Marjorie Hazeltine receives Top Debut Paper Award at NCA

Marjorie Hazeltine and her co-author Kurt Zemlicka received the Top Debut Paper Award from the Performance Studies division at NCA last month in New Orleans. Their paper is titled "The Reality of Contingency: Performance as Materialized Trope and the Theorization of Rupture." Congratulations to the great folks who represented San Jose State at our national conference!

Dr. Anne Marie Todd receives Top Paper Award

Anne Marie Todd received the Top Paper Award for the Environmental Communication Division of NCA for her essay "Toward a Theory of Environmental Patriotism." Congratulations Dr. Todd!

Matthew Spangler's play receives $25,000 NEA grant

Matthew Spangler's play Tortilla Curtain received a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The grant will be used to support rehearsal at the San Diego Repertory Theatre in February and March. The play, based on the novel by T.C. Boyle, opens at the San Diego Rep on March 17, 2012.

Bettina Brockmann's book

Bettina Brockmann just published a book based on her M.A. project: Some Same but Different: Unlearning the Concept of Disability (Kendall Hunt).

Bettina collaborated with seven SJSU students with disabilities to create the book that provides insights and with it a better understanding about what it means to be a student with a disability in higher education. The book challenges the readers to explore their own attitudes/beliefs toward disability, invites them to contribute to the conversation, and provides tips on how students and instructors can work together to create a more inclusive academic environment.

The COMM faculty can order an examination copy or buy their own book to contribute to the Some Same but Different-Scholarship at SJSU. Proceeds of the book sales will benefit this scholarship, which is dedicated to support students with disabilities at SJSU.

Here is the link to the publishers website:

http://www.kendallhunt.com/store-product.aspx?id=25206

Congratulations Bettina!

Shifts in Interpersonal Comm. in the workplace

For those of us interested in interpersonal communication in the workplace, here’s a recently published article from the Wall Street Journal titled Workplace Deals, Sealed With a Kiss? The article explores changes in traditional rules for handshaking and hugging due to shifts in culture, diversity, age, etc.

Notable, the article mentions how “Generation Y often sees greetings as a chance to establish a distinct identity.”

Finally, I found the section on Silicon Valley businesses particularly interesting. Do you perceive a similar shift in greetings within the SJSU community?

Faculty has borne the brunt of budget woes

Hi All!

Just got this into the Merc today, can't believe they printed the whole thing, they usually hack out the good parts. They did omit two words at the end for some reason...

Posted: 11/08/2011 08:00:00 PM PST

Faculty has borne the brunt of budget woes

The one-day job action by CSU faculty and staff set for Nov. 17 is not about the few dollars we stand to gain from a modest 3 percent pay raise over several years. The main issue is equity and fairness. Faculty and staff have borne the brunt of CSU budget woes via furloughs, tightened resources and increased workloads caused by reduced or deferred hiring.

Our students have suffered radically increased tuition and reduced course offerings. I see the effects every day as students struggle to balance school and work. Often, the result is exhaustion and poor performance. Trying to help struggling students further increases demands on faculty and staff already stretched to the breaking point.

During all this, CSU executives have enjoyed yearly pay increases to their already generous salaries and perks such as "housing allowances." There appears to be enough money to fatten executive pay and maintain a bloated top-level bureaucracy, but not to fulfill obligations to faculty, staff and students. Our pay raise was negotiated in good faith. Independent fact-finders have supported our raises -- twice. Chancellor Charles Reed needs to spend less time fighting workers over a few dollars and more time improving quality [and access]* to higher education.

Ted M. Coopman

Lecturer Department of Communication Studies

San Jose State University

* omitted in published letter

Angry About Budget Cuts? Help SJSU Earn Federal Grant Funding!

Greetings Comm. faculty, staff, and students,

Our campus needs your help to attain federal grant funds!

San Jose State University wants to become eligible to apply for up to 15 million dollars in grant money from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund student services, programs, and resources.

In order to be able to attain these federal grant funds, we need students to declare your race and ethnicity in your MYSJSU account by doing the following steps:

1. Login to your MySJSU account (go to the following link): http://my.sjsu.edu

2. Scroll down to "Personal Information" and click on the "Race and Ethnicity" link in the "Race and Ethnicity" box.

3. Go to Question 1a and answer "Yes" or "No" to the question: "With regards to your ethnicity, do you consider yourself Hispanic or Latino?"

4. If you answered "Yes", go to Question 1b and select one category that best describes your Hispanic or Latino background.

5. If applicable, go to Question 2 and select one or more ethnic groups in which you consider yourself to be a member.

This request for you to declare your race and ethnicity is completely voluntary, but if you declare your race and ethnicity per the instructions above, that will help our objective to attain much needed funding to SJSU for services and resources for YOU and all students!

If faculty, staff, or students feels strongly about SJSU and its future, then please discuss this important advocacy option in class or forward this message widely. Questions? Email rona.halualani@sjsu.edu or robert.gutierrez@sjsu.edu.