Message from Dean Kenneth Teitelbaum

“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy” – or at least so the song goes.  More power to you if your last couple of months were like that.  I suspect, though, that many in the College were busy teaching students, developing course syllabi, reading professional books, writing articles, preparing presentations, meeting with colleagues, etc.  Still, I hope that you were able take some time to follow more leisurely pursuits, to rest and relax, to read for personal enjoyment, and whatever else allows you to experience some “easy livin’” during the summertime.  

There is always a lot going on in our College – and I’ll continue to use this electronic monthly newsletter to share some of it with you.  So please continue submitting items to your Chair/Director, who will send them forward to Carol Reynolds in the Dean’s Office for possible use in this newsletter.  (See also our college website, newly revised by Jeanette Johnson.  It includes all issues of the COEHS Update, a college organizational chart [with phone numbers], news and events, and other important information.  See www.ehs.siu.edu)

We’ve already had a wonderful college-wide Welcome Back Picnic, which took place on Wednesday, August 27, outside the Wham/Pulliam Breezeway.  We estimate that approximately 450 people attended! – about 340 students and 110 faculty and staff.  We had good food and drink, catchy music (with a DJ), and enjoyable conversations with colleagues and students.  There are many people to thank for making this event such a successful one, especially Associate Dean Brad Colwell and his wife Mary (whose car I tried to give away while they gave out soda pop, chips, and cookies), Development Officer Dave Ardrey (griller extraordinaire), Coordinator of Recruitment and Retention Natalie Branca (the DJ’s best helper), and Brad’s secretary Jodi Miley (our Jill-of-all-trades).

Jodi Miley and students signing up for the raffle.

Development Officer Dave Ardrey flipping hot dogs.

Associate Dean Brad Colwell serving refreshments.

Other smaller parties also took place in the College during the first couple of weeks of the semester.  For example, I know of those sponsored by student organizations from the Recreation program (HER), which I had the social and culinary pleasure of attending, and the College Student Personnel program (EAHE), which was hosted by Brad and Mary Colwell.   These are great ways of welcoming our continuing students back to school and perhaps informing prospective students about our College’s outstanding programs.

Tuesday, September 16, noon to 1:00 p.m.:  We will kick off the Second Annual COEHS Scholarship Brown Bag Series (in Wham 219 Conference Room) with a presentation/discussion by Associate Professor Shane Koch of the Rehabilitation Institute.  Shane will discuss “Treatment as Prevention:  Effective Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Treatment for Persons with HIV/AIDS.”  Feel free to bring your lunch; light refreshments will be provided. 

Thursday, September 18, 5:30-7:00 p.m.:  We are initiating a COEHS Public Speaker Series with a talk/discussion by Assistant Professor Deb Pender of Northern Illinois University (who received her PhD from SIUC in 2006).  She will speak on “Defining Moments in the Aftermath of NIU 2/14:  Reflections of an Educator, Counselor, and Crisis Interventionist.”  The event will take place in Wham 105/Davis Auditorium.  (I welcome other suggestions of outside public speakers to invite to SIUC to talk about topics that will be of broad interest to our College and the campus.  I’m hoping that we can schedule these talks once every semester.)

Friday, September 26, 3:00-4:30 p.m. and 4:30-6:30 p.m.:  The first College-wide meeting of the 2008-2009 year will take place, with introductions of new TT faculty and other staff, information about the College budget, a discussion of College goals, etc.  We may have a few door prizes at this meeting – but instead of as many as in the past, we will have a family picnic dinner following the meeting, with spouses/partners/friends and children most cordially invited to join us!  It will be a nice opportunity to informally socialize with colleagues across the College and perhaps meet some of the significant others in their lives.

