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Connections—September 2008

Connections is a publication of the Hubbard Center for Faculty Development.  The purpose of this newsletter is to facilitate the exchanging and sharing of information that promotes the personal and professional growth of faculty.

Articles in this issue:


Export Controls

With world terrorism on the rise, it is critical that faculty understand export controls to avoid breaking the law and potentially putting the security of the United States at risk.

What is an export control?
“Export controls restrict the dissemination of technology, goods, and information to foreign nationals, countries, banned entities, and sanctioned companies” (Appalachian State University, Office of Research and Graduate Studies, www.graduate.appstate.edu/export-controls/). They are used to protect the United States from potential security risks. Disseminating certain types of research to outsiders without citizenship can put the United States at risk. For example, if Iran obtained data on American defense technology, the security of the United States would be severely compromised. Faculty with international students are particularly vulnerable, because international students could potentially share sensitive information acquired in the United States with others in their home country.

What happens if I violate export control laws?
Violating export control laws can lead to criminal charges. Violators may be subject to a fine as well as imprisonment. Penalties for violating Export Administration Regulations, International Traffic in Arms Regulations, and policies of the Office of Foreign Assets can be found at www.graduate.appstate.edu/export-controls/penalties.html.

What can you do?
Faculty members who work on international research projects and with international students and researchers must familiarize themselves with export control laws and comply with the laws. If you have questions about export control matters, contact the Graduate School at 828-262-2130.

Sources:

Appalachian State University Research and Graduate Studies. 2007. Export controls. Retrieved March 18, 2008, http://www.graduate.appstate.edu/export-controls/.

Appalachian State University Research and Graduate Studies. 2007. Export controls: frequently asked questions for faculty. Retrieved March 18, 2008, from http:www.graduate.appstate.
edu/export-controls/faculty.html.

Appalachian State University Research and Graduate Studies. 2007. Export controls: penalties for non-compliance. Retrieved March 18, 2008, http://www.graduate .appstate.edu/export-controls/penalties.html.

Arizona State University. Export controls frequently asked questions. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from http://researchadmin.asu.edu/compliance/security/export_faq.htm.

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Transgendered Students

What is it to be transgendered? The American Psychological Association (2008) defines transgendered as an “umbrella term used to describe people whose gender identity (their sense of themselves as male or female) ... differs from that usually associated with their birth sex.”

Over the next decade, more and more students will come to college transgendered and settled in their new identity. With this trend, faculty and staff members need to be aware of the issues that transgendered students face as well as some of the options available on campus to provide support to these students.

There are four important components that define an individual’s sexual identity: sex, gender identity, gender role expression, and sexual orientation.

  • Sex is defined biologically; females are born with XX chromosomes; males are born with XY chromosomes. 
  • Gender identity is the gender that an individual feels like on the inside, which may not match their genetics.  Gender identity gets shaped early in childhood, at approximately age two. Transgendered males typically express their female identity before puberty; transgendered females may express a male identity throughout their life span.
  • Gender role expression is how an individual appears to the rest of the world, either masculine and feminine. Note that appearance may not match the individual’s biological makeup or their gender identity.
  • Sexual orientation includes the categories heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual. In transgendered individuals, sexual orientation may not flow from sex, gender identity, or gender role expression. (In transgendered relationships, this concept becomes quite complex. For example, a transgendered individual whose biological sex is male, who identifies as a female and who expresses a feminine gender role is considered a female. If this person—who identifies as a female and expresses a feminine gender role—is in a relationship with a man, then the relationship is considered heterosexual.)

Not all transgendered people are transsexuals. Transexuals are “transgendered people who live or wish to live full time as members of the gender opposite to their birth sex” (American Psychological Association, 2008). Transexuals can be preoperative or postoperative. Preoperative transsexuals have not had sexual reassignment surgery; postoperative transexuals have completed body modification surgery.

Transgendered students face a number of challenges:

Stress and anxiety. In changing their identity, transgendered students are going against strong societal norms. Often they fear that their parents and teachers will not accept their new identity, and reject them. Transgendered students are often isolated because they have a difficult time identifying with and relating to other students. They may experience low self-esteem as well as depression. To escape the stress of being transgendered, some resort to substance abuse, self-destructive behaviors, and even suicide.

