Author Archives: johnsojg

Important messages from Academic Personnel

From Celia Elison, Academic Personnel:

Salary Breakdown for 2018-19 

About one-third of our faculty are paid their academic-year salary August through May (and do not choose the 12-equal-payments option).  The assumption is that the August and May payments will each be “a half-check” (half of one-ninth of the full salary).  The actual amount paid in August and May is a function of the calendar/specific number of work days in the month.  (Are you bored yet?)  In many years the payment is 50/50.  For the upcoming 2018-19 academic year the breakdown is closer to 40/60.  To lessen the surprise factor, I would like you to share this calculation with the faculty.

For faculty who receive their salary spread over the academic year:

The salary paid in August 2018 will be 43.48% of 1/9th of the academic-year salary.

The salary paid in May 2019 will be 56.52% of 1/9th of the academic-year salary.

Reminder:  The percentage of the 2017-18 salary for the May 2018 payment is 60.87%

 Permission to Perform Outside Service

Please remind your faculty and unclassified staff that a request form should be filled out any time during the year that the needs arises.  The form is available from the Academic Personnel website, under “My Career,” then “Ethics Compliance.”

The site also includes a list of common activities and whether or not permission is required.

MUDEC Luxembourg Call for Proposals, 2019-2020

Miami’s Dolibois European Center (Luxembourg campus) has released its call for curriculum proposals for the 2019-20 academic year. The committee considers the configuration of courses when determining which to approve for a given academic year. The first step is a one-page statement of interest which is due March 30. If you are interested, please let me know and I can send you additional information.

Alumna talk on computational lingusitics, 3/28

Computer Science & Software Engineering is hosting Melissa Roemmele, a Miami alumna who majored in Psychology and Linguistics and recently received a doctorate in computer science from USC. Her talk, “Writing Stories with Help from Artificial Intelligence [Human and Computer Interaction in the Writing Process],” will be held in Shideler 001 on Wednesday, March 28, at 1:30pm. Melissa writes:

In this talk, I’ll present my work on a particular application that addresses this goal by automatically generating suggestions to authors for new sentences in a story they are writing. I’ll discuss my current findings on authors’ interactions with this application and show how these findings motivate future opportunities in relevant interdisciplinary research across computer science, linguistics, and psychology.

ANY time you have to miss class…

Please complete this form any time that you need to miss any of your class meetings, whether due to illness, conference travel, or other personal or professional obligations. Please recall that there are instructional minute requirements that we must meet, and you are required to notify me in advance of ANY missed classes (MUPIM 5.9), including your plan for covering the course (i.e., not “canceling;” see also my email to all faculty of 11/17/17).

Volunteer needed for diversity recruitment event

The dean’s office is looking for a volunteer for the RedHawk Overnight Event to be held at the Art Museum–no, you do NOT need to spend the night. From Ted Peters:

This is a diversity recruitment event the evening of Sunday, April 8th. We have been told to expect up to 25 students who are interested in CAS; however, we won’t know what majors they are interested in until a week before the event.

I know this is a Sunday night, but Chris and I ask that you find a tentative volunteer from your department and then we can let you know if you have any potential majors signed up to attend. Many departments won’t need to be on in attendance, but we’d like to be covered just in case.

Please let me know if you are able to cover this in case we have interested students. Theoretically I can do this if nobody is available but I’m hoping that one of you living in Oxford might be willing.

Diversity events this week

From the D&I committee, by way of Lauren Forrest, campus events to enhance our understanding of diverse groups. Note that these are posted approximately a week ahead for advance planning purposes and anticipating most blog readers use the weekly digest which publishes Thursday mornings.

Telling a People’s Story Museum Exhibition
When: Now through June 30, 2018
Where: Miami University Art Museum
Description: This museum exhibition is devoted to the art found within the pages of African-American children’s picture books. Through 95 books and 130 illustrations, the exhibition emphasizes the strength of the illustrations as visual narrative representations of the African-American experience.

Miami Theatre: We Are Proud to Present
When: March 10 and March 11 at 2:00pm
Where: Studio 88 Theatre
Description: We Are Proud To Present invites us into the rehearsal room with six actors devising a presentation about a little-known genocide in German colonial Africa. Their stormy collaboration questions how histories are written and whose voices are heard.
$12 Adult | $9 Senior | $8 Student

Closing the Gender Gap in Technology: A STEM Path Forward for Girls Who Code
When: March 12 at 7:30pm
Where: Hall Auditorium
Description: Girls Who Code, the organization that Reshma Saujani founded, focuses on educating girls between the ages of 7 and 13, with hope that the girls grow up and pursue degrees and careers in STEM. Since 2012, the organization has grown from serving 20 girls in New York City to nearly 40,000 girls across the country. Girls Who Code most recently teamed up with publisher Penguin to release a series of 13 books for girls about computer science and coding.

The Intimacy of Power: Politics and Everyday Life in Russia and Eastern Europe
When: March 12 from 11:30am-1pm
Where: 202 Harrison Hall
Description: Krisztina Fehérváry, from the University of Michigan, will present a talk entitled “Retro Hungary: Nationalist Re-mattering of the Modern Past.

A Tale of Two African Hegemons
When: March 12 from 6-8pm
Where: Armstrong Student Center, room 3056
Description: This lecture assesses Nigeria/South Africa relations in the areas of politics, economics, and culture within the context of rivalries and hegemony.

Introducing Rich and Colorful Traditional Chinese Sports
When: March 12 at 7pm
Where: 415 McGuffey
Description: Chen Jielin, a member of the Scientific Research Department in Guangzhou, will give a speech on “Introducing Rich and Colorful Traditional Chinese Sports.”

