Message from the President

Dear Members,

Hope all is well with you.

I am writing to let you know that ICSPAH is making progress in facilitating professional development and growth among the members. With your help and support, we have been able to achieve the following since the closure of the AAHPERD national conference this past April.

1. A quarterly newsletter has been created to inform our members and other colleagues of what is going on inside and outside ICSPAH.
2. To promote shared governance, we now have seven committees in operation. They are: Academic Exchange, Assembly, By-Law, Fund Raising, Membership, Newsletter and Research Grant.
3. A research grant program has been created to promote collaborative research among the members. The deadline of application for the 2010 grant is Feb 15, 2010.
4. ICSPAH is teaming up with the Society of Chinese Scholars on Exercise Physiology and Fitness (SCSEPF) to further scholarly collaborations among Chinese scholars around the world. This is the first partnership ICSPAH has ever had. Here I want to thank Dr. Frank Fu for all he has done to get this partnership established!!!
5. ICSPAH will have a delegation visit with College of Physical Education and Health at East China Normal University in Shanghai during the summer of 2010.
6. ICSPAH has received a private donation of $1000.00 from Dr. Jin Wang. I hope ICSPAH will get more donations from individuals in the years to come.

As president of ICSPAH, I will continue to closely work with the executive committee members and the seven committees on the follow three areas before we gather at the AAHPERD national conference in March 2010.
1. Seeking sponsorships for our General Assembly to be held at the 2010 AAHPERD national conference.
2. Working on the agenda of the General Assembly so you will find it productive, enjoyable and rewarding.
3. Retaining and expanding the membership. Currently we have 37 paid members with 6 life members. My goal is to have more than 40 members upon completion of the 2010 AAHPERD national conference.

Once again, thank you very much for your help and support!

Ping Xiang, PhD
President, ICSPAH

1. The progress of the collaboration between ICSPAH and SCSEPF
International Chinese Society of Physical Activities and Health (ICSPAH) and the Society of Chinese Scholars on Exercise Physiology and Fitness (SCSEPF; (http://www.scsepf.org) have agreed to work together to provide a more broader platform for the members of the two societies. SCSEPE is headquartered in Hong Kong with Dr. Frank Fu as president, who is also a member of ICSPAH. There has been some significant progress so far: (1) the two societies have agreed to open the joint membership to our members. As a result, in the summer of 2009, ICSPAH members Drs. Zan Gao, Guoyuan Huang, Xiafen Keating, Li Li, Yuanlong Liu, John Liu and Ping Xiang joined SCSEPF. (2) To establish a long-term collaboration, SCSEPH has agreed to provide the visiting research fellow opportunity for our ICSPAH members to visit the Dr. Stephen Hui Research Centre for Physical Recreation and Wellness, which is directed by Dr. Frank Fu. It would help our members to disseminate our research and establish the cooperation and collaboration with our fellow members of SCSEPF. Dr. Ping Xiang and Dr. Yuanlong Liu will make the trip to Hong Kong during the summer of 2010 to work out details of the collaboration between the two societies such as establishing a joint academic journal and collaborating the funding opportunity to our members. Here we want to thank Dr. Frank Fu very much for his generosity and support!!!

2. ICSPAH has established an annual research grant program to promote the members' research. This program is intended to advance the mission and scholarship in physical activity and health by providing a small amount of financial support to ICSPAH members as they pursue projects of importance to the field. It requires that all proposals to be submitted must involve at least two ICSPAH members. ICSPAH strongly encourages applications that include multiple content experts as collaborators who are members of the society. The call for the 2010 grant was announced in September. For details, please see the announcement of ICSPAH (http://www.icspah.org).

3. Thanks to your hard work and dedication to the scholarship, more than 30 research abstracts from our members have been accepted for presentation at 2010 AAHPERD national conference. In particular, our members have made significant dissemination of Tai Chi in the U.S. For example, Drs. Li Li, Yuanlong Liu, Dong Zhu, Jinjin Yang, and Ping Xiang will lead a symposium titled "Interdisciplinary Research Evaluation: Feasibility of Tai Chi as Lifelong Exercise." Dr. Guibao Yang will also make a Tai Chi presentation at the conference.

4. ICSPAH will have a meeting (i.e., General Assembly) on Friday, March 19, 2010 from 5:30 to 7 pm during the 2010 AAHPERD national conference followed by a dinner gathering. Both members and non-members are welcome to attend. So please have your 2010 AAHPERD schedule planned accordingly.

5. The KIN department at San Jose State University (SJSU) is welcoming two more visiting professors from China in addition to the previous four. Professor Cheng Wang is a full professor and the vice chair of the P.E. Department at Northwestern Polytechnic University at Xi'an. He was a line judge for the men's volleyball final in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is here to study the SJSU activity program and instruction of self-defense. Professor Xiao Sun is a full professor and the chair of the P.E. Department at China Medical University in Shenyang. He is here to study SJSU activity program.

6. Dr. Gong Chen and visiting professor Cheng Wang have published a bilingual textbook on self-defense in 2009. Gong Chen is working with a professor at Beijing University on his fourth book in Chinese language on self-defense.

7. Dr. Zan Gao has hosted five visiting professors/scholars from Beijing Sport University, East China Normal University, Chongqing University, and Guangxi Normal University in China. The visiting professors/scholars are working with Dr. Gao on a school-based physical activity program. Two of them also teach physical education class at a local elementary school.
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If you have questions, concerns or comments to share, please email us at gaogaozan@yahoo.com.

