Dean joins IU professor at national organization

An IU professor recently appointed chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities will be joined by an Honors College dean.\nIU Associate Dean of the Honors College Julia Bondanella recently accepted a four-year position as Assistant Chair for Programs with the NEH.\nIn September, Bruce Cole, distinguished professor of fine arts and department chair, was confirmed by the Senate as the new chairman of the NEH. Cole said he is "delighted" at Bondanella's new involvement with the NEH.\nBondanella, a professor of Italian and French at IU for more than 25 years, said she will depart for Washington, D.C. Friday, leaving behind her husband, distinguished professor of Italian Peter Bondanella, friends and colleagues.\nWorking for the NEH will allow her the chance to promote what she has taught.\n"This is something I am really looking forward to doing. I really do believe in the power (of the humanities) to enrich our lives," Bondanella said. "I've certainly had a life-long commitment to the study of the humanities."\n"Julia's many talents and accomplishments well prepare her for her new position. I am looking forward to working with her in Washington," Cole said in an e-mail. \nCole said she is well-suited for the job.\n"Julia is a first-rate scholar and an experienced, proven administrator," Cole said. "She has also played an important part in the education of honors students both at IU and on the national level."\nComparative literature chairperson David Hertz said Bondanella and Cole will both make positive contributions to the NEH.\n"She is a meticulous person and she will make an outstanding collaborator and supporter for Bruce Cole," Hertz said.\nAustin Caswell, who teaches readings seminars in the Honors College and a recently retired musicology professor, said he has worked for about 25 years with Bondanella.\n"She was the spinal column of the Honors College," he said. "She held the thing up in good times and bad."\nBondanella's leadership has been an asset to the whole University, Caswell said.\n"She doesn't make a whole lot of ferocious noise, but she's in there all the time. She's very gracious and kind and very persistent," Caswell said. "She can lighten up a whole lot of meetings." \nNew duties will include overseeing all grant programs for the NEH, including the divisions of research, public and preservation and access programs, which promote the study of humanities, Bondanella said.\nPromoting the humanities in education is an idea Caswell said Bondanella believes in.\n"She will go in there and (do) whatever she can and bring this philosophy to people's eyes and ears," Caswell said.\nAlthough the losses of Bondanella and Cole are unfortunate, Hertz said their contributions will be substantial.\n"She and Bruce Cole will help scholarship in the humanities as a whole," he said.\nMaking the decision was difficult, Bondanella said.\n"I thought very carefully about the pros and cons. I had to weigh all the cultural opportunities in Washington as well as a job that would promote all the things I've loved to teach in the humanities (against the job here)," she said. "IU was good enough to give me a four-year leave of absence. That makes it a lot easier to leave."\nBondanella said she will return to IU in four years and until then will travel back and forth from Washington to Bloomington to visit her husband and friends.