On September 19, 2007, Dean Olson delivered the annual College of Arts and Sciences Fall Address. He announced that the College continues its return to full fiscal health and will conduct searches for 16 new faculty members and two department chairs this year. Grant activity in the College continues to grow. In the last academic year CAS faculty were awarded $6.1 million in externally-funded grants, over $400,000 of which went directly to the College and departments. “Our faculty continue to prove themselves to be first-rate scholars and teachers," Dean Olson said. "We are fortunate to have such outstanding professionals in the College.”

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More than a dozen recently-tenured faculty gathered on September 14 for a CAS forum entitled, “What’s Next: Continuing Career Growth for Recently Tenured Faculty.” Its purpose was to recognize the achievements of faculty who have earned tenure in the last two years and to provide an opportunity to discuss their professional development as they enter a new phase of their careers. A panel of accomplished faculty from a wide variety of disciplines within the College shared their experiences and answered questions about the ways faculty careers develop after tenure. “Having held tenure-line positions at three different major universities, I have been very impressed by CAS' highly-proactive approach to faculty mentoring,” said Bruce Burningham, Associate Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature. “The College staff has done an excellent job of not only making new faculty feel welcome at ISU, but also of giving us an immediate sense of being part of a much larger whole.” Click Read More for More Photos

Novelist, poet, and award-winning journalist Achy Obejas will speak at ISU on September 26 and again on September 27. Obejas, a Havana native, is one of the best known Cuban-American writers in the nation. She will be doing a reading of creative work on Wednesday, September 26 at 8 p.m. in the University Galleries and will deliver the Latino Heritage Month Keynote Lecture, “Dislocation and Identity,” on Thursday, September 27 at 7 p.m. in the College of Business Building, Room 357. “Latino writers like Achy Obejas, by writing about the complexities of what it means to be Latino/a in this global age, give us an opportunity to reflect about our human condition and the processes underlying the construction of Latinidad in the Americas,” said Professor Maura Toro-Morn, Director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program. 

The College Council voted unanimously last week to change the name of one of the most prestigious faculty honors in the College of Arts and Sciences. The “College of Arts and Sciences Lecturer” will now be known as the “College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Lecturer.” While the Lecturer designation signifies a high honor within the college, the title “lecturer” does not carry such a connotation in outside contexts. In explaining the rationale for the Council's decision, Dean Olson said, “This new designation will ensure that our most accomplished teachers and scholars receive due recognition.”

Dr. Paul Garris, Professor of Neurobiology and Physiology, will deliver the Fall Lecture on October 16 at 7:30 p.m. in the Old Main Room of the Bone Student Center. The title of his lecture will be “The Chemistry-Biology Interface: Bridging Rat and Human to Understand Parkinson's Disease.” The Arts and Sciences Lecture Series was established in 1968 and is the highest honor the College may bestow on a faculty member.

The Department of Biological Sciences is the winner of the 2007 CAS Departmental Advancement Award. This annual award is presented each fall to the department that conducted the most effective advancement effort during the previous fiscal year. In fiscal year 2007, the Department of Biological Sciences raised nearly $190,000 in gifts and has been successful in engaging its alumni and emeritus faculty through colloquia, awards ceremonies, and Alumni Day festivities. Honorable Mention went to the Department of Economics. "Our department is very pleased to be selected for this award," said Tak Cheung, Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences. "Our faculty, staff, and students are working hard to continue the tradition of excellence established by our alumni and emeritus faculty, and we are grateful for all of the support we receive." James Payne, Chair of the Department of Economics, added that the Department of Economics has been greatly assisted by the members of the Department of Economics Advisory Board, many of whom are ISU alumni themselves.