Week of  Oct. 1-7, 2007

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

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

Click any link for these stories:

Downtown University Center is Open

Graduate Council Approves Two New Graduate Programs

Western Receives $100,000 Donation

September 2007 Points of Pride

Tower Sports

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.

Downtown University Center Is Open

The Western Downtown University Center (DUC) has opened in the Scottish Rite Building on the corner of 6th St. and Robidoux.

There are currently three programs offered at the DUC: the Law Enforcement Academy, which gives credit in criminal justice; and yoga and fencing for noncredit.

The DUC offers more than courses. It includes parking for 170 cars, a 330-seat theater, a 250-seat dining room, a classroom for 40 students, two offices, a reception area and student lounge and handicap accessibility.

During the fall, improvements to the building are scheduled for completion. Two new small classrooms, seating for 30 students, will be added, along with three new offices for staff and faculty.

Pass the Power Adult Literacy program will move into the building after the offices are complete. Instructor presentation systems will be added to the theater and the Law Enforcement Academy classroom, and more signage will be placed on-site and downtown.

A second Law Enforcement Academy class, a social dance class for noncredit, adult literacy tutoring, and noncredit civics classes for the downtown Hispanic population are a few of the new programs planned for the upcoming spring semester.

The Scottish Rite building was the most cost effective site available for the DUC. It could immediately open to serve students; it’s in an excellent location for access by citizens and civic and business leaders; and it’s within walking distance of historic district and other places of significant interest. This past summer a visiting Romanian archeologist surveyed sites in downtown St. Joseph and will encourage his colleagues at Berlin University to use the city for research on Native American settlements and study of the American frontier.

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Science and Math Incubator

Graduate Council Approves Two New Graduate Programs

Two new graduate programs have been proposed and approved by the Graduate Council. The Master of Applied Science (MAS) in Assessment with options in Learning Improvement and Writing and the Master of Applied Arts (MAA) in Integrated Media with an option in Applied Integrated Media and an option in Convergent Media are being reviewed at the Missouri Department of Higher Education.

The MAS in Assessment is a unique interdisciplinary degree that focuses upon research and data-driven decision-making to facilitate improvement within organizations. Although this proposal initially includes options for educators and literacy providers, future options may address other professional fields such as not-for-profits and health care. Through the establishment of the MAS in Assessment degree, Western is preparing to play a leadership role within its service region in meeting the challenges of high standards and accountability expectations while also improving quality within various professional fields. Since technology is an essential tool for assessment processes, technology will be integrated throughout the curriculum.

The MAA in Interactive Media is a degree program that focuses on an interdisciplinary approach to addressing the visual narrative. The boundaries between creative disciplines have become less defined, with the arts engaging a multi-sensorial response from an audience. This program takes the traditional foundations of design and visual communication, the written word, video and music and combines them with experimental approaches and new media. 

Students entering the proposed program will be involved in the creative use of digital media and will be challenged beyond their primary areas of study in art, film/video, music and journalism. They will be trained to apply new technologies and integrate multiple media and disciplines into new forms of creative expression. There will be support for a wide range of collaborative projects that might involve video, sound, music, computer graphics, environmental and performance installations, interactivity and the Internet. In the professional marketplace, there is wide demand for graduates who are creative thinkers and problem solvers; graduates who have a broad awareness of design platforms in a variety of media will also be in high demand.

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Western Receives $100,000 Donation

The Western Foundation was recently notified that it will be the recipient of a $100,000 grant to support scholarships for nontraditional students. The grant is a gift of the Thanksgiving Fund, from Chicago, a fund of the American Endowment Foundation. Western will receive $50,000 per year for two years. The money has been designated for two existing scholarship accounts.

“We are grateful to the donors of the Thanksgiving Fund for their generosity and support of Western,” said Jerry Pickman, director of development. “Their gift will benefit many nontraditional students.”

