Much
of Laura Deutsch's work involves making sure the necessary paperwork is completed
for each Graduate School degree recipient before commencement. Here she meets
with Adam Waller, an undergraduate student working in her office.Much
of Laura Deutsch's work involves making sure the necessary paperwork is completed
for each Graduate School degree recipient before commencement. Here she meets
with Adam Waller, an undergraduate student working in her office.
Even at 8:15 a.m., one might have to weave through a crowd of busy student workers to find Laura Deutsch, director of LSU Graduate Records.
She started this hectic Thursday, Feb. 5, just the same as any other by checking her e-mail and phone messages before meeting with a student worker in the Graduate School Records Office to discuss the work that needed to be done that day.
At 8:45 a.m., Deutsch met with a fellow staff member to review some decisions that the dean of the Graduate School had made about some student petitions.
"That's a big part of the
day - touching base with the various staff members in the Records Office about the different things that come up," she said.
At 9:30 a.m., Deutsch moved on to her next big project for the day. This one involved the help of a graduate assistant to match diploma requests with the information in the system's database to verify all of those records.
A large part of Deutsch's job in the Graduate School is making certain that all of the correct paperwork is done for graduation. Her office must verify the information on each of this spring's 882 requests for diplomas against the student's department and whether the credit hours and courses for the degree have been successfully completed. This heavy task is one that Deutsch performs on a continuing cycle for the graduates of each fall and spring semester.
The office manager for this department went over some form revisions with Deutsch at approximately 11 a.m.
About 11:45 a.m. Deutsch left the office to meet her husband, Andy, for lunch. He is employed at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and the two of them try to meet for lunch at least once a week. Upon her return to the office, close to 12:45 p.m., Deutsch checked her e-mail and phone messages once again before making some telephone calls of her own.
Another vital part of her job requires Deutsch to appoint representatives of the dean's office to sit on the exam committees of doctoral students. She must find one graduate faculty member, who is not already a part of that student's committee, to be part of that exam committee. This appointed faculty member serves as a representative of the dean of the Graduate School and the graduate faculty. Deutsch must then officially notify the department of the student and the appointed faculty member of the selection that has been made. This is a task that varies depending on how many exam requests come in each week.
Other odd jobs fill up Deutsch's afternoon, such as answering phone calls from various departments about Graduate School policies, and then she must move on to the next big project of the day.
About 2:30 p.m., Deutsch spends time collecting information on graduate students for other departments of the University. For example, the International Services Office monitors visas for international students. Therefore, it must be aware of the anticipated graduation dates of those students.
Most of Deutsch's day is full of varied tasks that change throughout the year. Her most important jobs shift with the time in the semester. Around this time each semester, she must double-check time limits for degrees and I-grades leftover from the previous semester to make certain that those items of business have been taken care of properly. These reports must then be sent to the graduate advisers of each department, who then contact the students or faculty members involved and solve whatever problem might exist.
Deutsch's hectic days usually end around 4:45 p.m., and she leaves for home. As peaceful as that propect may be, her outside office life is frequently just as busy.
Deutsch is a member of Baton Rouge's Operation Upgrade that works to eliminate illiteracy among adults in the community.
"That's an important project that I would like to be able to do more with one day when I am no longer working," says Deutsch. Another community project that Deutsch is very excited about being a part of is "The Day of the Mentor 1998." This is a new program being sponsored by Forum35, Big Buddy and La Capitale Chapter of the Links program to connect young people with adult mentors around the community. The mentors are encouraged to bring their young students to work with them, to teach them about their jobs and to encourage the student's own abilities in the process. Deutsch believes this is important work that needs to be done and she is honored to be asked to be a participant.
To relax in between all of these busy University and community efforts, Deutsch likes to golf and work in her garden. She and her husband are also travel-lovers, and they enjoyed a twoweek stay in Turkey this past October while Andy was attending a conference. Deutsch enjoys seeing different cultures and different parts of the world. "Travel - that's something that takes a lot of time and money. I hope to be more able to enjoy doing that someday," Deutsch says.
-Dana Spivy
The Academic Standards and Honors Committee will again take a look at its report regarding possibly enhancing admissions standards and come up with specifics to present to the Faculty Senate.
Members of the Faculty Senate voted Jan. 26 to send the report, which gives some details of the possible changes in admissions, back to the ASH Committee for review and changes where needed.
"It is really critical that we get these admissions requirements worked out," said Sen. James Wharton.
In December, the ASH Committee proposed setting a "published set of requirements so that if students met those requirements, they'd be admitted automatically," said Sen. Mike Cherry, chairman of the committee. Cherry said those requirements are proposed to be reviewed and "fine tuned and adjusted" once a year.
Wharton proposed sending it back to give the committee ample time to "come up with predictors [of academic success] based on a bedrock of academic credibility."
Questions that still need answers, Wharton said, are what will be taken into consideration when admitting a student through alternative means and what percentage of freshmen will be admitted through alternative means.
Wharton said specifics on the summer program are also needed, such as which levels of math and English courses students will be required to take for credit. The summer program replaces ACCESS, which has been discontinued.
Faculty Senate President John Collier said the Faculty Senate's Executive Committee "knew there were some issues that needed to be resolved." However, Collier said, the Faculty Senate did take care of the time-sensitive issues, such as the deadlines for submitting applications and credentials to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.
Daniel Fogel, provost and executive vice chancellor, said the Office of Undergraduate Admissions has sent letters to all high school principals, informing them of the changes which have been approved so far. The letter noted "that the Faculty Senate is engaged in a discussion about [enhancing] admission standards," Fogel said.
"It prepares constituents across the state for the direction that we are exploring," he added.
Fogel said Chancellor William Jenkins supports the Faculty Senate's move to recommend enhanced standards for the year 2000.
The Faculty Senate also deferred acting on a resolution submitted by the Improvement of Instruction Committee. The resolution recommended that "each department shall have a teaching development program to help instructional staff to improve their teaching effectiveness.
"Such a program must provide formative evaluation of instruction by several means and appropriate options for amelioration," the resolution said.
Action on that resolution has been deferred until the February meeting.
The Faculty Senate also heard a second reading of Resolution 97-04, which called for the establishment of an ombudsman's office at LSU. The resolution was presented by Associate Professor Michelle Massè. The initial focus of the resolution was to serve as an information clearinghouse for faculty only. However, Massè said she wanted a change in the resolution to reflect that the ombudsman's office would serve students, staff, faculty and administrators.
An ombudsman's office would be "the first level of providing information to the [University] community," Massè said.
A substitute motion was passed which states that "the Faculty Senate endorses, in principle, the reports of the [Massè/Kinney] committee to establish an ombudsman office at LSU and A&M College and request the administration continue dialogue at meetings with the various constituencies involved."
The Faculty Senate also approved a resolution wishing Dean Billy Seay a speedy and full recovery. Seay was injured in a recent automobile accident on Interstate 10.
-Mary Jones