Much has happened during the
2004-05 academic year to improve
the services for undergraduates in the
Psychology Department. Probably the most visible change for our students
is the reorganized advising services.
Mark Erichson joined the staff to direct
the 3-tiered advising system. He works
with Dr. Nancy Davis to train the peer
advisors. They have twenty hours per
week in which students can walk in to
ask general questions about any of our
concentrations. Mark also oversees the
appointment process for students to
meet with professional advisors who
deal with routine questions about course
plans, transfer of courses from other
universities, etc. This group of trained
professionals also encourages students
who are seeking advice about graduate
school, professional programs or other
career choices to visit the faculty concentration
advisors. The result of this new
system is that students can meet relatively
quickly with an advisor, and our
peer-advisors are even better trained.
The Biopsychology and Cognitive
Science concentration changed names
(again) to Brain, Behavior and Cognitive
Science (BBCS) in preparation for a third concentration that arrives in Fall
2005. After much work by a committee
of neuroscientists, the Psychology and
Biology departments are unveiling a
joint Neuroscience undergraduate concentration.
This new concentration will
focus equally on Behavioral Neuroscience
(primarily from Psychology faculty)
and Molecular Neuroscience (mostly
from Biology faculty). We believe that
this concentration will meet the need
of students who have been creating a
joint Bio/Psych independent concentration
for a number of years. Unlike most
undergraduate Neuroscience degrees,
our program will produce students
well-versed in the breadth of the field
and they will be excellent candidates for
graduate Neuroscience programs.
At the same time, we continue to
strengthen the BBCS and Psychology
concentrations with new course offerings
and a reorganization of the laboratory
courses. Students are now required to
take statistics prior to taking their laboratory
courses, and a new course focused
on research design, methods and writing
(Psych 303) is now seating 400 students
a year. In addition, we have added a new, graded 300 level research course to our research track, allowing students to
take credits for research as second year
students, working up to a senior thesis if
they so desire. As graduate schools become
more insistent on students having
extensive research experience as undergraduates,
we now offer that capability to
all our students for multiple semesters of
research.
As always, we offer many 300 and
400 level courses for students with interests
across all Psychology disciplines.
With the arrival of new faculty over the
last few years, new courses are emerging
that are at the forefront of the field.
Ram Mahalingam and Cindy Lustig have
introduced new seminars for advanced
undergraduates, Immigrant Psychology
and Cognition and Aging, respectively,
and Scott Paris’ Educational Psychology
is proving to be a popular addition to the
department’s course offerings.
The department is very proud that,
for the second year in a row, 70+ seniors
have completed their senior theses.
Under the well-organized guidance of
the Honor’s program (Dr. Colleen Seifert
and her very capable assistant, Jennifer
Catey), students are guided through
the thesis process with a set of monthly
group meetings, deadlines and gentle
prodding. It is notable that these students
are mentored by nearly as many
faculty (approximately 40% of all faculty
each year).
This year we have awarded a
number of prizes within the Psychology
Department to deserving students.
Tanner Memorial Award: Elizabeth Anderson,
Blair Sutton and Jonathan Pargament
Anne Rudo Memorial Scholarship:Snezhana Tuxhari
Albert Cain Travel Award: Lisa Slominski
Muenzer Memorial Award: Stacy Dodd
W.B. Pillsbury Prize: Juliana Breines and
Kathleen Lentz
It is this commitment to excellence
in undergraduate education on
the part of faculty, students and staff
that led LS&A to select the Department of Psychology as recipient of the 2005
Departmental Award for Contributions
to the Undergraduate Initiative. The
award cites our “...strong commitment to
undergraduate education in recent years
through a number of impressive improvements.
The department’s commitment
to the new neuroscience curriculum,
course clusters, the use of CTools in
your courses, improved advising system,
and strengthening the Honors program all make significant contributions to
undergraduate education.” We all take
pride in this award which recognizes our
outstanding undergraduate program and
the effort behind it.
As always, we looked forward with
mixed emotions to our farewell event
for graduating seniors. We are proud of
our Honor’s students and the great effort
they have made to enter the next level of
the academic enterprise in their senior
year. We were also sad to see them leave
as many have worked with their faculty
mentors for 3 semesters or more. We
were equally happy for the success of
all of our other graduating seniors and
pleased that the department could help
them and their families celebrate the
beginning of the next step in their lives.
All of us in the undergraduate office are looking forward to the next successful
academic year. In the meantime,
we hope you are having the summer of
your dreams.
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On Our Minds 2005 Homepage
