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Washington State University
CAS Connect April 2014

Celebrating accomplishments with colleagues across our college

A message from the dean

Dean Daryll DeWald
Dean Daryll DeWald

Earlier this month, we gathered to celebrate the College of Arts and Sciences as a powerhouse of research, scholarly, creative, and educational activities, and to honor the achievements of our faculty, staff, and students.

The second annual CAS Appreciation and Recognition Social, held in the CUB senior ballroom, was a wonderful opportunity to mingle with peers and acknowledge accomplishments. Hats off to Fran Meserve in the Office of the Dean for orchestrating the event and the School of Music Faculty Jazz Trio for providing a fabulous soundtrack.

I had the pleasure of presenting awards to colleagues throughout the college for career achievement, service to the institution, excellence in teaching and advising, outstanding graduate student achievement, and staff excellence.

Grant Norton, dean of the Honors College, joined the celebration and announced the recipients of the first Arts and Sciences distinguished professorships in the Honors College: Monica Johnson in the Department of Sociology and Raymond Quock in the Department of Psychology. For the next two academic years, with support from both colleges, Monica and Ray will share their outstanding teaching skills with the highly motivated students in the WSU Honors College. It is an opportunity for Arts and Sciences to share in the continued growth of the Honors program and to expand the experiences of our faculty.

Spring semester wraps up next month and even though our campuses might be a bit less populated, there will be plenty going on in all of our disciplines. In addition to providing summer courses, members of the College of Arts and Sciences will be busy tackling field research across the country and around the globe, pursuing creative projects, writing books and scholarly manuscripts, mentoring students, continuing lab research, revising curricula, and participating in orientation for roughly 4,000 students embarking on their WSU journey in the fall.