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Spring 2005
------------ ACS Awarded $300,000 for Sustainable Development Program ACS has received a $300,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for its environmental and sustainable development program. The grant will be used over the next three years to continue building environmental program leadership, and through cooperation, to move in new environmental directions. Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Centre College John Ward said, "This is terrific news. The ACS environmental program can build upon its excellent record of encouraging campus leadership and inter-institutional alliances. At the same time, the Mellon award challenges our colleges to improve our record with new projects." Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean at Furman University Tom Kazee said, "Since 1998, I have seen incredible environmental progress at Furman and previously at Sewanee. I credit much of our progress to the momentum built on our campuses via ACS environmental grants, conferences and other activities. With Mellon funding, the next three years promise to bring even greater accomplishments." The grant will enable ACS to continue to support faculty fellows and student interns and its key inter-institutional alliances. To move in new directions, ACS plans to: 1) foster environmental course development with special attention to mathematics, social science, humanities, international and technology offerings; 2) recruit community partners to increase environmental justice and service learning efforts at home and abroad; 3) create new student teaching assistantships; 4) develop a model internship program; and 5) host annual environmental conferences. New Courses Envisioned are mathematical courses including environmental statistics, analyzing issues such as the release of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs; applied mathematics, using real-world models of problems like groundwater dissipation, oil spill clean-ups and oil tanker capacity; graph theory applications, using real-world situations; and population model analyses of humans and endangered species. In addition, ACS wants to increase the number of economics courses dealing with sustainable development, as well as courses such as environmental policy and practice, world religions and environmentalism, environmental psychology and new urbanism. Examples of humanities courses include environmental literature, painting and photography using environmentally friendly chemicals, environmental ethics and environmental justice. Finally, in the coming three years, ACS hopes to encourage diversification and enrichment of its international programs. ACS will look at ways to interface with FOTIM (Foundation of Tertiary Institutions of the Northern Metropolis), a consortium consisting of nine South African colleges and universities. ACS also will support faculty to develop new international environmental courses in various countries. Additionally, the environmental program will work closely with the ACS Technology Center to ensure that faculty members have access to the highest quality instruction and guidance. Student Teaching Assistantships Environmental studies faculty are often called upon to participate in labor-intensive activities, including supervising students' research and service projects. In addition, because environmental studies faculty not only teach about the environment, but practice environmentalism, many take on extra-curricular projects addressing environmental issues in the community, the region and beyond, mentoring students in these practices as well. Demands on faculty time are high, while few formal channels of assistance are available. Plans to provide an innovative solution that addresses these demands on environmental studies faculty time include creating student teaching assistantships for students who will assist faculty in myriad ways, including leading discussion groups, motivating student participation, working one-on-one with other students and supervising some field work. Student assistants can help faculty in courses at home and abroad; they can also facilitate service learning projects with community partners. Environmental Justice, Community Partnerships and Service Learning Grants In the next three years, ACS will focus even more on diversity and environmental justice. Building upon successful community partnerships with nonprofits representing underprivileged neighborhood organizations, the environmental initiative will reach out to other groups involved in environmental justice issues. Service learning faculty will be encouraged to create off-campus opportunities with partners. These community partners will help faculty educate students in specific ways, providing a venue for course modules and service activities. Model Internships Off-campus and on-campus academic internships are one of the most valuable experiences ACS can offer students to help them prepare for life as good environmental citizens after graduation. In the next three years, ACS will use the new grant funds to provide travel funds and valuable stipends to students who could not otherwise participate in these internship opportunities. For more information, contact Elizabeth MacNabb, ACS, at emacnabb@colleges.org. ACS Receives Planning Grant for Study Abroad Assessment ACS, along with the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) and the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA), has received a planning grant from the Teagle Foundation for Learning Outcomes and Study Abroad. The $60,000 grant over 12 months is to develop a project to assess varying models of study abroad programs for students at liberal arts colleges and to measure the learning outcomes that result from such programs. "The Teagle grant provides us the important opportunity to plan an examination of learning outcomes in study abroad within the liberal arts context," said Teresa Wise, ACS director of international programs. During the planning phase, data will be collected on goals for study abroad, the number and type of study abroad programs and the types of assessment tools/instruments currently used. Contact Teresa Wise, ACS, at twise@colleges.org, for more information. Environmental programs and sustainable development are very much alive on our campuses and in ACS. The latest evidence was supplied by the recent ACS Summit Conference on the environment at Morehouse College. It was marvelous! The faculty participants in the conference were extraordinary, sharing their insights into myriad environmental questions, from forest change on the Cumberland Plateau to water purification in the Dominican Republic. Especially challenging was a plenary session on ethics and the environment. Faculty reports on international programs were illuminating and reminded all of us of the unique opportunities for students overseas in places such as Costa Rica and the Yucatan. We also benefited from the participation of faculty from the University of Witwatersrand and Tshwane University, who made effective presentations on their research on the rural Savanna and pollution control and waste management in South Africa. Staff reports were extensive and engaging, covering LEED construction, master plans, community wellness gardens, green careers and other topics. Students were active participants, sharing the results of a variety of research projects they have conducted. In doing so, they helped the consortium meet its goal of promoting undergraduate research in a variety of academic disciplines and interdisciplinary work as well. Effective presentations were made on greener dorms, waste reduction, reconsidering transportation and eco-cottages, among other topics. These efforts demonstrate how capable ACS students are at organizing and carrying out notable research work, thereby broadening their understanding of the topics considered and enabling them to prepare well for graduate and professional school and their careers after college. One of the highlights of the conference was the spirit of collaboration. Faculty and students were excited about sharing information and lessons with one another; in the process, they seemed to become even more energized by the sustainable development movement. Furthermore, they expressed a real interest in future collaboration, building on ACS initiatives currently taking place. In short, our environmental efforts are booming, and we anticipate more activity in the months and years ahead. Please join us in this effort, movement and cause. Wayne Anderson Hendrix College to Launch Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning Hendrix College will launch Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning, in Fall 2005. This new program guarantees every student at least three hands-on, liberal arts and sciences projects as part of his or her college experience. Each student will receive an experiential transcript as well as an academic transcript. "While other institutions have begun to offer opportunities for engaged learning, Hendrix stands alone as the only institution in the nation to develop a program that guarantees participation for all students, giving them full opportunity to engage the world in critical, thoughtful and life-changing ways," said Hendrix President Timothy Cloyd. Students will choose hands-on projects from six Odyssey categories: artistic creativity, global awareness, professional and leadership development, service to the world, undergraduate research and special projects. Close interaction among students and faculty in independent study projects, undergraduate research, internships and professional and leadership development projects is at the core of this program. "We know that knowledge comes through thought combined with action, and that we learn by doing," Cloyd added. "This bold, new commitment to the advancement of engaged learning will make Hendrix the new model for undergraduate education." The Odyssey program was developed by a faculty task force led by Tom Goodwin, chemistry.
ACS Institutions Participate in Tsunami Relief Efforts After the tsunami disaster in Asia, ACS institutions stepped up to help the victims. The following is a snapshot of the ways some helped. Birmingham-Southern College Centenary College of Louisiana Centre College Furman University Southwestern University Trinity University 2006 ACS Women’s Studies conference Plan now to attend the next ACS Women's/Gender Studies Conference, Governing Bodies: Reflections on the Self, Society and the State at Centenary College of Louisiana, March 24-25, 2006. If you would like to get involved, please contact Michelle Wolkomir at mwolkomi@centenary.edu, or Kirn VanHoosier-Carey at kvanhoos@centenary.edu. International Programs Defining Reorientation for the Study Abroad Student and the Institution: A Global Partners Symposium On June 16-18, 2005, Birmingham-Southern College will host a Global Partners symposium entitled Defining Reorientation for the Study Abroad Student and the Institution. This year's symposium builds on successful work at last summer's symposium, Pre-Departure and Reorientation Programs for Study Abroad: A Best Practices Symposium. At that gathering international educators and faculty from across the Global Partners Project engaged in discussions of the complex questions surrounding the preparation and reorientation of students who have studied abroad. Reorientation or the re-entry experience is one of the critical components in the internationalization of an institution. Without active classroom engagement and campus-wide support, institutions fail to utilize the intercultural experiences of students and faculty and lose the potential to engage that international perspective more deliberately. The upcoming symposium will offer the opportunity to explore a myriad of questions, not the least of which will be a definition of reorientation or re-entry. In addition, participants will discuss logistical, personnel and financial constraints, effective online courses, simulations and other experiential techniques that