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| National Champion Forensics Team | The ISU Forensics Team extended its dynasty by winning the American Forensics Association’s (AFA) national championship for the first time, after hosting the inaugural AFA tournament on the University campus in 1978. The Forensics Team has a 12-year string of first- or second-place finishes in the National Forensics Association’s (NFA) national championship tournament, but until this year, the team had not been able to capture the AFA title. "This year's American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament was the largest and most prestigious national tournament to be held this year,” said Jennifer Parker, Director of Individual Events. “The ISU team was only the sixth school to ever win the tournament and the forensics community responded by congratulating the team with a twenty minute standing ovation. It was a truly amazing moment.”
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College Ombudsperson
Dr. Sabine Loew | Dean Olson accepted each of the recommendations of the Faculty Retention Implementation Committee to enhance diversity, recruitment, and retention in the College. Recommendations address issues of partner/spouse hiring, new faculty welcoming and transition, structural and administrative changes, and enhanced support for faculty professional development. Overall, the recommendations stress developing partnerships within the Bloomington-Normal community to enhance faculty experience. In particular, the committee recognizes the community can be instrumental in developing a pool of resources for employment-seeking partners, facilitating new faculty transition, and welcoming and integrating new faculty into social events during orientation, mentoring, and other transition support programs. In terms of faculty professional development, the committee suggested increasing start-up packages, instituting mentoring programs to support tenure/promotion and grant processes, and participating with the Academic Senate in discussions of the Faculty Code of Ethics and consideration of a statement on collegiality. “The Implementation Team had some very honest, insightful, and creative discussions about actions the College could take that would have an impact on faculty recruitment and retention," said Associate Dean Sam Catanzaro. "Even though we were very serious about our task, our meetings were enjoyable because they were so constructive. I am pleased with the work we've done, and I appreciate the integrity with which the Committee answe
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The Center for Adoption Studies at Illinois State University has partnered with the New York City-based Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, expanding its ability to influence national adoption policy and practice. As part of the partnership, The Donaldson Adoption Institute has provided approximately $75,000 in funding to the Center for its work with ongoing projects of the Institute. Current projects resulting from this partnership include the development of a comprehensive study of birthparents and adoption and the development of papers on barriers to foster care adoption and adoptions by non-traditional parents. The partnership will boost the Center for Adoption Studies’ mission to advance scholarly knowledge about adoption and about policies and practices that promote child permanency through adoption. The partnership will also assist the Donaldson Adoption Institute in its mission of providing research-based adoption information to policymakers, agencies, parents and the media.
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Megan Prasse displays
her research | Undergraduate biophysics major Megan Prasse presented her research at the 49th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society last month as the sole researcher on her paper, an uncommon accomplishment for undergraduates, who typically only assist in laboratory work. Prasse has been working with Dr. Craig Gatto, Associate Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, for the past two years, and her project will be culminating in a senior thesis, which she will defend later this semester.
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| IRPS Telecommunications Workshop | On April 4, the Institute for Regulatory Policy Studies (IRPS), housed in the Department of Economics, delivered a workshop to educate government officials, telecommunications regulators, and industry personnel on critical issues of telecommunications policy. The workshop titled “Illinois Telecommunications Act Rewrite 2005: Issues and Answers” was held at the Wojcik Conference Center at Harper College. Over 125 individuals attended. The workshop included panel sessions on “Technology, Convergence and Public Policy,” “Social Costs and Responsibilities in a Changing Marketplace,” “Municipal Broadband,” and “Roundtable of State of Legislatures.” "Because of the vital role that telecommunications plays in the information economy, it is essential that we get telecommunications public policy correct for the sake of the Illinois economy and Illinois jobs," said Dr. David Loomis, Associate Professor of Economics. "Public forums such as this workshop will help us design the best legislation possible."
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| A panel at the Career Fair | Nine Geography alums recently visited campus to share their stories of success with ISU students as part of the sixteenth annual Geography Career Fair. Panels addressed concerns with map-making, the environment, and required-for-graduation internships. The Fair also featured information displays on internship and job prospects and provided students opportunities to network with the guests.
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