Nontraditional students are those who are 25 years old or older, going to college for the first time or coming back after an absence, or who do not conform to the definition of a traditional student. Students may apply for the scholarships online at the financial aid website by March 1 each year. For information about scholarship criteria, contact Ellen Kisker at 4280.

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Tower Sports

Soccer

• Loss vs. Northwest Missouri State, 1-3, Sept. 28

• Loss vs. Truman State, 0-1, Sept. 29

• Oct. 4 at Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Mo., at 7 p.m.

Volleyball

• Loss vs. Northwest Missouri State, 0-3, Sept. 25

• Win vs. Missouri Southern, 3-2, Sept. 26

• Loss vs. Emporia State, 1-3, Sept. 29

• Oct. 4 at Fort Hays State in Hays, Kan., at 6 p.m.

• Oct. 5 vs. Newman University at the Washburn University Regional Cross-over Tournament in Topeka, Kan., at 10 a.m.

• Oct. 5 vs. Abilene Christian University at the Washburn University Regional Cross-over Tournament in Topeka, Kan., at 2 p.m.

• Oct. 6 vs. West Texas A&M at the Washburn University Regional Cross-over Tournament in Topeka, Kan., at 11:30 a.m.

• Oct. 6 vs. Oklahoma Panhandle State University at the Washburn University Regional Cross-over Tournament in Topeka, Kan., at 4 p.m.

Football

• Loss vs. Washburn University, 24-31, Sept. 29

• Oct. 6 at Fort Hays State in  Hays, Kan., at 2 p.m.

Men's Golf

• Oct. 1-3 at Drury Invitational in Springfield, Mo.

Student Excellence Request Deadline Student applications for fall semester for the Student Excellence Fund must be submitted to the Foundation Office, Spratt 111, no later than 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 19. The Student Excellence Fund is a source of financial assistance provided for Western students through the Western Foundation. This fund reimburses students for expenses incurred while presenting papers, participating in seminars, etc. For detailed information link to: http://www.missouriwestern.edu/foundation/excellence.html For questions, contact Kim Weddle at 5647.

Banned Book Reading The eleventh annual Reading of Challenged and Banned Books in recognition of the American Library Association’s Banned Book Week will begin at 7p.m. on Oct. 2 in the Kemper Recital Hall. Western students and faculty, along with KQ2 anchors Bob Cervera and Bridget Blevins, will read books that have been either banned or challenged in U.S. schools in recent years. This event is open to the public and refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Dr. Michael Cadden at 4576, Dr. Michael Smith at 4514, or Julia Schneider at 4369.

First Thursday Noontime Concert The Western department of music, in cooperation with the First Presbyterian Church, will hold the monthly First Thursday Noontime Concert Series at 12:10 p.m. Oct. 4 at the First Presbyterian Church, 7^th and Jules. Stephen Molloy on trumpet and Ellen Bottorff on piano are the featured artists. The community is invited to bring lunch and eat while listening to the performance in the sanctuary of the church. The event will last approximately 35 minutes, and there will be an opportunity to meet the performers after the concert. A minimum donation of $3 per person is suggested in order to meet the expenses and provide continuation of the series.

Alumni Awards Banquet Four alumni, one music professor, a former employee, and scholarship recipients will all be honored at Western’s Alumni Association Homecoming awards banquet Oct. 12. Alumni Mary Jane Fields Schoen ’47, Edward Haffey ’62, Tom Norsworthy ’75, and Dr. R Gregory Downing ’76, will receive Distinguished Alumni Awards; Dr. Dennis Rogers, professor of music, will receive the Distinguished Faculty Award; and Dr. George Richmond will receive the Herb and Peggy Iffert Award for Outstanding Service to the University. The banquet will begin at 6 p.m. in Western’s Fulkerson Center. Cost is $25 per person. To make a reservation, call 5670 or go online at www.griffonalumni.org/homecoming2007 by Oct. 1.

