San Diego, CA — National University's Sanford College of Education, which recommends more teachers for credentials than any other university in California, will co-host the second annual Better Together: California Teachers Summit on July 29, 2016. The Summit is a free statewide day of learning and networking that is open to all California PreK-12 teachers, teacher candidates, school administrators, and other educators. National University – which held one of the largest of the statewide events last year – invites San Diego area teachers to share ideas, join a teacher network, and learn effective strategies for implementing the new California Standards in their classrooms. Running from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Summit will take place at the Town and Country Convention Center, located at 500 Hotel Circle N. in San Diego.
The teacher-led event celebrates the teaching profession and comes at a critical time as California's teacher shortage is at a ten-year-low. Last year's inaugural Better Together Summit brought together nearly 15,000 teachers at 33 locations. This year's Summit has expanded to 38 locations statewide, including the one hosted by National University, which is among the largest private nonprofit universities in the state. The event will feature keynote addresses by education leaders, TED-style EdTalks presented by local teachers, and Edcamp discussions on timely topics, such as the California Standards in English/Language Arts and Math and the Next-Generation Science Standards. Teachers will walk away with access to new resources and concrete tools that are already working in classrooms across the state.
The Sanford College of Education at National University, which was named after philanthropist and entrepreneur, T. Denny Sanford, is among the top ten largest schools of education in the country, and will be hosting the largest gathering of the four San Diego-Imperial County Summit locations. The other locations include CSU San Marcos, Point Loma Nazarene University, and San Diego State University, Imperial Valley.
A unique partnership between the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU), the California State University (CSU), and New Teacher Center formed to host this free statewide day of learning. Through their strong and distinct networks, the organizers will reach educators at every stage in their development: new and veteran teachers, current teaching students, and alumni. More information, a list of event locations, and online registration are available at CATeachersSummit.com. Follow #CATeachersSummit on Facebook and Twitter for up-to-date information.
Attendees of National University's event at the Town and Country Convention Center are also invited to learn more about the PreK-12 Sanford Education Programs – Sanford Harmony and Sanford Inspire – which support and encourage the professional development of teachers, and enhance the classroom environment through inspiring teaching and social emotional development tools and strategies.
The Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities represents 75 private, nonprofit colleges and universities in California who collectively enroll 320,000 students and is the largest preparer of California's advanced workforce. The core mission of AICCU institutions is to improve lives through higher education. AICCU institutions are committed to the public good and are incredibly diverse – ranging from large to small traditional liberal arts institutions, including nationally ranked research universities; colleges offering faith-based, performing and visual arts, and "non-traditional" programs of study; as well as professional schools that specialize in business, law, medicine, and more. In addition to providing creative and intellectual higher education resources to assure California's future societal and economic vitality, AICCU institutions are major contributors to the economies of the regions they serve.
The California State University is the largest comprehensive university in the country, serving 474,600 students at 23 campuses. For more than 100 years, the university has been the vortex of teacher training. The CSU is known as the "people's university," serving the most academically, ethnically, and economically diverse students in the nation. The university is known for providing quality degree programs and preparing job-ready graduates for success. With 1 in 10 employees in California, and 1 in 20 Americans who hold a university degree in the United States as a CSU alumnus, the university has the largest alumni base of any public university in the country with 3 million living alumni.
New Teacher Center is a national non-profit organization dedicated to improving student learning by guiding a new generation of educators. Founded by teachers in 1998, NTC works in conjunction with school districts, state policy makers, and educators across the country to increase the effectiveness of teachers and school leaders at all levels. These programs are built upon research-based principles for teacher onboarding, mentoring, and ongoing coaching, and are proven to accelerate teacher effectiveness, reduce teacher churn, and improve student achievement. NTC has made it their mission to overcome challenges students and teachers face by providing all educators with the support and resources necessary to succeed from their first day to their last. NTC now supports over 8,500 mentors or coaches and 31,600 teachers, and is improving the learning of over 2.2 million students across the country.


Kira Osborne and Thomas Chailloux recently started work to independently resource tenants and the broader community during planning for the Waterloo redevelopment reports Geoff Turnbull in the April 2017 edition of the South Sydney Herald.
The independent Waterloo Capacity building Project is holding a community discussion facilitated by a panel including Dr Hazel Easthope a housing researcher at UNSW; Sean Macken an Urban Planner and Dr Tim Williams an Urban Renewal Specialist.
Inner Sydney Voice Magazine runs a broad range of articles written by experts in their field. These articles cover a broad range of topics relevant to inner Sydney including housing, urban issues, civil society and human services. While sometimes we produce special issues, like the one on Redeveloping Public Housing or Making the NDIS work for everyone, there are also important standalone articles in other issues of the magazine relevant to that topic that are often forgotten about even though they are as relevant today as they were when they were published. ISV has grouped articles together by topics and provide a research / reading list for those wishing to better understand some of the issues faced in inner Sydney. It is particularly helpful on issues covering the redevelopment of Waterloo public housing.
Audio from Public Housing: What is it? Where are we? How did we get here? and Where are we going?
The REDWatch forum on Public Housing held on 6 July 2017 was recorded and this is an edited recording from that meeting. Here you can hear for the first 22 minutes Associate Professor Vivienne Milligan from the UNSW City Futures Research Centre very informative presentation presentation on the History of Public Housing (you can download the presentation slides she is talking to from www.redwatch.org.au/issues/public-housing/Heritage/170706redwp/download). Also from 21:53 minutes in you can hear Julie Foreman the CEO of the Tenants Union talk about where public housing might be going and from 35:46 you can listen to some of the Q&A session. Thank you to Clare Lewis who recorded and filmed this workshop.
We are proud to launch the Waterloo Redevelopment Masterplan Process Whiteboard Animation project developed by Inner Sydney Voice and Counterpoint Community Services in conjunction with the Waterloo Neighbourhood Advisory Board Waterloo Redevelopment Group. This project was funded by the Law & Justice Foundation NSW. The aim of the whiteboard animation project is to provide independent information to the whole of the Waterloo community and key stakeholders on the Waterloo masterplan process, and to encourage the community to have its voice heard as part of the process through an engaging, original and innovative medium. We strongly encourage you to share this video with your neighbours, colleagues, friends and families. Please share on your social media and organisation websites where possible. Our aim is to reach as many people are possible who may not know how the masterplan process works, who have not been involved in the masterplan conversations to date, or who find it confusing. We hope this video helps to put together the complicated pieces of the planning puzzle and simplify the process. Capturing the Waterloo story so far and what the next steps are in a three and a half minute video was no mean feat! Over the coming weeks and months we will be screening the video at local meetings and forums. We also encourage other organisations and community groups to have screenings at their meetings or upcoming events.


HI, AK and International customers: Please contact us for USPS and FedEx shipping options.
Jerry Brown's Line One Hollow Spectra is offered in a variety of spool lengths and colors. Spliced end loops are also available and will be placed at the bottom of the spool. Please select color and loop options by clicking directly on the item#. Custom length spools available on request.


Police say they're alarmed by the degree of intoxication by some drivers after arresting two Wednesday (20 December) with blood alcohol levels nearly three-times the legal limit.
Members of the public near Rum Point tipped them off to the first driver, according to an RCIPS statement.
They say the police chopper was in the area and touched down on a nearby beach as officers deplaned and approached the car, which was on the side of the road after what they say may have been a collision.
Police arrested a 39-year-old George Town man on suspicion of DUI and making threats to kill.
They say he had a blood alcohol content of .225 percent.
That same day, police arrested another person with a B.A.C. of .248 percent.


Jonathan Hay Publicity got to work on the movie "Mr. Immortailty: The Life and Times of Twista" which was released 1.11.11 through EMI Label Group. This movie featured Ne-Yo, The Dream, Jeremih, Ron Artest, Big Boi, Scott Storch and many more.
Twista is a legendary artist from Chicago and has sold over 5 Million records to date and has worked with such mega-stars as Jay-Z, Kanye West, R. Kelly, Jamie Foxx, Mariah Carey, Akon, Lil Wayne and many more.
Currently, Twista has a hit single out with Chris Brown called "Make A Movie" which hit #6 on the Billboard Charts.
"Mr. Immortailty: The Life and Times of Twista" is available now and in-stores worldwide.
Jonathan Hay is credited in the film with both publicity and marketing.


