From the Immediate Past President

December 2000

Source: CLTA Newsletter 24.3. December 2000, pp. 4-5.

First, I would like to thank Professor He Baozhang (Harvard University) and his Program Committee for their effort and excellence in organizing a highly successful annual conference held in Boston this November. The program was very rich and well-balanced in its representation of topics and instructional levels. 2000 has been a productive year for the Association. Looking back, there are five clear highlights for CLTA:

1) We launched and successfully completed a survey project on articulation between college and pre-college Chinese instruction. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the 124 instructors from all instructional levels (including those of community school, K-12, and college/university) for taking time out of your extremely busy schedule to respond to the survey. Findings of this project, reported at our annual conference, have led to specific recommendations in the areas of standards, as-sessment, teacher training, regional articulation efforts, and www-based programming learning systems. A full report of the CLTA 2000 articulation project will soon be posted at the CLTA web site and a con-densed version of the report will be submitted in early spring of 2001 to JCLTA for consideration for pub-lication.

2) The 2000 CLTA Walton Award for lifetime achievement in Chinese language education was presented to Professor Madeline Chu (Kalamazoo College). Professor Chu, please accept our warmest congratulations and our deepest appreciation for your outstanding contributions to our profession. We look forward to your continued contributions in the decades to come.

3) As most of you are probably aware, Professor Madeline Chu has recently resigned as the Executive Director of CLTA after eight years of excellent service at the CLTA Headquarters. The Board of Directors has subsequently appointed Professor Cynthia Ning (University of Hawaii) to serve as the new Executive Director. Professor Ning has served as CLTA Program Chair and CLTA President in re-cent years. The Association is indeed fortunate to have Professor Ning, who has a proven record of lead-ership and organizational skills, at the helm of its Headquarters.

4) In 2000, headed by Professor Claudia Ross, the Board of Directors discussed and drafted a proposal for revisions to the CLTA Bylaws on the following issues: the dates of the fiscal year, represen-tation by members of other organizations at the CLTA annual Board meeting, the establishment of a fi-nance committee, the addition of Secretary of the Board of Directors annual meeting, and the designation of the CLTA Web Master as an appointed official to the Board of Directors. This Bylaws amendment proposal will be sent to the membership by mail in the spring of 2001. A majority of a quorum of the mem-bership is required for passage. As Bylaws revision is of vital importance to the growth of our Association, I urge you to pay attention to it.

5) In 2000, in an effort to strengthen connections with the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), Professor Jane Parish Yang, on behalf of the CLTA, successfully organized a panel titled “Acquiring Competence: Chinese Language Study in the Asian Studies Curriculum.” This panel has been accepted for the March 22-25, 2001 AAS meeting in Chicago. Chaired by Professor Yang and made up of faculty from various disciplines in Chinese studies, will explore recent changes in the field and discuss how to in-tegrate area studies into our Chinese studies curriculum. If you plan to attend the 2001 AAS meeting in Chicago, we invite you to join us in this important panel discussion.

I now have two important announcements to make:

1) Cheng & Tsui Fellowship for Teacher Training. At our membership meeting in Boston, Cheng & Tsui Company has announced its establishment of an annual Cheng & Tsui Fellowship. This Fellowship, carrying the amount of $1,000 in total annually, will be divided among at least two teachers for teacher training. Award criteria and selection procedures will be developed by the CLTA Board of Directors; further information will be forthcoming. Teacher training is indeed one of the top priorities for our field. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Jill Cheng for the establishment of this fellowship and for her contributions to our field.

2) Temporary suspension of CLASS/CLTA joined membership. CLASS recently informed CLTA that due to the current restructuring in the CLASS’ leadership structure and logistics, CLASS would like to suspend the CLASS/CLTA joint membership for one year, during which membership dues for each organizations should be submitted separately.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve you. The Association is now under the exceptionally able leadership of President Marjorie Chan (Ohio State University), Vice President Claudia Ross (College of the Holy Cross), Program Chair Zhang Zhengsheng (San Diego State University), Nominations Chair Martha Wang Gallagher (United State Military Academy), as well as Executive Director Cynthia Ning (University of Hawaii), Journal Editor Teng Shou-shin (National Taiwan Normal University), and News-letter Editor Ted Yao (University of Hawaii).

With thanks to every one of you for your contributions to the field, and all good wishes,

Ke Chuanren
November 22, 2000