Spring 2001

In this issue:

• ACS Receives $695,000 From Mellon Foundation To Further Archaeology And Classics
• Information Fluency Conference
• The President's View
• ACS Welcomes Deena Berg To Technology Center Staff
• Summer 2001 Environmental Programs
• ACS Summer Environmental Internship Opportunities
• Ninth Annual Latin American Studies Symposium
• International update
• Faculty selected for upcoming global partners seminars
• Travel Grant Recipients Selected For Global Partners
• Global Partners Seeking Leaders
• ACS Institutions Participating In E-Books Program
• Language Study Scholarships Available
• ACS Meetings Ahead
• ACS Tuition Exchange Update
• Member News

ACS will use a $695,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund the next three years of the Archaeology Program and Virtual Department of Classics Studies, Sunoikisis. The funds will enable ACS to:

• Provide incentive structures to move to the next phase of collaboration and enable more faculty and students to participate in the programs and offer more collaborative courses each semester;
• Continue to support the archaeology research program in Turkey and create new faculty research opportunities;
• Create an infrastructure for distance participation in scholarly conferences and other events;
• Hire a staff member at the ACS Technology Center to work specifically on Sunoikisis programs in order to provide more collaborative offerings and technical support;
• Forge ties with secondary schools and graduate institutions in the discipline.

"We are extremely pleased that the Mellon Foundation is continuing to support these programs. They are important to consortium faculty and students, and can serve as models for new collaborative teaching and research initiatives," said Suzanne Bonefas, director of ACS technology programs.

Currently, Sunoikisis is engaged in designing research opportunities and collaborative courses that supplement the efforts of individual programs. Results of two external evaluations examining the virtual programs revealed the following situations. First, given the existing demands on faculty members at their home institutions, Sunoikisis must be positioned to allocate sufficient financial resources to enable faculty to participate in the initiative and engage in long-term planning with regard to distributing faculty resources. Second, the complexity of Web-based activities and resources has reached a point at which further development will require technical resources beyond the capacity of the individual institutions. Finally, as Sunoikisis establishes an academic presence, it needs resources to pioneer new forms of scholarly discourse and enter into collaborative arrangements with secondary schools, study centers and graduate programs at research institutions.

While continuing to progress in current initiatives, building the cooperative infrastructure and expanding the collaborative curriculum, Sunoikisis hopes to build on current successes in four critical ways:

• Expand the range of Web-based courses
  This could entail expanding on-line archaeology offerings, developing a three-unit introductory course in classical archaeology and expanding the spring on-line course. This expansion also could include offering advanced courses for the study of ancient Greek and Latin, or collaboratively offering on-line courses in conjunction with other institutions.

• Manage Web-based collaborations and research
  This plan calls for the creation of a searchable Web portal with the following top-level areas:

• Expand participation among ACS schools
  Currently, eight ACS institutions participate in the archaeology program, with two more preparing for future participation. Eight ACS institutions also participate in the classics program, with the anticipation of three more joining. For both programs, the main barriers for participation are visibility and incentives. To expand, Sunoikisis will offer a series of lectures to disseminate the results of the archaeological field work and provide an overview of Sunoikisis. Each semester, a team of faculty members who have participated will travel to a minimum of one ACS campus to present their work. Presentations will be Webcast to other campuses. To better compensation, Sunoikisis will provide a cooperative one-year sabbatical leave program.

• Forge ties with research centers, scholarly societies, graduate programs and high schools
  With program sabbatical leaves and additional staff for managing the Web-based resources and technologies in place, the project can work on these four complementary initiatives. To do so, Sunoikisis will:

For more information, go to www.sunoikisis.org/SUNOIKArchaeo.html, or contact Suzanne Bonefas at bonefas@colleges.org.

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Information Fluency Conference

More than 80 faculty and staff attended the Information Fluency Conference, Toward Information Fluency in the Liberal Arts, Part II, February 16-18, 2001, at the ACS Technology Center.

Panel discussions included Talking Toward Techno-Pedagogy: A Collaboration Across Colleges and Constituencies, and National Tech Centers Initiative and were led by ACS faculty and staff. Susan L. Perry, college librarian and director of library, information and technology services, Mount Holyoke College, delivered the keynote address, Liberal Education, Academic Community and Technology: "A Mind Lively and at Ease," in which she discussed collaboration as an important component of information fluency.

ACS Information Fluency Task Force Updates
The four ACS Information Fluency task forces met to coordinate their efforts during the conference.

Assessment Task Force
The Assessment Task Force met to finalize a survey designed to collect information about what kinds of information fluency activities are occurring in the 15 ACS member institutions. At the conclusion of the task force meeting, the group came to a consensus on a form to be used to gather information regarding what classes and workshops are being conducted on campuses, and what components of information fluency are being used.

Pedagogy and Curriculum Task Force
The Pedagogy and Curriculum Task Force met to draft outcomes for ACS students and refined the standards in the Association of College and Research Libraries task force report to better meet the needs of ACS students. The task force distributed the following revised guidelines:

The information-fluent student engages in five activities:

• Problem exploration and identification;
• Information collection and creation;
• Critical assessment, evaluation, analysis/synthesis, i.e., critical thinking;
• Formulation and presentation of logical conclusions in an appropriate and effective way;
• Generalization of lessons learned in the problem-solving process to other contexts.

The information-fluent student applies these principles:

• Produce information, not just consume it. Create data, not just analyze it;
• Collect and present reliable information in a way that does not mislead;
• Make positive contributions to the community (values-based information fluency);
• Understand the context(s), e.g. socioeconomic and political, in which information operates;
• Appreciate information in all forms - print, images, sound - and in different cultures;
• Be aware of different media's characteristics including their limitations and potential for bias;
• Manipulate, in a sophisticated way, large amounts of data, reducing it to a manageable form.

Guidelines Task Force
The Guidelines Task Force discussed the basic assumptions about information fluency as noted in Toward Information Fluency in the Liberal Arts, (www.colleges.org/~if/IF_Guidelines.doc). The task force made recommendations aimed at broadening the discussion of Information Fluency on all ACS campuses by including additional faculty and staff in the workshops. They also:

• Recommended that ACS issue a call for proposals for The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Information Fluency grants;
• Recommended that ACS offer a stipend for one or more individuals to redesign and expand the ACS Information Fluency Web site to provide more information for faculty and staff;
• Provided suggestions for models to follow for workshops, seminars and training.

Promotion and Modeling Information Task Force
This task force began seeking ideas for project - and context-based approaches. They recommended including a giant process whereby informational fluency teams can apply for funding to develop courses that incorporate collaboration and information fluency into pedagogy. The result of these grants would be the dissemination of information back to ACS membership in the form of presentations and a Web-based repository of best practices.

The task force also made the following recommendations:

• The ideal team on each campus will consist of four members - librarian, information technology professional, faculty and student.
• A list of ACS circuit riders and their specialty areas will be distributed to campuses.
• ACS staff will develop a repository of best practices using a template for reporting that will include problems solved, strategies changed, etc.

For more information about the ACS Information Fluency program, contact Barbara Halbert, ACS director of library programs, at barbara@colleges.org.

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The President's View

Seven years ago, the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) opened its Africa programs to students from ACS, and soon thereafter GLCA and the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) opened their Oak Ridge Science Semester program to ACS students and faculty. These events turned out to be forerunners of further collaborations among the three consortia. The most notable, of course, has been the Global Partners alliance with GLCA and ACM that began in 1999 - a program through which study abroad opportunities have been expanded for our students while making available overseas seminar and travel grants to 35 ACS faculty.

We also are working with GLCA and ACM, along with the Center for Educational Technology (CET) at Middlebury College, to create a national network of technology centers for selective liberal arts institutions. This latter endeavor offers the promise of significantly stepping up pedagogical and curricular activities, all designed to enable faculty to use technology to an optimal degree. With these supraconsortial arrangements in mind, it is important to delineate the guidelines being followed by our consortium in this process.

