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January 2006 Issue Staff Professional Development Series 
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Progress toward Our Strategic Goals In the past decade or so, the College has made significant strides in the quality of our programs. In my presentation to the Board of Trustees in November, I highlighted some of these strides; the following discussion of progress in graduate programs and faculty strength draws from that presentation. Strategic plan For the past fifteen years, we have been guided by a strategic plan that has emphasized moving to become the best liberal arts college among our public peers. To do this, we have emphasized improving the quality of the faculty with significant senior appointments, increasing the quality of our graduate programs, and providing the best in-class and out-of-class educational experiences for our undergraduates. Faculty Progress The key to our great progress is hiring great faculty.
During the past decade we have hired 318 new tenure-line faculty, 44 percent at the senior level, though the overall number of tenure-line faculty has remained fairly stable at around 350. Thus, over the past decade or so we are essentially a new college, in terms of faculty. When I mention senior hiring I mean hiring rising stars at the associate and new professor level as well as established senior full professors and named professors. As a result of our hiring, our faculty has greatly improved, putting our programs in the top rank in many areas. Having more endowed professorships stemming from the Grand Destiny campaign has helped. We are also beginning to attract new early career professorships, allowing us to attract and support the very best junior faculty. As just one measure of quality, note that our faculty are now attracting twice the amount of external research dollars (money from grant providers, foundations, and corporations to support research) as a decade ago. As we have hired new faculty, we have also diversified our faculty ranks. We are the most diverse college at University Park, with an African American faculty comprising 9 percent of our total faculty and women comprising nearly 40 percent. (Ten years ago, our college faculty was 4 percent African American and 27 percent women.)
Increasing the diversity of the College is a goal that has gone hand in hand with increasing its quality, and we have done both. Published rankings are something of a reality check on our progress. The most recent rankings verify that we are continuing to make progress toward our goal of being among the best.
Unlike business and engineering schools, liberal arts departments are ranked by U.S. News only once in a while. And most of our fields are not ranked at all. But of the seven departments that were ranked earlier this year, we now have six core programs —CLJ, sociology, economics, English, political science, and psychology—with part or all of their programs ranked in the top twenty nationally among public universities. Several of these units moved rather markedly. We have also seen a dramatic gain in history, the seventh program ranked by USNWR. Based on other kinds of information, it is clear that most of our other departments have also made dramatic gains during the past decade. For example, Communication Arts and Sciences recently had several of its specialty areas ranked in the top five by its national association. And important other areas of the College were also recently rated among the top ten in their fields, areas such as demography, African American literature, industrial organization, and international relations. Graduate programs Substantial quality improvement is also reflected in our graduate programs.
Higher GREs and higher average incoming GPAs indicate that we are drawing better students. But are we graduating better students? Other indicators tell the tale. We have trimmed our programs to run more efficiently (as measured by the fact that with a 12 percent smaller graduate program we are nevertheless producing 13 percent more Ph.D.s); attracted better and more diverse students overall; provided incentives for better mentoring and training; and focused on retention, resulting in our students earning their degrees in less time and more going on to excellent placements. Recent placements have been assistant professorships at Harvard, Minnesota, MIT, Indiana, Dartmouth, Carnegie Mellon, Illinois, Texas, and Princeton, to name a few. In other words, graduate students as well as faculty are making the College better. Because we are getting better, we are in a more competitive arena as we seek to recruit faculty and graduate students. Just as business and industry has to compete for the top talent, so do we. With our competitors making use of their portfolios of endowed positions and stores of program support and fellowships, we have to fight back with the same. Ten years of activity and improving the College have put us in a much more competitive, and expensive, environment. In addition to building fine departments, or, I should say, as a way of building fine departments and attracting excellent faculty and students, we are building a number of centers of excellence. Our Rock Ethics Institute, Richards Civil War Era Center, Africana Research Center, Language Acquisition Center, and the Institute for the Arts and Humanities have allowed us to support more faculty and student research, reach out to audiences beyond the confines of Penn State through various outreach programs, garner external funding, and strengthen our national profiles in key areas of intellectual inquiry. This year, we are seeding some new areas, including the emerging center on the social and behavioral science of terrorism and projects on participation in the democratic process. We have big challenges in front of us. But with the quality of the faculty and students we have, I am very optimistic about the future. With regards, Susan Welch
