Faculty Satisfaction 

Making sure UNT has the best possible environment for faculty is an important goal of Provost Jennifer Cowley. Full-time faculty are urged to take a few moments to complete the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education, COACHE, survey. You can find the link to the survey in emails you have received from COACHE. A robust response rate is essential to the design of new initiatives and policies that make ours an engaged and productive faculty. Please contact Michael McPherson if you have questions.  

University Scholars Day

Do you currently have a student (or students) conducting research or creative projects under your supervision? Why not have them offer a poster presentation or paper at UNT Scholars Day, on April 3, 2018, in the Ballroom of the Student Union? The Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Office of Research and Economic Development, and the Honors College invite undergraduates from all of UNT’s colleges and schools to participate in the 15th Annual University Scholars Day to be held on April 3, 2018.

University Scholars Day Presentation Application:
March 20, 2018: Application for papers or fine arts performances are due.
March 20, 2018: Application for posters are due.
March 23, 2018: Students will be notified of acceptance.

Deadline Soon for Undergraduate Research Fellowship

We encourage faculty to work with a student (or two) to develop a 200-word proposal by March 31, 2018. If the proposal is funded ($500 for the student, to be awarded after Scholars Day, 2019), then the student and professor will work throughout fall 2018 and spring 2019 on a research or creative project for which the student will offer either a poster, paper, or performance in April 2019. The Office for Faculty Success strongly encourages faculty members to provide undergraduates with guided-research possibilities, as those encourage the creation of new knowledge, novel perspectives, and postgraduate options, including funded graduate-school admission, and nationally (or internationally) competitive fellowships and scholarships. For more information, please consult the Honors College. Be sure to sign in at the top of any page that requires you to do so. Kindly address questions to james.duban@unt.edu.

Faculty Focus

Before becoming an academic, Associate Professor Phillip Park had a career as a registered architect in his native Republic of Korea. One of his projects involved helping design a hospital. This project would eventually inspire his research as a faculty member. Upon completing his doctorate in Architecture specializing in the Health Systems & Design at Texas A&M University in 2007, he joined UNT’s Department of Design. Broadly speaking, Dr. Park’s research involves exploring the physiological and psychological effects of color in the design of patient rooms in pediatric hospital settings. Traditionally associated with cleanliness, white has long been the most commonly-encountered color in healthcare settings. However, Dr. Park’s research has found that across cultural groups white is one of the least preferred colors. At present, Dr. Park is running a pilot study aimed at examining whether or not color affects stress levels. This pilot study involves students in after-school programs, but Dr. Park hopes that it will lead to approval from a hospital’s Institutional Review Board to extend the study to pediatric patients. He also hopes to attract external support for this and future projects. Beyond his scholarship, Dr. Park enjoys his role as an educator, and has been the Interior Design Undergraduate Program Coordinator of his department.

Helen Potts is Senior Lecturer in the Sociology Department. She earned her doctorate in 2007 from UNT, and after a stint on the faculty of UNT-Dallas she returned to our campus in 2011. She is passionate about students and the success of her department, and currently serves as her department’s Director of Undergraduate programs and as Undergraduate Advisor. Last year, she served as interim associate chair as well as director of Graduate Programs, and was involved with the time-consuming tasks around helping her department through the SACS accreditation process. She enjoys working in a department open to new ideas. For example, several years ago she noticed that quite a few students who took her Introduction to Sociology course became excited about sociology and decided to major in it. However, many of the best decided to not pursue graduate studies because the additional time commitment was too daunting. This led her to create a five-year BS plus MA/MS degree option, which begins this fall.

Manjula Salimath is at the frontier of entrepreneurship research in the digital age. An associate professor in the Department of Management, Dr. Salimath has been on UNT’s faculty since 2006. The time-honored theories, with their focus on start-up costs and barriers to entry, are quickly becoming irrelevant with the rapid spread of partly or fully online businesses. Dr. Salimath has recently published a paper that begins to fill this void. This is an exciting but challenging area, as the pace of change in business is faster than ever before.  She notes that an interesting confluence of innovation, technology and entrepreneurship is leading towards greater interdisciplinary research. Virtual firms are replacing brick and mortar stores, transforming the business landscape, an example of creative destruction. Her interest lies in a broader question – how can entrepreneurs leverage disruptive innovations effectively? In January, Dr. Salimath successfully co-chaired the first International Conference on Entrepreneurship & Family Business held in Mumbai, India. Two years in development, this conference was the result of collaboration between UNT’s College of Business and IIT-Bombay School of Management and underscores the vital importance of entrepreneurship for stimulating economic growth worldwide

March Give-Away

Congratulations to Elliot Dubin of Hospitality and Tourism Management, winner of January's giveaway! We’re excited that Dr. Jane Goodall will be speaking on our campus on April 9, 2018 as part of the UNT Distinguished Lecture Series. This month’s newsletter drawing will be 2 tickets to hear Dr. Goodall’s remarks. UNT faculty members who register by March 31, 2018 will be entered into this drawing. Please register online.