SALEM -- Although she has not made a definite decision to retire, Dr. Kristen Figg, former assistant and associate dean, is stepping down from the position that she has occupied full-time for the past four years and in an interim capacity in 2002-3 and part of 2004.
Dr. Figg and her husband, Dr. John Friedman, have a house in Columbus, and while she has plenty of other interests, she has yet to decide on any specific career plans. "It is likely that I will continue to teach somewhere," she said, noting that Ohio State has a medieval program that she has been associated with already.
Working under the dean, the assistant/associate dean is the chief academic officer for the campus. That means that after the program directors submit lists of recommended courses to run, she makes the schedule every term and assigns faculty to teach the courses.
It is also the assisant dean's responsibility to find a replacement instructor if one is absent due to an emergency situation. Recruiting is a regular duty, but her choices are not arbitrary and all new hires must be approved through the main campus. She holds orientations for adjunct, or part time, faculty, of which Salem has approximately 100.
Quality control is also an assistant dean's responsibility, and she ensures that by visiting classes, asking others to visit classes, and reading all of the student evaluations.
Figg explained that her post allowed her to create a new program of study. "For instance, I worked with Stan Jones to move the two-year horticulture degree to a four-year. It was a big deal," she said. She spent 20 percent of her time during the year preparing the program, and this Fall 2009 was the first time that it became an option for students.
Figg involved KSU-Salem in the Seniors-to-Sophomores program after she found out two years ago about newly available pilot grants for trials. Seniors-to-Sophomores is a new version of the post-secondary enrollment for high school students on campus. They can achieve a year of credit before graduating from high school.
"We were given broad guidelines," she said of the perameters under the grant, and she scheduled a morning block of courses so the students could return to their high schools and participate in their after-school activities.
An orientation class for these students called "Learning Community" served as a type of group session to deal with the transition to the college experience, and this addition made the KSU-Salem pilot unique from all the other forty grants in Ohio.
Dr. Figg founded the honors program, and directed it from 1999-2005. Honors students encounter more challenging coursework and must complete a graduate-level senior honors thesis while enjoying a closer connection to their professors.
During her interview with Eastern Flash, the phone rang several times. She said that interuption is a normal part of the job and she is used to working that way. "There are constant phone calls, e-mails, people at the door and a great volume of questions," she said.
Figg had the opportunity to serve as chair of the Associate and Assistant Deans Community for all of the Kent campuses. She presided over all the meetings of 2009 and was on the Associate and Assistant Deans Committee that wrote policies for student dismissals and probations. She said, "It's interesting to compare the policies of the different universities" to see how the various Ohio schools do things.
Dr. Figg teaches Elementary French II and and Chaucer this term while Dr. Melissa Denardo succeeds her and learns the assistant dean position.
