September 2007

John Contreni

College Campaign Highlights

By now, most will have heard that the 2001-2007 Campaign for Purdue that concluded on June 30 exceeded its original goal of $1.5 billion to come in at more than $1.7 billion.

And likewise, that the College's goal of $39 million actually resulted in a final tally of $41.8 million. We owe this success to many people, first and foremost our very generous donors. Others who were instrumental are Tom Recker and Lori Sparger and their predecessors in the College's development office; Margaret Rowe, Toby Parcel, and Tom Adler, my decanal predecessors; and many others who made the case for the College.

There are other markers of the Campaign's success and its impact on the College.

In 2001, we counted 367 FTE faculty colleagues; we now have 400.4 FTE on our rolls.

Five of our colleagues in 2001 were distinguished or named professors. We now have 10 named or distinguished professors and three of the Goodwin Challenge Chairs yet to fill.

We started the 2007 school year with nine University Faculty Scholars; six years ago three faculty members merited this distinction.

Sponsored research expenditures increased from $6.5 million to $9.2 million during this period.

Perhaps most tangibly, the spectacular Yue-Kong Pao Hall of Visual and Performing Arts replaced the temporary World War II Quonset huts, the former home of VPA.

And speaking of VPA, the department became the only named department in the University, the Patti and Rusty Rueff Department of Visual and Performing Arts.

Faculty in collaboration with colleagues in other colleges established two new University-recognized centers, the Ingestive Behavior Research Center and the A.H. Ismail Fitness and Nutrition Research and Education Center.

The College launched its PLACE (Purdue Liberal Arts Community Engagement) program, an innovative partnership between our students and faculty and community leaders in West Lafayette and Lafayette.

And, as the Campaign wound down, the Board of Trustees ratified the creation of our newest department, the Department of Anthropology.

The number of undergraduate students enrolled in our programs grew from 5,853 to last fall's 6,403. (Fall of 2007 enrollments equal 6,486.)

Our graduate student body grew from 1,001 to 1,154. More significantly, the Ph.D. portion of those totals increased from 575 students to 750.

During the course of the Campaign, our College became more diverse.

In 2001, 12.2 percent of the faculty identified with underrepresented groups. By 2007, the percentage had climbed to 14.8 percent. Among students, 692 or 10.6 percent of the total identified with underrepresented groups. By 2007, the number of students from underrepresented groups topped the millennial mark at 1003, or 14.0 percent of the total.

In 2001, 221 members of the faculty were male and that number remained constant through 2006-2007. The number of female colleagues grew from 122 to 137.

There is a story behind this bland recitation of statistics. The story is that the Campaign for Purdue was a time of positive, dynamic and, in some quarters, dramatic growth for the College of Liberal Arts.

Most stories have sequels. What will ours be? This semester we will be planning the sequel and using the working title, "Strategic Plan II." The main characters of the story are the liberal arts and the land grant university. Everyone is invited to contribute to the plot line. All suggestions and concepts are welcome. Send them to me and let the fun begin.

Sincerely,

John J. Contreni
Justin S. Morrill Dean

NEWS AND RESEARCH

College celebrates liberal arts in October

The College of Liberal Arts will highlight its research, scholarship and teaching in October during Experience Liberal Arts.

Michael Morrison
will speak Oct. 23

"Experience Liberal Arts month aims to highlight the ubiquity and variety of the liberal arts on the Purdue campus," says John Contreni, Justin S. Morrill Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. "Throughout October, faculty, students and guests will exemplify different threads in the rich tapestry of the arts, humanities, behavioral sciences, and social sciences that make up Purdue's liberal arts programs."

The month will feature a variety of lectures, films, performances, events, and exhibits that reflect the College's ongoing coursework and research in 11 departmental and 15 interdisciplinary programs. The keystone events feature the Dalai Lama and award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates, who are speaking on Oct. 26 and 30, respectively.

West Lafayette Mayor Jan Mills is proclaiming October as Experience Liberal Arts month.

Information about the upcoming events and parking is available online or by calling 494-7884 to request a program guide. More

Researcher developing new method for hearing loss assessment

A Purdue researcher is working on a new technique to diagnose hearing loss in a way that more accurately reflects real-world situations.

Assessing hearing loss

"The traditional way to assess speech understanding in people with hearing loss is to put them in a quiet room and ask them to repeat words produced by one person they can't see," said Karen Iler Kirk, a professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. "The goal of our research is to develop new tests that reflect more natural listening situations with visual cues, different background noises, voice quality, dialects, and speaking rates. This is a more accurate way to predict how people perceive speech in the real world and, therefore, can help us determine appropriate therapy and interventions, such as cochlear implants.

