Provost's Updates: last updated 06/14/2007
PROVOST'S REPORT
January 17, 2007
TENURE AND PROMOTION
Congratulations to three faculty members who were recently awarded tenure by the Board of Trustees at their December meeting. Steve Alter (history), Tanja Butler (art), and Sean Clark (kinesiology) are the newest members of the tenured faculty. All three received very high marks from the Faculty Senate and the trustees during the review process. In addition to receiving tenure, Tanja has been promoted to associate professor.
NEW PHYSICS AND PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSORS
Be sure to welcome David Lee, our new associate professor in physics, who will be joining us at the start of the spring semester. A graduate of Princeton (B.S.) and Cal Tech (Ph.D.), David taught most recently at Biola University in California. Erin Steury has signed a contract to serve in a three-year appointment as an assistant professor of psychology, beginning in the fall of 2007. After finishing her undergraduate degree at Huntington College, she completed her doctorate recently at the University of Indiana.
KINESIOLOGY
The Department of Movement Science has officially changed its name to the Department of Kinesiology. At the same time, we are proceeding with plans to build larger space for the Balance, Mobility & Wellness Center, which is associated with the department, near the Brigham Athletic Complex.
GROWING UP CHRISTIAN SELECTED FOR NEW ENGLAND FESTIVAL
The American College Theatre Festival has selected Gordon's fall production, Growing Up Christian, for the New England regional festival in February. This is a wonderful honor for the Theatre Department, director Jeff Miller and his students, especially since the play featured an original script by the students and was overtly concerned with evangelical values and culture. The ACTF representatives who were present last fall to critique the show congratulated the troupe for "inviting them into an experience that was not solely Christian, but very human."
FAITH & ECONOMICS
Nineteen years ago Gordon College economists, in collaboration with the Association of Christian Economists, began publishing the review Faith & Economics. With the release of the Spring/Fall 2006 double issue, Stephen Smith and Bruce Webb, professors of economics at Gordon, conclude nearly two decades of editing the journal. While the editor's baton will now be passed to an eight-member board (with a Pepperdine University professor as the new editor-in-chief), the journal has clearly grown and thrived under the guidance of Stephen and Bruce, and their editorial work has helped spark significant scholarly effort by Christian economists. An article by Bruce, "Is There Value-Added in Christian Scholarship? The Case of Unemployment," appears in the most recent edition.
LEADERSHIP POSTS
Congratulations to Barry Loy, dean of students, who was recently elected as the president of the Association of Christians in Student Development, a large national network of Christian professionals working at both public and religious institutions. Barry accepts this appointment not long after completing a term as the chair of the chief student development officers task for the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities. His selection for both posts indicates the high regard that Barry's peers around the nation have for his discernment and character. In recent years, Gordon College has had several individuals selected for leadership roles in Christian higher education organizations. For instance, Kina Mallard, academic dean, continues as the senior fellow for faculty development for the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, and she will lead the national workshop for department chairs that is being sponsored by the CCCU. Silvio Vazquez, vice president for enrollment, is completing a term on the commission of chief enrollment officers for the CCCU, and he is now on the national board for the North American Consortium of Christian Admission Professionals. Barbara Layne, associate vice president for enrollment, has recently chaired the CCCU's commission for financial aid officers.
CHILDCARE
Under the guidance of Dale Pleticha, the Faculty Welfare Committee has been diligently discussing plans for a childcare center. Jim MacDonald, vice president for finance and administration, has worked with an architect on drawings for a childcare center to be adjacent to the new Balance and Mobility Center. Our hope remains to open this center soon as a resource for faculty and staff members who desire childcare options close to work. Through the efforts of Jim Trent, professor of social work, the Welfare Committee will be studying a successful childcare operation at Brandeis University as part of our preparation for launching our own.
