Kathleen Kaiser Receives Outstanding Faculty Service Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 20, 2006
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Kathleen Kaiser Receives Outstanding Faculty Service Award
Kathleen Kaiser, recent CSU Faculty Trustee, has received the Outstanding Faculty Service Award at California State University, Chico. The Faculty Recognition and Support Committee selected her for her years of service to her department, the University and its service area, the Chico community and the California State University system.
Kaiser received both her MA and PhD degrees in sociology from Duke University. She came to CSU, Chico as a faculty member in the Department of Sociology in 1972. She was chair of the department from August 2000 until 2002. She was interim associate dean for the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences from July 1998 until Jan. 1999. She has been the Applied Sociology Internship Program director since 1980.
Kaiser just completed a two-year term as the Faculty Trustee to the CSU Board of Trustees. For that position, she was nominated by nine campus academic senates and was one of two faculty members the Academic Senate, CSU recommended to then Govern Gray Davis, who, after intensive interviews, appointed her to the board. "To be so highly recognized by the faculty representatives of the entire CSU system and to be appointed by the governor as the sole faculty trustee is not only a high honor, but reflects the confidence and respect they have for Katy in representing the faculty voice," said Paul Spear, chair of the Department of Sociology.
One of her accomplishments on the board was serving as lead trustee on the issue of sustainability. Kaiser worked with students in the California State Student Association, who brought the issue to the Board of Trustees. "Because of her persuasive ability and persistence," said Spear, "the Board of Trustees requested the Chancellor's Office to study the issue and establish a committee to work with students and faculty to develop a systemwide policy. In Sept. 2005, the board passed a policy on "Energy conservation, Sustainable Building Practices, and Physical Plant Management."
Kaiser received a $5,000 grant to assist CSU, Chico in documenting the unique interaction between the academic and business elements of campus required to meet LEED's (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) sustainable practice standards so that the campus could build the first sustainable building in the CSU system.
Kaiser chaired the CSU General Education Advisory Committee for three years and the GE Course Review Committee for many years. The committee evaluated community college courses to determine whether they met CSU standards. "Kaiser was one of the major forces developing and implementing the California Articulation Numbering system, which recognizes comparable community college courses and grants them CSU credit," said Spear.
This is only one of the many CSU level committees she has been a member of, including the CSU Virtual University Design Team, the Informational Competence Task Force, the Forgivable Loan/Doctoral Incentive Program and the Selection Committee to CSUs representative to the CSU Alumni Council.
Her regional contributions include being a founding member of the Northern California Higher Education Council subcommittee that wrote grants to fund women's educational programs in Northern California. She conducted workshops on educational equity, sexism and women's educational programs in a number of community colleges, UC Davis and CSU, Chico. She has taken student groups to interact with prisons and received two grants from the California Youth authority to evaluate educational programs in Riverside and Placer Counties.
She has been a longtime member of CSU, Chico's Academic Senate, serving on the Executive Committee and the Educational Policies and Plans Committee.
As the director of Applied Sociology Internships for her department, Kaiser supervises between 10 and 27students each semester (totaling 500 to 1,350 students throughout her career), enabling them to apply sociological principles and theories to the workplace.
One of her service activities has been to successfully recommend and write letters of recommendations for students for numerous awards including the Glenn Kendall Outstanding Senior Service Award, the Lt. Rawlins Merit Award, Graduate Equity Fellowships, Rotary Scholarship, CSU, Chico Creativity and Research Awards and Outstanding Student Leadership awards. "For Dr. Kaiser, the student is foremost," said Spear.
Adam Dondro, former Associated Students vice president and then president, said, "Dr. Kaiser was always available to help, whether it was on committee work, personal work, or efforts the Associated Students were undertaking. Even amidst her numerous responsibilities, she finds time to judge student art shows, help students succeed, both in and out of the classroom, and just generally gives or her time to be a positive influence in the lives of her students."
Other awards that Kaiser has received include a sabbatical leave, fall 2005, to research "Sustainability as a Social Movement;" CSU, Chico Academic Senate Recognition for Service as a Faculty Trustee (2005); and Board of Trustees recognition as Faculty Trustee Emerita.