SCD Meeting

September 16, 2005

Meeting held in Vista Room (the echo chamber)

Austin (scribe), Everingham, Galt, Ibtesam, Kaye, Kersten (chair), Lockard, Nielsen, Smith, Walter

I. Celebrations.

A. A. Kersten presented two lectures at a history teachers' workshop: “Reconsidering the FDR Years,” invited lectures, Hayes Presidential Center, May 14, 2005, Toledo, Ohio.

B. H. J. Kaye's new book Thomas Paine And The Promise Of America was published in August and has been receiving great attention, including a good review in the New York Times Book Review (July 31). Also, Harvey has been interviewed on more than a dozen national and local radio shows and on C-Span's BookTV show "After Words." Plus, an excerpt of his book appeared in the July issue of The American Prospect.

C. In July C. Lockard presented a workshop on Southeast Asian popular and youth cultures for college teachers at the University of Hawaii, sponsored by the East-West Center and the Pacific and Asian Studies development Program.

D. K. Nielsen did so many things that they cannot be listed in minutes with the rigid standard of minimalism the scribe has set for himself. Founders Association Award for Teaching Excellence. Helen Keller: Selected Writings (NYUP, 2005). Review of Nancy Beck Young, Lou Henry Hoover: Activist First Lady (University Press of Kansas, 2004). Journal of Illinois History 8(2) (Summer 2005): 177-178. Conference paper, “The Incompetent Female: Gender, Disability, and Losing the Right to One’s Labor,” Labouring Feminism and Feminist Working-Class History, Toronto, November 2005. 2005 Organization of American Historians/Japanese Association of American Studies Japanese Residency Award. 2005 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Research Stipend. 2006-2007 sabbatical award.

E. The unit welcomed Dr. Ibtesam Al-Atiyat, who joined the faculty this fall as a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence. Warm fuzzies all around.

II. Minutes for May 2005 SCD meeting were reviewed and approved.

III. 2005-2006 S&E funds remain (overhead from TAH grant), to be doled out in the amount of $1000 per person.

IV. Chair announced 2006 summer school opportunities and set deadline for requests.

V. L. Smith requested $100 for support for a speaker, Mary Rehwald, on topic of Sustainable Sweden. The request was approved and amount extracted from SCD general fund.

VI. Discussion concerning upcoming Professional Development (5-year plan) was up next. Talk focused on enumerating important matters to be discussed over the coming weeks, including course reassignments, mission statement, assessment, alternative skill requirements, procurement of additional resources, ethnic studies and immigrant experiences (Is there interests in an ethnic specialist? Yes. Most likely Chicano/Latino specialist), planning for retirements, and current and future state of course banking system.

VII. Electronic alumni newsletter was taken up (out of turn). L. Walter and Andy K. agreed to get the ball rolling. The newsletter was seen as means to several useful ends, not least of which could be the establishment of an alumni scholarship fund.

VIII. Discussion concerning SCD core followed. Various issues were touched upon, including the idea of an intro to SCD and the possibility of offering 361 both semesters. It is the humble judgments of the scribe that the general consensus was that such ideas were premature, amorphous, indeterminable, or improbable.

VIV. New Business. Since we were on such a roll and enjoying one another company we decided to keep going. We discussed things that were discussed at Faculty Senate. We quickly grew tired of the subject and of one another and adjourned.