The campus community started the competition, for its second year, on Jan. 17 and will work to promote waste reduction around campus until March 27. Southern will submit weight data for paper, cardboard, cans and bottles, food waste and general trash each week. They are able to see how their results measure up against other campuses.

"RecycleMania is a friendly competition amongst colleges and universities across the nation which increases awareness about the benefits of recycling both on campus and in our homes and helps to increase recycling participation amongst the students, faculty and staff," said Heather Stearns, recycling coordinator at Southern. "This will be the first year that the campus will participate in the waste minimization category which encourages reducing waste on campus by reducing, reusing and recycling."

From Feb. 8 to Feb. 19 "Phillup D. Bin," RecycleMania's mascot, will be hiding around campus. The campus community will have a scavenger hunt in search of the card picturing "Phillup D. Bin." Whomever finds the card can turn it into the Information Desk in either the Adanti Student Center or the Wintergreen Building. The winner will receive a recyclable tote bag.

On Feb. 24, the Owls will take on Assumption College in the "Green Game." The Athletics Department and Coca Cola will team up for the 7:30 p.m. tip-off to award the first 100 recyclemaniacs with free T-shirts for bringing two empty bottles to the game. 

There will also be two contests during the Northeast-10 Conference match-up. The first will be "guess how many bottle caps" and the second will be at halftime. Two students will be selected to be blindfolded while the audience assists them in finding as many recyclables as they can in 60 seconds.  The winner of each contest will win a prize pack from Coke.  Trivia and recycling facts will be announced throughout the game as well.

 "RecycleMania has proven to be an effective tool for SCSU because it has shown the potential to further reduce the amount of resources we consume and dispose of," said Stearns. "The competition provides several fun events throughout the 10 weeks that promotes a sustainable future for SCSU."
Southern's residence halls will also be having their own competition this year. They will be competing to see which hall can recycle the most amount of material. The winning hall will receive an ice cream social for their recycling efforts.

RecycleMania affords Southern and other campuses the chance to raise awareness of campus recycling programs as well as conservation issues in general.

Last year, Southern recycled the following:

Paper                                   Bottles & Cans                      Cardboard
 
23.51 tons or 47020 lbs         4.43 tons or 8850 lbs               27.32 tons or 54640 lbs
 
Recyclemania reported the following:
 
                                   Rank *                Percentile         Pounds per person per week
Paper                           96/204                 53%                 4.72
Bottles & Cans              143/210               32%                 .8
Cardboard                    146/205               29%                 2.43
 
*The second number is the number of participating schools.

The need for a greater number of college graduates with degrees in the math, science, and technological fields has been expressed with increasing urgency by education and governmental leaders. In fact, the National Science Board has just released a report indicating that while science and engineering are strong in the United States, the nation's global primacy in those fields has fallen significantly in recent years with increasing competition from East Asian nations, such as China.

Southern seeks to meet the 21st-century education needs of the workforce, and the creation of the Center for Excellence in Mathematics and Science is one such endeavor. After preparing the groundwork, the center is now prepared to launch a barrage of initiatives.

Lara Smetana, an assistant professor of elementary education who was recently named as the center's director by DonnaJean Fredeen, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, has outlined the following new programs associated with the center:

• The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $600,000 grant for the creation of a Pathways to Academic Excellence (PAcE) program, in which 26 outstanding high school and community college students wishing to pursue math, computer science, biology, chemistry, physics or earth science will receive full 4-year scholarships to Southern. The program will start this year with the recruitment of high school students, and by the third year, will reach out to community college students.
  
  
• NSF has selected Southern as a pilot site for the Family Engineering Program, which will introduce parents and elementary school-aged children to the world of engineering. Southern students will travel to five area schools this spring to coordinate fun, hands-on activities for parents and children to demonstrate the importance of engineering in everyday life. It is a partnership that includes Michigan Technological University, the Foundation for Family Science, and the American Association for Engineering Education.
  
  
• The center has created the Southern Women in Mathematics and Science (SWIMS) program, designed to provide support for women interested in those fields. Females have traditionally been underrepresented in math and science. The program will provide faculty mentor support to Southern students, while Southern students will serve as mentors for K-12 students. It will include guest speakers, activities and opportunities to recognize the success of students.

"We are very excited about all of these programs, as well as others we have planned," Smetana says. "There is a burgeoning need in the workforce -- such as in the teaching, engineering and scientific fields -- for college graduates who have an expertise in the math and sciences. I believe half the battle in meeting that need is in encouraging more students, particularly at the K-12 grades, to explore these disciplines."

Joe Fields, associate professor of mathematics and a coordinator of the PAcE program, agrees."I believe that offering full scholarships to outstanding students might be the impetus for them to opt for a degree in math and science and to decide to attend Southern," Fields says. He notes that the university is able to offer mentoring -- both from an academic standpoint and in introducing them to a variety of careers. Fields also says a special effort to recruit students from New Haven and Bridgeport high schools will be made so that students with economic need are made aware of the PAcE program's opportunities.

