Progress update: The College and Cooperative Extension have formed strong partnerships with Delaware State University; state, county and local governments; businesses; and nonprofit organizations and are continually seeking new strategic alliances. As part of its recent economic initiatives, the College and Extension have partnered with the Delaware Food Bank in a multi-pronged, year-long effort to meet the needs of Delawareans through food collection drives, community gardens, gleaning programs, and a “Plant a Row for the Hungry” campaign.

On May 15, the College began the Garden for the Community as part of the Delaware Does More campaign, a statewide initiative started by the Food Bank and United Way to provide struggling Delawareans with food, shelter and utilities. Volunteers, students, faculty and staff members from throughout the UD campus as well as the larger community-have planted, tended and harvested the 15,000-square-foot plot, donating vegetables, herbs and fruit to the Food Bank. The Community Garden is a partnership of the College, the Master Gardeners program, the state Department of Agriculture and others in the community. In 2009, the Garden produced more than three tons of fresh produce.

Progress update: The College is continuing for a second year its support for the Department of Art’s satellite gallery at the Crane Arts Center in Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties neighborhood. In addition to providing a venue for MFA, faculty, and alumni exhibits, the gallery supports collaborative inter-arts programming. It is being used by graduate students in Art, Music, and English for multi-media performances, poetry readings, and experimental installations that can’t adequately be accommodated in our more traditionally structured exhibit spaces on campus.

The Department of Theatre’s REP/PTTP posted an 8% gain in ticket sales in 2008-09. The REP/PTTP posted a 322% increase in ticket sales in the first three weeks of the 2009-10 season compared to the first three weeks of the 2008-09 season. In March 2009, the REP was named by the Philadelphia Inquirer as a “Critic’s Choice” for outstanding professional theatre in the region. Also, a new Minor in Dance was implemented in the fall of 2009-2010 academic year.

The 2008 NEH Challenge Grant to support graduate student research and public engagement with American Material Culture studies is facilitating productive “cross-talk” among students in seven of our graduate humanities programs while also providing them with public performance and media training skills.  Unidel Foundation grants have been secured to support both the Research Institute for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the Design Institute. In September 2009, the Design Institute issued its first call for proposals for funding collaborative, multi-disciplinary projects from across the University.

An internal grants program in the arts and humanities is supporting two interdisciplinary research collaborations this year:  faculty in the Department of Art and the Department of Music are collaborating on an “Electronics and Video Art” project that will culminate in a concert at the Crane Arts Center in Philadelphia in Fall 2010;  “Textiles in a Global World” involves faculty in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, Department of History, and Fashion & Apparel Studies (CEPP) and will culminate in a symposium on campus that will coincide with Winterthur’s Betsy Ross Conference in Fall 2010. 

Faculty from eight departments in the College collaborated with the University Museums’ staff on the highly successful “Sound: Print: Record” exhibit and symposium.  The two-day interdisciplinary symposium featured a keynote lecture by musician and musicologist Ned Sublette, author of The Year Before the Flood and The World That Made New Orleans, and showcased the research of a diverse array of writers, artists, music critics, historians, musicologists, producers and performers on the Afro-Atlantic sound world.  The exhibit continues through early December, and gallery talks are being coordinated by UD faculty participants in the symposium through Fall 2009. 

The College will join forces with the Delaware Art Museum, Winterthur, the UD Library, and other units on campus to host "Useful and Beautiful: The Transatlantic Arts of William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites," a conference and related exhibitions, in October 2010.  Organized with the assistance of the William Morris Society, “Useful and Beautiful” will highlight the strengths of the University of Delaware’s rare books, manuscripts, and art collections; Winterthur’s important holdings in American decorative arts; and the Delaware Art Museum’s superlative Pre- Raphaelite collection (the largest outside Britain). 

The Departments of Political Science & International Relations and Communication sponsored an Election Night program in November 2008 attended by approximately 1,500 UD students to watch the presidential election returns and discuss the patterns with faculty members.  In April 2009, the campaign manager of Barack Obama’s successful campaign and the senior strategist of McCain’s campaign came together for the first time to discuss the 2008 election and its implications.  Both David Plouffe and Steve Schmidt are former students at UD and have continued to assist faculty in developing the Center for Political Communication (CPC).  Among the CPC’s efforts are coordinated course offerings, a fall lecture series entitled “Assessing Obama’s First Year” that includes speakers form the faculty and prominent figures from Washington, D.C., and planning to propose a minor in Political Communication.

