Mass Communication Interest Group
The Mass Communication Interest Group awarded its first Diane Furno-Lamude Award (Top Paper) to Andrew Wood and Anne Marie Todd, San Jose State U, for their paper: "'Are We There Yet?' Searching for Springfield and The Simpsons' Rhetoric of Place."
Organization for Research on Women and Communication
The recipient of the ORWAC Top Student Paper Award was Nicholas A. Thomas, CSU, Long Beach, for his essay, "The Political Imprisonment of Andrea Yates: Agency Calculus and Discursive
Determinism."
The WSCA Publications Committee, which is charged with making a recommendation to the Executive Council, will begin reviewing materials on November 1, 2004. We will continue reviewing application materials until a suitable candidate or candidates are found. WSCA furnishes partial financial assistance to the editor in support of her or his duties and is currently negotiating a contract with Taylor and Francis to publish Communication Reports beginning next year. To learn more about the editor's responsibilities, candidates may contact the current editor, Walt Zakahi, at wzakahi@nmsu.edu or consult the WSCA Publications Handbook.
Spread the word. Please announce in your classes, distribute to advisors, colleagues and student organizations! For more information, contact USRC Coordinators, Leah R. Vande Berg (vandeberglr@csus.edu) or Julie Yingling (jmy2@humboldt.edu).
Over 600 of us gathered in Albuquerque in mid-February for WSCA's Diamond Jubilee convention—our 75th anniversary. The convention was organized around the theme of "Widening Our Circle." It focused on ways to expand our inclusiveness of the individuals we teach and serve, the ideas we research and apply, the methodologies we accept and encourage, the practices we value and espouse, and the people we welcome and invite.
One of my goals is to make sure our membership base reflects the diversity and quality of communication professionals and students in the Western region. I can't achieve that without you, our current members. You may know of a colleague who has dropped from active membership. Or of newer colleagues who have not yet joined. Or of part-time faculty who feel at the periphery of the discipline. You can influence them by speaking to your experience with Western membership. If you value that membership, consider upgrading to life membership yourself. Because students are our future, I will be asking you later this year to assist me in identifying potential student members. It is certainly a good deal for them, and a wonderful investment for us. Finally, I ask you to check your department's membership. My department is small and geographically challenged. Yet, we maintain a departmental membership and are proud of our affiliation with WSCA. We know we have benefited in terms of supporting and placing our students, recruiting new faculty, and maintaining the quality of our productivity, collegial contacts, and undergraduate curriculum. Membership can do at least as much for you and your department.
In light of this 75th anniversary and in preparation for today's presentation I have been thinking about our history as an association. Thanks to Dr. Malcom Sillars, I was able to read on our web site about all of our foremothers and forefathers who created and shaped that history. Last year I received the official notebook of my office, the sacred notebook passed from generation to generation. I have paged repeatedly through this notebook, a now weighty historical repository of the record of service of many in this association. Reading the letters of nomination and support recounting the countless hours of service provided by past recipients of this award was both inspiring and humbling. Today we once again offer our appreciation to these individuals for their commitment to all of us. Would all past Distinguished Service Award winners please stand and will you all please join me in expressing our thanks.
It was an auspicious beginning for the first annual Undergraduate Scholars Research Conference (USRC) in Albuquerque. Forty-two papers were submitted from students as far away as Ithaca College. Paper Reviewers Kathy Adams, Brenda J. Allen, Connie Bullis, and Bill Eadie had great difficulty narrowing the field to 24 papers for presentation.
Blaine Goss, New Mexico State U, assumes the editorship of the WSCA newsletter with the October 2004 issue. Born and raised in California, Blaine earned his Ph.D. from Michigan State U. In 1984, after 12 years at the U of Oklahoma, Blaine arrived at NMSU to serve as head of the Communication Studies Department. He is the author of four books and more than seventy book chapters, journal articles, convention papers, manuals, and technical reports. 
On behalf of the faculty and students at San Francisco State U, we invite you to join us in the City by the Bay in February 2005. While we are all still recovering from a wonderful convention in Albuquerque, we encourage you to begin thinking about the many ways you might engage next year's conference theme in San Francisco. February is a beautiful month in San Francisco with mild temperatures and blooming flowers. Come and enjoy the historic neighborhoods, the beautiful museums, the exquisite food, and the exciting nightlife. In San Francisco, you will have the opportunity to be inspired and challenged by people of many different cultural perspectives. This unique environment provides many possibilities for negotiating third spaces.
What is the USRC? The 2nd annual USRC is an extraordinary opportunity for undergraduate students. Papers reporting original research and utilizing diverse philosophical, theoretical and methodological approaches are welcome. Research is critical investigation, experimentation, or analysis leading to the discovery or creation of new facts, theories or interpretations, or significant revisions of already existing ones, or the practical applications of such new or revised conclusions.
Why Participate? Present your work. Benefit from supportive feedback from faculty respondents. Meet other students from throughout the Western region and the U.S. On Saturday afternoon, February 19, following the undergraduate conference, attend a Graduate Programs Open House to learn about M.A. and Ph.D. programs in communication all over the region. Attend panels, roundtables, and social events during the WSCA conference. NOTE: There will be pastries, coffee and juice at 8:30 prior to the conference, courtesy of the WSCA Executives Club, and Sage Publications will sponsor a reception for all USRC presenters and attendees following the Award ceremony. All presenters will receive a gift from Sage Publications at the ceremony, and the WSCA Executives Club will provide several cash awards to authors of outstanding paper presented! For those students whose papers are accepted, WSCA will pay $15 of the $25 conference registration.