CLASS OF 2000 ALUMNI SURVEY
Steve MacLeod, dean for college planning, has recently completed a survey of the class of 2000 as part of an assessment endeavor to secure the perspectives of our alums five years after their graduation. The response rate to the survey was a respectable 23% of the class. The results were encouraging. A few highlights:
CLASSICS MINOR
Several faculty departments have crafted a classics minor, drawing on existing courses in history, philosophy and Latin. The minor has been a strong request from history, philosophy and English students hoping to advance to graduate studies in ancient and medieval fields. Graeme Bird, an English professor with a Ph.D. from Harvard in philology and classics, will be the supervisor for the minor.
DAVIS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION GRANT
We were pleased to receive a grant of $109,000 from the Davis Educational Foundation that will enable us to enrich teaching and learning strategies. The funding will be especially helpful as a complement to our current revision process for the Core curriculum; faculty will be given stipends and support for redesigning general education courses to incorporate some of the most innovative pedagogies and most effective technological learning tools. Increasingly, our "millennial" students are interested in cooperation and dialogue as essential parts of their learning experience, and the Davis grant will assist us in improving our collaborative learning strategies. As part of this overall endeavor, we will be revamping a major section of the third floor of the library to create a learning commons. The learning commons will provide a place to host projects designed for teamwork, and it will offer ready access to expertise in interpreting information, solving technological problems, and writing and preparing assignments. Kina Mallard, academic dean, will be the principal administrator of the grant. Barb Grinnell had an essential role in drafting the proposal.
DIRECTOR OF CHURCH RELATIONS
I am pleased to announce that Bob Whittet has accepted new responsibilities as director of church relations. Bob will continue with his primary faculty position as associate professor of youth ministries, but his responsibilities will be adjusted to allow time to assist the College with building networks among churches and pastors. This work will build on his successful endeavors to support professional development for local youth workers and pastors. Last November, for instance, more than 140 persons attended the 2006 Symposium on Youth Ministry, sponsored by Bob and Gordon's Center for Student Leadership, with Fuller Seminary's Chap Clark as the keynote speaker.
ADMISSIONS UPDATE
Silvio Vazquez, vice president for enrollment, and his staff adopted several new strategies this year to help recruit students for fall 2007 and beyond. While it is still far too early in the year to make predictions, there are some encouraging trends. As of December 31, Gordon had received 912 applications for next year (above the 685 on the same date the previous year). Furthermore, there were an additional 855 students in the "pre-application" phase (i.e., some materials submitted, such as SAT scores, a letter of reference from a high school teacher, etc.), which exceeds the 769 total at the same time last year. All told, 18,694 inquiries (high school freshman through senior) had been made by New Year's Day, more than the 16,646 on December 31, 2005. The GE Day program, which was effectively revised by Kristy Cormier, has also made a dramatic difference in the student visit experience. In November Silvio also completed a three-week trip to various academies in six Asian nations, as we have sought to bolster our recruitment of international students.
FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE
Last fall I asked Kina Mallard, academic dean, and Julie Ray, associate dean of students, to oversee an assessment of students' first-year experience at Gordon College. They conducted several interviews and surveys of sophomores in order to understand more fully what students perceived as the high points and the disappointments with their first-year experience. Specifically, they measured how well sophomores thought that their first-year experience lived up to the expectations generated by the institutional rhetoric during the recruitment process.
This semester, as an outgrowth of what we learned from this process, we will be focusing attention on three initiatives. First, we are anxious to find ways to give our students a better orientation to Boston and the region. Since our location is one of our prime distinctives, we will prepare some programs next fall that introduce new students to the cultural features of the Boston region and help them learn ways of getting into the city easily. Second, we need to enhance our advising program for first-year students. This endeavor includes several features-an expanded core of faculty and staff who will serve students without a declared major as well as a more equitable distribution of advising duties. Kina is also preparing a special Faculty Forum in the spring on advising. Third, we will explore options for an honors program for first-year students, considering how such a program can build upon the Pike Scholars Program as well as the AJ Gordon Scholars Program.
