Thank you for electing me as your new President. I am both honored and challenged to try to follow in the footsteps of Jean James, who has done such an outstanding job over the past four years. My priorities will be to support liberal arts education and scholarship through our graduate scholarships, teaching excellence awards, and our liaison with our eight universities, and to maintain enjoyable programs for our members who make it all possible.
Many thanks go to outgoing officers Mary Granger (Recording Secretary) and Joanne Williams (Corresponding Secretary), for their service on the board. We are happy to welcome Letitia Sanders who returns to the board, this time as Corresponding Secretary, and Marci Coglianese who joins the board, replacing me as Chapter Liaison Chair. Those who will continue on the board in their positions are Judith Hardardt (Programs), Joanne Sandstrom (Scholarship), Alex Harding (Membership), and Mary Gilliland (Treasurer), and Ray Hendess (Newsletter and Webmaster). As we go to press, we are still seeking a Recording Secretary. I will rely on our leadership team to deliver to you the Phi Beta Kappa experience you expect and deserve.
Many thanks to Peete Baer, who chaired the Nominating Committee, consisting of Marvin Richards, Jacqueline Celenza, Larry Lerner, Gerald Richards, and Cal Wood.
Our Annual Awards Dinner was held Sunday, May 2, at the Faculty Club at UC Berkeley, once again under the sponsorship of our NCA member, Mel Shattuck. Judy Hardardt, First Vice President, Programs, was in charge of all the arrangements and continued the outstanding performance she has displayed in organizing our many activities this year. The hard work and dedication of our Board and committee members ensured the success of the evening. After we elected officers, we awarded $5,000 scholarships to each of eight deserving graduate students. Four outstanding professors received Teaching Excellence awards with $500 honoraria. The names of those honored are listed below. Each of the awardees spoke briefly at the dinner and all impressed us with their keen perspectives and depths of knowledge.
Our awards are made possible by the generosity of our members through your dues, donations, and Asilomar Conference registration fees. One of our graduate scholarships is provided annually by a bequest from the estate of Elizabeth B. Reed. From time to time some of our members fully fund and name a scholarship in someone’s honor. This year a generous member, who wishes to remain anonymous, provided one of our $5,000 scholarships. Please think about what you might be able to do.
All of us can attend the delightful programs that Judy Hardardt has planned for us in the coming months. Please see our event descriptions to discover what they are. These events support our awards. Do you have a friend who is Phi Beta Kappa? Invite him/her to join you at one of our programs and swell our membership ranks!
Janiece S. Nolan, President-Elect
Teaching Excellence Awards May 2010
The Teaching Excellence Committee had an additional email meeting. We decided to recommend ΦBKNCA award four teaching excellence awards at the 2010 awards dinner to the following people:
Judith L. Bishop, Department of Women’s Studies and Religion, Mills College
Kristin Lagatutta, Psychology Department, University of California, Davis
Richard Muller, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley
Patrick Y. Chuang, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz
The committee has received six nominations for the 2011 awards. Five are from UC Berkeley and one is from Mills. (All nominators reported they were initiated into ΦBK this year.)
Narcinda Lerner, Teaching Excellence Chair
Shah Ali, Stanford, Medicine
Chantal Frankenbach, UC Davis, Music
Harold (Hal) Haggard, UC Berkeley, Physics
William Love Anderegg, Stanford, Biology
Alexis Peri, UC Berkeley, History
Margaret Peters, Stanford, Political Science
Lilliana Radoshevich (Reed Scholarship), UCSF, Biomedical Sci.
Johnny Tam†, UCSF (& UCB), Bioengineering
† Application through UCSF, not UCB
Joanne Sandstrom, Second Vice President, Scholarship
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I have enjoyed being your Chapter Liaison for the past four years. My job has been to keep in touch with the ΦBK offices at our eight affiliated university chapters and to arrange our participation in their initiation ceremonies. Many of your have represented us and the feedback has been wonderful. Our participation at the initiations enhances awareness of our nationwide ΦBK alumni associations and increases nominations for our teaching excellence awards, as well as applications for our graduate scholarships. Participation gives our volunteers a chance to meet the faculty and students at a campus and just plain have fun remembering our college days! I am pleased to report that Marci Coglianese was appointed by the Board to replace me as Chapter Liaison, as I take over the role of President. I know that Marci would love to hear from any of you who are interested in participating in these initiations in 2011! Her email is marci.coglianese@comcast.net. Thanks to the following NCA representatives: Janiece Nolan, outgoing Chapter Liaison |
| Mills College Initiation Attended by Toni Thomas Pictured are: Prof. Fred Lawson (Political Science) and initiates: Megan Rose Black, Alyssa Michelle House-Thomas, Shannon Luva Thompson, Stephanie Maria Zarifis, and Diva Gabrielle Zumaya. |
One of the world's foremost collections of historic United States currency can be found at the San Francisco Fed. Our 90 minute-long pri-vate tour of the Fed will include the Currency Pro-cessing oper-ation areas, the cash vault, the interactive lobby exhibit and the historical currency collection. Be prepared for a unique experience! No souvenirs or samples will be available, however.
When you wish upon a star…the Walt Disney Family Museum, recently opened on the grounds of the Presidio, will allow us a peek into the life of this fascinating and creative man, his achievements, his stories, and his entrepreneurship. The 10 interactive galleries in the museum, its theater, the models of Disneyland and more, illuminate Disney's successes, disappointments, and never-ending optimism. The creator of Mickey Mouse, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disneyland, and the global yet distinctly American company that bears his name, Disney was a risk-taker who started his first business at the age of 19 and worked tirelessly to elevate animation to an art form. 
One of America's newest historical parks, Rosie the Riveter & WWII Home Front National Historical Park is right in our own backyard. While we all know the stories about Rosie, our visit to and ranger-led tour of the park will give us the "nuts and bolts" (pun intended) behind the myths and legends of this fascinating effort which took place during World War II. 
Chocoholics beware! This event is being held on Saturday so that those of us still gainfully employed can participate. The Chocolate Tour we did last year in San Francisco was great and we're hoping to top that this year when we visit the Belmont Congrega-tional Church where we will be able to sample the wares of some 20 different vendors of chocolate, including their ice cream, gelato, brownies, cakes, cookies, truffles & candy of every sort as well as chunks of pure chocolate. And, in addition to all the chocolate, we'll enjoy free champagne and coffee, plus the atmosphere provided by the Michael Medwid Jazz Trio. There are also a chocolate boutique and prizes. This is a charitable event benefitting community programs such as Samaritan House, Second Harvest Food Bank, Interfaith Hospitality Network.