Professional Division, October 1, 1994

The AHA's Professional Division was the first of the three divisions to meet this fall. Despite an otherwise busy agenda, the division devoted the afternoon of its meeting to review of the "Addendum on Policies and Procedures" of the Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct. As reported in the September issue of Perspectives, the division agreed this past spring to evaluate sixteen current and former cases in terms of how different procedures would have affected the division's review and the outcome of each. Each member reviewed his or her assigned cases within the context of a series of questions dealing with preliminary screening, standing and jurisdiction, evidence, the need for investigation, the appropriateness of the finding, publicity, and sanctions. The division will review draft language on several possible changes in policies and procedures during the annual meeting; it plans to continue its discussions through the spring and convey its recommendations to the Council in May.

Other Professional Division business included:

• Review of one formal complaint, five informal complaints, and follow-up correspondence regarding earlier cases reviewed by the division.
• Revision of the "Employment" section of the Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct.
• Development of plans to address the problem of age discrimination within the profession.
• Review of a status report from the AHA's Task Force on Family Leave and approval of its recommendations to Council.
• Review of "The Status of Non-Tenure-Track Faculty," a report of the American Association of University Professors, and recommendation of Council endorsement.
• Review and reaffirmation of the Association's 1985 statement on the rights of foreign historians and 1979 procedures.
• Planning for the interviewing workshop at the 1995 annual meeting and for sessions at the 1996 annual meeting.
• Selection of a recipient of the 1994 Troyer Steele Anderson Prize and the development of new guidelines.
• Review of changes in the Graduate Record Examinations General Test and agreement to convene representatives of the three divisions to meet with GRE representatives.

Thanks were offered to retiring member Paul K. Conkin for his three years of service.

The division's next semiannual meeting is scheduled for March.

Teaching Division Meeting, October 8, 1994

The Teaching Division convened for its fall meeting on October 8 in Washington. This meeting was of special significance for three of the five members, since it brought to a close their three years of service. Ordinarily, no more than two members rotate off a division in a given year, but special circumstances occasionally lead to three retirements at once. Rotating off the division are Robert A. Blackey, vice president for teaching; Suzanne Wilson Barnett, Council representative; and Sarah Hanley, elected division member. The Association joins James J. Lorence and Doris Meadows, the two continuing elected members, in thanking them for their conscientious work on behalf of teaching and the AHA.

Teaching Division business included:

• Selection of a recipient for the 1994 Eugene Asher Distinguished Award and revision of the selection procedures.
• Review of the status of the Gilbert Prize (announced in the October issue of Perspectives), the new K–12 teaching prize, and the Roelker Mentorship Award.
• Review of a proposal for revision of the Association's pamphlet on the preparation of secondary-school history teachers.
• Status reports on the division's plans for the 1995 and 1996 annual meetings.
• Discussion of continuing problems with the AHA-OHT-SHE joint membership package for K–12 teachers and possible solutions.
• Updates on the History Teaching Alliance, the National History Education Network, National History Day, the National History Standards Project, and the Social Studies Standards Project of the National Council for the Social Studies.
• Reports on the Role of Advocacy in the Classroom Conference, the division's initiatives regarding teaching graduate students to teach, the Peer Review of Teaching Project sponsored by the American Association for Higher Education, and two new higher education projects designed to help prepare future faculty and to promote faculty diversity.
• Review of correspondence from the Graduate Record Examinations regarding both the GRE History Test and the GRE General Test.
• Preliminary discussion of a possible conference on the survey course that would bring together faculty from two- and four-year colleges.
• Approval of AHA cosponsorship of a regional teaching conference with the University of Wisconsin Centers.

The division's next meeting will be in March.