Dear Colleagues,

As I type this morning, concerns for the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus occupy my email inbox, and rightly so. While I am out of town right now, I have been getting updates from both the Provost’s office and my senior staff every day. Panic and fear are never the best response, but taking every reasonable precaution is clearly very important. While I was at the National Student Success conference last week there were many nods and smiles that replaced handshakes and hugs, and my hands got chapped from constant washing. SIUE is rapidly developing an informed COVID-19 coronavirus action plan and policy statement, and more information should be forthcoming very soon. Once decisions are made about instructional delivery, travel, etc., we will do everything we can to support our faculty, staff, and students during this difficult time.

Read Dean Budzban's full letter.

SIUE Department of English Language and Literature Assistant Professor Tiana Clark has earned the prestigious 2020 Kate Tufts Discovery Award for her book of poetry, “I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood." This award is bestowed annually by Claremont Graduate University to honor a first book by a poet of promise.

“I’m ecstatic to win the 2020 Kate Tufts Discovery Award,” said Clark. “It’s an honor and a privilege to be included in a list of previous poets that I deeply admire like Diana Khoi Nguyen, Donika Kelly, Phillip B. Williams, Danez Smith, Terrance Hayes and more.” Read the article.

Great Value Colleges has selected the SIUE Department of Philosophy’s bachelor’s degree program as number one in Illinois and among the nation’s top 40 for affordability. SIUE was selected not only for the program’s affordability, but also for the institution’s overall outstanding reputation, faculty excellence and commitment to providing traditional and non-traditional students with the tools required to achieve their career goals.

“It is impossible not to be energized by someone else taking notice of SIUE’s great collection of philosophers,” said Christopher Pearson, PhD, Department of Philosophy chair. “We enjoy doing philosophy, and we strive to do it well.” Read the article.

A team of SIUE students and staff spent three days in February with eighth-grade U.S. History students at Liberty Middle School in the Edwardsville School District, sharing their love of history and their work in conjunction with Madison Historical: The Online Encyclopedia and Digital Archive for Madison County.

During the three-day lesson, the eighth-graders used digitized artifacts from the Madison Historical archives to analyze how the local history of Madison County speaks to the larger narrative of the U.S. in the 20th century. The project also gave students a chance to work as real historians by bringing in artifacts from home, writing the metadata that explains the artifact and aiding in its digitization. Read the article.