Housing. Transgendered students typically require private restroom and showering facilities in residence halls. Financial constraints sometimes make accommodating transgendered students difficult since most residence halls have shared facilities.

Privacy. Locker rooms and restrooms that are located in classroom and administrative buildings are also socially awkward for transgendered students.

Records. Transgendered students may appear as one name in the Banner System and may prefer to be called a different name.

Safety. A survey conducted at a variety of universities by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered students disclosed that “more than one-third of the respondents reported experiencing harassment during 2002” (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2003).

Legal. Transgendered students also may encounter problems in changing their identities on birth certificates, driver licenses, social security cards, and even bank accounts. In some cases, students must have legal documentation to change their names. In order for a transsexual individual to change his or her name on the birth certificate, he or she must present a physician’s statement that sexual reassignment surgery has been completed.

What is Appalachian State University doing to make campus inclusive?

  • Appalachian State University’s Housing and Residence Life has passed the Transgender Housing Policy, which allows students to identify themselves as male, female, or gender neutral.
  • The University has changed some of its restrooms to single-use in order to provide transgendered students with more privacy.
  • The Communication Disorders Clinic provides voice lessons to help students express themselves vocally.
  • The Counseling Center has therapeutic groups for transgendered students, and is proactive in educating faculty and staff about the issues that transgendered students face. 

What can you do?

Faculty members can make transgendered students feel more included by

  • promoting a positive classroom environment,
  • encouraging respect in the classroom,
  • incorporating gender-neutral pronouns such as Ze (instead of he or she) and Hir (instead of him or her),
  • taking advantage of campus opportunities to learn about transgendered students,
  • calling transgendered students by their preferred names, and
  • using more inclusive examples in the classroom that include not only gay, lesbian, and bisexual populations, but also transgendered populations. Biology, genetics, sociology, and psychology classes especially can include transgendered populations in the examples.

Sources:

American Psychological Association (2008). Answers and questions about transgender individuals and gender identity. Retrieved February 18, 2008, from http://www.apa.org/
topics/transgender.html.

Chronicle of Higher Education. (May 16, 2003). Notebook. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved February 12, 2008 from www.//web.ebscohost.com/ehost/delivery?
Vid=12&sid=70794d07-e893-40e7-82a4-601e1ca0d5ac%40sessionmgr102.

Clark, Shari L., & Carol L. O’Saben. (2008, February 15). The Transgendered Among Us. [Presentation]. February 15, 2008.

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Energize Your Classroom—Get Active!

The 2008 Lilly South Conference on College and University Teaching was held February 8-10 at the University of North Carolina—Greensboro. In their presentation “Overcoming Apathy and Creating Excitement in the Classroom,” presenters Jim Eison and Todd Zakrajsek provided several active learning ideas. These ideas are easy to incorporate into the classroom, and sure to create excitement and learning!

Top Ten (or Three or Five) Lists
As our good friend David Letterman demonstrates, have your students create lists related to the course content.

Study Guide Puzzles
Relatively easy-to-learn computer software and a little creativity can transform ordinary review sheets into student-created crossword puzzles.
http://www.crosswordpuzzlegames.com/create.html

Contests
High-interest, low-stakes contests can generate constructive competition among small groups that will raise in-class energy levels to great heights. For example, split the class into groups and have them compete in answering quiz questions.

Television Game Shows
Bring the excitement of TV game shows—such as The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune, or Jeopardy—into the classroom to review or informally assess students’ mastery of course content.

Who Is This Person?
Students can research the lives of individuals whose important work is explored in your course and make short presentations addressing “Who is this person, and why might we care?”

Student Interview
Students can conduct telephone or online interviews and report their findings to the class.

