You are invited to the first of the three 2014 Muslim Journeys book groups on Friday, February 21, 2014, 6-8pm, IPFW Learning Commons. The event is free and open to the public.

Faculty in all disciplines are asked to encourage graduate and undergraduate students to submit proposals and to mentor interested students. Last year, 54 students representing 19 departments participated in the Student Research and Creative Endeavor Symposium.

Construction will begin on the Honors Program space in the Learning Commons, 2nd floor of the Library, on March 10, 2014 and is expected to be complete by the end of August 2014.  In anticipation of construction noise and dust, research consultations with librarians and Writing Center consultations will move to the first floor of the library.  Students and others will still be welcome to congregate and work in the Learning Commons, but group study spaces and activities such as IPSGA weekly meetings will be relocated temporarily.  The Learning Commons Council and IPSGA are in the process of finding alternative group study spaces on campus and will publicize alternative locations.

Renovation of the library is still on schedule to begin late fall 2014.  Watch for updates in future Helmke Highlights. 

Not surprisingly, science, technology, and medical research is significantly better funded and highly recognized for its contributions to society than arts, humanities and social science (AHSS) research.  Fortunately, the trend is shifting to include a bigger share of research dollars for the humanities and social sciences.  In the United Kingdom, agencies are recognizing the impact of social science and humanities research on society and have committed significant funding to support AHSS research.  At a recent conference, the UK-based Arts and Humanities Research Council claimed that every euro invested in arts and humanities generated 10 euro for the wider economy in the short-term and 15-20 euro in the longer term. 

As a corollary, AHSS scholars and societies are becoming part of the Open Access movement that the sciences have spearheaded as they recognize the need to share research results quickly and broadly for the benefit of society.  The Modern Language Association is working on developing best practices, the American Anthropological Association is experimenting with making journals fully open, and historians are discussing going open access with longer embargo periods.  (For more discussion, See Scholarly Kitchen's, A Brighter Future for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences? 1/2/2014)