The 2023 CLAS Faculty Governance Elections are scheduled to run from 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 1, to midnight on Wednesday, March 8. Please contact Lisa Gray with any questions or problems concerning the faculty elections.
The CLAS Undergraduate Educational Policy and Curriculum Committee meets weekly during the academic year to advise the College on policies and procedures relating to the College’s educational mission, curriculum, and teaching. Committee duties detailed in the CLAS Manual of Procedure, Article VII. The Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Curriculum chairs the Committee. View the current membership of the Committee.
The Undergraduate Educational Policy and Curriculum Committee has three member seats to fill this year. One member must come from the Natural and Mathematical Sciences, one member must come from the Humanities, and one member must come from the Arts. Voting faculty may vote for candidates in all three electoral groups and may cast votes for one, two or three candidates.
Natural and Mathematical Sciences (Electoral Group I) candidates (click on name to see statement)
Humanities (Electoral Group III) candidates (click on name to see statement)
Arts (Electoral Group IV) candidates (click on name to see statement)
Natural and Mathematical Sciences (Electoral Group I) CANDIDATE STATEMENTS
Rodica Curtu
Professor
Department of Mathematics &
The Iowa Neuroscience Institute
PhD, University of Pittsburgh
Joined UI faculty in 2007
The Undergraduate Educational Policy and Curriculum Committee (UEPCC) plays a key role in the education of our students, formulating requirements for General Education courses and providing feedback to proposals for updates of curricula and degree requirements for numerous majors, minors, and certificates. As a member of UEPCC I will be looking forward to working closely with all CLAS departments to support their ideas for improvement of undergraduate curriculum, to assist them during the implementation stage of their proposed changes, and to promote and expand undergraduate research opportunities for all CLAS students, particularly those from underrepresented communities.
Relevant experience:
Since joining the University of Iowa (UI), more than 15 years ago, I have taught 2000+ undergraduates in First-Year Seminars, online introductory math courses for freshmen, Math:1XXX and Math:2XXX service courses for majors in biology, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, engineering, physics, psychology, and statistics, as well as Math:3XXX topics courses and research-based courses for math majors. I directed and supervised research projects for undergraduates that were later admitted to top math graduate schools in the country, and help others succeed in their applications for prestigious university scholarships.
As a Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Chair in Math during 2020-2022, I mentored, trained, and supervised 75+ teaching assistants (TAs) per year, who helped our department teach mathematics courses for thousands of UI undergraduates.
Since 2020 I have also served as a faculty in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience and as a member of The Iowa Neuroscience Institute. I look forward to working closely with the departments of Biology and Psychological and Brain Sciences to develop and strengthen their interdisciplinary Bachelor of Science major in neuroscience. I am also excited about the prospect of collaborating with other CLAS departments to broaden our UI undergraduate students’ exposure to an interdisciplinary learning environment.
Elizabeth Kleiman
Associate Professor of Instruction
Department of Computer Science
PhD, Mathematics and Computer Science, Iowa State University
Joined UI in 2019
I am running for the election to the Undergraduate Educational Policy and Curriculum Committee because I believe a strong undergraduate program is the foundation of a strong institution. An undergraduate degree is critical to success in today’s workforce and preparing our students for their future careers by providing them with a valuable education that consists of high-quality foundational knowledge, as well as real-life experiences like undergraduate research opportunities, is my passion. I also believe that diversity allows for more ideas and brings different perspectives, so I have been volunteering at STEM for females’ events for years including running my own STEM summer camp for middle school girls. I would like to serve on UEPCC because I believe undergraduate education is fundamental and I would like to take part in discussions on what is important for our students and how we can make them more successful on their path to graduation and beyond. I enjoy teaching and advising students and my goal is not only to help my students learn the material but also reach their life goals whether it is an internship, REU, graduate school, or work at the company of their dreams.
Relevant Experience: Director of Undergraduate Studies since 2020, Member of Computer Science P3 team, Chair of Computer Science Undergraduate Committee, PI of NSF REU Computing for Health and Well-being site, Computer Science Program Coordinator at MMU 2013-2019, MMU Graduate Policy Council, Finalist for 2015 Women of Innovation Award by Technology Association of Iowa.
