From the Director

Margaret Conkey

The past six months have been a time of considerable transition for the Archaeological Research Facility. Most importantly, we witnessed the move of our Administrator, Sherry Parrish, out of the ARF office and into the position of manager for the Anthropology Department. While this is a wonderful career move for Sherry and a real bonus for those of us who also reside in Anthropology, there is no doubt that the administration of ARF had flourished as never before under Sherry's direction. We all look forward to working with our new Administrator, Hillari Allen, who joined us in early September. Welcome, Hillari!

As well, there has been a change in the faculty leadership of the ARF. As of August 1994, Pat Kirch resigned as ARF Director, after an excellent term of office for the past several years. Pat has simultaneously been awarded The Class of 1954 Endowed Chair in Anthropology and taken over as the Chair of the Anthropology Department. In anticipation of this, I was appointed Acting Director of the ARF until a Search Committee could be composed and a new Director selected. As of this writing, the selection has not been finalized, but this is expected after the first of the year.
As Acting Director, I have been pleased to work with acclimating Hillari, to planning the ARF lectures, to convening an Advisory Committee, and working closely with Thérèse Babineau, our new Intern in Photography, who has completely renovated the darkroom, among other projects. In anticipation of a more fully electronic working environment, we have convened a working committee to develop plans for the future computer infrastructure for ARF, probably in collaboration with one or more campus units. While the possibilities for archaeology and computers appear endless-from GIS to CD-Rom-we anticipate active fund-raising and grant applications!

We have again operationalized the Archaeology Outreach Program, which is being coordinated by myself and graduate student Robin Sewell. Although the program is still in its nascent stages, we plan to bring it more formally under the auspices of the ARF. At present, the archaeology students in Anthropology are expected to present at least one lecture or talk for students in an elementary or high school in the Bay Area; these arrangements are facilitated through the ARF. In November, we participated in Cal's Open Lab Day, with some half-dozen Richmond and El Cerrito high school students visiting one of our labs for a four-person laboratory demonstration on the Archaeology of Diet: faunal analysis, plant analysis, shellfish studies, and stone tool research.
We continue to be able to fund some faculty and especially graduate student research through the Stahl Endowment for Archaeology. When we see how much of a difference such an endowment can make for so many of our students, we are encouraged to extend our fund-raising energies. In addition to Stahl-funded research, I am pleased to report that during 1993-94, the ARF administered more than $500,000 worth of external grants, and as well, our publications income increased by 42%.

While the Acting Director is not expected to "rock the boat," the very nature of the internal changes and the necessary anticipation of things to come has meant that there has been plenty to do. Many of our regular ARF affiliates are on deserved sabbatical and research leave for this year (e.g., Professors Gruen, Miller, Stewart, and Tringham), but we are in the process of hiring another archaeologist in the Anthropology Department, while welcoming Rosemary Joyce to the campus this fall (see the story elsewhere in the Newsletter). We all look forward to the announcement of the new Director for an anticipated 5-year term, and toward the solidification of various projects to continue and to expand the activities, funding, and research of the Archaeological Research Facility.