OHIO VALLEY REGION

ANNUAL REPORT

1999-2000

The past year has been busy but gone smoothly in the Ohio Valley region. No major problems or concerns have come to my attention; membership has remained strong and the state VPs have functioned as efficiently as I have come to expect from these loyal and capable colleagues. WV's Charles Lloyd and OH's John Sarkissian report positive developments. CPL proposals for 2000 from each state have arisen and been put in the pipeline at the time of this writing. Regional membership issues were addressed, especially by way of hortatory notes to non-renewing member.

Appreciative correspondence to follow up on the highly successful 1999 CAMWS meeting in Cleveland was completed. Letters of congratulations were sent to successful contestants, both students and teachers, in various CAMWS competitions (e.g. Translation Contest, Stewart Scholarship). A full report on the 1999 meeting in Cleveland was prepared for Humanitas, the prize-winning newsletter of the Ohio Classical Conference. Various classical activities were attended where the cause of CAMWS was promoted. Ohio has continued to fill a leadership role in the American Classical League, the Advanced Placement Latin program and the Vergilian Society as well as in CAMWS; the Ohio Classical Conference and its newsletter Humanitas are healthy; Ohio's involvement in the VRoma project continues and, of course, Ohio hosted the 1999 CAMWS convention in Cleveland (see VP Sarkissian's comments below).

VP Lloyd reports on three developments from West Virgina. On March 18-19, 1999 about one hundred high school Latin students who represented six schools met at Bethany College near Wheeling for the annual JCL Convention. Latin teachers prepared the events and contests involved, enlarging the convention to two days with a Roman banquet the first evening. The Maier Latin Sight-Reading Contest with substantial monetary awards formed an important convention event the next morning. Secondly, instead of its fall luncheon, the West Virginia Classical Association will meet in conjunction with the West Virginia Junior Classical Association Convention to be held 30-31 March 2000 at Jackon's Mill in Weston. This event and other important announcements were included in the WVCA Newsletter mailed out in February. Finally, the $3,900 in Latin awards and contest prizes sponsored by the Maier Foundation and administered by the Marshall University Department of Classical Studies (High School Latin Cup Awards, High School Latin Sight-Reading Contest, and the Maier Latin Scholar-ship at Marshall) continue to flourish.

VP Sarkissian focused on five topics in his report on Ohio's year. The first, naturally, was CAMWS' annual meeting held in Cleveland on April 15-17, 1999. The local committee, under the guidance of Donald Laing of Case-Western Reserve University, worked long and diligently to help make the meeting remarkably smooth-running and a complete success. The Ohio Classical Conference (OCC) publication Humanitas was recognized as the "Best State Newsletter for the 1998-99 year." Editors Robert Bennett, Kenyon College and Jim Andrews, Ohio University, are to be congratulated, as are former student assistant Gary Sternberg, Ohio University, and former editor John Sarkissian, Youngstown State University. For the current year Professors Bennett and Andrews are continuing their good work as editors, with help from student assistant Jason Bartley, Ohio University.

The second topic was the OCC which met October 14-16, also in Cleveland at Case Western Reserve University, with President Martin Helzle of that university presiding. At this meeting, Stergios Lazos of Hawken School made a presentation concerning a mosaic designed and created by his students, in part with the assistance of a grant from CAMWS' CPL. At the banquet the Hildesheim Vase, awarded annually to an outstanding Latin program in the state of Ohio, was presented to Hawken's Lazos and Jodi Gill. After the banquet, conference attendees were treated to a spirited performance of Plautus' Menaechmi by CWRU's Theater Department. Incoming president, CAMWSian William Prueter of Chesterland High School, announced that 2000's meeting would be held the first weekend in November at Punderson State Park. Succeeding Mr. Prueter as president will be CAMWSians Richard Krill, professor emeritus, University of Toledo, for 2001 and then, for 2002, Kay Fluharty, Madeira Jr./Sr. High School, Cincinnati. VP Sarkissian noted that the award given to Humanitas reflects positively on the membership of OCC as well, for it has been willing to allot sufficient resources to make the newsletter a large and attractive publication.

Thirdly, Sarkissian stressed that the OCC continues to explore ways to become a more active participant in the Ohio Foreign Language Association, the comparable organization for foreign language teachers in the state. Some years ago the name of this organization was changed, with the word "Foreign" replacing "Modern" in order to include classicists. Interactions between the two organizations, however, have been limited, not through any sense of competition or hostility, but because classicists find that the OCC meeting, held in the fall, has more relevant sessions than does the OFLA meeting held in the spring, and high school teachers generally can be reimbursed for only one meeting annually. On the other hand, the interests of the two groups converge on matters of policy, and the size of the OFLA and the efficiency of its very active Political Action Com-mittee make it attractive and practical for OCC to try to be a more visible presence in the organization. To this end, CAMWSian Susan Bonvallet, The Wellington School, Columbus, has for several years given selflessly of her time to serve as OCC Representative to the OFLA. She and Judith de Luce, Miami University, made a presentation on VRoma at the 1999 meeting of the OFLA in Columbus. At least two other CAMWS/OCC members will make presentations at the 2000 meeting of OFLA: Sherwin Little, Indian Hills High School, Cincinnati, will speak on "A Modified Foreign Language Class for Students with Learning Disabilities," and John Sarkissian, Youngstown State University, will speak on "Using Computers to Monitor the Practices of Foreign Language Students." In the future, OCC will continue exploring ways in which it can work more closely with OFLA.

There has been an exciting development at Ohio University in Athens. Timothy Wutrich, Director of the School of Comparative Arts, and James Andrews, Department of Classics, assisted by Laura Parrotti, School of Theater, organized an extraordinary educational (and incidentally promotional) project which involved a continuous public reading of the Iliad

in its entirety. A collection of readers consisting of faculty, students and some teachers from the surrounding area, read around the clock from Lattimore's translation of the Iliad. The event, held in the outdoor theater on the OU campus, was such a success that the organizers will be conducting a similar activity this May, reading Vergil's Aeneid.

Last year's report noted the Ohio's Latinists were involved in drafting exit competencies in foreign languages for high school graduates. This group of university and high school language teachers, business leaders, parents, and community representatives had met in Columbus under the aegis of the Ohio Board of Regents and the Ohio Department of Education to develop a set of common expectations for Ohio's future high school graduates in foreign languages. The work of that committee was brought to a successful conclusion last spring and this fall. Since foreign language study currently is not one of the areas in which Ohio high school students must take proficiency tests, the work of this committee at this point remains more of a goal than an actuality. What must be emphasized is that Latin was afforded full recognition and the concerns of the Latinists who served on the committee were accorded full consideration, even to the point of having specific goals statements for Latin which differed from those of the modern languages. If there is any resistance to Latin by modern language people in Ohio, it is not in evidence in the workings of the higher state administration or in the state's professional organizations.

Finally, Sarkissian noted with deserved pride that CAMWSian Mary Jo Behrensmeyer, who teaches Latin at Mount Vernon High School, was accorded the signal honor of being inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus on October 28 of last year.

These remarks indicate, I think, the vibrant health of Latin and the study of the classics in the Ohio Valley region. As I wrap up my tenure as regional VP, I would be remiss if I did not publicly acknowledge and thank both Charles and John, and Janet Waggoner before him, for their dedication, competence, energetic leadership and supervision of activities in their individual states. My task has been made so much easier and more pleasant because of my association with these outstanding professionals.