December 2009 Articles
Story ideas? Opinions? Questions, Compliments, or Complaints? Send us an email at facultyadvocate@gmail.com.
Giving Thanks! by Nancy Stanko
A Conversation with Lisa Higgins by Tom Tipton
Photo Plus Podcast Plus Social Media by Jeff Curto
Go West, Young Man by Richard Jarman
Accolades by Konkel & Hagman
Giving Thanks! by Nancy Stanko
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude both personally and on behalf of our entire Faculty
Association for the time, effort, and energy that our faculty in leadership roles have given us. Please
take a moment to thank Lisa Higgins, outgoing Vice President; Mike Drafke, past Welfare Vice Chair,
Grievance Chair, and Welfare member; Lewis Jones, outgoing Welfare member; Stacy Kaplan, Instruction
Chair; and Karin Evans, past Communications Committee Chair. (If I have missed someone, please let me
know and I'll thank you in our next Faculty Advocate!) They have made it possible for us to incorporate
the best educational practices most crucial for our students to reach college success.
Our faculty Senate participated in the first of two retreats of this academic year in order to begin the process of reviewing and updating our Association's mission, vision, and values. Our new Senate will be canvassing all faculty members for their input during spring term.
As our December holiday festivities are upon us, let us give thanks and consider those less fortunate. Let us express joy to the families of those who have sacrificed everything on our behalf as veterans and active-military colleagues. We thank them for their tremendous work and support. We are fortunate that they have stepped forward to make a positive difference in the world.
I wish you and your families the best this Holiday Season.
A Conversation with Lisa Higgins by Tom Tipton
In January 2010, Lisa Higgins will end her two year term as Vice President of the Faculty
Association when Ken Gray takes over the role. The last two years have proved to be among the most
challenging in the Association's and College's history. The Faculty Advocate had a conversation
with Lisa, asking her to reflect on the sometimes tumultuous term of her service to the Association.
FA: Was it what you expected?
LH: I don't think anyone could have expected so much change over the past two years.
At my first Board meeting in January 2008, a Trustee resigned—the second in two years. Then there
were the Board scandals and the election. I've worked with three college presidents, seen two major
reorganizations, and continual shifts in classified and administrative staff. I've seen morale go from
bad to worse. We've been forced to file two Unfair Labor Practice lawsuits, and more grievances than ever
before.
FA: What was the most challenging issue you faced during your term?
LH: The changes in college leadership were the biggest challenge. To better keep pace,
I think that CODFA should hold its elections in spring so that our officers can transition over the summer
rather than in mid school-year.
FA: What was the most fulfilling aspect of your role?
LH: It was an honor to stand up on behalf of the faculty on so many issues vital to the
college and our students. In addition, speaking at commencement in 2008 was something I really enjoyed.
FA: What was the funniest moment of your term?
LH: In my first two weeks, I heard ten rumors—and one of them was about something I
supposedly said at a meeting. It wasn't true!
FA: What are you proudest of having accomplished?
LH: Standing up for Academic Freedom. Professors must control their curriculum and make
decisions on the weight ideas are given in a classroom. As a student, some of my best experiences were
hearing different points of view from various professors and students, and weighing the ideas for myself.
I believe that students can decide for themselves what they believe; politicians shouldn't limit or
prescribe what students are exposed to based on their own ideology.
FA: What memories will you keep from your term?
LH: I will certainly remember the way the faculty and students banded together to protest
the previous board's complete rewrite of the policy manual.
FA: What do you think will be key challenges to the incoming VP and/or Senate?
LH: I think there are many difficult challenges ahead. I'm hoping that the new VP, the
Senators and the President will keep the membership well informed, will be able to work productively with
the new Administration, and will continue to stand up and fight for what is right when necessary.
FA: Anything else?
LH: I think Ken Gray will do a great job as VP. I wish him luck!
The Faculty Advocate would also like to thank the senators whose terms expire at the same time as Lisa's:
Nancy Payne, Business & Technology (finishing one of many non-consecutive terms)
Felipe Armas, Health, Social & Behavioral
Christine Monnier, Health, Social & Behavioral (finishing her second, non-consecutive term)
Linda Elaine, English (finishing her second consecutive term)
Connie Canaday Howard, Liberal Arts (finishing a string of many terms)
Julia DiLiberti, Liberal Arts
Brenda Alberico, Natural & Applied Science (finishing a string of many terms)
Diana Strode, Natural & Applied Science
Photo Plus Podcast Plus Social Media by Jeff Curto
I recently traveled to New York City to give a presentation about podcasting and other social media
at PhotoPlus Expo, one of the world's largest photographic conferences. I was also asked to
participate in a panel discussion about teaching photography in the age of digital photography. It was a
great experience, which, like most great conferences, allowed me to give and to receive in equal measures.
For the third year in a row, I was invited to be on the presenter's roster at the Expo, which ran from October 21 to 24. PhotoPlus is billed as "the most important event in photography" and is held at the Javits Center in NY. The speaker's roster consists of a literal "Who's Who" of the professional photography world, so I am very honored to be asked to be a speaker.