Shannon Sullivan, associate professor of philosophy and women's studies and philosophy undergraduate officer, has been named the head of the Department of Philosophy. Sullivan earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University and has been on the Penn State faculty for seven years. Her areas of specialization include feminist philosophy, American pragmatism, nineteenth- and twentieth-century continental philosophy, and critical race theory. John Christman, the interim head during 2005, is taking his sabbatical leave this semester. Elaine Richardson, associate professor of English and applied linguistics, won the 2005 National Reading Conference Edward Fry Book Award for her 2003 book, African-American Literacies, published by Routledge. This is the most prestigious award for published scholarship given yearly by the nation's leading professional organization of university professors in reading and literacy studies. Lori Ginzberg, associate professor of history and women's studies, received a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship Award for 2006–2007 to research a biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Herman Bierens,professor of economics, has been elected a Fellow of the Econometrics Society, one of the most prestigious learned societies in the field of economics, with a world-wide membership. Stephen J. Beckerman, associate professor of anthropology, was named a 2005 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The association is an international, non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science around the world by serving as an educator, leader, spokesperson, and professional association. Ann E. Killebrew, assistant professor of classics and ancient Mediterranean studies and Jewish studies, has been selected as a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow for 2006–2007, at the Albright Institute in Jerusalem. Paul F. Clark, head, department of labor studies and industrial relations and professor of labor studies and industrial relations and health policy and administration, has been elected Chair of the University Council of Industrial Relations and Human Resources Programs (UCIRHRP). The Council's membership is composed of the directors and deans of all academic industrial relations and human resources programs across the United States and Canada. The group serves as a forum for bringing the field's academic leaders together to discuss the state of the field and the challenges IRHR programs face. Grants Philip H. Baldi, professor of linguistics and classics, from the Salus Mundi Foundation, for “New Historical Syntax of Latin.” Mark D. Shriver, associate professor of anthropology, from the University of California at San Diego, for “Longevity Consortium and Bioinformatics Core.” The Rock Ethics Institute and the College of the Liberal Arts announce that they will sponsor, along with the American Philosophical Association, the 2006 Philosophy in an Inclusive Key Summer Institute to be organized by Diversity Collective of the Association for Feminist Ethics and Social Theory (FEAST). This is a summer institute for undergraduates from under-represented groups from across the country who have a potential interest in going on to graduate school in philosophy. The WebEvents Calendar features lectures, talks, and conferences sponsored by units within the College of the Liberal Arts and by the College itself. If you have something that you would like posted to the calendar for your department, please send entry submissions to Carol Sonenklar. The following lectures and symposia are listed on the WebEvents calendar. Red Weather Reading Series Friday, January 20, 2006 Tom Noyes' stories have appeared in numerous journals such as American Literary Review, Image, Pleiades, and Third Coast, and have won various awards including The John Gilgun Award for Prose and The Whetstone Prize. In addition, his work has been a finalist in prestigious competitions including The Flannery O'Connor Award, The Bakeless Award, and The Sandstone Prize. His book, Behold Faith and Other Stories (Dufour 2003), was short listed for Stanford Libraries William Saroyan Prize, and reviewed favorably in many publications including the New York Times Book Review, where it was praised for its macabre wit and startling confessions of frailty and delusion. Before coming to Behrend, Dr. Noyes taught in the creative writing programs at Concordia College in Minnesota and Indiana State