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Week of Dec. 19-Jan. 8, 2005 Welcome to the Tower Topics E-newsletter for faculty, staff and students at Western. |
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Missouri Western State University, 4525 Downs Drive, St. Joseph, MO 64507, 271-4200 |
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Click any link for these stories: Western Names New Provost and Vice President Education Honor Society Inducts 18 Professor has Work Highlighted in Science Magazine Lost & Found: If you have lost any items, please come to Blum Union, Room 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 speakers 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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Western Names New Provost and Vice President The Board of Governors of Missouri Western State University last night approved the appointment of Dr. Joseph Bragin as the university’s new provost and vice president for academic and student affairs. Dr. Bragin will be coming to Western from Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va. where he holds the rank of professor of chemistry and served for the past four years as the dean of the College of Science. He had previously served for 30 years on the faculty at Cal State Los Angeles where he was the associate dean of the School of Natural and Social Sciences for 18 years. Dr. Phil Mullins, professor of philosophy, chaired the search committee that received and screened applications from approximately 45 applicants for the position. “We had a talented pool of applicants, but Dr. Bragin is especially well qualified to take the role of chief academic officer at Western,” he said. “He is a seasoned academic administrator and has extensive experience working on cooperative projects funded in part by federal and/or private sources.” The search committee forwarded the names of three finalists to Dr. James Scanlon, Western’s president. All three were invited to visit the campus and participated in an extensive interview process. Dr. Scanlon said he was pleased with the entire search process and its outcome. “Dr. Bragin has distinguished himself during his career as a faculty member, an associate dean and dean, and a program director at the National Science Foundation. He has been an effective leader in higher education, dedicated to excellence for students and the public interest that universities serve.” Dr. Bragin and his wife, Vicki, plan to relocate to St. Joseph at the end of the current academic year. “I am excited by Western’s potential as an emerging institution and that it was recently recognized as a university. The quality of the students, faculty, staff and leadership at Western is impressive, and I look forward to moving the University to the next level of academic achievement in my role as the institution’s chief academic officer,” he said. “My wife and I are looking forward to living in St. Joseph. The regional economy has substantial development potential and Western can contribute to that development as it plays an increasingly important role in all aspects of community life as the regional University.” The position of vice president for academic and student affairs became vacant in July when Dr. J. David Arnold resigned the post to accept the position of president at Eureka College in Illinois. Dr. Jeanne Daffron, assistant vice president for academic and student affairs at Western, has been serving as the acting vice president since that time and will continue in that post until Dr. Bragin arrives. Western’s Board of Governors approved a change in the title and job description to include the position of provost, which clearly defines the position as the second ranking administrator at the university, reporting to the president. While on leave from Cal State Los Angeles in 1999-2001, Dr. Bragin worked as a program director for the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. In 1999-2000 he directed the programs for Education and Special Projects in the Chemistry Division of the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences and in 2000-2001 he ran the Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology program in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Human Resources Development. He has authored 42 papers and presented over 40 seminars on various science topics. He has been very successful in obtaining over 30 grants to support science programs and projects.
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Education Honor Society Inducts 18 The Missouri Western State University chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, an international honor society for education majors, initiated 18 students and one faculty member in November. Initiation into Kappa Delta Pi requires demonstration of leadership ability and professional skills, completion of Experience in Teaching II, a minimum GPA of 3.2, and approval of initiation by all education faculty.
The following members were initiated:
Kit Blake, instructor of education; Melissa McCush from Amazonia, Mo.; Kevin Carroll from Cameron, Mo.; Megan Shank from Gladstone, Mo.; Suzanne Buckminster from Kansas City, Mo.; Jeanne Modin from Kansas City, Mo.; Sarah Lempea from Linn Creek, Mo.; Kelsi Fairley from Newtown, Mo.; Tammy Enna from Platte City, Mo.; Jenny Neland from Platte City, Mo.; Danielle Campbell from St. Joseph; Adrienne Chleborad from St. Joseph; Joy Donelson from St. Joseph; Heidi Kennedy from St. Joseph; Amy Miller from St. Joseph; Debra Durham from Salisbury, Mo.; Gentry Ann Moffitt from Savannah, Mo., and Leslie Payne from Weston, Mo.
Kappa Delta Pi was founded in 1911 to encourage good teaching practices and professionalism in education. Currently, there are approximately 63,000 members in the U.S., Canada, England and Australia.
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Professor has Work Highlighted in Science Magazine Dr. Todd Eckdahl, professor of biology at Missouri Western State University, is co-author of an article that will be published in the January issue of Science magazine, the world’s leading journal of original scientific research. Dr. Eckdahl said the article will be the first in a new series that addresses the reformation of undergraduate science education that is being called for by a growing national consensus of scientists and science educators. “There are a lot of institutions that are teaching the same way they taught 20 years ago,” said Dr. Eckdahl. For example, he said microarray technology (also called DNA chip technology) and genomics are revolutionizing biological research in the life science industries, and undergraduate science education must change to keep pace. “We have to offer new technologies.” He said students at Western study microarray technology in their molecular biology classes, and several students have engaged in research projects involving the technology. “Many say microarray technology is too complicated for undergraduates, but we are doing it,” said Dr. Eckdahl. “It is a good example of students gaining applied learning experience in science.” Dr. Eckdahl is part of an organization called the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching, GCAT, that provides materials and support for faculty to engage their undergraduates in research involving microarray technology. The article in Science will describe GCAT’s program as a creative solution to the challenges of training undergraduate students to understand modern approaches to scientific research. Throughout this academic year, the GCAT program will provide approximately 750 microarray chips to more than 2,200 students on 63 different campuses across the country. Microarray experiments are conducted by undergraduate students on those campuses, and the chips are then sent to Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., for the collection of data using a chip scanner. The scanner was paid for with a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant and matching funds from Davidson, Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., and Western. Dr. Eckdahl and six other members of GCAT were approached to write the article for Science after they conducted an NSF-sponsored workshop in Atlanta where Dr. Eckdahl served as laboratory coordinator. During the workshop, 43 faculty from colleges and universities throughout the U.S. learned to conduct and analyze DNA microarray experiments.
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Men's Basketball High Desert Classic
Women's Basketball
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Tuesday, December 20
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