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Week of September 20 - 26, 2004 Welcome to the Tower Topics E-newsletter for faculty, staff and students at Western. |
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Missouri Western State College, 4525 Downs Drive, St. Joseph, MO 64507, 816-271- 4200 |
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Click any link for these stories: Convocation Hosts Bob Woodward Distinguished Alumni and Faculty to be Honored at Banquet Biology Department Receives $135,000 Grant Lost & Found: If you have lost any items, please come to SU 228 to claim them. You may be required to describe the item. Click on
Guidelines for Tower Topics: Tower Topics submissions should state time, date, place, sponsor, title of event, name of speaker's and admission fees. Send complete information to the Public Relations and Marketing office (Leah Spratt Hall, Room 106). 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:
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Convocation Hosts Bob Woodward Author and journalist Bob Woodward believes that the war in Iraq will be the defining issue of the November presidential election. His latest book, “Plan of Attack,” chronicles George W. Bush’s decision-making process that led the United States into that war, and Woodward told an audience of approximately 3,200 gathered at Missouri Western State College’s Convocation on Critical Issues his experiences in writing the book and interviewing President Bush. “It’s a book that looks both ways,” said Woodward, assistant managing editor of The Washington Post and author of a number of best-selling nonfiction. “What I tried to do was describe what happened – the events and the emotions. Who is George Bush? Who is the man who is president of the United States?” Woodward said he spent over a year writing the book. His interview with the president was three and a half hours, a record for an interview with a sitting president, and Woodward asked President Bush over 500 questions. Woodward told the audience that he became less judgmental after fully understanding President Bush’s decision-making process. However, he noted that there were times throughout the 16 months preceding the war that observers thought President Bush should have stepped back and re-evaluated some of his decisions. Woodward related a story about a Saturday morning meeting in December 2002 where President Bush questioned CIA Director George Tenet several times about the authenticity of his intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. “His (President Bush) nose told him something wasn’t right. Instead of pursuing it further, he took Tenet’s confirmation,” said Woodward. “I think you can look at this and say, ‘the president should have pursued his instinct.’” There were several times you can look back and say that, Woodward added. Woodward said it may be many years before we know the true results of the Iraqi war. “The bulk of evidence is that it is not going well, but sometimes things that don’t go well, often turn out well.” When he asked President Bush how he thought history would judge his decision to go to war, the president told him “We won’t know. We’ll all be dead.” He related that public opinion was against Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman at the time of their presidencies, but history has shown them to be great leaders, and that the decisions they made at the time were correct. “The way it looks now is not the way it will ultimately look in history.” Woodward also spoke at a dinner the evening before, and gave the audience of approximately 325 insights into the newspaper business. |
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Western Names Distinguished Alumni and Faculty The
Alumni Association recently announced the 2004 recipients of the
Distinguished Alumni and Faculty Awards. The Distinguished Alumni
awardees are Dan Kampen, class of 1981;
Sean
Nash, class of 1991; Tom Schneider, class of 1964; and Dr. Nannette
Wolford, class of 1973; and the Distinguished Faculty awardee is Dr.
Steven Greiert, professor of history. The recipients will be
honored at the annual Alumni Awards Banquet Oct. 8 as part of Homecoming
festivities. A reception will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by the 6:30
p.m. banquet in the Nelle Blum Student Union, Forrest Hoff Room, 218. To
make reservations, call 816-271-5646 by Sept. 29. Cost is $18 per
person. Since 1997, Kampen, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, has served as president and chief executive officer of U.S. Central, the nation’s only wholesale corporate credit union and one of the most highly rated depository institutions in the world. Under his leadership, he has strengthened the corporate credit system, presiding during the most resounding growth period in the history of credit unions. Nash has been a high school and middle school science teacher since he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a minor in chemistry. He has taught at Benton High School in St. Joseph since 1994. Some of Nash’s honors over the years include being named Outstanding Missouri High School Teacher of the Year, Distinguished Science Research Teacher of the Year, Teacher Who Makes a Difference and Innovator of the Year. After completing two years at the St. Joseph Junior College, Schneider went on to earn a bachelor of music education and a master of music in choral conducting. He is the supervisor of fine arts for the St. Joseph School District, serving full-time in that position from 1989-2003, and now part-time. Schneider serves on several local boards such as the Performing Arts Association, Boy Scouts of America and St. Joseph Community Chorus; and on several policy-making groups at the state and national levels. Dr. Wolford, who graduated with a bachelor of science in health and physical education, has taught physical education to students ranging from kindergarten to college. She is currently an associate professor of health, physical education and recreation here, and has been teaching at Western since 1985. She has received numerous awards and honors, including the Jesse Lee Myers Excellence in Teaching Award from Western, Elementary Teacher of the Year, Physical Best Expert and Outstanding Educator of the Year. Dr. Wolford has given presentations throughout the United States and in Japan. Dr. Greiert has taught at Western since 1982. He served as chair of the department of social sciences at Western from 1988-2000, and as Faculty Senate president for three different terms. He earned a bachelor of arts from St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., and a master’s and Ph.D. from Duke University, Durham. He received the Jesse Lee Myers Excellence in Teaching Award from Western, and has presented at conferences across the nation. |
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Biology Department Receives $135,000 Grant The biology department at Western recently received a grant for $135,000 from the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). The grant, the third from ESRI in two years, is for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software that will enhance the software and equipment that Western received from the two previous grants. “We now have four of the most powerful and heavily used (software) extensions and a mobile GIS,” said Dr. Cary Chevalier, associate professor of biology and principal investigator of the grant. The new software offers geostatistical, three-dimensional and survey analyses. The software,
which includes licenses for a 25-seat lab, will initially be used by the
biology department for students in conservation and wildlife studies.
Dr. Chevalier noted that, in recent years, there has been a marked
increase in the expectations of agencies and businesses for graduates in
these fields to have GIS and Global Positioning System experience. “Four out of every five job announcements for positions within conservation or natural resource management are requiring some literacy in geospatial analysis.” He added that giving Western students this experience makes them “nationally competitive” in the job market when they graduate. “Our data suggests that over 95 percent of our students in this (conservation and wildlife management) program get jobs within a year.” However, Dr. Chevalier said that the system has multidisciplinary functions. “I can’t think of a professional discipline that could not use GPS and GIS for one task or another.” Dr. Chevalier
has been offering three-day workshops in mapping grade GPS for three
years, and has offered 17 workshops in the past two years to meet the
increasing demand. The next workshop is scheduled for December. |
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Wednesday, September 22
Thursday, September 23
Friday, September 24
Saturday, September 25
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are welcome to submit ads to the Western ADvantage each week.
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