University. Before joining the staff of Lake Effect, a literary magazine published by the B.F.A. program in creative writing at Penn State Erie, he worked as an editor on the national literary journals Ascent and Quarter After Eight. He earned his M.F.A at Wichita State University and his Ph.D. at Ohio University. Health as a Human Right Lecture Series Monday, January 23, 2006 There are fewer deaths among combatants in conflicts now than at any time in the last 100 years, but the indirect effects on conflict on non-combatants are great and can be reduced. Yet this harm is frequently unrecognized and unaddressed. Opportunities to reduce harm, stabilize societies, and stimulate development are wasted. Examples from a variety of countries of opportunities taken or opportunities missed will be presented. We can then discuss the needs and conditions for doing better, the relationship of conflict to Millennium Development Goals, and opportunities for health science schools and students to make a useful contribution. Richard Garfield is professor of international nursing and coordinator of a WHO/PAHO Nursing Collaborating Center at Columbia University, and chair of the Human Rights Committee of the American Public Health Association. He combines qualitative perspective of community health promotion and the quantitative skills of epidemiology to assess morbidity and mortality changes among civilian groups in humanitarian crises around the world. Publications by Richard Garfield include Health and Revolution: The Nicaraguan Experience; Health and the War Against Nicaragua 1981–1984; and Health Care in Nicaragua: Primary Care Under Changing Regimes. Wednesday, January 25, 2006 The Allegheny Mountain Reading Series Thursday, January 26, 2006 Tuesday, February 7, 2006 The Allegheny Mountains Reading Series is a project of the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing at Penn State. It receives support from the Mary E. Rolling Lectureship in Creative Writing, the Joseph L. Grucci Poetry Endowment, the University Libraries, the Department of English, and the College of the Liberal Arts. New Jewish Voices Wednesday, February 1, 2006 Andy Abrams will be presenting parts of his documentary "Tattoo Jew," with images and discussion about the new phenomenon in which young Jews get tattoos of Jewish symbols to express their religious or cultural identity. The Department of French and Francophone Studies Film Series February 16, 2006 Science, Medicine, and Technology in Culture Tuesday, February 21, 2006 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study (l932–l972) is remembered as one of the worst and most racist violation of research ethics in American history. For forty years, the U.S. Public Health Service created a study to watch and deliberately not treat 399 African American men with late stage syphilis in and around Tuskegee, Alabama. The men, however, thought they were being treated for what was called "bad blood." Many facts and fictions circulate in our culture about the study. This lecture focuses on the stories told by historians and bioethicists about the study to explore their limitations, to question what really happened around treatment, and to explain why we tell the tales we do. Susan M. Reverby is professor of women's studies at Wellesley College and an historian of American women, medicine, and nursing. As Wellesley's first faculty hire in women's studies, she has taught at the college since l982. She is the editor of numerous volumes on women's history, the history of medicine, and the history of nursing. Her current research focuses on the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, run by the U.S. Public Health Service between 1932 and 1972, which examined untreated syphilis in African American men and was conducted without the men's knowledge of its experimental nature. She is the editor of Tuskegee's Truths: Rethinking the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000) and is completing a new book on the differing ways the story of the study are told. Health as a Human Right Lecture Series Monday, February 27, 2006 Sophia Gruskin, JD, MIA, is the director of the Program on International Health and Human Rights at the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, and associate professor of health and human rights in the Department of Population and International Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. The emphasis of her work is the policy and practice implications of linking health to human rights, with particular attention to women, children, gender issues, and vulnerable populations in the context of HIV/AIDS. Ms. Gruskin is the principal investigator for several UNAIDS sponsored research projects, and serves as the chair of the UNAIDS Global Reference Group on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights where her primary areas of focus have been the scaling up of HIV-testing and clarifying the value of human rights based approaches to the response to HIV/AIDS. She serves as a technical adviser to WHO and is principal investigator on a range of projects for them intended to strengthen the health and human rights research and policy agenda particularly in the areas of sexual and reproductive