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Monday, October 1

• Senate meeting at 5 p.m. in Blum 220

• “Light Years from Andromeda” Planetarium Series at 7 p.m. in Agenstein 105

Tuesday, October 2

• Residence Council meeting at 7 p.m. in Commons Building

• Banned Book Reading at 7 p.m. in the Kemper Recital Hall

• Deadline to sign up for Up 'Til Dawn teams

• “Light Years from Andromeda” Planetarium Series at 7 p.m. in Agenstein 105

Wednesday, October 3

• WAC meeting at 4:30 p.m. in the Junior College Room

Thursday, October 4

• Student Court at 5 p.m. in Blum 222

• First Thursday Downtown Noontime Concert Series at 12:10 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 7th and Jules

Saturday, October 6

• ACT Prep Course from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Spratt Hall

• Cheer Squad Golf Tournament at 8 a.m. at Duncan Hills Golf Course in Savannah, Mo.

• Community Fall Baseball Clinic from 9 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. at Phil Welch Stadium

• Saint Joseph Symphony "Spooktacular" at 7:30 p.m. at Missouri Theatre, 717 Edmond St.

• Big Event from 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.

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September 2007 Points of Pride

Excellence in Our Faculty and Staff

• Bryan Courtney, program director of the Regional Community Policing Institute (RCPI), has received a subcontract for the Missouri Regional Center for Public Safety Innovations in the amount of $278,750 to provide Seven Habits for Law Enforcement training.  Funding comes from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) of the U.S. Department of Justice under its Edward Byrne Discretionary Grants program. This brings the total BJA funding awarded MO-RCPI to $1,012,760.

• Bryan Courtney, program director of the Regional Community Policing Institute (RCPI), has secured a grant from The United States of America Office of Justice Programs in the amount of $714,000. The primary sponsor is Western and the co-sponsors are St. Petersburg College (Florida), West Virginia State University, Colorado Department of Public Safety, Michigan State University, and the University of Maine at Augusta. The award dates are Oct 1, 2007-March 31, 2009. The purpose of the funding is to coordinate the delivery of training for topic areas identified by the Bureau of Justice Assistance across the United States. Some topic areas include: Gangs 101, Volunteers in Police Service and Counter Terrorism Awareness. The MO-RCPI at Western will be the lead RCPI responsible for the training.

• Dr. Jane Frick, professor of English, was a member of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s “Communication Arts” team which conducted an alignment review of the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) field tests in Columbia, Mo. She was an invited participant in the Department of Education’s Midwest Regional Higher Education Summit held in Kansas City, Mo.

• Julie Baldwin, instructor of nursing, recently received promotion from captain to major in the United States Air Force Reserves. She serves in the Air Force Nursing Reserve Unit.

• Joanne Katz, professor of legal studies, served on a grant review panel for the Missouri Department of Public Safety. The panel reviewed and made recommendations on grant applications from courts and agencies throughout Missouri, directed at securing U.S. Department of Justice/Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention funds. These grants are administered through the Department of Public Safety.

• Dr. Sandie Seeger, assistant professor of biology, in conjunction with Dr. George Patrick from Andrew Taylor Still University, and Anna Smith, junior, published “Early Postnatal Exposure to Lead Lowers Bicuculline-Induced Seizure Threshold” in the January 2008 neuroscience journal, Impulse.

• Dr. Melissa Daggett, assistant professor of biology, had a paper describing her work with undergraduates on the use of crayfish in determining water quality published in the journal, BioScene.

• Dr. Brian Cronk, professor of psychology, published an article on the online Human Subjects Committee system in the Council for Undergraduate Research Quarterly entitled “The OUR-IRB Project:  A Necessary Tool for Risk Management and Ethics Education.”

• Dr. Mark Lewis, associate professor of business, and Dr. Karen Lewis, assistant professor of business, co-authored an article with B. Alidaee, F. Glover, H. Wang and G.  Kochenberger, “Modeling and Solving Set Packing Problems Via Unconstrained Quadratic Programming,” that was published in the European Journal of Operational Research.

• A peer-reviewed article by Dr. Mark Lewis, associate professor of business, “A Note on zQx as a Modeling and Solution Framework for the Linear Ordering Problem,” was published in the International Journal of Operational Research. The article was also authored by B. Alidaee, F. Glover and G. Kochenberger.

• Dr. Mark Lewis, associate professor of business, G. Kochenberger and B. Alidaee’s article was published in Computers & Operations Research. The article was entitled “A New Modeling and Solution Approach for the Set Partitioning Problem.”

• Hongqin Fan, assistant professor of engineering technology, successfully defended his dissertation at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, in the area of construction engineering and management.

• Dr. Cindy Heider, interim assistant vice president for academic and student affairs, conducted a National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) pre-visit for an out-of-state institution.

• Dr. James Puckett, instructor of chemistry, and the Western Institute conducted a four-day workshop for 15 area high school teachers participating in the General Chemistry Dual Credit Program.

• Dr. Todd Eckdahl, professor of biology and department chair, and Dr. Jeffrey Poet, associate professor of mathematics, worked with students to complete and submit gene annotation projects for the Genome Education Project coordinated through Washington University in St. Louis.

• Dr. Reza Hamzaee, professor of economics, provided “Mile Stone Two Seminars:  Designing and Implementing a High-Quality Research Project:  Best Practices, Training and Practice” for doctoral students at the University of Minnesota. It was a week long seminar.

• Dr. Ken Rosenauer, professor of journalism, attended the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in Washington, D.C., where he  moderated a panel he organized entitled “Issues and Challenges Facing Campus Media.” That panel was covered in an article, “New Media Meets Campus Media,” in Inside Higher Ed.

• Dr. Rosenauer, Dr. Robert Bergland and Dr. Ann Thorne prepared a poster session, “Theory Versus Skills Courses in Small Programs,” sponsored by the Small Programs Interest Group at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in Washington, D.C.  Dr. Rosenauer, president of College Media Advisers, represented that group at a daylong meeting of the National Council of Journalism Organizations.

• Tom Pankiewicz, assistant professor of English, conducted a workshop, “Risking Learning: A Conversation in Teaching Developmental Writing,” at the Missouri Writing Project’s Network State Leadership retreat held in Columbia, Mo.

• Dr. Stephanie Corder, assistant professor of nursing, presented “Evidence-Based Practice” at the 2007 Summer Institute in San Antonio.

• Dr. Virendra Varma, professor of construction engineering, coordinated the Structural Assessment and Visual Evaluation (SAVE) Coalition ATC-20 course on post-earthquake safety evaluation of buildings, offered through Missouri State Emergency Management Association, on the Western campus. The course was attended by engineers and building officials from the region.

• Dr. Jitendra Tewari, assistant professor of marketing, with marketing majors Erin Ward and Nicole Render, made a presentation at the Annual Conference of the Missouri Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus in St. Louis. The presentation was entitled “Leveraging Your Dollars and Work with a Regional Educational Institution to Get Real Numbers” and was based on the preliminary results of a visitor profile study in St. Joseph, Mo.

• Judy Grimes, dean of student services, made a presentation entitled “Managing Multiple Initiatives: Putting the Pieces Together,” at the National Conference on Marketing, Recruitment and Retention in Orlando, Fla.  This focused on integrating the areas of accreditation, strategic planning, recruitment and retention.

• Dr. Chris Shove, dean and executive director of the Western Institute, met with the KC International Airport Action Team about economic development and airport planning issues. Dr. Shove also gave a TV-16 interview regarding the Western Institute applied research programs.

Excellence in Our Students

• Anna Smith, junior, in conjunction with Dr. Sandie Seeger, assistant professor of biology, and Dr. George Patrick from Andrew Taylor Still University, published “Early Postnatal Exposure to Lead Lowers Bicuculline-Induced Seizure Threshold” in the January 2008 neuroscience journal, Impulse.

Excellence in Our Programs

• Prairie Lands Writing Project (PLWP) was awarded a $7,000 grant from the National Writing Project for 2007-2008 to disseminate Web 2.0 teaching materials. The digital lessons were developed by PLWP teacher consultants who participated in one or more of the site’s technology institutes and learning communities sponsored by Prairie Lands as a result of its selection as a National Technology Initiative Seed Site.

• Prairie Lands Writing Project also worked with 19 middle school teams—language arts/reading/special education teachers plus building administrators—from throughout northern Missouri. Prairie Lands teacher consultants conducted the summer portions of the “Year One: Reading and Writing” and “Year Two: Teacher Inquiry” Middle School Literacy Academies at Western and at Truman State University.

• The Western Institute received a $19,856 grant from TGV-Rockets for a satellite image-based Geographic Information System.

• The Griffon Edge Program was held Aug. 22 – 25. It engaged 692 freshman students in four days of orientation activities resulting in a smoother transition from high school to university experiences. Orientation activities included: preparing students to be successful at the university level, such as accessing their current schedule, knowing how to get across campus to their classes, accessing a professors website for syllabi and other course information, understanding the emphasis that would be placed on critical thinking in courses, understanding the safety procedures in place at Western, sharing a common movie experience and the follow-up discussion and writings, and getting to know other students. The students participated in community service activities that included litter/cleanup projects in collaboration with the City of St. Joseph and the Neighborhood Pride Groups. In all, over 3,000 hours of community service were contributed by Western students, staff and administration.

• The New Student Convocation was a success with approximately 100 faculty members participating. President James Scanlon shared a few words of welcome with the new students, and for the fourth year Professor Joe Martin, an award-winning national speaker, author, professor, and retention expert, was the keynote speaker.

• Julie Baldwin, instructor of nursing, and adjunct faculty member Linda Judah, along with 11 nursing students, completed the first study-away nursing course, providing health care in remote villages in Honduras.

• The four-year programs in construction and electronics have been re-accredited by the Technology Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (TAC of ABET). Each program received the full six-year accreditation, the maximum allowed by this accrediting organization.

• The Center for Student Engagement hosted “Griff Fun Fest” the first day of classes and the Greek Luau, Greek BBQ, and Greek Open House the first week of classes.

• The Western Activities Council hosted the following events: comedian Brian Brushwood, the Comedy Club with Edwin San Juan and Miniature Golf at Cool Crest.

• The Center for Multicultural Education held its second annual Fate of Hate Week: Anti-Violence Movement, which included a poetry/essay/dramatic monologue reading, information fair, 9/11 and victims of hate remembrance, and a day of unity. 

• Western hosted 1,136 new students and 790 guests during the seven New Student Destination Western sessions and three Transfer and Non-Traditional Student Transitions Programs this summer. These students and guests were able to visit with current students, faculty and staff members, get all of their questions answered, and register for classes all in one trip. Presentations from Residence Life, Health Services, Student Engagement, the Center for Multicultural Education, Student Services, Student Employment, Financial Aid, the Business Office, and Public Safety were very helpful in getting vital information to our new students and their families. The Advisement and Registration piece went smoothly thanks to the coordination efforts of Student Services staff members and faculty advisors.

• For FY 07, the Western Institute GED program in the WRDCC attained a GED pass rate of 92 percent, which is much higher than the state goal.

• A total of over $115,000 in training funds has been allocated to five area companies. This funding, provided through the Missouri Customized Training Program, will offset corporate training costs for Altec Industries, Cryovac, Envision Tech, Hillyard Industries, and IVX Animal Health. Peggy, director of the center for professional development, assisted the companies prepare their funding proposals.

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Looking for: Looking to purchase a used piano. Contact Kathy Joe at 232-5817 or 4585.

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