A Message from the Dean - September 2021
September 2021 brought good news and recognition to SIUE. We learned that the entering first-year class this fall was the largest in six years, and the University enrolled more students in master’s and doctoral degree programs—3,043—than in any year since 1977. SIUE’s total enrollment increased by 1.2 percent to 13,010. For the eighth year in a row, SIUE received INSIGHT Into Diversity’s Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award. The HEED Award is the only award that recognizes outstanding diversity and inclusion efforts by colleges and universities.
Programs in the College of Arts and Sciences also received recognition for their growth and success. African American Literary Studies (AALS) in the Department of English Language Literature has added faculty. Cindy Reed, PhD, joined the faculty in 2020, and Donavan Ramon, PhD, joined the faculty in 2021. Tisha Brooks, PhD, Elizabeth Cali, PhD, and Howard Rambsy, PhD, continue to teach courses in Black fiction, film, poetry, and print culture studies. AALS offers more courses on Black subject matter than most other English departments in the United States.
The SIUE Successful Communities Collaborative, led by Connie Frey Spurlock, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Sociology, has worked with faculty and students from SIUC and Western Illinois University to develop and implement plans to revitalize the communities of Venice, Brooklyn, and Madison, Illinois. The project includes site visits, community workshops, and design sessions and presentations. It will result in proposals for new community facilities and amenities.
Kindermusik with Ellen Singh, an Edwardsville early childhood music studio, has been recognized for excellence in reaching many families in the community. Kindermusik is a music program for young children designed to help children to realize their potential and to become lifelong learners. Singh has been a teacher in the SIUE Suzuki Program for fifteen years.
Cait Burling put her bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications to good use after she left her job in content marketing in March 2020. Burling began making and selling clay jewelry. She drew upon her online research skills to find materials and tools. Burling donates some of her profits to the Foster Care and Adoptive Coalition, which provides support for children in need in St. Louis. She also sells a necklace to raise funds for the Stork Foundation, which provides financial assistance to lower-income individuals who need medical infertility treatments.
After a hiatus of 20 months, Arts & Issues returns with a live event on the SIUE campus on Friday, October 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the Dunham Hall Theater. Marina Bluvshtein, PhD, director of the Center for Adlerian Practice and Scholarship at Adler University in Chicago, will deliver a free public lecture, “Belongingness as a Goal of Personality Development and Social Evolution.” Dr. Bluvshtein is the 2021 Dr. Rudolf Dreikurs Visiting Scholar at SIUE.
Other notable news from CAS includes:
- Jessica McCaskill, who graduated with a BA in Mass Communications in 2006, and Bill Land, who graduated with a BA in Mass Communications in 1973, were inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame in a ceremony in the Dunham Hall Theater on Thursday, September 23.
- Jason Stacy, PhD, professor in the Department of History, recently published his fourth book, Spoon River America: Edgar Lee Masters and the Myth of the American Small Town.
- Michael Yancey, who earned his bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications in 1993, was honored by his family, whose members have endowed the Michael E. Yancey Sphinx-man Scholarship. The scholarship will be awarded to a first-generation student in their second year attending SIUE in pursuit of a four-year degree with a GPA between 2.4 and 2.9.
- SIUE’s Native American Studies Program, Office of Research and Projects, and College of Arts and Sciences are among the sponsors of a virtual conference, “Indigenous Knowledge & Sustainability – Food,” which will occur October 6-10. The featured speakers include Native scholars Electa Hare-Redcorn, MSW (Pawnee), Kyle Whyte, PhD (Citizen Potawatomi), Robin Kimmerer, PhD (Citizen Potawatomi), and Tiffanie Hardbarger, PhD (Cherokee Nation).
Please read more about these people and their accomplishments in This Month in CAS, and tune in to Segue on WSIE 88.7FM 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
