Committee's welcome message on eZine

Greeting from the Academic Affairs Committee!

Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) is composed of 9 members from both 2009 and 2010 classes, representing both evening and weekend cohorts:

Co-chairs:
Josh Han (2009 Weekend)
Kiran Prabhakara (2009 Weekend)

Members:
Joshua Sivaslian (2010 Evening)
Kadarnath Poduri (2009 Evening)
Renu Motwani (2009 Weekend)
Sarah Milstein (2010 Evening)
Srinivas Avasarala (2010 Evening)
Veronika Belokhvostova (2010 Weekend)

Executive Officer:
Jasmin Young (2009 Weekend)

Our mission is to help improve our students' academic experience at HAAS, inside and outside the class. A bridge linking the students to Program Office as well as other HAAS academic officers, AAC listens to students’ voices, collects students’ concerns, considers students’ suggestions, and seeks best solutions meeting students’ best interests.

Since the beginning of the year, AAC has been taking steps to fulfill this mission. The following is a list of major projects that AAC has accomplished or is working on.

1. Selecting 2007-08 recipients of the Cheit Awards for Excellence in Teaching and the Outstanding GSI Award (Completed)
2. Sharing course bidding experience with the first years (Completed)
3. Supporting New Center for Instructor Training (On going)
4. Organizing happy hours with faculty (On going)
5. Collecting qualitative feedbacks on courses and instructors (On going)

The full descriptions of these projects are summarized as follows.

1. Selecting 2007-08 recipients of the Cheit Awards for Excellence in Teaching and the Outstanding GSI Award (Completed)
Each year, Haas recognizes outstanding faculty instructors and graduate student instructors (GSI) in each degree program. For EWMBA program, Academic Affairs Committee is in charge of the process of nominating two Cheit Award recipients for evening and weekend cohorts each, and one recipient for Outstanding GSI Award. This year, within a two weeks time frame, AAC successfully conducted the online nomination survey that attracted about 25% of EWMBA students’ participation. After a careful selection, AAC members unanimously nominated three winners who will be announced on Friday, May 9 at the Dean’s end-of-the-year reception, with a “ceremony” beginning in the courtyard at approximately 4:30 PM.

2. Sharing course bidding experience with the first years (Completed)
To the first-year students, elective course bidding process appears mysterious and thus generates heavy anxiety among many students. To relieve their anxiety level, AAC were involved in recruiting 2nd and 3rd year students to share knowledge and experience with the bidding process for electives and help answer questions at three information sessions. Working with the Program Office, we managed to have student representatives at all sessions (Thanks to Vince Wu, Preston Smalley and the AAC co-chairs).

3. Supporting New Center for Instructor Training (On going)
This year, to improve the teaching quality at Haas, Adam Berman (Senior Assistant Dean and Executive Director of Institute for Business Innovation) and Jay Stowsky (Senior Assistant Dean for Instruction) planned to launch the New Center for Instructor Training that would address, but not limited to, a few notable initiatives: 1) how to approach faculty about incorporating guest lecturers and real-world examples without making them defensive; 2) how to train instructors teaching with the case method; 3) how to help faculty who receive a score of 4.5 or lower on their courses; 4) how to evaluate new instructors’ teaching quality before their being hired. To facilitate these new initiatives, AAC has volunteered to participate and created a dedicated 3-member team (led by Sarah). By far the team has already attended two meetings with the center officers. Going forward, we may also need to recruit student volunteers to get involved into these initiatives.

4. Organizing happy hours with faculty (On going)
Do you feel our tie with instructors is too narrowed to inside-class interaction? If so what about more informal chatting with instructors outside the classroom? We believe a more intimate bond with faculty fosters better class experience. AAC is collaborating with Social Committee to invite instructors having happy hours with our students. To spin the wheel, AAC has created a dedicated 2-member team (Renu and Veronika) who are now coordinating with Social Committee to send invitations to instructors. As a consequence, the social committee has already put together events for the rest of this year. We will work on a list of faculty members who would draw students.