2. 2010 NAKPEHE Conference
The 2010 NAKPEHE conference will be at the Millennium Resort - Scottsdale McCormick Ranch, Scottsdale, AZ. NAKPEHE has contracted with the Millenium Resourt for discounted rates for this conference. Theme: "Good to Great*: Success Stories in Kinesiology and Physical Education".

3. 2010 AAHPERD National Convention
AAHPERD's 125th National Convention & Exposition will be held in Indianapolis, ID from March 16 - 20, 2010. Please mark your schedule to participate in AAHPERD's anniversary celebration, including special events to commemorate AAHPERD's 125-year history. http://www.aahperd.org/whatwedo/convention/
In addition, the preliminary program information is now available for the 2010 AAHPERD National Convention & Exposition. This information is subject to change. The final program with scheduling information will be posted in January 2010.

4. 2010 AERA Annual Meeting
Theme: Understanding Complex Ecologies in a Changing World
The 2010 AERA Annual Meeting will take place Friday, April 30 - Tuesday, May 4 in
Denver, Colorado. Annual Meeting sessions will be held in the Colorado Convention Center, the Hyatt Regency Denver. The exhibit hall will be open Saturday, May 1, 2010 - Monday, May 3, 2010 and will be located in the Colorado Convention Center in Exhibit Hall F.

5. 2010 ACSM Annual Meeting
Time: June 2-5, 2010
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Call for Abstracts Deadline: Monday, November 2, 2009

6. 2011 World Conference on Physical Education and Sport: Challenges and Future Directions
Time: June 1-4, 2011
Location: East China Normal University, Shanghai
For details, please visit: http://www.iscpes.ecnu.edu.cn/

News and Policies

Key for Future Investment: Researchers' Response to America's Recovery Act
The inclusion in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of an additional $10.4-billion for the National Institutes of Health presents an unprecedented opportunity for biomedical and behavioral research. How scientists respond may well determine the public's long-term support for academic research. By thoughtful stewardship of those resources, they can bolster the nation's future enthusiasm for science as a socially responsive and effective enterprise.
The objectives of the Recovery Act are to create and retain jobs to help reverse a profound recession, and-for research and training-to create new knowledge and infrastructure as a basis for sustained economic growth. In keeping with those objectives, most of the money must be disbursed by the end of this fiscal year, September 30, 2010, and most projects must be completed within two years. Universities, academic medical centers, and teaching hospitals-as educators, innovators, incubators for new technology, and major employers and consumers of goods and services in almost every region-are ideally suited to help fulfill the act's objectives.
For example, in the case of NIH research, scientists and their institutions have responded well beyond expectations, submitting record numbers of applications for Recovery Act support. According to the most recent information available from NIH's Center for Scientific Review, more than 25,000 applications were received from May 1 through August 2009, on top of the 18,200 applications received for previously existing NIH programs during roughly the same period. As of this writing, the agency reports that it has awarded more than 10,000 grants-$2.9-billion-under the act.
The Recovery Act also calls for scientists to place greater emphasis on public accountability in the use of research money and has expanded requirements for reporting on employment and other economic impacts of the grants. Some institutions already track the potential economic impacts and multiplier effects of research investments within local communities, such as job creation and the attraction of "high tech" health-sector jobs.

How to Help Graduate Students Reach Their Destination

In Educating Scholars: Doctoral Education in the Humanities, being published this month by Princeton University Press, the authors revealed that times to degree and attrition rates are helped most by improved financial support for students, by clear statements of departmental expectations, and by advisers' counseling timely completion of the dissertation.

Will Higher Education Be the Next Bubble to Burst?
Is it possible that higher education might be the next bubble to burst? Some early warnings suggest that it could be.
With tuitions, fees, and room and board at dozens of colleges now reaching $50,000 a year, the ability to sustain private higher education for all but the very well-heeled is questionable. According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, over the past 25 years, average college tuition and fees have risen by 440 percent - more than four times the rate of inflation and almost twice the rate of medical care. Patrick M. Callan, the center's president, has warned that low-income students will find college unaffordable.
Meanwhile, the middle class, which has paid for higher education in the past mainly by taking out loans, may now be precluded from doing so as the private student-loan market has all but dried up. In addition, endowment cushions that allowed colleges to engage in steep tuition discounting are gone. Declines in housing valuations are making it difficult for families to rely on home-equity loans for college financing. Even when the equity is there, parents are reluctant to further leverage themselves into a future where job security is uncertain.
With a drift toward higher enrollments in public institutions, all but the most competitive highly endowed private colleges are beginning to wonder if their enrollments may start to evaporate. Could it get worse for colleges in the coming years? The numbers of college-aged students in the "baby-boom echo," which crested with this year's high-school senior class, will decline over the next decade.
In the meantime, online, nontraditional institutions are becoming increasingly successful at challenging high-priced private colleges and those public universities that charge $25,000 or more per year. Moreover, increases in federal financial aid and state scholarships have been unable to keep up with the incessant annual increases in tuition at traditional four-year colleges.
What can they do to keep the bubble from bursting? They can look for more efficiency and other sources of tuition. Fortunately, some other forces are at work that might help save higher education. The federal government recently raised significantly the amount of money that returning veterans might claim to pursue higher-education degrees, so it reaches at least the level of tuition and fees at many public universities. In addition, the rest of the world respects American higher education, and whether studying at a college here or an American-based one abroad, the families of international students usually pay in full.
But colleges cannot, and should not, rely on those trends. Although questions about the mounting prices of colleges have been raised for more than 30 years and just a few private colleges have closed, the stakes and volume of the warnings are mounting. Only during a critical moment in economic history can one warn of bubbles and suggest that the day of reckoning for higher education is, in fact, drawing near. (From The Chronicle.com)