Making it Practical
When: March 12 at 7pm
Where: Interfaith Center, 16 S. Campus Ave
Description: A talk by famed Rabbi Avtzon dean of the Yeshivah in Cincinnati on the topic of “Making it practical,” which will provide a new look at important Jewish topics.

The Effects of Chinese Medical Treatments on the Recovery of Sport Injuries
When: March 13 at 7pm
Where: 322 McGuffey
Description: Lin Jiaying, a doctor from Guangdong Sports Hospital, and also a team doctor of Guangdong Swimming team, will give a speech on “The Effects of Chinese Medical Treatments on the Recovery of Sport Injuries”.

Congratulations to our clinical internship applicants!

Some wonderful news from Aaron Luebbe, Director of Clinical Training:

It is with extreme pleasure that I inform you that 100% of students
who applied for the predoctoral clinical internship matched this year!

This result is the culmination of months (years) of hard work,
preparation, and dedication by these students, along with the support
of their mentors and peers. I’m grateful for the support that our
program provides one another. And the sites at which these students
matched are some of the top in the nation.

So please join me in congratulating the following students who have
matched at the following sites:

Natalie Cook: Phoenix VA Health Care System
Mills Smith-Millman: VA Maryland HCS/Univ Maryland School of Medicine
Belinda Teo: Hawthorn Center

Please join me in congratulating these students, and recognizing the efforts of our strong clinical program in bringing this about. We wish these students the best of success as they head for their internships later this year!

Diversity events this week

Note that the weekly diversity events are now collated by Lauren Forrest (taking over from Laurel), whom we thank for her efforts to keep us informed of these! We are trying to post these with enough lead time for appropriate planning, but if there are any suggestions for how to better do so, please let us know.

Art Museum Lecture: Black Power No More
When: Monday, March 5 at 10am
Where: Miami University Art Museum
Description: Join us for an explanation of the embrace and cooptation of black pride. Black Power energized the Civil Rights Movement and gave African Americans a new sense of pride.

Was Hojo Masako Japan’s Only Female Shogun?
When: Monday, March 5 at 4pm (1.5-hour event)
Where: Harrison Hall 111
Description: Dr. Ethan Segal is an Associate Professor of History and Chair of the Japan Council at Michigan State University. Professor Segal’s lecture explores a wide range of issues, including Hojo Masako’s life and legacy.

The Structure of Protest Cycles: Contagion and Cohesion in South Korea’s Democracy Movement
When: Monday, March 5 at 6pm
Where: Upham 001
Description: Rodney Coates, professor of in the Department of Global and Intercultural Studies and director of Black World Studies, brings the speakers to campus for his class “Critical Inquiry and Penny Lecture Series.” The theme of this year’s series is Global Identities and Social Movements.

Art Museum Lecture: Tammy Kernodle
When: Tuesday, March 6 at 12pm
Where: Miami University Art Museum
Description: Explore Hughes’ collaborative projects with singers and composers and how these efforts resulted in the formation of narratives of resistance that parallel the direct action activism that defined the the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. Co-sponsored with Association of Black Faculty and Staff (ABFAS)

Diversity Week featuring Damon Williams
When: Tuesday, March 6 at 7pm (2-hour event)
Where: Hamilton campus, 114 Rentschler Hall
Description: The keynote presentation will engage audiences in a unique TED Talk-like conversation about the most cutting-edge ideas regarding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) leadership today.

Miami Theatre: We Are Proud to Present
When: March 7 through March 10 at 7:30pm; March 10 and March 11 at 2:00pm
Where: Studio 88 Theatre
Description: We Are Proud To Present invites us into the rehearsal room with six actors devising a presentation about a little-known genocide in German colonial Africa. Their stormy collaboration questions how histories are written and whose voices are heard.
$12 Adult | $9 Senior | $8 Student

The Mountaintop, LA Theatre Works
When: Thursday, March 8 at 7:30pm (2.5-hour event)
Where: Hall Auitorium
Description: Punctuated by the immortal line, “I’ve been to the mountaintop,” the celebrated Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. reveals his hopes, regrets, and fears, creating a masterful bridge between mortality and immortality. $20 Adult | $19 Senior | $10 Youth/Student

Japanese Cooking Night
When: Friday, March 9 at 6:00pm
Where: Armstrong Student Kitchen
Description: Come join us for a night of fun while we make okonomiyaki and strawberry daifuku. Cost is $5 per person.

Congratulations to our 2018-19 Dissertation Scholar!

I am pleased to announce that Lauren Forrest has been selected as the 2018-19 Dissertation Scholar for the department. Lauren’s dissertation, under the direction of April Smith, will examine the role of interoception (the ability to detect and become cognitively aware of the sensations present in the body) in differentiating among those with suicidal self-injurious behaviors, non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors, and healthy controls. Please join me in congratulating Lauren as she pursues this important work!

Call for Dean’s Scholar and Capretta Scholarship nominations

Allen McConnell and the Awards Committee announce two important recognitions for your talented undergraduate and graduate students:

The deadline for Dean’s Scholars applications has been set, with completed nominations being due before the end of the day on Friday, March 16, 2018. The College of Arts and Science Dean’s Scholarship is designed to encourage scholarly activity among Miami’s best undergraduate seniors, with students applying for support during the spring semester of their junior year. Details can be found on the Team Drive here.

The deadline for Capretta Scholarship consideration is Friday, April 6, 2018. The Capretta Scholarship is awarded to graduate students for research accomplishments completed at Miami University. Graduate students who have completed their master’s thesis and have not previously received the Capretta Scholarship are eligible for consideration. Nominations can be initiated by psychology faculty or by students (self or peer). Details can be found on the Team Drive here.