August 08, 2008

Dear MSU – Great Falls Adjunct Faculty,

Welcome to fall semester 2008 at MSU – Great Falls! The summer months have sure flown by! Classes begin on September 2 (after Labor Day) this year but they are still only a short time away.

The last year has brought with it many changes to our campus in all kinds of ways (my position included). Major changes will be covered in the fall 2008 Adjunct Faculty Orientations. Completing the orientation is mandatory for all adjunct instructors teaching for MSU – Great Falls during the fall semester.  You will be paid $40 for completing the orientation if completed by 5:00 pm on September 10, 2008 (If you have not completed the orientation by Sept 10, you will still be required to do so but you will not be compensated). If you are reading this newsletter online, you will be receiving an orientation letter via mail with specific information pertaining to which orientation you will need to attend.

The adjunct faculty webpage: http://www.msugf.edu/facultystaff/Adjunct/index.htm
contains links for the Online Faculty Orientations, as well as the Adjunct Faculty Handbook and other information you’ll need for the fall semester. The online orientation can be completed by any who find it to be a more convenient way to fulfill this requirement than the sessions on campus. For those completing the online orientation, please remember to continue through the orientation to the surveymonkey form. A high-speed connection to the internet is strongly recommended.

A fall Faculty Orientation and Advising Days schedule has also been posted on the website, should you be interested in attending any of the listed activities. Please contact Lorene Jaynes at 771-4301 (or me) if you decide to attend any of the FOA Days activities (so we can plan for adequate seating, etc…). We would love to have your involvement in these activities, especially the convocation/welcome scheduled August 25 from 8:30- 9:45 am in Heritage Hall, which will be followed by convocation activities for faculty from 10 am- 12 pm.

There are several distance learning training opportunities that are important for you to know about as well:

· For those of you able to make it to campus, Ryan Schrenk will be doing training for online course designers on August 21 from 10:00 am to 11:30 am in Heritage Hall and a separate training later that day on Respondus and Hypersnap (software commonly used by online instructors) from 1:00 pm- 2:30 pm in B135. This is free, so come one, come all! If you plan to attend, please contact Ryan at 771-4444 or send him an email at rschrenk@msugf.edu to let him know you’d like to attend.

· EDUC 116/199 Facilitating Online Learning (a semester-long online course on teaching online) begins on September 2. Space is limited on a first-come, first-served basis. Seats now being held for MSU – Great Falls and Bozeman COT faculty will soon be released to others in our community so don’t wait to register if you are interested! The course can be taken for credit or non-credit by adjunct instructors for free! (The fee for the non-credit course is $100 which will be waived by your Division). If adjunct instructors would like to take the course for credit, $100 of the registration fees will be paid by your Division, leaving the remaining balance to the adjunct faculty.  All adjuncts are responsible for purchasing their own books, available from the COTtage Bookstore (these are not covered). For more information on getting registered, please contact me right away!

If you are due for an evaluation this academic year, I will be contacting you via your msugf email account (if you have one). Newsletters and important information will be distributed to your msugf email account also, so please remember to check it regularly.

And, last but definitely not least, adjunct pay starting fall semester will increase to $700 per credit (the basic hourly rate has increased accordingly as well)! I love ending the first newsletter of the academic year on such a positive note!

 Please feel free to stop by, call or email me at any time. I am looking forward to another great semester ahead!

Wishing you a happy autumn,

Kim Schrenk
Director of Adjunct Instruction
MSU – Great Falls College of Technology
406-771-4422
kschrenk@msugf.edu