Good Afternoon CS Faculty,
       Summer is here and in the midst of the 2012 Furniture Society Conference being hosted by Maine College of Art this week, we are busy getting ready to start our 2012 CS Summer term.  As the start date for your course approaches, remember that we will contact you 5-7 days before that day to let you know if you have sufficient enrollment.  If we do cancel your class, all students will be refunded within 48 business hours and each individual will be contacted by the CS Office.  Canceling classes is something we take very seriously and we apologize for any inconvenience a course cancellation may have on our community.
     Class lists will be available 24 hours before your class is scheduled to begin and will be placed in the bin outside the CS office.  We wait as long as possible to print these documents since registration is open right up until classes begin.  Be aware that students may register after you class list is printed so please notify us if there is a person in your class that is not on the list by emailing cstudy@meca.edu. 

Please take a few moments to review the Faculty Responsibilities to the Registrar link posted in the left-hand margin of this site to remind yourself of other policies and procedures that are required of faculty teaching in the CS program.

Welcome to the Summer 2012 term!

~Nicholas Gill, Associate Registrar

The link to the Continuing Studies Faculty Portal has been added to the CS homepage of the meca.edu website under the "Highlights" section (on the left hand side in the middle of the page) so you can easily access the link from any computer at anytime without the need for a bookmarked link.

http://www.meca.edu/continuing-studies

Dear Continuing Studies Faculty Members,

     We hope you are looking forward to an exciting 2011 Summer Session at Maine College of Art.  Registration is off to a strong start this term with some classes already starting to fill.  As classes fill, we will start waitlists for students who wish to wait for an opening in a particular course.  Please refer student registration inquiries to the CS Associate Registrar at cstudy@meca.edu or 207-699-5061 for enrollment questions and to be added to a waitlist. Please resist the temptation to grant special permission to students to bypass a waitlist. It is important that all students contact the Associate Registrar for information on waitlists so that we can provide fair access to all classes for all students.

Best Regards,

Nicholas Gill
Associate Registrar of Continuing Studies
Maine College of Art
522 Congress St, Portland, ME 04101

Reminders regarding snow cancellations:

You can subscribe to the MECA text notification system e2campus which sends text and email notifications of weather announcements. To sign up please visit https://www.e2campus.net/my/meca/signup.htm
MECA's status can also be accessed by calling 775-3052, and pressing 5 when you hear the menu. The message will either say that classes and offices are running as scheduled, canceled or delayed.

The start of the Winter 2011 session is just around the corner with classes starting on January 24. Below are helpful reminders and information for faculty members who are offering courses this session.

• Enrollment updates will be posted on the portal weekly.
  
• Course status is determined by the Department of Continuing Studies. Faculty members will be notified by the department of course status prior the start of the course (typically 5 days out).
• Once a course is confirmed running, faculty members will receive a PO# (Purchase Order Number) along with a budget for supplies for the class. Remember, a different PO number is needed for each individual class and vendor that you are planning to purchase supplies from. One PO# request has already been made for each course based on your original course proposal. If you will need more than one because you need to order from more than one vendor you must submit the request along with the vendor name and amount being requested to Sara, sgibson@meca.edu
• The office of the Registrar has created a document detailing the responsibilities of faculty members as far as documentation and communication for the course. Please be sure to visit the page for important information: Faculty Responsibilities to the Registrar
  

We look forward to a great session!

I wanted to take a minute to officially introduce myself to all of you. As you can imagine, it is a busy time in the Continuing Studies Department. We are hard at work with the fall session and are currently preparing for the winter session. At the same time, I am spending time getting to know the department and developing a plan for the future of CS. I genuinely appreciate your continued patience and support during this time of transition. It has been great to have so many of you stop by to welcome me and express your commitment to Continuing Studies. It was instantly clear to me how valued Continuing Studies programs are to both MECA and the community of Portland. I feel very honored to have been the one chosen to lead Continuing Studies towards a vibrant and promising future.

I had the privilege to meet Cheslye and so many of you have expressed how much you enjoyed working with her. She leaves behind a wonderful foundation of programming which I now have the exciting opportunity to build upon. I know that it has been quite a few months in between leaders which created a challenging situation for everyone  involved with CS programs.  The department has carried on thanks to the commitment of faculty members and the leadership of both Ian Anderson and Nik Bsullak. This is no small feat considering the magnitude of things that go on within the department. You all deserve to have the accomplishment recognized. As with a new Director there will of course be change, but I can assure you that any changes made will only further the success of Continuing Studies and continue to carry out the mission and vision of the college.

Thorough and consistent communication are of the utmost importance to the success of our programs, especially when there are so many people involved on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. This CS Faculty Portal was launched last summer. The Portal will continually be developed to provide you with the tools, resources and information you will need as a CS Faculty member. It will be the key resource and central location for Continuing Studies communication.

There is now a Course Proposal Form available on this site for the upcoming Winter Session. You can access the form by clicking on the link in the sidebar of this page. Please note that the deadline for submitting course proposals is November 1. All faculty members will be notified of course status after the scheduling process is complete.

The enrollment database for the fall session has been updated and you can also access it from the Current Enrollment link in the sidebar of this page.

Again, thank you for your support and I look forward to meeting and working with all of you.

Sincerely,

Sara Gibson