Week of May 31 - June 6, 2004

Welcome to the Tower Topics E-newsletter for faculty, staff and students at Western. 

Missouri Western State College, 4525 Downs Drive, St. Joseph, MO 64507, 816-271- 4200

Click any link for these stories:

Literacy Luncheon Honors Volunteers

MECA Hosts Fun and Educational Activities for Youth

Points of Pride

News Briefs

Calendar

Ads

Archives

The deadline for all entries is 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, for the next week's issue. Tower Topics will be online weekly during the fall and spring semester.  For more information call 271-5651.

Student Editor:
Paula White

Staff Advisers:
Kristy Hill and Diane Holtz

Literacy Luncheon Honors Volunteers

Literacy volunteers were honored, guests learned about Missouri’s family literacy initiative, college students were recognized for their volunteerism, and literacy programs in St. Joseph were lauded for their work on family literacy, all at the annual Literacy Luncheon at Missouri Western State College in May.

Phyllis Harris, regional coordinator for Literacy Investment for Tomorrow (LIFT), was the featured speaker at the luncheon. In her presentation on Family Literacy, she applauded the efforts of the literacy agencies in St. Joseph for working together to make family literacy work. She said the St. Joseph Area Literacy Coalitions is one of the strongest in the state, and one that could serve as a model for other Missouri communities.

Harris explained the four components of family literacy: parent and child together time, parenting education, adult education and children education; and noted that all four have to work together to be successful. “The glue that creates the foundation is integration,” Harris said. “We don’t have a fragmented approach.”

She said different family literacy programs can be found in different communities, because the programs must be tailored to fit the needs of the community. “We cannot fit families to programs; we have to fit the programs to families.”

In her closing remarks, Harris stressed the importance of being advocates for literacy. “Illiteracy affects us all. We have to understand that our children aren’t reading at their grade level,” she said. “Illiteracy: we’ve got to take it on. We’ve got to do something about it.”

Also at the luncheon, long-time literacy volunteer Miriam Misner received the 2004 Roy Blunt Literacy Citation Award, and Helen Long was named to the newly formed Pass the Power Hall of Fame. Long had volunteered at Pass the Power, an adult literacy program, since 1988.

Deborah Ellsworth, director of Pass the Power, also recognized Western employee Jeff Wilson and student Annie Maier, coordinators of the America Reads program, which places college students in local elementary schools and after-school programs to help children with basic literacy skills. During the past year, America Reads tutors from Western provided more than 11,000 hours of service. 

The annual luncheon is coordinated by the St. Joseph Area Literacy Coalition to recognize volunteers and organizations in their efforts to improve the local literacy rate and raise awareness of how low literacy skills impact individuals and the community, according to Ellsworth. Pass the Power is administered through Western’s Foundation.

“Literacy is a TNT issue,” Ellsworth said. “We need to deal with it Today, Not Tomorrow.”

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MECA Hosts Fun and Educational Activities for Youth

Want to have fun with math, art, reading and music in June and July?  The Midland Empire Community Arts (MECA) is offering a host of courses and mini-camps with those activities and more for youth this summer.

The mini-camps kick off with “Art & Nature Journey,” “Rainbows, Caterpillars & Fireflies,” and “Storyland Theatre” for grades one through three. These camps run in June, and activities will include nature walks on the Missouri Conservation Department trails at Missouri Western State College to explore different aspects of the natural world, listening to stories and experimenting with various forms of art, and learning the basics of acting and performing in front of a live audience.

July offers several more mini-camps:  “Math Art,” for grades kindergarten through second, and “Paint A Mural,” “Watercolor Camp,” and “Messy Art” for grades one through three.  “Math Art” combines both math skills and concepts of life through art.  “Watercolor Camp” and “Messy Art” teach ways to work with watercolor while letting the child’s imagination run wild with line, paint and color. 

Another popular camp is Kindermusik, a program of music instruction for children ages birth to seven years.  Kindermusik has been offered for over 10 years, and Rhonda Newton, director of MECA, says it is by far one of the most popular courses.

This year two camps and a summer-long session are offered.  There will be two camps June 7-11.  “Creatures at the Ocean,” for ages one-and-a-half to four, will offer singing, making music and movement.  Participants will take home their own pair of specially designed seashell handle castanets.  “Confetti Days,” for ages three-to-five-year-olds, will feature music woven with movement, art, language, drama, play and storytelling.

The Kindermusik course for the summer, beginning June 1 through July 20, is “Cock-a-Doodle-Moo.”  For ages birth to 18 months, the course activities will use music and movement to stimulate the baby’s total development process. 