First, such collaborative efforts must be consistent with the priorities of ACS. However intriguing and enticing these cooperative arrangements might be, they must fit within the consortium's major plans. Second, the proposed actions need to provide benefits that clearly exceed the costs. Fortunately, our efforts with the other groups have met these principal criteria, auguring well for future collaborative efforts. They have the added advantage, I should note, of producing a paradigm for cooperation that other colleges, universities and consortia may want to emulate. Following ACS and our partners, other groups also may find this extended dimension of cooperation to be mutually beneficial to the partners involved and to the broader society as well.

Wayne Anderson

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ACS Welcomes Deena Berg To Technology Center Staff

ACS is pleased to announce that Deena Berg has joined the ACS Technology Center as Instructional Technology Specialist.

At the Technology Center, she will work with faculty, staff and student groups on new and ongoing programs, such as the collaborative program in modem languages (Alianco), as well as plan for the new national technology centers initiative. She also will design, update and maintain various ACS Internet resources.

"Deena's blend of academic, administrative and technology skills makes her a perfect addition to the ACS staff," said Suzanne Bonefas, director of ACS technology programs.

Berg holds a Ph.D. in classics and archaeology from the University of Texas, an M.A in Latin from the university of Texas in Austin, and a B.A. in architectural studies and art history from Rice University in Houston. She has taught Greek art and architecture courses at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles and Latin at the University of Texas.

Berg's vast experience also includes Web page development, graphic design and marketing for an architectural firm in Austin. She has edited and co-translated a collection of Roman comedies, Plautus and Terence: Five Comedies (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1999).

Berg can he reached at 512-863-1673, or dberg@colleges.org.

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SUMMER 2001 ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS

The academic deans have approved the following programs for summer 2001.

• Living in the Yucatan: Building Environmental Citizenship Through a Field-Based Research Course
  Northern Maya Lowlands, Mexico
  May 30-June 22, 2001

  Living in the Yucatan consists of three research and study modules. Students study the Mayan culture, tropical deciduous ecology and the impact of tourism on the shallow marine environment and turtle habitat.

• Sustainable Development in Local Communities: Sustainable Development in Costa Rica
  Costa Rica
  June 1-July 15, 2001

  Students will participate in seminars and work on group projects, and ACS faculty and visiting experts will discuss sustainable development issues. After spending time in San Jose, participants will travel to the dry lowlands of Guanacaste in the northwest, the cloud forest of Monteverde and the tropical rainforest of Puerto Viejo.

• Research Experiences for Undergraduates: River Basins Research Initiative
  Furman University, Greenville, SC
  June 4-August 10, 2001

  Students and faculty will join an inter-disciplinary research team investigating the water quality and aquatic biota systems in the Enoree and Saluda River basins in upstate South Carolina.

• Center for Spirituality and Sustainability Core Course: Holistic World Views, Spirituality and Sustainability
  Heifer Project International Ranch, Perryville, AR
  June 11-15, 2001

  Students will study topics in spirituality, incorporating, the Global Village experience, ropes and sessions on spirituality, sustainability and holistic world views that allow for renewing our connection to the world and each other.

• The Powers of Place: Cedar, Salmon, and People
  Whidbey Island, Puget Sound
  June 3-9, 2001

  This two-part program includes a week of workshops and conference activities at Whidbey Island, Washington, and a week of work at Heifer Project International in Arkansas. Participants will examine the connections among belief systems, rituals, lifeways and sustainability, as they are connected to the place in which one lives. Participants will also examine the powers of place in ecological, historical, sociological and spiritual perspectives.

• An Experiential and Travel Seminar: Literature, Landscape, and Spirituality of the Southwest
  Arkansas, New Mexico and Arizona
  June 16-27, 2001

  This travel seminar includes a workshop at Heifer Project International Ranch in Arkansas and a trip to Arizona and New Mexico to learn about the land and Native American cultures of the Southwest. Students will meet artists, storytellers, and healers from traditions in which different aspects of life and spirituality are integrated and rooted in a respect for the earth and its inhabitants.