health, and child and adolescent health. She serves as one of the principal investigators of the Enhancing Care Initiative (ECI), in which she is responsible for ensuring the incorporation of human rights and gender concerns into planning for and providing care for people living with HIV/AIDS in resource-poor settings in five countries. She is also the principal investigator for a Ford Foundation funded project entitled “HIV/AIDS and Gender Based Violence: Linking Advocacy at the Grass-Roots in China, India, Thailand and Vietnam,” which is a project to develop and strengthen the linkages among those who work on issues of sexuality, HIV/AIDS, and violence against women using a human rights framework. The Health as a Human Right Lecture Series is being made possible, in part, by support from Richard and Ronnie Lippin; the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication; Center for Health Care and Policy Research; Center for Human Development and Family Research in Diverse Contexts; Children, Youth, and Families Consortium; Department of Biobehavioral Health; Department of Health Policy and Administration; Department of Sociology; Gerontology Center; Penn State College of Medicine's Department of Humanities; Premedicine Program; School of Nursing; and University Libraries. The Rock Ethics Institute events are also made possible with the support of a generous gift from Douglas and Julie Rock. Award Deadlines for Students Mathew Mihelcic Poetry Award Deadline The James "Jake" Cranage Award in Creative Writing Deadline The Eddie J. Nichols Memorial Award in Writing Deadline Thursday, February 2, 2009 The Katey Lehman Creative Writing Awards Deadline If you need to obtain or exchange parking permits, please come to Room 111 Sparks Building, Monday through Friday, from 9 to 11 a.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. only. Please remember to bring your license plate number(s) with you when you register for your permit. Once you have a permit, please be sure you report new or changed license plate numbers to Michele Aitkin or 865-7691. As a reminder, if you are leaving the College, you will need to return your parking permit to 111 Sparks Building. The United Way Committee will be selling car wash coupons until February 20. Each coupon is only $10 each, valid at multiple Triangle Car Wash locations, and good for one year. This is a quick and easy way to raise generous funds toward our College campaign. Please continue to support this and future fundraising events. To purchase coupons or to learn additional information regarding this fundraising activity, please contact Betsy Will (865-6487) or Tanya Hockman (865-2545). Amy Heldreth, staff assistant VI, history, religious studies, classics and ancient Mediterranean studies, and Jewish studies Brian Lambert, project assistant, anthropology Anda Mullen, research technologist, psychology Cynthia Carlson, staff assistant VI, sociology and crime, law, and justice Staff Awards Reception Scheduled Support your staff by attending the annual staff awards reception. Please come and cheer on your staff on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 from 3–5:00 p.m. in Ballroom C of The Nittany Lion Inn. Award categories are: Career Achievement, Client Service, Esprit, Innovator, Leadership, and Rising Star. Staff Professional Development Sessions Continue Many have already attended monthly workshops offered by the LA Office of Human Resources. The workshops are held in Room 124 Sparks from 8:30–10:30 a.m. and offer staff members the opportunity for professional development. Topics include best practices, pitfalls to avoid, resource lists for additional help, and opportunities to share experiences and solutions. Future workshop topics include: FEB. 15 HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR STAFF MAR. 15 HOW TO HAVE A GOOD STAFF MEETING APR. 19 VIOLENCE IN THE WORKPLACE MAY 17 ERGONOMICS AND SAFETY AWARENESS JUNE 21 MULTITASKING/INFORMATION OVERLOAD JULY 19 CHANGING THE CULTURE OF YOUR UNIT Interested staff members may register by contacting Betsy Will or phone 865-6487. If you have suggestions for future workshops, please let us know. LA Times is compiled by Carol Sonenklar, Alumni Relations and Development Office, 13 Sparks, 865-8085. LA Times is also available on the Web here. This publication is available in alternative media on request. Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please consult Michelle Aitkin 814-865-7691 in advance of your participation or visit. The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admission, and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. It is the policy of the University to maintain an academic and work environment free of discrimination, including harassment. The Pennsylvania State University prohibits discrimination and harassment against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Discrimination or harassment against faculty, staff, or students will not be tolerated at The Pennsylvania State University. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to the Affirmative Action Director, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-5901; Tel 814-865-4700/V, 814-863-1150/TTY U. Ed. LBA 06-150 |
