Sociology Professor Named to Lead CSUF’s Academic Senate

Sociology professor John W. Bedell took to his new position as chair of the Academic Senate with aplomb – after all, this is his fourth time in the role.

Elected May 27, Bedell – who had been serving as vice chair – will serve a one-year term as leader of the university’s faculty advi-sory body.

“Budget issues are driving much of our discussions, and we risk losing sight of academic program and quality issues,” said the educator, who chaired the Senate in 1976-77, 1988-89 and 1989-90. “California has a post-secondary education system providing access to any and all who are interested. This access is clearly jeopardized and will be so in the near future.

“Recruiting a quality faculty in this high-cost region is difficult, and we are losing junior faculty to less expensive regions,” added Bedell, who currently chairs the Sociology Department. “We continue to worry about our students’ writing and computational skills, and we need to work closely with our K-12 colleagues to ease the transition to university study.”

Bedell, a member of the university faculty since 1969, has served in numerous capacities in addition to Senate chair. In his early days on campus, he served five years as department chair; he also was in charge of the Child Development and Faculty Development programs for two years each. From 1982-84, Bedell was head of the statewide Academic Senate, followed by two years as acting associate vice chancellor for the CSU.

More recently, Bedell was acting associate vice president of academic affairs from 1990-93 and acting director of the Faculty Development Center in 2001-02.

Active in the community, he is one of five members of the Orange County Board of Education and vice president of the Fullerton Civic Light Opera Board of Directors.

Previously, Bedell was vice president of the Orange County School Boards Association and served on the board of the Women’s Transitional Living Center and Fullerton’s former Human Relations and Youth commissions in the early 1990s.

Joining Bedell on the 2004-05 Academic Senate Executive Committee are: Jane Hall, professor of economics, vice-chair; Ellen Junn, associate dean of the College of Human Development and Community Service and associate professor of child and adolescent studies, secretary; and Robert A. Emry, emeritus professor of human communication studies, treasurer.

Members-at-large serving on the committee are: William D. Meyer, professor of theatre and dance; C. Jesse Jones, professor of kinesiology and health science; and Joanne Gass, professor of English, comparative literature and linguistics.

As a statewide academic senator, Diana Guerin, professor of child and adolescent studies, also serves on the executive committee. She is one of three campus members on the CSU Academic Senate. The others are J. Vincent Buck, professor of political science, and Barry Pasternack, chair and professor of information systems and decision sciences.