The Miller Open Education Mini-Grant projects this year are ambitious and geared toward improving instructional quality by addressing specific needs. The mini-grants have helped expand use of freely licensed course materials at ISU, an effort also supported by the new strategic plan's jump-start funds.
The Writing and Media Center merged with the Academic Success Center at the Hixson-Lied Student Success Center; Student Accessibility Services also moved during the summer.
Carolann Jensen outlined the legislative budget-setting process at the Professional and Scientific Council's Sept. 1 meeting. The council also got an update on hiring for Iowa State Online, the central unit for online instruction support that will launch Jan. 1.
Iowa State will seek two increases in state operating support next year: a $12 million increase to its general university appropriation and $376,519 in additional biosciences innovation funding.
Iowa State's fall enrollment of 29,969 students includes 5,728 new first-year students, 1,383 new transfer students and 1,195 new graduate and professional students.
The ISU police department added public safety officers and campus safety ambassadors to help its officers by responding to some nonenforcement calls for service. They provide more security to campus and the programs help lead some into a career in law enforcement.
Approved in June by the state Board of Regents, the plan emphasizes renovation when possible -- and demolition/replacement when not -- and sequences numerous projects that will impact more than 40 buildings.
Falling for a phishing attack can happen to anyone, but there are easy ways to limit your risk. Here are some suggestions from the head of the university's digital security team.
Employees may select from an expanded list of individual pronouns -- and also choose whether to share their pronoun publicly with the ISU community on their worker profile.
The ISU police department aims to serve the entire community by having officers who are multilingual. The department has a Spanish speaker in addition to two Mandarin-speaking officers to better connect with faculty, staff and students on campus and in the surrounding communities.
The center's makerspaces are studios, shops and labs designed for creating and available for students, faculty and staff who want to turn innovative ideas into concrete reality. The spaces are all operating this fall for the first time.
ISU's third year of inclusive classroom training is underway, focused on supporting students via the syllabus. After the first two years, 94% of instructors identified course-specific improvements they've made to foster inclusive teaching.
ISU Extension and Outreach has partnered with Utah State to offer a certification in remote work to Iowans. After they complete the course, extension staff help individuals with their job search and further development of desired skills.