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Home » Coming soon to an SEC filing near you: board diversity (but not sustainability…for now)
Coming soon to an SEC filing near you: board diversity (but not sustainability…for now)
By Robert B. Lamm on July 9, 2016
Posted in Announcements, Bob's Upticks, Corporate Governance, Disclosure Guidance, Diversity, investor empowerment
In a June 27 speech to the International Corporate Governance Network, SEC Chair Mary Jo White engaged in a bit of full disclosure herself:
"I can report today that the staff is preparing a recommendation to the Commission to propose amending the rule to require companies to include in their proxy statements more meaningful board diversity disclosures on their board members and nominees where that information is voluntarily self-reported by directors."
As noted in her remarks, the SEC adopted the current disclosure requirements on board diversity in 2009. However, the requirements were added to other board-related disclosure requirements at the last minute, when it was reported that Commissioner Aguilar refused to support the other requirements unless diversity disclosure was also mandated. As a result, the diversity requirements were never subjected to public comment, did not define "diversity," and seemed to require disclosure only if the company had a diversity "policy". When companies failed to provide the disclosure because they had no policy, the SEC clarified that if diversity was a factor in director selection then, in fact, the company would be deemed to have a policy, thus requiring disclosure.
If this sounds unclear, it was – and is. And, also as noted in Chair White's remarks, most companies have responded to the lack of clarity by making what I (and not Chair White) will call lame disclosures. So, proving that nature isn't the only thing that abhors a vacuum, it appears that the SEC will be acting to require more robust disclosure. It's anybody's guess whether more forthright disclosures would have obviated the need for more disclosure rules, but it's fair to say that, for the most part, companies haven't done much in board diversity – both substantively and in their disclosures.
One hopeful sign in Chair White's remarks is that the new rules apparently will focus on self-reported diversity. This is actually a big deal. Directors who are female or people of color do not have to "self-identify" (at least if the company's proxy statement has photos), but if a board member regards herself as being "just" American" rather than, say, Mexican-American, it's difficult if not impossible for her company to tout her racial background. I've run into this issue in the past, and I think it's entirely justifiable for directors to refuse to self-identify as a member of a minority group. Let's hope the SEC makes its rule user-friendly all around as well as in this area.
Chair White's position on sustainability disclosure was more restrained. She confirmed that sustainability matters should be disclosed when material (a position generally supported by the issuer community), but acknowledged that when such matters are material is up for grabs. As a result, she indicated that the SEC is monitoring disclosures but that nothing more is likely to come down the rulemaking pike for a while. In fact, her closing comment on the topic was to lob the ball back in the investor community's court:
"And so I urge investors…to continue to use your stewardship and influence to bring about the strategic, supply chain and business model changes you think need to be made by companies to address the underlying risks and priorities. Encourage and prod companies to acknowledge sustainability objectives that are in line with what makes the most sense for their businesses, demand that they describe what they are doing to achieve those objectives and how they are doing against your expectations. We at the SEC will continue to closely monitor developments and to engage with investors and others as we review and enhance our current rules to fulfill our obligation to investors to provide them with the information they need to make investment and voting decisions in today's world."
In other words, companies should expect continued shareholder pressure on sustainability, both in terms of actions and (disclosure) words.
Tags: corporate governance, Disclosure, Diversity, rulemaking, SEC
Robert B. Lamm
Bob Lamm chairs Gunster's Securities and Corporate Governance Practice Group. He has held senior legal positions at several major companies – most recently Pfizer, where he was assistant general counsel and assistant secretary; has served as Chair of the Securities Law Committee and…
Bob Lamm chairs Gunster's Securities and Corporate Governance Practice Group. He has held senior legal positions at several major companies – most recently Pfizer, where he was assistant general counsel and assistant secretary; has served as Chair of the Securities Law Committee and in other leadership positions with the Society for Corporate Governance; and is a Fellow of The Conference Board ESG Center. Bob writes and speaks extensively on securities law and governance matters and has received several honors, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in Corporate Governance from Corporate Secretary magazine.
Read more about Robert B. LammRobert's Linkedin ProfileRobert's Twitter Profile
Nasdaq's Board Diversity Rule: The "Hip" Exchange Does It Again
Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay
Has the great governance trickle-down begun? Nasdaq pushes for board diversity

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PSLS • News • PS4 News, Trophies, Reviews, and More
Marvel's Avengers Will Supposedly Feature Co-op With Up to 4 Players
Brianna Reeves Thursday, May 30, 2019
Square Enix will not begin providing concrete details about its Marvel's Avengers title until E3 2019. Yet, it appears a few interesting bits of information have already hit the web. According to a listing on the E3 website, this new interactive exploration into the Marvel Universe will feature four-player co-op. Those in favor of single-player experiences shouldn't fret, however. Solo play will be available, as well.
The E3 Coliseum section of E3's site lists all of the panels that will be held during the event. One for Marvel's Avengers appears on the schedule for 1:00pm-1:30pm PST on Tuesday, June 11. Next to the time is a brief blurb about what audiences should expect from the panel. Curiously, it appears as though the description has been edited, since it's now much shorter than before. Thanks to Twitter user Evan Filarca, a screenshot of the supposed original listing can be seen below:
According to the posting featured above, What's Good Games' Andrea Rene will moderate the E3 panel, at which members of the development team discuss what is said to be a "defining Avengers gaming experience." If the post is to be believed, the cinematic storytelling will serve as an integral component to what makes the game so special. Fans will have the choice of experiencing this either through single-player or by teaming with up to three other players for a four-player co-op adventure.
The posting also made mention of customization options, specifically those that will suit each player's personal playstyle. This raises a number of questions, chief among them being whether character creation will be an option. Thankfully, the wait to learn more is nearly at an end.
Marvel's Avengers currently lacks an official release date, but more information about the game in general will surface during Square Enix's live E3 event on June 10th at 6:oopm PST.
[Source: Evan Filarca on Twitter/E3Expo.com via PCGamer]
Tags: Crystal Dynamics, E3, E3 2019, Eidos Montreal, Marvel's Avengers, Square Enix


While Nebraska's agricultural hedge helps insulate the local economy against the kind of tough times the people in Michigan or South Florida are experiencing, it is surprising to me how many small business people are just sitting back and waiting for the "economy" to inform them of their company's future fate.
I have even had people ask me why I am expanding my business in the face of such economic uncertainty. I believe this mentality of fear will separate the next decade's successful entrepreneurs from those who struggle.
You might think I am crazy – and I suppose the results will judge that – but here are some of my basic business principles that I follow in an economic downturn.
There are times in every industry when downturns happen. As money gets tight it is very tempting to look at the big ticket items on your balance sheet and start slashing. It is very tempting to reduce advertising spending to cover ongoing operational costs.
While this is an easy decision that gives immediate short-term relief, it CAUSES a major long-term problem. Don't forget that you advertise to attract new customers. If you stop acquiring new customers, you earn less revenue. If you earn less revenue you have to cut more costs. This longer this cycle continues the more difficult it is to pull out of it.
In 2009 I have signed major year-long advertising contracts for TV, radio, and yellow page advertising. By signing annual contracts I received some substantial discounts and more importantly I will avoid the temptation to cut my advertising budget no matter how bad things get.
It's vital to continue attracting new customers to your business to ensure its long term success. With that said, it is always more expensive to attract new customers than it is to market your new products and services to your previous customers.
One of the easiest and least expensive things you can do to grow your business in an economic downturn is to maintain a customer list with as much information as possible. Don't overlook details like cell phone numbers and email addresses.
Use this list to communicate with your customers at every opportunity through email, text messaging, phone, and through postal mail. Every sale you generate by sending an email is just as valid as one that results from a radio advertisement!
I communicate with every single one of my customers no less than four times a year.
In an economic downturn people are looking for a deal, even if they don't financially need one. Play to this demand by advertising a value to get new customers into your operation.
For example, in 2009 Schrock Innovations will be pounding our free hour of labor deal for new customers. We want people with broken computers to bring them to us for repair. This allows us to build a mailing list (more on this soon) and introduce ourselves as a company.
Most of the time we fix the customer's problem in that free hour. The only thing people in an economic downturn love more than a great deal is bragging about the great deal they just got.
By offering a free hour of labor ($80 value) to a customer we have added them to our customer list, we are now their default computer repair provider if they have future problems, and they are telling their friends about us.
While it might seem like an expensive way to attract customers, let's compare it against other forms of advertising. Most radio commercials cost about $40 and TV spots can go into the hundreds. Imagine spending $80 for a guaranteed customer, a personal endorsement to their friends, and their future business. Its a steal!
What does your company have that it can offer for free to bring new faces in the door?
This is the most tempting and dangerous principle of all. In an economic downturn people seek to escape joblessness by marketing their own personal skills and abilities.
Michael E. Gerber, author of the E-Myth explains that most entrepreneurs who fail are simply technicians suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure. That is to say that they know how to perform a skill, but they don't have the necessary supporting skills like strategic planning, marketing, and accounting.
When unemplyed technicians enter a marketplace as service providers they typically charge less for their services then the competition. They are also hungry for work, so they tend to provide levels of service that are unsustainable when compared to what they are charging their customers.
As marketplace conditions improve, they can't raise their prices because their customers will all flee to the newest low-cost leader. They also can't lower their service levels with out losing their value-conscious customers. They are trapped and most of them will be doomed to fail.
As an established business you should not lower your prices to meet this new competition. Remember that you have a sustainable business model and they don't. You have a track record of success and they don't. You will be in business tomorrow and they won't.
This doesn't mean that you sit by and watch these competitors take your value sensitive customers. Use your marketing prowess to offer special sales, coupons, and one time discounts that maintain the precieved value of your product or service while at the same time keep your price-conscious customers loyal to you.
There is opportunity in every boom and every bust and that is why I am expanding my business now. I am betting that my competition won't adhere to these principles when the going gets really tough. I am betting that if they do, the systems I have set up will be better than their systems. I am betting that I will absorb their customers as they exit the marketplace.
Nice post Thor. Any advice for someone trying to start a business now? I've read the emyth book and it made a big impact on me, but I still struggle with value pricing (I think it's because I'm a big value customer myself). Any other good books or resources that helped you get your business off the ground?
Great advice This is crucial that in these dark times, as the doomsayers say, we double our efforts to fight both the failing economy and the fear and depression we might feel. I am grateful to you for this post, I hope more people read it and learn from it.
Hey Devtrench… There was a revision on the E-Myth called the E-Myth revisited. I would highly recommend it.
The best thing about shaky economic times is that game-changing developments can create opportunity everywhere for those who can see them. A down economy doesn't depress me. It gets me excited!
Thror, I just came up on this post today, so sorry I'm waaay late, but I can't agree more with your assessment. The market might be shrinking, but that doesn't mean there isn't market to grab for a new business. At a time where all the big businesses are "bucking down" I'm expanding my business and being very, very bold. I'll grab some of the market, then grab some more, and when the market turns around, the percentage I have will only increase.
Hi Thor. Nice article. You really put some great advice in there. To answer Devtrench, I know that Ja-Nae Duane, CEO of Wild Women Entrepreneurs, just published her book, "How to Start Your Business with $100". I am looking to start a business and am headed to a book signing of hers. I think the book can be found on her site: http://www.Ja-Nae.net.
Any other books out there that anyone can recommend?


Manage the Media relationships for the organization.
Creator & Writer of entertainment shows and general content specially designed for UNIESPACIO®, sales and communications materials for both internal and external audiences.
Responsible for team of professionals that increased original production content from 3 hours a day to 13 hours a day in six month period.
I´m part of the media business since 1989. I´ve been creative manager, producer and independet producer for every major TV stations in Venezuela. As a TV & Media professional I´ve created and produced programs and contents for a wide kind of audience. I´ve also been an independent marketing and sales consultant for many medium and little companies, an orphan segment of the consultancy business. As a leader of projects I´ve proved capacity to manage human resources, creative teams and celebrities and in budgeting planning, structure and managing.


I get asked about my dissertation a lot, and I've posted about it before (abstract here, and theological significance here). I've definitely made some headway in the past six months, but things have been slow as I've been adjusting to a new full-time job and have taken on a few other small writing projects. Those are done now though, so 2015 promises to be a very productive writing year… Anyway, to get back into it, I rewrote a description of my topic for a fellowship application, and here it is.
Seen within the context of the phenomenon of globalization, I am examining the Christian understanding of salvation with respect to the violence and impunity that has occurred as a result of the U.S.-Mexico Drug War. To do so, I ask: what is the good news and hope that the Christian faith promises to those who suffer in this conflict, and what kind of engagement and response does such a promise demand from North American churches in light of the difficulty that our Mexican neighbors are facing?
Borrowing significantly from my dissertation and drawing on the work of Enrique Dussel and Mark Lewis Taylor, the title of my talk is "Globalization, NAFTA and the U.S.-Mexico Drug War: Twenty Years of Free Trade as Decolonial Struggle." I am especially looking forward to hearing from Dussel himself, as he will be giving the keynote address. I will share details from my presentation afterwards.
Understood within an analytical framework and mediating theory of economic, political and cultural globalization, the purpose of this dissertation is to critically, socially and theologically reflect upon the violence and injustice that has been enacted and endured by people in Mexico and the United States in recent years (2008 to present) as a result of the so-called drug war. To begin I will attempt to outline the various dimensions of the phenomenon of globalization and the drug war more specifically, the latter of which is presumed to epitomize major negative aspects of the former. This part of the examination will rely on the work of several leading social scientists who have extensively studied the U.S. – Mexico underground political economy and its genealogy. Secondly, an ethical-political critique from a view of Christian salvation will be conducted as it pertains to this particular conflict, principally but not exclusively in its social sense. My method and hermeneutical approach will be guided by what has been called the transmodern thought of Enrique Dussel and Hans Urs von Balthasar, respectively – Dussel with regard to historical and ethical-political concerns, and von Balthasar with attention to his theological aesthetics and the dramatic structure of his doctrine of salvation as symbolized by the theological significance he gives to Holy Saturday.
Dussel's re-reading of the history of modernity as "coloniality" from a Latin American "border thinking" perspective, as well as his Levinasian and arguably Schellingian-Marxist interpretation of social relations will be the primary lens through which I will try to situate and appreciate the more particular problem of globalization and the drug war itself. Subsequently, in an effort to sensitize Dussel's approach to a view from "the eyes of faith," it is von Balthasar's meditation on the beauty of the Christ-form that will be appropriated in order to convey a less anthropocentric and more trans-temporal, thoroughgoing Christian theo-political imagination. The study will culminate in an attempt to synthesize several key contributions of Dussel and von Balthasar by drawing on additional soteriological and ecclesial insights from Dorothee Soelle, Jon Sobrino and Gustavo Gutierrez. It will be argued finally that only a properly historical-critical (Dussel), aesthetic and christocentric (von Balthasar) liberationist soteriology (Sobrino) of communion (Gutierrez) can confer the adequate theological and ethical vision of neighborliness – one that is necessary for the inspiration of faithful Christian and ecclesial resistance (Soelle) in this crisis and others.


Relevance Promotes microtubule assbly and stability, and might be involved in the establishment and maintenance of neuronal polarity. The C-terminus binds axonal microtubules while the N-terminus binds neural plasma mbrane components, suggesting that tau functions as a linker protein between both. Axonal polarity is predetermined by tau localization (in the neuronal cell) in the domain of the cell body defined by the centrosome. The short isoforms allow plasticity of the cytoskeleton whereas the longer isoforms may preferentially play a role in its stabilization.


Shred whitewater with the tough, dependable and comfortable Navigator Guide Paddle from Cataract Oars. Perfection in a balanced paddle while marveling at its maximum strength and resilience. Its carbon hybrid shaft is maximized to maintain bending strength through the longest stretches, and its fiberglass polymer blade loves nothing more than displacing H2O by the boatload.


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Bassem Balaa, born July 10, 1981 in Beirut Lebanon, is a retired Lebanese professional basketball player He has also represented the Lebanon national basketball team that participated in the 2002 FIBA World Championship in Indianapolis and the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan. Bassem has played for various clubs within Lebanon, including Sporting Al Riyadi Beirut and Achrafieh side Hekmeh BC.

References

External links

1981 births
Living people
Lebanese men's basketball players
Sportspeople from Beirut
Basketball players at the 2006 Asian Games
Small forwards
2006 FIBA World Championship players
Asian Games competitors for Lebanon
Sagesse SC basketball players
Al Riyadi Club Beirut basketball players

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The guys stuck around after last years Copenhagen Open to bag some more tricks in the streets of Copenhagen.
Danish weather is a drama queen sometimes, but Pfanner, Provost, Martinez & Majerus pushed through! Head to Volcom for the full story & photos!


