[Deans List/ STEM project/ RecentlyTenured Faculty]
The UMass School of Education has shifted
course several times since the early1970s, when Bailey Jackson was a graduate
student there. Little did he imagine back then that someday, as its dean,
he would be helping the school to find true north.
During the expansive, expansionist late 60s and 70s, according to Jackson,
the prevailing concept of education was a broad one, encompassing learning
from "cradle to grave." It was an exciting time for the School
of Ed, Jackson remembers: "It used to be you couldn't get down the
hallways," there were so many people, so much dialogue, activity,
enthusiasm.
By 1990, when Jackson became associate dean -- he joined the faculty in
1977 --- the hallways were quieter, and a lot less crowded. The budget
crisis of the past decade had swept away thirty per cent of the faculty.
When he was appointed dean two years later, Jackson recalls, "I had
the dubious distinction of making the first staff layoffs."
Along with trimming the school's staff, Jackson had the task of trimming
the sails. "We could not continue to do all that had been done before,
not without sacrificing quality and not without stressing everyone out.
We needed to become more focused, to do fewer of the right things, better."
One of the right things, Jackson and his colleagues decided, was "to
focus the school on schooling, to change the broad definition of education
to education-in-the-schools."
As part of the flagship campus, the School of Education, Jackson believes,
occupies a special intellectual niche. Preparing students for teacher certification
has traditionally been the responsibility of the public colleges and universities,
but as Jackson sees it,"While UMass needs to be in that business to
some extent, it should also be a lab, working to research and develop new
and improved ways of training and teaching."
For example, the Dean sees the school helping "educators of the future
to integrate technology into their teaching processes." Jackson laughingly
recalls struggling as a child to memorize "the ten most important
products of Argentina," without ever understanding why it was so important.
He cites that experience to make a point about how much technology has
affected education within the time span of a generation or two. Today's
children needn't labor to memorize so many facts; they have computers to
store and find such information.
At the same time, they have far more information coming at them
from all directions, and technology can help them only up to a point. Jackson:
"We can't just worship at the altar of the computer--it's just one
tool." Teachers still have to provide a context for information, ways
of ordering, thinking about, and using information intelligently. Schools
must teach children how to use the tools of technology and help
children acquire the thought processes, skills, and abilities they need
in an information-saturated age.
Jackson also sees schools as playing a fundamental role in preparing students
to be good citizens. As he sees it, "Children need to understand themselves,
but also to understand themselves in relationship to others."
These are some of the educational issues that Jackson wants the School
of Ed to help "educators of the future" grapple with. He'd also
like the School of Ed to become an active participant in setting educational
policy. While schools of education are often "policy-implementers
rather than policy-makers," Jackson notes, "the faculty--the
whole school--is an untapped resource." Among his goals is developing
closer relationships with the usual policy-makers -- legislators and the
state commissioner's office -- with a view towards taking "a proactive
role" in determining the shape of public education.
Finally, Jackson wants the school to be a "good citizen" by working
"with other parts of the campus and other schools of education in
the Commonwealth's system and in the region" to make a greater contribution
to the common good. As someone who's been at the School of Ed for nearly
24 years, and who founded the fruitful "Social Issues Training Project"
there in the late 70s and early 80s, Jackson is deeply aware of its strengths,
the challenges it faces, and the ideals that guide it.
"One of the main reasons I stay here," says Jackson, "is
that I believe in the institution's commitment to, desire and passion for
social justice and diversity. It's important to work to eliminate forms
of oppression and discrimination and social exclusion--it's also important
to imagine what it looks like to have social inclusion. If we are
graduating students who appreciate diversity, then we're doing the people's
work."
STEM and branch
Short of cloning PBS's Bill Nye the Science
Guy, how can the teaching of math and science be improved? Working on the
question from several angles -- all of them getting professors together
with classroom teachers -- is the Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics Education Institution, or STEM, a joint venture of the School
of Education and several other university schools, colleges, and departments.
According to Allan Feldman, a School of Ed professor, STEM came together
about a year ago, after a couple of years of informal meetings by interested
faculty from several disciplines. Feldman's interest is both professional
and personal. Before getting his PhD at Stanford University, and then coming
to the School of Ed four years ago, Feldman spent 17 years as a middle
school and high school science teacher, so he knows from first-hand experience
the challenges and rewards of that profession. Besides Feldman, prime movers
were John Stoffolano, in Entemology, and Mort Sternheim, the current director
of STEM, and a member of the physics and astronomy faculty.
One STEM project offers two courses for K-12 teachers over the Internet.
The UMassK12 Internet service also keeps some 4,000 teachers and education
students informed of upcoming STEM seminars, offered monthly, on a wide
range of topics, including the ethical use of computers in the classroom
and the history of science in Africa.
STEM has also lent its expertise to the redesign of grade-school courses.
So far, an astronomy course and a physics course have been developed, with
the active participation of a middle-school and a high-school teac her.
These courses give current and prospective science teachers hands-on experience
and are offered at the end of the day, when teachers can actually attend.
This kind of shared effort may not be as commonplace as it could be on
university campuses, but it's exactly the kind of cooperative enterprise
Dean Jackson wants to encourage. And he's not alone: STEM is currently
under consideration for a $5 million grant from the National Science Federation.
DEANS' LIST
Recent awards, honors, and large-scale grants to UMass faculty.
EDUCATION
- Eastman Kodak Gold Medal Award for lifetime contributions to education,
Raymond Wyman, emeritus.
ENGINEERING
- National Academy of Engineering; Sargent Lecturer, Imperial College,
London, England; James Douglas, chemical engineering.
- Career Award, Office of Naval Research, Dionisios Vlachos, chemical
engineering.
- Bingham Medal, Society of Rheology, American Institute of Physics, H.
