AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM
Wayne Glasker, Director

The African American Studies Program has completed another successful year of growth and accomplishment. For 2006-07 there were five majors in African American studies and eight minors. Three of the five majors graduated in May 2007. Curtis Williams, an honors student with a dual major in history and African American studies, graduated with a GPA of 3.8 and is pursuing graduate school. Marjorie Cutler, a dual major in history and African American studies, and India Hall, a dual major in psychology and African American studies, are both pursuing graduate study. Danielle Beebe, a history major with a minor in African American studies, graduated with a GPA of 3.7. She is in the Teacher Preparation Program and will become a teacher.

In the realm of curricular developments, courses related to African American studies continue to enjoy healthy enrollments. These courses include Race and Ethnicity, Afro-American Culture, African American History I and II, Peoples and Cultures of Africa, and the Civil Rights Movement. In Spring 2007, for example, African American History II had an enrollment of fifty students and the Civil Rights Movement had an enrollment of forty.

During the year the African American Studies Program sponsored or co-sponsored a number of co-curricular events. The program supported a trip to Warm Daddy’s Restaurant for the Afro-American Culture class, taught by Dr. Katrina Hazzard-Donald, to see a live blues performance. The program also supported a class trip for Dr. Hazzard-Donald’s seminar on Blacks and Indians. The class went to the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. The African American Studies Program also sponsored guest lectures by Professor Imani Perry (“Women of the Civil Rights Movement”) and Dr. Crystal Lucky of Villanova University (The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison), and a poetry reading by Ewuare Osayande.

Christopher Shaw participated in the Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity. He prepared a research paper on the history of the 108th Refueling Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard, with Dr. Wayne Glasker supervising his research. In Spring 2007 Dr. Glasker also taught Education in America for the Teacher Preparation Program. The course had an enrollment of 70 students and it provides an important service to the campus. Dr. Glasker also served as an instructor in the Roberto Clemente “American Freedom” course. This course is funded by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and the We the People initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and is sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH).

 
WALT WHITMAN PROGRAM IN AMERICAN STUDIES
Tyler Hoffman, Carol Singley, and Alan Tarr, Directors

Enrollment in the American Studies Program holds steady with 3-7 minors per year. Students who chose this minor pursue a variety of majors, including English, History, Economics, Sociology, and Political Science. There were four students with AS minors during spring semester 2007.

The curriculum requirements are unchanged. Students earn 18 credits for the minor. The required 3-credit course, “Introduction to American Studies,” is usually cross-listed with another course in FAS. The 3-credit capstone experience is usually conducted as an independent study supervised by one of the program’s three directors.

The success of the program depends upon continuing willingness of faculty and their departments, as well as support of the administration, to staff the introductory course. Examples of this year’s cross-listings include Lauren Grodstein’s “American Drama,” Jonathan Tittler’s “American Literature: Latino Writers,” Carol Singley’s “Modern American Novel,” Holly Blackford’s “Special Topics in American Literature: Southern American Literature,” Wayne Glasker’s “African-American History II,” Alan Tarr’s “American Political Thought,” and Roberta Tarbell’s “Twentieth Century American Art.” The program plans similar future cross-listings and gratefully acknowledges all faculty participation.

American Studies minors Matthew Gormley and James Terway made the Dean’s List in Spring 2007. In Spring 2007, Matthew Gormley conducted research on the alternatives for American foreign policy in the 21st century under the direction of co-director Alan Tarr.

Activities of note include the program’s co-sponsorship of a talk by Professor Katherine Sibley of St. Joseph’s University on “First Ladies of the Early Twentieth Century.” The program provides funding for the Mickle Street Review, an online Whitman Studies/American Studies journal.

The program communicates with and recruits students through a brochure and website. It also sponsors faculty-student lunches where students learn more about the program and interact with faculty on topics related to American Studies. Those invited to lunch include AS minors and students in the Honors College, who may opt for an interdisciplinary minor such as American Studies in order to fulfill program requirements.

The program continues to serve students who desire interdisciplinary work on American topics. It supports the development of informed, critical perspectives on American culture and society and demonstrates how American history, literature, popular culture, politics, and art all come together to create national experience.

 
CLASSICAL STUDIES PROGRAM
Shanyn Fiske, Director

The Classical Studies minor is an interdisciplinary and multicultural field of study that was designed to help students acquire a well-rounded liberal arts education and supplement their major work in other humanities and social science disciplines. The minor focuses on world civilizations dating from earliest known history to the fifth century CE. Ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt are the civilizations most often associated with Classical Antiquity, but the Classical Studies minor at RU-C also includes the period of early Christendom, which is the direct inheritor of the Greco-Roman world and whose assumptions and ideas lay the foundation of Late Antiquity. Studies of the Classical and Late Antique worlds form the core of the minor program, and all courses associated with the minor deal with material from these two periods for at least 50% of the course (in most cases for 90%-100% of the course) and use this time period as the basis for study of other course material. By bringing together the methods of seven disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, the program provides students with important facts about the ancient world, encourages them to identify parallels between the ancients and the moderns, and helps them develop transferable skills of analysis, comparison, and debate.

The minor was approved by the CCAS Faculty Senate in Spring 2006 and currently
enrolls seven students. Meghan Freyer (English) was the first student to graduate with this minor in Spring 2007 and has gone on to a master’s program in Education at Monmouth University. Jeff Boettcher (English) will graduate with the minor in Fall 2007, and he will be taking a teaching position at Girard College starting in Spring 2008. The program is tremendously proud of its first graduates and hopes that the classical background they have received from RU-C has prepared them well for their future teaching endeavors.

The program has encouraged departments to offer courses that have lain
dormant in past years as well as prompted students to venture into fields they otherwise might not have explored. This past spring (’07), students in the minor enjoyed Dr. Susan Jones’s course on Greek Art; Dr. Clifford Brown’s Introduction to Philosophy; Dr.
Gerald Verbrugghe’s Athens: The Golden Age; Dr. Kenneth Banner’s Jews, Christians,
and Muslims; and Dr. Christopher Fitter’s The Bible as Literature. Spring 2008 promises to offer an equally rich array of courses including Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Introduction to the Bible, Classical Political Theory, and Classical Backgrounds to English Literature.
The last course will include material from the program director’s forthcoming book
Heretical Hellenism: Women Writers, Ancient Greece, and the Victorian Popular
Imagination (Ohio 2008). The program anticipates increasing enrollment and hopes to hold a Classical Studies conference in Fall 2008, when students will have a chance to deliver papers on Classical topics drawn from classes participating in the minor.

 
EUROPEAN STUDIES PROGRAM
Jean-Louis Hippolyte and Andrew Lees, Directors

The minor in European Studies offers students a wide variety of ways in which they can gain recognition for learning about a diverse, fascinating, and important part of our world. Because a great many of our own institutions and customs can easily be traced either to Britain or the European continent, learning about these areas can serve as an excellent way of understanding much of the background to American history, society, and culture.

Many fields, from education and the arts to government, business, and scientific research, have increasing interactions with European countries. Because of these interactions and because of the wide range of courses and research options offered, this minor provides an added opportunity to prepare for careers in a variety of fields.

Our first year of operation has been primarily devoted to putting the European Studies Program on the academic and administrative map and starting to advertise it among students. As a consequence, most of the benchmarks described in the annual report requirement letter may not yet apply.

At least two students have graduated in Spring 2007 with a minor in European Studies, and more have already shown a marked interest in completing the course of studies for ES in the coming semesters.

To create visibility for the minor, several steps were taken. A web site was created, with technical help and creative advice from Edward Docktor. A poster detailing the objectives and academic requirements of the ES minor was put together and posted around campus. A brochure has been designed and will be distributed to incoming fall students. Most of the budget will go toward covering expenses associated with the design and production of the brochure. Also, the ES minor was introduced to all relevant departments through meetings and individualized conversations. All departments were advised and encouraged to cross-list ES offerings with all relevant courses, as well as on their respective departmental websites. Future events will include (but are not limited to): academic conferences and talks by outside speakers, and other cultural events (concerts, etc.).

Our aim is to generate interest for ES in FAS and start building the minor, as well as further interest in the participating disciplines, from English to Political Science. Any talk of creating a major is premature at this point, but there is no reason why such a development could not be envisioned in the not too distant future.

 
FILM STUDIES
Allen Woll, Director

This year the Film Studies Program held the second annual New Century Cinema Film Festival at the Rutgers-Camden Gordon Theater. High school and college students from the Delaware Valley were invited to enter their short films in competition for a series of juried and audience prizes. The event attracted more than 200 area students and spectators to our campus. As part of this year’s festival, and in conjunction with the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, the festival had two film guests. Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky, visited the campus the night before the festival and participated in a panel discussion with Robert Emmons and Professor Wayne Glasker. Following the panel, Miller performed his audio/video piece Rebirth of a Nation. As this year’s keynote speaker the festival had documentary filmmaker Chris Paine come to speak to young filmmakers and then screen his recent documentary Who Killed the Electric Car.

Film studies was also a co-sponsor of the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts event: “A Performance and Discussion with Philip Glass.” As part of Glass’s visit Robert Emmons curated a two week-long film series of his work that screened in the Stedman Art Gallery.

The Film Studies Program continues to offer a number of courses drawn from a variety of departments. With digital filmmaking erasing the boundaries between film, art, animation, and computer graphics, students from almost all disciplines are participating in film studies and filmmaking. The Fine Arts Department continues to expand its offerings in filmmaking, computer graphics, and animation. The English Department offers courses in screenwriting, the history of film, the depiction of minorities in popular film, and specific film genres. Other departments, such as Religion, Foreign Languages, and History, also continue to offer a variety of courses in specific aspects of the role of film in history and culture.

This year marked the completion of the jointly produced student/faculty film A Tale of Two Cities. The documentary explored the residential experience of Camden and Moorestown and interviewed Rutgers-Camden experts in the area of politics, urban studies, history, and psychology. The film was invited to premiere at the Mt. Holly Library at its First Night Festival on December 31st, 2006. It also was the closing film at this year's NCCFF and was highlighted in an article in the Courier-Post.

The Honors College also ran the film studies course: “The Informed Critic.” The class brought the Philadelphia Inquirer’s distinguished critic Carrie Rickey in to speak to students about film reviewing. The class included visits to local film theaters followed by discussions in class.

Finally, as a testament to the film work being done by students on campus, two students named Peter Gambino and Justin Silverman, had their films accepted into this year’s Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity.

 
FRESHMAN SEMINAR PROGRAM
Joe Barbarese, Director

The Freshman Seminar program, formally approved by the CCAS Faculty Senate in Fall 2003 after a three-year pilot program, is now in its sixth year. The value of such programs is recognized by universities across the country. Retention of each year’s new class of freshmen and future recruitment of high-quality freshmen in a competitive educational market-place require serious attention to the first educational experiences a student will have at CCAS. Experts agree that small seminars for beginning students are one of the most promising educational opportunities that public universities can offer.
Registration for the Fall 2006 seminars remained consistent with that of previous years; there was a modest increase in offerings from nine (2005) to eleven. The remaining five seminars had total enrollment of about 100 students, down 25% from the Fall 2004. Seminars were offered by faculty in the fields of Biology, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, and Religion.

Succeeding Stuart Charmé as director of the seminar series, I met with Dean Margaret Marsh and Associate Dean Michael Palis, along with Associate Dean Nancy Rosoff and Assistant Dean Nancy Gulick, at separate times during the 2006-07 school year in order to argue for a modification in the present design of our first year seminars. Quickly summarized, these modifications are as follows:

• The inclusion and henceforth the designation of all sections of English 099 and 101 as Freshman or First Year Seminars, giving us the advantage of including the English Department in the full roster of departments who contribute teaching power to the program.
  
  
• The enlistment into the First Year Seminar faculty of Teaching Assistants and Part-time Lecturers. This, the most adventurous departure from our existing model, will allow us to lay the foundation for greater participation of the English Department, whose disciplinary presence in other programs of this nature is traditionally greater than it has been in Camden.
  
  
• A series of practicum sessions, led by the director and invited faculty, devoted to conversations about and presentations of practical first-year pedagogy, to run concurrently with the fall offerings. These practicum sessions would be mandatory for all PTLs or TAs teaching in the program and voluntary for all others.

A change in the name of the program from the Freshman Seminar Program to the First-Year Experience, based, again, on the fact that the term freshman is falling into institutional disuse and being replaced by the non-sexist term first-year.
These recommendations were, after extensive discussion, approved by the deans. Our plan is to revisit this new design at the end of the Spring 2009 semester.

One note: As a participant in President Richard McCormick’s Rutgers Traveling Seminar for 2007, among the many things I learned is that our New Brunswick campus, under the direction of Dean Barry Qualls, will launch, a series of First-Year Seminars for the first time in its history this coming semester. There are significant differences, however, between the New Brunswick design and our own, either as proposed for the coming year or in the past. The New Brunswick model proposes to run a modest offering of one-credit courses, each of which will be taught by a full-time faculty member and will last only six weeks. Though each course is content-rich and staffed by permanent members of the faculty, each lacks Camden’s emergent design of three-credit seminars that specifically address the need for study- and work-skills.

 THE HONORS COLLEGE
Allen Woll, Director

The Honors College began its tenth year of operation with a class of sixty new students who were recipients of a variety of awards, including the Academic Excellence Scholarship (57), the Dean’s Scholarship (17), and Outstanding Scholar Recruitment Program [OSRP] (15), Director’s Scholarships (3), and the Carr Scholarship (5). Students came to Rutgers-Camden from South Jersey as well as from California and New York. They joined a total of 250 students already enrolled in the Honors College. This year marked the addition of Mary Clare Chezik, currently in the master’s program in English, to the Honors College as administrative assistant.

Honors seminars offered in Fall 2006 included “Childhood, Health, and Illness;” “Statistics Using Baseball Data;” “The Politics of Suicide Bombing and the History of Jihad;” “Psychology of Leadership;” and “The Graphic Novel: An Interdisciplinary Approach.”

Spring 2007 seminars included “Gender Matters in Art;” “The Informed Critic: Film Review Writing and Presentation;” “The Case of the Killer Robot;” “Mathematics in Popular Culture;” “What Do Historians Do?;” “Law, the State, and the Family;” “The Psychology of Eating;” and “Approaches to Leadership.”

As part of a continuing effort to bring new experiences into the classroom as well as move beyond the classroom to educate, the Honors College held a series of educational trips in conjunction with this year’s seminars while also inviting expert guest lecturers to visit the seminars. Trips included: the Reading Terminal Market, The National Archives, The National Gallery, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Zimmerli Gallery, The Ritz, and the Philadelphia Art Museum. Guest speakers included: Carrie Rickey of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Matthew Sorrento of FilmThreat.com. Also, as part of the “Informed Critic” seminar, students created their own film criticism webisodes and blogs that will be posted to the Honors College website.

The Honors College cosponsors annual events with its related organizations, the Honors Student Organization and the Honors Advisory Board. This year the partnerships held trips to the King Tut Exhibits at the Franklin Institute, Ethnic Food Night Thai, WMGK Studio tour, WHYY Membership Drive, Ronald McDonald House, as well as cosponsoring three campus-wide events: the Costume Ball, the Battle of the Bands, and Campus Quizzo.

To fulfill their requirements for junior-year and/or senior-year projects, Honors College student obtained internships with various institutions and have traveled to South Africa.

As part of the campus-wide student research initiative, the Honors College had nine students present at this year’s Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity. Presentations included: Jamie Boulden, Quantifying Extracellular Thyroid Hormone in Adult Rat Brain; Mishae Khan (with Ross Brockunier and Jessica Lindorff), Laser Ablation Filming on Biological Growth Medium; Tanya Petrov (with DeAnn Cox, Kelli Forest, and Steffanie Ruoff), I’m Not a Racist…But; Kristin Curtis, Sexual Victimization Against Cognitively Impaired Populations; Laura Goins, Projection of Sexual Enjoyment of Others; Nathan Hitchen, A Great Power: The American Executive and His Energy in War; Grace Keene, Magic and Christianity: A Secret Romance; Philip Osborne, Ontological Arguments: An Investigation; and Mathew Wright, Variations on a Theme by Camus.

In November 2006, eight students (James Terway, Danielle Reiss, Joshua Hanson, Nicole Lister, Michael McClain, Kwan Hui, and Brandi Scardilli), as well as Director Allen Woll, Associate Director Robert Emmons, and Assistant Professor Paul Bernstein represented the Honors College at the National Collegiate Honors Council Conference in Philadelphia. Students attended a variety of informative sessions and brought home new and exciting ideas that are already being implemented in the classroom. As part of this year’s conference, Emmons and Bernstein presented their research and course plan for Bernstein’s creative writing course “The Divided Self.” Emmons made audio recordings of the student writings and posted them as podcasts on the Honors College website. The presentation was titled “Technology in the Honors Seminar: Having Student Voices Heard through Podcasting.”

Emmons and Woll gave a similar presentation at the International Conference on The First-Year Experience in Toronto in July 2006. Their session was titled “Technology and the First-Year Seminar: Podcasting.”

Many Honors College students received high honors and offices this year as well. Maxim Kind served as the 2006-2007 S.G.A. president, continuing a seven year-long tradition of Honors College members serving as student government leaders. The Phi Beta Kappa Society inducted six Honors College students this year: Paola Antenucci, Nishita Desai, Diana Marko, Mathew Wright, Melissa Friedberg, and Andre Zazzera.

The Honors College continues its Professional and Graduate School Luncheon Seminars that included a Pre-Med Workshop Luncheon with Dr. Wanda Ronner, a Pre-Law Workshop Luncheon with former Honors College student and Rutgers Law graduate Jenny Owens, the “Welcome to the Business School Advisory Lunch,” and our Night of Honors Senior Dinner.

The Honors College has the pleasure of seeing its graduates continue their education at various colleges and universities including University of Pennsylvania Dental School, University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School, Rutgers School of Business-Camden M.B.A. Program, Widener Law School, The Graduate School at Rutgers-Camden, Purdue University Graduate School, and Georgetown University Law School. Many of our students have entered directly into the workplace with teaching positions and careers in business and the sciences.

This year also marks our first entrants into the Rutgers Law School from the B.A./J.D. program: Robert Cahall, Rachel Scarlata, and Randy Ford.

This year the International Studies Program continued to make an important contribution to the college curriculum and to campus life generally. The program ran fewer tours than usual--just four--but through effective collaboration and cross-listing managed to offer credit in seven subject areas. Especially gratifying this year were collaborations between English and the Business School (Tyler Hoffman offered a course in South African literature and his students traveled with business students to Cape Town and Johannesburg) and between Fine Arts and Foreign Languages (Martin Rosenberg and Norman Ellman taught distinct courses and then joined their students for a trip to Paris and Tours). Also, two faculty members in Psychology, Naomi Marmorstein and Sean Duffy, participated in the program for the first time, taking students to Japan.

One trip did not succeed: this was a study tour to Mexico cross-listed between Latin American Studies and Sociology. The courses were offered as free-standing three-credit courses, with a fourth credit available to students taking the trip and completing extra assignments. It seems apparent that the possibility of an extra credit is not sufficiently attractive to students, given the cost of the trip, which is as much as $3000 in some cases. So the program will investigate the possibility of offering 1.5 credits (for an appropriate academic effort) in the hopes that students will consider completing two study tours, for the equivalent of a standard course, during their time at Rutgers. This option may be especially attractive to Liberal Studies graduate students.

With the resources provided through our supplemental budget by contributions by alumni, twenty-six students received financial aid totaling $8400. The program paid honoraria of $1000 to Ken Hohing, Martin Rosenberg, Naomi Marmorstein, and Sean Duffy. Norman Ellman received $500.

Though the program continues to depend upon several stalwart faculty members (including two important PTLs) and a few key departments, I want to highlight our developing relationship with the Department of Foreign Languages, which (before last year) had not participated in International Studies over the past six or eight years, and with Psychology. Liberal Studies continues to be an extremely useful partner, since courses can be easily cross-listed there.

In the last couple of years, we've had some success in encouraging departments to include study tours more fully into their planning and to think of international study as a matter of departmental interest; we'd like more full-time faculty to participate, and we'd like more of them to do their courses in load, allowing for more time in the classroom and a more fully developed context for the tour. An area of concern continues to be the state budget, which will make smaller courses more difficult to run and force us to depend more on the "seminar" model, with courses taken on as overloads and with just fifteen hours of class meetings.

2007-08 will mark the first year in which the Stainrook Foundation International Studies Scholar Grants will be made. These will be available to students who matriculated at Rutgers as first-year students with a cumulative average of 3.5.

The construction of a new program website is well underway. It will not only advertise our program; it will also advise students and faculty on how the program runs, and it will enable paperwork to be completed much more effectively.

Spring 2008 promises to go very well, with study tours planned to Egypt and Jordan, Peru, South Africa, Barcelona, France, Norway and Sweden, Ireland, and Paris and Burgundy. Especially noteworthy is a collaboration on the Peru trip between Lauren Grodstein (Travel Writing) and Ken Hohing (Photography) as well as a new trip to France arranged by the Business School. This trip should provide a basis, in future years, for additional collaborations between Arts and Sciences and Business. This year, for the first time, we are using the 090 (Arts and Sciences) rubric to list one of our undergraduate courses, Ancient Egypt.

 
LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM
Carla Giaudrone, Director

Upon completion of its successful third year, the Latin American Studies Program keeps growing with five minors registered this year. Students who choose this minor generally pursue a major in Spanish. One of the program’s goals for the next academic year is to increase the number of minors and attract more students with majors in other departments and programs. To reach this goal, the LAS program will invite department directors to encourage their students to enroll in courses offered by the program, as well as further collaboration and team teaching with other interdisciplinary fields such as Film Studies, International Studies, and Women’s Studies.

To date, the Latin American Studies Program has consistently been comprised of courses offered by other programs such as History, Sociology, Anthropology, Spanish language and literatures, Political Science, and Psychology. This academic year, Professor Ted Goertzel from the Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice Department, taught Introduction to Latin American Studies, thus adding to the program a different methodology and approach. The enrollment of students for this introductory course is dependably steady.

In the area of research done by students, Nicole Estrella finished an independent study on Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío’s views on the United States, directed by Professor Carla Giaudrone, and Diego Panasiti completed his Honors Thesis in Spanish and Latin American Studies entitled “[Re] creating insurgency: The “other” methods of struggle of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation,” co-directed by Professor Jonathan Tittler and Professor Giaudrone. All three Latin American Studies minors graduating in May 2007 graduated with honors. Diego Panasiti and Paola Antenucci also received the 2007 Michele Muncy Academic Excellence Award. Diego was accepted to the master’s program at the University of Maryland with a full fellowship in the Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures Department.

True to its interdisciplinary approach, the program enlists the participation of a wide array of specialized guest lecturers. In Spring 2007, Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, professor of Latin American History and director of the Program in Latin American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, gave a talk on working-class women in Colombia. Beyond the scholarly contribution, Farnsworth-Alvear’s visit fosters stronger bonds between the two LAS programs.

Simultaneously, the LAS Program continues to work closely with IDEAS, the active and successful Spanish club at Rutgers-Camden. In Spring 2007, the program sponsored and co-organized with IDEAS a colloquia on Cuba that counted on the participation of the program director, Professor Giaudrone, Professor Lorrin Thomas from the Department of History, and Professor Frank Argote-Freyre from Kean University. The event drew an overwhelming number of audience members, among which was a specially invited group of students from Leap Academy University Charter School. The large turnout and active participation of the audience, through questions and comments to the participants of the panel, demonstrated the spreading interest in themes and issues related to the Caribbean in general. Likewise, the positive experience with the students of Leap Academy opened the doors to a productive exchange within Camden’s educational community.

 
LIBERAL STUDIES PROGRAM
Carol Singley, Director

The Undergraduate Liberal Studies Program continues to be successful, holding steady with 27 students enrolled. Although more growth is welcome, it is likely that off-site liberal studies programs in Atlantic County may be enrolling some students who otherwise might attend RU-C, so a number even with last year may, in fact, reflect modest growth. Enrollment in the two required courses for the major, Mastering the Liberal Arts I and II, is steady.

The program continues to benefit from the experience of adjunct instructor Maggie Piccolo in Mastering the Liberal Arts I and II. Her theme this year, “Love,” lends itself to interdisciplinary approaches, and students report high satisfaction with the course content and pedagogy. Maggie is highly involved with her students, maintains excellent communication with the director, and helps the program’s non-traditional students adjust to college life.

Coordination with Burlington County College led to a new program, Human Services, to be eligible for transfer to Liberal Studies at RU-C.

Marci LaDage received the Osher Reentry Scholarship for returning adult learners who have been out of school for more than five years. Chrysta McClain received the University College scholarship. She was also awarded a summer internship with the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs. Robert Packowski received the annual Undergraduate Liberal Studies Award for high achievement. He graduated with a perfect 4.0. Three seniors graduated with a major of 3.50 or higher.

All students enrolled in Mastering the Liberal Arts II completed a research project. Several were outstanding. Edith Weger did extensive research and presented on "Dying to be Thin," which uncovered the damaging effects of media on young women's self esteem and body image. James Wroblewski did extensive research and presented on “The New Rules of the Game: Doping and Professional Sports.” Dominick Ruggiero showed extensive connections and similarities in the goals of the Iroquois Confederacy and the U.S. Constitution, penned after the Confederacy document. Allene Patterson produced a strong essay, still in progress, on “Ways to Assist the Homeless.” What makes her presentation particularly compelling was that she, too, was homeless at one time. Allene's area of strength, with the right tutelege, will be her poetry.

Also notable is Robert Packowski’s project on the rebuilding of New Orleans. Earning a B.A. in liberal studies from RU-C has allowed him to make a transition from nursing, for which he was trained, to other opportunities. He is current applying for job openings in New Orleans as: a) Library Associate at Tulane University, b) Park Guide for the National Park Service in the historic French Quarter, and c) Passport Specialist with the U.S. State Department. His success exemplifies the benefits of the Liberal Studies Program.

Liberal Studies Suppers, open to the campus community, continued this year. Invited speakers included Dr. Carol Singley, who presented on “Whitman and Love;” Dr. Roberta Tarbell, who spoke the art of Auguste Rodin; and Dr. John Wall, who discussed “Ethics and Children.” The program also sponsored a Student Essay Contest with cash awards for the winning essays.

The outlook continues to be positive. The program effectively serves a group of non-traditional students who otherwise might not attend college. Frequent academic advising as well as communication with Student Affairs, the Registrar, and Admissions is essential so that students can complete both general requirements and major requirements in two years. It is challenging for full-time students enrolled only in the evening to find appropriate courses; more evening offerings would be welcome.

Getting the word out to county colleges about the program continues to be a priority. Our main sending institutions are Camden County College and Burlington County College. Mailings, phone calls, and campus visits keep transfer counselors and program coordinators informed about the program. This year postcards as well as emails targeted current AAS students and recent graduates. An article in the education section of the Inquirer also publicized the program.

 
TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAM
Sara M. Becker, Associate Director

Currently, there are 152 students actively enrolled in the program. Of these, 43 are males and 109 are females. There are 65 students seeking elementary certification (K-5) and 87 seeking subject-matter certification (K-12). Of these eighty-seven subject-matter certification students, 37 have a Social Studies concentration, 27 English, 9 Mathematics, 5 Art, 4 Spanish, 2 Biological Sciences, and 1 each in French, Theater Arts, and Music. Seventeen of these 152 students are seeking dual certification. The largest numbers of students are in the following majors: English (42); History (27); and Psychology (16). There are 36 four-year Rutgers-Camden students, 86 undergraduate transfer students, and 30 post-baccalaureate students in the program. During the 2006-2007 academic year, 89 students completed our various certification programs.
On June 15, 2006, both the entrance and course requirements changed for all of our certification programs. Students seeking entry into the program are now required to pass the course, “Fundamentals of the Teaching Profession” (50:964:101) with a grade of “B” or higher, in addition to meeting the previously established program admission requirements. Since its first offering in the Fall 2006 semester, 285 students have completed this course. Although we have admitted a significantly smaller number of students this academic year as compared to recent years (33 students), we now have 270 (taking into account the “B” or higher entrance requirement) students who can become eligible to enter the program, assuming all other entrance requirements are satisfied. The drop-off in the number of students entering the program is a direct result of the new entrance requirement – we could not accept any new students from June 15, 2007 until late December 2007, after the fall grades were posted and interested students could show that they had taken and successfully passed the “Fundamentals” course. Therefore, although program criteria have become more stringent, interest in the program is still quite high.

Much of the 2006-2007 academic year has been dedicated to program development and enhancement. We have implemented a series of online evaluative instruments for our students during their field experiences. Additionally, we have submitted a proposal to the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) seeking a pre-accreditation status and we are preparing for the TEAC audit visit in late November 2007. In terms of curriculum, as of June 15th, 2006, the professional core has been expanded to include “Contemporary Issues” courses in Elementary and Secondary Education (50:964:301, 302). In April 2007, we welcomed Ms. Ann Heidelberg as our new assistant director. Sadly, on May 11th, 2007 our friend, colleague, and Director, Mr. Lou Fuller, passed away. His knowledge, expertise, and overall presence are missed by both staff and students alike.

Our relationship with a large number and variety of local school districts continues. During the 2006-2007 academic year, we placed 89 Practicum students in 23 different urban and suburban school districts, including Camden city schools (7 different schools). These placements ranged from Burlington to Cape May counties. We also placed 89 student teachers in 31 different school districts.

We are also very pleased to announce that for the academic year 2006-2007 we had two student winners for the New Jersey Commissioner of Education’s Distinguished Teacher Candidate Award – Ms. Jeanine Motta (teacher of Spanish, K-12) and Mr. Edwin Gonzalez (teacher of Spanish, K-12). Jeanine and Edwin were two of only 15 student teachers chosen throughout the entire state to win the award. In addition, Edwin was presented with the Nancy Higginson Dorr Award (secondary education) and Ms. Phenice Chapman was presented with the Distinguished Elementary School Candidate Award at the 2007 Honors Convocation.
Our staff members continue to participate in the activities of the New Jersey Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (NJACTE), the New Jersey Field Directors' Forum (NJFDF) and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council Consortium (sponsored by Princeton University's Program in Teacher Preparation).
The TPP is dedicated to continuing our efforts to balance content area knowledge, pedagogy, professionalism, and critical contemporary issues in department course offerings; ensuring high quality field experiences; and providing a functional support system for students throughout their program journey.

 
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
Margaret Marsh, Dean
Christopher Dougherty, Associate Dean

In Fall 2006, University College-Camden (UCC) enrolled over 700 non-traditional students at either the Camden campus or off-campus locations--at the Western Monmouth Higher Education Center (WMHEC) in Freehold or the Atlantic County location in Mays Landing. University College serves those learners who require the support of a comprehensive liberal arts program at times or in locations not normally accessible to the traditional full-time day student. Consistent with trends at the Camden campus beginning in the mid-1980s, UCC students today tend to be younger, tend to be more interested in full-time study, and are much more likely to be transfer students than first-time college students. These trends also are manifested nationwide at a majority of the institutions that serve adult learners.

In Fall 2006, Rutgers-Camden began delivering its Liberal Studies Program at the newly-opened Rutgers at Atlantic Cape location. Centered on the Mays Landing campus of Atlantic Cape Community College (ACCC), this new center mimics WMHEC in its organization under the Division of Continuous Education and Outreach (DCE&O), with an Academic Programs Manager responsible for many aspects of recruitment and advising. Beginning Fall 2007, UCC will deliver five undergraduate programs at the Atlantic Cape location: Criminal Justice, General Science, Liberal Studies, Political Science, and Psychology. In conjunction with those efforts, UCC has participated in a number of meetings with staff and faculty at ACCC, including a daylong presentation during the ACCC faculty retreat conducted by the Associate Dean for UCC along with representatives of DCE&O.

UCC continues to offer Saturday courses in Camden and also initiated the delivery of “blended” courses at the off-campus locations. These courses--delivered partly in the classroom, partly online--provide students with increased flexibility in scheduling and take advantage of some of the unique learning experiences that can be delivered in online environments. Blended courses at the off-campus locations are delivered using technology provided by DCE&O with faculty support provided by the Program Administrator for Instructional Design and Technology at the Camden campus. UCC expects to expand the options for blended learning, as they have proven popular with off-campus students and faculty alike.

 
WOMEN’S STUDIES PROGRAM
Laurie Bernstein, Director

Eight students registered in Fall 2006 as minors in Women’s Studies. The Introduction to Women’s Studies course continued to attract significant enrollment, with 45 students taking the Fall 2006 class taught by Julie Still. At present, more than 50 members of the
Rutgers-Camden faculty, including representatives from the Schools of Law and Business, count themselves as Women’s Studies advisers.

During this academic year, African-American Studies, Anthropology, Art History, Biology, Criminal Justice, English, History, Honors, Psychology, Religion, Social Work, and Sociology offered a total of 35 courses that fulfilled the Women’s Studies requirements. In Spring 2006, professors from the departments of English, History, Management, Philosophy and Religion, Psychology, and Public Policy and Administration contributed to the Senior Seminar in Women’s Studies, assigning works in their field and attending individual sessions.

Women’s Studies continues to work on behalf of students, the community, and the campus as a whole. It made its biggest mark during March 2007, Women’s History Month, with diverse, fascinating, and well-attended events. Dr. Martha Hodes from New York University’s Department of History delivered the keynote speech for both International Women’s Day (March 8th) and the annual Phi Alpha Theta induction on the subject of her recent, much-celebrated book, The Sea Captain’s Wife: A True Story About Love, Race, and War in the Nineteenth Century. A lunchtime panel early in March called “Jewish Girls Talk Guilt” featured Lauren Grodstein from the Department of English and Elisa Albert, contributors to the collection The Modern Jewish Girl’s Guide to Guilt. Dr. Charlotte Markey in the Psychology Department invited a colleague from Villanova who presented recent findings in a March 21st talk entitled “How different is ‘different’? Making sense of gender differences and similarities.” Dr. Christine Thurlow Brenner from the Department of Public Policy and Administration delivered the final lecture for Women’s History Month on “Changing Places, Changing Faces: Latina Administrators and Inclusive Governance.”

Women’s Studies kept faculty and interested staff apprised of events on and around campus through emails and its website. It sponsored two new summer courses, one cross-listed with History on American women’s lives taught by Temple University Ph.D. candidate Diana Reinhard, and a second cross-listed with Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice called “Twenty-first Century Slavery” and taught by Karynna Baresel.

Women’s Studies awarded the first of what will be an ongoing annual prize to a graduating minor with the highest grade point average in Women’s Studies courses. The first recipient is Alexandria Hammond, a Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice major.