San Bernardino, CA – Cal State San Bernardino will host a grand opening ceremony on Wednesday, Sept. 27, for the newly created CSUSB Faculty Center for Excellence, The ceremony will take place at 9 a.m. in the John M. Pfau Library, PL-4005.

The CSUSB Faculty Center for Excellence will provide space for faculty to gather and collaborate for facilitated faculty professional development activities, and will have information on upcoming grant applications, conferences and other opportunities, said Cherstin Lyon, a CSUSB history professor and co-director of the center.

“The mission of the Faculty Center for Excellence is to provide coherent and comprehensive support for faculty to reach their personal and professional goals in the areas of research, scholarship, and creative activities; teaching; community engagement; and leadership,” Lyon said. “Our goal is to enhance the CSUSB faculty experience by fostering creativity, learning, inquiry, and exploration through community, collaboration, and collegiality in a diverse, equitable, and inclusive atmosphere.”

The FCE will:

• Coordinate and provide professional development, mentoring, and funding to support faculty in research, scholarship, and creative activities; teaching; community engagement; and leadership;
• Provide a welcoming space for faculty to gather for professional development, collaboration, networking and mutual support;
• Provide an environment that values and promotes faculty initiative, exploration, innovation and advancement; and
• Establish and maintain a central repository of information regarding resources and faculty professional activities.

The opening of the FCE supports Goal 2 of CSUSB’s Strategic Plan by fostering faculty innovation, scholarship and discovery. “I am excited about this opportunity for our educators to collaborate in a shared and dedicated space,” said Provost Shari McMahan.

The grand opening will also feature the presentation of the Anthony Evans Professional Development Scholars awardees for Best Mini Grant Proposals by junior faculty.

The awardees are:

• Thomas Corrigan, assistant professor, College of Arts and Letters; Proposal – Dialogs on Methods in in the Political Economy of Communication
• Daniel MacDonald, assistant professor, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences; Proposal – An Analysis of the Determinants of California’s Recent Wave of Out-Migration
• Nancy Acevedo-Gil, assistant professor, College of Education; Proposal – College-Conocimiento: Developing an Engaging College Going Environment
• Liang Guo, assistant professor, Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration; Proposal – Corruption, Governance, and Pension Fund; and
• Monideepa Becerra, assistant professor, College of Natural Sciences; Proposal – Food insecurity and acculturation among Asian Americans

The event will also include a kickoff meeting for scholarly writing led by Cynthia Crawford, a professor of psychology and the interim associate provost for academic research; Mark Agars, a professor of psychology; and Kelly Campbell, an associate professor of psychology.

About Cal State San Bernardino

California State University, San Bernardino is a preeminent center of intellectual and cultural activity in Inland Southern California. Opened in 1965 and set at the foothills of the beautiful San Bernardino Mountains, the university serves more than 20,000 students each year and graduates about 4,000 students annually. CSUSB reflects the dynamic diversity of the region and has the most diverse student population of any university in the Inland Empire. More than 80 percent of those who graduate are the first in their families to do so.