Susan Forman Returns to the Faculty

July 29, 2004

Members of the Rutgers Community:

Dr. Susan G. Forman, Vice President for Undergraduate Education and Professor of Psychology, has announced her intention to return to the faculty to resume her research activities in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology in September 2004. We owe Dr. Forman an enormous debt of gratitude for her service to Rutgers and her dedication to enhancing the education of our undergraduate students over the past 12 years.

Dr. Forman left the University of South Carolina, where she was associate provost and professor of psychology, to join Rutgers in 1992 when she was appointed to the newly-created position of Vice President for Undergraduate Education. Since then, Dr. Forman has worked tirelessly to increase the range and quality of support services available to students and the technologies available to faculty in the teaching of undergraduates. In her annual celebration of departments and programs that are doing innovative work in the education of undergraduates, she has continued to remind us of the importance of rethinking the ways we teach and the ways students can learn. The annual springtime celebration of the research work of Rutgers undergraduates that she initiated has served for more than a decade to demonstrate to our students that they are learning from a faculty creating new knowledge, and that they themselves have the power to create new knowledge. Under her leadership, Rutgers introduced the Dialogues Grants, curriculum development grants for faculty. She was instrumental in the development and implementation of student evaluations for faculty. Her dedication to diversity led to the development of the Office for Intercultural Initiatives and the blossoming of the cultural centers on campus. She has a strong commitment to service learning and to the highly respected CASE program.

Dr. Forman has also been influential at the national level and has been an active member of the national group, Reinventing Undergraduate Education, which grew out of the 1998 Boyer report on undergraduate education. She serves on the editorial board of Innovative Higher Education and has also served as on the editorial boards of several psychology journals. She is a fellow in the APA division of School Psychology.

I know you join me in thanking Susan for her dedicated efforts to improve undergraduate education and in wishing her the best as she returns to research and teaching.

The Task Force on Undergraduate Education, headed by Professor Barry Qualls, is considering the overall organization and structure of undergraduate education in New Brunswick, including the responsibilities and scope of the Office of the Vice President for Undergraduate Education. When the Task Force has issued its recommendations, which should be in early Fall, we will initiate the process of filling this important position.

Richard L. McCormick
President
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey