By Sean Vo

Dr. Sinuk Kang was appointed as the interim Department Head of the Communication Department at Westfield State while Madeleine Cahill is on sabbatical.

Dr. Kang has been a professor at WSU for nine years. Despite his near decade of teaching on campus, he is more of the newer faculty. As Dr. Cahill announced her sabbatical, a new Department Head had to be chosen, and, according to Dr. Kang, he was recommended by Dr. Cahill. Upon that recommendation, the full department voted for him.

Acting as the new Department Head came with benefits, according to Dr. Kang. For one, he got to learn more about the administrative side of things. Also, he now feels he is more connected with the students as well. Part of his new role is overseeing schedules of students who major, minor, or have declared a secondary major in Communication.

Now that Dr. Kang is acting as the new Department Head, he also expressed the changes he faced. Typically as a faculty member, he was required to teach four courses per semester. Now acting as Department Chair, he can waive two courses from his schedule and was able to do a course release for one more class. This semester, he is now only teaching one course. This allowed him to focus on his administrative work. Being Department Chair, he has to attend more meetings which results to him having his own personal homework beyond his professor responsibilities.

So far, Dr. Kang has expressed excitement in acting as the new Department Head, despite feeling uncertain at the start of the semester. He displays his readiness to take on new challenges and is always open to learn, which he feels this new acting position has granted him.