• Interdisciplinary Analysis of Forest Change on the Cumberland Plateau
  Southeastern Tennessee
  June 1-August 10, 2001

  Interns will join an ongoing investigation of the causes and consequences of changes in forest cover on the southern Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. This region has been experiencing rapid conversion of mixed hardwood forests to pine monocultures and housing developments. The participants will examine the biological, economic, political and ethical aspects of this issue.

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ACS SUMMER ENVIRONMENTAL INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Several ACS student summer internship opportunities are available for summer 2001.

Host facilities include Heifer Ranch International, Southface Energy Institute, the Louisville Zoo, the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry, the Cumberland Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development and the River Basins Research Initiative.

Internships typically run for eight to 10 weeks during the summer, and ACS provides a stipend of approximately $1,500 to each student.

Details of summer internship opportunities along with an application are available at www.colleges.org/~enviro/.

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Ninth Annual Latin American Studies Symposium

More than 70 ACS students, faculty and staff shared their research with audiences interested in topics pertaining to Latin America during the ninth annual Latin American Studies Symposium hosted by Birmingham-Southern College, April 6-7, 2001.

Highlights of the conference included two keynote addresses and approximately 50 paper presentations during 16 different sessions. Students from 12 ACS institutions representing 10 states participated.

Dr. Anthony Pereira, professor of political science, Tulane University, delivered the Friday afternoon keynote address, Democracies in Latin America: Emerging, or Submerging? On Saturday, Dr. Vince Gawronski, visiting professor of political science, Florida International University, delivered the second keynote address, Tragedy and Trauma: Disasters as Optics an Latin America.

Among the presentation topics were Thematic Variety and Richness of Latin American Female Essayists, The Mayan Cultural and Economic Struggle, Revolutionary Change: The Guatemalan and Bolivian Response to U.S. Foreign Policy, The Struggle for Chicano Identity, and Universal Aspects of Black Expression.

Sessions at the Latin American Symposium are conducted in English, Spanish or Portuguese. The conference has two main objectives - to promote undergraduate research and to increase dialogue among faculty members.

This year, representatives of the Latin American Studies programs at ACS institutions met to work toward developing a virtual department, funded by the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation. The tenth annual Latin American Studies Symposium will be held at Birmingham-Southern College, April 5-6, 2002.

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Faculty Selected For Upcoming Global Partners Seminars

The Global Partners Program is pleased to announce that the following ACS faculty have been selected for the upcoming seminars in the Czech Republic/Central Europe, Kenya and Turkey.

Czech Republic/Central Europe
Human and Physical Environment of Central Europe, June 15-July 2, 2001

• Jennifer Marshall, assistant professor of German, Centre College
• Brenda Flanagan, professor of English and director of ethnic studies concentration, Davidson College
• James Bruce, professor of sociology, Hendrix College
• John Treadway, professor of history, University of Richmond
• Bruce Stephenson, professor of environmental studies, Rollins College

Kenya
East Africa in Transition: Images, Institutions, and Identities, June 23-July 6, 2001

• David Otto, associate professor of religion, Centenary College of Louisiana
• Lauren Yoder, professor of French, Davidson College
• Robin Visel, associate professor of English, Furman University
• Andrew Valls, associate professor of political science, Morehouse College
• Jennifer Henton, professor of English, Rollins College
• David Ribble, associate professor of biology, Trinity University
• Joseph Obi, associate professor of sociology, University of Richmond
• Allison Shutt, associate professor of history and gender studies, Hendrix College

Turkey
Economics, Polity and Religion in Turkey, June 10-21, 2001

• Sammye Johnson, professor of communications, Trinity University
• Mark Muesse, associate professor of religious studies, Rhodes College
• Carol Summers, associate professor of history, University of Richmond

For more information, go to www.global-partners.org, or contact Teresa Wise, ACS director of international programs, at 404-636-9533, or twise@colleges.org.

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The following ACS faculty members were selected to receive travel grants through the Global Partners Program.

