MSU Faculty Emeriti Opportunities Program

This is a beginning list of opportunities for Faculty Emeriti with MSU units. Opportunities will be added as they are available.

Designing Distance Learning Courses
George H. Axinn, Professor Emeritus, has taught at MSU for 50 years. His department is now called CARRS. Since moving to Tucson, Professor Axinn has taught an on-line graduate seminar at MSU called International Rural Development (RD876). The seminar is offered every semester on-line via Angel -- Spring, Summer, and Fall. Recently, he wrote a book on "Distance Learning" which, among other things, points out all of the advantages to "old" profesors of teaching this way. He wishes to share his on-line teaching experience with others who may be interested.

If you are interested, please email George H. Axinn at: axinn@msu.edu.

English as a Second Language
Sue Gass, director of the ESL program at Michigan State University, has several ideas for learning opportunities for faculty emeriti. They include:

• Short lectures (videotaped or live) addressing students on topics of their research area.
• Panel discussion on a research topic
• Coffee/chat time with our students (these could be sessions on a topic of general interest or one more research-focused)

If you are interested, please email Sue Gass at: gass@msu.edu.

Evening College
If you are interested in teaching noncredit personal enrichment courses for MSU's Evening College, please contact Louise Cooley at phone: 355-4562, email: COOLEYL@msu.edu, or visit the Evening College office in Room 57, Kellogg Center. Evening College is a lifelong education program of the MSU Alumni Association .

Freshman Seminars
FRESHMAN SEMINARS provide an opportunity for testing and challenging ideas, as well as connecting with first-year students at MSU. Please contact Linda Gross at grossl@msu.edu or visit the website: http://www.msu.edu/~apueas/freshmanseminar/ to learn more about these exciting teaching opportunities.

Great Lakes Leadership Academy
Continuing a tradition of leadership development at MSU, the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources has partnered with other units on and off campus to create the Great Lakes Leadership Academy.  This intensive leadership development experience is targeted at adults involved in communities and agriculture, natural resources, manufacturing and the environment.  Diverse cohorts of 20 to 25 participants will engage in leadership development activities designed to gain an in-depth understanding of sustainability issues affecting the quality of life in Michigan.  The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is providing support for the initial classes of the program.

The Academy is seeking volunteer support with development related research and proposal writing targeted at foundations, corporate partners and other funding sources. If you have an interest in assisting with grant-writing and research, contact the Academy Director, Mike Kovacic at kovacic@msu.edu or 517/355-8469. For more information about the Great Lakes Leadership Academy, visit their website at http://www.glla.msu.edu.

Health4You
Health4U's goal is to promote good health by providing you an opportunity to participate in programs, services and activities designed to make a positive difference in your own health and the health of the campus community.

For information, visit the web site or call 517-353-2596.

Julian Samora Research Institute (JSRI)

The Julian Samora Research Institute (JSRI) provides opportunities to retired faculty who wish to volunteer service to the unit. Activities include manuscript review, research proposal development, and mentoring students on projects. Most of the work is done in English in social science areas related to grant opportunities and the capacity to address RFP requirements. JSRI's mission is to generate, disseminate, and apply knowledge in the improvement of Latino communities. For more information, please call 432-1317 and speak with the director, Ruben Martinez.

Kresge Art Museum Volunteer Opportunities

Kresge Art Museum's mission is to provide education and aesthetic enjoyment for diverse audiences. Through the collection and exhibition of art, it offers opportunities for interdisciplinary and cross-cultural interpretation of current and historical thoughts. By researching, presenting and preserving art from various times and cultures, the museum serves the Michigan State University community, general public of mid-Michigan and beyond. We are in the process of raising $17 million for a significant renovation and expansion of the facility with an anticipated reopening in 2009.

Kresge Art Museum has numerous opportunities for individuals to become involved, many of which are enumerated below. For additional ideas or to make suggestions, please call 353-9834 or email hbwin@msu.edu. Information about the museum is available online at www.artmuseum.msu.edu

Ad Hoc Meeting: Share Your Knowledge:
Help Kresge Art Museum Reach Out to MSU Community

The museum staff would like to talk with emeriti faculty from a broad range of subject areas to learn barriers (perceived or real), challenges and suggestions to increase faculty use of the museum as a resource. Whether or not you used the museum in teaching or outreach, we would like to speak with you to explore questions such as: How can Kresge Art Museum , a teaching museum, be a more vital teaching and learning resource for MSU faculty and students? How can we increase our visibility on campus and raise awareness in our MSU community? What is your perception of the museum? To express interest, please contact Heather Winfield at hbwin@msu.edu. If there is sufficient interest, we will plan a two-hour meeting in April 2006 or can meet with you individually.

