Meetings/Events

Congratulations

A recent fund-raising drive by the Graduate Student Association to increase their endowment saw 75% of the contributors making contributions in the name of Alice Naylor (LRE), doctoral program director.

Kudos to the strong RCOE showing at the recent North Carolina Teacher Education Forum: among those making presentations were Monica Lambert, Nancy Mamlin, Jane Nowacek, Ellen Pesko, and Janet Bloodgood, all from LRE; Linda Pacifici, Tracy Smith, Jane Norwood, Jean Hampton, and Tracy Goodson-Espy, all from C&I; John Spagnolo, Linda McCalister, and Roma Angel, all from the Dean’s Office. We also had middle grades prospective teachers Rebekka Dugger, Lindsey Brown, Kimberly Hopkins-Hood, Aimee Baughman and Emily Hartnett presenting their research during the conference’s Poster Session; we appreciate this representation from the college; such involvement provides a means for showcasing the wide range of the college’s expertise to a state-wide audience.

Staff Participation

We are seeking RCOE staff participants on the following RCOE standing committee: International Activities; if a staff member would like to be considered for membership on this committee, please submit your name to me as soon as possible. This committee is charged with overseeing the college’s commitment to internationalizing the college’s programs and activities. The committee typically meets once a month for about an hour. Staff who wish to be members of college committees should first discuss the time commitment with their administrators but generally such service is seen as a positive service commitment to the college.

Student Clubs

We have found a sponsor for the NCAE student chapter; however, I would appreciate each faculty advisor of an RCOE student club/organization sending me the name of the group’s student president (email address would be helpful). I would like to meet with each group’s president and faculty advisor to explore ways that we might work together to promote some of the RCOE’s points of emphasis and need; among these would be recruitment of future teachers and other education personnel, elements of diversity, celebration of key events such as American Education Week, and perhaps joint sponsorship of key speakers, films, etc.

Going out of the Country?

Anyone anticipating international travel needs to be aware of new regulations regarding the taking of laptop computers out of the country. Export control regulations have become stricter and are being applied more stringently to higher education. The following checklist is one we advise all international travelers to complete prior to embarkation. If the answer to ALL of the following questions is Yes, and the laptop, components, and software are not designed for use in/with/by satellites or spacecraft or otherwise regulated as a defense article, then the hand-carry, shipment or retransfer of the laptop, components or software qualifies for License Exception TMP:

• Is the item or software to be hand-carried, shipped or retransferred abroad?
• Is the item or software to return to the U.S. within 12 months or either being consumed or destroyed abroad?
• Will the items or software to be hand-carried, shipped, or retransferred be used ONLY either a) as a “tool of trade” to conduct University business or b) for exhibition of demonstration or c) inspection, testing, calibration of repair?
• If for inspection, calibration or repair, will the item be shipped, retransferred or hand-carried to any country other than: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cambodia, China, Georgia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Libya, Macau, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan or Vietnam?
• Will the item or software remain under the “effective control” of University personnel while the property is abroad?  Note: “Effective Control” is defined as retaining physical possession of the item or maintaining it in a secure environment such as a guarded facility.
• I s the encryption code incorporated in the item or on the software media limited to that available through retail purchase (phone order, mail, internet, or over-the-counter transactions)?

Note: I disclaim any authorship of the language or language structure that appears above; Uncle Sam has the proprietary rights to all of this. If you wish more information on this subject, try http://www.ecustoms.com/vc/vc/cfm; if you have any questions about whether your transportation of a laptop might be at risk, Dr. Edelma Huntley in the Graduate School has been designated Export Control Information Officer and probably can assist you.

Participation in ACE Internationalization Laboratory

ASU has been selected as one of several institutions by the American Council of Education to participate in its Internationalization Laboratory program; the charge to the ASU team is to conduct a review of the current state of internationalization at the University, assist in the application of global learning outcomes identified by the new General Education curriculum to specific programs such as the Honors Program, Global Studies, and the Watauga Global Village project; assist in the development of assessment tools for measuring these global learning outcomes; suggests ways to operationalize the international aspects of the University’s Strategic Plan; provide an interim report to the Provost by Spring 2008 and a final report in Spring 2009. Pam Schram (C&I) is the RCOE representative on the team.

