Steve Fitzgerald, Director of the Office of Classroom Management (OCM)
in Academic Support Resources, has announced that he will step down as
OCM director to pursue other opportunities, effective the end of June.
Classroom Planning and Projects Manager Jeremy Todd will become interim
director of OCM on June 30, 2009.
Ten years ago last month, Steve accepted the challenge of fixing the
pervasive and wide-spread problems in classrooms that had existed for
years on the Twin Cities campus. As the founding director, he set a
vision and successfully created OCM as an accountable and innovative
organization that has produced tremendous outcomes in all facets of the
classroom experience, and that has made a great positive difference for
students and faculty.
Under Steve's guidance and leadership, OCM has implemented many
innovations and initiatives that are now part of our normal classroom
landscape. His focus on accountability, deliverables, and a systematic
planning approach has been balanced by constant awareness of developing
faculty friendly technology and a teacher-focused support system. He
has helped develop an expert classroom staff that is a great resource
for the University today and in the future.
Innovations include the Projection Capable Classroom (PCC) technology
system in 98% of all central classrooms; transparent Balanced
Scorecard, dashboard and web reporting; a powerful user-oriented
classroom web resource; automated scheduling and web-viewers for both
central and departmental classrooms; Active Learning Classroom (ALC)
designs that are nationally recognized for innovation and excellence; a
responsive Support Hotline system with viable emergency help for
teachers in classrooms, and significant improvements in both room
utilization and physical condition of all central classrooms.
Steve's use of leveraging and partnership programs with colleges
accelerated the pace of classroom upgrades and improvements, and his
forward looking ideas have helped in the planning and construction of
future formal and informal learning space on campus.
OCM has been a resounding success, and today this University of
Minnesota classroom management model is widely regarded as a best
practice enterprise level model for supporting teaching and learning in
classrooms. We thank Steve for his voice as classroom champion and
advocate, for his many contributions to teaching and learning at the
University of Minnesota and for making a lasting positive impact on the
lives of students and faculty. We wish Steve all the best in his future
endeavors.
Sue Van Voorhis
Director, Academic Support Resources
University of Minnesota
