Introduction

  • This election is for Sabbatical and Educational Leave Committee College of Arts and Sciences Representative. The rules for this election are listed below.
  • The nominees for the Sabbatical and Educational Leave Committee College of Arts and Sciences Representative election are listed to the right. The list to the right is not a ballot.
  • This list in not official until nominations have been closed and the list of nominees has been reviewed and verified by the APSCUF Nominations and Elections Committee.
  • The statements the candidates submitted with their nominations are given below. By clicking on a name in the list of candidates, you will be taken to that candidate's statement.
  • Clicking on the words Return to Top will return you to this part of the page.
  • If you are a nominee and wish to modify your statement or withdraw your nomination, click on the "Modify" button. You will need your password to make any modifications.
  • When you are finished, you may choose to view nominees for other elections, nominate yourself, view the list of elections, return to the APSCUF Nominations and Elections homepage, visit the APSCUF homepage, or visit the WCU homepage.
The nominees for Sabbatical and Educational Leave Committee College of Arts and Sciences Representative are:

Karen Fitts
Lainey Jenks
Zhen Jiang
Stacey Schlau

Nominations close Mar 21, 2011.
Tenured Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences may be nominated.

Rules for the Election

    • Each department can have at most one representative on the Sabbatical and Educational Leave Committee.
    • Membership on the committee is restricted to the following structure: 4 faculty representatives from the College of Arts and Sciences, 1 faculty representative from each of the Schools of Health Sciences, Education, Music, and Business and Public Affairs, and 1 faculty representative from the non-classroom faculty.
    • The election is decided by a plurality of those casting votes unless such results violate the previous rules or the number of candidates does not exceed the number of positions to fill. In the later case, each candidate will be voted on by an approve/disapprove ballot.
    • Vacant seats will be filled one at a time with the current vacant seat filled by the candidate with the highest vote count. As each seat is filled, the candidate filling that seat and any other candidates from the same department as the candidate filling that seat will be disqualified. Votes cast for disqualified candidates, as just defined, will not be considered in filling remaining vacant seats.
    • Each candidate selected counts as a cast vote.
    • Seats with longer terms will be filled first.

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Karen Fitts


Department: English

My first term on SEL began in 2009. This work, along with my own experiences while on sabbatical, has confirmed for me that leave time for revitalizing and renewing our professional selves is an essential benefit. A key aspect of the committee’s service lies in understanding and valuing diverse disciplinary perspectives and processes articulated in the applications we receive from across the campus. This is important work, and I would like the opportunity to continue in it.


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Lainey Jenks


Department: Communication Studies

I would very much like to serve a second term on the Sabbatical and Education Leave Committee for the following reasons: 1. I've been lucky enough to have two sabbaticals in the 19 years I've been at WCU and understand how important it is for faculty to receive sabbaticals; 2. Sabbaticals are an easy target for those searching for budget cuts and I'd like to help assure continued faculty access to sabbaticals; 3. It's a happy committee (because we get to read interesting proposals from accomplished scholars doing cool stuff).


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Zhen Jiang


Department: Computer Science

I joined WCU in 2002. I took sabbatical leave in Spring 2010. That experience helped me to reach out and to gain many opportunities of interdisciplinary collaboration, in both research and education. The results help me to develop new computer courses for students to quickly gain sufficient skills and knowledge for their study and research on campus (e.g., MatLab, Database, etc). This work has earned grants from many internal funding sources and will be submitted to NSF in near future. I think my sabbatical leave gave me a chance to develop professional skills and to upgrade scholarship activities. I wish to serve this committee and to let every WCU faculty member take the great benefits of this opportunity.

With my conference organization experience, I plan to build a better communication between committee, awardees, and applicants (e.g., broadcast, poster, and on-line information of guideline, procedure, and award records, etc). With my working experience of an editor and peer reviewer, I plan to build a more clear review process, helping people apply successfully.

Currently, I am an associate professor in the Computer Science, a faculty member with Information Security Center, and a visiting professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University, China (2010-2013). My research work has earned grants from many funding sources including the National Science Foundation (NSF), IBM, CASSDA, local FDC, etc. I was invited and serve as an NSF panelist, external reviewer for the Hong Kong Research Grant Council, and panelist for the office of Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI). My current work won the best paper award in the area of protocols and algorithms in the 7th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Systems, November, 2010. My book “From problem toward solution: Wireless sensor Networks Security” has been published by Nova Publishers in 2009. I have given talks in more than 15 institutions such as University of Delaware. I have taught general education courses and handled the diversity in classroom at WCU for 9 years. I am also active in many committees such as the PTW (originally called EPT). More details of my teaching, research, and service can be seen at “the faculty achievement of the college of Arts and Sciences” http://www.wcupa.edu/_academics/sch_cas/professors/zhen_jiang.html.


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Stacey Schlau


Department: Languages and Cultures

During the three years I have served on SaLe, two of which were as Chair, I have been quite impressed with the quality and quantity of faculty research and other professional development activities evident in the applications. It has been an honor to participate in rewarding those activities through sabbatical leaves. This is especially because for faculty members at WCU, time is often our scarcest and most-wanted resource. Undoubtedly, sabbatical leaves constitute a major means of being able to engage in projects that otherwise would fall by the wayside. I would like to continue my service on the Committee, to contribute in a small way to faculty development at WCU.


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