Facebook or MySpace

According to an article published on CBS News.com, around 20 percent of companies now can scan online profiles such as Facebook.com or MySpace.com for positions they are seeking to fill; what many college students—and others—often do not realize is that personal information that students may publish online make companies more likely to educate themselves on aspects of students’ personal lives that quite probably ought not to be made public. In fact, more than 35 million users of FaceBook.com are off-campus. Student, faculty, and staff users should be encouraged to avoid putting up material that shows the individual doing anything illegal, unethical, or anything that one might not wish to discuss with a future employer. Used appropriately, however, the sites can promote career capabilities as a kind of enhanced resume. See The Appalachian, 9/18/07 for useful information on this phenomenon.

Reading, Writing…and Cheating

Recently a group of nine high school students in New Hampshire broke into their school and while some students stood guard, others entered a classroom and using stolen keys broke into a teacher’s file and stole tests. The school turned the case over to local police; parents are upset that such a “small incident” could be viewed as a criminal act and lead to criminal prosecution. Fans at a recent New England Patriots football game cheered the Patriots’ coach for illegally filming the signals of the New York Jets’ coaches during a recent game (he was fined $500,000). Joan Vennochi, writing about the high school incident in the 9/23/07 (21A) Charlotte Observer, suggests that “Do whatever it takes to win” is not only a current mantra in sports, politics and business, it also seems to have filtered down to the public schools. She reports that a recent study by the non-profit Josephson Institute of Ethics, based in Los Angeles, found “entrenched habits of dishonesty among young people.”

Among the responses from 36,122 public and private high school students, 28% admitted stealing something from a store in the past year; 23% indicated they had stolen something from a parent or relative; 82% said that they lied to a parent about something significant, and 60% said they had cheated on a test in the past year. Within the same population, however, 98% indicated “It’s important to me to be a person with good character;” 97% said, “It is important that people trust me.”

In the context of the New Hampshire situation—and one might surmise the NH students had similar beliefs and activities as reflected in the survey sample–Vennochi raises the basic questions: Why did these students decide the break-in was worth the risk (hearing the rationales of the students would be very interesting—and revealing—I suspect); and What drove these students to conclude that success via stealing and cheating is more important than basic honesty? Perhaps another question that could be asked is how many prospective teachers share the same views as these students? The answer to that question might tell us quite a bit about future role models and the future influence of public and private education in this country.

Did You Know?

• North Carolina has 11,325 National Board Certified Teachers, the most of any state in the nation, and that Wake County and Charlotte-Mecklenburg County are among the top ten counties in the country with the most NBC teachers.
• In 2007, 69.4 percent of the NC students who entered ninth grade in 2003 graduated from high school in four years or less.
• In 2006-07, the ASU Graduate School reported a 2100 unduplicated headcount in its enrollment, that applications for summer and fall 2007 numbered 2198 and that new graduate students confirmed for 2007-08 numbered 858; and that unduplicated headcount enrollment for Fall 07 was 1,002 on campus and 884 off campus.
• ASU annual in-state tuition for 2007-08 without fees is $2,593 and non-resident tuition is $12,176; when fees are added, in-state annual tuition and fees total $4,566 while out-of-state tuition and fees total $14,139. Now you know why you don’t see as many out-of-state license plates in the parking lotsJ  FYI: ASU’s tuition is 10th lowest among the 16 UNC institutions.
• ASU has had only 4 new master’s and no new doctoral programs approved by the UNC system from 1999-2006. In comparison, in master’s programs, Winston-Salem State had 8, Western had 9, Pembroke had 7 and East Carolina had 13.

Do You Recognize Them?

The term “Millennial Students” is now being used to describe those students who currently are in public schools and colleges; among the characteristics that identify them as Millennial Students are the following:

• Plugged in
• Rarely read newspapers or books
• Impatiently goal oriented
• Hate busywork
• Learn by doing
• Don’t write letters
• Want instant feedback
• Have friends from different cultures
• Need flexibility

“Change is a Journey, not a Destination.”
–M. Fullan