A completed Workplan was submitted to Jessica Jordan on 2-Feb-04 for review by USAID.
A search was conducted and completed for the hire for the position of Program Administrator. After reviewing and interviewing from list of applicants Nancy Rifkind was selected and approved through the SBU offices of Human Resources and Diversity and Affirmative Action. Nancy comes to us from her previous position as Program Administrator at an SBU center for research and education funded by the National Science Foundation.
An informal search was conducted for a Translator and Administrative Assistant to assist with activities involved in the administrational aspects of the program. An SBU Ph.D. candidate in linguistics from Syria was identified and hired to work on the program.
Administration offices were established located within the Department of Archaeology at SBU. Computers, furnishings, office equipment and supplies were purchased and secured. Phone and fax lines were established.
Recruitment efforts resulted in the hire of Jason Ur as replacement lecturer for E. Stone while she is involved in the USAID program.
Based on meetings while in Iraq in December a Chief of Party was nominated for the archeology challenge. Local office facilities were visited and contrcats for services were established with Neareast Resources. Institution Coordinators were established in Baghdad and Mosul. These coordinators will be instrumental in coordinating the activities directly related in working with the universities.
Asst. Dir. Jennifer Pournelle solicited bids for networking, computers, and other IT elements.
The 4ICAANE is the 4th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East to be held at Berlin from March 29-April 3. http://www.ctw-congress.de/4icaane/ This conference hosts the most prominent scientists in the field of Near East archaeology. This will the first opportunity for 15 faculty and senior graduate students to hear papers that reflect the advances of the past fifteen years. Arrangements have been made also for SBU faculty including registration, travel and transportation. The Booking of flights for Iraqi personnel is awaiting successful award of visas which are in process at the German consulate.
E. Stone met with SBU organizations to secure support and determine needs for coordinating meals, dormitories and campus logistics for the students who will participate in the M.A. Program in Archaeology starting in the summer of 2004.
The American schools of Oriental Research in Amman (ACOR) has undertaken to arrange for travel between Baghdad and Amman for Iraqi students and faculty, provide them hostel services (and SBU staff), to aid those seeking to apply for US visas in Amman, and to purchase air tickets for those traveling from Amman to Europe or the United States.
Donations have been made by Environmental Research Systems, Inc. in support of the USAID-Iraq HEAD program of ArcView 3.3 software plus extensions for 60 computers and manuals We have also obtained a donation for ArcGIS software.
Asst. Dir. Jennifer Pournelle examined options for load consolidation, transoceanic freight, and local freight. Potential vendors for the shipment of books to Iraq include ARAMEX, FEDEX, and DHL for load consolidation and transoceanic freight, and Neareast Resources for local freight.
A presentation to the archeology staff by Jason Torre and Richard Feinberg from the library team concluded in the selection of two resources for the digitization of printed material. Northern Micrographics, Inc. will complete the digital image production. Digital collection management software entitled CONTENTdm, designed by DiMeMa, Inc. was determined to be the most flexible user interface.
Body armor was purchased as per guidelines.
In our goal to establish three national Environmental Health Educational & Resource Centers (NEHRC) we have Appointed a Center Coordinator for the Southern Center in Basra.
J-1 visa applications have been submitted and are now pending for the participants.
A petition for an H1 visa was submitted and approved and is currently pending issuance by the US Embassy in Jordan.
Director of Health Science Center Library, Spencer Marsh, will oversee the coordination of the library resources for the Environmental objective.
Staff to handle the IT elements of the library team were identified.
A meeting of the Advisory Board, chaired by Yacov Shamash, was held on 9-Jan-04.
Dates were set for the workshop.
A first meeting of the conference coordinators was held in Babylon, Iraq on 2-Feb-04. A subsequent meeting was held with the University President.
An advisory board sub-committee was formed and through ongoing publicity we have received 6 applications.
Ongoing follow up on program aspects and needs with the program director in the US and with the centers in Iraq.
Meetings:
Jan. 16, 2004 Meeting at Babylon University. Discussed preparation for the future center in Babylon and the upcoming first Environmental Conference.
Jan. 22, 2004 Follow up with the US Embassy in Amman to discuss the visas for the program participants who are supposed to attend the program education and training activities at SBU.
Jan. 25-26, 2004 Meeting with presidents of 8 Universities (Univ. of Baghdad, Babylon, Rumady, Dywanyia, Najaf and Vice President of Basrah, Mousel, Mustensyria). Discussed university and regional participation in Environmental Health program and upcoming conference
Jan. 30, 2004 Meeting with Minister of Higher Education and his Deputy. Discussed Environmental Health program and travel to the US of program leadership.
Chris Filstrup, Director of SBU's Central Library, visited with library automation vendors at the American Library Association meeting in San Diego. He identified four library systems that handle Arabic as well as Roman script input and display. He also identified university libraries in the Arab world that use these systems.
Filstrup then gave presentations of his trip to Iraq to SBU library staff and university deans.
University library services team assembled and held its first meeting. Members include:
Daniel Kinney/Lib Digitization, acquisitions
F.Jason Torre/Lib Digitization
Min-Huei Lu/Lib Acquisitions
Barbara Brand/Lib Document Delivery
Dennis Andersen/Lib Serials subscriptions
Richard Feinberg/Lib Digitization
Elaine Hoffman/Lib Selection
Richard Reeder/DoIT Server
Nathan Baum/Lib Subscribe to electronic resources
Diane Englot/Lib Document delivery
SBU’s Chief Information Officer, Rich Reeder was integrated into the program to address the technological needs in completing the digitization process. He will coordinate directly with Chris Filstrup and the library digitization team.
This site last updated on 10/13/2004 by J. Pournelle