A Message from the Dean - March 2020
As I type this morning, concerns for the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus occupy my email inbox, and rightly so. While I am out of town right now, I have been getting updates from both the Provost’s office and my senior staff every day. Panic and fear are never the best response, but taking every reasonable precaution is clearly very important. While I was at the National Student Success conference last week there were many nods and smiles that replaced handshakes and hugs, and my hands got chapped from constant washing. SIUE is rapidly developing an informed COVID-19 coronavirus action plan and policy statement, and more information should be forthcoming very soon. Once decisions are made about instructional delivery, travel, etc., we will do everything we can to support our faculty, staff, and students during this difficult time.
This month’s faculty spotlight falls on SIUE Department of English Language and Literature Assistant Professor Tiana Clark, who has earned Claremont Graduate University’s 2020 Kate Tufts Discovery Award for her book of poetry, “I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood.” This prestigious award is bestowed annually to honor a first book by a poet of promise. Joining Ariana Reines's "A Sand Book," which is the 2020 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award winner, the judges had high praise for Tiana’s work. “Both of this year's winners have written big, bold, and audacious books. They contain enormities; they're so rich in detail," said Finalist Judging Chair Timothy Donnelly. Congratulations and best wishes, Tiana!
Our students continue to shine! Seventeen SIUE chemistry and biological sciences students displayed their prowess in scientific research when they attended the Illinois Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) 2020 Spring Symposium in STEM held on Feb. 28-29 in Lisle, Illinois. Of the 17 SIUE students who attended, 10 presented their research and two, seniors Jochabay McGeeBey and Jordan Robinson, earned awards. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the LSAMP program works to increase recruitment, retention and graduation rates of underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
We all know about the quality and value offered by our programs in the College of Arts and Sciences, but it’s always nice when the quality is independently recognized. Great Value Colleges has selected the SIUE Department of Philosophy’s bachelor’s degree program as number one in Illinois and among the nation’s Top 40 for affordability. SIUE was selected not only for the program’s affordability, but also for the institution’s overall outstanding reputation, faculty excellence and unerring commitment to providing traditional and non-traditional students with a high-quality education and the tools required to achieve their career goals. Congratulations to our colleagues in Philosophy!
The SIUE Women’s Studies Program is hosting its first-ever Symposium on Women and Gender on March 19 at SIUE. This event, funded by a grant from the CAS Targeted Funding Initiative program, seeks to provide students and faculty from SIUE and institutions across the country with a multi-disciplinary view of topics and issues surrounding women, genders and sexualities, both past and present. The Symposium’s keynote presentation by Amy Koerber, PhD, is titled, “Translation and the Rhetorical Power of Medical Expertise: A Critical Examination of Gender, Infrastructure, and Intimacy in the Larry Nassar Scandal at MSU.” The presentation will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the Maple/Dogwood/Redbud/Oak Room in the MUC and is free and open to the public.
Finally, our impact reaching into our local community continues. A team of SIUE students and staff spent three days in February with the eighth-graders in Rachel Harris’ U.S. History class at Liberty Middle School in the Edwardsville School District, sharing their love of history and their work in conjunction with Madison Historical: The Online Encyclopedia and Digital Archive for Madison County. During the three-day lesson, the eighth-graders used digitized artifacts from the Madison Historical archives to analyze how the local history of Madison County speaks to the larger narrative of the United States in the 20th century.
Best wishes until next month and please take all possible health precautions,
Greg Budzban, PhD
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
