Category: News

Announcement concerning COVID-19

ACC’s Coronavirus announcement page: https://www.austincc.edu/coronavirus

Briefly:

  • Spring Break is extended a week for students
  • Students return to (online) class on Monday, March 30 (not to campuses)
  • We will take the week of March 23 to 29 to prepare (and help our faculty prepare) to move to online teaching

IMPORTANT: Update your contact information with ACC to receive updates and information

I’m focusing here on our core instructional mission; review the announcement for other precautionary measures.

I realize that this is a challenging situation. As instructional leaders, our immediate task is to manage this critical situation as best we can in pursuit of our mission. We will direct our efforts to a student-centered, supportive response, consistent with that mission. 

Bookmark and visit ACC’s Coronavirus update page frequently. Other information resources are available on this blog (in the right navbar).

If anything, student support will be more important than ever during this crisis. Let me encourage you to direct faculty, staff, and students to the EARS site if students have needs:http://ears.acclahc.org/

Of course, ACC and the city are also managing a critical situation, so be judicious about resources. According to the most recent announcement, our campuses will remain open and student services will be available at designated locations. (Keep current with updates for more information, and take a moment to Update your contact information.)

This is an evolving situation, and there are no doubt many unanswered questions. I will do my best to provide you accurate and up-to-date information. 

Echoes and spaces

Echoes and Spaces, New Paintings by Shawn Camp and Lana Waldrep-Appl

From the February 2, 2020 press release:

“We walk around in a world filled with little moments of clarity amongst a dense fog of existence. Tiny bits of connection, something that feels like déjà vu, arise and form echoes in our experiences.

Detail from Camp’s “I Take Everything as a Good Sign,” 2020

“In Echoes and Spaces, Lana Waldrep-Appl and Shawn Camp explore the feelings of the sublime that happen in those moments when you allow yourself to completely reside inside of the space you are
in. These paintings feel like daydreaming, an activity that takes place primarily when doing nothing. Both artists are interested in exploring the something-ness of nothing. Camp makes paintings of air and space; imagery devoid of solid forms. That nothingness is framed through subtle geometric divisions and contradictory hints of color. Through translucence and refraction, the shimmering surfaces convey a sense of atmosphere and explore the mystery of light, matter, and space. Waldrep-Appl makes paintings of nothing spaces—places of waiting, landscapes that drone by during a commute, visual white noise, the places between places where things happen. These spaces are never flat. A gray is never just gray. Varied chromatic grays, near whites, and unanticipated pastels invite viewers to see there is more to these ignorable spaces.”

  • Exhibition Dates: February 28, 2020 – March 28, 2020
  • Opening Reception: Friday, February 28, 7-10 pm
  • Canopy: Friday, March 6, 7-10 pm

Free opera tickets!

First, in case you haven’t heard about Excursions, let me catch you up. Each semester the LA Gateway hosts events that are the opposite of extracurricular: These are events designed to move students from the study of liberal arts in their classes into a larger world where liberal arts forms the foundation for intellectual and creative work.
This spring, the theme for our Excursions series is “Art and Adaptation,” using James’s novella, The Turn of the Screw, as a case study. Here’s the announcement on our Gateway site:
We’re encouraging Gateway faculty and students to read James’s novella and experience two additional works of art inspired by that “original,” a film and an opera. Our first Excursion experience is coming soon, at the end of February. The opera workshop of the Butler School of Music is performing Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera, The Turn of the Screw, and I have 20 free tickets, courtesy of the Butler School of Music, for our Gateway students, for the performance Thursday, February 27, 7:30 to 9:45 PM. The performance will be in the McCullough Theater on the UT Campus. (There are two other performances; see the Butler School of Music announcement for details.)
I will be holding a drawing for these 20 free tickets on Monday, February 17. If you have students who are interested in one of the free tickets, please have them email excursion@gateway.acclahc.org on their ACC student email account and include the following information:
Subject heading: Britten Opera Excursion
Student’s name
LA Gateway course
Phone number
Entries must be received no later than Monday, February 17 at 12:00 noon.
I will notify students of the ticket winners the evening of Monday, Feb 17. Students must confirm with me within 48 hours that they are able to attend the performance. I will continue to draw names from the entries if students do not confirm, until there are no more tickets.
Thank you for supporting the LA Gateway!

Announcing: Spring 2020 Excursion

Collier’s Weekly, illustration by John La Farge – Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University

Join us for an exploration of the ways in which a work of art in one genre can inspire a work of art in another genre. In this spring’s series of LA Gateway events, Henry James’s novella, The Turn of the Screw serves as a case study, as we examine the relationship between the “original” and its “adaptation” into two “new” works of art, the 1961 film, The Innocents, and Benjamin Britten’s 1954 chamber opera, The Turn of the Screw. Are these “new” works of art imitations? Adaptations? Or might it be appropriate to call them translations? Join the discussion!

We invite you to read James’s novella, which is easily available (here at Gutenerg, for instance) and join one of our discussion panels. We also encourage you to see Britten’s opera, which will be in production by the Butler School of Music opera workshop Feb 27 through Mar 1 at UT’s McCullough Theater. And stay tuned for the movie, which we will show in April — followed by a discussion led by a film historian.

Dates and places to follow!

Bats to Bevos!