allow students to develop their own learning in meaningful and diverse ways before and after study abroad. We would like to encourage a faculty/staff team from each institution to join the symposium. The schedule for the symposium will focus on defining reorientation for the student and the institution during Thursday and Friday sessions and will end with sessions on experiential learning tools and on-line courses for pre-departure and reorientation programs. If you are interested or planning to come, please let us know. We will limit the number of attendees to the symposium, so the sooner we know of your interest, the better. Travel, housing and meal expenses will be covered by the Global Partners Project. We hope all institutions in the Global Partners Project will send at least one representative. We would also like to encourage institutions to send a faculty member who is interested in the internationalization process. Their expenses will also be covered. For more information, contact Anne Ledvina at Birmingham-Southern College at (205) 226-7722 or aledvina@bsc.edu, or Meghan Olivier, at (205) 226-7717 or mjolivie@bsc.edu. Best Practices Workshops of the Global Partners Project The Best Practices Task Force of the Global Partners Project is offering a series of workshops for faculty and administrators from ACS, the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) and the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) to improve off-campus study programs. The following workshops will be offered in the upcoming months. For more information, go to www.global-partners.org/bestprac/workshops.html, or contact Daniel Sack, ACM, 312-263-5000, or dsack@acm.edu. Liberal arts and international education Developing cross-cultural studies programs ACS Institutions Invited to Host International Visitors You can bring visitors from Central Europe or Russia to your campus with the support of the Global Partners Project. It's a quick and effective way to internationalize your campus by engaging your faculty and students with a scholar or artist from the former Soviet bloc. Such guests can lecture, teach short courses, or present musical or dramatic performances. They can also visit other Global Partners colleges. Potential visitors are scholars or artists from a country in Central or Eastern Europe, or in any of the newly independent states. The project will pay for transportation and lodging for the guest, up to $2,500. If the guest visits additional colleges, the project will pay up to $1,000 for expenses for each college. The inviting institution(s) will be responsible for hosting the visitor, providing an honorarium (if any), and arranging for necessary visas. Proposals are considered on a rolling basis; travel must be completed by December 31, 2005 . For more information and to see a list of what other colleges have done, go to www.global-partners.org/cerus/ivp.html. To submit a proposal, to get more information, or for help in contacting potential partner colleges, contact Daniel Sack, Associated Colleges of the Midwest , at 312-263-5000 or dsack@acm.edu. 13 ACS Faculty Members Receive Global Partners Project Travel Grants Faculty Travel Grants from the Global Partners Project to enable faculty to develop curricular materials or conduct planned research were awarded to the following ACS faculty. Russia, the newly independent states, Central or Eastern Europe:
East Africa :
The following received travel grants for the faculty seminar in Turkey :
Third Annual British Studies Symposium Update The third annual British Studies Student Symposium was held February 18-19, 2005, at Birmingham-Southern College. Fifty-five participants from seven ACS institutions participated. Topics covered the following areas of interest.
For more information, contact Markham Lester at molester@bsc.edu. The 2006 symposium will be held at Hendrix College. For more information about the 2006 symposium, contact Kevin Asman at asman@hendrix.edu. ACS 2005 Latin American Studies Symposium Update Approximately 80 students, more than 40 from ACS institutions, presented at the 13th Annual Latin American Studies Symposium, April 8-9, 2005 at Birmingham-Southern College. Topics covered included Migration and Immigration; Nicaragua: Politics and Economy; Argentina in crisis; Oppression and Self Expression; Poverty in Latin America; Sexual and Reproductive Health; Womens' Issues; U.S. Latinos; Cultural Identity; Films; Racism in Latin America; Latin American Literature; Environmental Science; Colonial Tales; Lucha del pueblo argentine; Guatemalan Realities; Global Forces and U.S. Latin American Relations. The keynote speaker, Eric Zolov, associate professor of history at Franklin & Marshall College and associate editor for The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, spoke about "Rock Music and Cultural Politics in Latin America ." Zolov is the author of Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture and co-editor and contributor to Fragments of a Golden Age: The Politics of Popular Culture in Mexico Since 1940, and Rockin' Las Americas: The Global Politics of Rock in Latino America . He is also co-editor of the classroom reader, Latin America and the United States: A Documentary History. Currently he is researching and writing on the impact of the Cuban revolution on Mexican political culture and U.S.-Mexican relations during the 1960s. The Latin American Studies Symposium is an undergraduate interdisciplinary research conference where students present original research papers. Faculty are invited to serve as panel chairs and discussants. For more information, contact Barbara Domcekova, Birmingham-Southern College, at bdomceko@bsc.edu. France Regional alliance Offers Mini-Grants and Speaker Grants The Global Partners France Regional Alliance continues to offer mini-grants for development of teaching materials and resources and grants to assist in hosting guest speakers and visitors to Global partners campuses. For more information, go to: www.global-partners.org/alliances/france/minigrants.html and www.global-partners.org/alliances/france/speakergrants.html. Environmental Update The ACS Environmental Summit at Morehouse College, February 11-13, 2005, was the best-attended ACS environmental conference ever. More than 140 students, faculty, staff and guests, representing 15 ACS institutions, attended the three-day event, which included presentations on every area previously covered at environmental conferences, plus much more. ACS would like to thank the Morehouse College faculty, staff and students for making the ACS Environmental Summit a resounding success. Conference highlights included a wide variety of sessions on undergraduate research, environmental courses, faculty art and research, international programs, campus-community partnerships, green campus innovations, LEED and LEED-like buildings and other sustainable practices, external and internal grant recipient projects, Trash Theatre, green careers and internships, FOTIM faculty research and discussion, student projects and environmental activism. Beyond the organized sessions and activities the conference provided, it also offered an opportunity for attendees to discuss issues of sustainability at their own campuses, to network, to compare notes and to brainstorm. Following the conference, attendees said they felt renewed and reinvigorated, ready to return to their campuses to continue the hard work they do caring for the environment. One reason for the high attendance was that previously most ACS environmental conferences have focused on single aspects of the consortium’s environmental work, such as green campuses or curriculum development. The Summit, however, brought all branches of the work together, showcasing a little bit of everything supported by the initiative since its inception in 1998. This meant that students, faculty and staff could mingle with folks from disparate realms of academe. Conference Goals The four goals of the conference were met or exceeded. These goals were to:
Guest Speakers Guest speakers included:
FOTIM (South African Foundation of Tertiary Institutions of the Northern Metropolis) Another special feature of the Summit was the appearance of two faculty from FOTIM, a consortium of nine South African colleges and universities with whom ACS has begun to make plans for collaboration. Barend Erasmus, University of the Witwatersrand , spoke of his research on Integration of sociological and ecological research agendas in a rural savanna: challenges and opportunities. Jonathan Okonkwo, Tshwane University of Technology, spoke of his research on Environmental policy instruments and innovation in pollution control and waste management: the South African situation. Other Activities Participants attended two field trips, including a service learning project at the Atlanta Food Bank and a tour of Southface Institute to take part in hands-on-type activities. In addition, students participated in an interactive student leadership workshop. All attended a special performance by Centre College 's Trash Theatre Troupe. Finally, a slide show of original photographic art by Hendrix professor Maxine Payne was presented. These enrichments to the more traditional line-up were especially appealing to registrants. For more information, go to http://www.colleges.org/enviro/workshops/index.html. Environmental Grants Available The Campus as Laboratory for Sustainability Alliance (CLS) has rolling grant deadlines and is seeking proposals. Campus As a Laboratory for Sustainability Alliance For more information, to www.collegs.org/enviro/proposals/cls_rfp_guidelines05.pdf, or contact Jeanne Jackson or Roald Hazelhoff, Birmingham-Southern College, at jjackson@bsc.edu or rhazelho@bsc.edu. Program Development Mellon Grant Fosters Diversity Programming at Davidson College The following was contributed by Ernest Jeffries, assistant dean of students, Davidson College. In 2001, Davidson College received a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to strengthen the college’s efforts to recruit and retain minority students by facilitating their adjustment to campus. The two-year grant included programs aimed at fostering academic success and shaping an environment that recognizes the value of diversity as an integral part of the undergraduate learning experience. Based on the program’s success in the first two years, The Mellon Foundation provided funding for two additional years. In 1993, Davidson began a specific orientation program for entering African-American students, which proved to be a very important factor in the improved retention statistics. The Mellon grant made it possible to expand this program to a yearlong set of activities, including two retreats, a peer mentoring program, monthly workshops and social activities. As an undergraduate residential college, Davidson College’s administration realized the importance of enhancing the residential experience of minority students by conducting year-round diversity training for residence hall staff. To reach this goal, a "live-in" counselor position was created. This counselor’s primary responsibility is diversity training and programming. In addition, the grant enabled the college to provide faculty awareness training to help faculty better address the learning, cultural and social needs of special student populations. Two training sessions were held each academic year for new and returning faculty. In an effort to expose the college community to the accomplishments of minority scholars and artists, a program was initiated to bring such individuals to campus to dialogue with student groups, perform and visit classes. Special guests have included Cornel West, Congressman John Lewis, David Levering Lewis, Mamadou Diabete, Myrlie Evers-Williams and Ken Ford. The final component of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant program provided funding for minority students to pursue challenging experiences outside the classroom. Four students per year received stipends to conduct directed research, participate in internships and travel abroad. Students conducted