Weekly Newsletter: Tuesday Is News Day

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

CLS is involved in so many great things during the month of April! Book Club, Creative Writing Group, Student Research Symposium. Make sure you get these events on your calendar and spread the word!

A reminder about textbooks for summer and fall: CLS collects your textbook information internally and then Sue orders the textbooks from the bookstore.  Full-time faculty should put their textbooks on their campus batch file and adjuncts should use the Google Form.  (It's ok to ignore the overdue notice for choosing your books from the ACC Bookstore if you got one.)

Quick Clarification: Last week, the newsletter stated that faculty could pick up Stephanie Land's Class at any ACC library.  This is 100% facts (confirmed in this ACC News post).  But at least one of our CLS faculty visited a library and was met with confusion. If that happened to you, don't give up!

Highlights below: Celebrating Kendall Dingee (WAHOO!) and some clarity on academic Integrity policies.

__________________

Deadlines! 

April 19 

Research Symposium

May 3

CLS End of Semester Department Meeting, 10am-11:30am at RGC and on Zoom

Close the Book, You're Done Party for Graduating Majors, 2 PM-4 PM, Paseo at HLC

May 31

Vertical Alignment, Content Exchange, RGC, 9am-12 pm

__________________

CLS Announcements

Scholastic Dishonesty and Plagiarism

I have some clarifications about our academic integrity process. (The more you know, the more you grow.)

Like many of you, I assumed that In dire incidents of plagiarism or other academic dishonesty, I could--If It was In my policy statement--withdraw a student. That's not ACC's accepted practice. 

Faculty should not withdraw students for academic Integrity violations. So, please don't do that. 

How'd I learn that? Well, I've been in conversation with the Dean and Vice Chancellor, and I am happy to say that Matthew will soon be sharing some clarifications and explanations of the process with the whole division.  I'll help spread that word when It's released.

In the meantime, here you can read our college's academic Integrity resolutions and penalties.

If you assess a penalty of any kind to the student--like points off, a failing grade on an assignment, or failing the class, make sure that you follow the process required by the college. Report the violation to the Chair, the Dean of LAHC, and the campus Dean of Student Affairs. You can do that In a single email to all of us at once. And, If you are thinking, hey Wendy? Could we maybe make this more user-friendly for overworked faculty? Yep, I will get on that for you. An "official" CLS form seems like It might help for those who want such a thing.

We will be adjusting our CLS Faculty Handbook with the forthcoming Information sent by the Dean's Office. In the meantime, I will do my best to answer any questions you might have. If there are lots of questions, I will add the answers to the CLS Faculty Handbook.

CLS Faculty Handbook, Classroom Section (Find Academic Integrity Process)

Academic Integrity Process

------------------------

Congratulations ✨ Kendall Dingee! 

Our colleague Kendall Dingee was nominated for the ACC Bravo Award, which "recognizes employees whose actions reflect exemplary customer service as demonstrated by excellent communication, collaboration, or responsiveness in support of the mission, vision, and values of ACC."

Among many highlights, Kendall's nomination said this: "Kendall knows the importance of hearing from all the people involved in the situation, she is logical and will make sure everyone in the room feels comfortable sharing their opinions, she is able to create safety where people are able to ask tough questions and facilitate a space where people can find answers."

Congratulations Kendall! And thanks for everything you do for CLS and ACC students!

------------------------

Assessment Meeting Recording

Shout out to Rebekah Starnes and the Assessment Committee--If you missed the meeting last week, here's a link to  the recording. More Information--like the full report and powerpoint--are coming out next week.  

https://austincc.zoom.us/rec/share/GIpNPQLmGOblH5cPVXGQ1SApg9ClgcDFiqZA2UGaMBNGbMw_QB1ROrI4wkpOmFK7.cL6_pBRNGthdOd33?startTime=1712329018000

Passcode: **04.z4w

------------------------

Student Research Symposium, April 19

Student Research Symposium

Friday, April 19, 1:00-3:30 pm

HLC Room 2.1410

Poster Presentations 1:00-2:00 (outside room 2.1410)

Essay Presentation 2:00-3:30 (in room 2.1410)

Snacks Provided!

Join us for this exciting event at which ACC students from diverse disciplines will share their research projects. Topics include food insecurity, definitions of heroism, chemical processes in bees, the ethics of online shopping, Magical Realism, horror films, tastebuds, and the relationship of sound and memory. 

------------------------

Genocide Awareness Symposium, April 1-10

The Department of Philosophy at Texas State, San Marcos is hosting a Genocide Awareness Symposium through this week.  Check out the schedule here (Zoom sessions are available but require registration through the schedule). 

------------------------

Suicide Prevention Awareness, April 10

From ACC Mental Health Counseling

Austin Community College District’s (ACC) Mental Health Counseling team works to support our Riverbats through Suicide Prevention Awareness. The event will provide helpful information and resources to our community to help prevent suicide and promote mental health awareness.

Time: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Date: Wednesday, April 10
Location: ACC Highland Campus, Building 4000, Downstairs near the ACC Bookstore

Attendees will learn how to support their peers without judgment, discover mental health resources, identify ways to help, and meet with and learn from our ACC Mental Health counselors. 

Staff and faculty are encouraged to attend and help spread the word to students and colleagues.

