Message from the Vice President

Happy New year to all!

As the dust settles on the recent moves, both internally and externally, we hope that you are interacting with your colleagues across the division. Hopefully, the changes and additions will foster more collaboration across the division as more interactions occur both intentionally as well as serendipitously. Who knows, in a hallway discussion, you may come up with the solution or an approach to a vexing problem. With the building filled, those of us who like to burn the midnight oil or come in when it’s dark will find more colleagues to engage with (maybe a good thing?).

As a division, we need to be supportive of our colleagues and their programs, that is why I know all of us will gladly assist Bobbie Laur and Tracy Jacobs in their parking requests. After all, collaboration is not just working on a project together, but also helping colleagues make their programs successful.

Center for GIS

The CGIS team spotlights a mapping project with Maryland Humanities in a recent blog post. David Sides writes that the location of non-profits is key to their identity and web-based mapping tools allow them to more effectively tell their stories. READ ON

Continuing & Professional Studies

We are excited to announce we have hired Trudinique (Trudy) Munroe-Spencer as our Student Success and Program Manager. Trudy is charged with managing our student experience from registration through class completion and beyond. This includes vital student messaging and communications for both self-pay and contract students throughout the life of the program. In addition, this position will support crucial educational components from course acknowledgement, to reporting and including certificates of completion and beyond. Lastly, Trudy will provide course assessment that will lead to research for course development for all continuing education programs.

Kathleen Case talking about leadership choice

Leadership & Organizational Development

In November, we hosted a DiSC Assessment webinar. We're following that up on January 29 with "We have to talk. Navigating difficult conversations." We will sit down with Tamathia Moore Flowers and Sharon Sampson Ball, both of whom have extensive HR and mediation and conflict resolution knowledge, and discuss how to have positive conversations in the workplace. LEARN MORE + REGISTER

Osher Lifelong Learning

We had a successful turnout for our Preview of Spring Classes. We have a packed spring semester that begins March 4. Thank you again for parking in the rear lot; it was helpful for our members.

Partnerships & Outreach

The OPO team has been busy supporting multiple webinars, exploring Google Ads for business development, and working on re-building and moving the CPS site to the main Towson.edu site. We are ramping up for a lot of BTU work this spring, including the annual Showcase and Partnership Awards. Big shout out to our bloggers. In 2018, we published 80+ blogs with more than 23,000 views. In 2019, we want to top those numbers. So, keep an eye on your inbox for blogging calendar invites.

Regional Economic Studies Institute

The RESI team hosted their first webinar—Human Development Index Disparities in Baltimore City—last week. The webinar is based on independent research by RESI that looked at disparities across Baltimore City and the long term impacts on African American neighborhoods. The webinar was big success—attended by 50 people. LEARN MORE

Venture Creation

TU Incubator is an edtech leader, bringing regional and national entrepreneurs to TU for startup support. In December, we convened a diverse group of stakeholders to jumpstart METRIC—Maryland EdTech Testing & Research Innovation Consortium. METRIC is an opportunity for TU to grow as a national leader while working toward increased pilots and capital support for entrepreneurs. LEARN MORE

Staff Updates

Ardys Russakis serves as the division's representative on this university wide taskforce: More Inclusive TU – The Path to Equity and Diversity. The task force has now met for the third time and some great progress has been made.

• Some of the work has included an examination of current efforts on diversity and inclusion in higher education, best practices, and a close look at TU's student, faculty and staff data aggregated by race, gender, and social-economic measures.

• The task force is creating a Vision Statement and a list of critical elements that are required to achieve the vision. This shared vision of equity and diversity at TU is to be used to help guide the strategic planning by establishing a clear picture of the desired future state as a healthy and richly diverse community.

• As a reminder from my last updated—the task force is creating a comprehensive five-year strategic plan, which will be ready to execute in fall 2019.

• Finally, if you are interested in some of the types of readings and topics the task force is discussing, here is a link to Huffington Post articles.

David Brasington has joined a pool of facilitators, made up of current TU staff from across campus, for TU's Intergroup Dialogue—face-to-face facilitated conversation between members of two or more social identity groups that strive to create new levels of understanding, relating, and action. This semester, he will co-facilitate on the topic of Gender in the College of Education’s “Teaching and Learning in a Diverse Society.” LEARN MORE

Division Fun

Thanks to everyone who came out for the SPAR Holiday Party! Cheers to a great 2019.

Division Events

As you all know our first 2019 staff retreat is just around the corner! On Friday, February 1, 9am to 2pm

Our retreat agenda

9:30 a.m. Arrive at Breakout Games
9:30–10 a.m. Break into teams
10:00–11 a.m. Escape room activities
11:30 a.m. Arrive back to campus
11:30–12:30 p.m. Discussion and debrief
12:30–2 p.m. Lunch

Boordy Vineyards Trip
Saturday, February 23
12:00–5:00 p.m.

Join your colleagues for a trip to Boordy Vineyards and enjoy live music. Admission is FREE, wine and food can be purchased onsite. Families and friends are absolutely WELCOME! NOTE: No outside food is permitted in the Boordy Barn, Tasting Room and Winecellar.

Random Acts of Kindness
February 18–28

Random Acts of Kindness is a global movement that helps inspire change and promote kindness, in big and small ways. Participants who opt-in will be randomly and anonymously assigned a SPAR colleague to pledge to do a random act of kindness. Your acts should be anonymous. And it can be anything, no matter how small. If you want to participate or have questions, email Vicki Simek by noon on February 8.