Office of Faculty EngagementAll first-year students are required to attend a First-Year Advising Lab.
The purpose of the lab is to assist students in preparing to have discussions with their faculty advisors about course selection and how to include high impact practices in the student’s education. This lab will teach students more about the Stetson curriculum and how it impacts their specific goals. More
Colleagues:
This year, the Stetson Honor System Council is focused on a variety of educational initiatives aimed at first year students.
Primarily, we offer presentations for FSEM and first year classrooms. These presentations take 10-15 minutes, depending on content and engagement level. In addition, we are planning several other initiatives:
FSEM instructors who would like Honor Council members to visit their classrooms should contact Kimberly Noriega, vice president for education; Kathryn Renae Metcalf, president; or Cindy Bennington, faculty advisor.
Thanks,
Cindy Bennington
Honor Council Faculty Advisor
Stetson University’s Values Day will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017, according to the Values Day Committee.
Irshad Manji will be the speaker at Stetson’s 2017 Values Day on Sept. 26. Photo by Jimmy Jeong/courtesy of Simon & Schuster.
The 2017 Values Day speaker is Irshad Manji. She is the Founder and Director of the Moral Courage Project, which equips students to make values-based decisions. She has turned her journey as a Muslim feminist reformer and lesbian activist into teachings about professional leadership, informed by cutting-edge research that connects across the disciplines.
The New York Society for Ethical Culture has given Manji the Ethical Humanist Award. And Oprah Winfrey awarded Manji the first annual Chutzpah Award for “audacity, nerve, boldness and conviction.” Manji has also produced a PBS documentary in the America at a Crossroads series titled “Faith Without Fear” and the documentary was nominated for a 2008 Emmy Award.
To learn more about Manji and her work, please visit her personal website and her NYU project.
This year’s R.E.A.D. (Reflect Engage & Affirm Diversity) book, “Allah, Liberty and Love” (2011), is written by Manji. Manji describes the book as an effort to “reconcile faith and freedom in a world seething with repressive dogmas.” One of the key teachings of Manji’s work and a universal theme in her book is “moral courage” or the willingness to question, speak up, and be a courageous global citizen in a world filled with inequities. To check out a description of her book, visit the following site or Amazon.
For faculty, staff and students eager to read the book prior to Values Day and for faculty/staff members interested in integrating the book in 2017-2018 courses, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion has generously ordered books and should have copies available for pick-up Aug. 7, 2017. Additionally, copies will be made available at Convocation and during the R.E.A.D. session at Values Day.
For any inquiries or questions regarding Values Day, please contact Dr. Chris Bell ([email protected]), Savannah-Jane Griffin ([email protected]), or me ([email protected]).
In community,
Rajni Shankar-Brown, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Jessie Ball duPont Chair of Social Justice Education
Director of Education Graduate Programs
Stetson University
Adapted from Stetson Today. August 27, 2017
FSEM Instructors:
Here are two pieces of information we would like to convey to you.
In Community,
Colin MacFarlane
Director of Assessment and Operational Effectiveness
Campus Life and Student Success
Stetson University
To the Stetson University community,
Thousands of University of Virginia students and faculty attended a candlelight vigil Wednesday night to “take back” their university after last weekend’s violence by neo-Nazi and white supremacist protestors. Photo/Sanjay Suchak, UVA Communications
Last night at the University of Virginia, thousands of students and faculty gathered together on the lawn of the university rotunda for a candlelight vigil to “take back” their university. It was clearly a moving moment as UVA attempts to heal itself. My remembrances of the courage and conviction of the civil rights marchers over 50 years ago came flooding back to me last night. Have we as a country and citizenry really made so little progress?
The vigil came just hours after a memorial service for Heather Heyer, the young woman killed this past weekend during the violence and clashes that have shocked and saddened the nation. We mourn with Charlottesville and Virginia for Heather’s death and the accident that killed two state troopers that same tragic day.
Today I express my support for Teresa Sullivan, president of the University of Virginia, and the entire UVA community during this difficult time. Stetson University stands with her and those all across our country in support of First Amendment rights, while condemning hate speech, bigotry and violence. I congratulate the Stetson University Student Government Association for its public support for the students of UVA and their solidarity with their counterparts.
In times of such national turmoil, it is important for individuals and institutions to stand up for their beliefs, speak up and speak out. Stetson University cannot remain silent in the face of public sentiments supporting racism, anti-Semitism, prejudice and intolerance.
Stetson’s mission is to provide a creative community where learning and values meet and there is no place at Stetson University for the hatred recently expressed in Virginia. Instead we choose to embrace the very best of America’s hard-won values, freedom, equality, justice and liberty for all.
Today I reaffirm for you, the Stetson Community, my commitment to continue our work toward our foundational goal to “Be a Diverse Community of Inclusive Excellence.”
Every day we have an opportunity to choose equity, to stand up for equity. Let no day pass without such affirmation.
Sincerely,
Wendy B. Libby, Ph.D.
President
A new FSEM Manual & Resource Guide is available to FSEM Instructors and others dedicated to first-year student success.
The manual was designed to increase shared understanding of first year seminars and instructor expectations. It serves as a resource guide for instructors and students, and as an institutional resource for capacity-building to foster the successful transition of first-time-in-college Stetson students.
The document is in draft form. Interested in providing content? Contact us at [email protected].
Many thanks to Dr. Maria Rickling, former FSEM director and assistant professor of accounting, for developing this resource.
August 21-23: 6:00-9:00 pm
Monday – Thursday: Noon–10:00 pm
Friday: Noon–3:00 pm
Sunday: 3:00 pm–6:00 pm
