Associate professor of political science Eric Gorham has plans for improvement and integration among Loyola’s faculty and students.

Walter Harris, the university provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, announced the appointment of Gorham on Sept. 8 to the office of interim assistant provost for teaching, learning, and faculty development.

Gorham will serve as interim assistant provost for the 2003-04 academic year, while David Estes, provost and professor of English, serves as an ACE fellow at Adelphi University as part of a program to participate in and learn about the administration of other universities.

A university press release says that Gorham will assist the individual colleges in their efforts to enhance faculty development, foster a learning centered environment and promoting the scholarship of teaching and learning.

“This job basically consists of helping to bring different parts of the university together,” he said.

Gorham said that one of his goals for the year is to increase involvement between Academic Affairs and Student Affairs. He cited a new program called “Unleashing Your Inner-Monster,” which devotes itself to integrating first-year students into the university life and educating them about the resources available to help them realize their academic potential.

The program will bring in a speaker on Oct. 15, and the next evening faculty members will lead discussions in the residence halls about such issues as academic advising, time management and integration in the life of the university.

With respect to the discussion groups in the residence halls, Gorham said that faculty members play an important role in helping students adjust to university life and in building the learning community.

“We would like to get more faculty members involved in activities that allow both faculty and students to learn in an environment outside of the classroom,” he said.

Gorham said that he would also like to concentrate on providing opportunities for faculty members to see him as a resource and to help improve academic services.

He’d also like to work with the University Academic Advising Council to help improve advising for students. He said he is interested in seeing more emphasis put on academic advising.

“It’s an important issue, and worth discussing at all levels of the university,” he said.

Gorham also said that he would like to see more intellectual discourse between faculty members.

He suggests seminars where professors can share research and work with each other to strengthen research at Loyola.

In the interest of expanding and strengthening undergraduate research, Gorham said that he would like to see the formation of undergraduate research symposia where students can share their research.

“A student research symposium would be a good idea, to let the students know what other students are researching, because some of them have done amazing things.”

Gorham will not teach while he serves as assistant provost, but he said that he is enjoying his job for the many same reasons that he enjoys teaching, in that it gives him the opportunity to learn from others.

In the classroom he said that he gets to learn from his students, while his job as interim assistant provost allows him to learn from other parts of the university.

“It is an interesting and exciting challenge for me,” Gorham said. “I am learning a lot.”