Posted by Chance Berndt on 1/24/2014
EMAWcats,
Welcome back to Manhappiness! While we work our way back into the normal routine of classes, studying for classes, and almost not making it to classes, I’d like to look back on our progress on our campaign goals over the past semester.
Empowering Relationships
Eli, Jake, Abby, and I have continued to work alongside the Deans of each academic college to develop professional mentorship programs for more students. We’re pleased to have helped the leader of the College of Human Ecology and the College of Arts & Science develop proposals for mentorship program funding that were submitted recently to SGA’s Student Centered Tuition Enhancement (SCTE) committee. Over the next few weeks, the committee will deliberate and ultimately decide how much funding each proposal deserves! More news to come!
Enhancing Mobility
With the continued hard work of Technology Director Theo Stavropoulos and our iTAC service staff, we have increased the number of mobile charging stations around campus for your convenience! In addition, we have made it easier than ever to improve our wireless system, with a new WiFi reporting form available to all students. More developments – like improvements to K-State Online and a long-awaited mobile app that incorporates KSOL and iSIS – are in the works!
Enriching Experience
After months of meetings with administrators and other faculty members, we’re thrilled to announce that the long-awaited TEVAL Revision Task Force will be launched this January, which will look at the best way to bring value and utility to our teacher evaluation procedures. I’ll be serving on the task force, so contact me with any and all comments and thoughts you’d like me to share over the next weeks and months.
In the coming weeks, we will be outlining what projects we are currently working on, along with peeking at some of our plans for the future. Stay tuned!
BoomCatsMeow
Chance Berndt
cberndt@ksu.edu
Director of Executive Initiatives
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Posted by Chance Berndt on 11/14/2013
EMAWcats,
Thanksgiving Break is almost here! While the Cabinet of the President have been dreaming of turkey, pie, and a week long break from classes, we’ve still pushed forward on Eli and Jake’s campaign goals. Check out what we’ve done so far, and keep returning back to the Platform Tracker to see how we’re doing!
Empowering Relationships
In my last post, we mentioned the proposal for expanding mentorship programs at K-State that we made to the Dean’s Council. We’re pleased to announce that the College of Architecture, Planning, and Design is now working on a mentorship program of their own! This would be in addition to the already-existing program in the College of Business Administration. We are also collaborating with the College of Human Ecology on a proposal for funding that, if granted, would help with a mentorship program in that college as well! We’ll continue to meet with other Deans throughout the semester and year to discuss the potential for mentorship within their respective colleges. We believe that this is a program that every student at Kansas State should have the opportunity to be a part of, and we’re dedicated to furthering that goal.
Enhancing Mobility
Our Technology Director Theo Stavropoulos has been working with iTAC to implement our changes throughout the semester, and we have now received confirmation that USB outlets will be installed in Cardwell 101 next semester! This technology will allow students to easily charge electronic devices, and based on the success in Cardwell, is a technology we’d like to see implemented in other areas around campus as well.
Enriching Experience
It’s around that time in the semester when TEVAL’s for professors start to be sent out! We’d like to remind all students to take this process very seriously as we move forward in the TEVAL revision process. Our professors depend on feedback from students to improve and enhance their teaching. We will continue to push forward for a TEVAL Revision Task Force, and hope to create an academic experience at K-State that’s second to none.
Happy Holidays!
Chance Berndt
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Posted by Chance Berndt and Theo Stavropoulos on 10/15/13
EMAWCats,
We’re almost halfway done with the semester, and Eli and Jake, along with their Cabinet, have been hard at work at achieving their campaign goals, in addition to all their other duties. As the Director of Executive Initiatives, my job is to make sure that these things happen, and to update you, as constituents, on the progress we’ve been making towards our goals.
Empowering Relationships
Over the past two months, we’ve made significant headway on developing a Mentorship Program, similar to the one currently employed by the College of Business Administration, but in other colleges/departments on campus. Eli and Jake made a proposal to the Dean’s Council on our ideas for expansion, and the feedback we’ve received from several campus leaders has been very positive! It takes time to enact the changes we hope to see at K-State, but the early developments in this program have been very promising, and we plan to announce our first campus partner soon.
Enhancing Mobility
We’ve already made significant progress on our Enhancing Mobility Platform by representing students throughout the Email Transition (which has now extended to all students who are not employed by K-State), working to place Mobile Charging Stations throughout campus (and advocating for departmental funding for several more), establishing a reporting system for Wi-Fi errors in an effort to address weak spots in KSU Wireless, and meeting with key ITS staff and administrators to begin the conversation regarding access to critical web services on mobile devices. The work surrounding mobile solutions to address students’ academic needs is ongoing, but we are confident that we are engaging the right voices and will see measurable results on this goal throughout the rest of the term and beyond.
Enriching Experience
After meeting with Jana Fallin, the Director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, and Brian Niehoff, our Associate Provost, we’re moving forward on creating a TEVAL Revision Task Force. This Task Force will examine Teacher Evaluation strategies at other universities, review our own methods, and decide on a definitive course of action to take as to improve our evaluation system into the future. We have several ideas on how to apply the research we’ve done on other universities, and we’re excited to get started with this new stage in the process!
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Posted by Jake Unruh on 8/17/13
When Eli and I ran for Student Body President and Vice President, we knew that, if elected, we wanted to do all we could to equip students at K-State with all the tools they would need to be successful – that’s why we make our slogan “Ensuring Your Success” and designed our platform around three key areas we heard from students were most in need of being addressed by SGA. Below is our “Platform Tracker” – what we ran on, and what we’re doing (each and every day) to make it a reality.
Empowering Relationships
We want to work to build lasting connections with professionals in the real world. By developing mentoring programs, like the one employed by the College of Business Administration, we feel that K-State can have exemplary student/alumni relations.
Enhancing Mobility
We promised students that we would help K-State develop the technology needed to thrive on campus. In an ever-increasing mobile world, we think strong Internet and mobile phone comparability are key in being a University where students can succeed best.
Enriching Experience
We want to effect real change in the classroom to make it a better experience for both professors and students. With the help of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, we hope to start a TEVAL revision task force.