June 7, 2006 :: No. 271

Diana W. Guerin, professor of child and adolescent studies, has been elected to a one-year term as chair of Cal State Fullerton’s Academic Senate. Her term is through May 2007.

“I’m looking forward to a good year,” said Guerin, a Cal State Fullerton alumna (M.A. psychology ’80) who joined the campus faculty in 1988. She succeeds John W. Bedell, professor of sociology.

This year’s agenda includes senate review of a progress report from the Vision Committee on Academic Quality. The senate committee was established in fall 2005 to envision the next 10 years at Cal State Fullerton with an emphasis on maintaining and strengthening quality in such areas as student education, student-teacher ratios and general appearance of the campus.

“One of my priorities has been addressed with the hiring of 84 faculty members this year and the dedication to continue this process,” said Guerin, referring to a 2005 goal of President Milton A. Gordon to conduct 100 faculty searches each year for five years. “I hope that we can be successful in future faculty searches and in retention of those that we hire.”

An Academic Senate member since 2000, Guerin was elected senate secretary in 2003-04 and has been serving as editor of the senate publication Forum. She has been a member of the statewide senate since 2004.

“Diana will serve well as chair of the Academic Senate,” said Bedell. “She has been a dedicated member of the senate and rigorous in her attention to detail, as seen in her efforts on the committee that worked on the revision of the university policy dealing with procedures for tenure-track and tenured faculty. She is especially interested in the ability of our junior colleagues to do their jobs and will work tirelessly on all faculty members’ interests.”

On campus, Guerin has served as head of the Child and Adolescent Studies Department for four years and department academic adviser for five years. She has been a member on the university’s Instructional Technology, Professional Leaves and Faculty Personnel committees and in 2000, served as a consultant to Cal State Bakersfield’s Child Development Program.

A longtime member of the Association for the Education of Young Children, Guerin was president of the Orange County chapter of the organization and served on the California association’s board of directors for two years.

Guerin is one of the researchers for the Fullerton Longitudinal Study, which chronicled the development of more than 100 youngsters from their first birthdays in 1979 through high school. Author of numerous articles on child development, she co-authored two books based on the research: “Gifted IQ: Early Developmental Aspects — The Fullerton Longitudinal Study,” published in 1994, and “Temperament: Infancy Through Adolescence (Longitudinal Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Interdisciplinary Series),” published in 2003, both by Springer.

The Fullerton resident’s research interests include children’s temperament, intellectual giftedness and child safety. In addition to her master’s degree from Cal State Fullerton, she also holds a master’s degree and doctorate in psychology from UCLA.

Joining Guerin on the 2006-07 Academic Senate Executive Committee are: Vice Chair A. Scott Hewitt, professor of chemistry and biochemistry who resides in Fullerton; Secretary Lynda E. Randall, professor of secondary education and Tustin resident; and Treasurer Zvi Drezner, professor of information systems and decision sciences and Anaheim Hills resident.

Members-at-large serving on the committee are: Fullerton resident Reyes Fidalgo, chair of Chicana and Chicano studies and associate professor of modern languages and literatures; Brea resident David R. Fromson, associate dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and professor of biological science; and La Habra resident Jonathan S. Taylor, assistant professor of geography.

Santa Ana resident Barry Pasternack, chair and professor of information systems and decision sciences, has been elected vice chair of the statewide academic senate. As statewide academic senators, Pasternack and J. Vincent Buck, professor of political science and a Fullerton resident, also serve on the academic senate executive committee.

« back to News Front