Center for Academic Life Progress Report--March 2006

Working with university administration, the coordination, training, oversight and development of OAK has been moved to the Library. We are in discussion with the Center for Teaching to work closely with them. Melinda Brown, Central, and Pamela Armstrong, CFT, are working on a QEP proposal that would make information literacy a top priority across campus.

Dennis Hall will appoint a committee in the spring of faculty and library staff that will begin the process of articulating a vision for the library that will result in a campaign for facilities, which will likely emphasize the Center for Academic Life. The committee will work on establishing the vision from approximately spring 2006 to fall 2007. A decision was made to not convene the originally planned Center for Academic Life Committee, but rather to proceed with the various efforts at building collaborative partnerships on campus.

A Learning Commons Project Team, consisting of representatives of the Library, Center for Teaching, College of Arts and Science, and Office of Innovation through Technology, met during the second half of 2005 to develop a concept plan and budget for a commons. Though the group envisioned the commons as a campus-wide service, its probable location in the Central Library decreased our prospects of attracting funding from schools other than A&S. Because A&S was unable to fund the project, the team disbanded.