculty and staff, and to further our excellence as a liberal arts university. Please note that our QEP planning will result not only in funding for our QEP but for two other proposals that come out of this process.

The first phase of our QEP process is for us to select our QEP topic. This selection process will seek input from everyone in the UMW community and will take place during this academic year, culminating in the selection of the QEP topic next April. We are asking all of you to participate! Once the QEP topic is selected, a QEP implementation team will be chosen to fully develop the topic into our QEP proposal; the plan will then be submitted to SACS in early 2013 as part of our reaffirmation requirements.

For detailed information about the entire QEP planning process, our QEP topic selection activity this year and how you can participate, the timeline, resources, etc., please go to the UMW QEP website http://qep.umwblogs.org/

If you have any questions about this first phase of the QEP, about your participation, or about any other aspect of the QEP, please do not hesitate to contact any member of the QEP Planning Group. We look forward to working with all of you this academic year.

QEP Planning Group:

Nina Mikhalevsky, Professor of Philosophy
College of Arts and Sciences
Chair of the QEP Planning and Review Committee
nmik@umw.edu
540-654-1295

Steve Greenlaw, Professor of Economics
Acting Director, University Teaching Center
College of Arts and Sciences
sgreenla@umw.edu
540-654-1483

Norah Hooper, Professor of Education
Program Coordinator, Special Education
College of Education
nhooper@umw.edu
540-286-8077

Jack Kramer, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and International Affairs
Chair of the Department of Political Science and International Affairs
College of Arts and Sciences
jkramer@umw.edu
540-654-1495

Larry Penwell, Professor of Management and Marketing
Acting Dean, College of Business
lpenwell@umw.edu
540-654-1561

Jerry Slezak, Director
Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies
jslezak@umw.edu
540-654-2118

Kelli Slunt, Professor of Chemistry
College of Arts and Sciences
kslunt@umw.edu
540-654-1406

Students: Shannon Hauser and Robin Norman