MECA was launched in 1987 and the program now hosts more than 1,500 students annually.  “MECA’s mini-camps are designed to be educational and fun,” Newton said.  “We even break up the afternoon by giving the participants a snack and a chance to play a game or take a short stroll on campus.  We limit the enrollment of our camps so that the students receive plenty of hands-on instruction and attention from the teachers, so I would encourage interested students to enroll early.”   

Newton is also an instructor for the “Art & Nature Journey” camp and is looking forward to seeing the children engaged in creativity.  “Most of the kids are still able to completely lose themselves in artistic activities at this age, and I just marvel at some of the creations that come out of the experience,” she said.

Believing that the children will take their experiences with them the rest of their lives is what Newton thinks is most important about all of the courses being offered.  “They’ll look back on their camp experiences with fond memories and have hopefully learned something new and made some lasting connections and friendships.”

For more information, contact Newton, at (816) 271-4100 or visit www.missouriwestern.edu/conteduc/meca.html.

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Commencement Reception
Western's Commencement reception was held Friday evening May 14, sponsored by the Institutional Advancement, Academic and Student Affairs offices. The reception was free for graduates and their families.

Points of Pride

Excellence in our Faculty/Staff

• Dr. Victoria Wacek, assistant professor of teacher education, and Mary Lou Brown of Three Rivers Community College, were awarded by The National Association for Developmental Education the Outstanding Dissertation Award for their collaboration on the analysis of the policies and practices of developmental mathematics programs in all of the public four-year institutions of higher education and community colleges in Missouri.

• Dr. Wiliam Eickhorst, professor of art, has curated an exhibition of contemporary printmakers entitled “Cultural Evolution & Diffusion” which features 35 works by 10 prominent Japanese-American artists currently working in the United States. 

• Dr. Kelly Henry, assistant professor of psychology, attended the Midwestern Psychological Association/Psi Chi Conference in Chicago.  She served as a Psi Chi regional steering committee member and moderator for two papers sessions.  She was the sponsor for the nine psychology students that attended the conference.

• Frederica Nix, criminal justice instructor, participated in an Olympic Sports Authority Administrative Hearing on disciplinary action relative to receipt of contraband by a U.S. athlete attending a training session on a foreign university campus.

• Marsha Dolan, assistant professor of nursing, was elected to a three-year term as president-elect for the Missouri Health Information Management Association.

• Dr. Cary Chevalier, associate professor of biology, was invited to teach Introduction to Global Positioning Systems for Mapping and Navigation on the University of Missouri - Columbia campus.  Since its inception in fall 2002, over 170 people have completed this three-day course on Western’s campus.

• Dr. Evelyn Brooks, associate professor of nursing, Dr. Jeanne Daffron, dean of professional studies, and Dr. W. Steven Brooks, have recently signed a contract with publishers with F.A. Davis Company for a textbook:  “Basic Statistics for Health Care.”

• James Estes, professor of art, had a ceramic sculpture entitled “Spring” chosen for inclusion in the “Crafts National 38” at the University Park Gallery at Penn State University.  He also had two ceramic sculptures entitled “Carnival Skies” and

• “Midwest Waters” chosen for inclusion in the 54th Annual Quad-State Juried Exhibition held at the Quincy Art Center in Quincy, Ill.  Juror was Katherine Degan, Director of the KRAUSHAAR Galleries in New York.

• Dr. Ed Gorsky, dean of continuing education and special programs, and Peggy Ellis, director of noncredit programs and business and industry training, represented Western at a health fair for employees of Northwest Missouri Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center.  They provided information about credit, non-credit and graduate programs offered on campus.

• Dr. John Tapia, professor of speech communications, presented “Public Relations Dilemmas: Airlines in the Aftermath of 9-11” at the Central States Speech Communication Association meeting on the “Re-evaluating Communication about 9-11: A Two-Year Perspective” program. 

• Dr. Kevin Anderson, assistant professor of mathematics, Dr. Timothy Miller, assistant professor of mathematics, Dr. Jeffery Poet, assistant professor of mathematics, and Dr. Donald Vestal, assistant professor of mathematics, presented talks at the Missouri Collegiate Mathematics Competition and the Mathematical Association of America – Missouri Section Conference in Cape Girardeau.  Dr. Sharon Vestal, assistant professor of mathematics, organized and participated in a panel discussion on grant writing.

• Dr. Susan Hennessy, associate professor of French, presented a paper entitled “Feeding on Zola: Au Bonheur des dames as a Prelude to the Edible Novel,” at the annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference in Lexington, Ky.

