Although it is hard to imagine, the Fall 2008 trimester is about to conclude, and the holidays are already underway. Of course, this time of year can be especially chaotic, but I encourage each of you to take a few moments to reflect upon your many accomplishments over the past year. Whether large or small, whether high profile or low key, all of us can identify at least one personal or professional success for which we are thankful and proud.

A particular point of pride for me this term was my reentry into the classroom after several (too many?) years away. It was my great pleasure to teach this Fall ENGL 815 College Composition: Theory and Practice. In this class, I worked with the best group of students whom I’ve ever encountered since I started college teaching in 1990.

Our class met every Thursday evening from 7:30 to 10:20 p.m., but we frequently didn’t depart GSU until closer to 11 p.m. Our discussions were always vigorous. The quality of the students’ written work was exceptional (well, most of the time, anyway). And, I’ll concede, I just may have learned more from them than they could ever learn from me.

From the first moments of class in September, through President Maimon’s visit in October to discuss writing across the curriculum, until this moment with the final papers well underway, my experience with these students has been excellent. They have served as a dramatic reminder as to why I entered this profession in the first place. For this, I am both thankful for the experience, and I am proud of the work that we do here, everyday, whether anyone is watching or not.

Again, please enjoy the season, and please take time to appreciate a success along the way.

NSF CPATH: Building Collaborative Partnerships in Higher Education and Industry

The CPATH computer science grant continues into its second year with several exciting activities. Drs. Dingbang Xu (Computer Science) and David Green (MIS) presented at the 19th Annual Argonne Symposium for Undergraduates in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics, and Computer Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Education Stakeholders’ Summit at Argonne National Laboratory on November 6 and 7.

Drs. Xu and Green are both leading Community Building Teams (CBTeams) on site visits to corporations and non-profit organizations to interview computing and information technology professionals. Each CBTeam is composed of a professor and two computing or technology students. Upcoming visits are planned for IBM Corporation and Abbott Laboratories, among others. The CPATH project is reaching out to GSU computer science alumni and is very interested in visiting companies and organizations that employ GSU alumni.

Dr. Clare Tang lead a group of 20 students on a visit to the IBM Innovation Center on Friday, November 14. The group included students and faculty from Chicago State University, Loyola University, and Joliet Junior College.

Second Annual ArtsFest

The College of Arts and Sciences, Student Life and Art Forum presented GSU's 2nd Annual ArtsFest on November 6. Approximately 80 students, prospective students and community members participated this year.

The evening consisted of interactive workshops taught by art, English and media communications faculty. Workshops included printmaking, photography, mosaics, digital imaging, creativity, and digital film-making.

Additionally the art faculty conducted portfolio reviews and students were able to talk with the faculty and experience hands-on interactive sessions. The evening closed with a gala reception featuring music by The Projection Band.

In Pursuit of Excellence...

Congratulations to the CAS Faculty Excellence Awards Recipients.

Dr. Emanuel Alozie, Excellence in Research
Dr. Mary Carrington, Excellence in Teaching, Research and Service
Cheryl Hague, Excellence in Teaching
Dr. Rosemary Johnsen, Excellence in Research, and Service
Dr. Mary Lanigan, Excellence in Teaching
Dr. Larry Levinson, Excellence in Teaching and Service

Dean's List Ceremony

CAS held its 1st Annual Dean's List Ceremony during Welcome Week. The ceremony celebrated CAS students who achieved academic excellence. They were presented with a special pin and certificate commemorating their achievements, followed by a get-acquainted reception.

Drs. Eric V. Martin, Dean (CAS); Jane Rhoades Hudak, Provost; and Karen D'Arcy, Chair Division of Science, made the presentation to students and their families.

TQE—Improving Preparation of Pre-Service Teachers in Real-World Contexts

Pam Guimond is the new Director of the Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant. The grant, from the U.S. Department of Education, is designed to enhance the preparation of pre-service teachers by giving them opportunities to work with middle and high school students before student teaching and to increase the number of highly qualified teachers prepared to teach in high-needs schools.

