As the color of spring pushes up again through the soil and bare branches burst with fresh green lushness, our spirits too cannot help but be uplifted by nature’s cyclical renewal.
Regrettably, though, I must share the news that we have received our annual budget directions for our College from campus, and this includes a proposed permanent 10% reduction in funding, comprised of a 6.5% cut from the tuition income we earn, and 15.5% cut from the GRF allocation that supplements the cost of our activities. These are very substantial cuts, (total $1. 694.000) which will be a great challenge to manage.
However, I remain steadfast in my belief that, however challenging the times, this is also a time of great opportunity for us. As I have reiterated many times, we need to keep on a steady path of transformation, both in our mindsets and behaviors. There are new opportunities, and a significant and growing section of our College community that is benefiting from these.
Our budget meeting with campus is on May 5. On May 6 we will hold our annual COE Spring Faculty Meeting, so we will bring you up to date on the latest developments then. Join us in the ACES Library Heritage Room, 2-4 p.m. A reception will follow at my house 5:00-6:30 p.m. – details to be circulated closer to the day.
In the meantime, you have an opportunity to attend a Town Hall meeting with Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Richard Wheeler and Vice Provost Barbara Wilson that is scheduled for this Tuesday, 13 April in Room 22 Education, 4-5 p.m. Please make an effort to participate in the discussion about our College’s future and more broadly, the Stewarding Excellence process.
The first part of this meeting will be with the Chancellor also and will provide the leadership team with the opportunity to update the campus on our performance and the ongoing implementing of our strategic plan. In order to ensure that you are fully aware of College processes and other changes, the College Communication team has put up a living site called ‘Transitions’ . Please let me know what else you might need to keep you connected to the momentous events that are unfolding. The most significant agent of productive change in the University of course is you. How you engage at the academic unit, College and campus levels will make all the difference as we navigate these very difficult but potentially creative times. We are living in a moment of unparalleled flux and can only succeed if we truly pool our expertise and wisdom.
Professor Michelle Perry has been added to the Stewarding Excellence Project team reviewing Extension and I have been asked to chair a team looking at the potential across campus to generate new revenue. Anyone is free to contribute their views or comment on any of the Projects that have been made public via the Stewarding Excellence website. See the ‘Transitions’ link above.
Thank you so much to all involved in the exciting work of our redesign processes. See Ongoing Implementation of Our Strategic Plan – Innovations at the College of Education:
- Re-envisioning the Preparation of Teachers
- Enhancing the Quality of our Graduate Programs
- Consolidation and Improved Support for Online Programs
- Departmental Restructuring for Intellectual Synergies
- Shared Services for Improved Student and Faculty Support
- New Policies and Procedures
In addition, Weekly@Education, a new weekly digest of College-wide announcements is being sent out every Monday afternoon. This condensed format will make it easy for the COE community to learn about upcoming events and opportunities, without filling your inbox. This digest replaces individual College announcements. See submit an item for Weekly Education, email: weekly@education.illinois.edu. Complete submission guidelines are on our Web site.
I would like to turn now to acknowledging just some of our achievements that have come to my attention this last month. As the academic year comes to a close, it is clear that we are delivering the best performance yet in all domains of our endeavor.
First, congratulation to all those that have recently been awarded new grants. We are steadily and consistently climbing upwards in our research productivity.
Assistant Professor, Brendesha Tynes has been awarded $1,415,635 by The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health and Human Development to study ‘Racial Discrimination in Online Contexts: The Impact on Adolescent Adjustment’ – what a magnificent boost to her research career!
Likewise, well done to Assistant Professor Karrie Shogren, who has been awarded $24,983 by the U.S. Department of Education to study, ‘Determining the Efficacy of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction to Improve Secondary and Transition Outcomes for Students with Cognitive Disabilities.’
Associate Professor Phillip Rodkin was been awarded $2,164,277 by the Institute of Education Sciences to undertake a ‘A Longitudinal Study of Teaching Practices, Classroom Peer Ecologies, and Youth Outcomes’. He has already been visited by Chancellor Robert Easter whose interest was piqued by Phil’s work. It also merited an announcement on the IES Web site under “What’s New” – Social and Behavioral Context for Academic Learning.
Associate Professor James Shriner was awarded a new grant worth $131,503 by the Illinois State Board of Education to continue his study ‘IEP Quality Improvement: Research and Development of Web-Based Decision Support’.
Professor Sarah Lubienski has received another $655,000 grant from the Institute of Education Sciences for an UIUC Postdoctoral Research Training Program in Mathematics Education.
And Emeritus Professor Arthur Baroody has received $557,565 from the National Institutes of Health to renew his grant on ‘Computer-guided Comprehensive Mathematics Assessment for Young Children’.
Much kudos to the following for being recognized for their superb scholarship:
Assistant Professor Gloriana González was selected by the School of Education, University of Michigan, to be a recipient of the Dimond Outstanding Dissertation Award for 2010 in recognition of her doctoral dissertation which was chosen to be the most outstanding completed in the Educational Studies Program. Gloriana was also accepted into the Mathematics Education “Service, Teaching and Research” or Star Program.
Congratulations to Professors Tom Schwandt, Jennifer Greene and Hua Hua Chang for all being inducted as AERA fellows this spring. The induction will take place on Saturday, May 1 during the AERA annual meeting in Denver. This is certainly an outstanding honor.
The Center for Advanced Study also honored a number of our faculty. In addition to becoming AERA follows, Professor Thomas Schwandt has been recognized as Editor of the American Journal of Evaluation (sponsored by the American Evaluation Association), Professor Jennifer C. Greene as President of the American Evaluation Association, and Assistant Professor Kiel Christianson for recieving a NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award.
Also, Professor Liora Bresler is to be recognized for receiving a Distinguished Fellow award for the National Art Education Association; Professor Sarah Lubienski for receiving an Outstanding Reviewer Award, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 2009 and for being appointed to the AERA Grants Program Governing Board, 2010; and Professor Sarah McCarthey and Associate Professor Mark Dressman for their work as co-editors with Paul Prior of Research in the Teaching of English journal.
Congratulations also to the 2010 College Award Recipients. From the Department of Curriculum and Instruction: Professor Arlette Willis for Distinguished Teaching Career Award; Professor Georgia Garcia, Outstanding Graduate Teaching; Assistant Professor Christina DeNicolo , Spitze/Mather Faculty Award for Excellence; Alisha Lewis, Outstanding Teaching Award for Teaching Assistants; Associate Professor Rochelle Gutierrez, Outstanding Faculty Award for Service. From SPED, Bernadette Laumann, Academic Professional Excellence Award, Nila Jefford from SAAO, and Laura Ketchum from Shared Services
Thank you to all who attended the official launch of the Ubiquitous Learning Institute on April 7 and its foundational book published by the University of Illinois Press. Our guest speaker, Chris Dede, Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, not only presented a stimulating talk but publicly congratulated us for being ahead of the game with the establishment of ULI and the work exemplified by these initiatives.
You might be interested to know that last week we received congratulations from Assistant Vice President Charles V. Evans and Vice President for Academic Affairs Meena Rao for our New Learning Charter, because former State Senator and now Chicago Clerk and Chair of the P-20 council, Miquel del Valle, featured the Charter during a presentation to the Illinois Board of Higher Education. As a consequence we were asked to provide 50 copies to be distributed to the Board and P- 20 Council. Well done to all involved in the Charter’s production and thank you Alex Schmidt, Director of Advancement, for arranging for us to visit with Miquel last month and bring our accomplishments to his attention.
Finally, I claimed at the beginning of this calendar year that I had finally learnt to swim. Although that remains true, I am also reminded with each swimming event just how difficult it is to overcome fear and anxiety that is deep and longstanding. It keeps me pondering about the challenges of the ‘science’ of learning.
This past weekend we held our distinguished alumni award ceremony and I had to reflect on these issues afresh as I learnt about the struggles and achievements of each of our recipients. Thank you to all those who attended. We were pleased that our colleagues, Interim President Stan Ikenberry and Interim Chancellor Robert Easter and his wife also attended and heard a little of what makes our College of Education unique and powerful. The extraordinary life stories of our outstanding alumni were moving, along with their explicit dedication to improving the lives of others. Every one of our candidates had overcome some fear or obstacle and spoke clearly and poignantly about those in our College who had touched their lives and contributed to their formation as educators. They spoke of scholars and practitioners in the College whose deep expertise in content, research methodology and pedagogical processes had influenced them so much. This was mixed with an understanding that their success required an amount of passion to help others overcome their doubts, and a respect for unique and different lifeworlds we encounter as educators. It reminded as all why we are educators and why we are at the College of Education at the University of Illinois. See this year’s winners on our Web site.
All the best,
Dean Mary Kalantzis