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2020 Awards for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education
Each year, awards for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education are given to professors and teaching assistants in the School of Arts and Sciences to recognize their outstanding achievements in and beyond the classroom, their engagement with their students and pedagogic communities, and their overall commitment to the undergraduate education mission. Each year, the theme that inevitably shines through in each nomination is the students' understanding that these instructors "genuinely want us to learn." We are indebted to these instructors and are grateful for their untiring support of our students and stewardship of the future.
Scroll down or click on a name to read the citation
Professor: Chuck Keeton, Karin Stromswold
Associate Professor: Douglas Jones, Dámaris Otero-Torres, Michael Verzi
Assistant Professor: Carla Cevasco, Christopher E. Ellison, Chloë Kitzinger
Assistant Teaching Professor: Shyam Moondra, Alexander Pichugin
Teaching Instructor: Bridget Purcell
Teaching Assistant: Eagan Dean, Ting-An Lin
Online Teaching Award: Crystal Akers, Kristina Chew
Chuck Keeton, Physics and Astronomy
The Physics department describes Professor Keeton as one of its most outstanding teachers. He earns top ratings from students that glow with praise for his passion, clarity, warmth, and ability to inspire interest. One student noted, "The fact is that I came into this class having ZERO interest in the subject matter, but because of the way Professor Keeton presented the material—through his presentations and exciting demos—I feel like I finally have a genuine interest in some science. I feel as if I know much more than I could have ever if I never took this course! I even bought a telescope because this class stimulated my interest THAT much!" Another says, "Professor is stellar, extremely organized, quick, integrates technology into his course perfectly, great at conveying knowledge and understanding our questions, extremely patient with the students... I wish there were a professor like this for all my classes."
Professor Keeton has also been a consistent leader in instructional innovation. He was instrumental in establishing the current form of "Principles of Astrophysics" (01:750:341/342), a two-semester introduction serving as the gateway to upper-level courses for all astronomy majors and minors. When teaching the course from 2005 through 2008, he creatively re-sequenced the material so that the two semesters could be taken by students in either order and developed a set of lecture notes that were later published as a textbook, Principles of Astrophysics: Using Gravity and Stellar Physics to Explore the Cosmos. This textbook has defined the foundation for the course ever since and has been adopted at several other universities and colleges, extending his intellectual leadership and impact on undergraduate education beyond Rutgers.
In spring 2018, Professor Keeton implemented a new active-learning version of the longstanding course on the solar system for non-majors (01:750:109). In fall 2019, he piloted a new "Computational Astrophysics" project-based laboratory course for undergraduate majors (01:750:345), again receiving outstanding scores for teaching effectiveness (4.8 out of 5.0) and lavish praise from students. Professor Keeton has infused multiple Byrne Seminars, taught in a variety of formats (Honors College, EOF, RU-1st, and Aresty-Byrne), with project-based learning. Perhaps most notable is "Launching Your Successful STEM Career." The main goal of this seminar is to support the success of EOF and RU-1st students in STEM majors; Professor Keeton single-handedly designed a capstone project on orbital mechanics and its accompanying Python programming language curriculum.
Professor Keeton served six years at the helm of the Aresty Research Center, building the capacity of the university to support undergraduate research. Especially notable, in partnership with the Byrne Seminar Program Director, Professor Keeton created Aresty-Byrne Seminars, which are specifically designed to introduce students to hands-on research activities in a classroom setting. Working with the Aresty Executive Director, he revamped the curriculum for the biweekly meetings of Aresty students with their peer instructors to bring a more focused instructional approach to the undergraduate research enterprise. During his year as Undergraduate Program Director in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Professor Keeton received accolades throughout the department for the dedication and efficiency with which he approached the job.
This award recognizes Professor Keeton's record of success in his classrooms and in two challenging undergraduate-focused leadership positions. It also explains why in 2019, he was the obvious choice for Academic Dean of the SAS Honors Program where he now continues to make distinguished contributions to undergraduate education.
Karin Stromswold, Psychology and Cognitive Science
Professor Karin Stromswold is jointly nominated for this award by the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science (RuCCS), home of the Cognitive Science major) and the Psychology Department. She served as the Director of Undergraduate Programs for RuCCS from 1996 through 2013 and Vice Chair for Undergraduate Studies in Psychology from 2016 through 2019. In these roles she continuously developed new programs and curricula that hugely enriched undergraduate education at Rutgers, most notably establishing the first undergraduate programs in Cognitive Science and laying the groundwork for the thriving major that exists today.
Joining RuCCS in 1992, Professor Stromswold provided the key vision that incorporating undergraduate education into the Center would not only share the remarkable intellectual environment of RuCCS with our student body but would also catalyze new scholarship within the Center through undergraduate researchers. In 1996, she designed a Minor in Cognitive Science and became the first Director for Undergraduate Programs in Cognitive Science. This minor has been pursued by thousands of students. In 2003, she designed the interdisciplinary Individualized Major in Cognitive Science (revised extensively in 2005). During this time, Professor Stromswold created nearly the entire Cognitive Science undergraduate curriculum. She created the introductory courses; identified and evaluated courses in other departments to be included in the Cognitive Science program; founded and advised the undergraduate Cognitive Science Club (which is still going strong and now the heart of an engaged alumni network); and worked tirelessly to advise hundreds of individual students. During this period, the RuCCS undergraduate program quadrupled in size and became larger than those of many SAS departments. The academic program Dr. Stromswold envisioned, established, and developed was the foundation for the Cognitive Science major approved in 2018. Today, SAS's undergraduate program in Cognitive Science enrolls more than a thousand students per year and has more than three hundred majors and minors.
From 2016 to 2019, Dr. Stromswold served as the Undergraduate Vice Chair in Psychology, the largest major at Rutgers. She revised the Psychology major and minor, added additional elective courses, and designed a new system of specialized tracks. She oversaw a substantial expansion of the non-tenure-track teaching (NTT) faculty, including chairing searches and overseeing the promotions of 7-10 NTT faculty per year. She wrote the first comprehensive report on the enormous Psychology undergraduate program, including extensive data and analyses of programs offered, courses offered, number of majors and minors, enrollments in courses, faculty teaching, and demographics of undergraduates.
Dr. Stromswold is astoundingly energetic and successful in advising individual undergraduate students from across the School of Arts and Sciences. Since 2005, Dr. Stromswold has personally supervised a breathtaking 300 semesters of undergraduate research done by about 150 different students drawn from Psychology, Linguistics, Biology, Computer Science, Genetics, and Cognitive Science, in most cases giving these students their very first hands-on experience in scientific research. During the same period, fully 23 of her undergraduate students have published papers or given extramural conference presentations.
Professor Stromswold's fellow faculty and TAs report being inspired and motivated by her constant push for excellent instruction within an outstanding and ever-evolving undergraduate curriculum. They describe her as a "brilliant teacher" who "taught with expertise and enthusiasm" and "a balance between rigor and kindness" that is worthy of emulation. One undergraduate summed it up when she said, "Professor Stromswold is literally amazing [...] She's an inspiration to me and I can honestly say she's one of the professors I'll tell my grandkids about some day."
Douglas Jones, English
Professor Douglas Jones has a long record of exceptional undergraduate teaching. He has undertaken significant curriculum development in launching the English Department's new Certificate in Drama and Performance Studies and in reimagining the place of the study of drama, more broadly, within the department's course offerings.
A specialist in 18th and 19th century African American literature, drama, and performance, Professor Jones's courses provide students with a deeper understanding of political and social issues of critical contemporary importance. Typical of his courses is an SAS Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar from 2018, "Slavery and American Culture," in which students considered the critical and commercial success of mainstream films exploring the institution of slavery, such as 12 Years a Slave and Django Unchained, in the historical context of works like Mark Twain's Puddn'head Wilson and blackface minstrelsy, as well as in relation to award-wining contemporary visual artwork by Kara Walker and fiction by Toni Morrison and Colson Whitehead. In fall 2019, Professor Jones's advanced seminar, "Political Theory and African American Literature," showed the ways that the national conversation on race has been shaped by writing that not only describes slavery but that normalizes the consideration of certain moral and ethical problems in political life.
Professor Jones is a perennial student favorite. In SIRS reports, students not only describe him as brilliant, charismatic, and friendly, but they also note that they very much appreciate that his courses introduce them to important but obscure texts that they had not heard of before. Many students comment positively about the interdisciplinarity of his courses. As one student wrote, "Professor Jones... has a masterful way of leading interesting and entertaining discussions which keep the class interesting. Also, his reading selections are interesting and make the class feel like an English/History hybrid." Students have reacted with uniform enthusiasm to his courses and his teaching. In fall 2019, his SIRS scores were near perfect, averaging 4.8-4.9 on the questions about "teaching effectiveness" and "course quality."
Professor Jones has taken the leading role in developing the teaching of drama and performance in the English Department. Several years ago, he was largely responsible for organizing a specialized concentration and Certificate in Drama and Performance Studies. He chaired the committee that developed the curriculum requirements, ushered the proposal through departmental and SAS approval processes, oversaw the distribution of faculty teaching its various required courses, and personally supervised the capstone projects of students who completed the certificate. In 2020, he enlisted a group of faculty and graduate students in the development of a provocative series of modules on issues of drama and performance for use in the gateway course to the major, "Principles of Literary Study" (01:359:201), a course which he also teaches regularly. These modules make it much easier for other faculty to incorporate drama into their syllabi, further increasing the visibility of the certificate. Professor Jones has made the department's strength in drama and performance much more coordinated and visible, both appealing to and drawing into existence a new group of SAS undergraduates interested in developing careers in and around the world of the performing arts. Professor Jones is beginning to develop collaborations between the English Department and the Theater BFA program at Mason Gross.
Professor Jones's teaching and curricular innovation are truly distinguished contributions to undergraduate education at Rutgers-NB.
Dámaris Otero-Torres, Spanish and Portuguese
Professor Dámaris Otero-Torres is renowned among our Spanish and Portuguese majors and minors for her innovative teaching. Students consistently praise Professor Otero-Torres's passion, enthusiasm, patience, and the carefully structured way she unpacks difficult material. Students report that her essay assignments "genuinely helped us grow as readers and writers," and that "she constantly pushed me and my classmates to be more critical and nuanced in our thinking." Professor Otero-Torres has the gift of reaching every student, no matter their level or background in the subject. A non-traditional adult student praised her "natural talents as a teacher," her professionalism, her enthusiasm, and her dedication saying, "she made every class enjoyable and would never continue in a lecture until every student understood." It is no surprise that Professor Otero-Torres's SIRS scores are consistent with this qualitative praise, ranging from 4.67 to 5.0 in teaching effectiveness and 4.40 to 5.0 in course quality.
Professor Otero-Torres continually opens students' minds to the world of Renaissance Spain through both canonical and minority voices. Professor Otero-Torres's courses include all genres—prose fiction, poetry, theater, memoir, religious texts—and create a learning experience for each student that is personal and committed. She makes sixteenth-and seventeenth-century materials come alive and connect with students' lives. One student says she "gave us the tools to speak and write about the medieval and Renaissance periods. ... Now, instead of just 'knowing' something about Siglo de Oro literature, I have begun to understand it, and that makes it much more interesting." Professor Otero-Torres's course on Cervantes's Don Quixote de la Mancha is a perennial favorite. Another of her courses uses a contemporary text to relate directly to students' lives and aspirations. "From the Bronx to the Supreme Court: My Beloved World, the Memoir by Sonia Sotomayor," was first offered as a Byrne seminar and later expanded into a three-credit course in which students study the genre of memoir; apply theories of gender, minority identities, and feminism; and write their own memoirs as a final project.
