WEBER STATE WOMEN'S STUDIES NEWSLETTER

VOL. IV, NO. 4 DECEMBER 1997

COORDINATOR’S CORNER

Happy Holidays! The coming year brings a number of new courses for the Spring as well as courses for the final Summer Quarter. Spring offerings include the following: WS405, WS490B (a topics course on Isabel Allende taught in English), and two evening courses, WS490A (Minorities, Women, and the Media) and WS281B (a literature course on Ethnic and Women’s voices). Added to these are six cross-listed courses covering several disciplines. For women's studies' students who will have completed core courses and most electives by the end of the spring, we will be offering two courses in the seven-week summer session if enrollments merit funding them. I urge you to enroll early, especially if you'd like to take the Psychology of Women and Gender course, since the funding decision for summer courses will be made by May 18th.

Course decisions for next year must be in place within the next few weeks, so Gloria Wurst and I will be holding open hours to meet with minors in early January. These meetings are very important, since I will use your needs to help determine next years’ schedule. Gloria and I will meet with students on Friday, 10 January, from 9:00-11:00 am in SS 381. If that time won’t work into your schedule,you may meet with me that afternoon between 2:00 pm and 5:00pm. If both of those times are impossible for you, please let me know so we can arrange an alternative.

Provost David Eisler met with the Executive Council on November 12 and reiterated the University’s support for the Women’s Studies Program, even at this time of budget crunching. The same reassurances have come from several deans as well as individual department chairs.

The video series was successful in having a number of community members attend throughout the six weeks. Currently we are contemplating presenting a series of readings from letters of a young, nineteenth-century American woman who, while attending Oxford University, wrote home to her New England family describing her adventures abroad.

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Congratulations to June Cannon who has been nominated for the "All USA Today Academic Team" of the best and brightest college students. June will also present a paper at January’s annual Women in Higher Education Conference held in San Francisco.

Don’t forget about the availability of the Phoenix Scholarship for non-traditional students who are Women’s Studies minors. The deadline for applications is Feb 1, 1998; you must fill out the general application for university scholarship awards as well as the specific forms required by the Women’s Studies program. For more information, call Norma in the office (626-7632.)

We are pleased to introduce you to a brand new Women’s Studies faculty member who will be teaching Women’s Health Issues Winter Quarter. Dr. Carol Wilson will join the WSU adjunct faculty ranks, in addition to her position as Assistant Professor of Health Education at Utah State University. Carol brings a wide range of experience and a personal love of teaching this particular class to our campus. Although she is a native of Annapolis, MD, her professional life has been spent in the west. She holds a B.S. and an M.S. from Utah State University in Health, Physical Education and Recreation. She completed her Ph.D. in 1990 at the University of Utah (Health Education); her dissertation research studied the effect of interaction of PMS with biological, psychological, and social variables on mother-daughter relationships. She has also studied adolescent substance abuse as the subject of two post-doctoral fellowships through Temple University and the University of Miami, both completed on site at the University of Utah. She holds certification as a Health Education Specialist, a secondary school teacher, and a marriage and family therapist. Prior to her appointment at Utah State, Carol was a faculty member at South Cache Jr. High School, the University of Virginia - Charlottesville, and the University of Nevada - Las Vegas, where she taught in the Women’s Studies Program. She has also served as a consultant for several different health plans in Utah, Virginia, and Nevada. Carol has published and presented her research in numerous articles and abstracts, as well as a book chapter. She has been an invited participant in several national and international meetings focusing on both education and women’s issues. In addition, she has been awarded intramural funding (at UNLV) and has a pending NIMH-approved grant in support of her continuing studies. She has supervised student research projects from the undergraduate to the Ph.D. level, including projects on health in general as well as women’s issues. Carol’s professional service commitments include membership on committees from campus to regional and national levels, dealing with causes related to both academic and broader community concerns. One of the recent highlights of her life was attending the First International Women’s Conference in Russia as part of a U.S. Delegation of six women. Carol whetted her considerable travel appetite with a train trip across Russia and into Estonia. She attributes her wanderlust to having been raised in the U.S. military and spending much time living or traveling abroad. Willing to take on U.S. highways fearlessly, she drove a large U-Haul, towing her 4-wheel drive behind, to and

from her first faculty appointment in Virginia. Her only regret in life is that she didn’t serve in the Peace Corps. A personal commitment to helping people in crisis had brought her to applying for a humanitarian relief mission out of Geneva, Switzerland. Unfortunately, she was rejected because she had lost a knee ligament in a skiing accident and was unable to make a requisite jump out of a helicopter. Carol lives in Bountiful and has three children. Daughter Chelsey is currently attending USU but plans to transfer to the Criminal Justice program at Weber State in preparation for a career as an FBI agent. Her other daughter, Lindsey, is artistically inclined and graduates this year from high school. Son, Colby, provides opportunities for her to hone her skills as a "soccer mom" who is now learning to play Nintendo 64 International Soccer. He plays on a Division I soccer team and just made the Olympic Development Team as well. In addition to her vicarious soccer career, she also has a large soft-spot in her heart for ballet and makes a point of checking out the ballet company in every city she visits. We welcome Carol to the W.S. faculty and are pleased that her teaching passion and our needs have overlapped so fortuitously!

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Celebrate the Holiday Season with music, theatre and dance. Call the WSU Performing Arts Hotline (626-6800) for information on campus and community performances, available in abundance during December.

1 Dec. - World AIDS Day

3 Dec. - Exec. Council Mtg, 4:30 p.m., SS115

4 - 6 Dec - Orchesis Fall Dance Concert, Dance Studio, Swensen Gym, 7:30 p.m.

12 Dec. - Autumn Quarter Commencement

5 Jan. - Winter Quarter Classes Begin.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!