Amy Strathman
Associate Professor of Instruction, Chemistry
PhD, University of Colorado – Boulder 2001
Joined faculty as a lecturer in 2004
As an instructional faculty member in the Department of Chemistry, my professional role is focused on undergraduate education. I have 19 years of experience team-teaching large-enrollment and large-lecture introductory chemistry courses, some with laboratory components, to first and second-year undergraduate students. Many of these students have very diverse educational and personal backgrounds and are pursuing majors in STEM fields. As a first-generation college student myself, I can relate to the challenges that many of my students encounter early in their academic career. For the last several years, I have been fortunate to participate with a Chemistry Department cohort in the Hawkeye Introductory Courses (HIC) project and now the Excellence in Teaching and Learning (ETL) project, a tiered P3 program aimed at improving student outcomes in introductory courses. Through this program, I have worked on curriculum development, increasing student engagement with embedded peer learning assistants in the large lectures, using data to inform my teaching, and advancing my knowledge in best teaching practices. Not only was this work beneficial to my own teaching, but I gained valuable insight into the structures and challenges of other introductory courses from interacting with faculty members across campus.
In recognition of my efforts in teaching introductory courses, I was one of the recipients of the inaugural Hubbard-Walder Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2021 from the University of Iowa Council on Teaching. I also received the 2019 Lane Davis Award for Honors Team-Teaching from University of Iowa Honors Program.
Beyond my involvement with the HIC/ETL, I have relevant experience in numerous capacities at the university, collegiate, and departmental level in service to undergraduate education. I have served as a member of Faculty Senate for the last three years. For CLAS, I currently am on the Advisory Committee for Environmental Science (2021 – current), served on the General Education CLAS Core Review Committee (CCRC, 2019-2020), and was a temporary member of the UEPCC for one semester as a sabbatical replacement (2018) in which I learned how policies are formed and evaluated to help shape the undergraduate experience. In the Department of Chemistry, I have a long-sustained service record to undergraduates across disciplines who take courses in the Chemistry Department. Just within the last five years, I have been a member on the departmental Undergraduate Curriculum & Assessment Committee, the Course Schedule and Enrollment Committee, and I am a Chemistry Department academic advisor to undergraduate chemistry majors.
With my varied experiences, I hope to further advance inclusive student engagement opportunities at all levels of our students’ academic careers to best prepare them for success in their chosen professions. My expertise handling the diverse educational and administrative challenges of large-enrollment courses as well as my sustained involvement with undergraduate-focused service, I believe, will be an asset to the advisory role of the UEPCC and I am eager to offer a unique viewpoint to benefit the committee’s work.
Humanities (Electoral Group III) CANDIDATE STATEMENTS
Emilie Maurel-Destruel
Associate Professor, Departments of French and Italian and Linguistics
PhD, Linguistics, University of Texas-Austin
Joined UI Faculty in 2013
I am honored to have been nominated to serve on the UEPCC and look forward to contributing to its efforts. I am deeply committed to the success of our undergraduate students, as I strongly believe that professors are beacons on the students’ educational path, offering invaluable resource and experience in helping them pursue fulfilling careers. Moreover, as a language and linguistics educator, I strongly value an environment that fosters engaging students globally, both internationally and on-campus. If elected, I would work towards making sure our curricula evolve to fit developing global needs, and making sure all Iowa undergraduates have the opportunity to study abroad. Finally, given the recent discussions on mental health and retention, I would also work toward ensuring that we provide students with a compassionate approach in our classes, centering on their well-being and promoting their enjoyment during their years on campus.