research in West Africa, Latin America and Europe, while others completed internships in places such as Capitol Hill, Wall Street, NASCAR and other public or private institutions. After approximately four years of financial support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Davidson has seen its minority student population grow to an all-time high. Most importantly, there is a consistent first-year retention rate of over 95 percent. For further information about Davidson’s program, contact Ernest Jeffries, Davidson College, erjeffries@davidson.edu. Seventeen senior ACS chief financial officers met at Trinity University on March 23-25, 2005, for their annual meeting. The agenda included discussion and reports on campus updates, accounting systems used at ACS institutions, tuition increases, compliance activities relating to Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, and IT set-ups/strategies/issues. The group also received three special reports: (1) the fourth ACS Ratio Analysis Update, prepared by Public Financial Management, Inc., (2) an update on the Rollins College Energy Audit, and (3) an invitational report from the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association (TICUA) about a special purchasing/payment card program, designed for smaller, private colleges and universities, that TICUA has negotiated with J.P. Morgan Chase Bank. All 16 ACS institutions participated in the Ratio Analysis Update, which provides a multi-year credit profile highlighting key financial performance and market data ratios for each individual ACS institution and a "Benchmark ACS Average" by combining all 16 ACS institutions for each fiscal year included in the report. As a follow-up to the 1996 Energy Audit conducted at Rollins College and supported by a grant from ACS and the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation, Rollins College felt it was time to conduct another energy audit, which also was supported by an ACS grant. Their approach was to group the buildings by system type, age, usage/occupancy/construction, etc. Ten buildings were identified for the study as being representative of all campus buildings. Key principles guiding this study included collaboration with AdvanTek, the firm selected to conduct the audit, non-invasive savings, leveraging of resources and standard implementation strategies, and the desire for a global approach to planning. Since completion of the audit, Rollins has implemented several changes and will make further changes. A copy of the audit report has been shared with every ACS CFO. TICUA invited ACS to endorse the special P-Card program they negotiated with J.P. Morgan Chase for smaller private colleges and universities. If this program is endorsed, any ACS institution will be eligible to participate in it. The 2006 CFO meeting is scheduled for Rhodes College, date TBD. For more information, contact Beth Bowser, ACS, at bowser@ colleges.org. 2005 Teacher Education Summit Update Assessments of dispositions, rubrics and professional studies; undergraduate research; SACS, NCATE and individual state accreditation requirements; international student teaching opportunities; impact on student learning; departmental and teacher education program updates; and faculty evaluation were among the topics discussed at the 2005 Teacher Education Summit. A total of 17 teacher educators from eight institutions participated in this summit at Furman University on March 11, 2005 . ACS Institutions represented were Birmingham-Southern College, Furman University, Hendrix College, Millsaps College, Rhodes College, University of the South and Southwestern University. Agnes Scott College also was represented. Since the teacher education programs at ACS member institutions have anywhere from one to six faculty teaching in the respective programs, participants find these meetings a wonderful mix of sharing concerns and resources and of support and encouragement to look at issues in novel ways. All of those attending expressed appreciation for the opportunity to talk with colleagues about critical issues facing their small liberal arts teacher education programs, to exchange ideas and resources, and to network. The next Teacher Education Summit will be hosted at Rhodes College, March 31, 2006. Contact Beth Bowser, ACS, at bowser@colleges.org, for more information. Valuing literacy: New Assessment Instruments for General Education Science and Math ACS and Drury University are working together to improve the quality of science courses for general education. As part of the ACS Reform of Introductory Science Courses for Non-Science Majors Program, three ACS institutions, Centre, Morehouse and Sewanee, are field-testing a new Science Values Inventory (SVI) to investigate how the value students place on science literacy changes with instruction. The SVI, developed at Drury with support from the National Science Foundation's Assessment of Student Achievement Program, is part of a larger Science and Math Values Inventory (SaM-VI) being developed. According to Don Deeds, a Drury co-creator of the Values Inventories, "We believe there are four main components to value: interest, utility, need for high achievement, and personal cost. Our data support a slightly more detailed picture: students find science literacy valuable if it is (1) intrinsically interesting, (2) useful to their current academic pursuits and/or (3) useful to their future lives and careers. Science will have value if (4) students believe it is worthy of achieving at high levels, and if the costs of achieving literacy are reasonable. These costs may include (5) threats to students' academic self-image, (6) time pressures imposed by studying science and (7) conflicts with their religious beliefs." The Values Inventories most likely will be used as pre/post-test instruments to determine how a course, course sequence, or curriculum has affected the value students place on science literacy. This project also has five other significant long-term outcomes designed to allow faculty and institutions to:
