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On Friday night, the College of Arts and Sciences conferred degrees on over 1200 students as part of the University’s 145th annual commencement ceremony. President Bowman, Provost Presley, Dean Olson and College faculty and staff were joined by several University dignitaries including Carl Kasten, Chair of the Board of Trustees, in congratulating the Illinois State University College of Arts and Sciences Class of 2005. “In your time here at ISU, you learned much about one subject—your major area of study—and a little about many different subjects. And so, you understand the world much better now than when you first arrived at ISU,” said Dean Olson. “But perhaps the most important ability you have acquired is a habit of mind—the ability to think critically and analytically about the world. This is an ability that will help you make wise choices for the rest of your life.”
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Last week, the College formally designated four Programs of Excellence. The Program of Excellence initiative was established to promote a unique, cutting-edge, interdisciplinary academic program that will help bring distinction to the College and the University. Originally, the College planned to designate only one program, but the College received such outstanding proposals for the Program of Excellence, that three more were named last week. "The College should be proud of our four Programs of Excellence," said Dean Olson. "All four are truly innovative, cutting edge programs that will bring great distinction to ISU."
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| Dr. Patrick B. O'Sullivan | Patrick B. O’Sullivan, Associate Professor of Communication, has been named the Director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology (CTLT), effective May 16. Formerly known as CAT: the Center for the Advancement of Teaching, CTLT is a multipurpose, interdisciplinary unit dedicated to the advancement of teaching and student learning. It seeks to provide resources to help enhance the teaching of individual members of the instructional community; to nurture and promote a vital teaching community at Illinois State in which skilled teaching is recognized and valued as creative intellectual work; to coordinate teaching resources that exist in various colleges and departments; and to establish and maintain mutually supportive relationships with other institutions of higher education in Illinois and with the corporate sector. “I am very pleased that Dr. O'Sullivan has assumed this Directorship,” said Associate Provost Jan M. Shane. “He is an exemplary teacher who has been an active participant and leader in both CAT and FTSS activities for many years. His scholarly interest in communication technologies in an educational environment, coupled with his enthusiasm and vision for teaching and learning on this campus, will make him a very successful leader for the new Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology.”
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| Dr. Richard H. Dammers |
At the end of this academic year, the College celebrates the retirement of nine faculty and two staff secretaries. Retiring are Alice F. Berry, Professor of French for the Department of Foreign Languages; James (Jim) R. Carter, Professor of Geography-Geology; Clifford M. Caruthers, Instructional Assistant Professor for the Department of English; Richard H. Dammers, Assistant to the President and Professor of English; Douglas A. Hardwick, Associate Professor of Psychology; L. Dean Hiebert, Professor of Economics; David MacDonald, Professor of History; Sharon MacDonald, Instructional Assistant Professor for the Department of History; Judy Marshall, Secretary for the College of Arts and Sciences; Martin Nickels, Professor of Sociology; Sherry Stephens, Staff Secretary for the Department of Politics and Government; and Susan Westbury, Assistant Professor of History. Combined, these employees have served the College for over 200 years. We wish them well!
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Students in Hallsten's class
handing over a donation check
to the Salvation Army | Students in Jodi Hallsten’s Small Group Processes class learned how working in small groups can help make a huge difference by raising almost $7,000 for charitable organizations this semester through their course projects. As part of the course, students were required to organize and implement a fundraising project for organizations such as the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, and the United Way.". “I could not be more proud of my students,” Hallsten commented. “I really challenged them this semester, and they certainly rose to the occasion. They learned more than I ever could have imagined, and I learned too, right along side of them, in ways I never anticipated.”
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| Dr. Elizabeth M. Scott | When the spring semester is over, Dr. Elizabeth Scott, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, does not say goodbye to her students; rather, she gets her hands dirty as she prepares to provide her students with an out-of-class experience of a lifetime—Scott is the coordinator of ISU’s summer field school in historical archaeology in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. "For almost 20 years or so, I have been interested in how we can see, through historical archaeology, the roots of present-day American society, and in particular, the roots of our inequalities. Once we see how inequalities in our society came to be—whether they be economic, racial, ethnic, or gender inequalities—then we begin to see that they are not ‘natural,’ and that means they can therefore be changed. That is a very liberating aspect of bringing the past to the present.”
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