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Letter From the Dean - September 2001
Dear Colleagues: ACADEMIC ENHANCEMENT PLANHopefully, you have received your copy of a draft of the College Academic Enhancement Plan by now. It may also be accessed via the College Website: http://www.indiana.edu/~college/dean/AcademicEnhancementPlan.shtmlThis document is intended to be the basis for a College-wide discussion of issues, goals, and action plans. Consistent with my belief in faculty governance and my philosophy of transparent and rational decision-making, I strongly urge you to participate in defining the future direction of the College. In responding, please avoid these pitfalls: 1) being guided solely by personal or parochial agenda; 2) policy making guided by anecdote; 3) policy making guided by autobiography (“When I was in college…”); 4) letting anticipated obstacles keep good ideas from even being discussed; and 5) making all changes contingent upon new resources. I look forward to hearing your voice. COLLEGE INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND HUMANITIESYou may recall that last January, I appointed a faculty committee to prepare a proposal for a new Arts and Humanities institute. I am delighted to announce the College’s establishment of the Arts and Humanities institute. The new institute’s goal is to further the research, creative activity, teaching, and outreach of the many College faculty working in the arts and humanities. At a time when the influence of the arts and humanities may seem in doubt, the institute stands as a visible symbol of their persisting importance in the intellectual and curricular life of the College and the University. The institute provides faculty the time, space and community to pursue their intellectual and artistic projects. The institute is especially intended to promote investigation and collaboration across the range of disciplines and across the boundaries between the arts and the humanities. The College envisions the institute as a place for faculty to test new curricular and programmatic ideas – a critical proving ground for future College graduate and undergraduate programs. As a visible focal point for innovative work in the arts and humanities, the institute will serve as an ideal base for College faculty to join in creative partnerships. The institute will seek to join with the system-wide Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) to carry out projects of mutual interest. In addition, the institute will serve as a base for faculty outreach to Indiana teachers. In all these ways, the Arts and Humanities institute shall enhance the longtime excellence of arts and humanities faculty in the College and increase their influence across the University, the state and throughout the academic world. In the coming weeks you will receive a program announcement from the institute.I have appointed Andrea Ciccarelli Director of the Institute, and an Advisory Board:
Bruce Burgun – Theatre and Drama Sarah Burns – History of Art Eva Cherniavsky – American Studies Jonathan Elmer - English John Goodheart – Fine Arts Karen Hanson - Philosophy John McCluskey – Afro-American Studies Rosemarie McGerr – Comparative Literature Massimo Ossi - Music John Eakin – English (ex-officio, IAS) TIME MAGAZINE NAMES IU COLLEGE OF THE YEARAs you have surely heard, Time Magazine has named Indiana University College of the Year amongst “big research institutions” for IU’s Intensive Freshman Seminar program. In particular, the College would like to congratulate Craig Nelson (Biology) who was mentioned in the article, and George Malacinski (Biology) who was photographed while teaching about human cloning.ARTS AND SCIENCES PLACEMENT OFFICE WINS EQUIPMENT GRANTThe Arts and Sciences Career Services headed by Alan McNabb was instrumental in securing a $40,000 equipment grant for IU from the Hewlett Packard Corporation of Palo Alto, California. HP has worked with the Arts and Sciences Career Services for more than 25 years, and this grant is a commitment to enhance diversity at Indiana University by providing HP equipment to the following offices on campus: Neal Marshall Black Culture Center; The Groups Program; LaCasa, the latino culture center; the Asian Culture Center; and finally, the MAPS/MASS effort.HONORS, AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS ATTAINED BY FACULTYCongratulations to George Pinney, Professor of Theatre and Drama, and collaborators Jon Vanderkolff and Jim Moore, who won an Emmy Award for choreographing the Public Broadcasting Service production of Blast.Bruce M. Cole, Distinguished Professor in the Henry Hope School of Fine Arts, has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the next Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Milton Taylor, Professor in the Biology Department, received a grant from the NIH to be part of a cooperative project on studying hepatitis C virus, with particular reference to the African American population. This project involves eight clinical centers and four basic (ancillary) labs, one of which is Dr. Taylor’s at I.U. This month, St. Martin’s Press published the co-authored book by A.B. Assensoh of Afro-American Studies and Political Science’s Yvette Marie Alex-Assensoh, entitled African Military History and Politics : Coups and Ideological Incursions, 1900-Present addressing the African military and the implications of militarized politics, poverty as well as bad governance on the continent. Peter Bondanella has been Visiting Fellow at the Australian Humanities Centre of the Australian National University in Canberra from 10--24 September, 2001. During his stay down under, he delivered a plenary address devoted to the cinema of Federico Fellini at an international conference the Centre hosted on "The Importance of Italy" and lectured at several universities. Gregory Kasza of East Asian Languages and Cultures has received a prestigious Abe Fellowship for study in Japan for a year. In July of 2001, under the direction of Thomas C. Kaufman, Distinguished Professor of Biology, Kathleen A. Matthews, Associate Scientist in Biology, and Kevin R. Cook, Assistant Scientist in Biology, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health provided funds for a major expansion of the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center at Indiana University. The Bloomington Stock Center serves over 5,000 scientists in 48 countries and houses the preeminent collection of D. melanogaster research strains world-wide. Diane Kewley-Port (Professor, SPHS) and Chuck Watson (Emeritus Professor, SPHS) and Daniel Maki (Chair, Mathematics) founded a small business 11 years ago, CDT, which is located in the IU research park. CDT has recently won a Tibbetts Award for a small business that has been successful with the SBIR (Small Business Innovative Research) projects (see http://www.sbirsttr.net/tibbetts). The founders plan to go to Washington to receive the award on October 2. The day-long events include a White House Breakfast and a Capitol Hill reception. Anya Royce from Anthropology has received a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Studies for the spring semester. Dror Wahrman from History was the recipient of the 2000-01 James L. Clifford Prize, for his article entitled “Gender in Translation: How the English Wrote Their Juvenal, 1644-1815”, which was published in Representations 65. The prize is awarded annually by the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies to the author of the best article regarding any aspect of eighteenth-century culture. The Department of Folklore received notification on June 26 2001 that they have received an award from the Education Division of the NEH for their project, “Tales On-Line: An Electronic Database of Folk Narrative.” John McDowell, Chair of the department will be the Project Director with Inta Carpenter as Co-Director. Butch Brodie, Professor in Biology, was featured in the PBS series on Evolution telecast during the week of September 22nd. STUDENT HONORSThree graduate students studying Japanese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures have received grants: Charles Andrews and Todd Munson have received Fulbright grants for study in Japan; and Margaret Key received a Japan Foundation award and is in Japan now.The American Sociological Association presented Jeremy Freese, a 2001 Ph.D. in the Department of Sociology with the ASA Dissertation Award. He is now an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin. Aneil Agrawal, a fourth year graduate student in the Department of Biology and the Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, pulled off a rare double this year by publishing sole and first-authored papers in Nature and Science, the two most prestigious general science journals. Agrawal's Nature paper offers a novel theory for one of the classic and still unsolved problems in biology, the evolution of sex. NEW APPOINTMENTS IN THE COLLEGEI am pleased to report that Jocelyn Bowie has accepted the position of Director of Marketing, Recruitment, and Outreach in the College. Steve Sanders, who had taken on this responsibility on a part-time basis for two years will resume his editorial and communication responsibilities and teach a course for the Political Science department in the Spring. For the past year, Steve also chaired a University-wide working group that successfully steered a proposal for domestic partner benefits to unanimous approval September 14 by the Board of Trustees, a development we expect will enhance faculty recruitment and retention. He is planning to enter law school beginning next academic year.I am pleased to announce the appointments of Catharine Hoff as Assistant Dean and Coordinator of Advising; and Ulrik Knudsen as Chief Technology Officer of CITO. Karen Fosse is the new Office Services Assistant in my office. Swamy [Kumble R. Subbaswamy, Dean College of Arts and Sciences] |
