Archive for November, 2010

WorldWide Witness

0 Commentsby   |  11.16.10  |  Announcements, Job & Volunteer Opportunities


Are you passionate about God?
Do you want to change the World?
Do you want to serve others and share your faith?
Do you want to grow?
If you answered “yes,” then WorldWide Witness is the program for you.  And you don’t have to be a Bible major to participate!

What is WorldWide Witness?
World Wide Witness provides students with practical missions experiences outside of the classroom. Under the guidance of effective, experienced missionaries, you will have the opportunity to develop ministry skills that will enable you to serve God wherever you live and whatever your career.  Internships last 6-10 weeks during the summer months. Apprenticeships last 6-24 months after graduation. The application process begins each fall.

WorldWide Witness Long-term Goals are to:

  • Provide opportunities for young people to hear God’s call to long-term missionary services.
  • Assist young men and women in developing ministry skills.
  • Increase the vision for missions in our churches by equipping the next generations with first-hand experience in cross-cultural ministry.
  • Give missionaries on the field energetic, short-term help with specific tasks on the field.
  • Encourage mission-minded students to network and develop partnerships for long-term ministry.

Brief List of Possible Locations and Activities

  • Campus Ministry in Chiang Mai, Thailand
  • Spanish Language Studies in Costa Rica
  • Ronald McDonald House for Kids in Leipzig, Germany
  • Orphanage in Accra, Ghana
  • Orphanage in Mariupol, Ukraine
  • Youth Activities & Camps in Brisbane, Australia
  • Youth Activities & Camps in Zagreb, Croatia
  • Remote Village Outreach in Burkina Faso
  • House Churches in The Bronx, New York
  • Inner-city Work in Houston, Texas
  • Dry Bones in Denver, Colorado

For more information click on this link http://www.worldwidewitness.org/

Contact Information

Larry Henderson 674-3757

Gary Green 674-3782

Facebook:  World Wide Witness

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/ACUmissions

Student Complaint Policy

0 Commentsby   |  11.16.10  |  Advising Information

If your brother does something wrong to you, go to him. Talk alone to him and tell him what he has done.  If he listens to you, you have kept your brother as a friend.  But if he does not listen to you, take one or two others with you to talk to him.  Then two or three people will hear every word and can prove what was said.

Matthew 18:15-16


From time to time, students may choose to bring complaints to the attention of English faculty or the department chair.  Complaints about department policy, facilities, curricula or other issues not specific to an individual faculty member or course should be in written form and should be signed by the student(s) who are filing the complaint.  Such complaints will be taken to the faculty by the chair for discussion, and students will receive a written response.

The chair will document the nature and date of conversations regarding student complaints in a confidential Student Complaints file.

In regard to student complaints about a specific faculty or staff member, or in regard to a specific course, the English Department abides by the biblical principle of taking the issue to the offending party before involving others.

Students who have a complaint about a professor are encouraged to discuss the issue with the professor before involving any other parties.  If the student feels uncomfortable discussing the issue with the professor alone, the student should contact the department chair.  The chair will arrange for a meeting of the student, teacher and chair.

If an issue cannot be resolved in conversation between the student and faculty member within a reasonable amount of time, or if the student is unwilling to meet with the faculty member and chair together, the student should write a formal letter of complaint to the department chair detailing the issue. The letter of complaint will be filed in the Student Complaints file.  Once the issue is resolved, or if resolution is not possible, the chair will place copies of the letter and a memo for the file detailing its resolution or attempted resolution in the files of the student and faculty member involved. The faculty member also may submit a written response and/or letter for the file, to be placed in the Student Complaints file and the files of the student and faculty member involved.

Sometimes, a student may request that his or her identity be kept confidential.  In such a case, the chair must decide whether or not to raise the issue with the faculty member in the interim.   Generally, the chair would not raise the issue with the faculty member until after the semester had ended. Exceptions would include accusations of harassment or other behaviors that clearly violate university policy.  In such case, the chair will notify the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and together the chair and dean will determine when and how to engage the teacher in a conversation about the complaint.

If the subject of complaint should escalate to a point of discipline for a faculty member, then the chair is no longer bound by an initial commitment of confidentiality.

If a student is unsatisfied with the action taken by the chair, the student may file written appeals with the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and subsequently with the provost and the president of the university.

Throughout this process, the goal of this policy is to

  • Seriously consider and appropriately respond to valid complaints;
  • Protect the teacher’s academic freedom;
  • Protect the teacher from unfounded/unsubstantiated accusations;
  • Protect the student’s grade from being affected by the complaint.

Academic Integrity Policy: Policies for Students

0 Commentsby   |  11.16.10  |  Advising Information

Students should use the following guidelines to understand more fully what constitutes academic dishonesty and how ACU will respond to various types of inappropriate academic behavior.  While academic dishonesty may take different forms in different fields of study, the situations described below are representative.