GORDON COLLEGE HALL OF HONOR
On January 20, during halftime of the men's basketball game, the Athletic Department will be inducting the first class of alums into the Gordon College Hall of Honor, which salutes outstanding student-athletes at the institution. Inductees were outstanding athletes and good students at Gordon. The first class includes Gene Fitzgerald ('62, basketball), Paul Sideropoulos ('68, soccer), Peter Charatschlaa ('72, soccer), Whitney Swan Earle ('99, soccer and softball), Tambrey Mentus Fliermans ('01, field hockey), and Matt Chapman ('02, lacrosse).
MARTIN LUTHER KING CONVOCATION
We are delighted this year to welcome back Nick Rowe, former Gordon College faculty and staff member, to be our speaker at the Martin Luther King Day Convocation on January 19. Nick is currently the head of the department of culture and education at St. Augustine College in South Africa. Along with coming to Gordon to speak, he will be advising and assisting us regarding the development of our study semester in South Africa. Claire Collins, former Gordon College student of the year, has joined the staff that will guide the program this summer.
This Convocation will also provide us an occasion to recognize Virginia Barton, the civil rights leader for whom our new residence hall in Lynn has been named. She will be present during the Convocation. As Tom Dalton of Lynn's Daily Evening Item writes, Virginia Barton is "a woman who has done more in the battle against racism and injustice than anyone in the city, and has 'fought' with the most unlikely weapons-a gentle smile and a soft voice."
U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT RANKINGS
Once again, Gordon was selected among the top national liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. We finished again in the "third tier" of the top schools, placing somewhere between 111th and 157th on the list, which ranks approximately 700 liberal arts colleges. The rankings are based on several factors, and I thought it would be interesting to note where we placed on specific indicators among the top 157 schools (i.e., the top three tiers). Some relatively high marks included our average ACT/SAT of incoming students (94th out of 157), retention rate (98th), and predicted retention rate (20th), a category that measures if we exceed or fail to reach the retention rate forecast by the primary indicators of retention (such as family economics, high school grades, etc.). We also did relatively well on the number of classes under 20 (72nd), but poorly on the number of classes over 50 (157th). Alumni giving (133th), peer assessment (141st), and acceptance rate (151st) were among our lower scores.
LET'S TALK
In an effort to aid the development of a position statement, the Gordon College Student Association (GCSA), the Office of College Communications, and the Provost's Office sponsored a series of discussions with students last fall entitled "Let's Talk." Some 250 students helped identify what they considered the distinctives of the institution and their hopes for its future. In the end, the discussions reinforced the key themes of the proposed position statement, even while suggesting a few refinements in wording. When asked to rank order the main themes of the position statement in terms of importance, the students voted as follows (based on a scale of six points for first choice, five for second choice, etc.):
LILLY ENDOWMENT FILM
During the past several years the Lilly Endowment has awarded grants to 87 schools as part of its initiative to develop "Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation" (PTEV). Now Gordon has been selected as one of the seven schools that the Endowment will feature in a special documentary outlining the successes of the program. The documentary will close the Endowment's national conference in February. Tal Howard, who oversees our grant, deserves considerable credit for keeping the team at Lilly aware of the innovative efforts under our grant.
PROVOST'S FILM SERIES: "THE GLOBAL VILLAGE"
Once again, Barb Scheur and I are using the Provost's Film Series to help promote the College's emphasis on global themes, selecting all international films for spring semester 2007. I am especially pleased that we will be collaborating this term with Rini Cobbey and her students in the Media Criticism course, primarily on Middle Eastern films. Students in Rini's course will help introduce and guide the discussion of four of the films: Marriage of the Blessed (Iranian), Bombay (Indian), Kedma (Israeli), and Destiny (Egyptian).
Along with working with Rini on these four, we will join the Asian students in sponsoring a Korean film as part of the Lunar New Year celebration. And finally, once again we will work with the foreign language honor society, Alpha Mu Gamma, in sponsoring the showing of another international film. Look for the flyers, which will be arriving soon. I am delighted by the growing interest among a core of our students in international film. Any incentives you can provide to encourage others students to attend these films is greatly appreciated, since film is often a wonderful way of opening the window to another culture.
PROGRAM REVIEWS
Under the guidance of Cliff Hersey, the academic department reviews continue this term, with evaluation teams participating in reviews of the departments of Philosophy, Biblical Studies and Youth Ministry, and Sociology/Social Work.
STUDENT SCHOLARS
Congratulations to two of our students for some recent achievements: Jeromy Tompkins, a senior physics major, presented a poster at the meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society in Nashville. His poster summarized his research last summer as part of an NSF-funded project at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Lab at Duke University. Senior Beth Pinkham, a kinesiology and recreation and leisure studies major, was honored with the Massachusetts Recreation and Parks Association's Outstanding Student of the Year award during a state conference in Sturbridge.
FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP
Janet Arndt, assistant professor of education, published "Helping Children See Their Value in a Humanistic Culture: The Role of the Christian Teacher," in Christian Early Education (May 2006). At the Association of Childhood Education International Conference in San Antonio, Texas, Janet gave two presentations: "Universal Design for Learning: A Model Offering Promise and Support to Preservice Teachers in Meeting the Needs of Culturally Diverse Students" and "Developing Partnerships with Diverse Families in Early Childhood Settings: Examining the Role of Professionals." In September, she traveled to Reykjavik, Iceland, to speak on "The Promise of Universal Design for Learning in Teacher Education and Early Childhood Classroom Practices to Promote Democracy and Culture" at the European Childhood Conference. Her review, "It's So Much Work to be Your Friend: Helping the Learning Disabled Child Find Success" was published in Childhood Education: Infancy through Early Adolescence (Fall 2006).
Chuck Blend, assistant professor of biology, was one of the co-authors of Karyakartia egyptensis from the jarbua terapon in the Journal of Parasitology. The journal Comparative Parasitology will also be publishing another of his co-authored essays, "Ophthalmophagus bucephali from the American goldeneye. From the central flyway of North America, with a list of parasites previously reported from goldeneye."
Last September James Buswell, director of the Gordon Symphony Orchestra, performed five of the ten Beethoven violin and piano sonatas at Jordan Hall of the New England Conservatory of Music.
Damon DiMauro, professor of French, will publish an essay entitled "Ourika as an Inversion of the Pygmalion Myth" in the volume Approaches to Teaching Claire de Duras's "Ourika," part of a series sponsored by the Modern Language Association. His article, "La théorie de la 'Verge de Dieu' dans les tragedies religieuses d'Andre de Rivaudeau et de Robert Garnier," will appear in the bilingual Canadian journal Renaissance and Reformation.
Nancy Feng, assistant professor of economics and business, was a respondent to a panel on "Ethics Across the Curriculum: The Shortfall in Ethics Research" at the American Accounting Association's Northeast Regional Meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Janis Flint-Ferguson, professor of English, has published a short autobiographical essay in the third volume of College Faith (Andrews Unviersity Press).
Ivy George, professor of sociology, published an essay entitled "One Immigrant's Debt to Black America" in The Indian American (September-October 2006). Ivy was also recently named to the Board of Trustees at Brookwood School.
Roger Green, professor of biblical studies, gave a presentation on Catherine Booth, the Salvation Army, and the Purity Crusade of 1865 at the Evangelical Theological Society meeting in Washington, D.C.
Bruce Herman, professor of art, delivered a plenary address at the Wheaton Theology Conference on The Beauty of God. His remarks on "Wounds and Beauty" were accompanied by a video presentation on his collaborative project A Broken Beauty. Bruce has also been asked to write an essay on Fra Angelico and the servant role of the artist for the journal Christian History.
Tal Howard, associate professor of history, published the essay "Why Europe Hates Us" in the journal First Things (November 2006).
Grace Ju, adjunct professor of biology, presented a poster and gave a talk on "Teaching Sustainable Agriculture to Undergraduates: A Field Course at the ECHO Farm (Ft. Myers, FL) and in Haiti" at a conference on "Facilitating Sustainable Agriculture Education" in Pacific Grove, California. Grace and her husband Garth are currently serving a year as teachers in Morocco.