Educational Opportunities:
Docent Training Class starting in September of 2009 at the Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University

For over 30 years, Kresge Art Museum docents have provided school children, MSU students, visitors and senior centers with docent-led tours. In September of 2009, KAM will offer a training class for those who would like to become docents at the current museum and the new Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, slated to open in 2012.

The docent’s program goal is to provide visitors with exciting and engaging experiences that generate new insights and understanding of the arts. The main component of the docent program is touring school age children through the museum’s permanent collection and changing exhibits. Each year the docents tour over 2,500 k-12 students. Our program prides itself on working with schools and teachers to meet curriculum and individual learning goals.

Kresge Art Museum’s docent outreach program has been flourishing for over 10 years. Senior facilities, community centers and retirement homes in the mid-Michigan area, some as far away as St. Johns and Mason, are recipients of the outreach program. From the fall of 2008 to the spring of 2009, almost 100 outreach programs were provided to the community.

The Outreach program is free of charge and consists of a group of specially trained Kresge Art Museum docents who take their knowledge of current museum exhibitions into centers that house residents who are unable to come to the museum due to physical or logistic restrictions. PowerPoint programs prepared in advance enhance the dialogue between participants and lecturer.

David Greenbaum, Docent Outreach Co-Chairperson says, “One of the goals of the program is to stimulate the viewers mind about art. In our conversations with residents, we always try to relate the art back to their experiences in their lives. Many times an exhibit or work of art will trigger a memory for them and discussions can become quite lively.“

Teaching and inspiring all ages is at the forefront of the Kresge Art Museum Docent program. If you have a passion for art, love to work with people, and want to stretch your imagination as well as the imagination of others, contact the museum for information on this unique volunteer opportunity. The docent training class is an intensive nine-month training course featuring art history and touring techniques with a special focus on the museum’s collection.

For additional information and an application form for the Kresge Art Museum Docent Training Program, please contact Cari Wolfe, Assistant Education Curator at (517) 353-9834 or wolfeca1@msu.edu.

Picturing America:
The MSU Kresge Art Museum has invited members of the Faculty Emeriti Association (FEA) to participate in Picturing America. Any one of five programs relating to Grades K-12 may be selected. For example, one of the programs is aWalking Tour of the MSU campus focusing on art and architecture going back to FDR's New Deal program that served as a patron for assistingartists to survive during the depression. Picturing America is a project funded by the NEH and has made a grant to The MSU Kresge Art Museum for participating in this outreach. Individuals who a participate will be provided with a stipend. All of the details are in the attachment below. Anyone interested should contact Cari Wolfe 353-9834, Assistant Education Curator, Kresge Art Museum.

More information can be found by downloading the document here.

Research opportunities:
Opportunities exist to research objects in the collection. Please contact the museum with a specific interest.

Marketing and communications:
Marketing consultants can help to formulate a strategic marketing campaign with a timeline, budget, and action plan centered on the construction of the expanded museum. 

• Conduct student focus groups and evaluations to incorporate a student-centered marketing and audience development strategy.
• Assuming the museum's name will change; structure a branding campaign around the new name.

Evaluation: design and conduct in-gallery surveys to learn more about our audience.

Projects exist for those with expertise in the following areas:

Graphic design
Photography, videography
Archivist
Librarian
Event planning

Additional short-term volunteer projects:
Friends of Kresge Art Museum is the museum's membership and volunteer group that organizes a variety of events throughout the year. Volunteers are needed for the following types of activities:

• Organizing and coordinating house and walking tours that feature historically interesting architecture in the community
• Receptions for new exhibitions (approximately 6 per year)
• Membership committee (seeks ways to increase members and event attendance). Organize and conduct a faculty membership drive
• Twilight in the Garden , the museum's major fundraising project, includes silent and live auctions. Committees work from spring until the event: auction, sponsorship, food, publicity.

Longitudinal Patient-Centered Experience (LPCE)

Do you or a loved one have a chronic health condition?

The College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University is looking for volunteers to help medical students learn about health and illness. The program is called the “Longitudinal Patient-Centered Experience,” or “LPCE.”

Patients with a variety of chronic illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, cancer and fibromyalgia are matched with two first-year medical students in the College of Human Medicine. The students make eight different home visits over 15 months with a different assignment each time (i.e. meeting the patient, taking a family history and speaking with family members). The students experience a meaningful encounter with real patients and learn a patient-centered approach to medicine. Patients become partners in shaping the education of our future physicians.

