| |
|
|
from the issue of July 15, 2004
|
| |
|
|
| |
Kean tackles goals to benefit undergrads
BY KELLY BARTLING, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Behind the scenes at her father's furniture business in New York, Rita Kean discovered the allure of textiles and the business of merchandising.
| |
| | | Dean of Undergraduate Studies Rita Kean, standing at right, and Hong Yong Kim, doctoral student and course instructor, help Kirsten Bruner, junior fashion merchandising major, with a question during visual merchandising class at the Home Economics Building on East Campus. Photo by Brett Hampton.
|
It wasn't until a textile scientist took an interest in Kean during college and helped her realize some unnoticed skills that Kean ever gave a thought to academics.
"Did I ever think about being an instructor? At a university? Never, never, never," laughs Kean, now the new dean of undergraduate studies at UNL and a professor of textiles, clothing and design.
"But there were a lot of things about myself that I didn't know; (she) took an interest in me and helped me see a lot of abilities and skills that I didn't see in myself. Primarily, that I was smart!" Kean said.
With the help of her mentor, Kean set her sights higher and earned an internship in a textile science lab at Sears Roebuck; after college, she worked as an assistant buyer for B. Altman and Co. She tried teaching (at a junior high school) then traveled to Nebraska, where her brother was finishing his doctorate in education. While in Lincoln she visited the textiles, clothing and design department about their master's program; they later offered her an assistantship. While finishing her degrees, the academic wheels were set into motion. Following her master's, Kean worked as a buyer for Hovland Swanson in Lincoln for five years before accepting an instructor's position in TCD.
Kean draws often on her experience with that first mentor and tries to always relate it to her work with students.
"I've been blessed with some terrific mentors, including Audrey Newton, Robert Hillestad, Joan Laughlin, Karen Craig and Irv Omtvedt, and the best part was that they allowed me to be myself," she said. "They helped me to see that I can manage things well. That's what I've tried to do with students over the years."
As Kean enters her second year as the first dean of undergraduate students, she continually draws on themes that were critical to her as a faculty member and experiences from the classroom. She sees students today as vastly different from even 10 years ago. She wants to re-energize the undergraduate student experience and challenge UNL to renew its focus on undergrads with the goal of improving students' engagement and connection with UNL.
"Undergraduate education is something people at the university have always been committed to," she said. "I just don't think we've made that visible. We have been very quiet about it."
After taking her role May 1, 2003, Kean's first task was establishing the 16-member Transition to University Task Force. Composed of students, admissions staff, professors, honors and intercultural representatives, the group assessed the status of undergraduate relations and its position in other reports, like 2020 Vision and the Blue Sky Report. The group's main recommendation is that first-year students receive a content-based first-year core course, a more academically focused New Student Enrollment experience, and academic support and advising to help improve the first-year experience.
Kean is implementing some of the task force's recommendations this summer during NSE, with an overall theme: "Engage, Connect, Balance."
"People are reacting very well to this information campaign because these three words capsulate what we do for students, and it's something to build upon," she said. NSE and Admissions are ramping up Blackboard for improved communication from current NSE leaders with entering students to establish a virtual community, reminding students of important things, answering questions and offering tips.
This fall Kean will implement, with help from NSE Director Pat McBride, a first-ever "mid-semester checkpoint" where first-year students will be called to the Union Sept. 29-30 to assess how they are doing.
"This is a point at which students will be asked to consider 'Have you thought of this?'" Kean said. "Many students don't realize that they may not have had a test yet but they still should be studying every day, working on their time management, that sort of thing."
Other initiatives this fall include:
• enhancing supplemental instruction using students, called University Teaching Assistants Corps, which is modeled after the nationally acclaimed program;
• enhancing undergraduate research through the UCARE program;
• adding three campus programs to the Office of Undergraduate Studies - the Office of Academic Support and Intercultural Services, the Summer Institute for Promising Scholars, and the NUPATHS programs, which recruits academically talented minority students to UNL to enroll in programs that will prepare them for health care professional programs at the University of Nebraska Medical Center;
• creating the Jones Scholars Learning Community;
• continuing to enhance the honors programs.
To accomplish these initiatives, Kean relies heavily on cooperation and improved communication with academic units and groups like ASUN and Admissions.
Overall, the goal to improve the retention rate to 85 percent and stabilize the five-year graduation rate remain in focus. Kean said she and the task force realize that students' engagement with the university is vital, and that students don't differentiate between the academic, social and personal parts of student life.
"We know that students need the first weeks in college to navigate the social and the living conditions, the roommate," Kean said. "We continually talk to students about the academics without helping them learn how the rest of these parts balance. They can't afford not to think about what classes they need for next semester, or what to do if they don't like their major. They may not know the questions to ask but the important thing is to make the connection with an adult, faculty or staff member, or an RA. It's going to take us a while to see if this works, how we're doing and if we're having an effect. I think it will."
Kean's enthusiasm about undergraduates remains a constant as she hits her 25-year mark with the university, a tenure marked by another of her personal themes: change.
"The role models that I've had and greatly admired because of their passion, their commitment and their loyalty to both the discipline and the institution also helped me to realize another of the things that I like, and that's change," Kean said. "I thrive on it." That's evident from her vita, which notes roles as interim associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, interim dean of the College of Human Resources and Family Sciences, department chair, and an American Council on Education fellow at University of Kansas. The honor of which she is proudest is the Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design's receipt in 2000 of the Universitywide Departmental Teaching Award.
"First and foremost, I consider myself a faculty member, in terms of loving the subject matter and the discipline," she said. "I like working across the university, I like bringing people together and making things work. To make change.
"Change in this job is focused on streamlining the path for our students and helping them succeed in their academic programs and graduate."
GO TO: ISSUE OF JULY 15
NEWS HEADLINES FOR JULY 15
It's Not Summer Without A Trip To The Dairy Store
$9 Million To Support EPSCoR Work
Kean tackles goals to benefit undergrads
Warming Hurts Rice Yield, Says Research
Policy center, state to aid storm victims
Refurbished Avery Hall welcomes new tenants
Use New NCards After Aug. 2
Viruses, Trojans, worms can make the Web a scary world
731777S33380X
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|