April 2000   

Dear Colleagues:

We greet the month of April in anticipation of the end of our academic year. Still, we have many wonderful events yet to enjoy that are detailed in this edition of The Chronicle, and I hope to see you at several of them.

Please see inside information about the "Kennewick Man on Trial“ exhibit at our Anthropology Museum.  On April 17, we will celebrate "Sam and Pat Smith Day" along with our president and his wife. Numerous music and theatre performances pepper our schedule. Please join us, too, for Ted Turner's address at the 2000 Murrow Symposium, sponsored by our School of Communication on April 21. And please mark your calendar for our College of Liberal Arts Award Ceremony to be held April 28 at 3:30 p.m. in Kimbrough Hall.

We were saddened to learn of the death of Sojourner Truth Bush, a senior in our music program. A tribute to her appears inside.

Our graduation ceremony holds special appeal this year, and I encourage my faculty colleagues to attend. Not only will the May 6 festivities celebrate our first graduation of the New Millennium, but also, Liberal Arts graduates will be honored in our own ceremony featuring Attorney General Christine Gregoire as our Commencement Speaker.

Best wishes for success to our faculty and students as we draw spring term to a close.

Barbara Couture
Dean, College of Liberal Arts

Congratulations to Suzi Friedlander (Speech and Hearing Sciences graduate student) and Jackie Martinez (Comparative American Cultures) who were named “Outstanding Women of Color” by the WSU Coalition for Women Students.

Last week Sue McLeod (English) participated in an invited symposium for leaders in the corporate world and in academe, entitled “Communication: What Business Wants, How College Can Deliver” held at the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute, Baruch College, CUNY. She was one of five academics invited to speak at this invitation-only conference.

Michelle Robertson (Sociology) was a presider and presenter on a gender issues roundtable at the Pacific Sociological Association meetings in March at San Diego. The paper she presented was entitled “Unlawful Entrance: Women Athletes’ Gender Transgressions in the World of Sport.”

On Friday, March 24, Warren B. Roby (Foreign Languages) gave a talk at Pullman High School on the subject of “International Careers.”

Honors College undergraduates, English major Tim Coley and Broadcast Communications major Caroline Howe, gave presentations based on their research projects to the WSU Board of Regents at their regular session last Friday.

David Sonnenfeld (Sociology) is the organizer of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation funded workshop on “Ecological Modernization, Governance, and Globalization” being held at UC Berkeley in April. Papers from the workshop will be collected in a special issue of American Behavioral Scientist, forthcoming. Sonnenfeld will be a visiting research fellow at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok in May and at Chiang Mai University in June continuing his research on ecological modernization in Thailand’s electronics industry. After two years as S.V. Ciracy-Wantrup visiting scholar in natural resource economics at UC Berkeley and visiting assistant professor of environmental sociology in the energy and resource graduate program there, he will return to his position at WSU Tri-Cities.

James Schoepflin and Gerald Berthiaume (both Music) will present a Sonata Recital on April 22 as part of the Camerata Musica Concert Series at the Batelle Auditorium in Richland. This will be a second performance of this recital, which was presented to critical acclaim in Pullman in March.

Debra Smith (Communication graduate student) placed in the top 20 percent in a Dow Jones Newspaper Editing test and is on a list the Dow sends to newspapers around the nation to help with her job search.

In March Judy Hennessy (Sociology) presented a paper entitled “Welfare to Work: The Impact of Welfare Reform on Low-Income Mothers and Their Children” at the Pacific Sociological Association meetings in San Diego.

In May Laurie Heustis (Sociology, staff) will team-teach a Filemaker Pro class, “Creating a Database.” Laurie volunteers her time to teach these HRS classes.

Eugene Rosa (Sociology) has been elected chair of Section K (Social, Economic, and Political Sciences) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest scientific society. The office is occupied for three years: (1) Chair-elect in year one; (2) chair, in year two; and (3) outgoing chair in year three. His term of office began with the February 2000 annual meeting of the AAAS.

