Shawn Long, the Real Deal — I associate certain phrases with particular people, and the phrase I associate the most with Shawn Long is “the real deal.” Shawn does not use this phrase a lot. He only uses it when he is paying a person a high compliment. If Shawn tells you that you’re “the real deal,” he is praising you for your sincere commitment to excellence and your willingness to put others above yourself. These are qualities that Shawn has long valued. Although it is not in Shawn’s nature to boast about himself, all of us who have had the privilege of working with Shawn know that these qualities are reflected in his approach to administrative service. Based on the many years that I have known Shawn, I can say with certainty that Shawn truly is the real deal.
I first got to know Shawn in 2010 when he became the Chair of the Department of Communication Studies. At the time, I was an associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, so I came into frequent contact with him. He impressed me right away with his deep commitment to the faculty and students in his department. Some years later, we switched roles. Shawn became an associate dean, and I became a department chair. In his work as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and more recently as the Senior Associate Dean, Shawn has collaborated with the English Department on various projects and has helped the department cope with some of the challenges that have come our way. I could provide lots of specific examples of Shawn’s involvement in the English Department, but for the purposes of today’s Monday Missive, I will focus on two recent examples.
Last spring Shawn reached out to the English Department about a program that he started called the Multicultural Pre-doctoral Summer Teaching Fellowship. He shared with me information about Elisabeth Yang, one of the people who received this fellowship. He asked if the English Department would be willing to provide Elisabeth with an opportunity to develop her teaching. After consulting with Jen Munroe, I told Shawn that we would schedule her to teach a course during the first summer session and that I would be happy to mentor Elisabeth over the summer. Elisabeth is currently teaching a liberal studies course for English, and all of us who have gotten to know her are very pleased to have her as a visiting member of our department. Shawn made this happen.
Another example of Shawn’s involvement with the English Department has to do with providing space for our graduate teaching assistants. The decision to have our graduate teaching assistants devote the second year of their assistantships to teaching in the English Department meant that we needed to provide them with office space. I contacted Shawn about this matter, and he provided the funding to create our new Graduate T.A. Office, which is conveniently located next to the office of Lara Vetter, our Director of Graduate Studies. Shawn made this happen.
Shawn is about to leave UNC Charlotte to become the new Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Kennesaw State University in Atlanta, Georgia. I know that I speak for the entire English Department in wishing Shawn the very best as he takes on this new role. I am sure that no matter what great things the future has in store for Shawn, he will always be the real deal.
Alan Rauch Receives Award from the Office of Disability Services — Alan Rauch has been selected as a recipient of the Office of Disability Services 2018-2019 Accessibility Excellence Award for Outstanding Faculty/Staff. Alan is one of only six faculty members across the entire university to receive this award. The student who nominated Alan wrote, “Professor Rauch has done something that in my 15 years of school has never been done before. He made me interested in books.” For more information about this award, please click on the following link: https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2019-05-28/accessibility-excellence-award-recipients-named
Kudos — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department. Here is the latest news:
Meghan Barnes recently published an article titled “Posing for the Camera: An Analysis of Pre-service Teachers’ Discursive Practices During a Video Analysis Session” in the journal i.e.: Inquiry in Education. To access this article, please click on the following link: https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/ie/vol11/iss1/9/
Daniel Shealy recently presented a paper titled “Louisa May Alcott’s Forgotten Flower Fable” at the American Literature Association conference in Boston.
Katherine Tallent, one of our former B.A. and M.A. students in literature, will begin work this fall on a Masters of Library and Information Studies degree, with full funding, at UNC-Greensboro.
Quirky Quiz Question — Shawn Long is the second professor from the Department of Communication Studies to serve as an associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Who was the first?
Last week’s answer: WINGS
After the Beatles disbanded in 1970, Paul McCartney formed a new band with his first wife, Linda Eastman. What is the name of this band?