C&I Interest Group to Honor
Outstanding Teachers at Convention

Liz Leckie, Interest Group Vice Chair

As vice chair of the WSCA Communication and Instruction Interest Group, I am happy to announce the teachers who will receive this year’s Master teacher designation at the forthcoming convention.  Each year, the Communication and Instruction Interest Group celebrates excellence in teaching, awarding some of our very best educators with the title Master Teacher.  This year we honor two outstanding teachers, administrators, and scholars.  Dr. Brenda J. Allen is an Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor of Communication at the University of Colorado Denver. Dr. Bryant Keith Alexander is the Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Letters and Professor of Communication at California State University Los Angeles. Both of this year’s honorees have found important ways to connect their scholarship and teaching.

Dr. Brenda J. Allen. Professor Allen has been a member of the Colorado University system since 1989. She teaches and researches in the areas of organizational communication, diversity, group communication, and computer-mediated communication. While at the University of Colorado Denver, she has been recognized with the First Annual Award for Outstanding Achievement for Commitment to Diversity. Her students and colleagues frequently cite her passion and commitment to teaching, learning, and scholarship among her strongest attributes. Specifically, Dr. Allen is credited for the efforts she makes to connect theory to practice and praxis to theory. Her groundbreaking book entitled Difference Matters: Communicating Social Identity (2004) is evidence of this commitment.  As part of this project, she has developed a resource-rich website for faculty who teach courses on difference and diversity.

Dr. Bryant Keith Alexander. Professor Alexander joined the faculty of California State University, Los Angeles, in 1998. He teaches courses in pedagogy and performance cross-listed with the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance. His research is grounded in the social and performative construction of identity as related to issues of race, culture and gender-often placing these concerns within the broad context of education, schooling and specifically in the classroom. He has two books, the co-edited volume Performance Theories in Education: Power, Pedagogy, and the Politics of Identity (2004) and his new book Performing Black Masculinity: Race, Gender and Queer Identity (2006) received the 2007 National Communication Association Ethnography Division Top Book of the Year Award. As a teacher-performer-scholar his interests are intricately interwoven with his practices and his commitment to integrated and interdisciplinary ways of exploring the politics and pedagogies of identity. Dr. Alexander’s students praise his skills in innovative teaching methods, as a mentor and role model.

This February at the annual Western States Communication Association convention in Denver, Colorado, the Communication and Instruction Interest Group will recognize Drs. Allen and Alexander.  The Master Teacher Panel will feature these professors and their accomplishments We hope you will join us in hearing these remarkable colleagues talk about their teaching currently scheduled on Sunday, February 17, 2008, at 8:40-9:55 am in the Spruce Room. Please check the WSCA convention program for any scheduling changes. 

2008 WSCA Local Host Has Great Plans For You!

Sue D. Pendell, President-Elect and 2008 WSCA Primary Program Planner

The 2008 WSCA Local Host has planned several wonderful Special Events for you, including The Ski Train on Saturday, Snowshoeing and The Stanley on Sunday, and a tour of several independent microbreweries on Monday.  You don't have to ski or snowshoe or even drink beer to have a great time on these excursions!

I especially urge you to take advantage of The Ski Train on Saturday for a fantastic trip and a wonderful day on the slopes or in Winter Park.  This is an experience unique to Colorado and well worth the expense for the scenery, comradery, and once-in-a-lifetime day!

Registration for Special Events is due by January 10, so hurry and email Greg Dickinson (Greg.Dickinson@colostate.edu) to make arrangements. (Editor's Note: we realize that this issue is likely to reach you after the deadline, but if you want to participate contact Greg to see if there are any spaces still available.)

Also, start planning now for Sunday evening, February 17, 9:00 pm, for the Speech Comm Prom!  Drag out those old prom clothes, fancy outfits you never wear (except for Jan Andersen), bridesmaid dresses, and tuxes, or visit the second hand store for something truely wild, and let's go to the Prom!  Dress up time!  (Of course, you can come casual as well, but don't you want to show your stuff?)  Thanks to Taylor & Francis, our publishing partners, for providing support for the Speech Comm Prom and to Bristol Brewing for providing the beer!

Special Event:

Following their folly:  Engaging life, work and community
at New Belgium Brewery

Kirsten Broadfoot, Colorado State University

From the Executive Director

Convention Reminders

Mark Bergstrom, WSCA Executive Director

Staying at the Omni Interlocken

If you are a member, you have already received your convention packet in the mail, including hotel reservation information for the Omni Interlocken. Reservations are due January 24th, so if you haven't made your reservation yet, you'll want to do so now. For details about the hotel and to make a reservation online, you can find a link to the Hotel Reservation information via our website, http://www.westcomm.org/conventions/WSCA-2008-Denver/hotelform.pdf.

The Omni will be a fantastic site for our conference. The Hotel is an excellent facility and we have secured an outstanding rate ($119.00). WSCA asks that you stay at the convention hotel for two main reasons.

First, our semi-official motto is “Work Hard, Play Hard.” It is easier to work hard when your room is convenient to the meetings, the special events, the parties, and the lobby lounge (The Omni serves complimentary champagne in the lounge every evening!). Second, whether you are playing hard dancing the night away at the sock hop or enjoying the many departmental celebrations, it’s easy and safe just to take an elevator to your room at the Omni, where the views are spectacular. So treat yourself!

The Association asks you to stay at the convention hotel because we “pay” for our meeting rooms through your having a sleeping room at the hotel. Our meeting room rentals typically range from $15,000 to $45,000. The hotels will waive these fees if we have enough people staying at the hotel. If too many of you don’t have sleeping rooms there, we have to pay for those meeting rooms!  Over the years we’ve kept registration fees down to encourage students as well as faculty to attend. We also negotiate the same room rate for one to four people so you can share a room to reduce costs.  Our recent Member Survey indicated that hotel cost is one of the most important issues for our members.  Please help yourself and your Association by staying at The Omni--It’s the thing to do.

Nominating Candidates for Elected Offices

Just a reminder that if you plan to nominate a candidate for elected office at the 2008 Legislative Assembly meeting, you will need to follow the following procedure:

    "Before an individual can be nominated for an association wide elected office, including Legislative Assembly, Executive Council, and NCA representatives, that individual must indicate in writing a willingness to serve if elected or be present at the meeting in which the nomination occurs and indicate orally their willingness to serve if elected. For elections by the Legislative Assembly, such a document is to be delivered to the Second Vice President prior to the nomination. Association members shall be notified of available elected positions and the process of indicating their willingness to serve."

Elected offices to be filled by the Legislative Assembly this year are:

 1. Two At-Large Representatives to Executive Council (to serve 2008-2010 starting with the meeting Tuesday morning February 19th , including an annual meeting at NCA the evening prior to the convention and an annual meeting at WSCA the day prior to the convention);
 
2. Two members of the Nominating Committee (to serve with Immediate Past President Sara Hayden, Committee Chair, and two members elected by the Executive Council for 2008);

3. The WSCA Representative to NCA Legislative Council representing Community Colleges (to serve 2008 through 20010 starting with NCA in San Diego, including Wednesday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday morning meetings) and,

4. One Representative of the WSCA Scholar Award Committee (to serve with Immediate Past President Sara Hayden, one member elected at last year’s Legislative Assembly, one member appointed by the Executive Council, and one member appointed by the President).

In our October issue, Executive Director Mark Bergstrom issued a challenge to our membership: identify the individuals in this picture of the first WSCA Women's Caucus meeting, in Albuquerque, in 1973.

Our winner is former WSCA President Jo Sprague, who wrote:

"Left to right in the picture are Mary Ann Holden, Sandra Purnell, Estelle Zannes, Brenda Hancock, Judith Barnes Benson, Jo Sprague and Virginia Floyd.  Best guess: Jan Shuetz standing at the left and Joyce Hocker at the right." 

Sprague continued, "The article which I just found has this quotation from me.  'As communication scholars we are concered with being called 'women's libbers' which is a term somewhat humorous and demeaning.  Because we are women communication scholars, our caucus is a professional organization and not committed to any one political ideology.  We are all concerned, however, with such things as the legal and professional status of women, research and women's studies.'"

She concluded, "We've come quite a ways."

Right you are, Jo. Congratulations!