Scholarships are available to teacher education students who are interested in teaching in high-needs schools. Contact Pam Guimond at 708-534-4546 Cheryl Hague at 708.534.4587 or Juanita Butler 708.534.4374 for more information.

Allied Juried Art Exhibit

chavira pic Governors State University is the new home for the Illinois Community College Juried Art Exhibition. The art exhibition, open to all community colleges in the State of Illinois, will make its debut at GSU in March 2009, just in time for the university's 40th Anniversary celebration. Professor Javier Chavira is coordinator of the project.

Chavira and the art faculty are currently creating new and exciting initiatives to bring a better focus to the art exhibition. This will allow the faculty greater recruitment efforts and the ability to showcase GSU across the state.

The Allied Juried Art Exhibition will be held from March 11 to April 3 in the Visual Art Gallery. Closing reception and awards presentation April 3.

Wole Soyinka Prize

Congratulations to Dr. Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, adjunct professor of English was presented with the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature for her novel Zahrah the Windseeker.

The Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature was established by The Lumina Foundation in 2005. The prize is in honor of Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in literature. This distinguished honor is viewed as Africa's Nobel prize.

Criminal Justice

The College of Arts and Sciences, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Institute for Leadership in Education, the GSU Social Work Program, and several other south suburban community-based organizations, is working intensely on restorative justice initiatives in the south suburbs, focusing mostly on school-based restorative justice programs.

This work is being undertaken, in part, based on an invitation from Kathleen Bankhead, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney and Head of the Juvenile Services Division, to reduce the rising number of juvenile cases making their way into the juvenile court. It is believed that implementation of restorative justice and conflict resolution programs and practices in all schools (elementary, middle, and high schools) will prevent a significant percentage of conflicts from escalating and thus reduce the number of youth processed in the formal juvenile justice system.

The work is also based on several years of experience we have had working with the F.U.T.U.R.E., The Youth Foundation in Ford Heights where several GSU graduate and undergraduate students have been trained in restorative justice practices and currently work on similar programs in local schools.

Early next year, CAS will co-sponsor two significant community events pertaining to restorative justice – a stakeholder’s summit on January 14 and a community forum on January 24. Both events will be held at Prairie State College. Contact Criminal Justice Program Coordinator James “Chip” Coldren, for additional details regarding these events.

This year, our collaboration with MILE includes a (2) credit restorative justice workshop on practices, and a (3) credit “Special Topics” course entitled, “Restorative Practices for Schools,” to be offered in the Spring/Summer 2009 trimester, taught by GSU Adjunct Professor Jane Nicholson.

MFA on the Move

Professors Sanghoon Lee and Daniel Nearing continue to shoot and edit their digital feature film project, "Chicago Heights," and an associated documentary, "The Unmaking of a Great American Writer."

In mid-October, they were given on-site permission by the Newberry Library of Chicago to shoot pages from the original handwritten manuscript of Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio," a work that ranks 24th on the Modern Library's top 100 list of the finest novels ever published. They also collected footage of original letters exchanged between Anderson and his protégés, Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.

GSU's Community Forum

On October 28, GSU held a Community Forum on the 2008 Election. The goal was to empower our community and provide them with a voice to raise concerns about the direction of our country. Issues, not candidates, were the focus.

A panel of four faculty members began the event with brief overviews of the major issues of the election. The panelists included: Prof. Larry Levinson (Political and Justice Studies), Prof. Donald Culverson (Political and Justice Studies), Prof. Chelsea Haring (Political and Justice Studies), and Prof. Anthony Andrews (Business and Health Administration).

Innovative Instruction...

The Final Debate

Students enrolled in the course Exploring Ethics in Criminal Justice, taught by Dr. Chip Coldren, will deliver a final debate project instead of final papers. The debates will be held in Engbretson Hall on Thursday, December 4, at 4:30 p.m.

There will be four debate teams of six to seven students each; two debate topics are predetermined—death penalty and automatic transfer of youth to adult court. A panel of judges will determine final ranking.