As Undergraduate Program Director since 2012, Professor Otero-Torres takes assessment very seriously; she pushes herself and her colleagues to continually reevaluate and fine-tune how they assess their students' learning. She is spearheading a new initiative this year to track students' progress in critical thinking in all of the department's 300-and 400-level courses. Professor Otero-Torres's work has been singled out as creating an assessment "best practices" department. And Professor Otero-Torres excels at planning the curriculum to ensure that, semester after semester, students have the most productive array of courses and instructors available to them, at all levels. The care that she devotes to this planning produces outstanding results as students move through their course of study.
Professor Otero-Torres's department reports that, "No one better represents the values and mission of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese than Professor Otero-Torres. She is an appreciated and much-admired member of our faculty, and her contributions as a teacher are both deep and far-reaching." Faculty and staff colleagues offer uniform praise for Professor Otero-Torres's dedication to students, noting that she "spends countless hours mentoring students while fostering a positive relationship between undergraduates and their academic successes." And staff recognized her as a model for "producing a respectful and balanced work environment." Her many contributions are truly distinguished.
Michael Verzi, Genetics
Professor Mike Verzi excels in teaching Genetics, both in the classroom and in the lab.
Professor Verzi's primary classroom teaching is the first half of the flagship course for Genetics majors, (01:447:384), in which he skillfully deploys active-learning methods. A student letter describes the class by saying, "Dr. Verzi masterfully employed active-learning techniques to teach course content in a clear yet concise manner. Pausing frequently during his lectures, Dr. Verzi would often prompt students with thought-provoking questions and allowed enough time for students to ask questions. Dr. Verzi also incorporated peer instruction and collaboration by having us occasionally work on challenging questions and then would have one group present the correct solution.… Dr. Verzi included several case studies that intersected topics such as social, ethical, and legal implications and issues in genetics.… For example, when discussing artificial selection and environmental effects on gene pools, Dr. Verzi used a relevant example of the lactose intolerance narrative that white supremacists use, while the reality is a selective pressure behind the fact that dairy-based products were relatively a larger part of European whites' diet than other populations." Another reports, "Dr. Verzi engaged with the class and utilized iClickers to make sure that the class was up to speed on what he was discussing. After we had covered some background material, we would split up into groups and work through case problems related to the material. This was crucial in my development as a scientist… Dr. Verzi walked around to the different groups to ask follow-up questions or to answer our questions while we went through the case… At a huge school like Rutgers, Dr. Verzi made sure to make every student feel like they were getting one-on-one attention." His quantitative and qualitative SIRS evaluations for this course also reflect his enthusiasm and dedication. Student's report, "Dr. Verzi prioritizes our learning the material over our ability to recite textbook information… Dr. Verzi answers all questions thoughtfully and is clearly invested in the student understanding the answer." One student wrote, "Professor Verzi is truly a great teacher, and I am lucky to be his student… he helped me come to understand a major I wanted to love."
Dr. Verzi fully embraces the department's mission to train Genetics majors with hands-on experiential learning. He consistently mentors large numbers of students in his lab doing research for credit – considerably more than any other faculty member in the department. His lab webpage clearly indicates that he considers his undergraduates central to the work of his lab. He has a well-developed syllabus that guides their work throughout the semester. He also excels at mentoring a broad range of students.
Building a synergy between his research and his teaching, students have excellent opportunities to learn from his research, and Dr. Verzi's research benefits greatly from the work of these students. A student describes working in Professor Verzi's lab: "I was encouraged from my first day in lab to develop my own hypotheses. He made the time to schedule weekly meetings with every member of the lab to discuss any troubleshooting, new directions of progress, and any updates. As a mentor, he made sure to ask each and every week for updates on my short-term and long-term career goals and how he could help me get to where I wanted to be. I never felt as though I was 'just an undergraduate' in the Verzi lab; I was always treated as a valued member of the lab." Over 21 of the undergraduate students mentored in his lab have been authors on papers from his lab, sometimes on multiple papers.
With a deep commitment to active and experiential learning, Professor Verzi provides a model for engaging students in the work of the research university—distinguished contributions indeed.
Carla Cevasco, American Studies
From the moment Professor Carla Cevasco began teaching in American Studies in fall 2017, she has had a profound impact on the curriculum and the students.
Professor Cevasco is a specialist in early American history with emphases on Native American studies, material culture, and American food. She teaches courses such as "Learning from the Past, Early America and the 21st Century," "Folk Life," "Race Matters, Natives, Settlers and Borderlands," and "Food Studies" that demand that students think hard about the place of the past in the present. Professor Cevasco's pedagogy requires active participation by the students. As one student describes it, "Dr. Cevasco gives her students a Discussion-Leading Assignment where members of the class take turns leading class discussion about the readings and topics assigned. This task helps students with our public speaking, improves our reading comprehension, and encourages us to have an active role in each other's education. Dr. Cevasco also facilitates writing workshops in her classes, teaching students the tools to give and receive constructive criticism. Through these workshops, Dr. Cevasco again refocuses the center of the classroom experience on the students rather than herself. It is this selfless quality to her teaching style that ensures the academic and personal improvement of her students." Professor Cevasco is committed to giving students agency. For example, in one course, Professor Cevasco invites students to propose an area of study which she then goes to great lengths to build a lecture around. As one student writes, "She has proven over and over that is she is willing to go out of her way for the sake of her students by teaching history that relates to her students and meeting their educational needs." Students praise their experiences with Professor Cevasco, "As a professor, Dr. Cevasco has shown me what academia can and should be, an inclusive space where new voices are given the chance to be heard, where arguments are supported by scholarship, and where the difficult questions are met with an open mind and a critical eye."
Charged with leading the transition of the New Jersey Folk Festival, which is run out of the American Studies department, Professor Cevasco also teaches "Folk Festival Curation," which involves experiential learning and project management as students conceptualize how to run the folk festival, do fieldwork, and make curatorial recommendations. Colleagues attending end-of-the semester student presentations found that her students offered cogent, well-researched, and impassioned talks on selected topics for a future festival based on the theme of transportation. Their verbal skills were remarkable and well-honed, and it was clear that they had learned to think hard about public history. To further encourage students to engage in public humanities work, Professor Cevasco also co-created a Certificate in Curation and Cultural Programming. The first students received the Certificate in May 2020.
Professor Cevasco is never too busy to meet with students, never unwilling to figure out how best to help them, push them, inspire them. She has advised numerous prize-winning senior theses on a variety of topics. One of her students writes, "As a thesis advisor, Dr. Cevasco again demonstrated her selflessness, compassion and diligence as she prepared me for my most strenuous academic undertaking to date . . . Dr. Cevasco has forever changed my life." These contributions to undergraduate education in SAS are indeed distinguished.
Christopher E. Ellison, Genetics
The use of computational approaches to analyze biological data is becoming routine, yet the vast majority of undergraduates in the biological sciences do not receive training in computational biology. Barriers to entry can be high, often requiring multiple prerequisites in both computer science and genetics. The relatively few undergraduates who do take computational biology courses do so in their junior or senior year, which means that they have very little time to then apply the computational methods to laboratory research.
Professor Christopher E. Ellison has transformed the learning of computational biology by developing an innovative honors course that introduces students to computational genetics during their freshmen year, requiring only "General Biology" as a co-requisite. He developed his course around the use of Jupyter Notebooks, which are open-source digital notebooks that combine formatted text with cells that run computer code. These notebooks are ideal for creating homework assignments and are simple and easy to use. The students immediately grasp the concept of an integrated notebook and begin using them to write Python code during the first class period of the semester. Professor Ellison put a lot of thought into the content of the course to make it accessible to students without a strong background in biology. The first half of the semester involves an introduction to Python programming which requires only a basic understanding of genetics. In the second half of the semester, Dr. Ellison uses programming exercises to introduce fundamental topics in genetics and genomics. By the end of the course, the students have a more sophisticated understanding of bioinformatics than many graduate students. Indeed, one first-year student in this course was able to train a graduate student who needed to do computational work for their thesis.
Professor Ellison also addressed a key challenge in teaching programming to students who all have different models of computers running different operating systems. Professor Ellison worked with the Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC) at Rutgers to develop a computing cluster that is reserved specifically for teaching. The students are able to access this system and launch their Jupyter Notebooks via a web browser. Their code is then run on the computing cluster rather than their own computers. This system has since been adopted by two other courses in the Genetics Department, "Quantitative Biology & Bioinformatics" (01:447:302) and "Computational Genetics for Big Data" (01:447:303). This system has also made it very easy to transition to remote learning because the assignments are already distributed and collected electronically, and the students do not need any specialized software on their computer to do their homework.
While Professor Ellison's classroom teaching receives strong student comments and SIRS scores, his teaching extends beyond the classroom as a committed mentor to undergraduate students. He serves as a mentor for the SAS Honors Program and a research mentor for the Aresty Program and the Douglass College Women in STEM program, as well as training Genetics majors who do research for credit. He has also hosted multiple high school students in his lab through the DLS Summer Research Program. Two of his undergraduate students have completed an honors thesis in his lab, one of whom is now a web developer for the Genomics Education Partnership at the University of Alabama, while the other will begin a PhD program at Washington University this fall. He has published a research article with one of his undergraduate students as the first author in the journal G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics and is preparing to submit another manuscript that includes a different undergraduate student as an author.
Professor Ellison's innovative work is a distinguished contribution to undergraduate education in SAS.
Chloë Kitzinger, Russian and East European Languages and Literatures
Professor Chloë Kitzinger is an effective and creative teacher who challenges students to think and write in unexpected new ways.
A scholar of 19th-century Russian Realism, Professor Kitzinger teaches historical texts with an eye to the present, making seemingly "old" material highly relevant for her 21st-century student audience. Across her courses she develops effective assignments to teach writing, including peer-editing workshops, response diaries, and clear grading rubrics. She uses a digital humanities assignment (involving the visual mapping of character networks, themes, or spaces in Crime and Punishment) in her Dostoevsky course.
Professor Kitzinger advocated for changing "War and Peace" to a 200-level (rather than 400-level) course to fill a gap in the curriculum and to make this masterpiece accessible and attractive to first- and second-year students. As a result, Professor Kitzinger has had a profound impact on the intellectual development of a broader range of students. As one grateful student remarks, "At first, I only took this course to complete SAS requirements. However, within the first day, Professor Kitzinger managed to completely change my mindset. From the get-go, she was always incredibly enthusiastic and that truly helped me stay interested and want to learn more from her and the course." Another student writes, "War and Peace is a phenomenal piece of literature with incredible depth of ideas that will stay with me for a very long time, and Professor Kitzinger's teaching style truly encourages everyone to develop unique and sophisticated interpretations of the text." One STEM student admits, "I honestly didn't expect to have such an incredible time being a student of literature as a STEM major."
Professor Chloë Kitzinger moved beyond the typical text- or author-centered 19th century Russian literature course to design two very successful 300-level courses that speak directly to student interests and attract a broad range of students, "Serial Storytelling Across Media" and "Russian and Soviet Science Fiction." A student in the latter writes, "She made me think about things in new ways that I didn't know was possible and I was just blown away every single class. Amazing professor."
Professor Kitzinger's ratings on SIRS evaluations are consistently high across her courses. Students almost unanimously praise her balance of lecture and discussion; her time management; her ability to stay focused and on track; and the incisive, useful feedback she provides. Professor Kitzinger inspires a remarkable degree of student participation, even in larger classes. Students routinely comment on her passion and enthusiasm for the material she teaches, her kindness and generosity, her intellectual rigor and wisdom, her ability to address students at all levels, and the dynamic and encouraging atmosphere she generates in the classroom. One says, "She… has me on the edge of my seat for the entire 80 minutes." Echoing the praise from students, faculty peer observers report that her teaching is both poignant and extremely effective. Professor Kitzinger's superior level of preparation and scaffolding enables enthusiastic and productive dialogue with and among students.
Perhaps one student in Professor Kitzinger's Tolstoy class best sums up the results of her many distinguished contributions to undergraduate education. They write, "We covered a lot of existential topics which have been troubling me for a long time now, but I definitely feel, after leaving this class, that I am more equipped to face the complexity of life."
Shyam Moondra, Statistics
Having taught at Rutgers for more than 15 years, Professor Shyam Moondra is one of the most sought-after instructors for undergraduate statistics courses. He is widely praised for his teaching effectiveness as well as his caring personality and devotion to students. He regularly teaches high-enrollment service courses for the department and does so with care and precision.
Professor Moondra has taught a broad range of undergraduate statistics courses, including Introduction to Statistics I and II (01:960:211-212), Introductory Statistics for Business (01:960:285), Basic Probability and Statistics (01:960:379), Intermediate Statistical Analysis (01:960:384), and Basic Statistics for Research (01:960:401). Many of these courses are particularly difficult to teach, both because of their large enrollments and because students enter the courses with a wide range of background experience with the course material. Students appreciate the teaching strategies that Professor Moondra employs in his courses, including reverting to the chalk board rather than using PowerPoint slides during his lectures. While using the chalk board in real-time is more labor intensive, students report that it is highly effective in conveying the material and creates the impression that he is teaching specifically to them.
Professor Moondra is recognized and praised by students and colleagues alike for being well-prepared and organized, two qualities which are critically important when teaching large-enrollment courses. Graders and Teaching Assistants working for him commend him for his clear instructions and efficient organization, and the structure he has developed for grading tests, quizzes, and homework has served as a model for other instructors in the department. One grader remarked, "Thank you for all of your reminders and detailed instructions. I have learned a great deal from you. You are super kind, humorous and meticulous. I am so lucky to be one of your graders…"
Not surprisingly, given the skill and care that Professor Moondra brings to his teaching, his teaching evaluation scores are consistently higher than the average for other sections of the same courses. Students praise him for being conscientious, engaging, humorous, caring, and explaining the material well. They describe him as "amazing, exceptional, phenomenal, awesome, great, caring, passionate, and encouraging." Students often pepper the open ended questions on the instructional rating surveys with things like, "He is the best professor ever" and "He is an amazing professor!"
The care with which he Professor Moondra designs and teaches his courses is exemplary. His contributions to the Statistics Department's undergraduate program and to the many students he teaches each semester are indeed distinguished.
Alexander Pichugin, German Language and Literature
Professor Alexander Pichugin is a consistently high-achieving, energetic, and devoted teacher who has brought a wide range of teaching competencies to his department. As Director of German Language and Culture Studies, he not only teaches some crucial repeating courses, but has designed and taught numerous new courses, revised existing ones, and significantly updated the curriculum over the past six years. He also works closely with graduate teaching assistants and plays a central role in coordinating curricular offerings from one semester to the next.
Professor Pichugin's energetic approach to revising the curriculum has begun to attract new types of students and has helped significantly in recruiting German majors, an invaluable and deeply impressive contribution. He teaches a large number of language acquisition courses on all levels and the graduate student apprenticeship course. He introduced a thoroughly revised version of the Translation I and II sequence and developed multiple new contemporary content courses that have attracted new student populations, including "Cultural Diversity," "German Music," "The Wonderful World of Opera," "Ecocriticism," "Knowledge, Language and Cognition," "Ecocinema," and "Hitler in Film." His excellence in the classroom is reflected in consistently high numerical evaluations. Faculty observers laud his energetic, passionate, inclusive, and highly effective teaching style. He makes excellent use of class time, moving groups of 20 students productively and without rush through a well-thought-out sequence of instructional units. Professor Pichugin expects much of his students, but students feel encouraged, nevertheless. He gives detailed and extensive feedback and is deeply invested in each student's success. His students call him "amazing," "outstanding," "rigorous and reliable," and report "I have never learned more German more successfully!" One observed, "He will steer you towards the truth and show you that in fact there is no truth. He will bring you to doubt, to question, to wonder." His combination of organizational and motivational rigor, genuine kindness, fairness, generosity, and dry humor makes Professor Pichugin a unique and popular teacher.
Professors Pichugin's contributions to undergraduate education reach beyond Rutgers. Not only does he provide pedagogic training to graduate students whose careers include undergraduate teaching, he presents on pedagogy and cultural aspects of second-language acquisition at national and international conferences and is currently completing a book-length manuscript, Dynamics of Development of the Ecocritical Paradigm in German-language Literatures. His articles and presentations include "'Greening' the German Curriculum: Eco-critical Approaches to Teaching Language and Literature," "Music in Languages Courses: Addressing Form and Content," and "Native Speaker – Heritage Speaker — Foreign Language Speaker: Concepts and Implications." He is deeply invested in exploring cross-linguistic interdisciplinary initiatives and their impact on foreign language learning and the use of instructional technology and online learning. Professor Pichugin's pedagogic research has been supported by multiple grants, including ones from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, the German Language School Conference, and the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany funded by the European Recovery Program of the Federal Department of Economics and Energy. He has received awards from the National Heritage Language Resource Center the Max Kade Center for Contemporary German Literature, and the Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey.
Making distinguished contributions to undergraduate education, Professors Pichugin's tremendous enthusiasm, energy, and rigor have helped to make the German undergraduate curriculum a place that intellectually and pedagogically tackles the contemporary issues and challenges of our time.
Teaching Instructor
Bridget Purcell, Anthropology
Professor Bridget Purcell has made her mark as a teacher, demonstrating exceptional passion and enthusiasm and a remarkable ability to engage and connect with her students in lecture and seminars. Professor Purcell also stepped up and served a stint as Undergraduate Advisor in Anthropology in spring 2019, bringing the same capacities and enthusiasm to that important work.
Professor Purcell teaches cultural anthropology, including the introductory level course, which was her first experience with a large lecture format. She showed a dedication to improving the course, soliciting anonymous feedback at the halfway point. Professor Purcell found the students highly critical, especially concerning the quantity and density of the scholarly articles and books assigned, which made many of the students feel excluded. This prompted Professor Purcell to reorganize the remainder of the course to prioritize close reading by assigning, for instance, a short excerpt from Mauss rather than the entirety of The Gift. In this way, she was able to maintain the course's rigor while making it more inclusive of a wider range of students. At the end of the semester, Professor Purcell received a SIRS evaluation of 4.3. Since then, in the succeeding two terms, her SIRS evaluations for teaching effectiveness were both 4.6. These are the best ratings for this course in recent history, across instructors. Professor Purcell's superior pedagogy and enthusiasm has brought enrollment in "Introduction to Cultural Anthropology" to its highest numbers in several years. Her iteration of this course has drawn new students into upper-level courses equipped with a strong grasp of disciplinary history and key concepts.
Professor Purcell has taught a broad range of upper-level seminars including "Medical Anthropology," "Anthropology of Religion," "Body Politics," "Politics of Culture," "History of Anthropology," "Writing Ethnography," and a new cutting-edge course "Urban Ecologies," which received a SIRS evaluation of 5 both times she taught it. Her SIRS evaluations across these upper-level seminars are all exceptional – typically 5s with the lowest being a 4.7. Student comments buttress these numbers. One student says, "Thank you for an excellent semester! This was one of the best courses I've had in my four years at Rutgers." Another writes, "She is a really awesome professor and this is the most interesting course I have ever taken [at] Rutgers." The strength of Professor Purcell's pedagogy is also apparent from the uniformly admiring teaching observation reports by Anthropology faculty. Colleagues observe that she makes "sophisticated concepts tangible... while facilitating a high degree of class participation" and knows "how to articulate complex thoughts clearly and [while] also… infus[ing] her lecture with a lot of well-placed surprises… Professor Purcell is a fantastic teacher!" and "a vibrant speaker with extraordinary pedagogical skills." Clearly, she is one of the best teachers in the Department of Anthropology.
Professor Purcell has extraordinary sensitivity in dealing with difficult conversations. For example, an older white undergraduate used a racial slur in quoting from an assigned reading wherein a white author was quoting Black informants. Professor Purcell and her colleagues pondered, was the student wrong to use the word in this context? Was the author wrong? Was she wrong to have assigned that passage? Were the Black informants really at the root of the problem? Professor Purcell sought the advice of colleagues about these and other questions, developed a strategy, and workshopped through this morass with a class of more than 100 students onboard. Remarkably, no one complained, and the students left that class feeling both acknowledged and intellectually stimulated. Such negotiation of inequality and insult is no small feat.
Professor Purcell's teaching is always excellent. She is beloved by students and respected by colleagues, truly making distinguished contributions to undergraduate education.
Eagan Dean, Writing Program
A Teaching Assistant since the of 2018, Mr. Eagan Dean has established a record of excellent teaching in the Writing Program, the English Department, and beyond.
Mr. Dean describes his teaching philosophy as one in which "it is my role as an instructor to institute and foster a sense of 'community.'…It is only through collaboration as a class that all students are best able to excel, from the peer feedback needed for less prepared students to the rigor provided to high-achieving students through their support of others. Students often write that they feel safe to express themselves in my classroom, and I encourage them to use collaborative labor in the classroom to enable individual excellence on their assignments. In a classroom community where students see each other and the instructor as collaborators, the ethic shifts from one of authority and competition to one of intellectual mutual aid, of cooperation toward group success."