Bruce Callen, one of the Drury co-creators of the SVI and MVI, says, "As we reshape the ways in which students master the content of math and science, we must also address the role science plays in students' lives. To be truly literate, students must value the nature and processes of science, and be able to draw on that understanding after college ends. This is especially true of general education students, who constitute the majority of our educated citizenry. If students do not value science, the new curricula we have worked so hard to create will have little life-long impact." To learn more about the SVI and MVI and their possible use in your classroom, contact either Bruce Callen, bcallen@drury.edu, Drury University, or Don Deeds, ddeeds@drury.edu. For more information about the ACS Reform of Introductory Science Courses for Non-Science Majors Program, which is funded by the W. M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles, contact Beth bowser, ACS, at bowser@colleges.org. 2005 ACS Diversity Gathering Update Under the theme, Relationships and Communication: Diversity Is Not An Option In The Real World, 47 ACS faculty, students and administrators from 10 ACS institutions met at the Heifer Ranch in Perryville, AR, for the third ACS Diversity Gathering. The meeting began Friday, April 1, with dinner and keynote address by William Winter, former governor of Mississippi. Winter shared his personal experiences and convictions, to focus on the importance of diversity and "why we are here [at the ACS gathering], and why it is important that we're here." He said our society is becoming increasingly diverse, that we must learn to live with each other and that we must develop the ability to see other points of view. According to Winter, "This doesn't mean we have to see eye-to-eye on things, but we do need to hold the same idea about how we treat each other. And we need to expand the meaning of 'communities' in order to find ways to address old tensions and misconceptions." Winter also shared lessons learned as a member and chair of the National Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, created during the Clinton presidency. He said that while in some communities they found over 80 languages spoken, there consistently were five concerns on which everyone agreed: the desire for 1) the best education for their children, 2) decent jobs, 3) decent houses, 4) access to reasonably adequate healthcare and 5) the desire to be treated with dignity and respect. Winter challenged everyone not to be so intent on financial success that they overlook their responsibility to others. In his closing remarks, he identified three issues/areas where progress is critical: 1) the need for strong and quality public schools, since re-segregation is an issue; 2) the need to maintain access to economic opportunities for everyone, which assumes there is preparation to do a job; and 3) the continued need for racial reconciliation. The Saturday sessions, facilitated by Marichal Gentry, associate dean of students, Middlebury College, asked "What is diversity? Why is diversity important? What is my campus like?" and "How can we make diversity work?" Participants shared campus struggles, as well as campus successes and wishes, and discovered they are more alike than different. Student apathy and the recruitment/retention of students, faculty and staff surfaced as top concerns on most ACS campuses. Other issues included commitment of top-level administrators and trustees to addressing diversity issues, campus climate, addressing misconceptions that reside in different places on campus, moving beyond the baggage associated with the word "minority" and identifying best practices in diversity matters. Campus teams also talked specifically about their own campus, their concerns and practical ways to address them. The ACS Diversity Planning Committee, chaired by Jim Hunt, Southwestern University, will continue to explore and design opportunities for ACS member institutions to engage in and be engaged by conversations about diversity. For more information about the ACS Diversity Initiative, contact Beth Bowser, ACS, at bowser@colleges.org. Technology Update ACS Technology Center Programming: Combining Responsiveness with Innovation ACS will offer its 10th consecutive year of summer technology workshops in 2005. (Please visit www.colleges.org/techcenter/workshop/workshop.html to sign up for 2005 workshops.) We began in 1996 with workshops at Furman University, Millsaps College and Rhodes College, and during these past nine years, we have continually refined our programming, thanks to the leadership of countless creative and dedicated faculty, staff, students and administrators. The strategy has been to create programming in response to needs of ACS institutions, in which we have the opportunity to be innovative and experiment with how we can best collaborate and pool our resources to address both existing and emerging needs. Two examples of how we combine responsiveness and innovation are the development of the concept of "virtual departments" and our software engineering program. Virtual Departments In 1995, classicists from ACS institutions began discussing how they might collectively address common needs: small enrollments and departments and the need for faculty development opportunities. They subsequently pioneered the concept of a "virtual department" as a means of sharing expertise across campus boundaries. The creation of this program (subsequently named "Sunoikisis") provided the opportunity to learn more about models for inter-campus teaching that are appropriate for the liberal arts. In the context of the consortium and with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, ACS faculty and staff created an innovative new model for inter-institutional curriculum development without diluting campus curricula. This led to the creation of the current system for developing and delivering inter-institutional courses (ICCs), a system that combines faculty development with new and enhanced opportunities