October 19, 2007

New York University

New York, NY

• Agenda

• Meeting Details

• Logistics

• Registration

• Biographies of Presenters

• Minutes

Host: Matthew S. Santirocco

Dean, College of Arts and Science

New York University

100 Washington Square East, Room 910

New York, NY 10003

212-998-8100

The Northeast Regional Meeting

Agenda

 Locations:  Silver Center, Rooms 907 and 909D

The meeting will focus on general education at the research university.

 The discussion of general education at research universities will be organized around four inter-related topics. If you or a colleague would be interested in providing a Report from the Front to initiate the discussion on one of these topics, please contact us at reinventioncenter@miami.edu.

1. Challenges and Opportunities

Reports from the Front:

·         Findings from a 2006 Reinvention Center Study on the Status of Undergraduate Education at Research Universities: Wendy Katkin, Director of The Reinvention Center

·         A Case Study: The MAP at NYU: Eliot Borenstein, Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies, Director of Morse Academic Plan, NYU

2. General Education and Professional Schools

Conversation facilitator: Tom Gerety, former President of Amherst and Trinity Colleges and former Dean of the University of Cincinnati Law School, and Collegiate Professor, NYU

• How can professional schools contribute to general education?
• What initiatives have brought professional faculties in contact with undergraduates?

3. General Education and Global Citizenship

• Report from the Front: Connecting first-year writing courses to on-going global projects: Sanjeev Chatterjee, Vice Dean of the School of Communication, Associate Professor and Executive Director of the Knight Center for International Media, University of Miami, and Margaret Marshall, Associate Director of The Reinvention Center and Associate Professor of English, University of Miami

4. Math and Science within the Context of General Education

Conversation facilitator: William Segraves, Associate Dean of Yale College and Dean's Adviser on Science Education

• How can research universities make use of their best resources – research faculty – in teaching science and math courses for non-majors?
• How do innovative programs for undergraduates majoring in science translate to general education courses?

LOGISTICAL DETAILS: For information on nearby hotels and other logistics, check out the following Web sites:               

http://www.nyu.edu/about/virtual.html
http://www.nyu.edu/housing/offcampus/hotels.htm
http://www.nyu.edu/about/hotels.html

*To REGISTER for our upcoming meetings, please send an email to reinvention@miami.edu  indicating which of the meetings you will be attending. Include your name, title and institutional affiliation. If you are bringing colleagues with you, please provide their names and contact information as well.

Biographies of Featured Presenters:

Eliot Borenstein, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Russian & Slavic Studies at New York University and Director of the Morse Academic Plan for the College of Arts and Science at NYU, earned a B.A. in 1988 from Oberlin College, an M.A. in 1989 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Ph.D. and a PhD in 1993 from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Borenstein works primarily on twentieth- and twenty-first century Russian literature and culture, investigating questions of sexuality and masculinity, contemporary Russian popular culture, postmodernism, and theories of cultural transmission and cultural change. The Morse Academic Plan (MAP) of the College of Arts and Science is an integrated general education curriculum in the liberal arts. Students and faculty from the Steinhardt School of Education, Stern School of Business, Tisch School of the Arts and some other programs also participate in the MAP. In addition to the academic foundation it provides for students' future studies, the MAP defines the common experience of undergraduates across these different divisions of New York University. Through a challenging array of foundational courses the program heightens cultural awareness, hones critical reading skills, promotes creative and logical thinking, and gives students extensive practice writing and speaking English and proficiency in at least one other language. The MAP consists of four parts: the Expository Writing Program, study of a foreign language, the Foundations of Contemporary Culture (FCC), and the Foundations of Scientific Inquiry (FSI).

