A Message from the Dean - October 2022
October is nearly gone. The sun is rising after 7 a.m., and it is setting shortly after 6 p.m. In less than two weeks, daylight saving time will end. The yellow, orange and red leaves on the trees and bushes on campus remind me that the warm, long days of summer are gone. I know that cold weather and long, dark nights lie ahead. And yet, as we look forward to the end of the fall semester, classrooms, studios and labs continue to buzz with activity.
Two weeks ago, I saw the Department of Theater and Dance’s production of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. Last week I attended performance by the Department of Music’s Concert Choir, Treble Ensemble, Concert Band, Wind Symphony and University Orchestra. I’m thrilled to be able to watch and hear our students perform in Dunham Hall.
The activity on campus reflects growing numbers of graduate students and international students. The number of graduate students at SIUE increased by four percent from the fall of 2021; graduate enrollment is currently just under 3,500. More people are pursuing advanced degrees than at any time since 1978. The number of students from outside the United States grew to nearly 900. There have never been more international students at SIUE.
Tuesday, October 11, was Diversity Day on the SIUE campus. The day’s activities included a panel discussion featuring School of Business alumni and two keynote speakers—Angel Jones, PhD, visiting assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, and Bryan Hotchkins, PhD, associate professor in the College of Education at Texas Tech University.
Last month, SIUE received INSIGHT Into Diversity’s Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award for the ninth consecutive year. The SIU System also received the HEED Award; it is the only system to receive the award for 2022.
Television broadcasts in Detroit and St. Louis highlighted the expertise of faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences. On October 3, Dennis Mares, PhD, professor in the Department of Criminal Justice Studies, was featured on CBS News Detroit. Mares shared his findings on the use of ShotSpotter technology. ShotSpotter is a gunshot detection system, and Mares has studied the impact of the technology on violent crime in St. Louis and Cincinnati.
On October 10, Sophia Wilson, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Political Science, was featured on KMOV4 TV in St. Louis. An expert on Ukrainian politics, Wilson analyzed the relationship between Ukraine and Russia.
Other notable news from CAS includes:
- Twelve students from SIUE East St. Louis Charter High School visited the television studio and the Alestle offices in the Department of Mass Communications and the WSIE-FM studio on the Edwardsville campus.
- Jeffrey Manuel, PhD, professor in the Department of History, has been awarded a Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Energy Transitions and Deindustrialization. He will spend the spring 2023 semester at the University of Calgary.
- Three faculty members from the Department of Political Science, Associate Professor Suranjan Weeraratne, PhD, Professor Laurie Rice, PhD, and Professor and Chair Kenneth Moffett, PhD, have been awarded a $332,491 grant from the Department of Homeland Security to develop a local framework for mitigating violence under the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program.
- Suman Mishra, PhD, professor in the Department of Mass Communications, received the 2022 Top Faculty Paper award in the Cultural and Critical Studies Division at the 2022 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) conference in Detroit.
- Tomorrow, Thursday, October 27, Andrew Theising, PhD, professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science, will present a lecture, “Learning Lessons from East St. Louis,” at 4:30 p.m. in the Morris University Center’s Conference Center. Dr. Theising’s talk is part of the “One More Thought . . .” lecture series, sponsored by the Emeriti Faculty Association and presented as part of Arts & Issues.
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