Saturday, September 27, 3:00-6:00 p.m.:  We will be sponsoring a COEHS Tailgate Party prior to the SIUC Family Weekend football game against the University of Northern Iowa.  (Game time is 6:00 p.m.)  We will have a tent, food, and giveaways, located in the tailgate area beside the Arena.  All current COEHS students and faculty/staff as well as college alumni and emeriti faculty/staff are most welcome to join us.  (Also – We have purchased 25 tickets for the football game, which are being set aside as gifts to our 12 new TT faculty.  If you want them, please see Associate Dean Brad Colwell no later than Friday, September 19.  After that, they will be made available to the eight new TT faculty who joined us last year, and then, if necessary, to others.  These seats will all be together.)

Don’t forget also that Homecoming this year will be on Saturday, October 11.  I’m sure Associate Dean Jim Bordieri, who handles this event for our College, would appreciate any help that you can provide.  We are planning to have a float at this year’s parade, along with a table under the big tent with giveaways from our College, etc.  Hope to see you there!
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New Faculty and Staff

We will introduce them more formally at our September 26 College-wide meeting – but here, once more, are our 12 new tenure-track faculty colleagues: 

• Paul Asunda (PhD, University of Georgia), Department of Workforce Education and Development
• Lingguo Bu (PhD, Florida State University), Department of Curriculum and Instruction
• Julia Champe (PhD, Idaho State University), Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education
• Maria Claudia Franca (PhD, Southern Illinois University), Rehabilitation Institute
• Nicole Heal (PhD, University of Kansas), Rehabilitation Institute
• Muthoni Kimemia (PhD, University of Central Florida), Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education
• Christina McIntyre (PhD, Georgia State University), Department of Curriculum and Instruction
• Thomas Parry (PhD expected, Indiana University), Department of Kinesiology
• Jared Porter (PhD, Louisiana State University), Department of Kinesiology
• Dhitnut Ratnapradipa (PhD, University of Utah), Department of Health Education and Recreation
• Dona Reese (PhD, University of Maryland Baltimore), School of Social Work
• Deborah Seltzer-Kelly (PhD, University of Nevada Reno), Department of Curriculum and Instruction
  

When you have a chance, stop by their offices to welcome them to our College and offer them any help they might need in their first weeks with us. Also, for more information about our new TT faculty colleagues, see http://web.coehs.siu.edu/public/newcollegefaculty.php.

Although I highlight above our dozen new tenure-track faculty members, there are of course other faculty and staff joining our College who will also make significant contributions to our programs, their colleagues, our students, and the southern Illinois region.  I welcome them all, collectively, and hope that we can get to know each other better in the weeks and months to come. 
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Special Interest Groups and College Committees

Last year we initiated Special Interest Groups (SIGs) to bring together faculty, staff and students from across the College who were particularly interested in a cross-departmental focus of teaching and research.  The first one organized was the Qualitative Research SIG that is facilitated by Assistant Professor Tamara Yakaboski of the Department of Educational Administration and Higher Education.  For more information, contact Tamara at tamarad@siu.edu. 

A second SIG is now being formed, with the tentative title of Integration of Technology for Teaching and Learning SIG.  I’m thankful to Assistant Professor Kelly Glassett of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction for agreeing to organize this SIG.  For more information about how to get involved, contact Kelly at kglasset@siu.edu.

Also, besides our College Advisory Committee and Academic Affairs Committee, we have two ad hoc committees that are continuing this year.  They are the Student Life Committee, which is chaired by Associate Professor Ruth Anne Rehfeldt of the Rehabilitation Institute, and the Faculty/Staff Life Committee, which is chaired by Associate Professor Shane Koch, also from the Rehabilitation Institute.  Their main objectives are to enhance the experiences of College students and faculty/staff, respectively.  Please contact Ruth Anne (rehfeldt@siu.edu) and Shane (dskoch@siu.edu) for more information.
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COEHS Scholarship Brown Bag Series

The schedule for this year’s Brown Bag Series is all set.  Sessions will take place from noon to 1:00 p.m. in the Wham 219 Conference Room.  All faculty, staff and students are welcomed.  Feel free to bring your lunch, with the Dean’s Office providing light refreshments.  Here’s the schedule: 