5. Collecting qualitative feedbacks on courses and instructors (On going)
The existing score-based faculty evaluation system helps students making informed decisions on bidding elective courses. But more and more students are reporting its weakness, lacking of qualitative feedbacks or comments from past course takers on a course and its instructor. In addition, it is really awkward to access the database. To solve the unmet needs, AAC is in the process of working with Communication Committee to conduct a comprehensive survey on all EWMBA courses and instructors. We will collect students' qualitative feedbacks for each pair of course/instructor, and post the result onto a secure website that is easily viable to all students. As a result, students will make more informed course selection and bidding decision, which in turn will also help filter out non-popular courses.


We hope now you have a clear picture of what role AAC is playing. In fact, we have far more items to work on. The more volunteers, the better! If you are willing to contribute to HAAS community and are interested in joining AAC, please contact any of our members you like. For more information on this committee, please visit

https://mail.haas.berkeley.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=a294f28af2004f20ae8df47c1ca95d32&URL=http%3a%2f%2fhaasewmbaa-academicaffairs.blogspot.com%2f


Sincerely,

Academic Affairs Committee
EWMBAA

Apologies for having the blog dormant so far. The Academics committee has been working on quite a few interesting things which we would like to share with the EWMBA student community.

One of the programs we are involved in is helping the first-year students with the bidding process for electives. We have had several information sessions (working with the Program Office) where 2nd and 3rd year students helped answer questions. Thanks to Vince Wu, Preston Smalley and the AAC co-chairs, all sessions had student representatives answering questions and allaying fears that the first-year students might have had.

Some of the bidding tips from these sessions are included for quick reference:

Bidding tips
1. Mark your calendars for these bidding rounds and do not forget to bid ! Unlike in the first-year, there are no default registrations.
2. Research, research, research ! Look at the course descriptions, podcasts/videos by Profs, talk to the 2nd/3rd year students, talk to the Profs themselves, read up the ratings information on the Profs.... and do all these *before* bidding begins .
3. After completing your research, come up with a ranked list of courses that suits your goals and needs.
4. Do not divide up your points equally among your courses. For popular courses, feel free to bid really high. And conversely, bid fewer points for your lower ranked courses - do not be afraid to bid a solitary point on your lower ranked courses ... a lot of times, this is all that is needed for you to get into a class.
5.If you are really interested in a course in the other cohort, bid undeclared. The points that you lose in this process are more than made up for by the benefits of a "perfect-fit" course. But be aware that if this is a really sought-after class, bids will be really high.
6. And finally, do not stress out. There are add/drop periods where you can get into a desired class.

Good luck with your bidding process!

The Earl F.Cheit Awards for 2008

Each year, Haas recognizes outstanding educators and graduate student instructors (GSI). Excellence in teaching is recognized through the annual Earl F. Cheit Award. This award is named after Dean Emeritus Earl F. Cheit, who made teaching excellence one of his top priorities as Dean. Panels of students choose the recipients of the Cheit Award based on nominations submitted by their fellow students. The 2008 Awardees will be honored at the Dean’s End of The Year Party on Friday, May 9th in the Haas School Courtyard.

Please take a few minutes to reflect upon your classroom experiences this past academic year and consider submitting a nomination. The individual you nominate is not only proficient in their subject matter, but also has a strong commitment to the learning and mentoring process. The EWMBA student body intends to select one teacher from the Evening courses and one teacher from the Weekend courses. In addition we will select one GSI for this academic year. Teachers and GSIs from Summer 2007 through Spring 2008 courses are eligible for nomination.

The survey can be accessed from the following link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=X4UslAwXcQdfINV4vUmAFQ_3d_3d

The deadline for submitting your nominations is Monday, April 21st at 11:59pm. If you have questions regarding the nomination process, please contact:
Kiran Prabhakara (kiranprabhakara at mba.berkeley.edu) or Josh Han (josh_han at mba.berkeley.edu)

Thanks,The Academics Affairs Committee

2008 Academic Affairs Committee

Co-chairs: Josh Han and Kiran Prabhakara
Members: Renu Motwani, Sarah Milstein, Veronika Belokhvostova, Joshua Sivaslian, Srinivas Avasarala, Kedar Poduri

Executive Officer: Jasmin Young