by Jill C. Hindman
staff writer
Last semester you may have been wondering where a familiar friendly face was. Well that is because Dr. Jolyon Girard was on sabbatical this past fall. Girard is a professor in the history department who has a background in American history. He has been teaching at Cabrini for the past 28 years since 1973.
While on sabbatical, Girard concentrated on writing a book – one of three duties that kept him busy.
Two years ago, the Greenwood Press solicited Girard to write a book that would be part of a series. The series consists of 12 volumes of U.S. history books. This series was created and is intended for high school honors classes and college courses. These books are to complement the text chosen by the professors teaching the courses.
Each volume focuses on a particular subject. Girard’s volume is entitled “America and the World,” which discusses American foreign policy. Each author was to pick 12 to 15 episodes important in their field to incorporate and expand on them in their book.
For each of the chapters that Girard has written he included primary sources at the end. The reason for this is so that after reading the text a student can actually read the testimonies of people who were a part of what they just read. It provides a clearer understanding to the reader.
If you think you saw Girard on campus last semester, then you are probably right. Even though he was technically on sabbatical, Girard was on campus at least two or three days a week.
“I found it easier to work in my office then at home because I had access to the library here on campus, which was very helpful,” said Girard.
He has written some scholarly articles and helped edit a book, but “America and the World” is Girard’s first major book with a major publisher. His book will be one of the first in the series of 12 and will be out in September 2001.
Girard is a member and serves as chairman of the Promotion Tenure Committee (PTC). He attended the meetings for the PTC while on sabbatical.
“This is a very important committee and I could not afford to miss the meetings. I have a duty to be there because my fellow members elected me chairman,” said Girard.
This is a faculty committee that evaluates and makes recommendations to President Iadarola with regard to promotions and tenure for faculty members who apply.
The third obligation that kept Girard busy was his preparation for the African-American history class that he teaches this semester on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12:30 p.m.
A faculty member becomes eligible for sabbatical every seven years. If they are a full-time faculty member then their second sabbatical would come in eight years. When a faculty member returns from their sabbatical they must submit a written memo to the vice president of Academic Affairs explaining what they did on their time off.
“I missed the classroom. I enjoy teaching and I missed it,” said Girard. Next semester Girard will be teaching Latin American History, U.S. Survey and Medieval Europe.
