In Brief

Faculty and Staff

Susan Albertine, dean of the School of Culture and Society, has authored a poem, “The Music Box,” that forms the basis for a new composition premiered by the 42-member Temple University Concert Choir on October 9 in Philadelphia. Alan Harler, professor of music at Temple’s Boyer College of Music, commissioned the work by Boyer faculty member Cynthia Folio, who based it on the lyrics of Albertine’s poem. In addition to the voices of choir, it features actual music boxes, one held by each of the singers, which they open at the end of the piece as they are singing.   

Robert C. Cole, professor of journalism, this month was honored by The New Jersey Press Association (NJPA) for his 30 years of “dedicated service to the newspaper industry of New Jersey” at its annual meeting aboard a cruise ship on the Hudson River. John J. O’Brien, executive director of NJPA, said Cole’s students have won more NJPA scholarships than those from any other eligible college. “This includes schools with 10 times the enrollment of his program,” O’Brien said. Cole said they had earned 47 scholarships over 28 years.

Nancy Hingston, professor of mathematics and statistics, made presentations at two recent international conferences. In Leipzig, Germany, she took part in the Geodesic Flow and Periodic Orbits Workshop October 3–4. Her presentation was entitled "Periodic Solutions of Hamilton's Equations on Tori." Nancy also took part in the Texas Geometry and Topology Conference at the University of Texas at Austin, September 30 – October 2. The conference is committed to the strengthening and enrichment of the mathematics personnel base.

Lincoln Konkle, associate professor of English, on September 11 delivered a paper entitled “The Tragic Vision of Bruce Springsteen” at the “Glory Days: A Bruce Springsteen Symposium” sponsored by Penn State University and hosted by Monmouth University.

John McCarty, assistant professor of business, last month presented a paper titled “Data-Mining in Direct Marketing: A Comparison of RFM, CHAID, and Logistic Regression,” at the 2005 Consumer Personality and Research Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Lisa McCarthy, who has been serving as acting director of alumni affairs for the past five months, has been named director of that office.  Lisa graduated from the College in 1988 with a major in criminal justice, and two national championship rings won as a member of the varsity lacrosse team. She then came to work here as a residence director in five different buildings until 1994. Along the way she earned a master’s in counseling and personnel services. Later Lisa became manager of residence assignments, assistant director of residence life, and assistant director of athletics before moving into the alumni office. Her new position, said John  Marcy, vice president for development and alumni affairs, is to strengthen two-way communication between the College and its alumni and to create effective affinity programs in conjunction with the leadership of the Alumni Association and the campus community.

Alfred Pelham, associate professor of business, has been selected for the second time for the Bright Idea Award by the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University and the New Jersey Policy Research Organization Foundation for a paper on “Differences between president’s and sales manager’s perceptions of the industry environment and firm strategy in small industrial firms: relationship to preformance satisfaction.” His paper was selected as one of the top manuscripts from among over 110 publications. He was honored October 14 at Middlesex County College in Edison. Al won the same award in 2003.

Qin Shao, associate professor of history, spent two weeks in Japan last summer travelling and studying under the terms of a 2005 Keizai Koho Center Educator Fellowship. The center is an affiliate of the Japanese Business Federation, and the fellowship gave Qin an opportunity to learn more about the Japanese economy, various businesses, and contemporary society, as well as to participate in roundtable discussions with educators and business leaders.

Students

Four senior mechanical engineering majors have received word that their entry in the National 2005 American Society of Mechanical Engineers Mechanism Design Competition placed second in the undergraduate category. The four team members who submitted the original design for a mechanized hand truck as part of their Kinematics and Mechanisms course last spring are: Thomas Wedlick, Daniel Salman, Benjamin Abruzzo, and John Martin. The design that took second place was an improved version of last spring’s project. The final competition took place September 26 at the 29th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference in Long Beach, CA, where Thomas and John represented the College. The competition was won by a team from Virginia Tech, with Johns Hopkins and Drexel University taking third and fourth.

Two English majors have written critical essays that will be published on The Sigma Tau Delta Review, an annual journal of the International English Honor Society that publishes essays of exceptional merit. Renee Del Campo ’05 wrote her essay, “Unveiling the Marassa: Twinning in Edgwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones and Breath, Eyes, Memory” for a class in global women writers taught by Lisa Ortiz, assistant professor of English. Jill Walsh, a senior, wrote “Mary Rowlandson: A Captivating Trespasser” for a women’s autobiographies class taught by Michele Tarter, associate professor of English. The journal is expected to be published in March, 2006.

Three communication studies students won national and international recognition at the 2005 Stephen Smith Awards, winning best co-authored student communication paper in the nation. It is the second time in recent years that TCNJ students have won the top honors. Lambda Pi Eta, the national honor society of the National Communication Association, next month will present the paper at the annual conference of the NCA in Boston. The students, senior Stefanie Gratale, and  2005 graduates Jennifer Hagert and Laura Dey, won the award for their paper titled: "Cross-national Newspaper Coverage of the United Nations Fight Against AIDS: A Community Structure Approach.”

Thirty-eight students, faculty, and staff of the College became a team for this year’s Susan Komen Race for the Cure at Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Lawrence Township’s headquarters on October 16. The team included two breast cancer survivors. Twenty-four members of the team signed up to run or walk the three-mile course, and 14 slept-in for the cure. While the race activities were cancelled due to flooding and the danger of falling trees along the course, the TCNJ team contributed $1,000 to the Komen Foundation plus as yet unspecified amounts in individual pledges for sponsored runners and walkers.

 Jean Lutkenhouse, a communications studies major before her graduation last spring, is one of only 20 students from around the world admitted to the Annenberg  PhD in Communication program at the University of Pennsylvania. Moreover, she is one of only two in that group admitted with only a bachelor’s degree. Her professor and mentor here, John Pollock, says the Annenberg School is widely regarded as the top school among those granting a doctorate in health and political communication.

Lauren Wanko, a junior communication studies major, has taken another step toward a professional television career, reporting on NJN for NJ Works. (The program may be seen Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m., and Saturdays at 9 a.m.).  One of two college apprentice reporters at NJN, Lauren will continue as a full-time student in the radio/tv/film track of her major while covering the labor beat and reporting on the latest workforce news.  A member of Lambda Pi Eta, the national communication honor society, Lauren anchors and reports for the College TV program The Journal  and co-hosts The Bottom Line for WTSR.