A Revolutionary New Calculator

Photo - Galante, Dianna Dr. Dianna Gallante's students in MATH 393, Mathematics Laboratory, are getting their first experience with a new and innovative calculator called the TiNspire CAS from Texas Instruments. This hand-held calculator can virtually replace a computer lab; it has a statistics program, a spreadsheet, a computer algebra system, a graphing program, and a dynamic geometry program. Calculus problems involving differentiation or integration are easily solved. Polynomials can be quickly factored; quadratic equations solved. Users can perform linear regression analysis and view the scatter plot on a split screen and watch as changes in data affect the graph.

This innovative calculator provides the option to save problems and groups of problems for later use in its new document mode. The calculator has some of the same functionality as a computer including the copy-and-paste command, an undo key, the ability to double-click for selection and a file structure with folders. Students can enter data and select functions using a navigation pad that integrates the same skills used for text-messaging. Upgrades to the calculator are easily downloaded.

In the Spotlight

Professor Bastien Desfriches

Photo - Desfriches Doria, Bastien Professor Bastien Desfriches had two pieces from his new photo series, shot during his Atlanta residency, accepted in an internationally juried exhibition for Art Basel in Miami. The opening reception was held on October 11, in Miami, Florida at the Bakehouse Art Complex The show is titled "Art Basel of Miami Beach" (A-B(o)MB, or Art Bomb) and represents the most cutting edge emerging artists in the country and abroad. It will be a preview for the most important international art fair in the United States.

Jury prize winner(s) had their work exhibited during Art Basel week in Miami. Art Basel/Miami Beach has been said to have surpassed New York's Armory Show as well as ArtChicago in importance to collectors of international contemporary and modern art.

More info is available at: www.artoconecto.org/

Jeff Stevenson

Jeff Art Jeff Stevenson, is an adjunct professor of art at Governors State University who has been honored twice in recent weeks for his work. Two of Stevenson’s mixed media works received the Plaza Award at the opening reception of the 32nd Plaza Arts Competition at the Beverly Arts Center in Chicago.

The latest body of work is a mixed-media collage combining altered books, acrylic paint, oil paint on canvas, and a wax technique. He sculpts pages from books, such as a 1950s-era World Book Encyclopedia, selecting images that take the viewer on an exploration of the human condition.

Dr. Chip Coldren

Photo - Coldren, James Dr. Chip Coldren, Coordinator of the Criminal Justice Program, served as commentator for the Illinois Academy of Criminology panel discussion on Jail Overcrowding at the Northwestern University Law School on October 23.

Dr. Michael Purdy

Photo - Purdy, Michael Dr. Michael Purdy, Coordinator of the Communications Program, traveled to Mexico City for the Second Congress of the Americas, a meeting of communications scholars from North, Central, and South America as well as many other parts of the world.

The congress was sponsored by the International and American Communication associations. Dr. Purdy presented a paper: Anzaldúa’s Borderland Theory: Intercultural Communication Theory and Limitations

Dr. Shelly Kumar

Photo - Kumar, Shelly Dr. Shelly Kumar, professor of organic chemistry, presented a research paper titled Synthesis of An Azulene Ring System by Singlet Oxygen “Ene” Reaction, Hock's Cleavage, and Aldol Condensation; and Reaction Mechanism Confirmation by Molecular Modeling at the American Chemical Society 60th Southeastern Regional Meeting to be held at Nashville, TN on November 12 through 15, 2008.

The paper is coauthored by Sumalatha Veeramachenini and Qun Gu, who graduated from GSU with masters degree in analytical chemistry.

Student Laureate

C Yarbough Each year, an outstanding senior from each of the four-year degree granting institutions of higher learning in Illinois is named a Student Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois.

The 2008 Lincoln Laureate from Governors State University is Sheryl Yarbough of Chicago Heights. Yarbough exemplifies the characteristics of Lincoln Laureates who are chosen for their commitment to the principles of democracy and humanity as embodied by Abraham Lincoln. She was also honored for her excellence in curricular and extracurricular activities.

