Invitation
Linda Nichols Joseph ’81
in honor of the establishment of the
Linda Nichols Joseph English Merit Scholarships
and for the naming of the
Linda Nichols Joseph English Reading Room
Thursday, April 12, 2012
4:30–6:30 p.m.
Dedication ceremony and reception
Jerome Richfield Hall 319
For questions, please call (818) 677-1300
RSVP or email special events@csun.edu
Linda Nichols Joseph ’81
Linda Nichols was a native of the San Fernando Valley, where her family had settled from Arkansas in the 1930s to raise cattle and grow citrus crops. As a child, she rode horses and enjoyed the outdoors.
Having graduated from San Fernando High, Linda enrolled in community college and then transferred to San Fernando Valley State. When her father died, however, Linda left college life for full-time work at age 19. In 1978, then married to James Joseph, Linda took the opportunity to renew her studies at California State University, Northridge. Three years later, at age 40, Linda graduated cum laude with a degree in English.
Linda’s love of reading and literature, and of her alma mater, remained with her throughout her lifetime. When she passed away in 2011, Linda left a significant legacy for the university, endowing the Linda Nichols Joseph ’81 English Merit Scholarships and providing major support for the English Department.
California State University, Northridge is honored to dedicate the Linda Nichols Joseph ’81 English Reading Room in Jerome Richfield Hall. Because of Linda’s vision and legacy, English students and faculty will have a far richer experience.
Please be sure to RSVP (ASAP!) to special events@csun.edu. The reception is approaching quickly!
1. Announcements
And more happy news, we have a new President! Dr. Dianne F. Harrison, president of California State University, Monterey Bay, has been selected by the CSU Board of Trustees as the fifth president of California State University, Northridge. She is expected to begin her appointment this June. For more information about our new hire, please see the main CSUN webpage. Welcome President Harrison!
Unhappy news, keep track of the strike news by checking in on the CFA website or by attending one of the CFA meetings scheduled for April. These meetings are designed to solicit our feedback and concerns about our work environment and goals for the coming year, to share information about the strike vote, and to discuss possibilities for more involvement here in our own CSUN CFA Chapter. Here is the schedule, but if you can’t come to the Humanities meeting, you’re welcome to join any other College’s: April 10, 12-1pm: Colleges of SBS and Humanities, Sierra Hall 181; April 11, 12-1pm: College of Science and Mathematics, Manzanita Hall 112; April 12, 12-1pm: College of Education, Education 1214/1216; April 16, 12-1pm: College of Arts, Media, and Communication Manzanita Hall 240; April 17, 12-1pm: College of Engineering and Computer Science, Sierra Hall 286; April 18, 12-1pm: College of Health and Human Development, Sequoia Hall 250A; and April 19, 12-1pm: College of Business and Economics, Juniper Hall 4117.
Carmen Ramos Chandler of the Office of Marketing and Communications is once again requesting input for a list of “extraordinary” students who will be taking part in this year’s commencement ceremonies. This list includes not only outstanding scholars, but students who have overcome obstacles to obtain their degrees or have otherwise compelling stories, whether they are single parents working two jobs and going to school full time, have already launched an interesting business, came to this country not speaking a word of English, or are returning students graduating with their son/daughter/grandchild. While they won’t be able to profile all of the students, they will select a number of them to represent our graduating seniors. Please include a brief description of why you think the student deserves to be included in a university media release and in a short video profile for the web, along with a way to contact the student so we may interview him/her, and send them to Carmen at carmen.chandler@csun.edu by April 9.
The Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act, which recently became law, directs California Community Colleges to offer Transfer AA degrees that correspond to the most popular majors of students transferring to the California State University, and the same legislation obliges the CSU to accept these degrees. Although the legislation calls for creation of the Transfer AA at the level of individual community college districts, the faculty senates of the two segments have been working voluntarily to create consistent lower-division degree pathways across the state. Each such pathway is called a “Transfer Model Curriculum,” or TMC. Broad adoption of the TMC model by California Community Colleges would facilitate the development of meaningful upper-division coursework for all CSU transfer students, regardless of the college of origin. This is an ongoing project, and anyone interested in serving on the Faculty Discipline Review Groups in English should let Jackie know. Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to shape the future.
The Northridge Writers’ Circle is hosting another event on Friday, April 13, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Whitsett Room. Kate Gale and Mark Cull (both CSUN alums) of Red Hen press will be here for a reading (Kate) and subsequent publishing Q&A (Kate and Mark). The event is free and open to the public.
Stephanie Satie’s latest solo piece, Silent Witnesses, based on interviews and conversations with Child Survivors of the Holocaust, will be presented as as staged reading of Interact Theatre Company’s Festival Interactivity 2012. Don’t miss this opportunity to be the first to see this piece, which has been five years in the making. Staged readings will be held on Saturday, April 14, at 2:00 p.m. and Friday, April 27th, at 8:00 p.m. at Richie’s Alley Theater in the Avery Schrieber Complex in NoHo, 11050 Magnolia Boulevard, North Hollywood.
Cal State Online is an initiative to create a systemwide effort to assist in the coordination of online programs. For general information regarding Cal State Online, read the open letter to the CSU, found at: http://www.calstateonline.net/news/2012/OpenLettertoCSU.pdf. The new and improved Cal State Online website http://www.calstateonline.net/ is up and running! If you are interested, please review it.
For all those travelers among you, the University Travel Department is requiring additional information related to Travel Advances and Travel Expense Claims. Please review the new requirements before you fly off on a trip.
2. Reminders
If you haven’t RSVP’d for the upcoming retirement gala at Irene Clark’s home, 1314 Comstock, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on May 28, you’re way behind the curve already, but it’s not too late to let Frank know you couldn’t bear to miss saying an official adieu to Martha Alzamora, Pam Bourgeois, Patrick Hunter, Rei Noguchi, and Pat Watkins. However, since, technically you were supposed to put your name in before spring break, please be prepared to bring something extra delectable to share–salad, hors d’ouvres, or something nice to drink. And congratulations and all warm wishes and gratitude to Martha, Pam, Patrick, Rei, and Pat!
Also, if you haven’t sent your regalia request to the Dean’s office already, well, on this one, you really are out of luck.
3. Achievements
Dorothy Barresi will be reading her poems at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival at USC on Saturday, April 21 at 4:30 on the Poetry Stage. In January she began her second year as Judge for the L.A. Times Book Award in Poetry. She is also currently serving as Judge for the 2012 Patricia Bibby First Book Competition. In February she gave poetry readings twice at Beyond Baroque Cultural Arts Center in Venice Beach, and in March at the Tarzana Community Center for the Valley Contemporary Poets. Her essay “Lost and Found: Jean Valentine’s Poems of Childhood and Motherhood” will be published this year in This-World Company by the University of Michigan Press On Poetry Series.
Haake & Houghton read from their new books, along with Chuck Rosenthal and CSUN’s own Ramon Garcia, to a standing room only crowd at Beyond Baroque on March 31. Upcoming readings include Sunday, April 15, 4:00 p.m., at Book Soup in West Hollywood; Saturday, April 21, 7:00 p.m. at the Last Bookstore downtown (officially known as one of the world’s twenty most beautiful bookstores); and Friday, May 4, 7:30 p.m. at Stories in Echo Park.
On March 22nd, Irene Clark presented a paper at the Conference on College Composition and Communication in St. Louise. It was titled “Rhetorical Knowledge and Genre Awareness as Gateway to Transfer.”
Also at CCCC, Ian Barnard chaired and Steve Wexler, Nicole Warwick, Mandy Macklin, and Maria Turnmeyer presented on the panel “‘Stretch’ through the Transnational: Gateway Rhetorics in First-Year Writing. And Jada Augustine chaired the panel “Professional Writing in Transition: Into the World of Work and Back Again.”
4. Opportunities
Ashley Jean Granillo, one of our former graduate students, curretnly works for work for Writers Tribe Inc. and LA Writers Lab and is in need of three interns for the Spring 2012 semester. She’s looking for dedicated, passionate, good writers to do work that will vary from copy-editing manuscripts to basic social media engagements. This is a non-paid internship, available for college credit/discounts for all writing workshops, and the work can be done remotely. If you know any interested students, please have them contact Ashley at lawriterslab@yahoo.com with the subject “Interns Spring 2012.”