Thursday's Notes

1. Announcements:

• The Dean's Office in the College of Humanities cordially invites you to participate in the annual "Celebration of Faculty Scholarship," scheduled for Thursday, May 12, 2005, 3:00-4:30 p.m., in the Whitsett Room. This event is an opportunity to recognize and celebrate faculty scholarship and creative activities accomplished during the period of time from July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2005. Additionally, we will be recognizing all College Faculty Fellows from Spring 2005 and Fall 2004 at this reception. Light refreshments will be served.
• The Faculty Senate will be discussing and voting on the new proposed GE plan this week. The Senate meetings are open to all. The meeting will take place in the Oviatt Library Presentation Room; the GE discussion is scheduled to take place at 3 p.m. (time certain) on Thursday, April 28.

2. Reminders:

• The Associated Graduate Students in English (AGSE) will be holding its annual graduate student conference on Saturday, April 30th, in the Flintridge room of the University Student Union Building, from 9:00 a.m-4:30 p.m. This year's conference title is "Earthly Privilege: Vividness in Writing" and will be centered on the theme of vivid writing. The key note speaker, Michael Ryan, will be speaking at 2:30 p.m. Please feel free to contact joni.surette@csun.edu or robert.baukholt@csun.edu with any questions or visit the AGSE website at http://www.csun.edu/~agse/.
• This spring, the Department will be presenting several awards to our students. Please submit outstanding papers or encourage students to submit outstanding papers by May 10. The following awards will be presented at the end-of-the-year party: The Mitchell Marcus Prize to an outstanding graduate student; the Annamarie Peterson Morley Award to a student who plans to enter the teaching profession; the Peterson/Morley Scholarship to two students--graduate or undergraduate--who demonstrate need for financial support; the Mahlon Gaumer Award to a graduate student who writes the best critical paper on English literature, with an emphasis on the use of language. Applications are available in the Main Office (ST 706). If you have any questions, please contact Brian Leung at 3426 or brian.leung@csun.edu.
• The current University Catalog states: “In lecture courses, no final examination may be scheduled by an instructor prior to the regular scheduled time.” In order to change the date and time of a scheduled final exam, faculty need to have the written approval of the department chair and college dean.
• Please do not give incompletes without filling out the “Request for an Incomplete” form. You may only give an actual "incomplete" ( I ) if a) the student has completed the vast bulk of the work, b) she/he is passing the class, and c) if you and the student fill out and file a "Request for an Incomplete" form that is available online or in the mail room, detailing exactly what is still needed for completion.
• Students must use the new Change of Schedule forms for weeks 5-17 (February 28 through June 3) if they wish to request such changes as withdrawals. The new Change of Schedule form is available by going to CSUN's home page and clicking on Quick Links. Students should be aware that changes to class schedules during weeks 5 through 17 are normally not permitted. Each student will need to secure the instructor’s signature and submit the change of schedule form to the Associate Vice President of Undergraduate Studies or Graduate Studies within 14 days of the date on the signed form, but no later than June 3, 2005, for consideration.

3. Faculty/Student Achievements:

• Stephanie Satie’s review of Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? appeared in the Los Angeles Times, on April 4, 2005.
• Tony Arthur's review of a new anthology of writings by Upton Sinclair appeared in the Los Angeles Times Book Review on April 24, 2005. His biography, Upton Sinclair: Radical Innocent, will be published in June, 2006, by Random House.
• Robert Louis Chianese has been selected Head of the General and Interdisciplinary Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science--Pacific Division. He will present a panel paper "Varieties of Science-Humanities Convergences" at the organization's annual conference in Ashland, OR this June. Matt Bernstein and Karin Sabo, two graduate students in his Postmodern Literature and Culture seminar, will present papers as well.
• Scott Andrews has two reviews of books about American Indian veterans of the Vietnam War in the latest issue of Studies in American Indian Literatures: Of Uncommon Birth: Dakota Sons in Vietnam by Mark St. Pierre and Field of Honor by D.L. Hirschfield.
• Pam Bourgeois, Dorothy Clark, Irene Clark, and Jackie Stallcup attended the California Sate English Council Meeting in San Francisco. Jackie moderated a panel on "Hot Topics in Children's Literature" and gave a paper titled "To Instruct and Reform? Intersections Between Satire and Children’s Literature.”
• Karen Barkan has been accepted to an MFA program in creative writing at San Diego State University, and Brian Burns has been accepted to the Ph.D. program at George Washington University. Lydia Balian will be interning at UC Berkeley over the summer through the California Pre-Doctoral Summer Research Program.
• Kim Young has poems forthcoming in Pool and Tebot Bach’s Anthology of California Poetry.

4. New Items in the Thursday’s Notes file (ST 708) or on Bulletin Board (Outside 710)

Conferences and Calls for Papers

• CSUN’s First Annual Women’s Studies Conference will take place on Tuesday, May 3, from 8 a.m.-7 p.m., in the Whitsett Room, SH 451, and Wednesday, May 4, from 4:20 p.m.-8 p.m., in the Women’s Resource and Research Center. On Tuesday, the conference will be featuring a special performance of “Big Pharma” by playwright and actor, Jennifer Berry.

Lectures and Other Events

• The TNE workshop, “Preparing Teachers to Work Effectively in Diverse Communities,” is scheduled for Wednesday, May 4, from 1:00-3:00 p.m., in the Whitsett Room, SH 451. For more information, please contact x3301.

Jobs and Opportunities

• College of the Canyons invites applications for adjunct instructor positions. Application packets may be obtained by contacting the job line at 661-259-7800, ext. 7233, or http://www.canyons.edu.
• Tony Arthur has a neighbor in Woodland Hills whose nine-year-old boy needs tutoring in English. The boy has mild dyslexia, according to his father, who wants to hire someone for four hours a week through most of the summer, starting around June 20. Call Tony at 818-703-1286 for further details.

Compiled by Sandra Stanley, Associate Chair