Thursday's Notes

1. Announcements:

• Please announce to your students that the Northridge Review is hosting a reading of the Fall 2005 issue of the magazine on Friday, November 4, at 7 p.m., in JR 319. Free refreshments will be served. Bring friends and family.
• Prizes and Awards: This fall the department will be awarding the Oliver Evans Prize for the best piece of prose, critical or creative, submitted in an upper division English course, and the Eva Latif Award, for the best piece of writing, critical or creative, on the subject of Children's Literature. Please submit papers to Beth Wightman by November 18, 12 p.m. If you have any questions, please contact Beth at beth.wightman@csun.edu or x3423.
• Please remember that according to university policy, “no final examination may be scheduled by an instructor prior to the regularly scheduled time” (p. 56 of the university catalog). In order to change the time and date of the scheduled final, the instructor will need written approval from the Department Chair and College Dean.

2. Reminders:

• The Office of Undergraduate Studies requests applications for the Probationary Faculty Support Program. Probationary faculty may apply for three units of released time for spring 2006. The deadline for submission of applications is 4 p.m. on November 4, 2005. Applications should be submitted to Dr. Cynthia Desrochers (mail code 8370), SH 437. Any questions should be directed to Cynthia Desrochers, x6536.
• On Friday, November 11, 12:00-1:30 p.m., in JR 319, Teachers for a New Era will be hosting a discussion on “High School and College Writing: Fostering Connections.” Christina Saidy, teacher in residence, will be a special guest. Please rsvp with irene.clark@csun.edu.
• Please remind your students that the 10th Annual CSUN Student Research and Creative Works Symposium is scheduled for Friday, November 11, 2005, in the USU, Grand Salon. This symposium provides a wonderful opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students to showcase their work and to see what their fellow students are doing.
• The Institute for Teaching and Learning invites proposals from faculty who are actively seeking or developing innovations and improvements in teaching and/or curricula for discipline- or program-specific systemwide or multi-campus initiatives during the 2005-2006 academic year. The intent of this ITL grant program is to enable faculty on different CSU campuses who teach in the same or similar programs to develop stronger curricula and more effective instructional approaches on their own campuses, building on the successes of colleagues elsewhere. Proposals should be submitted via email to ITL@calstate.edu by Monday, November 28, 2005. Questions may be addressed to cynthia.desrochers@csun.edu or ITL@calstate.edu.
• The CSUN Faculty Retreat 2006, “Creating a Collegial Community: Survival, Support, Scholarship, Social Relationships and Success,” will be held on January 23 and 24, 2006 at the Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach Resort in Oxnard.

3. Faculty/Student Achievements:

• Stephanie Satie was guest artist at the California Educators of Theatre Association Conference held at the Beverly Garland Hotel on October 9th.
• Graduate student Kate Martin Rowe's poem “Winter Orchids” has been accepted for publication in California Quarterly.
• Leilani Hall gave a poetry reading and ran a workshop at Indiana University Pennsylvania, October 12-14, 2005. She was the visiting poet, sponsored by the Honors English Program and Women's Studies.
• Marty Sayles presented a paper entitled “Portable Piety: Mourning Jewelry, Great Expectations, and the Rise of Commercial Capitalism” at the 10th annual Victorian Interdisciplinary Society of the Western United States conference. The event was hosted by the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque from October 26-28th.
• Last week, Irene Clark and Pam Bourgeois attended the California State University English Council meeting in San Diego.

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

Competitions and Fellowships

• The North American Review is accepting stories (7000 words maximum) for its Annual Kurt Vonnegut Fiction Prize. Submissions must be postmarked by December 31, 2005. Send two copies (with an $18 entry fee) to Kurt Vonnegut Fiction Prize, North American Review (WS), University of Northern Iowa, 1222 West 27 th Street, Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0516. Winners will be published in the North American Review.

Lectures and Other Events

• On Saturday, November 5, the AGSE will be sponsoring its next Graduate Reading Series event in the Noski Auditorium (corner of Plummer and Etiwanda) from 7-10 p.m. Tracey Ruby, Keith Onstad, and Olga Vaynkof will be reading from their work. Light refreshments will be served.
• The CSUN English Department and Red Hen Press are sponsoring an Evening with Sam Hamill on Tuesday, November 8, 7:00 p.m., in JR 319. A reception and book signing will follow the reading. The event is free and open to the public.
• On Wednesday, November 9, Dr. Diane Ravitch will speak on “The Future of Teacher Education in a Hostile Environment” in the USU, Grand Salon, from 3:00-5:00 p.m.

Jobs and Opportunities

• The Department of English at the University of California, Riverside expects to hire additional full and part-time Lecturers to teach Freshman Composition and/or Basic Writing classes in the Winter and Spring terms January 1, through June 30 of 2006. An M.A. and at least one year’s teaching experience at the college level are required for these appointments. The deadline for application is Tuesday, November 8, 2005. Please submit letter of application, curriculum vitae, verification of credentials, self-statement explaining your Composition pedagogy, student evaluations that cover an academic year, and three current letters of recommendation/dossier to Professor Rise B. Axelrod, Chair, Committee on Writing Courses, Department of English-040, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0323.
• Montclair State University invites applications for its Marie Frazee Professorship in Contemporary American Literature. Send a cover letter, a resume, and at least three letters of support to Dr. Larry Schwartz, Chair, English Department, Box C316-VF15, Montclair, NJ 07043. Review of applications will begin on November 1, 2005.
• Palomar College invites applications for two tenure-track assistant professor positions in English. Please submit a cover letter, a Palomar College Faculty Application for Employment, a resume, three letters of recommendation, official transcripts, and student evaluations from two classes taught within the last three years to Employment Services, Palomar College, 1140 W. Mission Rd., San Marcos, CA 92069. The first screening deadline is January 27, 2006. For further information, visit http://www.palomar.edu/hr/questions or e-mail palomarjobs@palomar.edu

Compiled by Sandra Stanley, Associate Chair