Dean's Message: Looking Back & Looking Ahead

Dear CICS Community: 

With the end of the semester upon us, this is a great time to look back and to look ahead.

Looking back: despite everything, there were a lot of positive things about Fall 2020. First, we welcomed dynamite new classes of undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students, who jumped right into the life of the college. Second, philanthropy bloomed during this difficult period as generous alumni and companies stepped forward to support us. We added two new graduate scholarships this semester, our alumni contributed over $21,000 to our fund to support students with remote technology needs, and we began a new partnership with Adobe that produced over $720,000 in new donations. Third, six dynamite new faculty joined us, and we were allowed to hire another. Fourth, we followed through on our pledges to work towards making CICS an antiracist, inclusive college, with working groups of students, faculty, and staff creating a PhD applicant support program and a student sourcebook, educating us on microaggressions and inclusive teaching, and producing our first "Humans of CICS" stories on Instagram, among other steps. Last but not least, we hosted a broad range of events, from lectures and forums to alumni gatherings and recruiting fairs. And we did all of this while working remotely, teaching and taking classes online, and dealing with endless COVID-induced challenges. Bravo!

Looking ahead: The spring semester will bring new challenges, but also new opportunities. We will teach a handful of face-to-face classes for our undergraduates. Four of our newly-hired faculty will join us this January, along with over 120 new master's students. We are hoping to have some in-person activities for small groups to learn together and socialize throughout the semester. Watch your email and stay tuned for communications on these and other topics as we get closer to the start of the semester.

Until then, I wish you all a restful, peaceful, and healthy break. Happy holidays!

Laura Haas 
Dean
College of Information and Computer Sciences