"The better the diagnostic tool we have to make such decisions, the better we can serve our patients."

Kirk received a $2.8 million grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders for the five-year project to develop two new audiovisual and multi-talker sentence tests that expand upon the traditional spoken word recognition format that has been used since the 1950s. One test is for adults and the other for children. More than 1,000 people ages 4-65 will participate in the study. More

Purdue partners with community to weed out crime, seed success

Purdue is working with the Lafayette community to weed out local crime and plant seeds for crime prevention and neighborhood restoration.

"The Weed and Seed initiative is aimed at reducing crime by enhancing community resources such as educational, employment and recreational services," said JoAnn Miller, an associate professor of Sociology and an affiliated member of Women's Studies. "The overall goal is to improve public safety."

In August, Lafayette received a five-year $1 million grant from the Community Capacity Development Office at the U.S. Department of Justice. The Downtown Lafayette Weed and Seed site will target the area within the Wabash River, Sagamore Parkway, Greenbush Street and the old Norfolk Southern Rail Corridor. This area has a high crime rate and a 27 percent poverty level, Miller said. More

Textbook authors make history when recounting 9/11

Writing about 9/11 is not a textbook case for historians, says a Purdue University history expert.

"When students read about Pearl Harbor, World War II and the Cold War in their textbooks, it has always been clear what nations the United States was at odds with," says Randy Roberts, a professor of American History. "The war on terror is not so clear. Terrorism is associated with the Middle East, but historians do not want to use broad brushstrokes to condemn the actions of a few. What we are dealing with is more amorphous and historians are careful when it comes to explaining 'us' versus 'them.'"

This year marks the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City, Virginia and Pennsylvania. School-age youths who watched the attacks or followed the coverage on television are balancing those memories with what they are reading in their classrooms, Roberts says. More

College students' interest in Arabic language continues to grow

The number of college students interested in studying the Arabic language is increasing, and Purdue has responded by adding more classes and a professor in the area.

"People assume this growth is from 9/11, but it's not," said Keith Dickson, chair of the Arabic, Classics, Hebrew and Italian section in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. "There was a big bump in our enrollment before 9/11 because the interest in learning Arabic is inevitable. The West is encountering the Middle East, and people want to know more about the Arabic world for political, economic, social, and religious reasons."

In 1991, 21 students were enrolled in two sections of Arabic language. From fall 2000 to fall 2001 the number of students jumped from 30 to 70. This fall 124 students in nine sections are enrolled, said Dickson, who also is associate professor of Classics. More

Purdue Research Park to feature new MRI center for patient care, research

A building under construction in the Purdue Research Park will provide space for a high-powered magnetic resonance imaging center that will be used for patient care as well as research.

The 26,000-square-foot LakeView Technology Center, 3482 McClure Ave., is located in the Purdue Research Park's Phase II development on a 3.86-acre site just south of Kalberer Road. The 7,800-square-foot MRI center, called InnerVision West, is on the north end of the structure. The building also will house a restaurant, coffee shop and a growing high-tech company. A dedication of the new building is planned for Nov. 2.

Howard Weiss, professor and head of the Department of Psychological Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts, said the new MRI machine will help researchers in many different fields of the social and behavioral sciences.

"This type of research is relevant to all disciplines related to human activity, from psychology to political science, from economics to speech and language sciences," Weiss said. "Our new functional MRI capabilities will allow us to map brain activity while individuals are engaged in various types of tasks.

"In that respect, it will help us understand how brain activity underlies human mental functioning, such as decision-making, attention, memory, and emotions." More

EVENTS

Purdue Galleries offers new season of exhibits

A pair of exhibitions in the Purdue Galleries new season will examine historical presence and the preservation of personal hope and memory.

"Branch"

"Deborah Muirhead: Fly Away" will be presented Aug. 27 to Oct. 7 in the Stewart Center Gallery.

From Sept. 4 to Oct. 7, "The Beaded Prayers Project" will be displayed in the Robert L. Ringel Gallery in the Purdue Memorial Union. More

Rueff Galleries announce upcoming exhibits

The Patti and Rusty Rueff Galleries will open the fall season with a variety exhibits, including shows that feature sculptures, furniture, and photographs.

Rueff Galleries are located in the Yue-Kong Pao Hall of Visual and Performing Arts, 552 W. Wood St.

Upcoming exhibits include:

Sept. 17-28. "Florence Knoll: Defining Modern" features 10 pieces of furniture designed by Knoll that originally exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. As an architect, interior space planner, and furniture designer, she has influenced postwar design.