Tom Gerety, Collegiate Professor, joined the NYU faculty in 2005, having first come to NYU two years earlier to head the Brennan Center for Justice at the Law School. Before then he served as President of Amherst College from 1994 to 2003 and of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, from 1989 to 1994. From 1986 to 1989 he was the Dean and Nippert Professor at the College of Law of the University of Cincinnati. As a law professor he taught and wrote on constitutional law and political philosophy, with a special emphasis on First Amendment freedoms, including speech, privacy, and religious freedom. With Judy Woodruff, he wrote and narrated a PBS series, Visions of the Constitution, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Matthew S. Santirocco, Professor of Classics, Angelo J. Ranieri Director of Ancient Studies, and Associate Provost for Undergraduate Academic Affairs at NYU, became Dean of the College of Arts and Science in 1994. Dr. Santirocco works closely with colleagues in the Provost's office and the deans of the undergraduate schools to develop, assess, and improve academic initiatives, across school lines. These include common areas of the curriculum and co-curriculum, undergraduate research, interschool majors and minors, academic support services, and linkages between the academic and student life areas. Dr. Santirocco has particular interest and experience in curricular innovation. He worked with faculty to implement a new core curriculum (the Morse Academic Plan), a College-wide undergraduate research program, Freshman and Upper-level Collegiate Seminars, Sophomore Colloquia on the Disciplines, and a wide variety of interschool minors and certificates. At the University of Pennsylvania, where he had been Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences before coming to NYU, he developed humanities components for the MBA and Executive Education programs at the Wharton School, and worked with faculty to create an undergraduate dual degree program in International Studies. He has served on the Task Force on K-16 Education of the American Association of Universities, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Reinvention Center, a national organization dedicated to improving undergraduate education in research universities. Dr. Santirocco's research focuses on Greek and Roman literature. He founded and directs NYU's Center for Ancient Studies, which promotes interdisciplinary and cross-cultural study of the past. Dr. Santirocco holds a B.A. from Columbia University, a B.A. and M.A. from Cambridge University, and an M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Columbia University.

David A. Scicchitano, Collegiate Professor and Professor of Biology, also serves as the Director of Undergraduate Research in the College. His research interests include the way environmental agents, particularly chemicals, interact with and damage DNA, interfering with fundamental cellular process, and triggering pathology. He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals of his field, including Biochemistry, the Journal of Molecular Biology, the Journal of Biological Chemistry, and Environmental Health Perspectives. His research is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health. He has twice won the College’s Golden Dozen Award for Excellence in Teaching, as well as the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

Fred R. Myers, Chair and Professor of Anthropology, does research with Aboriginal people in Australia, concentrating on Western Desert people. He is interested in exchange theory and material culture, the intercultural production and circulation of culture, in contemporary art worlds, in identity and personhood, and in how these are related to theories of value and practices of signification. Dr. Myers has a B.A. from Amherst, and an M.A. and Ph.D. 1976, Bryn Mawr.

William Segraves, Associate Dean of Yale College, Dean's Advisor on Science Education, received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Stanford University and did postdoctoral study at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. In 1992, he joined the Yale faculty in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (then Biology), with a primary research focus on the hormonal regulation of reproduction and development. In 2000, he joined the Yale College Dean's Office as the Dean's Advisor on Science Education and has served since 2004 as Associate Dean for Science Education. Dr. Segraves works with the Dean on strategic planning and oversight of educational initiatives in science and quantitative reasoning, including: implementation of distribution requirements; new course development and course improvement; tutoring and other academic support programs; undergraduate research and other opportunities for experiential learning.

Sanjeev Chatterjee, Vice Dean of the School of Communication, Associate Professor and Executive Director of the Knight Center for International Media, University of Miami, is an award winning documentary filmmaker. Currently, Professor Chatterjee is directing a global project about potable water and other important issues related to natural resource sustainability throughout the world (www.onewater.org). "One Water" is a prototype high definition non-verbal film that has already been produced as part of this effort which won two awards at the Broadcast Education Association and has been screened at special United Nations conferences in 2004 and 2005. A feature version of “One Water” was released in the winter of 2006. Prof. Chatterjee's earlier documentary work explores issues of identity among people in the Indian diaspora. In 1999-2000, Professor Chatterjee was commissioned by the National Geographic Channel to produce television reports about environment and culture in India. The topics of these reports, which were part of National Geographic's prime time magazine show "National Geographic Today," ranged from deforestation and habitat fragmentation to the survival of folk and classical dance in India. In addition to his classroom responsibilities, Professor Chatterjee continues to work with students through the School of Communication's award winning Documentary Unit, which he founded in 1994. Professor Chatterjee has served on the Advisory Board for the Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy since its inception in 2003. In 2006 he accepted the responsibility to advise the global online enterprise databazaar.com on their philanthropy aimed at supporting American and Indian students in the fields of Visual Journalism. Professor Chatterjee earned his M.A, in English Literature from Delhi University and his M.F.A. in Television Production from Brooklyn College.