Joke of the Day
A brief daily injection of humor can provide a refreshing interlude. Ask students to help provide these jokes.
http://www.ajokeaday.com/

Field trip Options
Field trips can be:

Public Service Announcements
Creating PSA’s challenges students to:

  • Research the topic,
  • Synthesize the findings, and
  • Communicate the most important information learned in a very brief fashion (a longer paper can also be required).

Study Tip of the Week
Have students periodically share their “Keys to Study Success.”

Poetry and Haiku
Haiku (hy-koo) is a traditional Japanese verse form, notable for its compression and suggestiveness. In three lines and seventeen syllables (5-7-5), a great haiku presents, through careful imagery drawn from intensely careful observation, a web of associated ideas requiring an active mind on the part of the listener.

For example, a student in the American Chemical Society Earth Day Haiku Contest wrote:

New materials once old,
Now reworked for use
Shining in the light.

Source: http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/island/5022/

In Class Writing
To meaningfully focus on course material in the classroom, students can:

  • Summarize today’s reading assignment,
  • Define a concept,
  • Translate a formula into a word problem,
  • Relate a news event to concepts in the course,
  • Develop examples that illustrate a concept, or
  • Summarize the main points of the lecture or discussion.

Musical Chairs Quiz
Thanks to Dr. Deanna Diamond from Barton University in Wilson, North Carolina

Dr. Diamond has created a Musical Chairs Quiz to review course material. Like the traditional musical chairs, there is one less chair than the number of students, music is played, and when it stops, the last student standing has to answer the question. If they get the answer correct, they take their chair and exit the game. However, if they answer incorrectly, they continue with the game. Because they cannot exit the game until they give a correct answer, no one wants to be the last student standing. To add even more fun, Dr. Diamond allows them to select their own music during the game.

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Safety and Student Trips

Are you planning an off-campus trip for your students? To comply with University safety standards, be sure to fill out the Student Travel Form before your class trip. For more information, and a copy of the form, click here.

 

Congratulations Award Winners!

Board of Governors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching
Mark Vogel, English
Nancy Schneeloch-Bingham, Music
Rahman Tashakkori, Computer Science
Ellen Carpenter, Family and Consumer Sciences
Jeff Hirst, Mathematical Sciences
Myra Pennell, History
Marianne Adams, Theatre and Dance

College of Arts and Sciences
To be announced October 2008

Walker College of Business
Excellence in Teaching: Claudia Kelley, Accounting
Excellence in Research: David Dickinson, Economics
Excellence in Service: Todd Cherry, Economics
Outstanding Non-Tenure Track Faculty: Jan Woods, Accounting

Reich College of Education
Outstanding Scholarship/Creative Achievement: Alecia Youngblood Jackson, Leadership and Educational Studies
Outstanding Teaching: Heather Clark, Language, Reading and Exceptionalities
Adjunct Teaching/Supervision: Betty Dishman, Curriculum and Instruction

College of Fine and Applied Arts
Excellence in Teaching: Emily Daughtridge, Theatre and Dance
Outstanding Scholarship/Creative Activity: Jeffrey McBride, Health, Leisure and Exercise Science
Outstanding Service: Jeanne Mercer-Ballard, Technology

Hayes School of Music
Outstanding Teaching: Jennifer Snodgrass, Music
           
Cratis Williams Graduate School
Distinguished Graduate Faculty: Betty Coffey, Management

Student Government Association Outstanding Faculty Awards
College of Arts and Sciences: Michael Mayfield, Geography and Planning
College of Fine and Applied Arts: John Scarlata, Technology
Reich College of Education: Michael Dale, Leadership and Educational Studies
Hayes School of Music: Jason Thompson, Music
Walker College of Business: Dinesh Dave, Computer Information Systems
Staff Appreciation: Matthew Tantau, Housing and Residence Life
Advisor: Jackie Harris, Kappa Delta

Rennie W. Brantz Award for Outstanding Teaching in Freshman Seminar
Nick Rudisill, General Education

Harvey R. Durham Freshman Advocate Award
Jim Street, Center for Student Involvement and Leadership

 

The Hubbard Center electronically publishes our newsletter, Connections, three times each semester. Please contact Kathy Isaacs, editor, with any comments or questions.

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