East Africa/Kenya

• Tina Chang, professor of psychology, Morehouse College

Central Europe/Russia

• Erik Ching, assistant professor of history, Furman University
• Joseph Favazza, associate professor of religion, Rhodes College
• Mark Foley, assistant professor of economics, Davidson College
• Paula Hertel, professor of psychology, Trinity University
• Valerie Nollan associate professor of Russian, Rhodes College
• Charles Rock, professor of economics, Rollins College
• Joseph Troncale, associate professor of Russian, University of Richmond

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Global Partners Seeking Leaders

Faculty Development Facilitator

The Global Partners Project Central Europe/Russia Task Force is seeking applications and nominations for the facilitator of a faculty development seminar designed to engage faculty from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds who wish to develop or strengthen a curricular or research project related to Russia, focusing on the southern region and its newly independent neighbors.

The seminar will begin in June 2002 in Moscow and will move to Kuban State University in Krasnodar in the Kuban Region. The group also may visit one of the Caucasian republics. For information or to apply, contact Tanya Lee, Associated Colleges of the Midwest, project coordinator, at tlee@acm.edu.

Turkey Study Abroad Director

The Global Partners Semester in Turkey Program is seeking resident directors for Fall 2002 and 2003. The director will be responsible for academic instruction via a pre-departure online course and support for 15 students.

Candidates should have some experience with Turkey and with leading students overseas. The director will work directly with university administrators and faculty members at Turkish partner institutions.

For information or to apply, contact Teresa Wise, ACS director of international programs, at twise@colleges.org, or 404-636-9533. For more information, go to www.global-partners.org/opportunities/.

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ACS Institutions Participating In E-Books Program

ACS has purchased a collection of 500 volumes of electronic books accessible only via the Web or special readers from netLibrary.

Birmingham-Southern College, Furman University and the University of Richmond have taken the lead in this program by providing funds for the purchase and selecting items to be purchased. In total, 13 ACS member institutions are participating in this electronic library program, which allows faculty, staff and students to check e-books out of a virtual library for three days. Reserved readings can be used for two hours.

Other funding for this purchase came from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation electronic library grant. By purchasing e-books, ACS retains the perpetual rights to the information within them. With previous online database ventures, when a contract ends, there was no guarantee that the article read one day would be available the next. Through netLibrary, access is available via a server; in the event that netLibrary does not stay in business, ACS will have access to the books through another vendor.

"With more and more electronic information sources available, this e-book library is a way for ACS libraries to test the new technology of e-books and deliver reliable information," said Barbara Halbert, ACS director of library programs. "The books selected are those that might be purchased in paper form, but with the electronic version, the faculty and students have access to them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and don't need to visit the library to get them." For information about netLibrary, go to www.netLibrary.com.

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Language Study Scholarships Available

The Global Partners Language and Technology Task Force is pleased to announce the availability of student scholarships for language study in the summer of 2001. These merit-based scholarships are for study of any of the languages of the Global Partners Centers (Czech, Russian, Swahili, Turkish) at the Beloit College Center for Language Studies (CLS).

Applicants should be full-time students at any of the 41 Global Partners institutions. Total award money available is $4,000. Individual awards will range from a minimum of $500 to a maximum of $1,000, and the total number of awards will depend on the pool of applications received. Interested students should complete a Beloit CLS application and write an essay explaining why such language study is personally or academically important to them.

For information or applications contact Patricia Zody, director of the Center for Language Studies, Beloit College, at 608-363-2277, or cls@beloit.edu. Or contact Teresa Wise, ACS director of international programs, at twise@colleges.org. For information on the Center for Language Studies, go to http://beloit.edu/~cls.

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ACS Meetings Ahead

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ACS Tuition Exchange Update

Currently, all 14 ACS institutions that are members of the Tuition Exchange Program are exporting and importing students. Twenty-six students are enrolled at this time. The program is designed for sons and daughters of ACS faculty and staff, who are academically admissible at other consortial institutions. Generally, participating students contribute $1,500 a year; in exchange, they are not charged tuition at the institution to which they are admitted. Naturally, the students must be acceptable academically before they can be considered for the tuition exchange program. For more information, faculty and staff are invited to contact their dean's office or the ACS office. The current tuition exchange pattern follows.

