VOL. VII, NO. 2 OCTOBER 2000

The year is going well. A number of good ideas were generated at the September 8 opening meeting, and the Women’s Studies Executive Council is organized for the year with Shirley Leali as chairperson. Women’s Studies participated in the first and very successful Women’s Fair, sponsored by Services for Women Students. Be looking forward to a couple of important activities. The week of October 9 is Human Rights Week, and, on Friday, October 13, the second annual WSU Diversity Conference will be held in the Union Building Ballroom. The keynote speaker is Martin Luther King III, and there are a number of other speakers and panels. Bring your colleagues, your classes, your neighbors, friends, and relatives! This activity is open to all and free (except for lunch which requires pre-registration and fee of $10). Coming up on October 22 is the Women’ s Studies Picnic and Used Book Donation/Sale from 2:30-5:30 PM in Annex 1. This annual event is open to all so bring your family, friends and neighbors - anyone interested in women’s issues, good food and good fun. Invitations will be out soon with further information. Call the office with questions.

Notices arrive frequently about opportunities for visiting professorships and other job openings, grants, and conferences. I post these on the bulletin board across the hall from the Women’s Studies office. One item of particular note is the call for proposals for the National Women’s Studies Association conference. We were proud to be represented there last year by three of Dr. Eva Szalay’s Methodologies students. She spearheaded development of their proposal through to its ultimate panel presentation. I encourage other students and/or faculty to submit proposals (due November 12) for this conference. Also available on the bulletin board for public appreciation is the birth announcement and picture of Angelica Pagel’s new daughter.

One of my goals for the next few years is to ‘grow’ the program by adding classes. Some ideas are being developed that I hope we can support and make a permanent part of our curriculum. Eva Szalay is working on a class for this summer titled, ‘Women’s Selves in (Auto)Biographical Form,’ which will explore writings by Simone de Beauvoir, Zora Neal Hurston and/or Maya Angelou, Christa Wolf, Maxine Hong Kingston, Ruth Kluger and Virginia Sorenson. Becky Johns is planning a class for next fall about LDS Women and Feminism. Many of us can register for up to 5 hours of classes for free as a benefit of our employment. Consider registering for one or both of these classes and encourage others to take them as well. … or consider the other classes being offered this spring, including "Great Women Writers of the Western World" (Diane Krantz), "Women, Work and Organizations" (Marjukka Ollilainen and Huiying Wei-Arthus), "Women’s Health Issues" (Kim Hyatt), and "Psychology of Diversity" (Maria Parilla Vazquez de Kokal.)

It’s a great pleasure to profile Becky Johns from the Communication Department, who is now team-teaching WS 2050 with Marjukka Ollilainen. Becky is an "old hand" who will soon be wearing a "new hat" @ moving from Instructor to Assistant Professor when her PhD becomes official at the University of Utah’s December graduation. Becky’s dissertation has a marvelously intriguing title of "A Study of Coded Messages in the Personal Narratives of Female Mormon Missionaries" @ I’m sure others join me in hoping that we might persuade her to present her research to all of us on some future occasion. Besides her soon-to-be PhD, Becky holds a BS from Weber State and an MS from BYU.

In addition to her other courses in Communication, Becky has taught "Gender and Communication" - cross-listed with Women's Studies @ and she and Sandra Powell are working to introduce a WS class next fall called "Women and LDS Culture." She reports that she is "very much enjoying teaching the Intro. to Women’s Studies course. I love the students and my colleagues!" (and we love hearing her say that!) Becky has many areas of teaching interest that include Small Group & Interpersonal Communication, Family Communication, Advanced Interpersonal, Communication Theory, Organizational Communication, Gender & Communication, Public Speaking (from a diversity perspective), as well as Women in Religious Organizations.

Becky is a member of several professional groups including the National Communication Association, the Western Communication Association, the Weber County League of Women Voters, as well as the national Religious Communication Association, for which she serves as Executive Secretary. Her meeting presentations include "Conflict Resolution: A Comparison Study Among Religions" (at the 1999 National Communication Association convention, Chicago, IL), "The Games and How They Work: Upward Communication in the Workplace" (at the 2000 Utah Association of Librarians convention, SLC), and "The Art of Listening: Building Better Relationships at Home and at Work" (to WSU Alumni University participants, 2000.) She has also participated recently on panels for events organized by our Women’s Studies students.

Becky provides service to her department as the "point person" for assessment measures and is presently working on a federally-funded program to prepare Communication 1050 as a teleconcurrent course for state high schools. She also was honored in 2000 as a recipient of a WSU Exemplary Collaboration Award.

On the home front, Becky shares her life with attorney husband Brent, three teenage children, Chris, Ben and Charity and a wide assortment of pets that include "two very old cats, two rats (also old, for rats) and one Quaker Parrot (baby)" @ who shall remain unnamed. In her spare time (hopefully more abundant since finishing her PhD), she likes to garden and read.

So, Becky - Congratulations on completing the PhD, thanks for all your contributions to the program, and we hope for many more collaborations in the future!

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Services for Women Students is looking for a few good folks @ as members of a Student Advisory Board and/or to join PEER @ an organization whose goal is "to facilitate understanding about the myths and facts of rape through presentations and other resources." Contact Mandy at 626-6449 to volunteer or for further information.

For this AIDS Awareness Month, Stewart Library will present "Women First", a photo exhibit of women with AIDS, 14-29 October, with a reception on the 24th.

13 Oct. @ Second Annual WSU Diversity Conference, UB Ballroom

18 Oct. @ WS Executive Council Meeting, 1:30 PM, SS113.

22 Oct. @ Annual Women’s Studies Picnic/ Book Sale, 2:30 @ 5:30 PM, Annex 1.