For more information, visit austincc.edu/mental-health-counseling.

------------------------

Apply: Tutor 1 - English/Writing (NRG), deadline April 13

Jennifer Harrell, the Learning Lab Manager at NRG, wants to get the word out about an English/Writing tutor position.  Apply or share with others who might be interested: Tutor 1 - English/Writing

------------------------

CLS Book Club, April 18 

The CLS Book Club will meet Thursday April 18th at 7pm at Easy Tiger @ the Linc. We'll gather both to talk about Gwen E. Kirby's Shit Samantha Saw and to swap old books. 

Feel free to join us, whether you signed up to do so or not. Please reach out to Chris Gardner if you have any questions. 

------------------------

CLS Creative Writing Group, April 19

Join the CLS-Creative Writing Group at the Northridge campus on Friday, April 19th from 9:00am-10:30am in NRG1, Rm 1214. We'll be discussing naturalistic imagery and voice with samples from Richard Powers and Margaret Atwood. See you then!

When: Friday April 19, 9:00am-10:30am

Where: NRG 1214 or Zoom in 

Zoom Link: https://austincc.zoom.us/j/81592739119?pwd=SVhMeG9lZGRnRlpkMGZnL0pHdHp6QT09

Meeting ID: 815 9273 9119

Passcode: 101373

Contact Robert Crowl if you have questions.  

------------------------

Textbook Selections for Fall 2024 (Adjuncts)

Adjuncts, once you've accepted your Fall 2024 classes in eStaffing, please use the Textbook Selection Form below. Remember we need to know if you use ZTC/OER methods as well!  The form will email you a copy of your responses. 

Here's the link to the Textbook Selection for Fall 2024 Form. 

How to use the form:

1. Type in your name.

2. List the courses/sections you're scheduled to teach (include a note about First Day Access if needed).

3. Choose texts for your scheduled courses from the dropdown options.  

   • Ignore the dropdown options for courses that you are not scheduled to teach; no response is required.  

   • If you need to review review textbook options and ISBNs, here's the CLS Textbook List.

4. Include any notes that will help us assign the correct texts.

------------------------

Last Call: Classroom Photos

Please share photos from your teaching and classroom experience, so we can use it in the CLS Profile.  

We're looking for pictures of 

• YOU in all your teaching glory

• classroom activities/materials (whiteboard notes, in-class activities, props)

Important: you and any students that appear in the pictures need to sign ACC's Photo Consent form

We need pictures as soon as possible! Upload pictures to Classroom Shots Drive

(Seriously, though--candid shots are the BEST! And, I want to reiterate--anyone teaching for CLS should consider It. Y'all are absolutely LOVELY!)

------------------------

Coming Soon: Become a Faculty Advisor for Composition and Literary Studies/English Major

Adjuncts, be on the lookout for an opportunity to apply for an hourly job as a Faculty Advisor. The work is about 5-10 hours per week. More details coming later this month from Sharon Goh.

------------------------

Major developments for our English majors!

Eli Ryder, Theo Yurevitch, Alana King and the rest of the Revitalizing the Major crew have been hard at work on a new English Degree Audit Form. This form allows anyone--you, me, the student, English-major curious folk--to audit a student's transcript and help them see how close they are to becoming an English AA.  Students can take the completed audit to their advisor. This Is totally optional and voluntary--so not a new requirement, but a really great way to get more students drinking our proverbial Kool Aid. 

Please take a peek--I've given It a try myself, and the student I worked with had NO IDEA that he was 6 courses away from his English AA. We are psyched to get more students Into our major, and COMPLETING their degree--because that's part of the new Texas House Bill that helps fund community colleges and because English majors are so very cool, well-adjusted, and successful. (Read the Norton 2022 Survey English Majors Report for evidence of that claim.) (Also, you might have noticed the on-campus literature classes have been cut over the last decade; every English major must take 3 literature classes. The more majors we have, the more demand for lit sections. EVERYONE WINS.) (Sorry for the all caps.)

Below you will see a fillable form and two videos that help you figure out how to access a student's transcript and fill out the form. 

English Degree Audit Form

How to Access Student Transcripts - YouTube Video

The English Degree Audit Form - YouTube Video

Wait, there's more! Here's  the first English Major Newsletter! 

English Major Newsletter March 26, 2024

And even MORE!!!

Sigma Kappa Delta, English Honors Society at ACC

We even have English Major Swag--tote bags and tee shirts and so on!

And for our graduating majors, we'll be hosting Close the Book, Your Done, a cookie party, May 3, 2024, 2-4 PM, in the Paseo at HLC. More on that soon!

------------------------

INRW Co-req Registration form (Summer 24)

Registration for Summer 24 starts on April 1. 

Students with 0-14 credit hrs AND who require an INRW coreq can register for co-reqs on Friday April 5.

If a student contacts faculty requesting enrollment in their coreq, please provide this link: Summer 24 Coreq Registration Form

------------------------

Romeo and Juliet at Curtain Theater, April 5-27

The Baron's Men present William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Curtain Theater.  

Learn about the venue and get tickets here: Tickets for Romeo and Juliet (Regular tickets $25; Student and Senior tickets $22)

Wednesday April 17 is Education Night; student tickets are $15 (email info@thebaronsmen.org for Education Night tickets)