Henning Winter, chemical engineering.
- Doolittle Award, Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering Division;
best paper, 1996 American Chemical Society meeting; James Watkins,
chemical engineering.
- Computing and Systems Technology Division Award, American Institute of
Chemical Engineers, Michael Doherty and Michael Malone, chemical
engineering.
- NSF Career Award; $500,000 Packard Foundation Fellowship; Michael
Tsapatsis, chemical engineering.
FOOD & NATURAL RESOURCES
- Fulbright Award (Portugal); Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects;
John Ahern, landscape architecture and regional planning.
- Boston Socety of Landscape Architects Merit Award, Dean Cardasis,
landscape architecture and regional planning.
- Elm Bank Partnership Award, Massachusetts Horticultural Society,
Douglas Cox, plant and soil science.
- $120,000 USDA grant; 120,000 Dairyman, Inc., grant; Pavinee Chinachoti,
food science.
- $116,767 USDA grant, Eric Decker, food science.
- Elm Bank Partnership Award, Massachusetts Horticultural Society,
Paul Lopes, plant and soil science.
- $1.3 million USAID grant, Meir Gross, landscape architecture and
regional planning.
- Award of Merit, American Phytopathological Society, Northeastern Division,
Gail Schumann, microbiology.
- Student Affairs Cultural Enrichment Fund Award, Susan Michelman,
consumer studies.
- Elm Bank Partnership Award, Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Tina
Smith, plant and soil science.
- Boston Society of Landscape Architects Design Award, Joseph Volpe,
landscape architecture and regional planning.
HUMANITIES & FINE ARTS
- ASCAP award, Charles Bestor, music.
- National president, Kappa Tau Alpha honorary society, Karen List,
journalism.
- Advisory board, MLA Journal?, Angel Loureiro, Spanish and
Portuguese?
- Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Barbara
Partee, linguistics.
- Editorial board, Revista Iberoamerican, Nina Scott, Spanish
and Portuguese.
- ASCAP award, Robert Stern, music.
- 1996-97 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, John Wideman, English.
- Knight International Press Fellowship (Botswana), Howard Ziff,
journalism.
NATURAL SCIENCES & MATHEMATICS
- $200,000 in NSF and NIMH grants; NIMH Research Scientist Development
Award; Eric Bittman, biology.
- $588,000 DOE grant; $497,000 in NSF grants; $126,200 NOAA grant; Raymond
Bradley, geosciences.
- Fellow, Association for Computing Machinery, W. Bruce Croft, computer
science.
- $325,000 NSF Early Career Development Award, Samuel Gido, polymer
science.
- 1996-97 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, Mel Janowitz, mathematics.
- American Chemical Society Award in Polymer Chemistry, William MacKnight,
polymer science.
- 1996-97 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, Murugappan Muthukumar, polymer
science.
- Inclusion in The Scientific 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential
Scientists, Past and Present, Lynn Margulis, biology.
- $977,000 NIH grant, Michael Maroney, chemistry.
- $2.2 million in Hughes Institute grants; Rod Murphey, biology.
- Marvel Creative Chemistry Award, Division of Polymer Chemistry, American
Chemical Society, Bruce Novak, polymer science.
- $200,000 Beckman Young Investigator Award, Klaus Schmidt-Rohr,
polymer science.
- Harrison Howe Award, American Chemical Society (Rochester Section), David
Tirrell, polymer science.
- Fellow, Association for Computing Machinery, Don Towsley, computer
science.
- $235,000 in NSF and NIH grants, R. Thomas Zoeller, biology.
PUBLIC HEALTH & HEALTH SCIENCES
- Goldsmith Award, American College of Nutrition, John Cunningham,
nutrition.
- Distinguished Alumnus Award, UNC Chapel Hill, William A. Darity,
public health emeritus.
- Inductee, American Academy of of Kinesiology and Physical Education,
Patty Freedson, exercise science.
- Fellow, American Statistical Association, David Hosmer, biostatistics
and epidemology.
- Working Group on Epidemiology, Internal Research Section, International
Social Security Association, Kenneth Mundt, biostatistics and epidemiology.
SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
- $124,000 EPA grant, Douglas Anderton, sociology.
- 1996-97 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, Jane Blankenship, communication.
- $153,000 NIMH grant, $255,000 NIH grant, Jeffrey Blaustein, psychology.
- Mariani Prize for Alpine Anthropology, John Cole, anthropology.
- Outstanding Book Award, New England Council for Latin American Studies,
Arturo Escobar, anthropology.
- Distinguished Lecturer, Sigma Xi Research Society, Laurie Godfrey,
anthropology.
- $150,000 NIH grant, Geert De Vries, psychology.
- NIMH Senior Scientist Award; 1996-97 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer;
George Wade, psychology.
RECENTLY TENURED FACULTY:
EDUCATION:
- Brunilda DeLeon,
student development
ENGINEERING:
- Wayne Burleson, electrical and computer engineering
FNR:
- Eric Decker, food science
- Linda Enghagen, hotel, restaurant,
and travel administration
- Susan Leschine, microbiology
- Robert Muth, forestry and wildlife management
- Lisa Pike-Masteralexis, sport studies
HFA:
- Yukie Horiba, Asian languages
and literatures
- Dorrance Hill, Afro-American studies
- Diane Sears, French and Italian
NSM:
- Vivian Budnik, biology
- Franz Pedit, mathematics and statistics
- Sheila Seaman, geosciences
- R. Thomas Zoeller, biology
SBA:
- Robert Ballou, economics
- Jacqueline Urla, anthropology
SOM:
- Mzamo Mangaliso, management
- George Milne, marketing
PHHS:
- Graham Caldwell, exercise science
- Philip Nasca, biostatistics and epidemiology
