New Programs, Grants, Accreditation Highlighted During Fall Conference Meeting
August 31, 2022
Fall Conference is a time to welcome faculty and staff to the new academic year, receive important updates and celebrate accomplishments from the previous year.
During this year’s event, the leadership team in the College of Education and Integrative Studies (CEIS) shared a number of updates and achievements including increased enrollment, new grants, new publications, new program options, awards, conference presentations and recruitment of new faculty.
“It was so wonderful to be able to come together as a community to celebrate our achievements and reconfirm our commitment to scholarship and teaching,” said CEIS Interim Dean Hend Gilli-Elewy. “It’s been a year since I stepped into this position as interim dean and throughout this past year I’ve been so inspired by the dedication, commitment, thoughtfulness, compassion and excellence of our faculty and staff, especially through these very challenging times with constant changing parameters and policies. I think we’re in a very strong position now to move forward.”
Following updates from Gilli-Elewy and Associate Dean Joanne Van Boxtel, department chairs were given an opportunity to share departmental highlights.
Professor Betty Alford in the Department of Educational Leadership shared updates on the approval of new options in the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program. The department will now offer an Ed.D. degree in leadership in community colleges and postsecondary education as well as PreK-12 educational leadership.
Likewise, Associate Professor Eden Haywood-Bird in the Department of Early Childhood Studies (ECS) announced that her department now offers six new options for students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in ECS.
Those options include: Early childhood teaching, non-teaching option, multilingual teaching, Integrated Teacher Education Program (ITEP) in mild to moderate, ITEP extensive support, and P-3rd grade teaching.
Professor Jann Pataray-Ching in the Department of Education shared that her department will be going through their CTC accreditation visit this year, initiating a boot camp to provide support to teacher candidates who are hired through the intern program to gain teaching experience and working with the Department of Ethnic and Women Studies on an ethnic studies certificate to address the K-12 ethnic studies requirement.
Finally, Professor Christina Chavez-Reyes in the Department of Liberal Studies (LS) announced that her department, which includes the Interdisciplinary General Education Program, is seeking to offer a minor in global humanities and another minor in science education to increase science educators in elementary and middle schools. The department also received a SPICE grant to develop a PolyX pathway in the LS Program to impact student success and emphasize the polytechnic advantage.
The meeting ended with additional staff acknowledgments, including introductions of new staff, as well as budget information and student success data.
For more information about CEIS, visit https://www.cpp.edu/ceis.