for students. ACS is currently in the final year of an extensive three-year external evaluation of the Sunoikisis program, to determine its effectiveness from three perspectives: student learning, faculty development and institutional effectiveness. One important outcome of this evaluation will be a model for ongoing evaluation of similar collaborative programs. Among the preliminary findings (to be published this summer) are that both administrators and faculty value the opportunity for collegiality and learning across institutions and that students value the opportunity to gain new perspectives via their "virtual" faculty and student colleagues. Another group that has created a "virtual department" collaboration supported by the ACS Technology Center is ACS music faculty. This group has worked together in the Orpheus Alliance collaboration since 2000, and in Summer 2005 will hold its fourth annual Technology Workshop and New Music Festival at Birmingham-Southern College. Among the benefits of this program are an online forum for composers in which faculty and student composers share works; a standing new music ensemble that performs these works on ACS campuses and other venues, providing faculty and students with both live performances and recordings of their work; a shared learning module repository that includes recordings and analysis of a number of 20th century works; and ongoing inter-institutional mentoring for ACS music students. As in the classics program, collaboration increases both the depth and breadth of expertise to which students are exposed. Music faculty are considering possibilities for full-scale inter-campus teaching, using the model created by archaeology and classics faculty. Software Engineering Program The ACS Technology Center Software Engineering Program was created in response to two distinct needs that were articulated by different constituencies. First, there was a need to attract students to computational sciences in the context of a liberal arts education. Students in particular cited the need for increased opportunities to apply what they had learned in their computational sciences curriculum in meaningful ways. At the same time, the issue of open source software’s place in higher education was beginning to emerge. ACS seized the opportunity to create a program that would both meet the needs of students and pilot a new model for creating and supporting open source software in a liberal arts environment, where few, if any, software developers are employed in IT departments. In this program, ACS adapted software created for different environments (e.g. large research institutions) to the specific needs of liberal arts colleges. This program will be offered for the third time this summer. Faculty met in February to plan the program and select the 10 students who will work in residence at the ACSTC for nine weeks this summer. Leadership and Collaboration The "virtual departments" and the software engineering programs are examples of new collaborative models for teaching and learning that not only involve collaboration across institutions but also recast the roles of campus constituencies such as faculty, librarians and IT staff in their work together. The key to success of ACS Technology Center programming relies on this holistic approach that enables a multi-perspective dialogue about the role of technology in the liberal arts colleges. The vision of the ACS Deans Council and the original Technology Program Committee lives on in all ACS Technology Center programming, augmented by the wisdom and leadership of the library directors, the Information Fluency program committee and the CIO/IT leadership group, along with the many other faculty and staff who have led, developed and participated in workshops and programs. Collaborative Strategic Planning In Fall 2004, the ACS Technology Center took collaboration a step further by organizing a meeting for campus teams in which the goal was to identify priorities for future ACS Technology Center programming based on shared campus priorities. These teams included the campus IT leader, who attended along with deans, CFOs or others from their campus. Faculty and librarians were also represented. As an outcome of this meeting, two task forces have been created to examine the possibilities for collaboratively meeting needs in two areas: (1) security and disaster recovery and (2) technology education and training. These groups will make recommendations about ways we might collaborate to meet these needs and improve our current processes for training, and they welcome your ideas. ACS Technology Center Task Force Members
Looking to the Future: NITLE (National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education) Since 2001, the ACS Technology Center has had the opportunity to work with and learn from colleagues in two other regions: 26 colleges served by the Midwest Instructional Technology Center (MITC) and 37 colleges in the mid-Atlantic and New England region served by the Center for Educational Technology (CET). Many of the lessons learned in Sunoikisis have been adopted, for example, by the AI-Musharaka collaboration in Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern studies, and many faculty and staff from the South have attended workshops offered at CET and MITC. In the future ACS expects to work even more closely with these regions under the auspices of NITLE. Working with the larger group of colleges and universities will afford increased opportunities for programming and innovation, and the potential of many more communities of interest among constituencies at outstanding liberal arts colleges. Current ACS Technology Center programming will continue, but with the possibility of expansion beyond our region. The mission will remain the same — to create innovative collaborative models that benefit all participating institutions. As we move toward these new possibilities, we always welcome your input. Contact ACS Technology Center staff members if you have ideas for building on existing programming or