The invitation was extended because of my experience producing two podcasts, both dealing with photography. One is a recording of my History of Photography course here at COD. I started doing the podcast for my students, but after I put it on the iTunes store, I found that lots of people were interested—and now 12,000 people download each week's class session. My other podcast is a more personal one. Called Camera Position, the podcast is about the creative side of photography, garnering 20,000 listeners per episode.
My PhotoPlus presentation was entitled Podcasting and Social Media, so in addition to helping photographers understand how to use podcasting technology, I offered them advice on how to use social media like Twitter, Facebook, and blogs in their marketing and communication efforts.
As befits a podcaster, I recorded my PhotoPlus presentation. In addition to the recording, you will also find the visuals from the presentation, as well as many links to information about podcasting, Twitter, Facebook and blogging. If you have a desire to get started in social media, or if you have no idea what social media is or what its value might be, this is a great place to start. You'll also learn how to produce a podcast from start to finish.
Some highlights from the presentation:
- All social media are about storytelling and listening; telling your story with your voice and listening to other people's stories.
- Conversation is the new online currency; we want to communicate with each other and these tools are allowing that to happen.
- Think of social media as a cocktail party; you don't want to monopolize the conversation, but you want to contribute when you can. Listening is as important as talking, and talking only really works when your audience is interested in what you have to say.
- There is a law of attraction in social media; what you give to your audience comes back to you in time.
- Podcasts can help you communicate ideas clearly and easily to a large audience, and you can do so in your own voice.
- Facebook doesn't just link you to existing friends, it helps you meet new friends and business contacts.
- Twitter is like mini-blogging; it forces you to be concise and clear.
- With all social media, be transparent, generous, and humble. The quality of your content is much more important than the quantity.
- There are great ways to connect Twitter, blogs, Facebook, and podcasts so that content created in one
venue migrates to another, saving you time and energy.
In addition to my solo presentation, I took part in a panel discussion on Teaching Photography in the Digital Age. My fellow panelists included Dennis Keeley, the photography program chair from the Arts Center College of Design in California; Tom Ashe, a faculty member from the School of the Visual Arts in New York; and Douglas Hollely, an internationally known book expert. In this great company, discussion centered around teaching with new technologies as well as creating curriculum that takes advantage of new photographic ideas. The COD Photo curriculum is often referenced as a standout in the world of photo education, and our use of technology is part of what puts us on the map.
Of course, I not only got to speak, but I also was able to attend any of the other presentations that happened at the conference and visit the huge trade show that highlights all the new photographic products that are typically introduced at the event. I saw some really great and inspiring presentations from photographers Phil Borges, Vincent LaForet and Stephen Johnson, and by New York photography gallery owners Brian Paul Clamp and Debra Klomp Ching, among many others.
I also had a great time sitting down with one of my favorite rock and roll photographers, Lynn Goldsmith. We looked at her new fine art photography work and talked about how it could be marketed differently from her iconic rock and roll work. For me, it's that sort of interchange of ideas at an event like this that is really the big draw. I'm really happy that the good people at Photo District News (the magazine that puts on the Expo) keep paying my way to The Big Apple each fall so I can keep giving my bits of content in order to get so much more back.
Go West, Young Man by Richard Jarman
Though I have never been intimately acquainted with the works of John Soule, whose claim to fame
is my title, it appears to be the invisible controller of my life's arc. As a baby, muling and puking
in the nurse's arms, I moved northwest from the sound of London's Bow Bells to the Metroland suburbs.
University took me further westward to Oxford (and more bells). A few short years later saw the more
substantive leap cross the "pond' to New Jersey. My wanderlust not yet satiated, soon Lake Michigan's
crystal waters beckoned; though I rather overshot the mark and ended up in Glen Ellyn. A far cry from the
images of windswept heather that the name evokes, yet there must have been something in the verdant lawns
of DuPage County that has held me captive some twenty-five years. Until, that is, the call came to abandon
my cell at the east end of the IC and venture west once more to take up residency in the Health and Science
Center.
What had once seemed so far in the future had become a reality. When I joined the the COD faculty, the "new science building" was even then part of the ambitious Facilities Master Plan. Although Chemistry was going to be part of it, the completion date seemed to so far in the future that I felt it unlikely I would ever live to see it. Perhaps it is the natural skepticism of the scientist but, even as the design became reality as the steel skeleton emerged from the dull clay and the recycled panels (a nod towards sustainability) were hammered in place, I never actually imagined working inside the finished structure.
So it was with some sense of unreality that I began the business of sorting out years of accumulated documents and mountains of obsolete textbooks, obtaining moving boxes and spending many a teasing hour constructing them, packing them (how heavy a few dusty volumes seem, their weight far exceeding the value of the words within), putting the appropriate colored stickers on them, and having them neatly assembled at the prescribed hour. It seemed a very aggressive schedule to move offices and labs one week, and have it all working a week later.
Remarkably enough, it all pretty much worked according to plan. I took my first tentative steps inside the new building to locate my new office. Indulge me a little as I reflect on that first moment, sinking back amidst my color-coordinated furniture, and gazing through the window (yes, one with glass that was actually transparent) upon the prairie, below me the little stand of oaks that had been spared the pioneers' axe. A day could not be complete without descending the stairs through the sun-kissed open spaces of the atrium—though finding said stairs could prove challenging on account of the design-driven absence of signage.