Minor Errors Committed Through Ignorance or Carelessness

The Student’s Action

Some instances of inappropriate academic behavior result either from (1) a student’s incomplete grasp of ethical procedures or (2) a student’s failure to follow proper ethical procedures.  Such actions may be represented by the following:

  • A student quoted a source directly and acknowledged the source both in the text and on the Works Cited page, but failed to place quotation marks around several direct quotations;
  • A student borrowed from sources listed on the Works Cited page, but failed to supply parenthetical or other documentation for several sentences;In most cases a student handled parenthetical or other documentation correctly and listed most sources on the Works Cited page, but failed to document and cite a source from which a few ideas/sentences were taken;
  • A student engaging in legitimate collaborative learning with another student or a tutor nevertheless relied too heavily and too often upon the exact phrasing employed by the other person.

Responses by the Teacher

In such cases the teacher may judge that the academic misbehavior is the result either of ignorance or carelessness, and may thus treat the error like any other mistake.  The teacher is therefore obliged to lower the grade on the assignment in proportion to the incidence of the error.  The student should be aware that his/her ignorance or carelessness regarding proper ethical procedure in writing may be so pervasive as to warrant an F or lower on the assignment.   As with any other mistake, the fact that it was committed out of ignorance or carelessness does not remove the penalty.

Major Misattribution or Misrepresentation

The Student’s Action

In some cases clear and compelling evidence exists that a student has extensively plagiarized or committed extended acts of academic dishonesty.  Such deceptions are so self-evident that they cannot be attributed simply to carelessness, ignorance, or misunderstanding.  The following scenarios are examples of such academic misconduct:

  • In his/her paper a student borrowed extended sections (whole sentences and phrases) or an entire essay from a published or unpublished source without acknowledging any source in the text, in a note, or on the Works Cited page;
  • A student borrowed, purchased, stole, or otherwise obtained a paper from another individual or company and presented it as his/her own;
  • A student stole a copy of a test or assignment, with the purpose either of securing unfair advantage or of sharing the test/assignment with others so they might secure unfair advantage;
  • A student gave or sold a paper to another student in full knowledge that the second student intended to submit the paper as his/her own work;
  • A student, without the teacher’s permission, used information from notes, textbooks, or fellow students during an examination or an in-class assignment.

Responses by the Teacher and Appropriate Administrators

In such cases, after conferring with two other teachers to determine that the evidence is clear and compelling, the teacher will give the student a zero on the assignment.  A zero on a major assignment may be sufficient to cause the student to fail the course.

This incident will be reported to appropriate university officials.  If there are other incidents of dishonesty, including incidents other than academic dishonesty, the student may face additional penalties.

Last English Department Chapel for the Semester

0 Commentsby   |  11.15.10  |  Announcements, Department Chapel

Prof. Haley Wins Kelton Prize

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0 Commentsby   |  11.13.10  |  Faculty Publications

Writer in residence and creative writing professor Al Haley has been named the winner of the fourth annual writing competition sponsored by Angelo State University and the Concho River Review in honor of famed western writer Elmer Kelton.

Three passions come together--hours spent reading, writing, and listening to music.

 

The competition this year was open to entries in the genre of creative nonfiction. Al’s winning piece, “Hemingway Summer Jazz,” is his prose reflection upon his favorite activity, reading.

“I tried to express as best I could the frustration I have with so many books I have stacked up, ready to read and yet there’s so little time to sit down and turn the pages,” Al says.

In the 4500-word piece Al reveals that once he’s into summer he side-steps his long list of “need to reads” and always re-reads a book by a favorite author. For a long time that author has been Ernest Hemingway.

“I know Hemingway is not academically fashionable,” Al says, “but there’s something about the slow pace of his writing that coincides with my summer mood.”

He adds, “The main thing I was trying to do wasn’t to single out one writer for praise, but to remind myself, and others, about how there’s nothing like eyes meeting text inked onto the page. In this age of screens large and small competing for our attention, I think somebody has to stand up and say, you know, you’re missing out on an entire body, mind, and soul experience  if you’re not doing some old school reading.”

As a result of his win, Al will receive a small cash prize, his piece will be published in the next issue of Concho River River, and he has been invited to read at the Angelo State Writer’s Conference which will be held Feb. 17-18, 2011.

This installment of  the Writer’s Conference will feature Art Spiegelman who is widely regarded as the father of the literary graphic novel with his books Maus  I and II (1986, 1992). Since San Angelo is only a 50-minute drive from Abilene, Al encourages English majors to make the trek.

“You don’t get to meet a world famous writer every day,” he says. “You ought to hear him and then have him autograph a book for you.”

For those that don’t know, Al is currently involved in a personal challenge he calls The Van Winkle Proejct and is abstaining from all news, weather, sports and entertainment, except for what can be experienced first-hand. Al says it’s all right for him know about the writing festival and enter contests.

“I’m a writer, not a hermit,” he says. “There’s a difference. Not much, but some.”

Al’s adventures in not-knowing are being documented on a blog.

