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FAU Provost and Chief Academic Officer Brenda Claiborne Leaving Positions

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Florida Atlantic University Provost and Chief Academic Officer Brenda Claiborne, Ph.D., will leave her current post and assume a new role as program director for neuroscience at FAU’s John D. MacArthur Campus in Jupiter, effective August 7. Simultaneously, Rodney Murphey, Ph.D., chair of the department of biological sciences in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, is being named director of the recently launched Jupiter Life Science Initiative, which facilitates the interaction of FAU faculty and students with researchers from the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience and Scripps Florida. Both Max Planck and Scripps have built major research facilities on FAU’s Jupiter campus.

Beginning July 15, Associate Provost of Personnel and Programs Diane Alperin, Ph.D., will serve as acting provost until an interim provost is appointed.

Claiborne is an internationally known neuroscientist who serves as treasurer of the 40,000-member Society for Neuroscience, a worldwide organization.

“We are extremely fortunate to have two prominent neuroscientists here at FAU who can lead this important initiative,” said Dennis J. Crudele, FAU’s acting president. “The presence on our Jupiter campus of two of the world’s leading biomedical research organizations gives us the opportunity to focus on the development of highly sophisticated life sciences research and education. We have already introduced a Ph.D. program in integrative biology and neuroscience in cooperation with our partners at Max Planck.”

FAU launched the Jupiter Life Science Initiative in 2012 by moving six neuroscience research labs from the Boca Raton campus to Jupiter. Murphey has been on site since the move, coordinating research activities with Max Planck and Scripps. The initiative is focusing first on neuroscience, with emphasis on biotechnology, and will expand to include other areas of the life sciences. Faculty and students are working in a state-of-the-art teaching laboratory with high-tech equipment purchased by a grant from the New Florida Initiative. The facility also includes equipment that Claiborne provided from her personal laboratory.

“I am very excited to join Dr. Murphey and his team on the Jupiter campus, as well as our colleagues at Scripps and Max Planck, to build our neuroscience research and education programs,” Claiborne said. “The combined strength of the scientists at the three institutions is extremely impressive. And, while I have thoroughly enjoyed my tenure as provost, this move provides the opportunity for me to resume my research on brain development and aging.”

Murphey has been a member of FAU’s faculty since 2005 after previously serving as program officer at the National Science Foundation. His research at FAU focuses on the development and degeneration of synapses in the central nervous system. Murphey has a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Oregon.

“The Jupiter Life Science Initiative is of great importance not only to FAU but also to Palm Beach County and the state of Florida,” said Murphey. “In addition, the emergence of a world-class program in integrative biology and neuroscience on the Jupiter campus supports FAU’s biotechnology signature theme, one of three areas of special strategic focus for the University’s ongoing development as an outstanding center of research and scholarship.”

Plans for the initiative also include a semester-long “Science Experience” that will be open to all FAU science majors, as well as shorter courses in cutting-edge technologies that will serve the broader scientific community.

Before coming to FAU in 2011, Claiborne was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and a professor in the department of neurosciences in UNM’s School of Medicine. She previously served as dean of graduate studies and associate vice president for research at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), and she was founding director of the Institute for Aging Research at UTSA. Claiborne, who serves as a reviewer for numerous scholarly journals in the field of neuroscience, holds an appointment as professor in the department of biological sciences and a joint appointment in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. in biology from the University of California, San Diego.

Associate Provost Alperin joined FAU in 1980, and her current responsibilities include handling personnel issues and maintaining existing academic programs for the Division of Academic Affairs, including program review and accreditation. She has a Ph.D. in social welfare from Florida International University.
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Re: FAU Provost and Chief Academic Officer Brenda Claiborne Leaving Positions

South Florida Business Journal headline: "FAU provost takes new role, names new life science leader"

- First sentence: "Florida Atlantic University has shifted leadership positions to place more emphasis on the life science programs at its Jupiter campus, and it needs a new provost as a result."

vs

Sun Sentinel blog headline: "FAU Provost Claiborne steps down"

- First sentence: "The shakeups continue at Florida Atlantic University with Provost Brenda Claiborne becoming at least the fifth administrator to step down in recent months."



Pretty telling. And the SS expects me to buy a subscription for the privilege to read these kinds of slanted stories? Give me a break.
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Re: FAU Provost and Chief Academic Officer Brenda Claiborne Leaving Positions

Owl2Doc said

South Florida Business Journal headline: "FAU provost takes new role, names new life science leader"

- First sentence: "Florida Atlantic University has shifted leadership positions to place more emphasis on the life science programs at its Jupiter campus, and it needs a new provost as a result."

vs

Sun Sentinel blog headline: "FAU Provost Claiborne steps down"

- First sentence: "The shakeups continue at Florida Atlantic University with Provost Brenda Claiborne becoming at least the fifth administrator to step down in recent months."