Oct. 22 to Nov. 2. "Art and Design Faculty Exhibit 2007" will include a collection of current works from the Patti and Rusty Rueff Department of Visual and Performing Arts faculty.

Nov. 5-23. An exhibition of Islamic architecture curated by David Parrish, professor of Art History, will be on display. Included in the exhibition are photographs of Islamic architecture, examples of religious writings and prayer rugs. More

Fairy tale author kicks off Purdue's Literary Reading Series

The 2007-08 Purdue University Literary Reading Series begins its season with a fiction reading by author Kate Bernheimer at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 18. Bernheimer's fiction reading is in the Matthews Hall Auditorium.

Kate Bernheimer

She also will discuss fiction writing at 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 19 in the Hicks Undergraduate Library Bookstall. Both events, which are free and open to the public, are sponsored by the Department of English, the Creative Writing Program and the Jewish Studies Program.

Bernheimer is the author of two novels, The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold and The Complete Tales of Merry Gold, as well as the forthcoming children's book The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum. More

Panel to discuss international relations with Iraq, Iran

A policy analyst and two Purdue professors will participate in a Sept. 20 panel discussion on United States foreign policy in the Persian Gulf region.

The discussion will be led by Robert Naiman, a senior policy analyst for Just Foreign Policy, an organization aimed at reforming U.S. foreign policy. Janet Afary, associate professor of History at Purdue, and Aaron Hoffman, assistant professor of Political Science and a member of Peace Studies at Purdue, also will be on the panel. More

Scholars gather at Purdue to discuss Chinese language, culture

Education and business leaders will present research and ideas on how businesses can be successful in China at the second Business Chinese Language and Culture Conference Sept. 21-22 at Purdue.

Sponsored by the Confucius Institute at Purdue and the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), the conference will examine the best ways to teach Chinese culture and language to people in United States corporations with interests in China. Attendees will be educators and business people who are interested in developing programs to work with companies in China.

"Many colleges are adding business Chinese into their regular Chinese language programs to meet the needs of students who wish to engage with China as their future career choices," said Wei Hong, director of the Confucius Institute. "This conference not only aims at U.S. companies to seek their needs in hiring employees with language and cultural expertise, but also at Chinese language teaching professionals on developing proper business Chinese textbooks, curriculum and exchanging ideas on teaching strategies. It serves as a forum for both groups to get together to communicate on how to train our future business leaders to be globally competitive, especially in China as a rising world economy." More

Chinese courses offered at Purdue

Three non-credit courses in elementary Chinese conversation, Chinese for business, and Chinese calligraphy will be offered this fall through the Confucius Institute at Purdue and Purdue Continuing Education.

The courses are open to anyone with an interest in Chinese language and culture.

Registration for all courses can be completed online. More

Black Graduate Association to bring author to campus

A noted author and researcher on African-American religion and current events will speak on "African-Americans in the Academy: Climate and Conflict" on Sept. 25 at Purdue.

The Rev. Michael Eric Dyson, who has written 14 books and appeared on such television talk show programs as The Colbert Report, Real Time with Bill Maher and the Tavis Smiley Show, will speak at 8 p.m. in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse. The event is free and open to the public.

Dyson is best known as an author, penning such books as Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster, Is Bill Cosby Right? Or has the Black Middle Class Lost its Mind, and Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line. His latest book Know What I Mean? is a social commentary on the past, present, and future of hip-hop music.

Purdue's Black Graduate Association, along with the Office of the Provost, College of Liberal Arts and the African American Studies Research Center, are sponsoring the event as part of the university's Mosaic program. More

Forum to highlight international films

The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures is offering movie lovers a taste of international cinema through the 2007 World Film Forum, a monthly fall series.

The remaining forums are Oct. 17 and Nov. 7 and will feature films from Italy and China, said Silvia Oliveira, an assistant professor of Portuguese and Spanish. All the films, which are free and open to the public, have English subtitles, and Purdue professors will introduce the films and lead a discussion after them.

The events will take place at 5 p.m. at the West Lafayette Public Library, 208 W. Columbia St. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be provided, and people can enter their names in a drawing for a DVD. More

Other Events

– Sept. 20. 4:30 p.m., University Hall, Room 101. Tiberiu Popa, an assistant professor of Philosophy at Butler University, will present "Aristotle on the Perception of Time." Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy.

