A MESSAGE
from the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Jack Feminella
As incoming associate dean for academic affairs,
it is my great pleasure to write to you through my
inaugural article in Journey. As I succeed Dr. Vince
Cammarata, I wish to thank him for his leadership
and strong support of COSAM undergraduate
programs over the past three years.
I have been a COSAM faculty member, graduate
program officer, and department chair within
Biological Sciences since coming to Auburn in
fall 1991. In those early days, Saunders Hall and
the Extension Cottage were still standing, Biology
was housed in Cary Hall, and Rouse Life Sciences
Building and Sciences Center Complex were both
far from bricks-and-mortar reality. In short, over
the past quarter-century, I’ve seen many changes in
Auburn buildings, programs, and people, but none
that eclipse the tremendous growth in the size and
quality of COSAM faculty and students.
Last fall, the university enjoyed its largest class
of incoming freshman (4,592) and enrollment
(25,912) in history. And, although COSAM’s
enrollment (3,055) was not record breaking,
our responsibility for offering core sciences and
mathematics instruction and service to other
academic programs was unsurpassed. Student
quality, as well as quantity, continues to increase
in COSAM. Our fall 2014 incoming freshman
maintained the second-highest average ACT (27.5)
in the university, and also the highest average high
school GPA (3.87). These eye-popping numbers
recur year after year, reinforcing the notion that
COSAM attracts exceptional undergraduates in our
academic programs, and that we are clearly doing
something right.
Just because our student quality continues to grow
doesn’t mean we don’t have more work to do in
helping students stay on track with their majors.
Auburn has gotten serious about implementing new
methods to help with curricular planning