Honor Returns to Communications

LPH Induction Ceremony

After an eight year absence, Governors State University Lambda Pi Eta Honor Society (LPH) induction ceremony was held on Friday, November 7. LPH is the official communication studies honor society of the National Communication Association.

The 16 new members will re-establish the GSU Kappa Kappa chapter of the society, which has been absent from campus since 1999. The organization is comprised of undergraduate and graduate students in communications. Its purpose is to foster and reward outstanding scholastic achievement and stimulate interest in advanced study in communication.

The new members are Burma Thomas, Lanette McDonald, Maria T. Crews, Tiffany Michelle Bruessard, Anita O. Roberts, Tanisha Turner, Sheryl L. Jones-Harper, Tanya Norfleet, Lana Bilyk, Derrick B. Wells, Maureen Jennings, Latasha Southall , JaTonya P. Harris, Bonzell Merritt, and Sheryl Yarbough. Richard Cannella will be inducted at a later date.

Sheree Sanderson, LPH Faculty Advisor, and Dr. Michael Purdy, Coordinator of Communications officiated the induction. Dr. Eric Martin, Dean, Dr. Sandra Mayfield, Assistant Provost, and Dr. Sherilyn Poole, Dean of Students were present to provide words of encouragement to the new inductees.

Students in Focus

Watching History

As the country watched Barack Obama make history by becoming the 44th President of the United States on November 4, our very own MFA student Keisha Dyson was front and center as hundreds of thousands gathered in Grant Park to mark this moment in history. She was captured on the cover of the Washington Post.

Biology Club

The Governors State Biology Club's mission is to promote student interest in the sciences and increase involvement through scientific activities and research projects. Since the club’s founding in 2006, members have taken part in activities and research ranging from cave surveying and sampling in caves of the Midwestern United States, attending scientific conferences, and co-sponsoring undergraduate and graduate course field trips. They're first meeting was held November 8.

Chemistry Club

Chemistry Club, with over 60 members, is bustling with activities. This fall, four students have presented chemistry literature posters in its Chemistry Club Monthly Posters events. The club has scheduled a trip to Abbott Laboratories, a chemistry poster conference, and like last year, students have been actively planning to participate in “Nobel Laureate in Chemistry” series, an event in which students select and present the biography of chemistry Nobel Laureates. Dr. Shelly Kumar is the faculty advisor of this club.

Behind the Scene with MFA Students

MFA student Keisha Dyson is assembling a "behind the scenes" documentary with the collaboration of fellow graduate students Homayoun Nourahmadi and Leah Shortell, and was recently interviewed about her work on the project by the Southtown Star.

MFA student Barbara Hogu's art work was celebrated in Looks Like Freedom, an exhibition celebrated on the University of Chicago website.

MFA student Mercedes Kane is entering post-production on "Hearts of Hope," her thesis film about infant heart surgery.

Seth McClellan, the program's first graduate, has just started a full-time teaching position at Triton College. Professors Lee and Nearing met with his faculty in late October to discuss curriculum development and ways of channeling their graduates to GSU. McClellan recently learned that PBS will air his King in Chicago documentary in January 2009.

New Additions

Join CAS in welcoming new staff members.

Tracey Paynes, Dean's Office
Sandy Kawanna, Liberal Arts Division
Elicia Frelix, Science Division

Events

CAS celebrates GSU's 40th Anniversary

Distinguished Lecture Series—Special Topics

Grantwriting Part I
January 28, 2009
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Hall of Honors

Grantwriting Part II
February 25, 2009
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Hall of Honors

Royal Art of Kuba Exhibition

January 20 – February 17, 2009
Visual Art Gallery

Distinguished Lecture Series

Royal Prince Prince Ngoloshang Mbeeky of Kuba
February 6, 2009
Engbretson Hall
5:30 p.m.
Open reception follows.

African-American Read-In

February 16, 2009
Sherman Recital Hall
6 to 8 p.m.

Illinois Community College Juried Exhibition

March 11–April 3, 2009
Visual Art Gallery
Opening Reception—April 3