– Sept. 24. 8 p.m., Krannert Auditorium. Norman M. Finkelstein, a professor of English at Xavier University, will present The Sacred, the Secular, and the Book: The Problem of the Jewish Literary Imagination. Finklestein's talk is presented by the College of Liberal Arts' Jewish Studies Program. For more information, http://www.cla.purdue.edu/jewish-studies/

– Sept. 26. 6:30 p.m. Tippecanoe County Public Library, 627 South St., Angelica Duran, associate professor of English, will present "Mexican Food and Culture." – Sept. 26. 7:30 p.m. Rawls Hall, Room 1086. European Studies Speaker Series. Nina Berman associate professor from Ohio State University will present "Europeanizing German Literature: The Circulation of Texts Between Germany, France, and the Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries."

FACULTY & CLA HONORS

– James Davidson, a professor of Sociology, received a Distinguished Hoosier award from the state of Indiana. The award was presented by Rep. Joe Micon in recognition of Davidson's contributions to the Indiana community. Davidson, who joined the Purdue faculty in 1968, specializes in the sociology of religion, specifically American Catholicism. He is the author or editor of 10 books and is often quoted in national news media. His most recent books are American Catholics Today: The New Realities of Their Faith and Their Church and Catholicism in Motion: The Church in American Society.

– Mangala Subramaniam, an associate professor of Sociology (Principal Investigator), and her student Beth Williford (Co-Principal Investigator) received a National Science Foundation grant for Williford's dissertation, "Globalization, Local Movement, and Transnational Framing." The study will look at how the indigenous peoples in the Ecuadorian Amazon challenge policies that threaten to destroy their culture and homelands through the process of oil extraction.

– David Blakesley, a professor of English; Mohan Dutta, an associate professor of Communication; and Valentine Moghadam, a professor of Women's Studies and Sociology were selected to participate in the inaugural Entrepreneurial Leadership Academy, which is supported by Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship through the Kauffman Foundation.

– Three faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts were named as fellows in the Diversity in the Classroom Project. They are:

• Robin Clair, a professor of Communication. Her course is COM 495D/COM 328, "Diversity at Work: A Rhetorical Approach."
• Dawn Riggs, an assistant professor of History. Her course is HIST 572, "History of Native America."
• Melanie Schoffner, an assistant professor of English. Her course is ENGL 492, "Literature in the Secondary Classroom."

Other College News

New "1992" cornerstone at Beering Hall

BRNG Cornerstone

When LAEB (Beering Hall was first known as the Liberal Arts and Education Building) construction began in 1992, no cornerstone was laid, though an empty space about 6 inches deep was provided on the column to the left of the main entrance. The stone in this photo, with a carved "1992," was installed earlier this month.

CLA Grad Students Garner Travel Grants

The Purdue Graduate Student Government just announced the results of its 2006-2007 travel grant awards competition. PGSG received 149 proposals to support graduate student travel from all over campus. CLA grad students submitted 36 proposals, of which 16 were funded. The 16 CLA awards represented 24 percent of the 68 funded proposals, the second highest percentage in the University. More information about PGSG's travel grant program is available online.

The next deadline for proposals is Oct. 4, 2007.

The Sexual Harassment Advisors' Network (SHAN)

What is SHAN?

The College of Liberal Arts Sexual Harassment Advisors' Network provides a supportive environment for individuals who believe they may be victims of sexual harassment to discuss their experiences. The purposes of the network are three-fold:
• to provide channels for students and staff to come forward to discuss sexual harassment concerns;
• to provide information and present options available to address their concerns; and
• to provide a supportive and listening ear to individuals who choose not to go further with their concerns.

For more information, please visit the SHAN Web site.

EXPERTS IN THE NEWS

Indianapolis Star, Lafayette Journal & Courier, Gannett News Service –
Professor paints grim picture of Bush legacy
(Bert Rockman, Department of Political Science)

Minneapolis-St. Paul, Star Tribune –
GFF: Guy friends forever
(Glenn Sparks, Department of Communication)

South Bend Tribune –
Transplants become Hollywood staple
(Susan Morgan, Department of Communication)

Chicago Tribune –
A new nuclear threat: When facing irrational enemies, policy of mutual destruction won't work
(Louis Rene Beres, Department of Political Science)

Chicago Tribune –
Some things about college really stick
(Glenn Sparks, Department of Communication)

Lafayette Journal & Courier –
Writing lab ready with help, advice
(Tammy Conard-Salvo, Department of English)

Lafayette Journal & Courier –
His kind of towns: Frenchman left his mark on U.S. history and on landscape
(Frank Lambert, Department of History)

Lafayette Journal & Courier
Venture Idol requires more than good ideas
(Scott Shim, Patti and Rusty Rueff Department of Visual and Performing Arts)

Lafayette Journal & Courier –
Purdue professor weighs in on Gonzales resignation
(William McLauchlan, Department of Political Science)

Any story ideas can be sent to Amy Patterson Neubert at the Purdue News Service, 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu