Interdisciplinary and General Studies Annual Report, 2005-2006

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 Mary Titus' book, The Ambivalent Art of Katherine Ann Porter, was nominated for a Minnesota Book Award.

Africa and the Americas, American Conversations, American Racial and Multicultural Studies, and American Studies

This was another busy year for those involved in various aspects of American study. Jim Farrell headed the year theme of sustainability. As American Conversations completed its sixth year the curriculum is becoming increasingly stabilized. The service component continues to grow and AmCon looks forward to partnering with CEL in this effort. Next year's staffing includes two new instructors, Chuck Huff from NSM and Gary Gisselman from FA. Both ARMS and AFA were led by Joan Hepburn, as Mike Fitzgerald spent a year on sabbatical leave. This spring, Jim May appointed a task force to consider ways for St. Olaf to strengthen the study of Africa. The task force will provide its recommendation at the end of fall semester. 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 an introduction to Africa.

Asian Studies

Asian Studies had another successful year under the leadership of Bob Entenmann, while Phyllis Larson was on sabbatical leave. This year marks the end of Dick Bodman's 25 years on the St. Olaf faculty, and the department received authorization to carry out a tenure-track search for a Chinese language teacher. In addition, the department was approved to hire a Japanese language intern to help relieve the stress of increasing enrollments in Japanese language courses. Asian Studies helped host several visiting scholars from East Asia, and sponsored a number of speakers and events, including the very successful Midwest Japan Film Festival, partly funded through a grant from the Japan Foundation. Together with CEL, the Asian Studies department hosted a conference on Experiential Learning in East Asia. Asian Studies faculty members have been busy with travel and research, much of which is funded by a variety of grants. The department continues to graduate a large number of majors and concentrators (22 majors and 23 concentrators). Two of the Asian Studies majors received Fulbright grants to study in China next year, attesting to the high quality of the education they have received in the department. Together with Carleton College, St. Olaf applied for a Fulbright visiting scholar from Japan. The grant was awarded last year, but due to complications, the scholar will arrive this spring. 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 Studies courses, as well as Asian courses offered under other department labels.

Environmental Studies

Environmental Studies contributes to the intellectual life of the college by raising awareness of environmental issues, how they are informed by various disciplines, and how they impact our lives. The Environmental Studies department offered a total of 18 sections of 12 courses representing the combined effort of 15 faculty from 10 departments. In addition, the major and concentration is served by an additional 10 sections of 8 courses offered by other departments. ES graduated 16 majors and another 17 concentrators. ES helped sponsor 8 speakers, including ES alum and Fulbrighter Alex Potter. Members of ES, in particular Jim Farrell, were heavily involved in the Sustainability theme. The department has been conducting a self-study that will culminate with the visit of outside reviewers this fall. Last year, Environmental Studies and the Biology Department jointly hired a Biogeoscientist, and this year John Schade successfully completed his first year in this new position. Future tasks will include assisting the new Department to gain greater visibility and cohesiveness, addressing issues of joint appointments, and reacting to the self-study and outside review.

Hispanic Studies

Hispanic Studies, with an allocation of only .17 FTE every other year, manages to provide students with both a major and a small concentration. Requirements for these will need to be adjusted in tandem with changes in the Spanish curriculum, which have recently been put into place. This will take place under the continuing leadership of Sylvia Carullo, who took over the position of Director this year. 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 major and concentrators have a number of other opportunities to study abroad in relevant areas of the world.

Integrative Studies

In 2005-06, the CIS program changed directors for the first time since its inception, as Mary Titus took over the reins of leadership. CIS graduated fourteen individual majors this year, all academically impressive students—by GPA each one was eligible for distinction. Perhaps because of the challenges of designing an individual major and the strength of character needed to pursue independent work, the students completing CIS majors tend to be highly motivated, academically excellent, and notably creative. CIS majors studied abroad, pursued extensive research projects, gave public performances, wrestled with ethical and philosophical theories, and cared for the needy. They are an outstanding part of the St. Olaf Community. CIS offered four integrative seminars in ’05-’06: in the fall American Musical Theater (Gary Gisselman) and Ways of Knowing:Ecology (team-taught Mark Allister and Jean Porterfield); in the spring Sport and Religion: Inquiry into American Values (Gary Wicks) and Representing the Vietnam War/American War (Mary Titus). After a last thematic colloqium in the fall, led by Pastor Bruce Benson, the CIS colloquia offerings came to an end, thus ending the practice of offering credit-bearing classroom teaching without supporting fte.

In response to the rising number of students turning to CIS to pursue majors connected to film and other visual media, the CIS sponsored a lunch conversation meeting for faculty actively teaching film in their courses. This well-attended event helped energize college exploration of developing a film studies program and represents an important role CIS can play in the academic community: identifying areas of growing student academic interest and providing some support for faculty development. CIS integrative seminars are an ideal opportunity for faculty to explore new areas of interest.

The out-of-the-way and inaccessible location of CIS on the sixth floor of Holland exacerbates the challenge of making the courses and programs better known on campus, both among faculty and students. This issue is one of several challenges facing CIS in the upcoming year.

International and Off-Campus Studies

2005-2006 was Eric Lund’s first full year in the International and Off-Campus Studies Office. Two new staff members were hired during the summer: Pat Van Wylen in a new position, as Visiting Scholar Coordinator, and Jodi Moen, as Academic Assistant/Office Manager. No major problems developed during the year, except for the fact that there was not sufficient enrollment for Term in Asia in the Spring of 2005, necessitating its cancellation. The most notable change was an upsurge of student interest in the field-supervisor led programs in the Spring of 2006. Global Semester, Term in the Middle East and Term in Asia all had surplus applicants for next year’s offerings. Major activities included the development of new waiver documents (in consultation with the assistant provost and college lawyers) and the clarification of a policy for handling health information submitted by program applicants. The Director of IOS also convened two taskforces to review the Term in the Middle East and the Term in Asia. A report for the first was submitted in December and for the second in May. The Director of IOS made a site visit to Morocco in September to investigate alternative program providers. After completion of the TIME taskforce and extensive consultations with the program advisor and field supervisors, the decision was made to switch the base in Morocco to the Arabic Language Institute in Fez, starting next October. Two new initiatives began this year and will continue into next year. The International and Off-Campus Studies Office is preparing for a program review. In addition, the Director proposed a year theme for next year of “Fostering a Global Perspective.” The dean’s council decided to combine this proposal with three others to create a four part, two year theme entitled Global Citizenship. The focus in the first semester of next year will relate most closely to study abroad. St. Olaf continued to be ranked number one 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 756 students studied off-campus in 2005-2006. Of these, 223 went on semester or year-long programs, and 427 studied at international sites during January interim. This was a decrease of 70 from the total numbers during the 2004-2005 academic year (836 students). The smaller number was largely due to fewer participants in domestic interims and fewer domestic interim opportunities offered.

Faculty from across campus are involved in IOS in a variety of ways, serving on IDOCS, acting as program advisers, serving as field supervisors for term programs, leading interim programs and serving as hosts to visiting international scholars. Term in Asia was cancelled for 2005-2006. Wendy and Rich Allen led Global, Mac and Jackie Gimse Term in the Middle East, and Anne Walter and Mike Swift Environmental Studies in Australia in 2005-2006.

Kloeck-Jenson Endowment for Peace and Justice

This has been a very productive year for the Kloeck-Jenson Endowment for Peace and Justice. Erik Cleven, the first Kloeck-Jenson visiting professor, returned in January to teach for the third time a very successful course on Peacebuilding and Conflict Management. Under the able leadership of Kris Thalhammer, the endowment sponsored a number of significant on-campus events and provided scholarships for students to carry out peace and justice related internships, supported field trips, and provided faculty development funding. In the coming year the Kloeck-Jenson program will be actively involved in the activities of the Global Citizenship theme year.

Linguistic Studies

Linguistic Studies continues to provide 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. The program continues to host events, and in the upcoming year will be actively involved in the Global Citizenship theme, and particularly in the area of "expressing who we are through language". Linguistic Studies graduated 6 concentrators this year, and several of them will pursue careers connected to linguistics. One will continue in graduate school in a linguistics-related program. 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.

Media Studies

Media Studies has grown in its five years of existence from graduating four concentrators to 24 in the class of 200, more than doubling the number from last year. In addition to those students completing a concentration, or even a major through CIS, the three 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 upcoming year, and we hope will help cope with student demand for Media Studies courses. Director Bill Sonnega worked on a collaborative research project with a student over the summer, which will lead to the two of them attending an international conference in Malaysia in the fall. Bill will be on sabbatical in the fall and David Booth will be interim director through January.

Middle Eastern Studies

The successful revival of Term in the Middle East may well allow more students to complete the concentration in future years. However, the program is greatly hampered by the limited number of courses offered on campus relating to the Middle East. Mac and Jackie Gimse led Term in the Middle East in 2004-05, and this August a full contingent will be led by Sheri Breen and Peder Jothen. The TIME task force reviewed the program during the fall, leading to some significant changes for future years.

Nordic Studies

The Nordic Studies Program works closely with the Norwegian Department to sponsor many guests and activities. Four students graduated with a concentration in Nordic Studies. Once again, Nordic Studies co-hosted visiting professor (and alum) Erik Cleven to teach a successful interim course "Peacebuilding and Conflict Management." The visiting scholar program has unfortunately been suspended for this upcoming year. Hopefully, this can be restored in future 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.

Russian Language and Area Studies

This was an unusual year for the Russian Language and Area Studies department, with Bob Nichols having retired last year, and with Marc Robinson on sabbatical. However, ably led by Irina Walter, the department ended the year on a high note, graduating 10 area studies majors and 6 language majors. While on leave, Marc has developed a new interim course on Russian Theater. Irina was invited to present a paper at an international symposium which will present a unique opportunity to establish contacts that might lead to organizing an environmental studies program near Lake Baikal. We look forward to seeing how these activities develop in the future. In addition, the department is working to develop a richer array of contacts with Novgorod University, and will continue to pursue grant opportunities as these arise.

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. 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. Francisco Carrasco's decision to leave the Academic Support Center after one year unsettles the relationship between the writing program and the ASC, pending the outcome of the outside review of the ASC to be completed in the upcoming academic year. 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 .

Women's Studies

Last year Women's Studies underwent a program review, and has been working to implement some of the recommendations. Women's Studies continues to attract majors and concentrators, graduating 6 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. Mary Cisar volunteered to teach the intro course during summer school this year, in the hope that this would help relieve some of the pressure.

Shaw-Olson Center for College History (St. Olaf College Archives)

The College archives accessioned 79 new collections, generated 2747 new electronic collection records, and created 1313 full text St. Olaf alumni magazine records. The archives staff provides on-going assistance to patrons, including St. Olaf faculty and staff, alumni, and other visitors. The archives works continually to preserve and find venues to display historical artifacts, including displays in the Heritage Room and in the special collections corridor, as well as for special events such as the visits from the Norwegian royal family. Gary DeKrey, Jeff Sauve, and student workers are actively engaged in public history through e-mail, web, and presentations. They are also engaged in consulting, working with students, preserving oral history, providing electronic access to the NAHA and St. Olaf archives, and securing funding for on-going projects.

The St. Olaf Libraries

The College Librarian reports to the Assistant Provost and to the IGS associate dean for personnel and some curricular issues as chair of the Library faculty. Bryn Geffert has served admirably as College Librarian, and his annual report is listed separately on the Dean's web page.

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.
• 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, and Ethics, the three GE components not specifically affiliated with an academic discipline. Each presents its own challenges.
• General Education work will no doubt continue as the task forces and CEPC bring forward items for faculty action.
• 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 buildings that are scheduled for removal as the science building proceeds.
• 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

In sum, this has been a challenging and exciting year. It has been a busy year as well, as I have continued the task of Fulbright Program Adviser after serving on the faculty committee for a number of years. Several IGS departments were involved in hiring decisions and program reviews. I have greatly enjoyed getting to know better and work with leaders of the IGS programs and departments, and colleagues Jim May, Arnie Ostebee, Mary Cisar, Lynn Steen, and my fellow Associate Deans. I look forward to the next year of service to the College, and hope that I can continue to grow in my role as Associate Dean for IGS and to serve the Faculty and the College to the best of my ability.