During the fellowship year at Temple, Cai will be mentored by senior administrators Richard M. Englert, deputy provost; Vicki Lewis McGarvey, associate vice president for academic and faculty affairs; and Lisa Staiano-Coico, provost. He also will be working on a special project for the University of Delaware under the mentorship of President Patrick Harker and Provost Dan Rich.
“I am truly honored and feel really lucky to be nominated and selected as an ACE fellow,” Cai said. “I am very grateful for the opportunity of learning in the fellowship year at Temple, and I am enjoying the learning opportunity. It is very interesting to observe how academic leaders think and discuss an issue, consider various perspectives and make decisions.”
The ACE fellows program offers awards in higher education administration to candidates who have significant academic credentials, have been nominated by their presidents or chancellors and have been identified as having the potential for administrative leadership.
“During the fellowship year, I would like to first learn more about my strengths and weaknesses in administration and leadership,” Cai said. “Through self-reflection and mentors' consultation, I hope to learn how to capitalize the strengths and think through strategies to overcome the weaknesses.
“Secondly, I hope to deepen my knowledge of academic affairs and student life in higher education. Additionally, I plan to gain a working knowledge of other aspects of higher education, such as development, finance, admission, retention and graduation, technology, team building and intercollegiate athletics,” he said.
The ACE fellows program was established in 1965 to strengthen leadership in American higher education by identifying and preparing promising faculty and staff members for responsible administrative positions. ACE is the umbrella association for more than 1,600 degree-granting institutions and more than 200 higher education associations and organizations.
Cai joined the faculty in 1996 and was promoted to associate professor in 2000. He was elevated to full professor in 2004 and served as president of the College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Senate in the 2004-05 academic year.
Cai, who was elected to serve as the vice president of the University Faculty Senate in 2006-07 and also served as president of the Faculty Senate in the College of Arts and Sciences in 2004-05, has received numerous grants and awards, including an international research award from the UD Office of the Provost and the Teaching Excellence Award from Kappa Delta Pi Education Honor Society at UD. He was a visiting scholar in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Chinese University of Hong Kong from March-April 1999.
Cai's recent publications include Empirical Investigations of U.S. and Chinese Students' Learning of Mathematics: Insights and Recommendations by Educational Sciences Publishing House in Beijing and two articles on mathematical problem-solving research in special issues of the Journal of Mathematical Behavior. Earlier this year he edited a special issue of Zentralblatt fuer Didaktik der Mathematik (International Journal on Mathematics Education) on effective mathematics teaching and he also was invited to serve as the editor-in-chief for a book series on educational research. He coedited How Chinese Learn Mathematics: Perspectives from Insiders by World Scientific in 2004.
Article by Martin Mbugua
Photo by Duane Perry