Dr. Judith A. Todd, P. B. Breneman Department Head Chair, will host a Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence (STRIDE) Workshop on Thursday, April 16 from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. in Ballroom D of the Nittany Lion Inn.

Drs. Wayne Jones and Katherine Spindler, University of Michigan faculty members of the STRIDE Committee, will provide information and advice about practices that will maximize the likelihood that diverse, well-qualified candidates for faculty positions will be identified, and, once selected for offers, recruited, retained, and promoted. This workshop is for all faculty and administrators involved in hiring, including Chairs, Associate Chairs, faculty search committees, and other department members involved with recruitment and retention.

Workshop Topics will include:
Strategies for Recruiting a Diverse and Excellent Faculty
What are the obstacles?
How do schemas affect faculty careers?
Best practices in searching and hiring
Data-based approaches to address issues of climate, recruitment, retention, promotion, visibility and authority in leadership

There will also be Breakout Sessions. To register for the workshop please e-mail Dawn Nelson, dmn3@psu.edu, 863-7966, or Stacy Smith, sls60@psu.edu, 865-4523.

Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles G. Binder Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, will present a seminar titled "Sculptured Thin Films as Nanoengineered Metamaterials, in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of McMaster University, on Tuesday, April 14, 2009.