UWM College of Letters and Science
College of Letters and Science Faculty Document No. 598
November 1, 2001

2000-2001
Honors Program Committee Annual Report


  1. The Committee met four times during 2000-2001: September 28, 2000; February 15, 2001; April 5, 2001; and April 12, 2001. Janet Jesmok was named Acting Director for the year while Larry Baldassaro went on sabbatical. Jesmok retired from the Honors Program at the end of the year. Jesmok's replacement, Kim Romenesko, began working as Assistant Director in October, 2000.


  2. Two Bradley Assistant Professors completed their three-year terms in the Honors Program: Katharine Streip, Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley; and David Southward, Ph.D. in English, Yale University. The Honors Program's newest Bradley Professor, Adam Kovach, Ph.D. in Philosophy, Indiana University, completed his first year. The Bradley Professors are voting members of the Honors Program Committee.


  3. The HPC oversaw recruitment for two new Bradley Professors, one in English Literature, the other in History. Jane Nardin chaired the English search committee. Other members were Vince Cronin, Geosciences; J. Denny Fischer, English; Gwynne Kennedy, English; Molly Larsen, Honors Student; and Janet Jesmok, Honors Program (ex officio). Jeffrey Merrick chaired the History committee. Other members were J. David Hoeveler, History; Mark Harris, Geosciences; Bettina Arnold, Anthropology; Gregory Whitten, Honors Student; and Kim Romenesko, Honors Program (ex officio).


    4. The English search committee received 71 applications; they subsequently held eleven telephone interviews and three campus interviews. The three finalists were Courtney Berger, Chris Ann Matteo, and Debra Best. The search committee voted to recommend Dr. Debra Best, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Best accepted the appointment.

    The History search committee received 50 applications; they subsequently held nine telephone interviews and two campus interviews. The two finalists were Andrew Walkling and Cynthia Cupples. The search committee voted to recommend Dr. Cynthia Cupples, Ph.D., Princeton University. Dr. Cupples accepted the appointment.

  4. In response to the Honors Program's increased instructional needs (resulting from a steady growth in enrollments), the HPC unanimously passed the following motion:

    "The Honors Program Committee strongly supports the addition of a full-time academic staff member to meet the curricular needs of the Honors Program to accommodate the growth of enrollment and services over the last decade." (September 28, 2000 meeting.)

    The College of Letters and Science responded to the motion by granting Lydia Equitz a 75% probationary-track appointment (a permanent position that leads to indefinite appointment), beginning Fall 01. Equitz, who had previously worked on a fixed-term basis as the Honors Program Writing Tutor and as an instructor, will continue as the Honors Program Writing Tutor (25%) and will also teach two sections of Honors 200 each semester (50%).


  5. With the termination of the Bradley grant at the end of the 2000-2001 year, the Honors Program was looking at a shortfall in S&E next year. Given the record enrollments in the Honors Program and the increased costs associated with the Bradley professors, the projected shortfall had the Honors Program concerned for the welfare of the program next year and beyond. In response the S&E shortfall, the HPC unanimously passed the following motion:

    "The Honors Program Committee strongly advises the Dean of the College of Letters and Science to establish an on-going S & E budget at the current level of expenditure when the Bradley grant expires." (September 28, 2000 meeting.)


  6. A motion was unanimously approved to nominate Terry Nardin for a Distinguished Service Award at the Honors Commencement on May 12. (February 15, 2001 meeting.)


  7. A motion to allow the Honors Program to make editorial corrections to the Retention Criteria section of the HPC Annual Report was unanimously approved. (February 15, 2001 meeting.)


  8. The HPC voted unanimously to recommend Janet Jesmok for Emerita status and commended her for the many years of outstanding service she has provided to the Honors Program. (April 5, 2001 meeting.)


  9. At the April 5, 2001 HPC meeting, Baldassaro provided HPC members with a chronology of events that led up to the "Academy of Excellence" document (an effort formerly known as the Honors Concept, Initiative, or Alliance). HPC members raised concerns about the document, which were summarized in a memorandum (dated April 9, 2001) to Vice Chancellor Wanat. The HPC asked Baldassaro to give the letter to the Vice Chancellor when he and HPC Chair Merry Wiesner-Hanks met with him on Tuesday, April 10th.

    At the April 12, 2001 HPC meeting, after listening to the report on the meeting with the Vice Chancellor, the HPC drafted an information sheet which summarized their concerns; this summary was distributed to various faculty governance committees.

    Merry Wiesner-Hanks and Janet Jesmok met with Ruth Williams late Spring semester to revise the Academy of Excellence Document (renamed "Academy of Scholars") to be more inclusive of Honors education.


  10. The Committee approved the following new Honors seminar topics:


    11. Honors 200: "Meanings of Death" (Kovach)
    Honors 200: "Meaning in History" (Mobley)
    Honors 200: "Ovid and the Mythic Imagination" (Southward)
    Honors 200: "Inside Poetry" (Equitz)
    Honors 200: "Love and Attachment in Buddhist Narrative" (Hansen)
    Honors 200: "Crusades and Conquests: Cross-Cultural Encounters before Modernity" (Cupples)
    Honors 200: "Worlds Apart" (Cupples)
    Honors 200: "King Arthur: The Heroic and the Tragic" (Best)
    Honors 200: "Literary Monsters and Social Perceptions of Monstrosity" (Best)
    Honors 200: "The Art of the Short Story" (J. Nardin)
    Honors 380: "Understanding Art" (Garrison)
    Honors 680: "Ethics and Technology" (Buchanan)
    Honors 680: "Information, Law, and Policy in the Information Society (Lipinski)"
    Honors 680: "Human Rights: Making Rights, Claims and Global Justice" (Bradley)
    Anthropology 381: "The Celtic World" (Arnold)
    BioSci 380: "Learning from the Dinosaurs: Understanding Patterns and Processes of Life o Earth"(Barreto)
    BioSci 380: "Water: the Essence of Life" (Brooks)
    CompLit 381: "Writes' of Passage: Stories of the Self in the Literature of Travel"(Phillips)
    English 685: "Victorian Life in Victorian Literature" (J. Nardin)
    English 685: "Writing Against Empire: African Literature from 1948 to the Present" (Roberts)
    English 685: "The Art of William Falkner" (Southward)
    English 685: "Chinese American Women Writers" (Buley-Meissner)
    History 399: "Notable Americans, the Greatest Generation: 1919-1945" (Schroeder)
    History 399: "Notable Americans: 1776-1815" (Schroeder)
    Political Science 380: "The Politics of Social Dilemmas" (Alter)
    Sociology 380: "The Body and the Self" (Costello)
    Women's Studies 380:   "Constructed Identities: Gender and Representation in Cinema" (Berg)

  11. Members of the 2000-2001 Honors Program Committee are: Bettina Arnold (Anthropology), F. Xavier Baron (English), Vince Cronin (Natural Sciences), Mark Harris (Geosciences), Janet Jesmok (Honors Program, ex officio), John Koethe (Philosophy), Adam Kovach (Bradley Professor), Molly Larsen (Student), John Lynch (Health Care Administration-Allied Health), Corliss Phillabaum (School of the Arts-Theatre), Kim Romenesko (Honors Program, ex officio), Valerie Sichi-Krygsman (Student), David Southward (Bradley Professor), Katharine Streip (Bradley Professor), Robin Weigert (Student), Gregory Whitten (Student), Merry Wiesner-Hanks (History), Brian Wishne (Architecture).


  12. Merry Wiesner-Hanks served as Chair of the HPC.


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