URES Thursday, April 3, 2008
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FEATURES | 9
Uliano receives tenure JILLIAN SMITH PERSPECTIVES EDITOR JKS724@CABRINI.EDU
One of the highest honors a professor can be awarded at Cabrini is being granted tenure. All professors, during their first year as a new faculty member up until the time when they can apply for tenure, holds their breath, hoping that they won’t do anything to ruin their chances for this esteemed honor. This past February, Dr. Nicholas Uliano, assistant professor of romance languages, finally let out a sigh of relief. Actually, more like an elated scream of joy. Tenure is a life-long contract in which a professor may not be released unless under extreme circumstances. Cabrini’s board of trustees unanimously agreed upon Uliano’s tenure. “I don’t think that there are words which describe the way I felt at that moment; I know that I was incredibly happy,” Uliano said. Cabrini’s tenure application is a strenuous process. Faculty members able to apply are evaluated on “the basis of their teaching, their service to their department and to the College, and their scholarship.” Along with this, faculty must prepare a tenure portfolio, which includes letters of recommendations from former students, colleagues and scholars who are familiar with the applicant’s work. Next, the portfolio and work is reviewed by a group of Uliano’s peers called the Promotion and Tenure Board. After they have met, the board then meets with the Vice President for Academic Affairs. Once the board and the Vice President
JILLIAN SMITH/PERSPECTIVES EDITOR
Dr. Uliano, assistant professor of romantic languages, has recently recieved tenure. This is one of the highest honors a college professor can be given. are in agreement, they then write a letter to the president of the college stating whether Uliano’s tenure be granted or denied. The president, the vice president and the chair of the promotion and tenure board then present their case for tenure to the
board of trustees. Finally, the board of trustees makes the decision whether or not a faculty member receives tenure. Once a decision has been reached, the applicant is notified immediately.
“Hearing President Iadarola’s words, ‘Congratulations, Nick! The Cabrini College board of trustees unanimously approved your application for tenure’ was definitely a life-changing moment in my professional career, one which I will remember vividly for a long time to come.” Uliano has been a main contributor to the globalization of the campus, specifically in the development and growth of international education. In 2002, Uliano took on the role of coordinator of study abroad, and since then Cabrini has gone from a “campus where few students included an international education experience as part of their undergraduate career to a campus where many more of our students have spent some time abroad while at Cabrini.” Since Uliano has been in charge of the study abroad program, the school now has Cabrini-affiliated programs in Australia, Italy and England, a chapter of the Phi Beta Delta honor society for international scholars, scholarship grants available for study abroad and a new program of shortterm study abroad courses each spring semester. “Of course, my first love is teaching Spanish,” Uliano said. He enjoys teaching the language and especially enjoys teaching Spanish to future school teachers. Being granted tenure is only the beginning for Uliano. He plans to “remain a contributing, valued and productive member of the Cabrini College community.” “At that moment I had become fully vested in furthering the mission, the core values, and the educational objectives of this very special community, Cabrini College.”
Student profile: Woods uses positive influence to educate others
JONATHAN BARNETT/STAFF WRITER
Laura Woods is a senior special and elementary education major. JONATHAN BARNETT STAFF WRITER JEB724@CABRINI.EDU
Many children in the 6th grade do not know what they want to be when they grow up.
If they do, the list could include anything from being a veterinarian to being the President of the United States. “I feel like I’ve been a teacher since the 6th grade, just without the degree,” Laura Woods, senior special education and elementary education major, said.
Woods has been involved in many aspects of volunteering over her years and she explained that she could bring a lot of those experiences into her classroom. What has set her apart from the typical high school and college student volunteer has been her desire to build relationships with the people she was helping, not just be there. “When I learn something I want to teach other people. That’s just my way of doing it. We should use our own gifts to make a difference,” Woods said. She has gone on several immersion trips since enrolling at Cabrini College. Woods has had the opportunity to go to Mexico, Ecuador and Appalachia during the spring breaks of her sophomore, junior and senior years. Through these experiences she has been exposed to poverty that many people her age have never seen. Woods has been particularly drawn to global awareness education and feels that there is a lot she could teach other people. “The trips I have gone on in the past have influenced me. Now I have a passion and desire to educate people on global issues,” Woods said. While at Cabrini, Woods has worked with the college’s Wolfington Center, which “is designed specifically to promote and enhance community service opportunities and to strengthen Cabrini College’s Catholic identity” as stated by its Web page. Her work with the Wolfington Center has given Woods the opportunity to go on, and lead, retreats and become involved in
numerous service and outreach projects. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) joined with Cabrini in April 2005 and since then other opportunities have come about for Woods and students like her. Students have had the chance to become CRS Student Ambassadors in the areas of HIV and AIDS awareness, hunger and homelessness, fair trade and global awareness education, a section created because of Woods’ interest in it. Through her involvement with CRS and Cabrini’s Wolfington Center Woods has created a global awareness education packet for student teachers like herself. She presented it to both undergraduate and graduate student teachers at the college. “The packet is designed to motivate educators about important global issues, no matter what level they teach. It’s to show them that it is possible to make a positive impact on students,” Woods said. Woods explained that the packet can serve as an introduction to global issues as well as supply people with resources to go further into the issues they already know a little about. She takes teaching very seriously and hopes to continue educating people in and out of the classroom. “With something like teaching in a classroom, you have a lot of power, so why not make a positive influence every time you get up in front of a class?” Woods said.