A Message from the Dean - September 2022
Thousands of students returned to the SIUE campus in August. For the first time since the fall of 2019, a school year began with most students in face-to-face courses, activities and events. More than 1,800 new, first-time, full-time students brought a new excitement to the campus this fall. These students were welcomed to our community with the SIUE Experience, which allowed them to make connections with returning students, faculty, staff and campus organizations.
The energy that was evident in the first days of the semester has continued through September and culminated with Homecoming activities September 23-24. Ten distinguished alumni were inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame on the evening of September 23. Two alumni from the College were honored: journalist Terry Ganey, who earned a BA in mass communications in 1970, and comedian Kathleen Madigan, who earned a BA in mass communications in 1988.
Faculty, staff and students continue to work to implement SIUE’s antiracism, diversity, equity and inclusion goals. Jessica Harris, PhD, Vice Chancellor for Anti-racism, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ADEI) and a faculty member in the Department of History, has been recognized for her leadership in ADEI. Harris was awarded the Change Create Transform Foundation’s 2022 Humanitarian Award and was named a St. Louis Business Journal Champion for Diversity and Inclusion.
SIUE’s Fifth Annual Diversity Day is Tuesday, October 11. I hope that all students, staff and faculty in CAS will attend and participate. This year’s theme is Inclusive Excellence in Action.
Although the beginning of the academic year has been a time of joy and excitement, the SIUE community has also endured profound sadness at the tragic death of Emily Allen, a first-year nursing student who died in an automobile accident on September 11. I know that all of the members of the CAS community join me in expressing our deepest sympathy for Emily’s family.
Other notable news from CAS includes:
- Evan Smith, a student in the Master of Fine Arts program in the Department of Art and Design, was selected as a recipient of the 2022 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award. The award is conferred by the International Sculpture Center. Smith is the third SIUE student to win the award in the past three years.
- Danielle N. Lee, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was featured in a Science Friday article, “Breaking the Mold of What A Scientist Looks Like.”
- Allison Funk, professor emerita in the Department of English Language and Literature, was named a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow. The fellowship will support Funk’s work on her seventh book of poems.
- Ezra Temko, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, was chosen as one of the two inaugural Faculty Fellows in the SIUE Interdisciplinary Research and Informatics Scholarship (IRIS) Center.
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