Pretty telling. And the SS expects me to buy a subscription for the privilege to read these kinds of slanted stories? Give me a break.

Kinda like movie reviewers who you wonder if they saw the same movie by how they write their pieces!
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Re: FAU Provost and Chief Academic Officer Brenda Claiborne Leaving Positions

What gives with the SS? They are actually trying to create reading interest by slanting stories. Thats what the Inquirer does when you see the spectacular headlines on line at the grocery store. When you read the article you find the headlines were misleading. Has the SS turned into another Inquirer? Are sales that bad?

This looks like all positive news to me. Claiborne was able to stay at FAU and move into a position the she excels in.

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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Re: FAU Provost and Chief Academic Officer Brenda Claiborne Leaving Positions

they are just trying to create a scandal where there is none. she is going to head up a institution and continue her research. that's all.
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Re: FAU Provost and Chief Academic Officer Brenda Claiborne Leaving Positions

illinoisowl said

What gives with the SS? They are actually trying to create reading interest by slanting stories. Thats what the Inquirer does when you see the spectacular headlines on line at the grocery store. When you read the article you find the headlines were misleading. Has the SS turned into another Inquirer? Are sales that bad?

This looks like all positive news to me. Claiborne was able to stay at FAU and move into a position the she excels in.

I agree, someone high up at FAU needs to have a sit down meeting with a high up at the SS and go over both articles and DIRECTLY ask them what gives with the slanted, negative writing. What did they do, hire some FIU grads? ;)
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Re: FAU Provost and Chief Academic Officer Brenda Claiborne Leaving Positions

I know better than to express my opinion before doing the research. I read the SS article. They are making a connection with Claiborne leaving her provost position to Saunders stopping down and the other officials leaving FAU. Being so far away, I don't know.

Granted they have no obligation to be an FAU cheerleader but a little objectivity goes a long way.

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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Re: FAU Provost and Chief Academic Officer Brenda Claiborne Leaving Positions

GeorgiaOwl said

Someone high up at FAU needs to have a sit down meeting with a high up at the SS and go over both articles and DIRECTLY ask them what gives with the slanted, negative writing.

If only it were that easy.

I'm still unclear why the majority of the sites I visit survive by sidebar/pop-up advertising but newspapers need to charge for subscriptions to survive. I keep reading about paywalls but nobody's saying why the sidebar ad model doesn't generate enough revenue for the newspapers to survive.
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Re: FAU Provost and Chief Academic Officer Brenda Claiborne Leaving Positions

FAU Provost and Chief Academic Officer Brenda Claiborne Leaving Positions

illinoisowl said

They are making a connection with Claiborne leaving her provost position to Saunders stopping down and the other officials leaving FAU.

Although Claiborne was appointed to Provost shortly after Saunders came into office but that's really the only connection that I've seen. Now if everybody else thought she was incompetent and Saunders was the only one supporting her - a true crony situation - that would be one thing.

The interim president seems like he's got a pretty good handle on things. I'd really like to see a Pat Chun type for our next President.

Then s/he will have to appoint a new Provost and honestly, if we want our academic reputation to step it up a notch, we're going to need to take a hard look at the difficulty of some of our programs. A couple of friends of mine graduated from other FL universities, got jobs as teachers down here and now they're attending FAU part-time for their masters in Education so they can get a pay boost. We've always had a reputation for a good Education program but some of the things they had to do are a joke.

I remember as a student I'd be thrilled if I found out a class was an Easy A but in the end I didn't learn anything. I really didn't. In retrospect the class I most respected from undergrad was Biochemistry I because I had to memorize every.single.word. on every page just to get through. I didn't just pass that class, I survived it. And granted that would be difficult to do if I had five classes just like that but you always rise up to the level of expectation set forth. If you hear it's a tough class, you put in more effort and you learn more. And when you get that degree, it's supposed to mean that you learned something, not that you just showed up.

So the next Provost is going to have to navigate through that situation. You don't need to raise the bar in all majors, just the ones that are slacking.
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Re: FAU Provost and Chief Academic Officer Brenda Claiborne Leaving Positions

I don't mean to get off topic. Please excuse just this once.

There is/was a similar class in the business school. Quanitative Analysis. Its a core class in the business dept and I believe all or most business majors have to take it. Business students with weak math skills struggle.

Getting the degree is what a lot of people want and not neccesarily learning the information. There is a program up here in a local college they call a Pace Program. They basically run you through in record time. Its for working people. I do not see how they can learn the material I did in much less time unless the classes are easier and you don't learn as much. I do know some of the larger companies like Fortune 500 really favor the traditional students. What I noticed about the older Pace students is many of them are stuck and can't move up without the degree. They get the degree to get the promotion.

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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