Relevant experience: Since 2020, I have been serving as the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Linguistics. I primarily teach small undergraduate courses that span the undergraduate programs in French & Italian and Linguistics, maintaining an average score of 5.8 on the CLAS core criteria across these courses. In Fall 2022, I have also taught a newly designed First-Year seminar course entitled “Exploring the Worlds’ Languages”, which was approved to be taught again in Fall 2023, and was selected to be offered as an honors seminar. In Fall 2022, I served on Faculty Senate. In 2021, I was nominated for the 6th annual Student Supervisor of the Year Award, University of Iowa. In 2019-2021, I was a member of the CLAS Strategic Initiative Committee. Finally, since I arrived in 2013, I have trained and supervised countless TAs on quality undergraduate education and assessment, preparing them to teach in our GEP French program.
Blaine Greteman
Professor
Department of English
PhD, UC Berkeley
Joined UI Faculty 2009
I am honored to have been nominated to UEPCC and excited to run, because I believe undergraduate education is at the core of the university’s transformational potential. Our undergraduate classrooms can foster social mobility and an informed, creative, citizenry. Ideally, these are the spaces where we introduce first-generation college students to the university and put them on the path to becoming proud and connected alumni with rewarding careers. UEPCC is in crucial conversations about how we do this work – from grading practices, dealing with new technology (AI), to addressing student mental health, to the ways our General Education curriculum can give students a firm but flexible foundation for a changing world.
I have ample experience that will help me be a productive part of those conversations. I write regularly on topics concerning higher education and undergraduate education in places like Newsweek and the London Review of Books. I’ve served as the DUS of English, as a charter member of the First-Generation Task Force, a member of the University Writing Certificate Steering Committee, Faculty Assembly, Faculty Senate, and most recently a member of the Cognitive Support for Student Learning Faculty Learning Community (FLC). I’ve mentored multiple students in the ICRU and SROP programs, taught in the First-Gen Hawks program, and mentored multiple Rhodes, Marshall, and Gates Scholarship applicants with the Office of Scholar Development. And as Director of General Education Literature for four years, I supervised about 40 TAs as they taught 3,000 undergraduates per year, from all majors and disciplines. We emphasized experiential learning and forged service-learning projects with local schools; we navigated the challenges of pivoting to online learning and the equally complicated return to in person instruction; and we reconfigured the program to make it more responsive to student and instructor concerns about how we discuss racial justice and history. During my time as director, I introduced research-based reforms to the program that would make it more welcoming and supportive for all students -- emphasizing early and consistent feedback, regularizing grading rubrics, scaffolding assignments, and promoting more inclusive classrooms and conversations. Ultimately, I just really love engaging with students, instructors, and administrators, to find ways to improve the classroom and campus experience, and UEPCC is a vital place for continuing that work.
Tom Oates
Associate Professor
American Studies and Journalism and Mass Communication
DEO, American Studies
PhD, The University of Iowa
Joined UI faculty in 2012
Undergraduate education is at the center of vibrant universities, and can create an environment of engaged discovery which drives inquiry at all levels of the institution. I hope to serve on the UEPCC in order to further develop the undergraduate experience at Iowa. I want to help create and support policies that maximize opportunities for undergraduates to pursue their interests, while contributing to and learning from people in the community and beyond. I want to support students as they prepare themselves for professions, graduate study, public service, and above all, democratic citizenship. I am especially interested in creating more opportunities for students from historically marginalized communities. I value service and community-engaged teaching and learning, and I support expanding opportunities for undergraduate research.
Relevant experience: I have taught a range of courses during my time at Iowa, from large lectures that fulfill general education requirements to small seminars for advanced undergraduates. I also regularly mentor graduate teaching assistants about best practices in the classroom. My appointment affords me a helpful view of the diversity within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In the School of Journalism & Mass Communication, I work with professionally-oriented students who are preparing for careers in a defined field. My other field of American Studies in less focused on preparation for a specific profession, so I am sensitive to the fact that different programs have a range of needs and goals. I helped to design a new undergraduate major in Sport Media and Culture, which will be implemented in the Fall, 2023. I have served two separate terms on the graduate studies committee in SJMC (2014-17 & 2020-present), helping to create a curriculum that balanced a range of paradigms and methods. In American Studies, I have served on the graduate committee (2018-19), as well as the Faculty Assembly (2015-18). I was interim DEO in the spring of 2020 and from Fall, 2021-Present.
