VCAA Newletter

Dear Colleagues,

I trust that this mid-summer note finds you well and enjoying time away from the routine of daily classes, student advising and committees. Like you, I’ve carved out time during the bustle of summer planning to travel, read and spend time with family and friends. I’ve just returned from a road trip through New England where my wife and I visited with family in Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts. On the journey home, we stopped for an overnight visit with former Chancellor Lester Wolfson and his new bride, Frances. Some of you may have met her during the Wolfson’s early summer visit to South Bend. In his inimitable style, Les regaled us with his remarkable recitation from memory of the most eloquent and beautiful poetry written in the English language. Compared to his vast treasury of limitless and immediate recall, my memory bank of French verses paled miserably. Whatever recollections of Baudelaire and Verlaine I could dredge up were no match for his superior recitations of Shakespeare and Keats. We had a delightful time together as the four of us dined handsomely over a sumptuous meal, sated in splendid conversation.

Summers are wonderful for making dents in the stack of books that I’ve set aside to read. Besides Anne Fadiman’s book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, the choice for this fall’s One Book, One Campus initiative, I’ve read Derek Bok’s provocative new book, Our Underachieving Colleges: A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn and Why They Should Be Learning More. The former president of Harvard offers insightful comments and posits compelling thought to what is being taught and learned in our nation’s colleges and universities. There is a host of ideas and conclusions that provide excellent fodder for stimulating conversation. Having now put the book aside, I am drawn repeatedly back to Bok’s prescriptions for improvement in higher education. His ideas about general education, globalization, diversity, critical thinking, connectivity of learning, the importance of the great books, and the teaching of ethics continue to ring in the recesses of my innermost thoughts, even testing my passionate beliefs about these subjects. During the course of a conversation with one of our faculty recently, I shared my ambivalence about Bok’s book and I suggested that I would like to gather together several faculty for a series of meetings to discuss Bok’s assumptions. I am particularly interested in viewing Bok’s sentiments about the current state of higher education as a benchmark for IU South Bend’s academic programming and student learning. It would be interesting to assess how we measure up to the values he deems as critical components of a baccalaureate education. In that light, I’d like to form at least two reading groups of twelve faculty and staff to discuss and evaluate IU South Bend’s performance. Academic Affairs will provide each interested faculty and staff with a copy of the book. If you would like to participate, please contact me directly.

I’d like to welcome Michael Horvath to campus as our new dean of the School of Education. A native son, Michael is a graduate of IU with a master’s degree from our School of Education. He completed his Ed.D. at the University of Arizona in learning disability and educational administration. Michael comes to IUSB with a wealth of experience as a dean of education. His most recent administrative experience was at Missouri Southern State University where he served as dean for over ten years. He is a prolific scholar and recipient of numerous grants. We wish him a long and productive tenure at IU South Bend.

The university owes a special thanks and gratitude to Miriam Shillingsburg who served as the interim dean of the School of Education. She provided capable and strong leadership to the school during its recent re-accreditation. During the next academic year, Professor Shillingsburg will be on leave from the university.

Additional administrative changes within Academic Affairs include the appointment of Dr. Frank Fujita as the new director of the Honors Program. Professor Fujita was recommended unanimously by the faculty committee that considered his candidacy. Professor Fujita succeeds Professor Brenda Knowles who provided expert leadership of the Honors Program for over ten years. Under Professor Knowles’ leadership the program grew in academic quality and in numbers. The university expresses its deepest gratitude to Professor Knowles.

In preparation for the Higher Learning Commission’s visit to the campus in November of 2007, this summer I began hosting a series of conversations at my home with invited faculty and staff to discuss what we have been learning about the university through the self-study process that is currently underway. I fondly call these conversations with the chancellor and me, causeries, since they are informal gatherings around a selected topic. The first one was held in June and there is another scheduled in August. New Orleans cuisine is provided as a backdrop. These causeries will continue throughout the academic year and next summer.

Kudos to Salina Shrofel and Erika Zynda for their persistent work over the summer in submitting over $3,000,000 in grant proposals. Large institutional proposals were submitted to FIPSE and Title III. Research proposals were submitted to NSF, Templeton Foundation, and others.

Alfred J. Guillaume, Jr.