Greetings – Dean’s Message October/November 2010

Dear all,

In these turbulent times, it feels we are riding a roller coaster, and in some months we seem to have steeper up and down rides than others. The economic, political and social shakeout continues to veer all over the place at home and abroad. How far we have to travel on this shaky ground before confidence and civility returns, remains uncertain. Deeper inequality and new resentments ride side by side with privilege and hubris. I find it hard to communicate with you, however, without connecting to the constant sense I have that, despite the anxiety and ambiguity that exists, we are so very fortunate to be part of the scholarly community in our College and University and to have the enormous privilege as well as the resources to make some kind of difference, in our local circumstances and beyond. I sincerely and hope you tolerate my returning to these themes so often.

So, I never take for granted and am always proud of the steady set of achievements that we share day by day.  Working backwards from the most recent events, I would like to thank all of the faulty, staff, students and donors who participated in our annual Student Recognition Brunch. On a glorious Saturday morning, almost a hundred folk gathered, beautifully turned out and so proud, to receive awards and recognize each other’s talents. We are working very hard to secure the funds necessary to enable students to access the very fine academic experiences that we have to offer. We are grateful to all who partner with us in this effort.

On this note, I need to thank the Executive Director of our Council on Teacher Education, Chris Roegge and all those who assisted him in responding to the NCTQ survey of colleges of education in Illinois. You can go to our web site and read the concerns expressed about this review and its methodological flaws. We chose to participate because we have confidence in our programs irrespective of the tools used to evaluate them. To see the NCTQ  report go to: http://www.nctq.org/p/publications/reports.jsp

The noise about teacher education programs continues unabated but we, in our College, continue to focus on deploying the sound research and great deal of experience of our collective faculty, clinical and adjunct instructors, to prepare teachers that will be leaders in their field. Moreover, we have the courage and foresight to know we need to continually adjust and redesign our offerings for contexts that are constantly changing both in terms of the people that populate our educational sites and the technological resources needed to engage learners across the life span. I am hoping to share with you very soon the work being done by our Teacher Education Redesign team as they lead us forward in this area of strategic endeavor for our College.

Last week I attended another Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Deans of Education meeting in Chicago. See http://www.cic.net/Home.aspx — on another unseasonably balmy day. The main agenda item for this meeting was the reorganization going on in our respective colleges and universities. Each institution of course, has a different history, is in different place and located in states in whose financial circumstances vary. One thing that was clear for all of us however, is that without yet any officially sanctioned report or legislation, the money provided by the state typically referred to as General Revenue Funds (GRF) is reducing everywhere and being distributed by our universities in new ways. For us, it is over nine million dollars, and despite the fact that we have significantly increased our Academic Outreach tuition income, it still makes up over half of our operating budget. GRF supplements our tuition income and provides us with the means to pay faculty and staff, conduct research, cover the cost of graduate education and infrastructure.

It was a sobering conversation, but at the same time we shared many positive examples of how each of our Colleges was moving towards something that we might call self-sufficiency whilst not abandoning our purposes, values and the quality of our programs. Indeed, I felt very reassured that the very difficult things we have done together – based on our strategic planning, program reviews, shared services, joint hiring plans, data driven and consensus building decision making – has put our College on what was generally agreed amongst these colleagues to be the right path.  I know from my lunches with faculty and corridor conversations with so many of you that the spirit of our College is strong and that we remain optimistic, creative and with enough faith in each other to focus on what really matters.

I am attaching here for your attention the campus letter that has been sent as a response to the Stewarding Excellence Review of the Small Academic Units. Please note in particular this paragraph about GRF.

All campus units are, and have been, carefully evaluating their budgets and making tough decisions about how best to support their core missions given the current fiscal challenges. We expect this process to continue and even to intensify in the coming years. Units that receive substantial allocations from General Revenue Funds (GRF) have had to identify new revenue streams and reduce their expenses in response to the significant decline in state support.

Following is an extract from a piece written in the London Review of Books about the latest proposal for Higher Education funding in the UK, ‘Browne’s Gamble’ by Stefan Collini, November 4, 2010.

