Sepi Yalda, Chair Earth Sciences
Inese Wheeler Counseling
Alan Kelly English
Tom O'Brien Educational Foundations
Tim McDevitt Mathematics
Ann Gantt Social Work
Todd Mealy Student Senate Representative

Proposed Themes for the 2002-2003 Academic Theme

1. Crossing Boundaries: Decolonializing the Curriculum
Proposed by: Leroy Hopkins (Foreign Languages)
Other participants: Beverly Skinner, Steve Centola, Steven Miller, Kirsten Bookmiller, Kenneth Shields, Diane Umble, Khalil Hamid,
Marjorie Warmkessel, Sam Casselberry

2. A Commitment to Honor and Excellence
Proposed by: Kathy Schreiber (Geography)

 3. Emerging Opportunities for Graduates of the 21" Century
Proposed by: Rich Clark (Earth Sciences)

 4. Unity through Diversity
Proposed by: Millersville University Commission on Cultural Diversity

Crossing Boundaries: Decolonializing the Curriculum

A small collaborative consisting of representatives from Economics, English, Communications/Theater, Foreign Languages, International Studies, and Honors Program has formed with the intent of applying to host the academic theme for 2002-03. We intend to title the theme: "Crossing Boundaries: Decolonializing the Curriculum. Should our theme be chosen, then we will attempt to get Dr. Edward Said (author of Orientalism and many other standard works of cultural criticism) as a keynote speaker to kick-off what we hope will be a two semester-long program of workshops, speakers, films, and reading groups. Dr. Said is internationally recognized as one of the leading critics of culture living today. His works are routinely cited along with "classicists" such as Foucault, Derrida, Lacan, etc. His appearance on campus would attract attention throughout the system. Consequently, we are going to ask him if he would be willing to participate in a system-wide video conference that would allow students and faculty at all 14 campuses to interact with him. Likewise, the Honors Program is contemplating having one of his books on the reading list for Honors Program freshmen. Both Dr. Said's visit and the reading/discussion activities would be inaugural events. During the rest of the year we would invite speakers to engage in workshop/course development activities that would address the theme in each school. Specific goal would be to create a dialogue on the topic and its ramifications for the Schools of Education, Humanities/Social Sciences, and Science and Math.

2. Working with Millersville's Public Relations office we would saturate local media as well as contact the PR offices at the other SSHE campuses. To insure wide local participation in the activities we will replicate the activities funded several years ago by SSHE as part of its diversity mandate, viz. inculcating race, gender, and class into the general education program. Under that rubric we had curriculum design workshops for each school. Having the reading/discussion activity as well as an appropriate film series we can build on ongoing activities and in some cases create a new focus for them. To make the workshops effective we will contact colleagues from each school to have them participate in the planning.

3. Dr. Said's visit will be a major event that will most certainly fill Lyte auditorium. After the initial planning phase we will design other activities which can be in part funded by grants from the Pennyslvania Councils on the Arts and Humanities (I have contacts to both bodies and served two terms on the latter).

4. Student affair staff will be directly involved in the planning of student activities. We intend not just to have an impact on the curriculum but also on extracurricular program as well. I can envision numerous student service projects related to our theme and that would expose students to cultural contexts and traditions with which they are unfamiliar. Student affairs can help organize that participation and perhaps support it through campus television and radio.

5. We will use a simple evaluation tool: a questionaire that asks audience members to reflect on and react to the presentations. Faculty will be encouraged to bring their classes and to attend themselves. Afterwards, I would hope that open fora could deal with the issues raised by Dr. Said and other visitors whom we may be able to bring to campus.