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Letter from the Chair
16 October 2003
To: Faculty, staff and graduate students
From: Jerry Baldasty
Re: Mid-October Department News
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Open House Saturday October 18
A reminder – our department’s debut Open
House is this Saturday, October 18. The main events begin
at 11 a.m. Tim Egan, one of our
distinguished alums, will speak and there will be tours of our
remodeled facilities and the Daily. Please join us as we host
our alums and formally kick off the new department. Thanks to
Victoria Sprang for her work in
organizing the Open House and to the many volunteers who are
helping during the event. John Klockner
has also been extensively engaged in preparations for the Open
House and particularly in designing ways to show off our new
labs. Thanks to the main office staff (Nancy
Dosmann, Eunice Yang and
Patricia Humphrey) for their support
for Victoria’s work.
Also on October 18: Media(ting) Cultures Film
Series
Tony Chan who will have two films
screened at the 1st Media(ting) Cultures Film Series at 2 p.m.
on Saturday, October 18. The event is in the HUB and is free
to the public. Tony’s films are “American Nurse”
and “Sweet Heat.” The film series is co- sponsored
by the Department of Anthropology, Center for Transnational
Media Studies, Graduate and Professional Student Senate and
Student Activities and Union Facilities. Native Voices alum
Rosemary Gibbons’ film, “A
Century of Genocide in the Americas: The Residential School
Experience” will also be shown on Saturday at 1:15 p.m.
Executive Committee
The results of the second-round vote are in. Elected to two-year
terms on the Executive Committee are Barbara
Warnick and David Domke.
Elected to a one-quarter term (in place of Gerry Philipsen,
who is on sabbatical this quarter) is Richard
Kielbowicz. The returning members are Nancy
Rivenburgh (whose term runs through 2003-4) and Associate
Chair Valerie Manusov (ex officio).
Budget News: Advising
We have some good budget news. The College has been able to
recapture some of the money cut from our budgets and we were
able to compete successfully for a limited amount of funds.
We have obtained $7,000 a year which, with other hourly funds,
will allow us to hire a half-time 9-month adviser for Academic
Student Services. We had gone ahead with the job search even
before hearing about the funds due to the great need we have
for additional advising staff. We’ve hired Sharon
Redeker, a former adviser in Political Science, for the
job. She will start November 3. Please make a point of welcoming
her to the department. She’ll be working all day on Mondays,
Tuesdays and half days on Wednesdays. Thanks to David
Sherman, Patricia Moy and
David Domke for their work as the
job search committee.
Digital Media Working Group
Thanks to our colleagues in the Digital
Media Working Group (David Silver
and Kirsten Foot) for hosting David
J. Phillips (UT-Austin) on Monday, October 13. Professor
Phillips spoke on “Context, Identity, and Power in Information
Environments.” Other Digital Media Working Group participants
from the Department include Barbara Warnick
and Phil Howard. Beth
Kolko, from Technical Communication, is also a leader
in DMWG.
Administrative Organization
The position of associate chair was not a part of our previous
units (Speech Communication, Communications), so Valerie and
I have been defining the position as we go along. Last year,
Valerie served an important role as the liaison between the
faculty committees and the chair. We believe that role was particularly
important during the first year of our new department. This
year, we have increased her responsibilities; she has oversight
over the IRC (Paul Ford, IRC coordinator)
and Technical Services (John Klockner,
Director of Technical Services). Both Paul and John will report
to Valerie (who, in turn, will consult with me on issues and
policy). I’m grateful that Valerie has agreed to take
on this supervisory role. Valerie’s involvement provides
knowledgeable oversight of these administration divisions while
also freeing the chair for other work, particularly for outreach
and development.
Photocopying
With the start of the new fiscal year, we instituted a numerical
sign-in for all photocopying. This allows us to track usage
by individuals (faculty, staff, graduate students) as we seek
to lower photocopy costs in the next year. Please make the copies
you need while avoiding unnecessary copying. Copying for personal
use is, as before, not appropriate.
I’ll be asking the Executive Committee to consider whether
we need a policy limiting the amount of photocopying for individuals
or classes. Thanks to those who have reduced photocopying costs
by moving their syllabi, parts of their syllabi and other handouts
to the web. I regret that we have to ask people to economize
on photocopying – but, given our recent budget cuts in
operations, we have no option.
People
Congratulations to Lance Bennett.
He received the Murray Edelman Award for Career Achievement
in Political Communication from the American Political Science
Association. The CCCE has received a $15,000 gift from Microsoft.
Tom Hansen, a 1959 alum of the
School of Communications, will talk to students during a campus
visit on Friday, October 24, at 10 a.m. (Room 126). Tom is the
Pac-10 Commissioner; before taking that job, he worked in journalism
(at the Vancouver Columbian) and in PR positions with Pac-10
and NCAA. Tom will talk briefly about his career and then give
advice to students about planning for jobs and careers. Please
announce to classes.
Mark Allen, president and CEO
of the Washington State Association of Broadcasters, and an
alum of the School of Communications, will give a guest lecture
in Richard Kielbowicz’s law
class on Wednesday, November 12. Mark worked in broadcasting
after graduating from UW, then went to law school. WSAB provides
numerous services to state broadcasters, including lobbying
(in Olympia, Washington D.C.) and professional development workshops.
Ted Coopman’s chapter “Alternative
Alternatives: Free Media, Dissent, and Emergent Activist Networks”
was recently published in Representing Resistance: Media, Civil
Disobedience, and the Global Justice Movement, Andy Opel &
Donnalyn Pompper, editors (Praeger).
Gerry Philipsen is on sabbatical
leave for autumn quarter. Lance Bennett
is on sabbatical leave all year. Applications for sabbatical
leave for next year are due in the dean’s office Friday,
October 24. If you are planning to request a sabbatical leave
for next year and haven’t notified me yet, please do so
right away.
Interim President Lee Huntsman
will visit the Department on Monday, November 3, starting at
4:30 p.m. We invited him to come by to see the remodeled portions
of the building – and to thank him for his great support
for the project.
Maria Garrido (with Akhtar
Badshah and Sarbuland Khan)
has edited a book Connected for Development Information Kiosks
and Sustainability. This is a publication for the UN ICT Task
Force and will be presented at the World Information Summit
in Geneva in December. The book gathered experts from different
sectors - private, non-for-profit, academia - to discuss the
different ways in which information and communication technologies,
through information kiosks or telecenters, can contribute to
economic and social development.
Crispin Thurlow (with Laura
Lengel and Alice Tomic)
will have a new book out in January. The book is titled Computer
Mediated Communication: Social Interaction and the Internet.
Doug Underwood’s recent
book From Yahweh to Yahoo won this year’s top book award
from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.
Jared Spool, founder of User Interface
Engineering, will speak on campus Monday, October 20, 7:30-9:30
pm, in MGH 231. Spool is speaking in Kathy
Gill’s class; she has generously opened the event
to others, too. Spool is a software developer and programmer
with more than 15 years experience conducting usability evaluations.
He is on the faculty of Tufts University’s Gordon Institute.
I will be on a journalism accreditation trip to Bowling Green
State University, Monday through Thursday next week (Oct. 20-23).
I will have access to e-mail and will remain involved in departmental
business. Or contact Associate Chair Valerie Manusov (manusov@u.washington.edu)
or Nancy Dosmann (ndosmann@u.washington.edu).
Valerie will be chairing the October 22 faculty meeting.
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