Dean Porter and Shaun Harper are proud to announce the beginning of the Visiting Faculty Scholars of Color program.

This new program seeks to celebrate the outstanding contributions of scholars of color in education, strengthen and build ties between Penn faculty and scholars throughout the nation, and expand the presence of scholars of color at GSE.  Along with presenting a talk, visiting scholars also have the opportunity to meet in small groups with faculty and students at Penn who share their research interests.

The first visiting scholar will be Derald W. Sue, a professor of psychology and education at Teachers College, Columbia.

Dr. Sue is a pioneer in the study of multiculturalism across the disciplines of psychology, education, counseling and therapy and his book, Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice, is the most frequently cited publication in the multicultural field.  He has focused much study on the implications of whiteness, which resulted in the book Overcoming our Racism: The Journey to Liberation.  Dr. Sue’s focus of study has gradually shifted to the psychology of racism and antiracism.

Dr. Sue will speak about "Racial Microagressions in Everyday Life: Impacts on Students of Color" on October 14, 2008 at 10.00 am. The presentation will be in Irvine Auditorium's Amado Recital Hall.

Upcoming presenters include

• Luis Moll, College of Education, University of Arizona
• Rochelle Gutierrez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Tyrone Howard, University of California, Los Angeles
• Miguel Urquiola, Columbia University
• Anthony Lising Antonio, Stanford University

As many of you know, GSE is nearing the end of a full-fledged redesign of the School’s website. Construction of the new site will be complete in the next several days, when we’ll begin “usability testing” to see if it functions well enough to suit the needs our virtual visitors. We look forward to “going live” with the new site later this month — if you want a sneak peak of what it will look like, try to catch Tom Kecskemethy in his office and he’ll show you...

Margaret Beale Spencer was named one of two Distinguished Psychologists for 2008 by the Association of Black Psychologists. She shares this honor with Dr. Shawn Utley of Virginia Commonwealth University.

Congratulations to Margaret on this great honor.

Two GSE professors are blogging regularly for Diverse Issues in Higher Education and The Chronicle Review.

Marybeth Gasman is writing for The Academy Speaks, a blog about the experience of minority students in higher education. Marybeth's most recent entry was about Claflin University's recent rise in the rankings, and ascribes this rise to the university's consistent focus on students.

Bob Zemsky is writing for Brainstorm, The Chronicle Review's team of bloggers on ideas, culture, and the arts. Bob's most recent entry argues that, "as a nation, we are spending more and getting less from our system of higher education. "

There have been a number of improvements to the GSE building over the summer. Most visibly, there is a new screen in the lobby for announcements; similar screens will be installed by the elevators soon. The screens will continue to be used to announce events and share important School news.

Patio furniture for the courtyard will be coming soon. A new microwave was recently placed in the student lounge.

Upstairs, some changes have taken place in the stats lab. Of the 15 computers there, six are reserved for statistics students, while the other nine are for all doctoral students. There is also new storage space for research materials and extended hours of operation.