Tuesday, September 16
Professor Shane Koch, Rehabilitation Institute
Treatment as Prevention:  Effective Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse
Treatment for Persons with HIV/AIDS

Wednesday, October 15
Professor Juliane Hernandez, Department of Kinesiology
Blood Pressure Regulation:  The Effects of Exercise and Age

Thursday, November 13
Professor Dona Reese, School of Social Work
Immigration Reform:  Factors Predicting Policy Preferences

Tuesday, February 3
Professor Phil Anton, Department of Kinesiology
Research and Rehabilitation:  Using Exercise to Help Cancer Patients

Wednesday, March 4
Professors Kelly Glassett, Joyce Killian, Christie McIntyre, John McIntyre, Grant Miller, & Cathy Mogharreban, Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Teacher Candidates’ Constructions of Becoming a Teacher

Thursday, April 2
Professor Kathy Hytten, Department of Educational Administration
and Higher Education
Democratic Education and the Challenge of Globalization
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Grant News

Through the efforts of Greg Budzban, Professor in the Mathematics Department, and Susanne Ashby, Research Project Specialist in our College, SIUC has been included as a sub-awardee on a grant funded by the National Science Foundation. The Algebra Project, a nationally recognized grass-roots organization that seeks to empower underserved youth in their acquisition of mathematics, will serve as the primary awardee of the grant.  It has selected four partnering universities:  SIUC, University of Michigan Detroit, University of California Los Angeles, and Ohio State University Mansfield.  These partners will identify a high school in their region that will integrate pedagogical principles, instructional methods, learning environment, and parent/community involvement component into their school program.  At each school site, a cohort of students will be enrolled in the program offering intensive and rigorous mathematics instruction along with support structures that engage the parents and community in mentoring these youth toward their goals.  The students’ out-of-school time will be filled with mathematics-related internships and a three-week summer academy to be offered on our campus.  COEHS staff will coordinate the summer academy and will assist Dr. Budzban with various aspects of the project.  The sub-award is for about $641,097 over four years.

The Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders, directed by Tony Cuvo (RI), has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, for $229,912 to support the Center’s teaching and graduate student training, research, program evaluation, and community service.  The Center also received a $1,000 award from CVS Pharmacy to support its Swim Club for children with autism spectrum disorders in the southern Illinois region.  Moreover, Bill and Dede Ittner and Verizon have contributed $1,000 to support the development of the Center’s Family and Community Resource Room that makes available staff consultation as well as reading materials, DVDs, computer software, and other information related to autism.

The Mathematics, Science and Action Research for Teachers (SMART) Program is a $ 1 million Mathematics and Science partnership funded by the Illinois State Board of Education from 2007 to 2012.  The co-PIs are Frackson Mumba (CI), Mary Wright (Mathematics) and Harvey Henson (Geology).  The main goal of the program is to increase elementary school teachers’ mathematics and science content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and skills for conducting and applying educational research in their classrooms.  This goal will be addressed through a new masters’ degree program in Mathematics and Science Education that the co-PIs have developed and that involves nine faculty members from two colleges and six departments on campus.  The degree program is scheduled to start in January 2009 with a cohort of 25 elementary teachers from schools that have failed to meet AYP.  For more information visit the project website: www.smart.siu.edu

The Heartland GK-12 Project is funded by the National Science Foundation for $1.8 million for a period of five years (2007-2012).  The co-PIs are Frackson Mumba (CI), Karen Renzaglia (College of Science), Sedonia Sipes (Plant Biology), David Gibson (Plant Biology) and Harvey Henson (Geology).  The primary goal of the GK-12 Project is to improve science teaching and learning in schools by sending SIUC Resident Scientists (graduate students in the Environmental Science and Ecology degree programs) to local high schools to provide content and pedagogical support to teachers and research experience to students.  Currently involved are eight “minority” resident scientists and eight science teachers from Carbondale, Herrin, Murphysboro and Carterville high schools.  Each resident scientist is paired with a high school teacher during a summer orientation workshop.  The project also provides action research opportunities, an ecology content seminar, and scientific research experience to teachers and resident scientists to increase their reflective teaching practices, content knowledge and research skills. 
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• Our Counselor Education faculty (EPSE) received three awards from the North Central Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (NCACES).  The awards ceremony will take place at the association’s meeting in Indianapolis on October 17.  Those honored will be:
  • Kim Asner-Self, Deanna Hawes Outstanding Mentor Award
  • Tracy Stinchfield, Outstanding Supervisor Award
  • Brett Zyromski, Outstanding Professional Teaching Award.
• The School of Social Work, directed by Mizan Miah, has been selected for the 2007-2008 Partners in Advancing International Social Work Education Award by the Council on Social Work Education.  The school was chosen for this prestigious award “in consideration of your outstanding contribution, engagement, and leadership in the field of international social work both at home and abroad.”  The award will be presented at the organization’s meeting in Philadelphia in late October.  The School of Social Work is also teaming with the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University to offer international short-term immersion programs in Bangladesh in December and China in May.  Dhrubodhi Mukherjee serves as the Study Abroad Coordinator for the school.
• Dhrubodhi Mukherjee (SW) has authored “Reassembling the social environment:  A network approach to human behavior” in Advances in Social Work, Vol. 8 No. 1 (Spring 2007), 220-230 (though it just appeared recently).  Dr. Mukherjee also presented at the Global Studies Conference that took place at the University of Illinois Chicago in May, on “Globalization without social protection:  Challenges for aging societies in the developing world.”  In addition, he will be presenting at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Council on Social Work Education in Philadelphia in late October on “Volunteering through the web:  Social capital approach virtual volunteering” and at the National Social Life Health & Aging Project Early Results Conference in Chicago in January on “Influence of social networks on elder abuse and neglect.”  Finally, Dr. Mukherjee has recently been selected as an associate editor for an upcoming volume of Global Studies Journal
• Elisabeth Reichert (SW) received an invitation to attend a human rights workshop at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University in New York City on October 3-4.  The purpose of the workshop is to bring together 20-30 representatives from human rights programs, centers and institutes at universities across the United States to initiate an extended discussion of critical and practical questions about human rights education within universities.  In addition, the Council on Social Work Education has selected Dr. Reichert to lead a faculty development workshop on human rights at its annual meeting in Philadelphia on October 30-November 2.  At the meeting she will also be a presenter at Meet the Author and Millennium Goal sessions.  Moreover, Dr. Reichert taught a Study Abroad course on human rights in Munich, Germany this past May, with 16 social work students from SIUC and other universities across the United States.  She is planning to teach another study abroad course in Munich in early January 2009.  Finally, with Dr. Reichert’s assistance, a German social work professor, Dr. Maria Rerrich, will be visiting SIUC with 15 German social work students from the University of Applied Sciences in Munich.  The purpose of the visit is to learn about social work theory and practice in the United States.  A public reception (with pizza and drinks) will be held on September 21, starting at 3:30 p.m., at the SIUC boat dock.
• Mizan Miah, Director of the School of Social Work, has been appointed a member of the Council on Social Work Education’s Commission on Accreditation for a three-year term effective July 1, 2008-June 30, 2011.  The work of this commission “fulfills the critically important function of maintaining and advocating for quality in social work education through its accreditation of more than 600 social work programs in the United States.”  Dr. Miah served on the Commission on Accreditation previously, from 2002-2007, and received the council’s Outstanding Service Award in 2007.
• Newly hired Nicole Heal (RI) was chosen as the recipient of the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior Applied Dissertation Award given by Division 25 of the American Psychological Association.  She received the award at the organization’s meeting in Boston in mid-August, where she gave a 20-minute presentation on her doctoral dissertation.  Her presentation was entitled, “Evaluation of the Relative Efficacy of and Child Preference for Teaching Strategies That Differ in Amount of Teacher Directedness.”
• Juliane Hernandez (KIN) made two presentations at the annual conference of the American College of Sports Medicine in Indianapolis in May, on “Effects of chronic endurance training on cardiovagal baroeflex sensitivity in older adults” and “Training mode does not affect limb venous compliance in endurance athletes.”
• Michael Olson (KIN) made two presentations at (inter)national conferences:  “Neuromuscular fatigue of the lumbar extensors influences walking gait parameters in healthy women,” at the 2008 International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology Conference in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada in June; and “Differential recruitment of trunk musculature during sub-maximal isometric trunk extension efforts” at the 2008 American College of Sports Medicine Conference in Indianapolis in May.
• Taeho Yoh (KIN) co-presented at the annual conference of the North American Society for Sport Management in Toronto, Canada in May, on “Sources of information for selecting internship sites among students in sport management programs.”
• Meungguk Park, Taeho Yoh and Phil Anton, all faculty members in Kinesiology, co-presented at the annual conference of the North American Society for Sport Management in Toronto, Canada in May, on “Effective fundraising techniques for charitable sporting events.”  Dr. Park also co-presented at the same conference on “A proposed conceptual framework of factors contributing to the success of Korean women golfers on the LPGA Tour:  A sport development perspective.”
• Sebastian Loh (CI) was selected as an associate editor of a new peer-reviewed journal, International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations.  The journal, which will begin publishing in 2009, is an official publication of the Information Resources Management Association.
• Saran Donahoo (EAHE) recently authored one article and co-authored another:  “Reflections on race:  Affirmative action policies influencing higher education in France and the United States,” in Teachers College Record, Vol. 110 No. 2 (February 2008), 251-277; and “Serving two masters:  Quality and conflict in the accreditation of religious institutions” (with Wynetta Y. Lee), in Christian Higher Education, Vol. 7 No. 4 (September 2008), 319-336.
• Kathy Hytten (EAHE) recently authored one book chapter and co-authored one article:  “Critical thinking, social justice and the role of philosophy,” in Josh Diem and Robert Helfenbein (Eds.), Unsettling beliefs:  Teaching social theory to teachers (pp. 185-200), Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing; and “Teaching globalization issues to education students:  What’s the point?” (with Silvia Bettez), in Equity and Excellence in Education, Vol. 41 No. 2 (2008), 168-181.
• Judith Green (EAHE) authored the Instructor’s Manual for Thomas J. Sergiovanni’s The Principalship: A Reflective Practice Perspective (6th ed.), Boston:  Allyn & Bacon.  She was also invited to collect data for the New York City Leadership Academy during the month of May.  As part of the academy’s School Administration Manager (SAM) Project, Dr. Green "shadowed" an elementary school principal for 5 days, coding the principal's activities at 5 minute intervals.  The goal of this project is to help first-year principals increase the time they spend on instructional leadership to improve teaching and learning.
• Bob Putnam (WED) is founding editor and continues as executive editor of The Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development.  The journal publishes each semester, with Volume III, Number 2 set to be distributed this week.  The next two issues will be edited by colleagues at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and Eastern Illinois University.  For more information, see http://wed.siu.edu/Journal/index.php.
• Kenneth Teitelbaum, COEHS Dean, recently co-authored “Teaching and learning in the age of accountability:  One experience with the not-so-hidden costs” (with Jerry Brodsky), in the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Vol. 5 No. 1 (Summer 2008), 100-110.

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Please continue to submit “good news” to your Chair/Director, who will send them to Carol Reynolds of the Dean’s Office, . . . and look for more “Did you know that?” in the next issue of the COEHS UPDATE.