Communication faculty have recently been interviewed by the national media. The work of Erica Weintraub Austin, Bruce Pinkleton and Yuki Fujioka, which was published in Pediatrics, on the impact of TV advertising on teen drinking was profiled in USA Today, on the Reuters Health News Line Web site, and on WebMDHealth, among others. Susan Ross was quoted in a January 31 Seattle Times article on the Washington legislature’s consideration of new privacy laws.

In March Mary Blair-Loy (Sociology) presented a paper entitled “Access to Capitalists: Gaining Access to Financial Firms and Populations for Research” at the Pacific Sociological Association meetings in San Diego.

Peter Mehringer (Anthropology) is beginning paleoenviron-mental research in the vicinity of the ancient Maya center of Copan in Honduras with support from the World Bank.

Robert Ackerman (Anthropology) will receive the Career Achievement Award from the Alaska Anthropological Association on April 3.

Sonja Hokanson´s (Foreign Languages) will chair two sessions of the annual conference of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. In addition, six graduate students will present foreign language pedagogy work in San Juan, Puerto Rico in August 2000.

Scott Payne ‘00 (individual interdisciplinary doctoral student) will explain the software used in most of the other presentations, and present his view of “Boosting University Foreign Language Acquisition Through Technology.” Scott has accepted a terrific position with Middlebury College, Vermont. His creation of many effective software devices for language learning has benefited WSU students greatly.

Julie Kogan (Spanish master’s student) will demonstrate “An On-line Writing Environment for Novice Learners of Spanish,” which details her use of Scott´s on-line teaching environments at WSU.

Jennifer Wittenberg (Spanish master’s student) will explain the “Classroom Spanish Activities Integrated with Chatroom Participation” that she used successfully in her WSU classes.

Juan Pablo Jiménez (Spanish master’ student) studies the use of chatrooms. He will present “Communicative Pluses and Minuses of the Use of Various Computer Tools for Spanish Acquisition.”

María Eugenia Lozano (Spanish master’s student) will discuss “A Service Learning Approach to Spanish Language Acquisition.” Her students acquire Spanish while gathering information from the Internet and contacting helping agencies.

George Cole (Spanish masters candidate ), himself a Puerto Rican, will present “Teaching Spanish through Song and Dance, with Some Help from the Internet.”

Bill Lipe (Anthropology) will receive the Society for American Archaeology‘s highest award, the Distinguished Service Award, at the the Society’s next meeting this month in Philadelphia. He was chosen for the honor in recognition of his “long and exceptionally distinguished record of service to the Society and to the profession…” including his service as president-elect and president of SAA and his efforts to increase public interest and participation in archaeology, his instrumental efforts “in establishing the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, of which he served as research director from 1985 to 1993.” He extensive publishing in the area of public archaeology and the archaeology of the American Southwest, as well as his high regard as an advisor and teacher, was also noted.

Bill Condon (English) delivered the keynote address to the annual conference of the Southern California Council of Writing Program Administrators in March. The conference was held at UCLA. His title was “Evolving On-line Learning Environments: Learning Spaces, Teaching Spaces.”

Diane Kelly-Riley (English, Writing Programs), Bill Condon (Writing Programs), and Susan Webber (graduate student, English) have been awarded one of the research grants from the Council of Writing Program Adminstrators Executive Board for their study entitled “An Exploratory Study of Problematic Writing in a Campus-Wide, Rising Junior Writing Portfolio Requirement.” The grant will be awarded at the annual WPA breakfast during the national composition and rhetoric convention in Minneapolis this month.

Lance LeLoup was surprised with an award by the honor society Mortar Board, being one of the two faculty from across campus named as WSU Distinguished Professor of the year. The presentation was made by Mortar Board member,Kerri Lingo (History major, Political Science minor). Former recipients from CLA include Leroy Ashby (History), who was in attendance at the presentation.

The Kennewick Man on Trial exhibit from Seattle’s Burke Museum will be shown at the Museum of Anthropology April 3 through April 29. Through text, photos, maps, and historic illustrations, the exhibit explores the issues surrounding the ancient human remains known as Kennewick Man discovered by accident along the banks of the Columbia River. The exhibit reviews the discovery of these ancient human remains, explores the science involved in uncovering answers about the age and physical characteristics of the individual, and describes the ethical and legal ramifications of the discovery. The exhibit explores anthropological issues currently under debate, from how and when people first came to the Americas, to changing thoughts about the nature of race.

In addition to the exhibit the Museum will be sponsoring a series of presentations by various experts. Check the calendar for the events.

Epifanio San Juan will be a panelist and chair in two sessions of the College English Association Annual Convention, Charleston, South Carolina, this month. He also will be a speaker at the Diaspora Conference, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on April 17-19.

February was a good month for the School of Music and Theatre Arts. Josh Carter was one of 16 finalists for the Irene Ryan Acting Competition during the Kenndy Center American College Theatre Festival. At the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow, Brian Wright took first place in the college drum/percussion soloist competition. Eliot Thompson won best college bass vocal soloist and Julie Silvera-Jensen won best college alto vocal soloist. The WSU Vojazz Sextet won outstanding vocal combo. The group includes Bill Legg, Beth Ruark, Christina Carlson, Alexis Vick, Tony Rossetti, Eliot Thompson, and their combo: Michael Hall, Tony Sodano, Leb Borgerson, and Bryan Werry. Gus Kambeitz won best creative composition/college vocal.

In addition, Jesse Allison placed first in compositions for mixed chamber choirs in the International Composers Competition, Jihlava 2000 – Czech Republic.

During this academic year Kim Andersen (Foreign Languages) has been working as a consultant for the Danish Ministry of Education with the University of the Virgin Islands trying to establish a Danish language and culture program in the former Danish colonies. This effort is connected to a joint research project between the University of the Virgin Islands, the University of Ghana and the University of Copenhagen centered on the archives from the 251 years of Danish colonial rule at St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix located at at the Royal Library in Copenhagen. The Virgin Islands were sold to the USA in 1917.

As part of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) National Biennial Conference in Washington, D.C., in March, Alicia Mueller (Music) presented a Music Education session: "Enhancing Children's Listening Skills through Meaningful Movement Responses: Celebrate the Music of America!"

Mueller was also a chair and panel presenter for the Washington Music Educators Association Biennial Conference in Yakima, in February, for the teacher education session, "Preparing the General Music Teacher: Comparisons of Methods Courses across Washington State."

Gail Chermak (Speech and Hearing Sciences) will deliver an invited workshop at the Texas Speech and Hearing Association Convention in Arlington, Texas on April 8 on “Issues and Practices in Central Auditory Processing Disorders.“

Joe Ayres (Communication) has been selected as a recipient of the first annual Graduate and Professional Advisor Award. Five WSU faculty were chosen for the award from 95 nominations. He was recently identified in a study for a research journal as the 8th most productive scholar in the communication discipline.

Alex Tan (Communication) will receive a 2000 Asian American Living Pioneer Award next October at the Asian Resource Center in Seattle. He was named to the Advisory Committee of The Freedom Forum Pacific Coast Center, a billion-dollar foundation which supports journalism education and free speech projects. He will present a paper on "Changing Negative Racial Stereotypes: The Influence of Normative Peer Information" at the International Communication Association convention in Acapulco in June with co-authors Yuki Fujioka and others. He will speak on the effects of American television in foreign countries at the Broadcast Education Association convention in Las Vegas this month.

Results of a national survey led by Victor Villanueva (English) and Geneva Smitherman of Michigan State University found that English teachers are not prepared to cope with the diverse students who make up their classrooms. The two believe that teachers must learn more about the vast amount of research that shows the legitimacy of various dialects and languages. Copies of the “Language Knowledge and Awareness Survey” are available by contacting Villanueva at (509) 335-2581.

William D. Lipe (Anthropology) is first editor on a major overview of the prehistory of Southwest Colorado entitled Colorado Prehistory: A Context for the Southern Colorado River Basin, published by the Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists.

John Bodley (Anthropology) published a new (third) edition of his popular text Cultural Anthropology: Tribes, States, and the Global System earlier this spring.

Tim Kohler (Anthropology) formally begins his editorship of American Antiquity in April, after serving for several months as editor designate. American Antiquity is the largest-circulation professional journal specializing in archaeology in the world.

Linda Stone’s (Anthropology) edited volume entitled New Directions in Anthropological Kinship has just been published by Rowman and Littlefield, Boulder.

Kim Andersen (Foreign Languages) published an article on Danish author Svend Åge Madsen in Dictionary of Literary Biography (Columbia, SC: Bruccoli Clark and Layman, 1999, Vol 214: Twentieth Century Danish Literature.)

The Conference on College Composition and Communication, a constituent group within the National Council of Teachers of English, will award one of two 2000 Outstanding Book Awards to Barbara Couture (Dean, College of Liberal Arts) this month. Her book, Toward a Phenomenological Rhetoric: Writing, Profession, and Altruism, was judged a book making an outstanding contribution to composition and communication studies.

Gregory D. Russell’s (Political Science and Criminal Justice) new text, Law Enforcement in the United States, was published in January 2000, by Aspen Press. The comprehensive textbook was co-authored by James Conser of Youngstown State University and the Ohio Police Academy.

Joey Reagan (Communication) has an article, “Toward a set of standards for the use of factor analysis,” appearing in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, spring 2000, and he now reviews for the technology journal, Telematics and Informatics.

Jim Short’s (Sociology) article “Youth Violence” appears in the Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict, published by Academic Press (Vol. 3).

Epifanio San Juan’s (Comparative American Cultures) book, After Postcolonialism: Remapping Philippines-United States Confrontations, published by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, is scheduled for release this May. His article, “Reconfiguring the History of Filipinos in the United States,” appeared in Filipino American Bulletin in the January and February issue.

David Sonnenfeld’s (Sociology) book (co-edited with Arthur Mol) Ecological Modernisation Around the World: Perspectives and Critical Debates will be published this month by Frank Cass Co., Ilford, UK and Portland, Ore.

Eloy R. Gonzalez (Foreign Languages) wrote in collaboration with a student from our graduate student exchange program in Puebla, Mexico, Elmira Perez Mora, an article entitled “Orden ante la muerte: ‘Ya formidable y espantoso suena’ de Quevedo”, which will appear in the next issue of Hispanic Journal. The title translates to “Order Confronting Death: ‘Now Formidably and Frightfully Resounds’ by Quevedo.”

Alex Tan (Communication) is publishing "The Influence of Television Use and Parental Communication on Educational Aspirations of Hispanic Children" in The Howard Journal of Communications with co-authors Yuki Fujioka, Dennis Bautista, Rachel Maldonado, Larry Wright and Gerdean Tan.

April 3-28  Kennewick Man Exhibit, Museum of Anthropology, College Hall.

April 4-May 6  Master of Fine Arts Candidates Exhibit, Museum of Art.

April 4  VOJAZZ and Jazz Big Band Concert, Bryan Hall Theatre, 8:00 p.m.

April 6-8  *The Good Doctor, R.R. Jones Theatre, Daggy Hall, 8:00 p.m.

April 6  Madrigal Concert, Bryan Hall Theatre, 8:00 p.m.

April 10  Anthropology Museum Presentation, “Kennewick Man and the Study of Early Americans,” Gary Huckleberry, WSU, College 125, 4:10 p.m.

April 10  Anthropology Colloquium, “Technology, Culture and Kalinga Ceramics: Ethnoarcheaological Perspective,” Miriam Stark, U Hawaii, College 125, noon.

April 13  Comparative American Cultures Film Series, “Handgame: The Traditional North American Indian Game of Power of Chance,” Wilson 13, 7 p.m.

April 13  Senior Recital: Chris Early, percussion, Kimbrough Lecture Hall, 8:00 p.m.

April 13-15  *The Good Doctor, R.R. Jones Theatre, Daggy Hall, 8:00 p.m.

April 13-15  *Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, Wadleigh Theatre, Daggy Hall, 8:00 p.m.

April 15  *The Marriage of Figaro, Bryan Hall Theatre, 8:00 p.m.

April 16  *The Marriage of Figaro, Bryan Hall Theatre, 3:00 p.m.

April 17  Anthropology Museum, “Native American Claims to the Past,” Rebecca Tsosie, Professor of Law, Arizona State U., College 125, 4:10 p.m.

April 17  Sam and Pat Smith Day, Faculty Staff Breakfast, $5, CUB Ballroom, 7:30 a.m. (Tickets must be purchased by April 5.) Student Celebration, Terrell Mall, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. All Campus/ Community Reception, Lighty Atrium, 4:30 p.m.

April 18  Percussion Ensemble, Bryan Hall Theatre, 8:00 p.m.

April 19  Anthropology Colloquium, “Paradise Bent: Boys will be Girls in Samoa,” Jeannette Mageo, WSU, College 125, noon.

April 20  Choral Concert, Bryan Hall Theatre, 8:00 p.m.

April 21  Murrow Symposium, “Our Common Future,” Ted Turner, Vice Chair, Time Warner, Inc., Beasley Coliseum, 7:30 p.m.

April 21  Communication Career Networking, CUB 208-216, 9 a.m. -noon.

April 21  13th Women’s Studies Award Ceremony, Bundy Reading Room, 3:30 p.m.

April 24  Anthropology Colloquium, tba, Steven Harrell, UW, room tba, 4 p.m.

April 24  Anthropology Museum Presentation, “The Bones Speak to Me,” Noel Boaz, Biological Anthropologist, Spokane, College 125, 4:10 p.m.

April 25  Crimson Company Free Show, Gladish Auditorium, 2 p.m.

April 26  Anthropology Colloquium, “Pottery and Politics in the Ecuadorian Amazon: An Ethnoarchaeological Case Study,” Brenda Bowser, College 125, noon.

April 28  College of Liberal Arts Award Ceremony, Kimbrough Hall 101, 3:30 p.m.

May 6  College of Liberal Arts Commencement, Attorney General Christine Gregoire, speaker.

*There is a charge for this event.

Ted Turner, founder of CNN, the world’s first all-news television network, will deliver the annual Murrow Address on April 21. The free public lecture entitled “Our Common Future” will be held at 7:30 p.m. in WSU’s Beasley Coliseum.

Prior to the lecture, Turner will receive the Murrow Award from WSU President Samuel Smith. The award is given by the Edward. R. Murrow School of Communication to the individual or organization who represents through service or performance the professional ideals of Edward Murrow.

Turner president and chief operating officer of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., inaugurated Headline News and CNN International. Since TBS merged with Time Warner Inc. in 1996, Turner has served as vice chairman and as a member of the board of directors of Time Warner, now the world’s leading media company. Turner oversees the cable networks division as well as the company’s professional sports teams. He is president of the Turner Foundation, which focuses on supporting population and the environmental projects and in 1997 he donated $1 billion to United Nations programs. He was named Time magazine’s 1991 Man of the Year.

The annual Murrow Symposium is presented by WSU’s Edward R. Murrow School of Communication. It honors broadcasting’s most illustrious journalist, Edward R. Murrow, who graduated from WSU in 1930 and commenced a long career at CBS in 1935. Murrow first gained international prominence for his radio broadcasts from European theatres of World War II. Later he rose to television fame for his news documentaries and “CBS Reports.” Ethical standards set by Murrow are still being observed by the communication industry today.

The Murrow School of Communication is hosting both a high school student recruitment event, Coug It with Ted Turner, and a career fair in conjuction with the Murrow Symposium.

Regional high school students are invited to stay in a residence hall, have breakfast, and attend the symposium banquet, speech and career fair.

The career fair, Communication Career Networking, will be Friday morning, April 21, in CUB rooms 208-216 between 9 a.m. and noon. All interested WSU students are invited to attend.

Patients who have had difficulties improving their hearing and comprehension through the usual therapies may benefit from computer programs such as Fast ForWord and Earobics available at the WSU Speech and Hearing Clinic. Fast ForWord helps people who hear well but can’t process the message they have heard by slowing down the sounds of speech. Most patients improve their attention, reading and listening skills through the intensive program.

Carla Jones is clinic coordinator. The clinic provides services to the public and clinical experience for students in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences.

Sojourner Truth Bush, 22, a senior General Humanities major with emphases in chemistry and music, was killed in an auto accident on March 3. She is remembered here by her friends in the School of Music and Theatre Arts:

We saw Soji’s light first in Music. From her audition through this current year, including her membership as second clarinet in the Washington-Idaho Symphony, her principal clarinet performance as “The Cat” in Prokofieff’s “Peter and the Wolf” with the WSU Orchestra, and in recent recital preparation with Julie Silvera Jensen, Soji displayed outstanding musicianship, both as a leader and as an ensemble member.

A star in a galaxy, a rising star.
Soji’s light appeared also in Theatre, first in Theatre Survey, then supportive as Stage Manager, and most recently on stage as The Lady in Red in WSU Theatre’s production of “for colored girls.” Such clear diction, such expressive movement, so powerful in tragic scenes and deeply comic in others, so buoyant at the close, and tearfully exultant in the lobby afterward.

A star in the flag of our country.
Soji’s leadership and academic abilities opened the door to WSU’s Aerospace Studies and ROTC programs. In a related way, her desire to serve led her to the Sciences and to Pre-Medicine.

In prayer: Dear God, Please catch this falling star, and put her in Your pocket.
In the arts and the sciences, we are always asking, “Why?” Oh glorious question – source of mystery as much as of discovery – may we come to accept the lack of an answer today as an inspiration for tomorrow. And if the total of energy and matter is a constant, please let Soji’s physical absence from us be replaced – as the star gone out shines through light years in the heavens – in the energy of loving memory.

American Diversity Mini Grants have funded the development of several new WSU courses to be offered in the next year. Liberal Arts faculty who have developed classes include:

Julie Andsager (Communication) has won $558 for the class Gender and the Media that will start in spring 2001.

George Capowich (Criminal Justice) has won $1,500 for the class Realizing Justice in a Multicultural Society that will start in spring of 2001.

Kelly Ervin (Comparative American Cultures) has won $1,000 for the class African American Women in US Society that will start in fall 2000.

Laurie Mercier (History) has won $1,000 for the class Immigration, Migration, and Ethnic Identity that will start in spring 2001.

Tahira Probst (Psychology) has won $1,000 for the class Cultural Diversity in Organizations that will start in spring 2001.

Delia Aguilar (Comparative American Cultures and Women Studies) has won $1,000 for the class Ethnic Households and Kin as Cultures of Resistance that will start in spring 2001.

Yolanda Flores-Niemann (Comparative American Cultures) has won $1,000 for the class Ethnicity, Gender and Sexual Orientation in American Films that will start in spring 2001.

Mary Bloodsworth (Philosophy) has won $976 for the class Lesbian and Gay Studies that will start in fall 2000.

The College of Education announces that applications for the Faculty Collaboration Mini Grant are available. This is a $2000 grant that recognizes collaboration among faculty between the Colleges of Education, Liberal Arts, and Sciences as well as local education agencies (Washington State K-12 schools) to enhance teacher preparation. Copies of the application are available by contacting the CO-TEACH Project office at (509) 335-6842, or on-line at http://education.wsu.edu/coteach/minigrant.html