February 2009

John Contreni

Draft Strategic Plan Ready for Review and Comment

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Strategic Plan working group, I am pleased to present the draft of the College's new Strategic Plan, "Celebrating our Traditions, Imagining our Futures."

The draft is the result of the committee's study of the University's strategic plan, "New Synergies," and the white papers of the "tiger teams" that stand behind it, as well as many meeting devoted to discussion, writing, and re-writing.

As you will read, we adopted and adapted to the College the three goals of "New Synergies" - Launching Tomorrow's Leaders, Discovery with Delivery, and Meeting Global Challenges.

The CLA Senate has the draft in hand and will vote on the final version at its April meeting. In the meanwhile, the draft will be open for comments and suggestions at the spring meeting of the College faculty on March 24, 3:30 p.m., in STEW 318. If you are unable to attend the meeting, please send your comments and suggestions on to Barb Welch, referencing the specific lines of the draft document as necessary.

I encourage you to read the entire plan over once before commenting on it. This is a strategic plan for the College, modeled on the University's New Synergies strategic plan. It presents an overview (from 30,000 feet, as they say) of our goals. Specifics will be outlined in departmental and program strategic plans.

While this will be our College's new strategic plan, it has a broad general audience in mind as well, composed of the entire University community, including our students, our alumnae and alumni, and anyone interested in the arts, humanities, behavioral sciences, and social sciences at Purdue University. The strategic planning committee and I look forward to your reactions over the coming weeks to Celebrating our Traditions, Imagining our Futures!

Sincerely,

John J. Contreni
Justin S. Morrill Dean

RESEARCH & NEWS

New program offers community language, translation services

The College of Liberal Arts is offering a program on language and translation services to help non-English speaking individuals and organizations in the Greater Lafayette community.

Lafayette Head Start site

The Community Assistance Program, part of the College of Liberal Arts' engagement office, also is available to collaborate with other Purdue colleges and schools in their language outreach initiatives.

"There is a great need in the eight-county Greater Lafayette community for an innovative translation and interpretation services program, especially for Latino children and their families as they approach health care, legal and educational institutions," says JoAnn Miller, associate dean for interdisciplinary programs and engagement. "The College of Liberal Arts is home to a number of language resources, especially through the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, so the Community Assistance Program will continue to expand its services as needs are identified." More

Obama will affect how we remember Lincoln

The connections between presidents Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln define Obama's image today, but these associations also influence how Lincoln will continue to be remembered, says a historian.

Caroline Janney

"While people are watching how Obama is following Lincoln, many may not realize that today's president is shaping the way we remember the 16th president. Memory is always crafted by its contemporary context," says Caroline E. Janney, an assistant professor of History who studies Civil War memorials and remembrance.

Janney says one type of memory is called the collective memory. Collective memory refers to the ways in which different groups reconstruct the past by adapting historical facts to fit the present. More

Lincoln fought slavery's spread to Latin America, not just West

The 200th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birth is a time for people to learn more about America's 16th president, says a Civil War historian.

"President Lincoln is on a lot of people's minds today, partly because of President-elect Barack Obama," says Robert May, a professor of History who teaches a class on Lincoln and the Civil War.

"No wonder Obama draws on Lincoln's memory. It is a safe assumption that if the Confederacy had won the Civil War and established its independence, the subsequent history of not only this country but also the world would have been significantly altered. That the Confederacy failed had a lot to do with the man judged by many historians to have been America's greatest president. More

President's first 100 days is an unrealistic measure for action

Measuring a president's long-term success by his first 100 days in office might be hasty, but those initial three to four months can reveal the administration's tone, says a presidential scholar.

"The 100-day measuring stick goes back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first 100 days in office," says Bert Rockman, professor and head of the Department of Political Science. "It was a term historians coined for FDR's accomplishments, and now it's a good story for media and political analysts. It's a phrase that should be wiped from the books, because the U.S. political system takes time to do significant things, and it was meant to be that way by the founders." More

Expert talks about political dynamics of Somalia

The media often focus on Somalia's ties to pirates, but a Purdue professor says the news is really about the evolving government in this Horn of Africa country.

"Somalia is a very strategic place because it is on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden where some of the major shipping lanes are," says Michael Weinstein, a professor of political science who studies politics in Somalia. "This area also is called the third front for the war on terrorism, so it's important that we follow what is happening inside this country." More

New biography features the father of the Harlem Renaissance

A new biography highlights the life of Alain L. Locke, the father of the Harlem Renaissance credited with promoting and influencing famous African-American artists such as Langston Hughes, Zora N. Hurston and William G. Still.

Alain L. Locke: The Biography of a Philosopher, is written by Leonard Harris, Purdue professor of philosophy, and Charles Molesworth, professor of English at Queens College, City of the University of New York.

Locke is best known for editing the 1925 anthology, The New Negro. He also was the first African-American Rhodes Scholar to study at Oxford and was a professor of philosophy at Howard University from 1912 to 1954. W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington also were among Locke's associates. More

Book explores attitudes of black Americans toward Supreme Court

Legacy and Legitimacy

The U.S. Supreme Court helps shape public opinion, according to a new book by two Purdue political scientists.

"When the Supreme Court rules on a controversial issue, it pulls public opinion in the direction of its decision," says Rosalee A. Clawson, an associate professor of Political Science.

Clawson, along with Eric N. Waltenburg, an associate professor of Political Science, wrote Legacy and Legitimacy: Black Americans and the Supreme Court. More

English professor's book selected for inaugural common reading program

A memoir written by an English professor has been selected as the first book for the university's common reading experience, a program that will be implemented for entering students in the fall.

The selection, Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen, was announced during the Academic Leadership Forum on Jan. 13. A committee made up of 19 faculty, staff and students chose the book from more than 100 selections submitted by the campus community. More

Support group for Parkinson's patients offers monthly meetings

Purdue's Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences is sponsoring a support group for people with Parkinson's disease and their families.

The group sessions, which are free and open to the public, are 5-6 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month at Westminster Village, 2741 N. Salisbury St., West Lafayette. Jessica Huber, an associate professor of speech, language and hearing sciences, is the facilitator. More

FACULTY & CLA HONORS

Educational Excellence awards

– The College's Educational Excellence Committee has selected Paula Leverage, an assistant professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures, winner of the Educational Excellence Award. Leigh Raymond, associate professor of Political Science, and Joel Ebarb, an associate professor of Visual and Performing Arts, have been named winners of the Departmental Educational Excellence Award. The awards include an honorarium and are in recognition of professors' exemplary contributions to teaching and learning.

Theater productions recognized by Kennedy Center

– Out of 41 productions, Purdue Division of Theatre's production of The Seagull was one of nine productions that were selected to be performed at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region III Conference in Saginaw, Mich. It is being considered along with one other production for inclusion at the national level Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Conference this spring in Washington, D.C.

At the conference, a number of Purdue students and a professor were recognized for their achievements. They included: