Stone Center Faculty Affairs: Post-Katrina Information

Last Tuesday, the Stone Center administrative team had a chance to gather together in New Orleans and to meet as a unit for the first time since Katrina to discuss a wide variety of issues ranging from our Title VI grant proposal, to Spring/Lagniappe semester courses and programming, to budgets, etc.

One of the subjects we discussed was the Stone Center Faculty Professional Travel Budget. I would like you to know that the entire staff of the Stone Center was unanimous in its desire to make every effort to continue to support the research of our affiliated faculty and the dissemination of your research at learned society conferences. In fact, in order to emphasize our continued and strong commitment to the research and professional development of our affiliated faculty and to demonstrate concretely how importantly we view faculty research and professional development to our mission to maintain a vibrant and engaged intellectual academic community of Latin Americanist scholars, we decided to double our budget to support faculty professional travel requests for the current academic year.

We ask that you continue to use the current application forms, which can be downloaded off our website by clicking here, and to follow the established application guidelines with the following changes:

(1) Instead of applying for 1/2 airfare or a 2-night per diem, you should feel free to apply for full airfare or a 2-night per diem.

(2) You may make up to three requests for the year, but PLEASE prioritize your requests in order of importance as we expect the volume of applications this year to increase and thus our ability to fund multiple travel requests to decrease. ***Please note that professional travel requests to attend LASA this spring will be given special attention as we want to encourage a strong Tulane Latin Americanist presence at this conference.***

(3) There is a maximum limit of $700 for each request.

(4) The deadline for application is February 1, 2006; however, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible. Also, retroactive reimbursement requests for professional travel already undertaken this fall (or soon to be taken) are acceptable. Please submit your completed application form via email attachment to Jimmy Huck at jhuck@tulane.edu with a cc: to rtsclas@tulane.edu.

(5) Remember that all grants for faculty travel are made on a reimbursement basis, so please remember to keep originals of all relevant airline ticket, lodging, and meal receipts. Also, reimbursement cannot be made until sometime during the Spring '06 semester at the earliest, when we assume normal accounting procedures will once again be operational on campus.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We eagerly look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Please read the following note addressed to Tulane faculty from Vincent Ilustre, Director of the Office of Service Learning at Tulane University:

Dear Faculty Members,

We hope this letter finds you and your loved ones safe. As we turn our thoughts to the city’s reopening in the coming months, Tulane’s Office of Service Learning (OSL) seeks to help leverage the university’s resources to assist with rebuilding New Orleans. To that end, we ask you to consider teaching a service learning course.

For those of you unfamiliar with service learning, it has been described as “learning by doing.” This form of experiential education combines academic learning with a structured service experience in the community. Service learning will provide students with the opportunity to make a direct impact on the redevelopment efforts in New Orleans this spring, while also enhancing students’ understanding of academic material. To learn more about service learning, please visit our temporary website at http://www.tulaneservicelearning.org. The “Other Resources” section contains links to sites with more information about service learning.

Given the widespread devastation of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, many of our community partner sites will not be operational this spring. This is especially true of the local public schools, most of which are not slated to open until the fall. As soon as we can return to the city, we will complete a needs assessment of community partners to discern how we can best assist them. We will communicate this information to interested faculty members. If applicable, please send us the names of community-based agencies, a contact person’s name, and contact information for organizations with which you are interested in partnering this spring.

The needs of the New Orleans community are great. Given the unique circumstances, we ask that faculty members interested in teaching a service learning course this spring be flexible in terms of students’ activities. Our goal is to place students where they are needed most, in assignments aligned with course goals as much as possible. The OSL normally accommodates approximately 35 courses each semester, providing services to students, faculty members, and community partners. However, we will gladly assist with additional service learning courses this spring. It will be a challenging semester, but one that we think will have a lasting impact on the city.

We are committed to assisting all faculty members in their efforts to incorporate service learning into their courses. OSL staff members coordinate student placement and logistics, training and reflection activities for students, grant opportunities for faculty and community partner collaborations, and semester-long faculty seminars focused on creating a new service learning course.

If you are interested in teaching a service learning course this spring or would like more information, please email Vincent Ilustre, Associate Director of the Office of Service Learning, at VNLIlustre@aol.com. We plan to hold a day long workshop sometime in December. In the morning, we will hold a Service Learning 101 workshop for faculty members new to service learning. A luncheon will follow for all interested faculty members (current and new) to talk with each other about service learning and hear from community partners about their post-Katrina needs and how service learners can assist in the process. Please email Vincent if you would like to attend.

Best wishes,
OSL Staff

The Stone Center is committed to incorporating Service Learing into its introductory LAST 101/102 courses, and we encourage all Latin Americanist Faculty to consider incorporating Service Learning into their own courses.

In an effort to continue to support the ongoing professional activities of Tulane faculty affiliated with the Stone Center for Latin American Studies, we are committed in principle to continue providing some type of financial support for faculty professional travel.

Currently, we are assessing our financial situation given the realities of the moment to see what the possibilities and limits of our budgets are to be able to provide this financial support for faculty professional travel. Once we do this, I will convey to you the parameters, guidelines, and procedures for applying for a professional travel grant.

Just wanted to put this note out there so that you will know that we are working on this matter and that we are committed to the ongoing support of your professional development activities.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at rtsclasblog@hotmail.com.