The single most radical recommendation in the report, by quite a long way, is the almost complete withdrawal of the present annual block grant that government makes to universities to underwrite their teaching, currently around £3.9 billion. This is more than simply a ‘cut’, even a draconian one: it signals a redefinition of higher education and the retreat of the state from financial responsibility for it. … There are, naturally, some well-meant nods towards ‘quality assurance’ and ‘safeguarding the public interest’, and the report has a few good ideas for mitigating some of the harshest financial effects of its scheme on individual students from less advantaged backgrounds. But what is of greatest significance here is not the detail of the financial arrangements but the character of the reasoning by which they are justified.

Our forum for the Future of Public Education has been, and is continuing, to sponsor discussions about these trends. I urge you all to take an active interest in these developments. I want to caution, however, that critique is not enough. We have to provide solutions, develop plans and move quickly to ensure we do not fall behind or fade into irrelevance.

I also attended the Campus 25th Annual Celebration of Diversity. This celebration honored Professor James Anderson, Head of our newly formed Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership. Prof. Anderson was selected to receive the 2010 Larine Y. Cowan ‘Make a Difference Award’ for his remarkable leadership and commitment to Diversity at Illinois. Professor Anderson is certainly one of our most respected and experienced scholars and administrators.

Some highlights now of the work of our colleagues. As you might have noted, our University is extremely proud that its faculty have been awarded more Fulbrights this year than any other.  We in turn are very proud that three of the eight awarded were to faculty in our College – Professor Sarah Lubienski from C & I, Professor Richard Hunter and Professor Chris Lubienski both from EPOL. These colleagues are all working creatively to understand how to improve learning contexts.  As a recipient of a Fulbright award myself I can testify to the enormous opportunity these provide for deepening one’s scholarships in contexts that stretch your imagination and expertise as well as provide you with strong new collegial relationships. See http://news.illinois.edu/news/10/1102fulbrights.html

Our annual Goldstick lecture held in late October, showcases our dedication to ensuring learners of all abilities and backgrounds have access to experiences that realize their potential. A great success again, it was delivered this year by Professor MaryAnn Romski on, “Toddlers, Parent-Implemented Augmented Language Interventions, and Communication Development.  We estimate a crowd of approx. 150 including our Chancellor Bob Easter and his wife Cheryl. This event also provided us with an opportunity to thank Professor Jim Halle for his work as the Goldstick Scholar over the last six years and to announce that Professor Micki Ostrosky, the new substantive Head of SPED, has now assumed this mantle. Thank you and congratulations to both. The Goldstick family was in attendance. The are true friends of the College, continuing to remind us how vital the work we do in special education is for so many individuals and their families in the broader community.

Congratulations to all who were involved in organizing the Youth Literature Festival held at the Krannert centre this year. It was another resounding success with very strong community support and participation.  The festival was both edifying and a joyous experience, packed many delights; puppetry, readings, performances, entranced students, thrilled teachers.  We had 14 authors travelling to 45 schools in a 60 mile radius, over 2,500 visitors at the festival day on campus as well as over 2, 500 student participating in scheduled school and local library events. See the blog of one our authors (Beth Finke and her Seeing Eye dog Hanni), as a small sample of the extraordinary range and vitally of our festival. http://bethfinke.wordpress.com/2010/11/03/what-we-love-about-visiting-school

Finally,  I would like to announce that Professor Tom Schwandt, Head of Education Psychology, has been appointed by the Interim Vice Chancellor Dick Wheeler to a newly formed committee for assessing Doctoral programs and to recognize our colleagues, whose work has made news lately:

– Emeritus Professor Art Baroody for his software program that aims to make it easier for children to learn math. See http://www.news.illinois.edu/news/10/1110math_baroody.html

– Dr George Reece and MISTE for the launch of an online portal to events. See http://www.news-gazette.com/news/technology/2010-10-29/ui-launches-online-guide-events.html

– Professor Dorothy Espelage for her work on the effects of bullying on learners. See http://www.vimeo.com/16042168 The emotional environments in which our learners live is so vital to their performance and certainly needs much attention. Professor Dorothy Espelage along with Associate Professor Philip Rodkin, Assistant Professor Brendesha Tynes and others are working collaboratively with our Associate Dean for Research, Jose Mestre, to explore ways to attract more resources to advance and expand the practical translation of their important findings.

You will also be pleased to know that the campus has agreed that we can go forward and search for three new faculty hires – your HoDs can provide you with more details.

Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving celebration.

Dean Mary Kalantzis

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