The College is leading the planning for undergraduate education facilities in the new science building.  The design includes new teaching laboratories that will facilitate delivery of a novel first-year course that integrates biology and chemistry with a problem-based learning approach.

Progress update: Vehicle to Grid (V2G) – the first commercial electric vehicle with V2G capability rolled of the assembly line at AutoPort Inc. near Wilmington, DE. The ultimate goal of such technology is to assist with load balancing within the power grid.  DE Coastal Communities – the College is educating decision makers, community/business leaders, and other stakeholders about sea-level rise, coastal inundation, coastal hazards, and resiliency issues facing Delaware coastal communities through workshops sponsored in partnership with the American Institute of Architects, the Greater Lewes Foundation, the State of Delaware, and DE Sea Grant.  Citizen Scientists – Delaware Sea Grant trained “citizen scientists” to help monitor water quality in Delaware’s Inland Bays. Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) Training for Food Service Workers – in collaboration with colleagues from the national Sea Grant network, DE Sea Grant outreach specialists developed a national internet-based distance education training program on sanitation, good manufacturing practices, and good hygienic practices for employees who work in food processing, wholesale and warehouse firms. K-12 Education – the College conducted its second residential summer program for high school students, engaging them in a hands-on, academically rigorous experience focused on the marine environment. Called TIDE (Taking Interest in Delaware’s Estuary), the program emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding earth and ocean systems as they relate to the Delaware Bay.  This was done in partnership with DE Sea Grant.  The Delaware Geographic Alliance (DGA) offered summer workshops for Delaware teachers.

Progress update: Throughout the Summer 2009, 40 children with reading challenges received support and tutoring from School of Education faculty and graduate students at Bancroft Elementary School in Wilmington. In May 2009, nine Blueprint Communities concluded their plans for neighborhood improvement in conjunction with the support from faculty and staff in the Center for Community Research and Service. In March 2009, the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood opened, lead by Dr. Martha Buell; in September, the institute web site (www.dieec.udel.edu) was launched and thousands of families and early care and education providers have received training, support and technical assistance from the institute . From January to June 2009, 11 undergraduates served as legislative fellows in the Delaware General Assembly learning the legislative, advocacy and political process of budgeting and policy making; this program will continue for the 2010 legislative session. In March 2009, Project SMART hosted 62 students from urban areas to introduce them to and recruit them for math, science and technology teacher education programs at UD. In April 2009, the Center for Community Research and Service sponsored the 300+ participate Child Poverty Summit involving national scholars and policy makers, state legislators and executives and UD faculty members.

On July 1, 2009, the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy changed its name to the “College of Education and Public Policy”, six new undergraduate programs were established, including: the undergraduate major in Public Policy (SUAPP), the undergraduate major in Energy and Environment Policy (cross-college), the minor in Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS), the minor in Urban Education (SOE), and the minor in Historical Fashion and Costume Design (FASH). The college-wide major “CHEP” was placed on moratorium and three new graduate programs were established: the masters of science in Disaster Research and Management (SUAPP), the Ph.D. in Disaster Research and Management (SUAPP) and the masters of science in Program Evaluation (cross-college).

During the 2009 academic year, five members of the College faculty served as president or president-elect of their national and international scholarly organizations:  Steve Eidelman, President of the American Association for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Michael Gamel-McCormick, President of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities, Kathleen Minke, President-elect of the National Association of School Psychologists, Leslie Cooksy, President-elect of the American Evaluation Association, and Jeff Raffel, President-elect of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration.

Progress update: Through a new Faculty-In-Industry Residence Program, partnerships are extended to the business community to “match” specified project needs with faculty who have demonstrated expertise in the field.  In addition, student teams, such as MIS Project Management teams or graduate students participating in a Business Consulting Practicum, work in the corporate environment on an identified task to enrich organization’s effectiveness and efficiency.

The College created a “Faculty Distinguished Scholar in Residence” program to enable business and government scholars, such as Bill Poole, former President of the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis, to join the faculty and work with us to cultivate additional financial and government relationships and to increase the University’s presence outside of the region.

Progress update: Grant funding has been received to increase campus network capacity ten-fold.  The IT unit has been reorganized to reduce costs and improve client service.  An Information Security Office has been established to address campus-wide issues of information privacy and security.  The Office introduced significant improvements to online student services associated with billing, housing and dining.

Progress update: Notable new web pages created on the University’s site include the Office of Equity & Inclusion and H1N1 411 Health Alert. New social media accounts were established including University Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages.

Progress update: Athletics campus facilities master plan for varsity sport programs will be completed by Fall 2009. Master planning for recreational facilities will be completed by Summer 2010.  The Department has created and is currently implementing an aggressive athletics fundraising development plan with the Office of Development & Alumni Relations.

Progress update: The Office is continuing to hire college- and unit-based fundraisers to more effectively reach out to our alumni and donor population and engage them with UD, as well as to provide additional resources for key strategic priorities in the Path to Prominence™. Specific activities include:

• Planning and creating infrastructure for the University’s forthcoming capital campaign.

• Annual Giving is focused on increasing alumni donor participation and expanding the University’s base of unrestricted annual support via direct mail, the student calling program, online resources and face-to-face visits. 

• Annual Giving has created a robust reunion volunteer program to engage alumni celebrating their 5th, 10th, 25th and 50th reunions.  Their efforts will culminate in a celebration during Forum and Reunion Weekend 2010.

• Annual Giving has launched the Parents Fund in support of student life programs and activities as a way to actively engage parents with UD.

• Donor Relations and Special Events is creating a meaningful experience for our donors by providing annual reports on their scholarship or professorship recipients.

• Gift Planning launched the new Carillon Circle as a way to celebrate and recognize those who provide for the University through their estate plans.

• The Offices are continuing to work with colleges and units to develop fundraising plans to support their funding needs and strategic priorities.

The first annual UD Forum & Reunion Weekend was June 5-7, 2009 with over 1,700 UD alumni and friends in attendance. The weekend provided an opportunity to reconnect with friends, UD faculty, and staff as well as witness the remarkable changes at the University over the past few years. The second annual Forum and Reunion Weekend will be held on June 4-6, 2010.

Since its launch in May 2008, UD has welcomed 13,950 registered alumni on UD connection.com. There are 10,163 alumni and friends following the Office of Alumni Relations’ page on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The alumni clubs in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore hosted the first-ever New Student Welcome Picnics. The picnics provided incoming students and their parents an opportunity to interact with alumni and current upperclassmen from their hometown. 

In October 2009, the Office of Alumni Relations hosted the first-ever international alumni and friends event in Seoul, South Korea. The Office is also leading a new joint online effort with the DuPont Company to connect with the UD community employed at DuPont. DuPont is populating the homepage of their intranet site with content provided by Alumni Relations. Increased focus on alumni leadership and involvement has continued with expansion of regional club boards in Baltimore, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York, New Castle County, and Kent & Sussex Counties.

The Office of Alumni Relations has established a formalized Young Alumni Program.  A Young Alumni Chair has been added to each of the club boards. The program identifies and addresses the needs of alumni who have graduated within the past ten years and strengthens their bond to the University.

Progress update: Student Life collaborated with the Office of Institutional Planning and Academic & Student Affairs Council to host Dr. George Kuh, founder of the National Survey on Student Engagement (NSSE) in a one-day conference at the University in September 2009, conducted a Student Centers and Student Services for Athletes department Administrative Program Review to assess the quality of the programs, facilities and services in these departments and to inform future planning, launched a new “Healthy Hens” healthy student lifestyle program & a new speaker series “UDSpeaks” to host 1 – 2 prominent speakers each year at the University. UDSpeaks brought Anderson Cooper to campus in Spring 2009 and his speech drew approximately 1,800 attendees.

In 2009-10 the Office of Student Life will publish a web page to engage prospective students and inform the UD community of its programs and services, and highlight opportunities for student involvement of campus. Student Life also will assess student leadership training and support services at UD, conduct a benchmark study and recommend program enhancements, utilize the two Student Life Faculty Fellows to develop programs and activities that engage students in out-of-class learning opportunities and provide students with informal interactions with faculty.

Progress update: The Vice President of Administration team has redesigned and implemented a new employee orientation and on-boarding system.  This user-friendly system is web-based and allows for greater efficiency for benefits, wages and relocation issues. The Office has created a new comprehensive education and training program.  Launched in Fall 2009, programs include management training, career development and a variety of topics essential to creating and supporting a dynamic workforce. The Office is in the process of redesigning critical hiring processes, including affirmative action, green card, recruitment and the performance appraisal system.  This is a University-wide team effort including Information Technologies and the Office of Communications & Marketing.