Dean Gerry Riposa
Greetings:
I am happy to visit with you and share some of the exciting things happening in the College of Liberal Arts. Thanks to the generosity of our alumni and friends, the College of Liberal Arts raised a record $2.2 million for the 2008-09 academic year. These gifts will provide much needed buoyancy during the upcoming academic year as we navigate an unprecedented economic climate. Philanthropic support has always been a critical element of our success; gifts support a myriad of activities including student scholarships, endowed professorships and chairs and faculty research. A major part of our success this year involved endowed gifts for departments and programs including the Robert Harmon Endowed Professorship in Anthropology, the Barbara and Ray Alpert Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies and the Graziadio Endowed Chair in Italian Studies.
Department representatives in the College did a stellar job in hosting various film series, speakerships, and conferences. From the previous endowment of the Yadunandan Center for Indian Studies, the Solanki Lecture Series hosted Pico Iyer, internationally renowned travel author and longtime friend of the 14th Dalai Lama. While the number of film series events are too numerous to mention, I will point out that the Jewish Studies, Middle East Studies, Russian and Cuban film series were all great successes.
I also want to underscore the success of the Russian Studies Fyodor Dostoyevsky Festival and the Spanish and American Women’s Literature conference. These events and others brought the CSULB community back to campus to share experiences and views. We thank our entire faculty for organizing a fantastic array of rich intellectual experiences that mark a CSULB education.
I would also like to congratulate both the College of Liberal Arts students and faculty for their special achievements and awards. The Communication Studies Department’s Beach Forensics team won two national championships. The Bateman team earned an Honorable Mention in the Bateman Study Case Competition. The Moot Court team, led by Professor Lewis Ringel from Political Science, became Moot Court Tournament Champions for the first time since 2003.
College of Liberal Arts faculty also earned prestigious University awards. This year, the Distinguished Faculty Advising Award went to Dr. Virginia Binder (Psychology) and the Distinguished Faculty Scholarship Award went to Dr. Dennis Fisher (Psychology). Distinguish Teaching Awards went to Dr. Betsy McEneany (History) and Sharlene Sayegh (History), and Early Career Excellence Award went to Dr. Kim Vu (Psychology). Dr. Vu was also acknowledged by the Provost through the Outstanding Faculty Mentor for Student Engagement in Research, Scholarly or Creative Activity. Finally, the Provost honored Dr. Charles H. Webb (English) with the 2009 Provost's Award for Outstanding Impact Accomplishment of the Year in Research, Scholarly or Creative Activity.
In all, we had an exceptional year. I invite you to join us in the future as we continue to offer exciting events and diverse intellectual enrichment opportunities that build upon the greatness of liberal arts at CSULB.
Cheers,
Dean Gerry Riposa
CSULB Moot Court students argued in federal courthouses in DC and California and state court houses in Torrance and Los Angeles.
Moot Court is under the Department of Political Science within the College of Liberal Arts at California State University, Long Beach. It is designed to prepare students for careers in the legal field through the simulation of an appellate argument.
Click here to read the Moot Court full story