Student feedback and reports from his mentors and supervisors make it quite clear that Mr. Dean puts this into brilliant effect in all his classes – including sections of "Expository Writing" (01:355:101), "Basic Composition" (01:355:100), "Principles of Literary Study" (01:359:201) and writing workshops for students in Computer Science. As one student describes it, "The judgement–free environment E created for my section really allowed me to express my thoughts and to get feedback and clarification without feeling intimidated or uncomfortable." Another adds, "E made the classroom… very warm and welcoming. I always felt comfortable enough to participate." At the same time, students talk about how Mr. Dean supports their learning and success, "I think E is very excited to teach [his] students, which makes learning a lot easier and more intriguing," and "Going into Basic Composition, I was a little nervous. Professor E has taught me how to write at the college level and has allowed me to learn from my mistakes that I did in the beginning of the semester… Professor E always made the class interesting, and I was always eager to learn more and learn from the readings that were provided in class." With an air of some amazement, one student says, "My essays actually got better… All his critiques on my essays were encouraging and helpful." Many others speak appreciatively about how their writing and ability to read closely and think critically improved because of Mr. Dean's patient support and expert teaching.
The faculty member for whom Mr. Dean TA'ed in 01:359:202 has similar high praise. "I cannot say enough good things about E's performance as a Mentored TA in English 202 this past semester. Already an inspiring source of skilled pedagogy, knowledgeable insights, and care for students.… he encourages students to do their best work but is also flexible and giving of his time."
Mr. Dean was a Graduate Fellow for the Writing Program Innovations in Teaching Grant, "Extending the Conversation: Multimodal Innovations in Expository Writing," assisting in devising new digital assignments for university-wide writing courses that emphasize the connection between academic writing skills and real-world digital storytelling and build connections between student life experiences and critical thinking/argumentation skills.
Of all the student tributes to Mr. Dean's distinguished contributions, perhaps this one stands out most: "You're really amazing and have kept me sane. I like the freedom allows for my ideas to really shine. I am able to show my thoughts through an author's text so I think that is really cool. This class has actually made me enjoy writing, so thanks for that. I just want to say thanks for everything. Keep being great."
Ting-An Lin, Philosophy
Ms. Ting-An Lin excels in all the dimensions of undergraduate teaching—comprehension, presentation, dedication, innovation, and inspiration.
Ms. Lin teaches expertly across the philosophy curriculum, from social-political philosophy to a writing-intensive survey of the field, to technical formal logic. As her SIRS results show, scores in her sections are consistently and substantially higher than in the other sections of the course. This quantitative evidence is borne out by the high praise in student comments, who "love" and find "amazing" and "awesome" how well she presents the material and conducts discussions that are fulfilling, engaging, and confidence-building. They uniformly describe her as "patient" and "caring." Student comments show that they cherish Ms. Lin's organization skills as well.
Ms. Lin's classroom innovations are also impressive. For example, her use of open access textbooks in logic (where traditional textbooks can cost over $100) is an equitable innovation that promotes access to her courses without sacrificing rigor and one that serves as a model for the rest of the department. Peer reviewers of her teaching note that the "level of thoughtfulness, concision, and detail [evident] in Ting's course design, both across the semester and within a single session, is truly impressive…. I have rarely seen even faculty members perform this well in this regard, let alone other graduate students." They add, Ms. Lin's "slides are a model for how to use technology in the classroom; they actually use aesthetically pleasing elements of the platform to not only to draw student attention to the salient text but also to structure the text in ways that highlight conceptual interconnections," incorporating meaningful images and clear outlines, assignments, and other course information for students. Another observes, "She thinks carefully about how to present philosophical ideas to students who may be struggling to understand them and may not find them immediately compelling." Ms. Lin "ties abstract, theoretical issues in philosophy back to concrete, real-world applications" and uses these compelling cases to exemplify the issues for students. She skillfully extracts the philosophical point or question from the students' discussion while being sure to solicit input from students that have not yet contributed. This is a great virtue in her teaching.
Ms. Lin has actively sought out opportunities to develop as a teacher, participating in a seminar on Teaching in Philosophy when at Texas Tech University, earning a Teacher Training Certificate from the Rutgers Philosophy Department, and joining an introductory seminar on online and hybrid teaching.
Faculty in the Philosophy department regularly find Ms. Lin enthusiastically leading long sessions at the whiteboard in a common area with multiple students, revealing her dedication to her students' learning and success. The energy and enthusiasm in Ms. Lin's teaching is infectious. "She is very invested in her students' success — she is generous with her time, and kind to those who are struggling," demonstrating a level of commitment and compassion that is not often seen.
One student's comment effectively sums up Ms. Lin's distinguished contributions to undergraduate education: "I appreciated your enthusiasm and respectfulness when approaching students to participate. I really appreciated the detailed comments that were given on our papers, even on our final papers. Although I never did, it was really comforting to know you were so willing to help your students by offering yourself for office hours and even just minutes after section. Thank you."
Online Teaching Award
Crystal Akers, Assistant Teaching Professor, Linguistics
Professor Crystal Akers embodies everything that Rutgers values in undergraduate teaching in her dedication to teaching, her commitment to pedagogical advancement, and her holistic and continuous support of our undergraduate students' education and the Linguistics Department's undergraduate curriculum. And, she has been doing all of these things for a number of years in a suite of her own asynchronous online courses.
Professor Akers is a leader in online education within the Linguistics Department, throughout SAS, and across all of Rutgers. Her courses use an organized design that provides multiple ways for her students to stay engaged with the content, with each other, and with the instructor throughout the course. Her strategies for engaging students—from her legendarily thorough and personalized weekly announcements to the remarkably active "Lounge" forums—have established best practices in asynchronous online courses emulated across the school. In these ways, Professor Akers has crafted an online course presence that mirrors many of the qualities of a face-to-face course format while also integrating innovations that support the success of an asynchronous, online course format. Professor Akers is a creative innovator in online education, carefully evaluating and adopting novel tools like VoiceThread and PlayPosit. She also uses even the simplest and most familiar of tools in creative ways, as demonstrated by the mouth-watering "emoji recipe" discussion in her "Linguistics, the Internet, and Social Media" course. As one student commented, "I don't know how Professor Akers manages to make an online course feel like a classroom, but she succeeds."
In her courses, Professor Akers makes meaningful, impactful connections to the students' daily lives, leading students to seek out and love her courses. In "Language of Advertising," one student said, "I have learned so incredibly much and love that I can apply this to my everyday life, just for fun." Of her "Language and Law" course, another commented, "This class has sharpened my ability in seeing how people naturally communicate with each other and where communications sometimes break down. This is important in the real world and even more so in the legal world." Students comment on the incorporation of multimedia in Canvas, her supportive feedback, her level of organization, and the clarity of her presentation. One student notes, "The consistency of deadlines really helps me be able to make sure I've turned in all assignments, which has not been my experience with other online classes." Many remark that she is one of their favorite instructors at Rutgers and thank her personally in the course evaluations for her role in their education.
Not content with focusing only on her students' many positive comments, Professor Akers continually works to improve her courses in each iteration, attends teaching workshops, and meets with those on campus who focus on online teaching. This is part of what makes her so strong as the Linguistics Department's Online Coordinator, overseeing all online offerings and coordinating with Speech Pathology consultants in order to offer "Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech Mechanism and Audiology," a critical part of the Speech and Hearing Certificate she oversees. This certificate, the courses that support it, and the Speech and Hearing Club for which she is the faculty advisor are critical in students' success in pursuing graduate work in the Speech and Hearing Sciences.
Professor Akers' distinguished contributions to undergraduate education extend beyond her own classroom to impact teaching across the school as she presents workshops, participates in Faculty Learning Communities, and happily shares her expertise and best practices whenever called upon, enabling SAS to present high-quality online courses in which students are enthusiastic learners.
Kristina Chew, Assistant Teaching Professor, Classics
Professor Kristina Chew excels at online teaching, developing asynchronous online courses of outstanding quality infused with a deep understanding of how online courses succeed and fail. She understands that isolation is a serious challenge to a successful online class, and she is brilliant in encouraging group work and chat functions.
Professor Chew's multiple Canvas courses approach the Platonic ideal of clear, effective course organization. She provides students with clear "getting started" directions and straightforward chronological modules organizing course content. She makes particularly effective use of announcements and engaging video lectures to provide a sense of instructor presence in her fully asynchronous courses. Professor Chew also has a creative and highly effective approach to discussion forums, posting a written response to forum discussions after the forum has closed—thereby providing students feedback and guidance, but only after they have had the time and space to engage with each other and explore the material themselves. She also provides students with detailed lecture notes accompanying each of her video lectures, ensuring accessibility and providing an additional study resource for all students.
Professor Chew has developed a suite of 9 online courses, of which "Medical Terminology" is perhaps the most impressive. Catering to pre-med students, this course serves well over 200 students each time it is offered, yet it routinely receives glowing reviews highlighting both the ability to interact with classmates and the availability of Professor Chew to answer questions and provide feedback. One wrote, "I love her, she made me feel as though she was literally in class with me." Similar comments include, "Despite this being an online course, she was still present throughout the whole semester," "She's very caring towards the students, always available to help and answers all questions clearly and thoroughly," and "It didn't feel so much like an online course because I learned so much." While "Medical Terminology" was a bit of an experiment in online teaching for the Classics Department, it has turned out to be a huge success. Professor Chew crafted the disparate material into a coherent whole in ways that make it more rather than less successful in the online format. This is a course that students in many medical fields are required to take to get to the next stage of their medical training. Student evaluations and comments make it dramatically clear that students are choosing this way to satisfy the requirement, rather than going outside Rutgers, because of the extraordinary quality of Professor Chew's class.
Professor Chew's "Criminals and Saints" course is also worth note. This is a "Writing in the Discipline" Core course that was initially taught in-person by a tenured member of the department who was skeptical that a course that required peer review would work in an online format. Professor Chew's successful design of facilitated group discussions and integration of writing and content led to the same tenured professor reporting that Professor Chew's online version is much more successful than his own in-person offering. One student writes, "It helped me better my writing skills. I feel like I may not of answered the essay questions exactly on point or exactly how we were expected to, but I really liked the topics enough to take a risk and put a twist on the opinions/perspectives people normally have about the readings."
One student sums up Professor Chew's distinguished contributions when they write, "Professor Chew is amazing. I have taken many online courses here at Rutgers…. However, Professor Chew's online classes, of which I have taken several, truly set the gold standard. They are well organized, planned, and executed. She is very good about corresponding with us students and effectively inspires us to learn. If Rutgers had any sense, they would conscript Professor Chew into teaching the other online professors how it's done."