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Member News

Nancy Davis, associate professor of psychology, Birmingham-Southern College, has been presented with an Exemplary Teaching Award by the Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church for her excellence in teaching, civility, concern and commitment to students, colleagues and the community.

Centenary College has added an Information Technology Studies minor, making it one of the first U.S. colleges to combine a liberal arts curriculum with reflective perspectives on information technology. The ITS minor combines required courses in computer science and English with an internship and electives from psychology, economics, sociology, geography and computer science courses.

Davidson College professors of physics Mario Belloni and Wolfgang Christian have published Physlets: Teaching with Interactive Curricular Material, a book designed to offer a new pedagogy for teaching a first-year college curriculum. Belloni and Christian will teach a workshop at the ACS Technology Center this summer.

Three Furman University professors have recently published books. Katherine Palmer Kaup, assistant professor of political science, has published Creating the Zhuang: Ethnic Politics in China; A. Scott Henderson, assistant professor of education, has published Housing and the Democratic Ideal: The Life and Thought of Charles Abrams; and T.C. Smith, professor of religion emeritus, has published Beyond the Shadows: Embracing Authentic Worship.

Hendrix College will construct a new life sciences building with funding from a $10.8 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. The new Donald W. Reynolds Center for Life Sciences building will house the departments of biology and psychology.

Millsaps College celebrated Earth Day with EARTHfest, sponsored try the campus environmental group, EARTH (Environmental Activists Ready To Help). Several groups, including the Sierra Club, MS 20/20 and the Nature Conservancy, sponsored booths, and participants were invited to learn more about hybrid cars, which are powered both by gas and electricity.

Rhodes College is offering three new courses. Gambling in America: Politics and Society explores how the government contends with gambling through legislation. African-Americans Through Sport focuses on social, economic and political implications of sports on American culture and African-Americans over time. Bad Shakespeare looks at some of Shakespeare's less popular plays to allow students to question how they define what is good and what is bad in literature.

The Spanish Program at the University of Richmond hosted an International Symposium/Festival on Latin American Film, 2001 - Truth in the Lens. Seven Latin American filmmakers, more than 50 scholars, two renowned film critics and students met in March to watch, discuss and study Latin American film.

University of the South has received four grants for interdisciplinary study, science and theology. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has awarded $252,000 to support an effort to develop a new curricular model for the enhancement of liberal arts learning. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has awarded $700,000 for undergraduate biological sciences education to accommodate the increasing number of students studying biology and for advancements in molecular biology, genetics and related life sciences. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded $71,000 to help the College of Arts and Sciences improve programs for first-year students. Finally, the Lily Endowment has awarded the School of Theology $300,000 to participate in a national program for using information technology in teaching theology.

In February, Southwestern University hosted the Brown Symposium XXIII, Shakespeares!!, an event that brought together scholars and theater professionals to examine the multiple understandings of Shakespeare and his work. Featured participants at the symposium were Professor Stephen Greenblatt, general editor of The Norton Shakespeare, Tina Packer, founder and president, Shakespeare & Co., and Patsy Rodenburg, the head voice at the Royal National Theatre.

Former President Jimmy Carter delivered the inaugural address at the installation ceremony of Jake B. Shrum, Southwestern University's new president.

Twelve Trinity University students recently received six individual awards at the annual Harvard National Model United Nations conference. The students represented the Islamic Republic of Iran and were honored with the Best Delegation award.

Ed Spencer, professor of geology at Washington and Lee University, has mapped and interpreted data for a new set of geological maps of the Buena Vista and Glasgow areas. The maps offer information on natural resources, soil type, rock structure and geologic history for those planning large-scale construction or looking for information on ground water resources.

Frank Settle, professor of chemistry, and Tom Whaley, professor of computer science, Washington and Lee University, will work on a Web-based project, The Alsos Digital Library, using a $224,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The library provides large audiences with a range of references to resources for the study of the Manhattan Project. This project is a component of the National Science Digital Library program that involves approximately 42 colleges and universities.

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