Actionline NEA

Excellence in the Academy

NEA announces winners of this year’s Excellence in the Academy essay competition. Articles will appear in Spring/Summer Thought & Action.

The 2002 Excellence in the Academy Art of Teaching prizes were awarded to Philip C. Dolce and Rubil Morales-Vasques for their article, “Teaching the Importance of Place in the World of Virtual Reality,” and to Athena Andreadis for “The Double Helix: Why Science Needs Science Fiction.” The Democracy in Higher Education prize went to Woodruff D. Smith for “Democracy and the Public Sphere,” and the New Scholar prize was awarded to Michelle Asha Cooper for "Academic Freedom and the Challenges of September 11.”

The articles will appear in the spring/summer 2003 issue of Thought & Action.

The deadline for article submissions for the 2003 NEA Excellence in the Academy awards is September 30, 2003. You can find guidelines on the NEA Web site at www.nea.org/he/ajeaward.html.

On the last weekend in April, 30 NEA higher ed members from 15 states and the District of Columbia convened at NEA headquarters for the 2003 NEA Higher Education Critical Issues Seminar: “Seeing Red: Advocating for Higher Education in an Era of Severe Budget Deficits.”

Participants described the fiscal situation in their states and on their campuses, and reported on their efforts to build coalitions, take political action, and organize members.

NEA has a new section of the higher ed Web page devoted to the fiscal crisis at www.nea.org/he.

On May 12, NEA launched a year-long celebration of Brown v. Board of Education—the U.S. Supreme Court decision that desegregated America's public school—with a briefing attended by repre-sentatives from national organizations ranging from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to the Smith-sonian to the National Council of La Raza.

The theme of NEA’s ongoing commemoration: Horizons of Opportunities: Celebrating 50 Years of Brown v. Board of Education—May 17, 1954.

For regular updates on Brown v. Board activities send an e-mail to Michelle Green at MGreen@nea.org.

Two positions are currently available on the Review Panel of Thought & Action, the NEA Higher Education Journal. The positions are for three-year terms that begin this coming fall.

Interested in applying? Send a résumé and short writing sample to Con Lehane, NEA Communications, 1201 16th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20036-3290, or e-mail CLehane@nea.org.