Greetings fellow HEIS members,

It has been a wonderful year—we trust that most have begun the academic year refreshed and with a renewed excitement.

HEIS is truly a year-round community: With our four newsletters, our very active listserv, and our social media presence, you can be sure to remain abreast of our HEIS news and hot topics. Thank you especially to Maria Ammar in her work on publishing our newsletter as well as her work with our listserv and to Sarah Springsteen, who handles our social media. Of course, our vibrant community would not be possible without all those who contribute to the newsletter as well as posts to our listserv!

We are in the preparation mode for the upcoming TESOL convention in 2017 in Seattle, Washington, USA. We reviewed 240 HEIS submissions and anticipate those accepted for the 2017 convention will be notified soon. HEIS is facilitating one InterSection panel on writing and the multilingual university student. We are also represented on the Speech, Pronunciation, and Listening IS InterSection panel. In addition, our Chair-Elect, Kevin Martin, will be facilitating the academic session on successful transitions to university. As our 2017 convention date nears, we will be back in touch with further HEIS convention highlights that we think you might find stimulating and of interest to attend.

Finally, we invite all members to participate in HEIS in whichever ways possible throughout the year. Please consider writing a newsletter article sharing best practices in higher education. We will be looking for leadership for the next year, and we encourage our members to participate in open meetings so that we have a large selection pool for nominations and elections for leadership opportunities.

Until the next newsletter, we wish everybody—our students, our colleagues, and our profession—all the best and great success in meeting the challenges of this world.

Sincerely,

Yogesh Sinha and Katherine Earley

Co-Chairs, TESOL Higher Education Interest Section

Katherine Earley is director of the Intensive English as a Second Language Program at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA.

Yogesh Sinha teaches in the Middle-East as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Language Studies at Sohar University, Sohar, Oman.