I had the honor of performing the first experiments inside the new laboratories. For years I had quietly despised the decrepit Victorian-era labs in the IC, so it was something of a thrill to be the first to turn the gas tap and not have it come off in my hand. I was able to survey the pristine benches, the spacious hoods, the gleaming floor tiles, the instructor's podium(!), all as yet unsullied by the corrosive effects of chemicals.
Looking at the bigger picture, COD will play an increasingly important role in developing the nation's scientific talent. I have long known that the college offers an educational experience that matches, in both its quality and standards, those offered by the region's universities. Now we can show the community that we have the facilities to match and I look forward to being part of a science program that is growing in relevance and quality.
Accolades by Konkel & Hagman
FA LA LA LA LA! Tis the season to be jolly and to celebrate. Visit the Library's
Celebrating Our Own exhibit, a celebration and display of
College of DuPage creative works, recognizing COD faculty and
staff who have enriched our community through their creativity. The exhibit runs until the end of January
with displays on both floors of the Library. Grab an exhibit booklet on your way in and enjoy the show.
Jeannie Folk (Accounting)
Appointed to the Illinois Board of Examiners Educator Advisory Task Force during October 2009. The primary
function of the Board of Examiners is to determine the qualifications of persons applying for certificates
of Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and make rules for and conduct examinations for determining the
qualifications. She is also a member of the Illinois CPA Society Ethics Committee and is a past recipient of
the Society's Outstanding Accounting Educator award.
Deborah Klein (Criminal Justice)
Selected Cook of the Week by the Daily Herald. An article including three of her recipes ran in the Food
Section of the November 11, 2009 edition.
Mary Konkel (Library)
Panel presentation Reorganize, Repurpose, Refresh, Reinvent: Workflow Transformation for Libraries at
the Illinois Library Association Conference, October 8, 2009 in Peoria, Illinois.
Colin Koteles (Library)
Panel presentation Library Services for Mobile Device Users at the Illinois Library Association
Conference, October 7, 2009 in Peoria, Illinois.
Chikako Kumamoto (English)
Delivered paper "Early Schoolroom of Civic Literacy: Shakespeare's Educated Heroines" at the Community
College Humanities Association National Conference, November 30, 2009 in Chicago.
James Ludden (Biology)
Recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Research Award at the 28th Annual Midwest Research-to-Practice
Conference in Adult, Continuing & Community Education held October 21-23, 2009 at Northeastern Illinois
University. His paper (based on his doctoral work) "Learning in a Heterogeneous Community of Practice" was a
qualitative investigation of how learning transpired within the Waukegan Harbor Citizens' Advisory Group, a
mosaic of adult learners engaged in the remediation of bio-hazardous material from Waukegan Harbor. He
completed his doctoral studies from Northern Illinois University this past August. On a "hoppier" note, ask
him about his latest batch of home-brewed beer—or better yet, ask him for a taste!
Elizabeth Mares (Spanish)
Participated in an Introductory Spanish Symposium in Key West, Florida on Oct. 15-18th. She led a panel
discussion on the digital interface that houses course content, and as a result of the Symposium, Elizabeth
was asked to serve on McGraw-Hill's Technology Board of Advisors for World Languages. She will be testing and
helping in the development of a new digital platform for Introductory Spanish courses.
Tom Montgomery-Fate (English)
His nature memoir, Cabin Fever, was accepted for publication by Beacon Press in September. In
October he was the visiting writer for the fall term at Kalamazoo Community College, where he gave a public
lecture on craft entitled The Frame of Attention, followed by a reading/signing.
Helen Szymanski (English)
Shared her experiences and expertise with North Central College students in the Teach First program at a
gathering on November 10, 2009. Helen was a member of a panel on the Anatomy of a Quality Teacher: Fact or
Fiction. She reports that students were curious about classroom management from kindergarten to high school,
working with parents as well as school principals, preparing students for ISAT exams, and interviewing for
that first professional teaching position. Thanks for mentoring the next generation of teachers, Helen.
Terry Vitacco (Photography)
Accepted an award from Easter Seals DuPage and the Fox Valley Region for 10 years of collaboration on their
annual photo exhibition. The annual project pairs Easter Seals clients with College of DuPage Photography
students who produce images for the annual exhibit, as well as photo essays and multimedia stories that are
published. The project was featured in the November "Images"
TV show and will also be featured on ABC-TV News in January, 2010. Visit the
COD Photojournalism Easter Seals project page
to view this year's published stories.
Accolades submissions can be sent to Ida Hagman or Mary Konkel. We want to hear about your personal accomplishments as well as your professional ones. Tell us about educational achievements, classroom and program successes/development, publications and presentations, awards, athletic achievements, musical/theatrical accomplishments and more. Don't be shy. Acknowledge a colleague—we're always looking for a few good informants. We want to celebrate and rally around your creativity, innovation, spirit, and hard work.
