e-SML March 2008
Recruitment Bonanza and New Course Planning
Greetings from Ithaca, where SML is celebrating a recruitment bonanza. By March 7th deadline for students seeking financial aid, we had received more than 300 applications for SML Summer 2008. We expect to enroll a very large cohort of students this year.
Our celebration is tempered by the realities of application processing, for our Ithaca office is short-staffed, and everyone wears many hats. We promoted Jane Paige to admissions manager; she works with assistant director for academic advising Robin Hadlock Seeley and assistant director for academic programs Christine Bogdanowicz on all aspects of recruiting and admissions. To help us with the busy spring and summer seasons, Linda Harrington re-joined our office part-time. We look forward to next month, when Robin Babcock will join SML as our new administrative assistant.
Meanwhile, we‚re making something of a habit of new course development. It is a good habit because it keeps SML vital and bolsters student interest, but it is complicated. Concepts for new courses are sifted through faculty and group discussions, sometimes lasting years, before they are refined into formal proposals for evaluation by curriculum committees at Cornell and the University of New Hampshire. Because of the breadth of SML's offerings, such evaluations involve departments all over campus, archaeology, for example, and earth and atmospheric sciences. Most of SML's new courses are evaluated by the Biology Curriculum Committee at Cornell, which looks for unique offerings taught by top instructors and a "hook" to attract students. They also consider how a proposed course might relate to campus-based courses, and how it relates to majors.
Once a new course is approved, responsibility shifts back to course faculty. In the months prior to arriving on Appledore, they develop lectures, design labs, invite guest speakers, and select teaching materials. Given these responsibilities, I find it amazing that we‚ve had such a positive response to our call for a stronger and broader SML curriculum: in just two years we have literally doubled the number of courses we offer each summer.
With so much new academic energy converging on Appledore, it is no wonder that students are seeking us out. But the process of curriculum building at SML is just beginning. For example, in recent meetings at UNH, SML associate director Jessica Bolker has been working with Tom Brady, dean of the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, and a broad range of faculty interested in becoming involved with SML. These efforts promise to strengthen our longstanding partnership with UNH.
In another important March development, Vicky Hardy has joined Star Island Corporation to serve as their new CEO. We extend a warm welcome to Vicky, and look forward to working with her to strengthen both SML and SIC as we plan the best possible future for the Isles of Shoals Archipelago.
Willy Bemis
Kingsbury Director of Shoals Marine Laboratory
