Dear all,

The period between Thanksgiving and the December holiday is certainly one of the busiest in our College and on our campus. Thank you to all faculty who were with their students as they completed their last classes this week. I know how much it means to our students that faculty are available and present in our building to share their learning experiences. In particular, I want to acknowledge again the faculty, staff, and students of HRE, EOL and EPS who participated in the meetings these last few weeks, and will continue to the end of the month, to progress their complex discussions and make the necessary decisions regarding our synergy plans so that we can submit them to the campus in the new year. I was also excited to see a proposal, initiated by the graduate students from these three departments, for an annual Graduate Student conference. I understand that they will be forming a College-wide student committee to advance this idea and will be providing us further details soon. This bottom-up, student initiative has the full support of the College.

The leadership team has meet three times this last week to continue our considerations about how we might respond to the 7%, 10% and 15 % cuts to our budget that have been requested as possible scenarios by campus.  As you can imagine, given that we managed to balance our budget last year after very difficult but creative efforts, much frustration abounds, not to mention fatigue. We understand however that we have to continue to carve out efficiencies, and also, at the other end of the spectrum and more significantly, to increase our productivity. This is a term that has crept more recently into our discourse and its connotations certainly unsettles our understandings of ourselves as faculty, staff and students. So what might increased ‘productivity’ mean for us? Some examples include, changing how we think and allocate teaching loads, redesigning our core programs, re-conceptualizing the alignment of our courses, increasing our success with external grants and publications , increasing our income from alternative fee paying sources, and attracting larger gifts to support our students so we can provide scholarships as the funds for Teaching Assistantships shrink. Our stellar programs and our strong reputations with our peers and alumni provide us with an excellent base but these achievements cannot be arguments for non-action at this critical time for Higher Education. None of the new work we will need to do can be done adequately by email communication or from a distance. It requires much interpersonal negotiation and focused, sustained collaboration – a genuine community of practice prepared to remake itself. Many thanks to all those who have recognized the need to be engaged here in the College, interacting closely with each other as we figure out how we seize the many opportunities that are available at the moment.

Despite the raised bar of expectations, I remain confident we have what it takes to determine our own future and to continue serving the public good. Kudos to Professor Debra Bragg for her leadership efforts and to all those associated with the Forum on the Future of Public Education and those who attended our Illinois P-20 Longitudinal Policy Research Summit in Springfield this month, exploring research possibilities with the Illinois State Board of Education and other Colleges of Education across the State of Illinois. (See list below)

Thank you Professors Fouad Abd El Khalick, Lizanne Destefano and Associate Dean Joan Tousey, who joined me and many others from our campus at a Silicon Valley Roundtable meeting to explore, with a number of our U of I alumni, how we can partner to develop strategies that enhance learner performance in the STEM areas. In the same vein, much gratitude also needs to be expressed to Professors, Fouad Abd El Khalick, Sara Lubienski, Scott Johnson, and George Reese, Vanna Pianfetti, Alex Schmidt and Jane Schingel who met with Vice President for Research Professor Ravi Iyer to craft, at very short notice, another proposal that could be taken by campus to Springfield for funding of our STEM education activities.

A hearty ‘well done’ to the Director of Research Opportunities in the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities’, Associate Professor Lisa Monda-Amaya, for the way she is sustaining and building our relationships with our local schools. Last night Robert Easter, Interim Chancellor and Provost, Richard Wheeler, Vice Provost and Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Mike Andrechak, Associate Provost for Budgets and Resource Planning, joined  local superintendents, principals and over fifty teachers to recognize the work we are doing together to enable our local children to achieve their potentials. We noted some recent milestones:  the Consent decree reaching a conclusion; the meeting of State performance goals; and yesterday’s announcement that Urbana High School received a Bronze Medal in US News Ranking of Best High Schools. In this same category, our University Laboratory High School also received an ‘honorable mention. There was also buzz in the room about the value of our teacher collaborators as well as the pride expressed by the teachers present in their students’ achievements.

The Bookplate Reception honoring promoted/tenured professors was held this month and attended by those recently promoted in our College: Dr Chris Span and Dr Sharon Tettegah to Associate Professor and Dr Hua-Hua Chang to full Professor. The College also organized a thank you lunch for staff and academic professional to recognize their steady support and high levels of professionalism – as always it was a joy to share this moment with them. We salute you all. (See picture below)

Our book, ‘Ubiquitous Learning’, has finally been published – see – http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/47pwr2gk9780252034961.html The Director of the Ubiquitous Learning Institute, Prof Nick Burbules is planning a campus wide launch of the book at an event that also showcases our goals and achievements in ubiquitous learning.

I have also been informed of the following accomplishments this month – congratulations to all. Associate Professor Stacy Dymond was recently honored for her work on the journal, ‘Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities’ – she was named ‘Reviewer of the Year’. And Professor Michael Peters has elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Finally, just before Thanksgiving, at the invitation the Pedagogical Association of Greece, I presented a keynote address as part of the opening of the Association’s annual conference in Ionannina, on ‘Curriculum Design for Inclusivity, Creativity and High Performance’. Professor Bill Cope and I also conducted a Workshop for over ninety teachers at the first International Learning Design Workshop hosted by the Mathematics Laboratory of the University of Patras. While in Greece, we met with Thalia Dragonas, formerly a Professor of Education at the University of Athens, who has been recently appointed as the Special Secretary of Education, to talk about the ways in which we might contribute to the newly elected PASOK Government’s education reform agenda. All over the world, the pressures for education reform are as great as the entrenched traditions that stall change – we really do need a bold new praxis.

Wishing you all the very best,

Dean Mary Kalantzis

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U of I  P-20 Summit attendees:

UIC
Cynthia Shanahan
Betsy Gates-Ehlers
Denis Roarty
Paul Zavitkovsky

UIS
Leonard Bogle
Karen Swan
Daniel Matthews
Dana Thompson-Dorsey

UIUC
Debra Bragg
Charlie Evans
Sarah Lubienski
Chris Roegee
Katherine Ryan
Tom Grayson
Mary Kalantzis
Bill Cope
Chris Lubienski
John Evans
Jim Anderson
Susan Fowler
Tim Harmon
Lisa Monda-Amaya
Peter Weitzel