Arts (Electoral Group IV) CANDIDATE STATEMENTS
Jean-Francois Charles
Associate Professor of Composition & Digital Media
School of Music
Digital Arts Cluster
PhD, Harvard University
M.Sc. Institut National des Sciences Appliquées, Lyon, France
Joined UI Faculty in 2016
Dedicated to helping each student learn and develop their personal projects during their time at the University of Iowa, I am honored to have been nominated to serve on the Undergraduate Educational Policy & Curriculum Committee.
As a member of the committee, I will work with my colleagues to ensure we keep adapting to the changing environment and student body, while providing an education of the highest quality. I will work to develop the tradition of excellence that the University has, in domains such as undergraduate research opportunities and a core curriculum allowing each student to develop all-important learning strategies and critical thinking.
Like many students, staff, and faculty members, I have an extensive international experience and am the first person in my family to graduate from college. My education at the crossroads of arts and science helped me take part in unique interdisciplinary projects, from art-science concerts to live film music creations to dance gala musical performances. I hope that this experience will be an asset to serve all students with equity and compassion.
Relevant Experience:
Since I started teaching at the University of Iowa in 2016, I created four new undergraduate courses focusing on helping the student develop skills and applicable knowledge at the crossroads of arts – mostly music – and technology. These courses are MUS:2800 Digital Arts: an Introduction – developed in partnership with my colleagues of the Digital Arts Cluster, MUS:3280 Spectral Nature of Sound, MUS:3285 New Musical Instruments, and most recently MUS:2820 Electronic Music Production. The latter course is designed to help any student who already makes music using their computer develop listening and technical skills to improve the quality of their productions. This is the first course uniquely dedicated to undergraduate students that has been taught in the School of Music’s Electronic Music Studios (previously, only courses at the 4000+ were taught in the studios).
In 2017, I invited one of the under-graduate students who took the course New Musical Instruments to be a co-author of a related article, which was published and presented at the NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression) international conference.
Anita Jung
Professor, School of Art and Art History
MFA, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Joined UI in 2006
The University of Iowa (UI) is a large public research university with faculty active in top-notch local, national, and international research and publishing. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) combines the best aspects of a distinguished research university as an outstanding liberal arts college respected for its undergraduate teaching, a point of pride for faculty across our campus attributed to the CLAS faculty. The Undergraduate Educational Policy and Curriculum Committee (UEPCC) upholds and ensures the shared values supporting faculty governance and academic freedom. CLAS faculty have undertaken many initiatives to define what an undergraduate education is through working closely with the Writing Center; Office of Teaching, Learning & Technology; Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates; International Programs; Office of Community Engagement; Obermann Center; in addition to the UI’s libraries, museums and housing. UEPCC connects with these entities and interconnects across campus. Through those interactions and closely listening to faculty, students, and staff, new majors, minors, and certificates are developed and adopted. Most important UEPCC upholds the CLAS Core that safeguards academic freedom while seeking to prepare students to meet the demands of living in a constantly changing global society.
My relevant experience includes extensive experience in writing and developing curricula, including online and TILE, and study-abroad courses in India and Italy. I have been a member and then the chair of the Faculty Assembly, a senator on the Faculty Senate, and a member of the following: Judicial Commission; Awards and Recognition Committee; Government Relations Committee; Graduate Student Employment Committee (GSEC); Code of Student Life Review Committee; Council on Teaching; Hancher Advisory Committee; Research Council; Provost Budget Committee; International Student Climate Committee; Student Success Team (SST); Critical MASS; CLAS Executive Committee and the UEPCC (2017-2020) during the transition and restructuring of the Dean’s Office. I have also taken part in many of the Obermann Center offerings in addition to the Social Justice Reading Group organized through the Center for Teaching, the Building University of Iowa Leadership for Diversity (BUILD), and Building our Global Community programs. I continue to be involved in International Programs through mentoring students seeking Fulbright Fellowships, and with the South Asia Studies Program. I am also a member of Iowa City’s City Council’s Public Art Advisory Committee.