For more information, please contact:

Kimberly Lyth
LPCE Coordinator
MSU College of Human Medicine
A-254 Life Sciences
East Lansing, MI 48824

Telephone: (517) 353-5440, Ext. 279
E-mail: lpce@msu.edu

MSU Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement
The MSU Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement (CSLCE, formerly known as the Service-Learning Center) works with more than 325 local, national and international human and social service agencies, neighborhood organizations, health care and rehabilitation providers and hospitals, schools and educational institutions, senior citizen programs, pre-school and daycare centers, community revitalization efforts, recreation facilities, environmental programs, museums and other cultural facilities, government and legislative offices, and on-campus service-based programs and initiatives. The majority of these community partners and constituents are located in the greater-Lansing area. A variety of service opportunities for faculty emeriti are available!

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Develop implementation strategies and/or integrated curriculum for utilization of a working farm adjacent to the Lansing School District’s Ebersole Nature Center in Yankee Springs.
• Work with one of a variety of local non-profit agencies to develop business or fund-raising plans; assistant in the research for and/or writing of grants.
• Serve periodically as an overnight facilitator/supervisor at the McRee House, Ingham Regional Medical Center’s residential facility for families of acute or chronically ill children.
• Serve as a site staff advisor for an Alternative Spring Break trip.
• Develop and implement trainings for service-learning students in the areas of diversity, community collaborations, and more.
• Provide direct service through one-time/short-term projects or in semester-long settings. Numerous opportunities exist, and CSLCE staff is happy to provide individual consultation.

Contact: (517) 353-4400; servlrn@msu.edu

MSU Libraries, Special Collections
The Special Collections of the MSU Libraries has a periodic need for volunteers to sort unique and important papers that have been donated. Individuals may be placed on a list and called on as as-needed basis. At this time there is a need for individuals interested in assisting with the sorting of comic art proof pages. There is also a current need for individuals who have an interest in book restoration for the Wallace Conservation Lab. Please contact Peter Berg at berg@msu.edu.

MSU Museum
There are many volunteer opportunities at the MSU Museum; some are short-term (as short as one day) as well as sustained activities. Click here to go straight to the on-line registration form.

Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities
Volunteer Opportunities (Word Document)

Rotary District Grants for University Teachers
The purpose of the Rotary District Grants is to strengthen higher education in low-income countries while building international understanding and development. Criteria: Applicant must hold or have held college teaching appointment for three or more years and demonstrate language proficiency in the language of the host country. Contact Anthony Bauer, bauera2@comcast.net or the Rotary International website http://www.rotary.org/foundation/index.html for more information.

Simulated Patient Program
The College of Human Medicine is continuously looking for people to portray the role of a patient with a certain illness to meet with first- and second-year medical students in videotaped interviews at the MSU Clinical Center. No acting experience is required but some memorization of a script will be expected. Other opportunities include the need for patients with real illnesses such as cardiac and pulmonary issues as well as senior citizens interviews. These encounters help the students improve their communication skills. Starting pay is $12.00/hour.

For more information, please contact:

Kimberly Lyth
LPCE Coordinator
MSU College of Human Medicine
A-254 Life Sciences
East Lansing, MI 48824

Telephone: (517) 353-5440, Ext. 279
E-mail: lpce@msu.edu

Special Foreign Travel Fund (SFTF)
Source of funds to assist Faculty transportation to International Professional meetings or congresses outside the U.S. to present papers, deliver keynote addresses, juried exhibitions, or performances in major concert halls; SFTF is intended to be supplemental in nature. There has to be a50/50 match from departments, colleges etc., to match all of the SFTF grant made to a faculty member . Only funds allocated to offset airfare costs will be considered to matching monies.-that is funds allocated for conference fees and subsistence costs cannot be used to match SFTF grants.

Wharton Center for Performing Arts
There are many volunteer opportunities at the Wharton Center for Performing Arts. The volunteers assist with near every aspect of the operations - box office, gift shop, ushers, classroom docents for our "Arts In Education" engagement programs, PreView Lecture Series, and more. Click here to learn more about these opportunities

WKAR
WKAR-TV and Radio present many learning opportunities for faculty emeritus throughout the year. The participation of more than 2500 volunteers from our community is an important part of WKAR’s success. Volunteers are valued for the time, energy, experience, and expertise they share.

You, too, can play a special role at WKAR. Below is a list of annual activities for which WKAR utilizes the help of volunteers. We would love to have you and/or your group join us!

If you would like to show your support of WKAR by helping with one or more of these events listed above, please contact Mary Wright, Coordinator of Volunteers at (517) 432-3120 ext. 361 or by email at maryw@wkar.org.

Thank you!