Dear all,

Our hearts and sympathy go to all those whose lives have been affected by the series of high impact earthquakes in the Pacific that have taken such a toll on the Samoas and Indonesia. One never knows when life can be disrupted by natural disasters. As we feel for the families of those lost and hurt, we must also treasure every moment we share with each other and renew our responsibility for the well-being of our communities.

The level of activity and engagement around our College is certainly stimulating at this time of the year. Thank you to all the students who have shared with me their excitement at being in our classes this year and those who have discussed with me matters of interest to them. Given that the symbolic and practical are inter-related, it was also heartening to see how many of you participated in the Inclusive Illinois Day of Celebration.

The College has had to start the academic year running because the context in which we are working remains challenging, not only due to the economic downturn and the unusual leadership issues at the campus level, but also as a result of the larger context in which, as educators, we work. Both the AERA – OIA Annual Fall Policy Meeting and the LEARN Deans Fall Advocacy Meeting in Washington I attended this month dealt with the challenges/ambiguities for Higher Education triggered this time by the developments associated with the Federal Stimulus Funds and the Race to the Top agenda. The latter focuses on four key areas of education reform:

• Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and careers;
• Recruiting, developing, retaining, and rewarding effective teachers and principals;
• Building data systems that measure student success and inform teachers and principals on how they can improve their practices; and
• Turning around our lowest-performing schools.

See http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html and
http://learncoalition.org/?q=learn-hosts-landmark-trans-agency-forum-education-research-0

Our College’s perspective is to use every opportunity to contribute to the realization of shared goals, prime among them being the enhanced performance of all learners in their diversity. So thank you to all who are persevering and negotiating with various stakeholders to partner up to address these opportunities and to make a difference. We must stay very focused and open to new ways of collaborating.

The way in which so many of you are engaging with the task of repositioning our College for the future is impressive beyond words. As is the goodwill and creativity in the face of annual cuts to our budget. In anticipation of a further weakening of State finances, we have been asked to model budget cuts of 5%, 10%, and 15% . (See planning-guidelines-1.) I share this with you not to burden you but to alert you to the sort of questions and expectations all universities are required to address at this moment. Our College, cognizant of the shifting education sands, has been engaged in tough conversations and put in place processes so we can shape our own future rather than react when others shape it for us. We have much more to do this year as we respond to the recommendations of our external review, continue to implement our strategic plans and harness our expertise in the service of local, state, national and international learning. I remain confident in our capacities and skills but need all of you to be well informed and share responsibility for the solutions required.

One nagging issue at the moment is that nature and content of our foundation courses – I would welcome any feedback about them from you, in whatever capacity you have experienced them. Of course, our foundations offerings are key to our identity and important in orientating those we prepare for the range of professional positions they take up. Moreover as the expectation to deliver our services on the basis of sound evidence is growing, we need to understand the impact of culture, politics and history and as well as to be armed with the tools of effective measurement, evaluation and assessment. This last week, as the keynote speaker for the 2009 Penn State Lehigh Valley’s Diverse Literacies Conference, I took the opportunity to sit in on the presentations of other practitioner presenters and was struck again by the disconnect between what we expect from our very dedicated teachers and how well prepared they are to do what they know they must.

Whilst in Pennsylvania we also seized the opportunity to visit Bethlehem Steel, the crucible of American industrialization, and at its peak, an employer of over 300,000 workers around the country. It was awesome to see the left over structures towering, empty and motionless having been abandoned as a result of poor management, a lack of foresight and an inability to adjust to new demands. Not a new story, but a lesson still being learnt by other key industries like the automobile, telephony, shopping malls and publishing. In the space that was once the ore pit was now a shiny new industry that we were told, by one grateful community member, was employing about a thousand workers – a casino. Mind you there was not enough local steel to build this new structure we were told, so imported steel had to be used. True, it was busy, full to the brim with regular folk bussed in from all around putting their hard earned money into slot machines in the hope of instant returns. It was a sobering experience indeed. It brought home to me again, that our ‘industry’, education, also needs to be aware of the winds of change that could transform the way we work, what we do and how we do it – and perhaps as quickly as what happened to Bethlehem Steel.

All the best,

Dean Mary Kalantzis