Welcome to the spring 2012 semester! I feel refreshed and recharged from the winter break, and I hope all of you do as well.

Dean's review

I want to thank all of you who participated in the midterm review of my performance as dean. The midterm review is an important aspect of shared governance at Texas A&M, and I was pleased to see a high level of participation in the review. For those of you who took the survey, I want you to know that I very much appreciate your constructive comments. At a recent retreat of the College Executive Committee, we integrated your comments into a focused discussion on how to improve two-way communication on the College vision and the activities we need to undertake to forward that vision.

College Annual Meeting

As a starting point to increasing communication throughout the college, I invite all of you to a College meeting on January 26 at 3:30 pm in O&M room 112. I will present a short overview of the College as it is today and a framework for future directions in the context of the university and the geosciences as a whole. I will speak for about half an hour, and then I want to hear from you. This is an opportunity for you to share your ideas of where you think we should be headed. We will have refreshments afterwards.  

SACS accreditation

Significant university activity this spring will center on the culmination of our accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The SACS evaluation team will come to campus in early April. As part of the process, the university has developed a Quality Enhancement Plan with the theme Aggies Commit to Learning for a Lifetime. It asks our students to make a commitment to purposefully engage in high impact learning experiences and thoughtfully reflect on their learning experiences in order to develop the habits and skills for integrative learning and lifelong learning. It calls for our institution to create a campus culture with opportunities and support for student engagement and reflection.

I recommend that you take the opportunity to view and comment on the draft plan. Our representatives to the QEP planning committee, Drs. Andrew Klein and Julie Newman, can also receive your input. Implementation of the QEP will affect our work for many years into the future.

The initial College response to QEP, Commit to Communicate, is embedded in our plans for new high impact learning experiences and an upcoming pilot to provide writing consultants to selected W classes. These new programs are supported by new reallocation funds from the provost office and were planned in conjunction with members of the College Undergraduate and Graduate Instruction and Curriculum Committees. Many thanks to them, and the faculty members who put forward proposals to support innovative new programs for our students.

Congratulations to Texas Sea Grant on the return to print of its quarterly publication Texas Shores. The first issue contains an engaging retrospective on people and accomplishments in honor of Sea Grant's 40th year of service to Texans.  

Have a great semester!

Annual College Meeting

ANNUAL COLLEGE MEETING    Dean Kate Miller 3:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 26 Room 112 (auditorium) O&M

• "Exploring how to characterize the subsurface biosphere by drilling beneath the Great Barrier Reef" by H.J. Mills, B.K. Reese, C. St. Peter, A. Shepard and IODP Expedition 325 Scientists
• "Biogeopgraphy of metabolically active microbial populations within the subseafloor biosphere" by B.K. Reese, A. Shepard, C. St. Peter and H.J. Mills

• "Inclusion of Climate Dynamics in the American Meteorological Society's Bachelor's Degree Statement." 
• "AASC Recommendations for the Education of an Applied Climatologist," J.W. Nielsen-Gammon, D. Stooksbury, A. Akyuz, L. Dupigny-Giroux, K.G. Hubbard and M. M. Timofeyeva.

• "Analysis of marine multi-channel seismic data using 2D continuous wavelet transform,"  A.K. Vuong, J. Zhang, R.L. Gibson and W.W. Sager 
• "Magnetic properties and paleointensity determinations on basalts from Shatsky Rise,"  C. Carvallo, P. Camps, M. Ooga, W.W. Sager and M. Tominaga
• "Crustal structure of Shatsky Rise from joint refraction and reflection seismic tomography," J. Krenaga and W.W. Sager
• "Magma variety and geochemical stratigraphy of Shatsky Rise," T. Sano, K. Shimizu, A. Ishikawa, R. Senda, C. Qing, J. I. Kimura, M. Widdowson and W.W. Sager

Dr. Inci Guneralp (GEOG): "River meandering in heterogeneous floodplains," Inci Guneralp (presenter), Bruce L. Rhoads 

• "Using dynamic rupture models to explore physical controls on the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake rupture." 
• Co-presented with graduate student Jingqian Kang (G&G), "Dependence of residual displacements on the width and depth of compliant fault zones: a 3D study." 

Dr. Heath Mills (OCNG) co-chaired "Novel Microbial Process in the Deep Biosphere." 

MEDIA

Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon (ATMO) blogged about AGU for his column Climate Abyss in the Houston Chronicle (entries from Dec. 5 to Dec. 9).

AWARDS AND HONORS
   

GERG employees receive service pins.

Lisa Reichert, Eddie Webb and Sylvia Mendez-Pitts (GERG) were recently honored for their service to Texas A&M University. Eddie received a pin for his 25 years of service, and Lisa and Sylvia both received 20-year pins.