FROM CHAIR OF HEIS

Dear HEIS Members,

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you had a safe and enjoyable break. January and February are busy months at TESOL, as we are getting closer to the annual convention, which promises to be a great event for all of us in the Higher Education Interest Section. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some of the things that have been happening since our last newsletter came out in the fall.

ELECTIONS

As you already know, elections for chair-elect, assistant chair, and a member-at-large took place in November, and the results were announced in early December. I would again like to congratulate and welcome Abby Franchitti and Leo Schmidt, who were elected as co-chairs. Kevin Martin was elected as assistant chair, and Julie Riddlebarger as member-at-large. I am confident that we are in good hands! Thank you for stepping up to serve HEIS!

ANNUAL CONVENTION

HEIS will have booth space at the TESOL Convention in the middle of the exhibition hall. We have been scheduled for Thursday, March 27, from 11:30 am to 5:30 pm, and Friday March 28, from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm. We need volunteers for the booth at any of those times. If you think you have some time you can dedicate to our Interest Section, please email me to let me know. My email is mferna20@csu.edu. I will also send reminders to our Listserv as we get closer to the convention. Please come by to visit HEIS members and leaders during this time.

Our annual business meeting will be on Thursday, March 27, from 5 to 6:30 pm in Room C124. Don’t forget to attend this important meeting, where we will have the opportunity to share ideas and meet with the HEIS leaders.

We will have an Academic Session as well as two InterSections during this convention. Please plan to attend these sessions.

Academic Session
Emerging Technologies: Managing a Changing Landscape With Mobile Technologies
Time: 3/29/2014 9:30 am–12:15 p
Location: Convention Center, Room PB 257
Presenters: Debbie East, Ruth Weinstein, Aaron Schwartz, Sandy Wagner, Kenneth Chyi

Intersections
Writing and Multilingual Student Success in Higher Education
Time: 3/29/2014 1–2:45 pm
Location: Convention Center, Room B 112
Organizer: Miguel Fernandez
Presenters: Caralyn Bushey, Kenneth Janjigian, Jennifer Ritter, Tara Smith
Interest Sections: Higher Education and Intensive English Programs

U.S. Higher Education: Dreams and Realities for English Learners
Time: 3/29/2014 1–2:45 pm
Location: Convention Center, Room B 116
Presenters: Anne Marie Foerster Luu, Shelley Wong, Earlene Gentry, Heather Robertson, Johnnie Johnson Hafernik, Lucienne Aarsen
Interest Sections: Social Responsibility and Higher Education

Please use the HEIS community e-list to inform each other which sessions you are participating in as presenters and which topics are important to you as you decide which sessions to attend.

PROPOSAL REVIEWERS

As we near the TESOL 2014 annual convention, I would like to once again thank the proposal reviewers. We always have a large proposal turnout and I greatly appreciate that so many of you volunteer. The more reviewers we have, the less work each one has to do! It is one fairly easy way to give back to the organization and the Interest Section.

Finally, I would like to point out once again that our Interest Section is open for your contributions. I welcome suggestions, new ideas, and criticisms to improve the quality of our activities. It has been an honor and privilege to work as HEIS chair this year. I hope to see you at TESOL 2014. Please join the annual dinner and the business meeting. Looking forward to meeting you soon in Portland.

Sincerely,

Miguel Fernandez, PhD

Chair, Higher Education Interest Section

Miguel Fernández is an associate professor in the Bilingual Education Program at Chicago State University. He holds a PhD in English Philology (University of Granada, Spain), an MA in education (University of Granada, Spain), and an MA in language testing (Lancaster University, UK). His areas of interest include bilingual education, second language acquisition and language testing. He is the author of A Test Impact Study Under the No Child Left Behind Act: The Case of the ACCESS for ELLs. He has also authored and coauthored over 20 articles in the field of language acquisition and language testing. Dr. Fernandez is currently president of Illinois Teachers of English as a Second Language-Bilingual Education.