May 2008 Articles
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Subject: We Have a Contract! by Glenn Hansen
ABD at COD by Jackie McGrath
A Brief History of ESSAI by Chikako D. Kumamoto, et al.
Cyberlobbying SB2288 by Tom Tipton
Second Life Crisis by Richard Jarman
Accolades by Mary Konkel & Ida Hagman
Subject: We Have a Contract! by Glenn Hansen
Late in the evening of April 15th, after thousands of hours and more than a year of
negotiation sessions, the Faculty and Administration negotiating teams
reached a tentative agreement. Our negotiating team has brought us this agreement with a
recommendation that we ratify it. The team shared much-anticipated contract highlights with the
Faculty during two sessions on April 17th. Their PowerPoint slides are useful references for
the changes in the contract as you review it. Both the slides and the contract have now been
distributed by e-mail.
The time is now for discussion and debate on the tentative contract. We can discuss the contract on the secure faculty discussion board. Questions about specifics should be sent to one of the following members of the Negotiation team: Carolyn Dockus, Mike Drafke, or Tom Tallman.
Additionally, there will be opportunities for face-to-face discussions at two more faculty forums on Monday, May 5th:
7:00 a.m. in SRC 1544
4:00 p.m. in SRC 1544
I hope everyone takes advantage of these discussions to reach a decision about the contract. The Faculty's decision will be voiced in our vote on May 7th, 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., in the Association office, IC 1021. The Faculty Senate will certify the results and will report the results to the Administration on May 8th. If ratified by our membership, the contract moves to the Board of Trustees for approval.
ABD at COD by Jackie McGrath (Class of 2006, University of Missouri-Columbia)
When we return to campus in the fall after a summer full of rest, relaxation, or five- and
eight-week lightning-fast teaching, don't be surprised if some of our
colleagues still look harried and sleep-deprived. After all, it's possible that instead of
enjoying so-called "time off," they've spent the summer hunched over a computer or hidden in the
stacks of a campus library, dissertating.
Dissertate (verb): to discuss a subject fully and learnedly; discourse (dictionary.com). "Dissertating" describes the process of researching and writing the dissertation, a status that is sometimes referred to as "All But Dissertation," or "ABD." Some of our colleagues at COD are actively pursuing graduate degrees in diverse fields of study, and it can be a lonely struggle. Teaching a full load, attending committee meetings, and advising often cause people to shift research and coursework to the back-burner. But some have developed strategies and persist even in the face of tremendous odds.
According to Nicole Matos, COD English professor and Class of 2008 from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, "In terms of time management, the biggest thing that made this possible was that I elected not to teach summers. Then I treated summer as if I had a normal 9 to 5 job to finish the dissertation… reading, researching, and/or writing-five or six days a week for 5 hours or so, then go to the gym or play some tennis, then spend evenings off." Nicole's husband was also working on his dissertation, so "we were on the grind together—that helped a lot," she added.
Sometimes it is advantageous if the research corresponds closely to the work of teaching in a particular subject area. According to Mary Newman, her dissertation topic dovetails nicely with her work as a professor of reading at COD. Mary will graduate from Northern Illinois University this spring, and her dissertation title is "Disciplinary Knowledge, Intertextuality, and Developmental Readers: A Study of Community College Students." In addition to teaching full-time at COD, Mary spent the past two years researching and writing her project, based on fieldwork with COD students. Mary explained, "I got up at 5:00 a.m. every morning to write for two hours before getting ready to go to work. I did the same on weekends, so I could work uninterrupted before the family was awake."
Jim Ludden, COD Biology professor and Northern Illinois University Ed.D. candidate in Continuing, Adult and Higher Education, sees the writing process itself as useful in his day-to-day work: "It is always helpful to be involved in the process of writing. For a scientist like me, I find that it really expands my vocabulary and sharpens my everyday writing skills. I find that it also helps me to be more articulate in the classroom as well."
Family responsibilities and other professional service certainly add to the complications of pursuing such a project. As John Frazier, COD Humanities professor and Indiana University Ph.D. candidate in African, Oceanic, and pre-Columbian Art explained it, "my dissertation journey has been a difficult one, mostly for the fact that on top of my dissertation and teaching responsibilities I am an involved, full-time dad to two wonderful little ones, each of whom has some medical issues, and consult to the United Nations [on other projects] every week for about ten hours, including extensive travel over breaks."
John agrees with Nicole's strategy, and he adds: "My best piece of advice is take summers and/or breaks off and shell yourself off from your family and friends. If you can afford it, don't teach and work on completing your dissertation. The money earned during the summer can be quickly replaced by the jump in salary."
Jim praises his work schedule for its benefits to the dissertation process. "Luckily, I have a four-day work week and I often work on Fridays. When I have a deadline, I often work most of the weekend and well into the nights here at COD. At times, Public Safety gets quite used to me calling to let them know that I will be working late."
Mary also pointed out that being "ABD" and teaching full-time at COD was difficult. "It's incredibly challenging because you become so distracted by the dissertation work, and your thoughts are so consumed with your writing, that it's hard to switch your thinking when you're at work. You have to learn to 'pull the plug' on your dissertation writing so you can focus on your teaching" she added.
Despite the inherent challenges and roadblocks, some people do arrive at the end of the journey. Speaking as someone who can see the light at the end of the tunnel, Mary Newman offers some helpful advice: "Don't allow yourself to ever think about giving up. Tell yourself, it is not an option! You will get tired, angry, burned-out, etc. When that happens, take a few days, or even a few weeks off. But, make sure you come back to it. Sometimes it does help to walk away from it for a bit. When you do come back to it, you'll feel somewhat renewed."
Best wishes for a productive summer—and beyond—to all!
Chronicling Our Students' Intellectual Pursuits: A Brief History of ESSAI by Chikako D. Kumamoto, Bob Georgalas, Keith Krasemann, Chris Petersen, Lois Stanciak, Ben Whisenhunt
The premise of our initial project was deceptively simple: Let's get together and publish the
exemplary academic writings done by COD students. The "us" included
Jim Allen (English), Bob Georgalas (English), Holly Hubert (Teacher Preparation), Keith Krasemann
(Philosophy), Chikako D. Kumamoto (English), Chris Petersen (Biology), and Ben Whisenhunt (History).
We were dreaming about creating a unique writing community in a book form.
We had a threefold purpose. The foremost was to showcase annually our students' sophisticated learning, fresh scholarship, and rhetorical eloquence. Another was to promote writing across the curriculum as a vital part of the academic experience at College of DuPage. We also wanted our book to be a useful resource in the classroom for both students and instructors. Christened ESSAI to herald the heart of our aim, our book harkened back to the seminal design of Michel de Montaigne whose "essais" were trials and attempts, a means of testing his responses to different subjects and situations. We wanted students' published work to chronicle their minds similarly engaged in various academic interests, tasks, and settings. The result was our inaugural volume of ESSAI, The College of DuPage Anthology of Academic Writing Across the Curriculum 2002-2003.
Since then, fate has favored us with the continuing good will and support of our colleagues, administrators, and students, as well as the invaluable assistance given by Liberal Arts Division administrative staff and Staff Services personnel. Five years after that modest beginning, we published our fifth anniversary volume this spring. Like our past volumes, this one is adorned with an attractive original cover created by a COD student artist. Our cumulative index in Volume V shows that we have published 155 students' essays across the curriculum thus far. What's more, we have used ESSAI as a kind of goodwill ambassador to establish an academic link between COD and the community. To be specific, we have sent copies of each volume to area high schools, libraries, four-year institutions, and business concerns.
Between our first "attempt" and now, some changes have taken place in our editorial membership. Holly Hubert retired, and we welcomed Lois Stanciak who teaches Teacher Education as our new editor. Jim Allen is now our so-called "emeritus" editor. Our current editorial board is comprised of Bob Georgalas, Keith Krasemann, Chikako D. Kumamoto, Chris Petersen, Lois Stanciak, and Ben Whisenhunt. Though we rotate our various responsibilities every year, we are always of one mind in selecting the most worthy submissions for publication.
One of our most pleasurable events is a reception that we hold to honor and celebrate the published student writers in each new volume, along with their guests and instructors, supportive administrators, and other well-wishers. To witness student writers' surprise and joy when their thoughts appear in print is something very precious to us. We have also been very fortunate to have received the 2005 Distinguished Achievement Award of the Annual Community College Humanities Association as well as recognition from The Society of Midland Authors who recently presented us with their first Qwertyuiop Award for our work.
Our efforts continue and we are already working on the next volume. We would like to invite our colleagues to join with us—either as editors or contributors—so that, in the words of a guest at this year's reception, we will remain COD's print witnesses to students' "intellectual pursuits"—one of the hallmarks of our professional mission and goal.
Please visit the ESSAI web page to view and download our five volumes of exemplary student work.
Cyberlobbying SB2288: Five Minutes to Educational Funding Equity by Tom Tipton
I opened Internet Explorer, set my stopwatch, and 2:06 seconds later had lobbied Senator
Durbin on the importance of preserving academic freedom in higher education. How was
this possible? The IEA's newly redesigned cyberlobbying tool is so accessible, so quick, and so
easy, now no one has an excuse not to lobby. Templates of letters to your legislators are provided
for you by the IEA, and you can select as much or as little of the text as you wish. In fact, you
can even edit the text to lobby against bills that the IEA supports, if you are into that kind of
thing.
Here's how. Go to www.ieanea.org, put your cursor on the legislative menu, and you will see a link in the drop-down menu for "contact your legislators." All you need from that point is to put in your zip-plus-four or street address. Your state representative will be listed. Open up his or her link and find the "send" message button on the upper left near your rep's picture. A message window will automatically format the salutation, closing, and sender information. All you have to do is fill in your contact information.
And what might you consider lobbying your legislators about? The key budget bill from an educational perspective is currently SB2288 (bill numbers are subject to change). The IEA strongly supports this bill, which could move Illinois out of the unenviable position of 49th of 50 states in percentage of district funding by the state. This lack of funding is one of the key reasons Illinois has such terrible inequalities among school districts. If the majority of funding comes from taxes within the districts, schools in poor districts are poorly funded and schools in wealthy districts are abundantly funded. This bill would equalize the funding throughout the state and also increase the state funding for higher education, including an increase to $75 million for community colleges. A Fact Sheet for this bill is available on the IEA's website.
The state legislative season is just starting to warm up. Once things get moving, they can move very quickly, so keep your eye out for legislative alerts. Practice your cyberlobbying now, so that when the crunch time comes, we will be able to flood our legislators' desktops with emails, each one of which, I've been told, legislators calculate as representing the views of 100 other IEA members. Yes, one email—yours—can make a difference.
Photo: IEA Higher Education Council Chair Jeff Beaulieu and IEA President Ken Swanson at a meeting of the House Higher Education Appropriations Committee.
Second Life Crisis by Richard Jarman
Second Life? I don't have time for the first one. As a lover of snappy subject lines, I wanted
to use the first sentence as the subject line for a blog posting about
Second Life (SL) after listening to an extended discussion about SL on NPR. My instinctive
response was that here was another evil software product designed to ensnare and corrupt the
nation's youth, perverting them from the paths of righteousness and "normal" development
involving real social networks and actual physical activities (viewers of "Boom Headshot" will
know of what I speak). That SL was being used, apparently, in scientific research and
psychotherapy strained the limits of my credulity. Later, when I heard that certain individuals
were incorporating SL into their teaching here at COD, I responded, more or less, in IM terms, WTF!
Then it all changed.
I cannot give a clear account of my conversion. The experience lies somewhere between the irresistible force that assailed Saint Paul on the Damascus road and the grudging albeit inevitable surrender of C.S. Lewis on a double-decker bus. Murky as the details might be, irrefutable is the fact that it occurred. It began with an invitation from Denise Coté to record Tintern Abbey by Wordsworth for an activity she was working on for SL. Biting my tongue ever so slightly (ouch), I was honored to take on the creative role, skeptical about the outcome, yet just a little intrigued.
To get some background for the project I was persuaded to open my own SL account. Big step, since I had not previously entered virtual worlds. So began my first tentative fumblings on Orientation Island. Initially, I was happy neither with my name nor my looks. Just as in FL (first life), looks count for a lot in SL. The beauty is, looks are easily modified in the latter and usually for free. Fortunately, one Pipsqueak Fiddlesticks took me in hand and taught me how to dress and where to get a good hairdo (Naughty Island). Newly resplendent, I was ready to visit places I never knew existed; she opened my eyes to the possibilities. Pipsqueak, or Pip as she prefers, is none other than the aforementioned Denise. Her hand is evident everywhere in SL. Denise built the Tintern Abbey space where students will experience the poem. She has organized a SL community college group that meets weekly. You should really get to know her on the "other side."
As I, in the guise of my avatar, wander the lands and islands of SL alone or in company, I am very much aware of a real emotional response to the experience. I am told it is entirely normal, although it is strange, this tilting of the equilibrium at the inanimate computer. Where once the evening might have climaxed with an episode of Top Chef, or perchance a book provided I could maintain consciousness, now it extends into the darker hours as I steal away into my second life there to explore the wonders within. Of course, in reality SL is just a bunch of signals and bytes distributed over countless servers in the PNW - an electronic mirage. That said, there is a reality about it that is palpable. And isn't the reality of the first life experienced through the self-same neural mechanisms? In fact, some argue that life can be created in a bunch of silicon chips that is functionally no different from the human manifestation.
SL is becoming populated by a wealth of scientific lands which brim with potential in the educational arena. It is not a question of should we or can we anymore; now the question is really how best to incorporate these experiences into the classroom. My mind has been racing with the possibilities, like one newly smitten by love. The limitations lie only in our own reluctance to explore and create. Is it time for a whole new second life?
Accolades by Mary Konkel & Ida Hagman
Deborah Adelman (English)
Has an essay forthcoming in the online journal, Literary Mama. The essay has the
intriguing
title "A Mother and Daughter on the Subject of Men." She also reports a "near victory" in
being waitlisted at Yaddo, an accomplishment, folks say,
although you're not accepted unless somebody else cancels.
Lisa Higgins (English)
Presented "'In a Sphere by Herself': Hawthorne's Hester Prynne as Nineteenth-Century
Public Woman" at the Nineteenth-Century Studies Association held in Miami, Florida, in
April. She is working on requested revisions for future publication of the essay.
Nicole Matos (English)
Completed her Ph.D. in English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with her
dissertation defense on April 4, 2008. The title of her dissertation was "The Grace of
Effort: Studies in Contemporary Anglophone Caribbean Form." Two of its chapters have
already been published in academic journals, and a third is currently under consideration.
Barbara Rundell, Karen Persky, and Ruby Kaur (Natural & Applied Sciences)
Developed a new course, Biology 1130: Fundamentals of Biotechnology. This course will be
offered for the first time in Spring of 2009. An A.S. degree in Biotechnology is currently under
development.
Sonny Smith (Business/Marketing/Management)
Travelled to Kaunas, Lithuania on the COD Multicultural Professional Development program sponsored
by the Illinois Consortium for International Studies and Programs (ICISP). During his travels, he
met with the Chamber of Commerce and the President of ISM (University of Management and Economics),
where he gave a guest lecture on marketing. He also toured the Kraft factory where they make sweet
and salted snacks and other interesting products to meet the needs of the culture. An example was
salmon flavored potato chips that are distributed in Russia. Sonny states that it was a wonderful
opportunity to live and work in a different culture.
Ben Whisenhunt (History)
Published a book that he co-edited called Russian and Soviet History: From the Time of
Troubles to the Collapse of the Soviet Union by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. It is a
collection of twenty essays by a group of international scholars on a wide range of topics during
these four centuries of Russian and Soviet history. He has also had his paper "Marguerite
Harrison in Russia," accepted for the 40th Annual National Convention of the American
Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in Philadelphia in November 2008.