WordPress is complex software used by a large percentage of the internet in millions of unique ways. So when there is an issue that touches deep in the internals of the WordPress codebase, we need to be careful and deliberate. Even more so if the issue has security implications. An incorrect or incomplete fix could break millions of sites or, possibly worse yet, leave them vulnerable.
Yes, "issues" plural. There were two of them that were somewhat worse when linked together. Both were first discovered by one of our WordPress security team members.
// $sql = "SELECT ID FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_title = '39' AND post_type IN ( '' ) OR 1 = 1 -- - ' )"
The problem was coming up with a fix that would close the vulnerability without breaking too many plugins and sites.
We had potential fixes for both of these issues at the time the report was opened and they were combined into a single patch and added to the report on November 9th, eleven days after the first E-Mail. However, we were not yet comfortable with the backwards compatibility of the fix. It changed the inner workings of wpdb::prepare()in two ways and while it brought it more in line with the documentation for that function, we were uneasy about how many plugins or sites might be affected.
It took a lot of time, but we continued to test the fixes that we had developed, try alternatives, etc. We had some back and forth on the HackerOne report, ran some checks against the plugin directory, and had a select group of plugin developers test part of the fix. In hindsight, I should have had them test the entire patch – more on this in a bit – but by September we were ready for a release.
The fix was packaged with eight other security fixes (oh yeah, this wasn't the only thing we'd been working on) and WordPress 4.8.2 was released on September 19th.
The day after release a ticket was opened wanting to add the support for numbered placeholders back to `wpdb::prepare()`. We expected this. We knew that taking away functionality is never popular. Finding the right balance between security and functionality is one of the hardest things we do as a team.
Other than the expected push to reintroduce the functionality we had limited, the release seemed to go pretty well. There were no abnormal spikes in issues on the support forums, no hosts complained of unexpected increases in support requests (and I talked to several), and the actual update numbers looked relatively normal.
Unfortunately, we now know that we broke more plugins than we needed to. If we had given the full patch to our plugin test group, we could have caught some of the potential breakage. That was my fault. I'm sorry, and lesson learned.
One of the plugins that broke was one running on a site belonging to Anthony Ferrara. When he dug into why, he realized that it was due to how we blocked numbered placeholders, and he saw a problem. He opened a HackerOne report on September 20th, the day after 4.8.2 was released.
Because our fix for 4.8.2 didn't allow for %4s, this query would no longer try to select the current user with a user-specified name, but instead try to select a user with the name %%4s and the user-specified "name" used as the user_id.
There was some back and forth on the ticket where we tried to give background on the original issue and why we fixed it the way we did. What we had dubbed "double prepares" were in fact an issue, but our fix had left some potential edge cases worse off than before. Obviously not ideal.
The technical issue was relatively easy to agree on: User supplied content – that could resemble a placeholder – ending up in the first parameter of wpdb::prepare(). The correct solution though, was much harder to find and agree upon.
One solution that was offered was to disallow all double prepares, making them throw a hard error. Unfortunately, looking through the plugin directory told us that this would likely break a lot of plugins. It was an "ideal" solution from a security standpoint, but realistically it wasn't an option for us.
The solution we came up with, on the other hand, was very complex and convoluted. It tried to keep existing functionality while still mitigating the vulnerability, but the rabbit hole seemed to be extremely deep. The patch became more complex as we discovered unexpected idiosyncrasies with the internal workings of certain PHP functions.
Working with people can often be complicated, and working with our security team on a complex WordPress issue is no exception. Communication broke down some during the process and things got difficult. Luckily both sides kept working at it.
Ultimately, working back and forth through the issues we were able to continue to improve our approach. Implementing ideas from both sides allowed us to simplify the code and come up with a solution that was not prohibitively complex, addressed the issues, and avoided widespread plugin breakage.
There was some changed behavior in esc_sql(), that mostly affects its use when not used in conjunction with wpdb::query().
The resulting fix was released in WordPress 4.8.3 on October 31, 42 days after 4.8.2. Updates rolled out smoothly and the release seems to be working well for people. Thanks to all involved for their hard work on this one!