1997 NCSA Meeting Set for February 20-21 in Boone

by Mike Wise
NCSA President-Elect
Appalachian State University

This is your official invitation to attend the 1997 NCSA meeting at the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center on the campus of Appalachian State University.

We will begin by gathering at the Appalachian Cultural Museum at 7 PM Thursday, Feb. 20 for an evening of conversation, entertainment and refreshments. Friday morning, Feb. 21, we will have our official annual meeting.

Registration and sign in, along with morning motivators (coffee and doughnuts), are scheduled for 8-9 AM. Our opening session will feature Catherine Harris as our keynote speaker. Catherine is one of our staunchest and most active members. In addition, she is an advocate at the national level for a more prominent role for state associations in promoting the sociological enterprise. We have asked her to address the role of the state association in the sociological enterprise and are looking forward to hearing her perspective on this issue.

Following our opening session, we will begin concurrent sessions. The theme of this year's meeting is "The Sociological Web: Technology, Teaching and Tools for the 21st Century."

While technologies may be impressive, they are no better than a student's underlying thinking habits. Mary Beth Collins and Jacque Freeman have organized a session addressing techniques for developing critical thinking among students. This session, "Tools of the Trade," will feature the insights and experiences of Harriet Buchannan, David Pipes and Mataleen Thomas.

For students, we have organized a special session, "What Comes Next." Suzanne Trask has organized a panel to address the issue of what our newly graduated sociologists can do with their emerging skills and technological expertise. Suzanne has recruited Catherine Harris, Fred Milano, and Jan Rienerth to discuss this issue.

There are always political issues of concern to our membership. We have two sessions oriented to such problems.

  1. In the first, Wayne Adams has organized a panel to explore "The Politics of Course Coordination." The specific issue here focuses upon the standardization of sociology course across community college and university boundaries. There are implications for academic freedom, curriculum building, and course content. Wayne has asked Jan Rienerth to address these issues from the perspective of a university instructor; Jacque and David Freeman provide the viewpoints of community college instructors.
  2. Our second issue-oriented session is entitled simply "Issues for Faculty." The concerns of this panel follow directly from meetings of some of our members with members of the legislature. Maxine Thompson will preside at this session and has asked Paul Leubke and Catherine Zimmer to provide their expertise to this discussion.

Where to Stay

If the program sounds interesting, plan to attend. There are accommodations available at the following locations: