September
25, 2007
Call
for Nominations: K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Awards Deadline
for receipt of materials: October 5, 2007
The K. Patricia
Cross Future Leaders Awards recognizes graduate students who show
exemplary promise as future leaders of higher education; who demonstrate
a commitment to developing academic and civic responsibility in
themselves and others; and whose work reflects a strong emphasis
on teaching and learning.
The awards
are sponsored by K. Patricia Cross, Professor Emerita of Higher
Education at the University of California-Berkeley. Please go
to the K. Patricia Cross page of Association of American Colleges
and Universities' (AAC&U) Web site for complete information:
Click
here
Eligibility:
All doctoral
level graduate students who are planning a career in higher education
are eligible, regardless of academic department. Applicants must
demonstrate:
1) Leadership
ability or potential for exercising leadership in teaching and
learning, with a strong commitment to academic and civic responsibility;
and
2) Leadership
or potential leadership in the development of others as leaders,
scholars, and citizens.
Nomination
Process:
A faculty
member or administrator must nominate the student, with a supporting
letter from a second faculty member or administrator. The following
materials must be submitted for an application to be considered:
1) a nomination
letter from a faculty member or administrator;
2) a supporting
letter from a second faculty member or administrator;
3) a statement
from the student indicating how he or she meets the award criteria;
4) a copy
of the student's curriculum vitae.
Nominations
can be submitted anytime, but no later than October 5, 2007. Nominees
must also complete an online form with all contact information:
Click
here. Only complete nominations will be considered.
The
Award:
The K. Patricia
Cross Future Leaders Awards provide financial support for graduate
students to attend AAC&U's 2008 Annual Meeting, which will
be held in Washington, DC, January 23-26, 2008. All award recipients
are required to attend the conference.
The awards
include travel, lodging, conference registration (up to $1,500
total), and a one-year affiliation with AAC&U, including subscriptions
to all AAC&U periodicals.
The awards
will be announced in December, 2007, and recognized at AAC&U's
Annual Meeting in January.
Contact Information:
Please contact Suzanne Hyers at hyers@aacu.org
or 202.387.3760 with any questions.
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Attend three-day course on textbook effectiveness
The University
of Utrecht (Netherlands) and the University of Stirling (Scotland)
will be holding a three-day course on textbook writing and design
at the University of Utrecht, Februrary 20-22, 2008.
The course,
"Good Books, Bad Books: What makes an effective textbook?", will
include discussions about why textbooks should be evaluated and
what should be evaluated; practical and theoretical approaches;
parallel sessions on the pedagogical approach of textbooks and
evaluating the publisher, and a presentation and summary of conclusions
from those discussions; parallel sessions on selecting and organizing
content and textbooks and the curriculum, and a presentation and
summary of conclusions from those discussions; and a case study
of textbook design and presentation. Course leaders are Arno Reints,
director of CLU, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, and James
McCall, Centre for Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling.
The conference
fee is 550 Euros ($764.56). For more information on the conference
or to register, email course leader Arno Reints at a.reints@clu.nl
Download
an informational PDF brochure (436 K)
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TAA
member wins award for historical fiction
|
Helen
Gordon
|
At the Hollywood
Book Festival 2007, TAA member Helen Gordon earned an award for
best book in the category of historical fiction. The contest was
judged on the basis of the author's story-telling ability plus
the potential for the novel to translate into other media such
as a movie or television series.
Her novel,
titled Voice of the Vanquished: The Story of the Slave Marina
and Hernan Cortes, is about authentic historical figures (realistically
depicted) who changed the fate of two continents. Marina, one
of 20 slaves given to Hernan Cortes by the natives of Tabasco,
spoke Mayan as well as her native Nahuatl. She quickly learned
Spanish, became Cortes' interpreter, and enabled him to form alliances
with the enemies of Moctezuma II.
After Cortes
conquered the Aztecs, Marina bore Cortes a son from a love greater
than a master and a slave are ever supposed to know. For the last
two centuries she has been demonized as La Malinche the traitress,
but Gordon believes she was a courageous woman who should be honored
and admired. To purchase a copy of the book, visit www.anacade.biz
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Bookstore
selling instructor's copies to students backs down
TAA member
Frank Wilson recently discovered that his college bookstore was
selling the instructor's copy of his Brief Applied Calculus
textbook as a student version by placing black tape all over the
cover to hide the fact that it was an instructor's version (instructor's
versions have "not for sale" and "Instructor's Copy" written all
over them). They then put a sticker with the student version ISBN
on the masked instructor's version and sold it as a used student
version of the text.
"In short,
they were selling a disguised instructor's copy under the ISBN
for the student text," says Wilson. "From my point of view, this
is at best, unethical, and at worst, illegal." His first communication
with the store's book buyer didn't correct the matter.
After discussing
this issue with other TAA members on the association's Listserv,
Wilson continued to pursue the matter with a satisfactory result.
"Once the bookstore realized that I was not going walk away from
this issue, they became more cooperative," he says. "They have
agreed to replace all of the instructor's copies that they sold
with NEW legitimate student copies. They will give the students
two weeks to exchange the review copies for the new books."
Throughout
the resolution process, Wilson kept his publisher informed and
requested that they weigh in on the matter. After Wilson and the
bookstore had negotiated an agreement, the publisher sent a memo
to the bookstore thanking them for their cooperation in resolving
the issue and informing the bookstore that they had challenged
the practice of selling complimentary copies in the past. "I wanted
the bookstore to know that the publisher knew about the situation,"
Wilson said.
Said TAA
Executive Director Richard Hull: "This practice [of selling instructor's
copies] takes money out of the publisher's pocket and the author's pocket
and puts it all in the pocket of the bookstore or the book reseller. This
is a perfect example of why we shouldn't sell our desk copies,
and why we shouldn't buy used books that are currently in
print."
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Apply for
a TAA Grant
TAA will provide
up to $750 in grants to members to subsidize their cost of publishing
scholarly journal articles, such as the preparation of artwork,
having the final article formatted to the journal's style, and
the preparation of photographic images, in addition to straightforward
publication costs. The total fund for these grants is limited
to $7,500. Grants will be awarded on a first come, first served
basis.
For more information
on applying for a TAA grant: Click
here
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New TAA
Membership Dues Structure
The TAA Council
has adopted a new membership dues structure. Academic author members
can now voluntarily choose from the following dues options: Graduate
students/Instructors/Postdoctoral Fellows $15; Assistant Professors
$30; Associate Professors $55; and Professors $75. Textbook authors
(who don't fit in the above categories) can now voluntarily choose
from two different dues options: $30 if their royalties are under
$5,000 per year; and $75 if their royalties are above $5,000 per
year. The Emeritus, Sustaining and Contributing Member categories
will remain the same. The new dues categories will be effective
for new members and renewals made on or after October 1, 2007.
Renew your membership online: Click
here
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Deadline
for Texty, McGuffey Nominations October 15
Ask your
publisher to nominate your book for a 2008 Textbook Excellence
Award or McGuffey Longevity Award. Textbook Excellence Awards
(or "Textys") recognize current textbooks and learning materials
that demonstrate excellence based on four criteria: interesting
and informative; well organized and well prepared; up to date
and appealing; and teachability. McGuffey Longevity Awards (or
"McGuffeys") recognize textbooks and learning materials whose
excellence has been demonstrated over time.
Texty and
McGuffey entries must be officially nominated by publishers, but
authors can ask publishers to nominate their book. Authors do
not need to be members of TAA.
Nomination
PDF forms for 2008 Texty and McGuffey Awards:
Texty Awards
McGuffey Awards
The deadline
for sending nomination forms and fees for the 2008 Texty and McGuffey
Awards is October 15, 2007. The deadline to receive the books
for judging purposes is November 15, 2007. These deadlines are
flexible according to publication dates. Contact TAA headquarters
if you need more time: (727) 563-0020 or TEXT@tampabay.rr.com
Learn more
about TAA's Texty and McGuffey Awards: Click
here
Read about TAA's 2007 Texty and McGuffey Award winners: Click
here
** Click
here for 2007 award winners' comments on winning **
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Check out
TAA's new Mentor-a-Member program
Find a mentor
by browsing TAA's online directory of mentors by name or field:
Click here
To become
a TAA mentor, fill out the online form: Click
here
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TAA welcomes
new members
MaryAnne Anthony
and Kevin Clark, Kimberly Davies and William Waters
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Sustaining
members
The following
TAA members renewed at the Sustaining Member level: Michael S.
Matta
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