Interdisciplinary and General Studies Annual Report, 2007-2008
The IGS Faculty is a complex one, with many small programs and units as well as several larger ones, and with faculty members from many different disciplines. The College has a long tradition of supporting interdisciplinary teaching, learning, and scholarship and IGS faculty members provide innovative leadership in interdisciplinary studies. Many of the most exciting areas of human learning and discovery are interdisciplinary; many disciplines are themselves becoming more interdisciplinary; and it is often in interdisciplinary endeavors that students and faculty are the most creative and active learners and scholars. Among the many accomplishments of IGS faculty members, I would like to particularly mention that Kristina Thalhammer (Political Science and Hispanic Studies) has had a book published entitled Courageous Resistance: The Power of Ordinary People.
Africa and the Americas, American Conversations, American Racial and Multicultural Studies, and American Studies
Between them, these four programs provide students with a learning community, two interdisciplinary majors and two interdisciplinary concentrations, all of which continue to attract students and provide insight into the American experience as well as a small introduction to Africa. This was another busy year for those involved in various aspects of American study.
The American Conversations program has now competed its seventh year. For the most part, the year was a success. Recruiting of students and teachers went very well, and the program experienced very little attrition relative to 2006-2007. Colin Wells finished his sixth year as Director of the Program, and is passing the reins to Matt Rohn. During Colin’s tenure, Amcon went from being a fledgling, upstart program without permanent status granted by the faculty, no FTE, uneven student and faculty recruiting, and very little in terms of institutional reputation. Now Amcon is a fully established program, considered one of several “Conversation” programs at St. Olaf. While Amcon was successful once again in drawing new faculty into the program for next year – Marty Hodel (Music) is set to teach for the first time in the Spring of 2009 – the program this year was fully staffed by our core group of “veterans,” mainly from English and History. Recruitment and morale would be improved greatly if we could offer some modest summer stipend to incoming Amcon teachers who do a tremendous amount of work developing syllabi and preparing to teach material that is often very new to them. Challenges that appear on the horizon include recruiting teachers into the program and saving spaces for SSS students.
Judy Kutulas took over leadership of American Studies this year, and has done an admirable job in creating more formal means to track majors. American Studies graduated 13 majors this year, most of these have also completed internships. Judy has been working hard to get up to speed to help students wanting internships that often combine their work in American Studies with some other area of interest, such as Environmental Studies, Womens Studies, etc. The American Conversations program continues to be a feeder for American Studies majors. American Studies has sponsored several speakers, including Jeanine Basinger.
Mike Fitzgerald continues to lead both ARMS and AFA. This year we had Karlos Hills as a CFD Fellow on campus. Karlos worked on his PhD dissertation and taught the ARMS seminar in spring semester.
The task force on African Studies provided its recommendation at the end of fall semester 2006, received a positive reaction from the Curriculum Committee, and is now waiting for hiring in history to be completed before taking further steps. The new AD for IGS will need to continue working to develop an African Studies program for St. Olaf.
Asian Studies
Asian Studies had another successful year under the leadership of Phyllis Larson, and now that Phyllis has taken over as the Associate Dean for IGS, will continue under the able leadership of Barbara Reed. The Asian Studies Department graduated 22 majors and 13 concentrators, and continues to work to manage enrollment pressures. The department welcomed Luying Chen as the new Chinese language teacher. Continued growth in Chinese language course necessitated a Chinese language assistant (Hong An Da who came on a Chinese government sponsored program), as well as an adjunct teacher of Chinese. There is still need for additional assistance in Japanese language instruction as well. Asian Studies was successful in competing for Fulbright FLTA grants and will welcome FLTAs in both Chinese and Japanese next year. In addition, the department was invited to apply for additional funding from the Freeman Foundation, and the grant application has been submitted. Two faculty members, Rika Ito and Karil Kucera, received tenure and promotion and Pin Wan’s sabbatical proposal for 2008-09 was approved. After a somewhat stressful hiring process, all leave replacements have been secured. The department weathered its first full year in the lower level of Steensland. This temporary home has the advantage of gathering all the language faculty in one location close to the other languages in Old Main, but it has several disadvantages, particularly the temporary nature of the location and the lack of private and quiet work space. Asian Studies faculty have continues to work this year to revise the Asian Conversations program, with the intention of strengthening the language component and including solid research. The Asian Studies Department provides an excellent model for a successful interdisciplinary department, with its combination of appointments to the Asian Studies Department itself, joint appointments with other departments, and faculty with appointments in other departments teaching Asian courses offered under other department labels. Challenges in addition to enrollment pressures include insufficient AAA support, and the need for others to consult Asian Studies faculty when Asian-related matters and language teaching issues come up on campus.
Environmental Studies
Environmental Studies graduated 17 majors and 15 concentrators this spring. Most of these have completed an internship related to ES. One ES major received a Rhodes Scholarship. Environmental Studies received Curriculum Committee and faculty approval for its modified major and concentration, developed in response to both the self-study and external review. ES faculty have been active professionally, presenting papers at regional, national, and international conferences and publishing papers. Bob Jacobel and John Schade have received NSF grants, and Schade is taking students to Siberia this summer as part of a large NSF funded project on Arctic research. Charles Umbanhowar received a renewal of his NCUR-Lancey grant for collaborative summer research with students. Students as well as faculty have studied the use of campus lands north of North Avenue, and both faculty and students have investigated the environment in a wide variety of settings abroad and off-campus domestically. Future tasks will include assisting the Department to gain greater visibility and cohesiveness, addressing issues of joint appointments, finding appropriate AAA support, and continuing to develop the program in response to the self-study and outside review. Charles Umbanhowar completed a successful term as Department Chair. On his return from leading the semester in Australia, Paul Jackson will now take over this challenging position.
Experiential Learning
The Associate Dean for IGS works closely with the CEL on issues of experiential learning, especially in the area of internships, which are an integral part of many interdisciplinary programs. This year there has been a special focus on international internships. This will be an on-going discussion. This year, as last year, the CEL ran a very successful International Careers program in collaboration with IGS. CEL staff were also instrumental in planning and executing last year’s Fulbright Day on campus. IGS also assisted Bruce Dalgaard in a very successful research trip to Norway, where he is collaborating with colleagues from the Norwegian School of Business and Economics on a significant research project, partially funded by the Research Council of Norway.
Hispanic Studies
Hispanic Studies, with an allocation of only .17 FTE every other year (to be increased to .17 every year in the future), manages to provide students with both a major and a small concentration. Requirements for these need to be adjusted in tandem with changes in the Spanish curriculum, which have recently been put into place. The Hispanic Studies program continues to sponsor events and bring important speakers to campus. Due to Bush administration policy, the possibility of offering the Cuba interim has unfortunately disappeared, however, Hispanic Studies majors and concentrators have a number of other opportunities to study abroad in relevant areas of the world, increased last year by the approval of new programs in Argentina and Chile. One Hispanic Studies major this year received a Rhodes Scholarship to study in Oxford next year.
Integrative Studies
This was a successful year for CIS, characterized by solid continuity and positive change. Faculty offered several exciting new seminars, including Charles Umbanhowar’s “Green Roofs” course developed to coordinate with the construction of Regents Hall. Enrollments in CIS seminars were healthy, indicating interest on the part of students, as well as attention paid to information and recruiting. Integrative seminars are an excellent opportunity for faculty to explore new areas of interest while providing students with courses not available through regular department offerings. In response to the rising number of students interested in film and other visual media, CIS continues to be active in conversations about developing film studies at the college. Challenges facing CIS include the course acronym (IS), which is easily confused with independent study, and the need for better ways for students to locate interdisciplinary courses in the class/lab. In addition, the out-of-the-way and inaccessible location of CIS on the sixth floor of Holland is an on-going problem, which we hope can be solved when the new science facility comes on line and makes new spaces available elsewhere. Mary Titus has not only agreed to serve another term as Director of CIS, she is also serving on the task force to develop plans for renovation of the Old Science Center.
International and Off-Campus Studies
This year St. Olaf dropped to number two in the number of students sent abroad from liberal arts colleges in the Open Doors Report prepared annually by the IIE Network. A total of 774 students studied off-campus in 2007-2008. Of these, 226 went on semester or year-long international programs, and 548 studied at international sites during January interim. All of these numbers are up from last year.
A new pricing formula went into place for 2007-2008 programs. Now students are charged St. Olaf tuition for off-campus semester and year programs, the same as on campus, plus the cost of transportation and on-site lodging and meals. This reduced the cost of a number of programs, thanks also to the college’s allotment of $300,000 more for the International Studies budget. Students did not know the details of this change before applying for programs so it isn’t clear that it is yet making a big difference in enrollments. This seems to be working well for most programs, but has created problems for Norway that are being addressed. With the start of the 2007-2008 academic year, a new comprehensive Curriculum Committee took over the work formerly done by the IDOCS committee. Eric Lund serves as an ex officio member of this committee. Some procedures, particularly the review process for off-campus interims, changed as the committee developed new ways to oversee the curriculum. Eric Lund accompanied President David Anderson to Shanghai, China for the signing of a new five year exchange agreement with East China Normal University. As the year ends, agreements are also in the process of being negotiated with Chiang Mai University in Thailand, the University of Tromsø and the University of Stavanger in Norway. The Norwegian School of Business and Management in Bergen is still interested in pursuing an exchange agreement with St. Olaf College. St. Olaf hosted a delegation from East China Normal University in November. The ECNU Vice President initiated another round of discussions about the future exchange of students. (Two ECNU students are planning to come to us as part of the exchange program for the 2008 academic year.) New programs approved on a pilot basis include: Humboldt University in Berlin – approved in September 2007, Semester in Siberia (Irkutsk) – approved in May 2008, and College Year in Athens - approved in May 2008
Eric Lund served as coordinator for the Teagle Grant CALL initiative subgroup related to assessing Global Understanding. He also attended many of the meetings of the CILA learning community related to integrating a global perspective into on-campus teaching. St. Olaf agreed to serve as a test campus for a new survey assessing the impact of study abroad, developed by the ACM through a Teagle group. Eric Lund supervised administration of the survey in the fall. Eric Lund, in association with Scott Johnson of E & A, administered the BEVI survey in the spring. This instrument, developed at James Madison University, is in the testing phase. It promises to be a useful way to evaluate programs and their impact. St. Olaf was also a participant in the SAGE project sponsored by the University of Minnesota. Alumni who had studied abroad on programs since the 1960s were contacted and asked to fill out an online survey concerning the long-term impact of study abroad. The results of these surveys have not yet been distributed.
This year, St. Olaf became a member of the Forum on Education Abroad, the organization which has become the setter of standards in the field of International Education in recent years. Eric Lund attended the Forum conference in Boston in April 2008. Eric Lund visited Chiang Mai University in Thailand after his visit to China in June, 2007. He began the process of renegotiating the institutional agreement. He visited Norway in September, attending a special series of events for institutional partners at the University of Oslo. He also visited the Norwegian Business School in Bergen, which has wanted to establish an institutional relationship with St. Olaf. Eric Lund visited India in October to become familiar with the ECC in Bangalore, which hosts the Global Semester. The primary reason for this visit was to observe the course on Religions in India and to begin discussion of making some changes. He also accompanied the Global group on excursions and visited several organizations that work with our Biology in South India Program: the Karigiri Leprosy Research Center, CCOORR, and ICSA in Chennai. While in Chennai he also met with administrators at Madras Christian College, which is interested in receiving students from St. Olaf.
During the 2007-2008 Academic year, St. Olaf College hosted 9 Visiting Scholars, from China, Thailand, India, and Tanzania, in addition to many scholars at the Kierkegaard Library.
Kloeck-Jenson Endowment for Peace and Justice
The Kloeck-Jenson Endowment for Peace and Justice had a significant presence on and off the St.Olaf campus this academic year, sponsoring a number of important speakers and events and granting scholarships to six student interns in a range of justice-related undertakings. Efforts with Margaret O’Leary and Solveig Zempel almost yielded another Kloeck-Jenson visiting professor. We had invited Prof. Dan Banik of the University of Oslo and author of Development at the Crossroads, Oslo: Scandinavian University Press (forthcoming September 2008) to teach a course on politics and development for us in January 2008. . He had accepted the invitation, but recently has had to cancel. We hope to bring Dan to campus in the future, but unfortunately his late cancellation likely will not allow us to have a Kloeck-Jenson visiting professor in 2008-09. Courageous Resistance: The Power of Ordinary People, was published by Palgrave Macmillan Press and was selected for distribution to all the delegates in the Young Leaders’ Forum at McGill University. Courageous Resistance is the culmination of a long-held dream of creating uplifting materials to complement the many depressing works used in teaching human rights. Editor and co-author Kris Thalhammer assembled a group of experts from the fields of history, sociology and psychology to work on this book. Future challenges for the Peace and Justice coordinator will include working to develop a concentration in Justice and Development.
Library
The library made significant changes in governance structure and practices in response to the report by R2 consultants, as well as self-study. This new structure seems to be working well. For further information, see the College Librarian's annual report on the Dean's webpage. A recent development that will present challenges for future leadership is the resignation of College Librarian Bryn Geffert, who is leaving to take a position as College Librarian at West Point.
Linguistic Studies
The Linguistic Studies concentration continues to grow. The concentration attracts an increasing number of students who are interested in deepening their understanding of human language as a system and how it intersects with other fields of study. There are currently 28 students who have declared the Linguistic Studies as a concentration. The concentration (with no FTE) provides opportunities for students to explore their interest in language study through a variety of course offerings as well as faculty-student interactions through independent study and student-faculty research. Linguistic Studies provides students with a means of combining relevant courses from a variety of departments into a coherent concentration. Those students who wish to go beyond the concentration are able to use the CIS to create individual majors on linguistics topics. Linguistic Studies graduated 7 concentrators this year, and several of them will pursue careers connected to linguistics. Linguistic Studies concentrators have been actively engaged in collaborative research with faculty members, and several students have been involved in linguistics research through the Center for Interdisciplinary Research. As with many other interdisciplinary programs, Linguistic Studies faces challenges such as the difficulty of keeping track of available courses from across the curriculum and the number if independent study courses required for students to finish the concentration. One challenge that needs immediate attention is the lack of capacity in English 274. This course is required for Education, English and Linguistics majors/concentrators and does not have enough capacity to fulfill all these demands. The Linguistic Studies program hosted a very successful event this year, “The Language Museum.” As part of Eng. 274, Visiting Professor Louis Janus asked students to research a language-related issue and to create a poster presentation. Janus showcased the posters on May 6th, inspired in Prof. Farrell’s idea of a “Culture Museum.” The museum was visited by faculty, students, and staff, who provided very positive feedback. This raises the issue of staffing Eng 264, and the desirability that the course be taught by someone, such as Prof Janus, with formal linguistics training. Linguistics Study faculty are looking forward to the opening of Regents Hall and the opportunity that will allow to invite a neurolinguist to campus and to further cooperation with other programs. Linguistic Study is due for a review, but this will likely have to wait until 2000-10 when several significant contributors to the program will return from leaves.
Media Studies
Media Studies has grown from graduating four concentrators in its first year to 24 in the class of 2006. In addition to those students completing a concentration, or even a major through CIS, the courses offered with Media Studies FTE have proven enormously popular with students, leading to heavy enrollment pressure. Director of Media Studies Bill Sonnega has been working on a modest restructuring of the program and course offerings. These will be proposed to appropriate College committees in the future, and we hope will help cope with student demand for Media Studies courses. Director Bill Sonnega has been actively involved in discussions around a Film Studies concentration, which would likely be housed within or in cooperation with Media Studies Challenges, in addition to heavy student demand for Media Studies courses, include incorporating Film Studies and coping with the large number of concentrators needing faculty supervision for internships.
Middle Eastern Studies
The successful revival of Term in the Middle East has allowed more students to complete the concentration. 15 students graduated with a ME Studies concentration this year (this may be a record number). There are currently 10 concentrators in the class of 2009, and 13 registered concentrators in the class of 2010. However, the program is greatly hampered by the limited number of courses offered on campus relating to the Middle East. So far the College has not found a mechanism to increase the number of courses related to the Middle East nor to offer students the opportunity to study Arabic. These are issues in urgent need of attention. Sheri Been and Peder Jothen ably led Term in the Middle East in 2006-07, and this past fall Chuck Huff and Jenny Howenstine led a revised program that eliminated Greece and returned to the US in December. Dave and Pat VanWylen will lead TIME starting late this August. A relatively large number of students took courses that counted toward the concentration on campus this year, offered by Samiha Peterson, Shirin Deylami (visiting in Political Science), Bob McClure, Timothy Smit, and Jamie Schillinger. McClure, Peterson, and Schillinger remain the core of the concentration; together they offer four courses on a regular basis that count toward the concentration. Planning was begun for a gateway course that would introduce students to the concentration; it should be submitted to the faculty for approval in the Fall of 2008, and will hopefully be taught for the first time in the Fall of 2009. It is unfortunate that the history department has still not been able to find a way to replace the work on Middle East history formerly done by Michel LeGall and Steven Blake, and that contract hires in Political Science such as Deylami cannot be retained. Participation in the program has been strengthened by the enthusiasm and determination of students to cobble courses together on campus, to study abroad on semesters in Istanbul and Cairo, and the excellence of recent Terms in the Middle East. It is hoped that concentrators will hold steady or increase as returnees from the 2008-2009 Term in the Middle East program begin to explore ways to extend their experiences on-campus. The ME concentration sponsored three public events this year: lectures by Sohail Hashmi and Omid Safi in the fall, and the Muslim Students Association’s Islamic Awareness Conference in the spring.
Nordic Studies
The Nordic Studies Program works closely with the Norwegian Department to sponsor many guests and activities. The visiting scholar program was unfortunately suspended in 2006-2007 and in 2007-08. Funding was restored for 2008-2009, and a visiting scholar engaged. Unfortunately, Professor Dan Banik who was to teach a course in January 2009 on Development Studies has had to withdraw. However, we hope to reinvigorate a successful exchange that has gone on for many years and has enriched our campus community and curriculum with visiting scholars from Norway who have taught interim courses ranging from Nordic children's literature to the role of NATO, and many others. The Nordic Studies program cooperates with the Norwegian Department, as well as other departments and programs, to offer a wide variety of Nordic related speakers, musicians, and events. This year, to name just a few of many, we have hosted Wegger Christian Strømmen, Norwegian Ambassador to the US, Magne Suphellen from the Norwegian School of Business and Economics, and Per Pettersen, award winning author of Out Stealing Horses.
Russian Language and Area Studies
Marc Robinson ably led the RLAS department in another successful academic year, which saw recent alum Lisa Gulya winning a Fulbright award to return to Russia. Anna Kuxhausen has been a dynamic addition to the department, and is now able to offer a FLAC component to the Modern Russia course. Paddy Dale returned in the fall, and both he and Bryn Geffert have been added to the department faculty with FTE-neutral joint appointments. A late-breaking opportunity to invite a Fulbright Language Teaching Assistant to campus was successful, and the department welcomed Vitaly to their program. This worked out well, and a new Fulbright FLTA will arrive to add her expertise to the program in the coming year. It will be a challenge in the future to replace Bryn Geffert’s contributions to the Russian program, as he is leaving St. Olaf for a position at West Point.
Shaw-Olson Center for College History (St. Olaf Archives)
As always, this has been a busy year for the Archives. The agreement which formalized the relationship between St. Olaf College and the Norwegian-American Historical Association has been implemented and is working well. This agreement means that Gary DeKrey and Jeff Sauve also serve as archivist and assistant archivist for NAHA as well as for the College. The archives accessioned 37 new collections (up from 25 last year), generated 4448 new electronic collection records (up from 1757), and created 1288 full text alumni magazine records (up from 888). Public education and outreach included everything from major to routine assistance to patrons, both internal and external, treating and preserving historical records, creating exhibits, and authoring public history items. The examples above give just a taste of what the archives have accomplished this year. Thanks to the archives staff, St. Olaf was well represented in the Minnesota 150 exhibit at the Minnesota Historical Society.
Women's Studies
This was a busy year for Women's Studies, graduating 12 majors and 20 concentrators this spring. Women's Studies, like several other ID programs, struggles with enrollment pressures leading to long wait lists, especially in the introductory course, as well as with turnover in faculty able to teach and provide leadership in the program. Managing access to the introductory course at an appropriate time in a student's career, as well as access to other courses serving the program continues to be problematic. Demand for Women’s Studies courses remained very high. In the spring, 62 students listed WS 121 on their ideal programs, enough to fill almost 3 additional sections of it. One direction increasing numbers of WS students are leaning is toward internships. Students have also been very interested in action, which exists somewhat apart from the academic component of their work. This has been pursued through student interest and honors houses, both the Gender & Sexuality and the Peace and Justice houses. This year’s class was unusually active. Women’s Studies worked a lot with the Gender & Sexuality House this year. Much discussion and consideration was devoted to the best way to move toward a Women’s Studies, Gender, and Sexuality Program. Next year we will propose a Gender and Sexuality Emphasis within the major as a first step in that direction. This will allow students to designate their focus in Gender and Sexuality Studies on their transcripts without requiring any additional FTE or classes. WS hosted several significant events, and also ran Women's History Month. Though the programming for this was successful, it needs an institutional home and budget outside the WS program.
Writing Program
The Director of Writing continues to oversee three general areas, First-Year Writing (including English 107, English 110, and GE 111), WRI courses, and Writing in the Major. This year approval was granted to move Enlish 107 and 110 to IGS and renaming them GE 107 and GE 110. This will make it easier for the Director of Writing to have oversight over these courses and will bring them in line with GE 111. Constant challenges in staffing for GE 111 demonstrate the need for flexibility and creativity, since significant variables complicate accurate enrollment prediction and thus staffing needs in GE 111. Demographic changes point to the need to evaluate both GE 107 and 110, and devise methods to meet the needs of students who graduate from US high schools but still need explicit writing instruction aimed at English Language Learners (ELL). In addition to the continuing challenge of staffing GE 111, the Director of Writing continues to work with issues of WRI offerings, assessment, and the First Year Experience. In collaboration with Biology and Mathematics, the Writing Program developed a new course, GE 211: Topics in Writing (Summer 2008). The Writing Program offered two FYW faculty development forums: 1) “Film 101: Teaching Film in First-Year Writing Seminar” (Led by Boldt Teaching Professor Diane Postlethwaite); “(Re)Designing Research Assignments in FYW” (Led by Diane LeBlanc). During 2007-08, the Effective Writing Team participated in two events to share results and to generate ideas for using information gathered about student writing with various assessment instruments: 1) “What We’re Learning About Student Learning,” St. Olaf College; 2) Collaborative Assessment of Liberal Learning (CALL) Inter-institutional meeting of effective writing teams, Carleton College. The director of writing participated in several professional activities, both on and off campus. Challenges facing the Director of Writing include training faculty to teach first year writing, working with the Curriculum Committee on WRI and Writing in the Major, and coordinating tutoring and writing support with the Academic Support Center.
Challenges facing the IGS Faculty and the Associate Dean
- Though most of the programs are thriving at their current level, several could benefit from some sustained attention. Several programs have had substantial increases in student interest but without a concomitant increase in resources.
- Assisting ID programs in working with other departments that provide courses that support ID majors and concentrations. Working on joint appointments, joint hiring, or at least being involved in hiring decisions with implications for GE programs.
- The IGS dean has special responsibilities for Writing, Oral Communication, Ethics, and Multicultural studies, all GE components not specifically affiliated with an academic discipline. Each presents its own challenges.
- The need for adequate space for IGS chairs, directors, and programs must be addressed. Space issues are particularly urgent now with many IGS programs housed in temporary and/or inadequate quarters. Space and program identity are often interrelated, and several programs would benefit from some designated space. There has been much anxiety over the planning process for space in the renovated Old Science Center and related upcoming relocation of programs.
- As with space, so too with staff support. Most IGS programs are supported by the generosity of the neighborhood Academic Administrative Assistants, but overall, we have too many faculty doing their own support work for IGS departments and programs. A modest amount of AAA support for some IGS programs is now in place. More could still be done in this area.
- The IGS programs are supported by modest operating budgets, which do not fully meet the needs of some programs.
- Enrollment pressures in some ID programs and courses continue and need to be addressed.
- More aggressive seeking of grant funding to support IGS programs is needed.
Several new initiatives continued to be discussed this year, and will be on-going issues in the upcoming year. These include African Studies, Summer Undergraduate Research in the Fine Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Studies, and devising a modified self-instructional language program in order to extend our capacity to offer instruction at both beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels of critical less-commonly taught languages.
2007-2008 has been a challenging and exciting year. It has been a busy year as well, with participating in a number of term hires, as well as continuing the task of Fulbright Program Adviser, teaching two fairly large courses, attending conferences and events, and working with several Norwegian-related boards. I have greatly enjoyed continuing to work with leaders of IGS programs and departments, and colleagues Jim May, Arnie Ostebee, Mary Cisar, Lynn Steen, and my fellow Associate Deans. I hope that I leave the IGS program in good shape, and I know that I leave it in good hands as Phyllis Larson takes over the leadership role. I look forward to my sabbatical and subsequent return to the Norwegian Department. In my remaining years on the faculty I hope to continue to serve the College to the best of my ability.
