Weekly Newsletter: Tuesday Is News Day

Semester Start: Meetings, Materials, and Recordings!

CLS Semester Start Letter

Remember to review Wendy's semester start letter: Fall 2024 Semester Start Letter.  Some important tasks and due dates from that letter are posted in the newsletter, but not all of them. The letter was emailed on August 23 if you prefer to bookmark it in your email.  Beth Frye also added to the email thread with a clarification about mandatory Professional Development:   

THE (2025) CYBERSECURITY TRAINING IS NOT AVAILABLE FROM THE COLLEGE.  

The college uses Fiscal years to identify things.  

If you complete the training that is available, you will only be compliant until 8/31/24.

When the 2025 training is available, I will update the due date.

In other words, wait until we hear from Beth to do the Cybersecurity Training!

CLS Faculty Meeting 

Slide Show: CLS F24 Faculty Meeting Slides

Recording: https://austincc.zoom.us/rec/share/TPh-E38V3TICJrKBnNJGSxbT8KxDtAvex7fQccAgEeq4wmRhnM4bN37oHRVb6VPx.PX3F9Z3qktcWupz7  (Passcode: 9P74#t@3)

Minutes: CLS F24 Faculty Meeting Minutes

CLS Dual-Credit Faculty Meeting

Meeting Agenda: CLS Dual-Credit Meeting Fall 2024

Recording: https://austincc.zoom.us/rec/share/BN2fECNfPByBHOykV_ZZxswMDrtquTH_IBa7Fw1rjzkb_sXTM4jXGZUQA6y4vscy.Lj_2u_qxQO6oHjqC?startTime=1724196885000%20Passcode:%20Kut16j*V   (passcode: Kut16j*V)

INRW Faculty Meeting

Meeting Agenda and Minutes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mtS10LGtvMzWgc3sPx46HqD2_llM4hoyhUlYn7zUCNo/edit

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Reminder: Students Appreciate YOU!

Jenifer Hamilton Hernandez passed along this video to reassure and motivate us as we move into the Fall 2024 semester.  One of her former students and the founding President of the Scholarship Society, Kristen Hummel, spoke at the ACC board meeting on June 3, 2024 in support of faculty and staff raises.  Check out the 19:20 time stamp to remember that students see us!

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CLS Fall 2024 Institutional Program Review SWOT Survey, Due Sept 30

It's time for our SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) Survey!

Overview

Every three years, all ACC Departments are asked to conduct an instructional program review; Spring 2025 is the Composition and Literary Studies (CLS) Department’s year for this! We must gather feedback from people who have an interest in the CLS Department to help identify the positives and negatives inside our department (the “S” and “W”) as well as outside of it, in the external environment (the “O” and the “T”). Gathering this information can help us with both strategic planning and decision-making. 

Take the Survey before September 30th

CLS Fall 2024 Institutional Program Review SWOT Survey

Questions?

Contact Carla Coleman

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CLS Profile

Have you checked out the AMAZING CLS Profile yet? 

If you need a printed copy in your life (and why wouldn't you?), contact Wendy Elle or Sue Bloodsworth.  They can put a print CLS Profile in the mail or hold one at Rio Grande Campus for you!

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Learning Labs Faculty Folders: ZTC/OER Submission Form

From Amanda King, tutor specialist and CLS professor:

In an effort to foster greater collaboration between instructors and writing tutors, the Learning Labs invite instructors to send us your digital Zero Textbook Cost/Open Educational Resources (ZTC/OERs), such as articles and stories that students will engage with. Tutors can best help students when they can preview such texts, and having these materials at the ready saves precious time. For information on how tutors will access texts and how to submit, please see our Google form: https://forms.gle/as4MGFFnT8gB8mbC8

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Job Postings

Creative Writing Adjunct

from Prudence Arceneaux: 

Creative Writing job posting open-- Adjunct (R-5945, closing 1 September).

Many of you have MFAs or MAs with Creative Writing or PhDs in Creative Writing, and we'd like to see if you are a fit for the department! The goal with opening up this adjunct post (which, Full-timers, you would be in CW) and developing the adjunct pool is to give students a greater variety in learning experiences, with different voices and different approaches. If you are hired on as adjunct in CW, along with your teaching, you would be responsible for helping the department with assessment, and encouraged to help the department with events and tabling. You will also be responsible for a portfolio cycle in CW. This is an external posting.

OnRamps Writing Assessment Specialist

OnRamps at UT Austin is hiring part-time remote Writing Assessment Specialists to support OnRamps Rhetoric for the 2024-25 academic year.  Writing Assessment Specialists evaluate a total of eight major assignments, four each semester, and provide substantive written feedback. Contact jaime.babcock@austin.utexas.edu with questions.

• Compensation: Writing Assessment Specialists who successfully complete all assigned 2024-25 assessments, with an average grading load of 30 essays per assignment, generally start between $2,299 - $2,420 per year, including training and calibration. Each candidate can elect to request up to 80 students for additional compensation. All grading assignments are contingent upon student enrollment. 

• More details here: OnRamps Assessment Specialist

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Call for Volunteers! 2025 Co-Req Summit 

We're in the process of building a Committee to Coordinate the 2025 Co-req Summit: Co-req Yo'Self before You Wreck Yo'Self!

Please contact Ursula Parker if you are interested in being on the committee to develop the 2025 Co-req Summit.

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Virtual Launch of ISSUED: Stories of Service, Aug 29, 5 pm

Arizona State University is hosting a virtual reading of military-inspired literature to launch ISSUED: Stories of Service. Our very own CLS faculty, Tonya Suther will be reading her poem "Why Would I Ever Throw It Out?"  Check out the event details and register to attend or read through ISSUED: Stories of Service, Vol. 2.  

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Host a Table at the All-Adjunct Assembly on Aug 29

Are you interested in representing the CLS department at the Adjunct Faculty Association's first-ever All-Adjunct Assembly?  

This would be a great opportunity to spread the word about CLS course offerings and events and potentially increase participation because adjuncts are in positions to refer students to courses within our department. Maybe you can even find some qualified instructors to join our adjunct ranks! 

Sign up to host a table here.  Contact Amber Luttig-Buonodono with questions.

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LAHC: Pathway Discovery Session, Sept. 10 

Like the Liberal Arts? Want to show students what’s cool about composition? Yearning to share your love of learning (and literature)?

Join us for the Liberal Arts Pathway Discovery Session on September 10th at HLC Building 2000 between 10 AM and 12:30 PM! CLS will have a big presence there with our own reserved room for fun activities (including, but not limited to: a book swap, BookTok, photo-ops, and Literary Jeopardy!). INRW has a table, so come visit with us and test your knowledge with coreqs!

For more information, email Theo Yurevitch!

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Register for Teaching: The Spiritual Practice, deadline Sept. 16

Check out this Fall 2024 Faculty Interest Group (FIG), hosted by CLS faculty Amy Wink.  Teaching: The Spiritual Practice will explore teaching as a spiritual practice and "focus on how we come to understand our work as calling, what keeps us going, and how we can deepen our understanding of the inner meaning that fuels us." Click here for more details about Teaching: The Spiritual Practice. 

Time: 10:30-12:00 pm

Modality: Zoom (online synchronous)

Dates: September 20, October 11, November 15, December 6

Registration form: https://forms.gle/j2xUu8h6SDmsRg2Q6

Deadline to register: Sep 16, 2024 EOD. 

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Mental Health, PD Opportunities

We are so pleased to bring you two awesome professional development opportunities this fall! 

1) The Meditating Professor with Lupe Mendoza has been specifically geared toward CLS faculty to give you what you need to help build resilience in your students and yourself while promoting creativity in your classroom and your life. 2) Students come to us with some heavy stuff. We are not trained to deal with it. Emily is. Let her help you navigate choppy waters by attending Faculty Consultation sessions with Emily Olson. 

Click here to register for one or both opportunities now. 

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English Major Degree Audits

If you'd like to help our majors graduate on time, please volunteer to run a degree audit on one or two students who are near completion. It takes about 10 minutes. 

Email Theo Yurevitch to get the student names; he will get you onto the spreadsheet you need to be on and will assign you a student or two.

Basically, you get a student's ID, look up their transcripts, fill out the English AA audit form, and email the student, their advisor, and Wendy Elle or Theo Yurevitch the completed form. We have a template for the email to the student/advisor. So, the lion's share of the work is you + the audit form. Then copy, paste, attach, and send!

English Degree Audit Process

English Degree Audit Form

How to Access Student Transcripts - YouTube Video

The English Degree Audit Form - YouTube Video

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Become a CLS Mentor 

Quick Details about the Mentor Role: 

Mentor requirements:  Three years teaching at ACC; "very good" or "excellent" student evaluations. Complete online ACC mentor training.

Mentor stipend:  $200 per mentee per semester; an expectation of about 10 hours of contact with mentee, including in-person meeting (if possible) and optional classroom visit.

If you are interested in mentoring a new or returning CLS faculty member in the Fall 2024/Spring 2025 semesters, then please complete this I Want to Be a Mentor form.