• Dr. Ian Roberts, associate professor of English, Dr. Stacia Bensyl, associate professor of English, and Dr. Patricia Donaher, assistant professor of English, presented papers in the Language Attitudes and Popular Linguistics sections at the annual conference of the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association in San Antonio.  Dr. Roberts presented, “The Myth of the Mad Linguist: Attitudes about Language and Linguists in Forbidden Planet.”  Dr. Bensyl presented, “Eef ju Taulk Like Dis’: Spanglish, Spanish, and Calo in Chicano Film.”  Dr. Donaher presented, “Happy in HEL: Parody, Humor, and the Teaching of the History of the English Language.”

• Dr. Monica Nandan, associate professor of social work, presented two papers at the annual conference of American Society on Aging in San Francisco.  Her research paper was entitled  “Adjusting to American Culture: Voices of Asian Indian Elderly Immigrant.”  An article on her presentation was published in the San Francisco Chronicle.  She presented a workshop entitled  “Branding Relevance for Elder Niches” that she had co-authored with Dr. Shiva Nandan, associate professor of marketing.  She also moderated an Applied Research session entitled  “Community-Based Long-Term Care.”

• Dr. Cindy Heider, assistant professor of teacher education, was a presenter at the American Associations of Colleges for Teacher Education conference in Chicago.  Her presentation entitled “Embedding Diversity Learning in Preservice Training” reported study results on the impact of Western’s preservice teachers’ experiences at Mid-City Excellence, an after-school program in St. Joseph.

• Dr. Victoria Wacek, assistant professor of teacher education, presented “Policies and Practices in Developmental Mathematics – How Uniform Are They?” at the National Association for Developmental Education Conference in St. Louis.  She was also a presenter at the American Associations of Colleges for Teacher Education conference in Chicago.  Her presentation entitled “Embedding Diversity Learning in Preservice Training” reported study results on the impact of Western’s preservice teachers’ experiences at Mid City Excellence, an after-school program in St. Joseph.

• Dr. Jennifer Hegeman, associate professor of mathematics, and Dr. Nancy Edwards, professor of teacher education, presented “A Prescribed Format for Using NRC’s 5 Strands of Mathematical Proficiency Can Raise Student/Teacher Achievement on High Stakes Testing” at the the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics National Conference in Philadelphia.

• Dr. Robert Bergland, associate professor of journalism, presented a paper, “Convergence and its Perils and Promises for Journalism Programs” at the Great Plains Computers and Writing Conference in Fargo, N.D. 

Excellence in our Students

• Nine students from the department of psychology presented four papers at the Midwestern  Psychological Association/Psi Chi Conference in Chicago.  The papers were: “Gender Differences in   Performance of Lateralized Tasks,” by Erin Wilson, Christina A. Hammond, Craig M. Moore, and Lee Ann M. Schuster; “Time’s Up:  The Effects of Time Urgency on the Ability to Meet Deadlines,” by Emily J. Kempf;  “Facilitation and Media Effects in Group Brainstorming,” by Kevin L. Hill and Lindsay R. Fuller; and “Halo Effect: The Impact of Differences Between Target and Perceiver,” by Tara D. Anderson and Daniel A. Harr.

• The Kindermusik program, under the direction of music major Emily Auxier,  graduated 24 children.

• Nicole Hartenbower, physical education major, was honored as one of the National Association for    Sport and Physical Education Outstanding Majors of the Year at the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance national convention in New Orleans.

• Tricia Dickson was recognized as Member of the Year and Brad Dixon was awarded the President’s Award.  Nearly half of the voting members in Residence Council were recognized for grade point averages of 3.0 or above. The students were honored at an end-of-the-year reception co-sponsored by the Residence Council and Housing and Residential Life. 

Excellence in our Programs

• The military science department sponsored a team of 12 students and two faculty members in the Bataan Memorial Death March conducted at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.  This annual 26.2-mile event commemorates the 1942 forced march of American prisoners of war after their capture, to a Japanese prison in the Philippines. 

• Dr. Susan Hennessy, associate professor of French, coordinated the annual Foreign Language Day. Hennessy worked in conjunction with foreign language faculty and students, hosting more than 100 area high school students on the Western campus. Students participated in competitions and cultural activities throughout the day.

• Prairie Lands received a $4,000 National Reading Initiative grant from the National Writing Project to support the study of reading in the content areas.  One of 10 grants selected from site applications submitted throughout the nation, Prairie Lands will conduct two projects for area teachers, grades four - 12, during 2004-2005:  a Textual Illuminations Project (TIP) Reading Institute in August and bimonthly meetings of Professional Learning Communities (PLC) focusing on reading.  Dr. Jane Frick, professor of English, is coordinating the grant activities with St. Joseph School District staff and board members.

• Resident assistants sponsored a discussion about first-generation college issues and challenges about returning home for the summer.  Approximately 30 students participated in the discussion.

• Learning assistants sponsored “Getting the Job you Want.”  A representative from Enterprise led a discussion about the skills that employers look for when hiring for internships and entry-level positions.

• Omicron-Psi Honor Society held its induction ceremony for 36 nontraditional students.

• Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. began a second Management Development Program for 16 supervisory employees.  Peggy Ellis, director of non-credit programs/business and industry training, is facilitating this 10-session series. 

• Class #20 of the Law Enforcement Academy participated in the Special Olympics.  The cadets assisted in handing out medals and running the events at Lafayette High School in St. Joseph.

• The advanced Suzuki violin students performed for the Western Ambassadors.  The students are under the direction of Western graduates Terry Brock and Amanda Fay Gaston-Moore. 

• The Griffon Junior Singers Premiere Choir performed at the annual Worlds of Fun Chorale Festival in Kansas City, Mo.  The choir is under the direction of Western graduate Karen Heyde-Lipanovich. 

• The Griffon Junior Singers Premiere Choir and Prelude Choir performed to approximately 325 people at their annual concert.  The choirs are under the direction of Western graduate Karen Hyde-Lipanovich and Western adjunct instructor Karen Jensen.

• Admissions hosted the 19th Annual Counselor Appreciation Dinner for 40 counselors and administrators from the city schools.

• The Midland Empire Community Arts private voice students performed a recital in the Thompson E. Potter Fine Arts Building.  The voice students are under the direction of students Shaun Agnew and Emily Auxier, and Rhonda Newton, Director of the Midland Empire Community Arts Program.

• Over 50 students presented over 45 research posters at the 11^th Multidisciplinary Research Day Event, representing the biology, psychology, social work, nursing, computer science, criminal justice, communication studies, and chemistry departments.

• The St. Joseph Symphony, directed by Dr. Deborah Freedman, associate professor of music, was joined by the St. Joseph Community Chorus and the Western Concert Chorale, directed by Frank Thomas, associate professor of music, for the performance of Bloch’s Sacred Service.  Liang “Mike” Zhang, baritone, was the featured soloist in this performance, which was held at the Cathedral of St. Joseph.

• Tim Crowley talked to the St. Joseph Parent Support Group, provided the keynote at the Medical Managers of Northwest Missouri annual meeting and took part in a seminar for nursing home administrators.  He also provided a pre-conference workshop at a conference in Kansas City, Mo., entitled, “Developing the Leader Within,” as well as a breakout session, “Promoting Prevention as a Personal Value.”   

• Counselor Vincenza Marash was a panel member for a campus presentation entitled, “Is Feminism Dead?”. 

• Counselors Steve Potter and Tim Crowley combined to provide a series of interactive sessions on the dangers of alcohol and drugs to students at Robidoux Middle School in St. Joseph as part of the school’s Alcohol Awareness Week.

• The Midland Empire Community Arts Symphonic Youth Orchestra performed their annual spring concert in the Thompson E. Potter Fine Arts Theatre.  The orchestra is under the direction of adjunct instructor Terry Brock.

• Eighteen teacher leaders from throughout northwest Missouri have been selected as Summer Scholars in the 2004 Prairie Lands Writing Project Invitational Institute.  Co-leaders for the invitational are Tom Pankiewicz, assistant professor of English, Dr. Jane Frick, professor of English, and Joyce Finch, program co-director and retired teacher from the St. Joseph School District.

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• Eggs & Issues will host Kathryn Koob, former Iran hostage, for a presentation and free breakfast June 4 in the Leah Spratt Multipurpose Classroom Building, Enright Room, 214.  Koob will present, "Can You Believe It Is 25 Year Later?  A Retrospective Look at the Middle East."  To make reservations for breakfast, call 5646 by Friday, May 28.

• The  Missouri Western State College Alumni Association is accepting nominations for the 2004 Distinguished Faculty and Alumni Service Awards through June 30.  Nominations may be made online at Western’s website by clicking on “Foundation and Alumni,” then “Distinguished Alumni and Faculty Service Awards.” Individuals may also contact the alumni services office at 5651 to obtain an application. A letter of recommendation must accompany the application. Forms and letters can be mailed to the alumni services office, 4525 Downs Drive, St. Joseph, MO 64507, no later than June 30.

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Tuesday, June 1

• First day of classes for 1st four-week and eight-week sessions

Wednesday, June 2

• Intersession final grades due

Thursday, June 3

• Summer classes held

Friday, June 4

• Summer classes held

Saturday, June 5

• Library closed

Sunday, June 6

• Library open 1-6 p.m.

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