Case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Case Study Example ?University (SSU) is a comprehensive teaching institution with 14,200 undergraduate and 3500 graduate students accompanied with 400 faculty and staff. SSU is situated in an attractive and relatively isolated setting in Lubbock, Texas. In the recent years, SSU has faced numerous challenges and difficulties. There has been considerable increase in the annual tuition fees but resources to meet the new initiatives have been limited. Although SSU has a few resources in order to meet capital improvement or for the commencement of new programs and initiative but these resources are not adequate. In the recent times, SSU has been able to provide only 1 percent rise across the board faculty and staff salary cost of living and standard promotion adjustment but it has witnessed no major increase in the number of staff for several years. Two programs namely a Staff  Performance  Excellence  Program  (SPEP) and a Faculty  Distinction program was initiated in the year 2000 and 2001 respe ctively which were framed to recognize and motivate outstanding  performance. However, since 2005 neither program was funded. The performance documentation and employee-supervisor discussion committee of the SPEP occupied a key role in deciding the eligibility and levels of merit based salary increase. SPEP was not tied with in any manner with the compensation rather it was totally an academic exercise. Besides, staffs within SSU have also not taken this program seriously as they believe that the program will have no significant impact on their promotion. At the same time, Faculty Distinction program has been paused for many years (Ruben & Jurow, 2012). There was no rigid plan to resolve this ongoing problem faced by the university and the faculty members in the university. As a consequence of this, faculty members in SSU felt increasing level of stress and they deemed to remain strapped for time to teach. Faculty members in SSU who are economically vulnerable remain disheartened about their

Leonardo da Vinci - the Man Of Renaissance Essay

Leonardo da Vinci - the Man Of Renaissance - Essay Example It is therefore, his contemporary intellectuals, inventors, and artists including Giotto di Bondone, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, and Galileo could come close to the wide range of fields that Leonardo asserted his genius upon. Born on 15th April 1452 in Vinci, the suburbs of the fabulous Italian city of Florence, as the illegitimate son of a Florentine notary ser Piero da Vinci and a local peasant woman Caterina, Leonardo received his early education and training in Florence under the supervision of his father. It is observed that he had developed great taste for paintings and drawing in his early childhood, and even his most initial sketches were extremely captivating, eye-catching and surprising ones, which immediately captured the attention of the viewers. Hence, no one could refrain himself from admiring the gifted talent of the dexterity and command of the little painter over fine arts. Consequently, his father, Ser Piero, sought the services of the renowned contemporary Florentine painter Andrea del Verrocchio to coach his son in order to polish his talent in this field. Leonardo worked very hard while learning from his teacher and applied his splendid intellect in the creative activities, which earn ed unabated fame and respect for the young artist. The history reveals that he had developed his personal art gallery at the age of twenty-four years only, where he got orders for the preparation of portraits and paintings independently from the local community. Somehow, Leonardo’s interests were so broad, and he was so often compelled by new subjects, that he usually failed to finish what he started. This lack of â€Å"stick-to-it-ness† resulted in his completing only about six works in these 17 years, including â€Å"The Last Supper† and â€Å"The Virgin on the Rocks,† and he left dozens of paintings and projects unfinished or unrealized. Being the true follower of the prevailing Christian mythology, Leonardo selected Biblical stories as the topic of his paintings and drawing. He drew the sketches including the adoration of Magi at the eve of the Christ’