College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Annual Report 2020-2021
Becoming Dean of the College in this Pandemic Year
Academic year 2020-2021 was my first as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Grand Valley, where I landed at an unpredictable time for higher education and in the midst of a strategic planning cycle.
Advising and Tutoring Services
The CLAS Academic Advising Center saw unprecedented changes this year. What was once primarily an in-person service shifted to remote operation in March 2020 and will continue remotely through Summer 2021.
Protecting Watersheds and Making Due on the Kitchen Table with Amanda Buday
Some faculty make it look easy. They arrive at GVSU and in what seems like no time, they are fully embedded in local projects with lots of moving parts. What is their secret?
Rapid Uptake of New Modalities
While our faculty were already providing some courses online in the years before the pandemic, all were thrust into these modalities on short notice in March 2020.
Lest We Leave History in The Past— Setting the Record Straight Using Modern Means with Louis Moore
Associate Professor Louis Moore (History and affiliated with African/African American Studies) researches and teaches about subjects of perennial relevance.
Sudden Relevance: Matthew Daley and His Students Studying the Local Response to the 1918 Influenza Pandemic
Matthew Daley is professor of History with a particular emphasis on the Gilded Age to Great Depression (1865-1941) in the fields of urban, Michigan, Great Lakes, industrial/historical archaeology, and public history.
Suffering from the Cure? Looking at the Evidence with Laurel Westbrook
In Fall 2020, LaurelWestbrook of Sociology was going up for full professor and just took delivery of their new book Unlivable Lives: Violence and Identity in Transgender Activism (Univ. of California Press, 2021).
Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Elementary Teaching (PCKET)
Beginning Fall 2021, the new Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Elementary Teaching (PCKET) Major will officially launch with its first cohort of students.
Teaching Tech to Teachers ꟷ Regional Math and Science Center Facilitates Aspects of the Code.Org® $15M Pilot Program
An obvious step in addressing the “digital divide” is to provide more learning opportunities for students in data and computer science earlier in their education journey. Having the human and material resources to accomplish that is another matter.
Expanding Cultural Capital with Pablo Mahave-Veglia
Cellist Pablo Mahave-Veglia is an associate professor for whom performance practice is at the core of his research.
Grand Valley Partnership, Testing to Provide Public Health Experts with Data about Potential COVID-19 Hotspots
BY NATE HOEKSTRA PHOTOS BY KENDRA STANLEY MILLS GVNext Nov. 13, 2020