considering new models. We always love to hear from you and hope to see many of you this summer in Texas! For more information about the ACS Technology Center or its programs ACSTC: www.colleges.org/techcenter/ Centenary College of Louisiana 's Centenary Heritage Language Project has restructured important works of Louisiana 's cultural heritage and published them in their original language. A dozen books -10 in French and two in German -are being produced. Centenary students are heavily involved in the project, which represents the largest single printing of French in the United States since the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Steve Asmus, biochemistry and molecular biology, Centre College, is taking pictures of microscopic objects that most people will never see. Asmus takes pictures called photomicrographs with a microscope. Centre now owns a Zeiss fluorescence microscope coupled with a Zeiss digital camera. The equipment is software-driven, so the image under the microscope can be seen live on a computer. A Kresge Foundation Science Initiative challenge grant of $500,000 was used to upgrade and endow science equipment. Three music professors at Furman University have received a $22,000 award from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a career enhancement grant entitled Live Sampling: A New Direction in Electroacoustic Music Performance. Daniel Koppelman, project coordinator, piano and electronics, will be assisted by Tamara Matthews, voice, and Matt Olson, saxophone, in an exploration of real-time interactive electroacoustic chamber music performance. Journeys, the freshman core course at Hendrix College, has been awarded a $500,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant will provide for an endowment to support faculty and curriculum development and course enrichment activities. Millsaps College has been selected as one of seven partner institutions in a $17.5 million grant to The University of Southern Mississippi to continue funding the Mississippi Functional Genomics Network. To help train and retain biomedical researchers in the state, the genomics project has established five research facilities, providing the cutting-edge instruments needed for scientists and students. Natalie Person, associate professor of psychology at Rhodes College, has received a $445,674 grant from the Office of Naval Research to conduct an in-depth analysis of expert human tutors over a three-year period. Person is the principal investigator, and Hyun-Jeong Joyce Kirn, psychology, will serve as co-principal investigator on the project. Person and Kirn will examine approaches used by more experienced human tutors in their tutoring sessions. Michael M. Gunter, Jr., political science, Rollins College, has had his study, Building the Next Ark: How NGOs Work to Protect Biodiversity, released by Dartmouth College and University Press of New England. The study examines how day-to-day operations of NGOs help protect the diversity of life on earth. Rollins College will be the lead institution in developing a hydrogen vehicle refueling infrastructure plan for Central Florida. Lee Lines, environmental studies, working with faculty from Arizona State University and Florida Atlantic University, has received a $160,000 grant from the Florida Hydrogen Initiative for a project entitled Location Strategies for the Initial Hydrogen Refueling Infrastructure in Florida. Sewanee: University of the South has received a $99,000 grant from the Jessie Ball duPont Foundation that will benefit its teacher education program as well as local partners schools through the creation of the South Cumberland Teacher Network, a project to improve faculty development in Franklin, Grundy, Marion and Moore counties. Approximately 300 high school teachers in these counties will meet in subject-area groups to share successes, solve problems and pursue professional development activities of their own design. University of the South students will join the teachers to learn about professional development and life-long learning. Spelman College is establishing a scholar-in-residence program in partnership with Pfizer Inc. Lisa Egbuonu-Davis, M.D., vice president of US Medical at Pfizer, will serve as the Pfizer scholar-in-residence during the two-year program. In collaboration with faculty in the Women's Resource and Research Center and the Spelman College Center for Leadership & Civic Engagement, she will develop and conduct a course in health disparities, contribute to a leadership program to support black women in science and health, and mentor students. A number of Spelman students will receive appointments as Pfizer scholars and interns. The University of Richmond received a $1 million grant from Philip Morris USA to fund "Brains Rule!", a program to prepare Richmond city school children for advanced placement and honors classes in math and science. During the summer, 60 eighth graders will attend classes preparing them for advanced placement science and math courses, to be taught by local teachers. University of Richmond science and math professors will give guest lectures as part of the summer sessions. Once the school year begins, the students will be tutored for three hours a week by University of Richmond undergraduates, with a focus on algebra I. University of Richmond 's John Gupton III, chemistry, received $190,980 from The National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute for research on treatment of various forms of cancer. This grant helps fund his research on developing organic compounds that show significant promise in treating cancer. Washington and Lee University 's Frank Settle, chemistry, has been awarded one of the most esteemed honors in his field, the J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education. The award is given annually by the Division of Analytical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the personal and professional development of students in the study of analytical chemistry.
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