VCAA Newletter

For the last two months I’ve had writer’s block. You may have noticed that the February issue of VCAA News did not appear. It is only now, in mid-March, that my creativity has finally been released from writer’s block prison. Ah! Glorious Spring!! For a while, I thought I might relentlessly re-endure the curse of my dissertation days when I sat miserably in front of a typewriter, staring fixedly at a blank page, paralyzed, fearing an impassable state of inertia. Futile attempts to write anything intelligible that would fill the barren space only heightened my anxiety. Faced with the possibility of another month without VCAA News, I sought the sage counsel of the academic cabinet. To shed my guilt, I confessed unashamedly my angst. “What could I possibly say to the faculty?,” I stammered. Silence; each dean and director scribbled hurriedly in his/her notebook. Later that afternoon, I received an e-mail from Dean Freitas, a gentle reminder, that this is the fifty-year anniversary of Brown v. the Board of Education. That 1954 Supreme Court decision is monumental and unparalleled for what it set in motion, access and equal opportunity to educational advancement for all Americans.

In many ways, IUSB is the beacon in this region for access, opportunity, and success for the citizens of Northern Indiana. As a public university, we can truly say that the university belongs to the people. We provide access to affordable education of extraordinary quality for many first-generation college students, traditional and non-traditional students, working moms and dads, those seeking opportunity for a higher quality of life. I am proud of our university for its outreach to all students. The inclusion of more students of color in each of our programs remains part of our educational mission and is a strategic action of our plan for the future. Our Lily and Lumina grants will enable us to provide unique services to enhance the educational experience of all students, with particular attention to outreach and retention of students of color. Our Fall 2003 student mix was 10.5% minority, and 63.5% female. Among them were 208 international students.

On Monday, February 16, 2004, an audience of students, faculty, and members of the community heard translators / poets / scholars Howard Schwartz and Jeff Friedman give a reading of poems they have translated into English. All of the original poems were written by contemporary Israeli poets as part of a rich literary and religious tradition that continues to find challenge and inspiration in the stories and people of the Book of Genesis.

Schwartz and Friedman also discussed and answered questions about the literary scene that nurtured the poems, their translation project, and the process of writing from Biblical sources. The poems are part of the long Jewish tradition of midrash, a process of addressing complexities in Biblical texts by annotation and retelling.

Howard Schwartz and Jeff Friedman are faculty members in the M. F. A. Program, University of Missouri (St. Louis) and the M. F.A. Program in Poetry, New England College, respectively. Their own poetry and prose have been published widely, and they have edited anthologies of secular and religious poetry and prose.

Sponsors: Office of Academic Affairs, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, International Student Services, Master of Liberal Studies Program, Departments of English, Foreign Languages, and Philosophy.

The Assessment Committee is pleased to announce the recipients of Spring Assessment Grants.

Nursing – The Nursing department will use its assessment grant toward the purchase of DxrNursing software. This software assesses student’s critical thinking skills at various points in the curriculum.
LAS – Liberal Arts and Sciences is developing an electronic course evaluation system. The customized evaluations will assist in making targeted improvements to LAS courses.
Counseling and Human Services – The faculty in this program will be surveying graduates and employers of graduates. This valuable feedback will help Counseling and Human Services assess the long-term impact of their program.

The Assessment Committee has some additional grant funds, and is accepting grant applications until April 1, 2004. Please contact Rhonda Culbertson (x6598) for a copy of the grant application and guidelines, or download it from http://www.iusb.edu/~sbassess/grants/assessform.pdf .

IUSB Distinguished Teaching Award Nominations for the IUSB Distinguished Teaching Award are encouraged. A letter or memo nominating a faculty member may be sent to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Candidates have until early August to prepare the teaching portfolio in support of their candidacy. Please refer to the following link for detailed information. http://www.iusb.edu/~acadaff/awards/teaching.html

The search for the Director of General Education has been re-opened. Additional release time has been afforded. I encourage interested faculty to apply. The position description can be found at this link: http://www.iusb.edu/~acadaff/vcaa/directorgened.pdf

Fulbright has just announced a new program for Visiting Specialists from Middle East, North Africa, South Asia. Application deadline April 15. For further info e-mail Mamiko Hada at vstngspec@cies.iie.org.

The Publication Reception will be held on Friday, April 2, 2004 on the fifth floor of the Library. Please join us in celebrating the past year of research and creative activity here at IUSB.

IRB Update - There were 113 original files sent to Bloomington. Of those, 61 have been approved and 42 have been closed. This leaves 10 studies still under review. We have assembled a new IRB here at IUSB and that committee will be meeting over the next few months to bring our by-laws, forms, and processes into compliance. We will keep the campus posted on the IRB activities and will let you know when Human Subjects applications will be reviewed on our campus.

Rebecca Torstrick, who came back to the U.S. to receive the IU President’s Award, recently wrote from Israel, where she is a Fulbright scholar, about the efficiency of IUSB’s library services to Maureen Kennedy, who is supervisor of Interlibrary Loans: