A Message from the Dean - March 2022
Spring has returned to the SIUE campuses, drawing our attention to the blooming flowers, the honking geese, and the rapidly approaching end of the academic year. Spring commencement ceremonies are only five weeks away! And yet, many of us continue to find our attention drawn to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
I want to thank all members of the SIUE community who have donated to organizations that provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine and who have worked to educate themselves and others about the war in Ukraine. Such efforts reflect the College of Arts and Sciences’ mission to encourage participation in the local, national and global community, sensitivity to the welfare of others, and an appreciation of democratic values. I am especially grateful to faculty members from the Departments of Political Science, Applied Communication Studies, and Foreign Languages and Literature who contributed to this morning's panel discussion on the events in and around Ukraine.
Today marks the end of Women’s History Month. During the month of March, SIUE celebrated the achievements of women and examined the experiences of women in a variety of social and cultural contexts in a series of talks by SIUE faculty members sponsored by CAS’s Women’s Studies Program.
CAS students, staff, and faculty have contributed to SIUE’s ongoing efforts to better serve communities in the St. Louis metropolitan area. In March, several SIUE students, including integrative biology major Christian McAfee, sociology majors Kiyende Hunt and Julia Goren, criminal justice and psychology major Mahoggani Pickett, and social work major Mahlik Good, spoke during the SIUE East St. Louis Charter High School Midday Speaker Series. The speaker series was organized by SIUE’s College Readiness: Transition, Engage, Achieve and Mentor (CORE T.E.A.M.).
Meg Smith, PhD, research assistant professor in the Interdisciplinary Research and Informatics Scholarship (IRIS) Center, and Geremy Carnes, PhD, associate professor of English at Lindenwood University, are co-directors of a project that will result in a regional digital humanities network. The project received a Digital Humanities Advancement Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
It gives me great pleasure to report that the College of Arts and Science’s Dean’s Report earned a Gold Award in the Annual Report category in the 37th annual Educational Advertising Awards competition. The Dean’s Report is produced by University Marketing and Communications, with content produced by Kim Sletten, CAS director of communications, and Cindy Scarsdale, events administrator associate.
As we pause to recall the events of March 2022, the entire SIUE community remembers Gyo Obata, who died on March 8 at the age of 99. Obata was the chief external architect of SIUE’s campus core. Obata co-founded the global architecture-engineering firm Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK) in 1955 and designed the campus in the early 1960s. In 2017, Obata received SIUE’s Distinguished Service Award for his visionary contributions to campus development.
Other notable news from CAS includes:
- CAS Alumna Jaci DeClue, SIUE Deputy Athletic Director, was named a recipient of the Ohio Valley Conferences’s Thurston Banks Award for Distinguished Academic Service.
- Matthew Petrocelli, PhD, professor in the Department of Criminal Justice Studies, is this year’s recipient of the William and Margaret Going Endowed Professorship Award. He will present a free public lecture on April 15.
- A team of scholars led by Adriana E. Martinez, PhD, associate professor in the Departments of Environmental Sciences and Geography and Geographic Information Sciences was awarded a $1.5M grant from the National Science Foundation to increase diversity in graduate programs in environmental sciences, civil engineering, biology, and/or chemistry.
- The Department of Physics is partnering with Arts & Issues to present the annual William C. Shaw Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 14, featuring Brian Greene, PhD, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University.
- Several CAS departments, including Art and Design, English Language and Literature, Music, and Theater and Dance, will offer summer camps for students from ages 5-18 this summer.
Please read more about these people and their accomplishments in This Month in CAS, and tune in to Segue at 9 a.m. on Sundays to learn about people and events on the SIUE campus.
Kevin Leonard, PhD
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
