Message from the Dean

The 2012-2013 academic year has been an exciting one for the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, with award winning faculty, students, and staff recognized for their research, teaching, and service. On behalf of the college, I would like to offer my gratitude to our faculty, students, and staff for their dedication and commitment to higher learning at all levels. As will be evident in this report, social science research and teaching is thriving in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences where faculty and students are "Making Connections that Matter" for their local, national, and international community.

The college continues to conduct cutting-edged research in diverse areas involving how individuals' connections with others, their environments, and the societies in which find themselves affect human behavior.The college submitted a record amount of grant funding this academic year, totaling over $33 million. Despite the tough research funding climate, the college added a record $5 million in new funding. Read inside about just a few of the many collaborative teams led by faculty (at all levels), graduate students, and undergraduates.

Our faculty and students are also making long-lasting connections together in the classroom and community. Faculty received recognition for their excellence in teaching innovations at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Further, the Classroom to Careers program and the Hinckley Institute placed 475 students in numerous internships in the business community. Our college ambassadors received the University's Commitment to Service Award in recognition of their outstanding service activities this year. We graduated over 1400 undergraduate students and 150 graduate students this spring in two separate convocations held on May 1 and May 3.

This year we will be launching several initiatives oriented toward providing connections within the college. We will be launching a mentoring program in hopes of making connections between alumni and students. I hope you will join as we allow students to see the variety of exciting contexts where social scientists make impactful contributions. We will also be launching a graduate student scholarship program and efforts to further increase our undergraduate scholarships. I would like to express my gratitude to all of you who contribute in important ways to help support CSBS students at a time when the costs of higher education make such an opportunity challenging for many of our students.

This year has also been one of many changes. Five of our own faculty members are transitioning toward retirement, with each having exciting plans ahead for the future. I would like to thank Dean David Rudd and Associate Dean Jeff Kentor for their leadership and initiatives in the past year and wish them the very best as they have begun new positions as Provost at the University of Memphis and Associate Provost at Eastern Michigan University. In addition, a long-time member of the college staff, Sarah Moyer, will be sorely missed but has accepted an exciting position in the US Diplomat Foreign Service.

I want to close by thanking those in the Dean's office for their tireless commitment to making the college run smoothly including Associate Deans Richard Forster and Jessie Fan as well as Kristina Bailey, Cindy Brown, Dennis Bryant, Demian Hanks, Adele Imanbekova, Rick Pike, Gina Shipley, Aleta Tew, and Emily Washburn. We look forward to an exciting year ahead!

Cynthia Berg

CSBS Dean