Jo Kadlecek, assistant professor of communication arts, recently published her second novel, and the first novel of a new trilogy, entitled A Mile from Sunday (NavPress). The book explores faith through the eyes of a young religion reporter.
Irv Levy, professor of chemistry and computer science, wrote two modules on green chemistry for Prentice-Hall's textbook Chemistry for Changing Times, written by John Hill and Doris Kolb. Irv hosted a workshop entitled "Production of Soap as a Green Chemistry Activity" for the annual New England Association of Chemistry Teachers Summer conference at Bridgewater State College. He will also be hosting the website for a new green chemistry network of educators.
Priscilla Nelson, assistant professor of education, delivered three presentations ("What is DIBELS? How Do I DIBEL? and What Do I Do With DIBELS Data?) at the Association of Christian Schools International Earlyn Educators Conference.
Elaine Phillips, professor of biblical studies, recently reviewed three books for the Bulletin for Biblical Research. The books are entitled Eve: Accused or Acquitted? A Reconsideration of Feminist Readings of the Creation Narrative Texts in Genesis 1-3 (written by Joseph Abraham); Nahum (written by Julia Myers O'Brien); and Thou Traveler Unknown: The Presence and Absence of God in the Jacob Narrative (written by Kevin Walton).
Ken Phillips, professor of music education, published "Crisis in the Choir Loft" in The Diapason. He reviewed Patrick K. Freer's Rehearsal Discourse of Choral Conductors: Meeting the Needs of Young Adolescents for the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education. Ken has also just completed his manuscript on Exploring Research in Music Education and Music Therapy for Oxford University Press.
Richard Pierard, Stephen Phillips chair of history, has continued his prolific pace of scholarly contributions. He spoke on "Why Did German Protestants Welcome Hitler's Accession to Power?" at the November meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, and he was a panelist at Andover Newton Theological School commenting on a new documentary film Theologians Under Hitler. His essay on Adoniram Judson, entitled "The Man Who Gave the Bible to the Burmese," appeared in the journal Christian History. Dick chaired a session on "Congressman Brook Hays and President Warren Gamaliel Harding as Baptist Public Figures in America" at the annual meeting of the Baptist History and Heritage Society in Washington, D.C. In October Dick lectured on "Christians, Culture and Politics in America" at Bethel Seminary in San Diego, CA. One of his earlier books, The Unequal Yoke: Evangelical Christianity and Political Conservatism, was just re-released by Wipf & Stock. Along with these endeavors, he has written reviews of several books: Mattias Gardell, Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism, for the Journal of Church and State; Howard Mellor and Timothy Yates, eds., Mission, Violence and Reconciliation, for Missiology: An International Review; Pamela Sweet, Neighbors and Enemies: The Culture of Radicalism in Berlin, 1929-1933, for History: Review of New Books; William Shenk, ed., North American Foreign Missions, 1810-1914: Theology, Theory, and Policy, for Baptist History and Heritage; Gary Dorrien, The Making of American Liberal Theology: Imagining Progressive Religion, 1805-1900, for the Evangelical Review of Theology; and Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence, Captain America and the Crusade Against Evil, for the Journal of Church and State.
Donna Robinson, assistant professor of education, has completed her doctorate at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Her dissertation was entitled The Paideia Seminar: Moving Reading Comprehension from Transaction to Transformation.
Myron Shirer-Suter, director of library resources, was elected to the editorial board of the Restoration Serials Index, a database issued by the Churches of Christ.
Stephen Smith, professor of economics, was one of the co-presenters at the Research Division, Office of Economics, United States International Trade Commission. Their paper was entitled "A Spatial Model of National and International Price Dispersion: Theoretical and Empirical Findings."
Bob Whittet, associate professor of youth ministries, was a participant at an international conference on the state of children in the world, sponsored by Compassion International in Quito, Ecuador in October. He also joined a think tank at a meeting in Anaheim, California, sponsored by Center for Youth and Family Ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary, convened to explore new curriculum for short-term missions programs.