Wendy Katkin, is the Director of The Reinvention Center, a national organization established in 2000 to work for the improvement of undergraduate education at research universities. Dr. Katkin has long been involved in initiatives to enhance undergraduate education at research universities. In her previous positions as Associate Provost for Educational Initiatives and Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University at Stony Brook, she provided leadership in the development and implementation of programs to improve teaching and student learning. She founded and for five years directed Stony Brook's nationally-recognized Women in Science and Engineering project (WISE), designed to engage high-ability high school and college women in the excitement and challenge of science and math. She also initiated many of the University's undergraduate research programs. These innovations were critical to Stony Brook being one of ten research universities nationwide selected by the National Science Foundation in 1997 for a Recognition Award for the Integration of Research and Education (RAIRE). Dr. Katkin played a pivotal role in the activities cited by the TIAA-CREF when Stony Brook was one of three institutions honored in 1999 with a Theodore M. Hesburgh Certificate of Excellence for Faculty Development to Enhance Undergraduate Teaching and Learning. In 1991, she was cited by the U.S. Department of Energy for her contributions to the math and science education of minority students. Dr. Katkin has a PhD in English (1973; University at Buffalo) and an MS in Psychology (1976; University at Buffalo). She has written on issues relating to undergraduate education and to women in science, and is co-editor of a book, Beyond Pluralism: Essays on the Definition of Groups and Group Identities in American History (1998). Her three most recent publications are "Reinventing Undergraduate Education: Three Years After the Boyer Report" in Undergraduate Research: Models for Learning through Inquiry (Jossey-Bass, 2003); "The Integration of Research and Education: A Case Study in Reinventing Undergraduate Education at a Research University" in Reinvigorating the Undergraduate Experience through Research and Inquiry-Based Learning (Council of Undergraduate Research, 2003), and "Building Connections in Research Universities" published in Math & Bio 2010: Linking Undergraduate Disciplines (The Mathematical Association of America, 2004).

Margaret Marshall is Assistant Provost and Associate Director of The Reinvention Center and Associate Professor of English at the University of Miami. Dr. Marshall received her PhD from the Joint Program in English and Education at the University of Michigan in 1991. Previously, she served as the Director of English Composition at the University of Miami from 1999-2006. In that position, Dr. Marshall oversaw a curricular reform that took seriously the call to involve undergraduates in research even in first-year courses. Composing Inquiry: Methods and Readings for Investigation and Writing, a textbook for first-year courses built around inquiry projects designed to help students learn research methods and ways of presenting research in written forms, is due out in early 2008. Dr. Marshall is the author of two other books on the rhetoric of educational discourses: Contesting Cultural Rhetorics: Public Discourse and Education, 1890-1900 and Response to Reform: Composition and the Professionalization of Teaching. In 2002 she coordinated the compilation of research from across the 75-year history of the University of Miami and developed assignments and training that allowed the book, Bold Beginnings, Bright Tomorrows: An Anthology of Faculty Writings, to be used in undergraduate courses. Dr. Marshall has also published articles and given presentations on curricular objectives, student writing, the politics of writing centers, National Board Standards for teacher accreditation, the rhetoric of educational research, graduate student preparation to teach, and faculty development initiatives. She regularly teaches first-year composition as well as advanced courses in legal rhetoric, research writing, women’s rhetoric and pedagogy.