CRDEUL
in Focus
Bob Copeland
Center Points Editor and Program Associate
To house our expanding collections, the CRDEUL Library was enlarged last year by a generous donation of three additional bookcases and a file cabinet from Richard F. O’Neill. Mr. O’Neill donated these items, and our previous bookcases and file cabinet, in memory of his late wife, GC alumna Barbara Lynn Corwine. Our book collection grew this year with generous donations from Robert Poch, General College assistant dean and director of Student Services.
We are proud to announce that CRDEUL is included in the permanent art installation commissioned for the newly renovated Jones Hall on the east bank of Twin Cities campus of the U of M. Our publication, MAP-IT, is one of the text documents incorporated into this imaginative piece. As described in its publicity,
The new artwork for the Jones Hall renovation will be installed in an existing laylight grid situated in the Freshman Admissions reception area on the upper floor of the building. A 32 x 16 foot grid of glass, the laylight will be a translucent map depicting the Minneapolis University campus as it is situated along the banks of the Mississippi River. . . A second core element of the design is text, taken from University of Minnesota faculty research documents that compose a major portion of the map. Lines of text from research documents swirl below the surface of the water, and campus elevations are traced in delicate lines of written information that delineate the topography of the campus. These texts provide a snapshot of the wealth of information and ideas generated at the University. . . Layer upon layer of texts from University schools, department and research centers constitute the majority of the landscape design. The river of text constituting the laylight design will provide a glimpse into the innovation and thought at today’s University for generations to come.
Back in May, three people received awards from CRDEUL’s director, Dana Lundell, at the annual General College Awards Event in Coffman Union. Rashné Jehangir received the Henry Borow Award for outstanding doctoral research in developmental education and urban literacy. Two of the award categories were new this year; Takeshi Yanagiura received the Jeanne L. Higbee Award for Developmental Education, and Michael Flanigan received the Multicultural Developmental Education Research Award. All of the award winners received a monetary award and a plaque. Their names have also been inscribed on large plaques that are on display outside of the CRDEUL offices.
We are working on getting our library holdings listed on our Web site, so that users can see what is available to them as far as the books we own, journals we subscribe to, and articles we have on file before they come into the Center. Our former student worker and current part-time employee, Miguel Vargas has been instrumental in getting this project started.
Since the Spring ’05 Center Points, CRDEUL has continued with our regular forum presentations and our more casual coffeehouse discussions. In the April forum, we presented “Future Directions in General College: Teaching, Research, and Practice.” In September, we celebrated the release of the GC book,
The General College Vision: Integrating Intellectual Growth, Multicultural Perspectives, and Student Development, with a forum entitled “Celebrating the General College Vision: A new Book and A New Future.” Our October Forum, “Student Identity and How it Affects Motivation and Engagement” unfortunately had to be cancelled at the last minute, but was rescheduled for later in fall semester. And in our November forum, we presented “A Shift from Culturally Relevant to Culturally Responsive Teaching: A Navajo Experience.”
As the winter holidays come and another year ends, I’m writing this column and reflecting on the friends that we’ve made this year and the things that we’ve accomplished. Do we leave the world a better place for our having been here, and what are the opportunities that await us? “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work” said Thomas Edison. And then I think of what Samuel Butler said; “All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.” Somewhere between those two is the balance that needs to be ours in 2006.
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Robert
Copeland
CRDEUL Program Associate
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