Hey, Riverbats! How about becoming a Bevo? UT’s College of Education may be just the magic you need!

Join us Thursday, January 30, 4:00 to 8:00 PM, for a recruitment fair at the Highland Campus, building 4000 Courtyard. Meet department reps, hear from UT Ed students, get admission info, find out how to transfer seamlessly to the C of Ed—everything you need to know about becoming a Bevo!

Spread the word. Tell your friends and fellow Riverbats!

Planning to come? Let us know on Facebook.

What is the Liberal Arts Gateway?

Now that LA Gateway-designated courses are appearing in the course schedule, people are asking: What is the LA Gateway? Here’s the philosophical framework, distilled.

The Liberal Arts Gateway

Aspiration

The Liberal Arts can save civilization by equipping students to thrive in a pluralistic society through deep engagement in our disciplines.

Guiding Values

  • Student centered course designs
  • Equity and inclusion build into all facets of the course, from recruitment to materials and assignments and beyond
  • Responsiveness to downpath stakeholders: What needs will our students face in next course, the degree plan, transfer institution/employer, career, family, community, and ultimately, The Good Life? Have those needs in mind when you build your course.


Five P’s of Intellectual Character 

Build opportunities to practice these verbs into your course, talk about them explicitly, and model them every class period.

  • Persevere: Don’t give up — in this assignment, in this course, in a conversation, in a line of inquiry, in the pursuit of truth, or in the work of saving civilization.
  • Progress: Learn how to gauge progress for yourself — benchmarks, indicators, self-reflection, honesty (with yourself, above all). We stand on the shoulders of giants, but give yourself credit for climbing up there to have a look.
  • Produce meaningful intellectual work — and challenge yourself to do better work every next time.
  • Promote the fruits of your work to others — both as a courageous attempt to say something true and as an invitation to hear others critique your work.
  • Perpetuate these traits, deepen them into habits of mind, and expand them to encompass more and more of your intellectual life.

A few course design suggestions

  • Talk to your colleagues! This philosophical framework keeps us focused on student needs and the student experience, but saving civilization requires encountering the disciplinarity of our disciplines.
  • Organize your course around a theme and meaningful questions
  • Explicitly talk about a toolkit for your discipline
  • Use (real) case studies
  • Include at least one self-reflective assignment (a moment for students to step back and take stock of the transformative experience in your course)

 

Collaborate and Celebrate

Today is a day to celebrate for our Communication Studies department! As a result of efforts to integrate SPCH1315 with workforce program requirements, we have a “combined” course so students can take either SPCH1315 or COMG1009.

Even better, we just registered our very first workforce student!

This is a great example of the way we can serve student pathways when we think outside the academic box.

Thanks to Theresa and the CommS gang!

Lumberjacks in your future?

I’m hosting a group of faculty from Stephen F. Austin University for a faculty-student networking event on Friday, May 10, 1:00 to 2:30 PM, at HLC 4000. Our visiting professors include:

  • Dr. Joyce Johnston (me) – BAAS, Modern Languages and Communication Studies
  • Dr. Anne Smith – Philosophy
  • Dr. Dana Cooper – History
  • Dr. Christine McDermott – Creative Writing, English
  • Dr. Dianne Dentice – Sociology
  • Dr. Leslie Cecil – Anthropology
  • Dr. Darrell McDonald – Geography
  • Dr. Kwame Antwi-Boasiako – Political Science
  • Dr. Scott Hutchens – Psychology

Let your students know about this opportunity to meet faculty and talk about programs at SFA!

Lumberjacks and Riverbats frolicking at HumaniTea Time

ACC faculty: Plan to attend our HumaniTea Time immediately after this networking event! We’ll have tea and cookies, plus time to connect with our SFA colleagues.

SFA Faculty Meet and Greet: Friday, May 10, 1:00 to 2:30 PM, HLC 4000 Lower level

HumaniTea Time: Friday, May 10, 2:30 to 4:00 PM, HLC 4000 Lower level

LAHC Sabbaticals 2019-20

Please join me in congratulating LAHC professors Tasha Davis and Theresa Oh, who received sabbatical awards for 2019-20! Here’s a brief overview of their projects.

Tasha Davis

Tasha Davis, professor of communication studies

During my sabbatical, I am exploring debilitative communication apprehension (CA) among college students, and the treatments and accommodations that can be made available for these students. Along with developing appropriate curriculum that adheres to the course and learning objectives of the Communication Studies Department, I intend my research to be a foundation for training and professional development opportunities for my ACC colleagues, and to promote greater awareness of high CA levels in the college classroom.

Theresa Oh

Theresa Oh, professor of Japanese

This sabbatical is my professional and personal journey.  It has been a lifelong dream to immerse myself in the day-to-day life in the city of Kyoto.  I plan to take Japanese language courses, practice Zen meditation at Buddhist temples and study calligraphy and vegetarian cooking during the three months this coming fall.  I also want to update my teaching materials by researching and gathering digital media on various facets of Tokyo life to incorporate into my teaching lessons. 

The Philosopher’s Path

While in Japan I will write a weekly blog for the ACC community.  Students will be able to keep up with me as I take the subways, watch thousands of pedestrians cross at Shibuya Crossing, walk the Philosopher’s Path, practice calligraphy, and much more.  I hope to come back energized and motivated to share my experiences with my students and colleagues at ACC.