This Week in LACS 2/19/2024

Dates and Events this Week

This Month is Black History Month

February 19

  • Deadline for O. Max Gardner Award nominations, emailed to Jen Knight 

February 20

  • Casa Della Cultura Italiana Scholarship Award Ceremony, 4:30-5:30 pm, 434 Mebane Hall (LRC)

February 22

February 23

Looking Ahead

Dates and Events

February 27

  • Workshop: Recruiting and Supporting Employees with Disabilities, 12:00-1:30 pm, Please register

March 1

  • Register for 2nd Annual UNC Charlotte AI Institute
  • Deadline to sign up to join Core of Excellence Teams: google form 
  • Deadline to submit Book Orders for Summer Sessions here

March 2

March 8

  • Deadline to submit proposals for 2nd Annual UNC Charlotte AI Institute. Submit  proposals

March 13

March 15

  • Department Meeting 2:30-4:00 pm, LRC 

March 18

  • Faculty Forum for Promotion to Full Professor, 3:00-5:00 pm, Cone 314/Lucas Room (Register)

March 29

April 2

  • 4:30-5:30 pm, Witness in Residence, rescheduled event

April 12

  • Department Meeting 2:30-4:00 pm, LRC 

April 19

April 30

  • Department Meeting 10:30 am-12:00 pm, Party 12:00-2:00 pm 

May 1

  • Deadline to submit Book Orders for Fall 2024 here

May 15

Congratulations & Thank you

Congratulations to Susanne Gomoluch, Susana Cisneros, and all the volunteers from our department for organizing and hosting a successful SEACS conference this weekend. More than 50 participants presented papers on a variety of topics. Keynote speaker Dr. Melissa Johnson’s engaging talk “The book has somehow to be adapted to the body. Woolf Words and Tactile  Investigations: a commonplace book” was a treat for everyone in the audience. Special thanks to all volunteers who helped make the conference a success.

Thank you to Chris Mellinger and Jeffrey Killman for presenting in our Conversations about AI Series as part of the SEACS conference. Their Roundtable Discussion – Artificial Intelligence in Interpreting: Possibilities and Limitations was well attended and led to an interesting discussion. Chris Mellinger’s presentation was entitled “Artificial Intelligence in Interpreting: Possibilities and Limitations” and Jeff Killman’s presentation focused on “Machine Translation: Advances and Limitations in Natural Language Processing.”

Congratulations to Yukiko Yokono and her team who organized and hosted the Annual Multi-Language Poetry Slam. The event was a wonderful success with 11 faculty and 44 students participating. In the category of Original Translation first place went to Alex Galvez Dolores and second place Ashley Weinstein. In the category of Original Haiku first place went to Alec Pike and the second place went to Lelanie Torres. Finally, in the category of Original Poems first place went to Kalavik Jakkala and second place went to Joshua Shackleford. Thank you to all the organizers, judges and participants. 

Announcements & Updates

Textbook Adoptions
Visit https://sso.bncollege.com/bes-sp/bessso/saml/unccedu/aip/logon to submit all required, recommended or suggested course materials adoptions to the campus bookstore. For the Summer 2024 term, the deadline to submit textbook adoptions: Digital Materials, Physical Textbooks, Supplies, Kits, etc. is 3/1/2024. For the Fall 2024 term, the deadline to submit textbook adoptions: Digital Materials, Physical Textbooks, Supplies, Kits, etc. is 5/1/2024.

Convert Google Account from uncc.edu to charlotte.edu

Faculty, staff and affiliates can voluntarily convert their primary Google account from uncc.edu to charlotte.edu Thursday, Feb. 15, through Wednesday, May 15.  Anyone who has not opted-in will be automatically converted on Wednesday, May 15.

Failure Showcase
Join the Honors College for the fourth annual Failure Showcase from 3 to 4 p.m., Monday, Feb. 26, in the College of Health and Human Services, Room 155. University administrators, alumni and business leaders will share a time they failed and how they grew from the experience. Register here.

First Generation Faculty
The First-Generation Committee is compiling a directory of faculty and staff who were first-generation college students. If you wish to be included as a resource for students, please complete this form

Core of Excellence Teams – Looking for Team Members

The Core of Excellence is now looking for faculty and staff to join in efforts in a few specific Core of Excellence areas. Please complete this google form by March 1, 2024 if you are interested in joining one of the following Core Teams. 

Openings are available in the following groups  

  • The LGBTQ Community Team: As Community Builders, we center asset-based thinking to guide success, to leverage inclusion to strengthen our outreach, and to sustain our efforts for the LGBTQ Community at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. 
  • The Mental Health and Well-being Team: The team would consist of colleagues who bring expertise on mental health problems, for example someone with a background in clinical psychology or counseling, or are personally affected and bring “life experience” in mental health issues to the table, or they represent some of the racial, ethnic, and cultural communities on our campus. Currently, the group’s main goals are to create initiatives that facilitate training sessions, workshops, and collaborations, to spread awareness and destigmatize mental health problems, to restructure the way mental health options for faculty and staff are presented and made available.
  • The Military & Military Veteran Team: This team will focus on identifying the needs/issues of those in our colleges; and building community, support, and awareness geared towards staff and faculty who are military and/or military veterans.
  • The Black/African-American Community Team: This team will continue the work of identifying the needs/issues of those in our colleges who identify as Black/African American; building community, support, and awareness.
  • The Latine/Latinx Community Team: This team will continue the work of identifying the needs/issues of Latine/Latinx community members in our colleges with the aim of building community, support, and awareness.
  • The First-Generation/Working Poor Community: This team seeks to bring awareness to the needs/issues/experiences of this community and to promote inclusivity and access.
  • The Age Friendly University Designation Team: This team will focus on efforts to implement the steps towards UNC Charlotte becoming an Age Friendly University. The Gerontology Program started this process before the pandemic and looks forward to continuing the process with the support of the ADIE.

Alumni Contributions

Please join me in thanking Alumnus Willi Chavez, German and Engineering Major, who graduated 9 years ago, for contributing to the arguments made to the College of Science in defense of our language requirement. Please see the video Willi recorded for us here

Thank you for all that you do. 

All the best,

Anabel