International Careers with the Department of State

0 Commentsby   |  11.12.10  |  Announcements, Career Planning & Information

Susan Jeffers and The Twilight Mystique

0 Commentsby   |  11.12.10  |  Alumni Spotlight, Announcements

2010 has been quite a busy year for me. My husband and I moved to New Jersey in May. We miss all of our friends in Abilene and it has taken us a while to get settled, but we are adjusting. We finally unpacked the last box just this weekend. We also had our first little one in October. Jacob Nathaniel is the cutest baby in the world.  He brings us a lot of joy—even at 3 in the morning (though I admit there’s less joy than there is yawning at that hour). It probably shouldn’t surprise me to discover that he is, in fact, a real person with preferences and a personality, but it does. We feel very blessed to have him in our family.

Also this year, an essay of mine was published in a collection about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. The editors, Amy M. Clarke and Marijane Osborn, noticed that undergraduates wanted to think and to write papers about these books, but that there weren’t enough critical resources to help these students produce good scholarship. The Twilight Mystique attempts to begin filling this gap. There is a broad range of articles in this collection, considering topics from Meyer’s use of Quileute legends to the economic transformation of the real Forks. Other essays look at Twilight in the contexts of the gothic, abstinence, feminism, and religion. My article, titled “Bella and the Choice Made in Eden,” considers how Latter-day Saint theology intersects with the Twilight series. LDS doctrine on the Fall situates Eve as a hero and an active participant in her own salvation. I argue that Bella can be read similarly. Bella is only a victim when she’s denied status as an agent. I also briefly discuss how the happy ending of the series mirrors aspects of LDS ideas about the afterlife, specifically the idea of eternal families. If you’re interested in buying The Twilight Mystique, you can find it on amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Mystique-Critical-Explorations-Science/dp/0786449985/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1289497617&sr=1-1. It is also available as an e-book for Kindle.

Getting this essay ready for publication was a challenging process, but a rewarding one.  I love seeing my name in print as an author! Thanks to Mikee Deloney and everyone else there in the English Department for supporting my efforts. You’re invaluable friends.

God Bless.

George E. Ewing Folklore Lecture Series

0 Commentsby   |  11.10.10  |  Announcements

NOVEMBER 11, 2010

Folklore Workshop

3:00 – 4:20 p.m.

Brown Library Room 235

The Way West

The Shore Srt Gallery

7:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Reception to follow

Dr. Bridges, recipient of TWUs highest teaching honor, the Cornaro Professorship, is in her 40th year of teaching at TWU. A well-known folklorist, Dr. Bridges lecture will include discussions of diaries, the Oregon Trail, the orphan trains, and mail order brides.

In addition to her Folklore interests, Dr. Bridges also teaches courses in Shakespeare, Milton, and American Literature.  Active in the Southwest Popular Culture Association, Dr. Bridges annually chairs the Biography section and actively supports graduate work in the field with the Phyllis Bridges Award for Biography, an annual prize for the outstanding graduate essay in the field of biography studies.

Dr. Bridges has published essays in many collections including Both Sides of the Border A Scattering of Texas Folklore, A Texas Folklore Odyssey, and Between the Cracks of History: Essays on Teaching and Illustrating Folklore.

Dr. Bridges has served as president of the as served as president of the Texas Joint Council of Teachers of English, the Southwest American Cultural association and the Texas Folklore Society.  She has also been named a Distinguished Member of TWU’s chapter of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and a Distinguished Alumna In English of Texas Tech University.

Varner comes out, guns blazing, with new book!

0 Commentsby   |  11.10.10  |  Faculty Publications, Faculty Spotlight

To see evidence that Abilene Christian University faculty members are hard at work, you need look no further than the list of books recently released by ACU authors. Among them is a title by  Dr. Paul Varner, scholar in residence and visiting professor of English. Varner’s latest book, Historical Dictionary of Westerns in Literature, was released on Oct. 15. Since coming to ACU in 2007, Varner has written three books on the literature of the American West. The books provide the latest information on scholarship, scholarly approaches, critical terminology, and essential information for scholars pursuing serious literary and cultural study of Western literature and critical analysis for the essential authors and novels of the West.

“I have always wanted to work with the literature of the American West because of its impact on who we are in Texas and Abilene,” says Varner. “Western literature has both shaped our culture and reflected what our immediate culture has been.” For more information on Historical Dictionary of Westerns in Literature, visit the Scarecrow Press website.

Enter the ACTFL Video Podcast Contest and shine during Discover Languages Month

0 Commentsby   |  11.02.10  |  Announcement, Dialektos, French, International Studies Major, Programs, Spanish Majors, Spanish Minors

$500 prize for contest winner!

This year’s theme of the ACTFL National Video Podcast Contest is “Why I am a 21st Century Learner.” Open to currently enrolled world language students in grades K-16. All entries will be displayed for the world to see. Selected winners can win up to $500 and will be featured on ACTFL’s website and in the February issue of “The Language Educator.” The deadline is Dec. 20. Find out more and check out last year’s winners.