CAMWS LAKE MICHGAN REGION
ANNUAL REPORT
1998-1999

Here in the Lake Michigan region the year 1998-1999 has been marked by a variety of activities at both the college and high school levels, and marred by no overwhelming problems. The current officers are: regional vice president Michele Valerie Ronnick (Wayne State), Indiana vice president Marnie Payne (Ball State), Michigan vice president Kenneth R. Walters (Wayne State) and a new vice president Illinois, Gregory Hayes from the University of Illinois (We are glad to have him!). The regional VP attended the NCLG meeting at the APA in Washington, 1998 as Vice-Chair of the NCGL, and also filled in for CPL president Thomas Sienkewicz who was unable to attend. The region continues to enjoy the benefits of CPL funding. Several new CPL projects are in the works for members in Indiana and in Michigan. Activities this year include:

ILLINOIS

a) MEMBERSHIP

As of February 1999 CAMWS membership in Illinois stood at 108 members in good standing, plus 17 who have not yet renewed. Plans are in the works to send out a special letter to those 17. On the principle that CAMWS membership begins at home, a membership drive is underway at University of Illinois at Urbana. The VP is working with the new ICC membership secretary, Vicki Wine, to make sure that there is as much overlap as possible between the memberships.

b) ICC NEWS

The annual meeting of the Illinois Classical Conference (ICC) was held at Naperville North High School, October 8-10. In addition to presenters from within the ICC, speakers included Prof. Terence Tunberg (University of Kentucky) and Prof. Kenneth Kitchell (University of Massachusetts, Amherst). The ICC Teacher of the Year Award went to Mr. Tony Paris of Hinsdale Central High School. The ICC’s award-winning newsletter, The Augur, has published two more issues (vol. XVI, #1-2).

c) HIGH SCHOOL EVENTS

-The North Illinois JCL state convention was held February 12-13 in Rolling Meadows.

-The Illinois Certamen Southwest Regional Tournament was held at Quigley Prep. on October 15, 1998.

-The Illinois Latin Tournament Finals will take place April 24 at Rockford College.

-The 7th annual Latin Pedagogy Workshop will be held July 28-31 at National-Lewis University, Evanston.

-The winners of the Bernice L. Fox Classics Writing Contest and the W.M. Calder III and ICC Awards for Excellence in Latin and Greek will be announced April 15.

- Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, is sponsoring a web-based Latin contest for Illinois high school students.

d) STATE GOALS

There are two major challenges facing the state of Illinois. One is the need to guard against elimination of programs at both the secondary and post-secondary levels. While no programs are currently under serious threat at the college level, elimination of high school programs following retirements is a constant worry, especially in view of ICC’s noticeably greying membership.

The second challenge is the need for closer cooperation between teachers at the high school and college/university level. Representation of the latter at ICC has been somewhat disappointing in recent years. We continue to encourage institutions with graduate programs to take an active role in promoting classics within the state.

INDIANA

The study of Latin is strong in Indiana. Progress has been made on every level. And we are very happy to have received some CPL funds this year.

JCL: 225 people attended Presidents’ Day at Fort Wayne’s Homestead High (Oct, 1997). Workshops were held on activities which students can do in their home JCLs. In 1998 the JCL put on two certamina, one in Terre Haute at S. Vigo High School and the other in Indianapolis at Lawrence North High School. 31 teams participated in the first and 45 teams participated in the second. The state convention is set for (Ap., 17-18 1998) at Indiana University, Bloomington. The IJCL’s Web page is wysiwyg://32/http://snafu.mit.eud/ijcl/

b) Latin Clubs: Indiana has three very large Latin Clubs. Muncie Central has the largest with 187 members; the next is Brownsburg with 137 members, and third is Elwood with 130 members.

c) Indiana Classical Conference: The ICC held its Fall, 1997 meeting along with the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers’ Association Meeting. Featured were a number of speakers from the state. The Indiana Classical Conference has a Web page and a discussion list: http://www.indiana.edu/~iccforum

d) Indiana Classical Conference Resource Center VII: The center sponsored its annual Latin Day for Central Indiana secondary school students in November, 1997. About 350 students and teachers attended. Featured was Prof. Robert Griffin of Western Michigan University. The ICC Resource Center VII sponsored a Latin day, March, 1999. One of the highlights was a presentation of Plautus’ Amphitryon, by the Gaslight Theater Group of Brownsburg, Indiana.

e) University news: Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Purdue University Indiana University, Ball State University, Muncie, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, DePauw University, Greencastle, and Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis have all sustained their programs through various activities.

f) The Archaeological Association of America has two active chapters in the state, one at Valparaiso and the other in Indianapolis/Bloomington. Central Indiana’s society has a web page: http://www.indiana.edu/~classics/AIA/AIA.html

MICHIGAN

a) The state mourns the loss of Glenn Knudsvig. His memorial service held at Ann Arbor in the fall was well attended.

b) A Latin AP Day was hosted by Latin teacher James Wilder and his school Grosse Pointe South High on November 21. Professors from Wayne State spoke.

c) The Detroit Institute of Art and its affiliated subgroups continue to sponsor a series of AIA lectures which will continue through May and June.

d) The day of Latin games and contests, the Ludi XVI sponsored by the Detroit Classical Association were held on March 20 in Detroit. Seven schools participated. Similar activities, the Ludi Occidentales VI, in western Michigan will be hosted by Professors Robert Griffin, and Rand Johnson at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Eleven area high schools are planning to participate.

e) Speakers of national and international status presented a number of talks throughout the state at various campuses including the University of Michigan, Western Michigan University, Wayne State, Michigan State and Calvin College.

f) James I. Porter of University of Michigan was appointed the chairperson of the APAÕs Committee on the Classical Tradition.

g) Michele Ronnick of Wayne State won a 1998 WSU President’s Award for Teaching Excellence.

h) Calvin College was host to the spring meeting of the Michigan Classical Conference on April 25, 1998. The fall meeting is set for the University of Detroit Jesuit High School.

i) Calvin College sponsored an international conference in the fall of ‘98 entitled "The Making of Christian Communities in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages" (Nov. 4-7 1998). Speakers came from as far away as Denmark and Iceland.