Fields and Smetana thanked their colleagues for their assistance with the center, particularly Karen Cummings, professor of physics, for writing the PAcE grant proposal.

Smetana says the center also will seek to breakdown psychological, cultural and social barriers to pursuing math and science. "For a variety of reasons, some students just don't believe they can excel in these two subjects," Smetana says. "In some cases, it's because of a gender stereotype. In some cases, it's an issue of limited access to strong role models, supportive environments and post-graduate opportunities. In other cases, it's just a psychological hurdle that might have been generated from a bad past experience in a math or science class. One of our aims is to help students remove these hurdles and allow them to develop their potential."

Smetana, a native of Cleveland, is in her second year at Southern. She previously taught at the University of Virginia and is a former eighth-grade physical science teacher in Alexandria, Va. She is a former volunteer at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Photo caption:
Joe Fields, associate professor of mathematics, and Lara Smetana, assistant professor of elementary education, are preparing for major math and science initiatives this semester that will involve local schools. Smetana is the newly named director of Southern's Center for Excellence in Mathematics and Science, while Fields is helping lead a new scholarship program for outstanding high school students.

Andrushko is featured in this film for her research on the burials of people who presumably helped to build and maintain Machu Picchu. Her research is also featured in an audio commentary titled "Inca Skull Surgery" on the film's Web site, found here: www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/machupicchu/

The show aired on WNET and WGBH at 8 p.m., while CPTV and WEDH broadcast the show at 9 p.m. 

Here on campus, a number of awareness and fundraising activities for the spring semester are being planned by the Haitian Relief Committee, led by Aaron Washington, associate dean of student affairs.

Individuals who would like to become involved may contact Washington by email (washingtona1@southernct.edu) or by calling (203) 392-5885.

The first fundraiser, Jeans Day, took place on Jan. 28.  Students, faculty and staff were encouraged to wear jeans and make a suggested donation of $5 or more for the Haitian Relief Effort. All of the money raised is being sent to the American Red Cross.

More fundraisers will be announced soon. Please take the opportunity to join in campus efforts to assist in addressing the vast humanitarian need in Haiti.

The purpose of the conference series is to bring together various disciplines throughout the school community to discuss relevant topics from a variety of perspectives. The conference is coordinated through the departments of education, social work, public health and counseling and school psychology.

Please contact Dr. Joy Fopiano, Program Coordinator, School Psychology at 203-392-5915 for more information.

Visit the conference Web site by clicking here.

Cameo Thorne, '83, is currently a language arts instructor and an Advanced Placement English literature instructor at High School in the Community for grades 9-12 and has been in this position since 2000.  She received her B.A. in English from Southern, where she also served as student representative for the English Department College Curriculum Committee. After college, Thorne managed several businesses and eventually started volunteering at various activities in her children's schools.  She was greatly influenced by one of the librarians she worked with and eventually decided to go through the ARC Program (Alternate Route to Certification) to become an English teacher.  She graduated in 2000 from ARC and began the journey that led her to become Teacher of the Year.

Holly O'Brien, '93, received her B.S. in early childhood education from Southern and has been with New Haven Public Schools since November of 2000 as a pre-kindergarten teacher at Davis Street School.  There, she was one of the lead developers of the pre-kindergarten program and taught in the first classroom of 14 4-year-old students.  O'Brien received the Exemplary Programs in Connecticut's Elementary Schools Award in 2002 and the New Alliance Teacher Excellence Award in 2004.

Francisco Chavarria, '99, received his B.S. in biology from Southern (minoring in Spanish), and is currently a bilingual mathematics and science teacher at Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy.  He was previously a bilingual science teacher at Wilbur Cross High School from 2000-2005. At Roberto Clemente, he is the lead teacher for mathematics and science for grades 6-8 and tutors disadvantaged children in math. 

David Cicarella, president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers (far left), congratulates Cameo Thorne, '83, (second from right), New Haven's 2009 Teacher of the Year, and runners-up Holly O'Brien, '93, (far right) and Francisco Chavarria, '99 (second from left).

You Reap What You Read: Examining the Link between Reading Habits, Test Scores

Louise Spear-Swerling (left) doesn't buy the popular notion that if schools and parents could just get kids to read more often, it would solve the problem of poor reading test scores that pervade many Connecticut communities.

It's not that the professor of special education and reading is against pleasure reading. Quite the contrary. But a recent study she has conducted on Connecticut sixth graders shows that what students are reading for fun -- particularly the level of challenge and the volume involved -- is a much more important barometer of how they perform on tests than simply how often they read on their own.

Spear-Swerling recently received the  Professional Achievement Award of the Connecticut branch of IDA (the International Dyslexia Association) for her research on teacher preparation in reading, as well as her  involvement in numerous state policies on reading.  The award cited her "outstanding contributions in advancing knowledge about the science of teaching reading."

Her latest  study, which has been accepted by the peer-reviewed journal, Reading & Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, shows that students who have demonstrated strong comprehension skills as measured by the Connecticut Mastery Test, tend to read longer and more difficult selections on their own time than those with weak comprehension skills. Those students are just as likely to say they read for pleasure frequently, but their selections tended to be easier and shorter.

"As educators, we certainly don't want to discourage kids from reading, and even relatively easy reading can have some benefit," she says. "For example, a student who reads slowly might build fluency by reading easy materials for enjoyment on a regular basis."

But Spear-Swerling says that a well-structured voluntary reading program that includes a significant portion of appropriately challenging material would have a more significant effect in boosting students' reading ability, and subsequently, their grades and test scores. This assumes, of course, that appropriately challenging texts are assigned in school as well, with expert guidance from classroom teachers.

The study finds that sixth-grade students with strong comprehension skills tend to read more fiction, while those with weak comprehension skills are more likely to read non-fiction. But she stops short of saying that fiction reading supersedes non-fiction when it comes to boosting students' reading abilities.

Spear-Swerling says the reason for the difference might stem from the types of non-fiction that those with weaker comprehension skills are reading -- such as recipes, lists of facts and shorter vignettes. They typically do not challenge the student as much as longer, fiction offerings do. But Spear-Swerling says easy fiction reading does not particularly challenge students either. She points to the difficulty level and the volume read as being the key factors, rather than the genre or frequency of reading.

The study shows no gender-based differences in ability levels, but gender played a major role in the choice of magazines with very little overlap, according to Spear-Swerling. Boys generally opted to read sports, science fiction and adventure stories, while girls tended to go for selections with social themes.

The study includes 87 sixth graders from three Connecticut schools -- a suburban, an urban, and a magnet school. The suburban children make up about half the total number of students.



 

 "My wife had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure several years ago, and there was talk then of a heart transplant, but it seemed far off in the future," Panza says. But Jean's health worsened.  She got a pacemaker, then a pacemaker-defibrillator with paddles built into it. "She just spiraled downhill," Panza says. One day in September 2007, Jean, who was a church secretary, had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital from her job. Her doctors told her it was time for a heart transplant.  

Jean spent nine or 10 weeks in the hospital, waiting for a heart. Twice the Panzas had false alarms when they thought a heart was available and it fell through. Meanwhile, Jean was growing weaker. "We have been together since we were 19," Panza says, "and I had to prepare myself intellectually for the possibility of losing my wife."

So many people were calling every day to ask, "How's Jean?" that Panza couldn't keep up with the messages. He wanted to be able to communicate with friends and family about her condition, so he asked a friend to help him set up a Web site. He called it "How's Jean?" 

The night before Jean finally got her new heart, she was resigned to dying, Panza says. She had lost 40 pounds and had failed physically. They suddenly got word that a heart was available, and it became clear this wasn't another false alarm. During heart transplant surgery, Panza says, "they crack you open and take out your heart. The only thing keeping you alive is a machine." During the nervewracking wait for the surgeons to finish Jean's operation, Panza sat in the intensive care waiting room and posted bulletins on the Web site. At last, he received a call with good news: "The heart is in, and it's beating."

Jean was allowed no visitors at first, as she was very weak. She was on 24 meds a day when she first went home from the hospital. But she steadily improved, and by January 2008, was feeling better and ready to see people. She and Panza decided they could shut down the Web site, as they felt they didn't need it to communicate anymore. But "people howled!" Panza says. "They told us, 'You can't shut it down!' Many people told us we should make the site into a book."

The Panzas' story really has two parts to it: Jean's journey through transplantion, but also the connection they have forged with the family of Drew, the young man whose donated heart saved Jean's life. 

Panza explains that when an organ is donated and transplanted, both sides -- the donor and the recipient -- are anonymous to each other through the transplant agency. "It's up to both parties to decide whether to be contacted or not," he says.

The Panzas wanted to contact the family of Jean's donor. "I asked my wife 'Are you ready for this?' he says, adding, "with transplantation, the emotional and psychological stuff comes after the medical stuff is behind you." 

Eventually, they met Drew's mother and his family. Drew had been born with cerebral palsy and mental retardation and had died at the age of 21. "We bonded with the family," Panza says. The relationship has been powerful for both sides. He says, "I finally had an ending to my book." 

Panza published the book this past summer and is donating the proceeds to Donate Life Connecticut, a statewide coalition composed of volunteers with a shared interest in public education about organ, eye and tissue donation and increasing the number of transplants that save lives. Panza is hoping to partner with the organization in planning a campus event to raise awareness about organ donation.
Raising awareness about organ and tissue donation is key to increasing the number of potential donors. At present, over 1,000 Connecticut residents and over 105,000 U.S. residents are waiting for transplants.

For information about how to become an organ and tissue donor, or to join the Donor Registry, visit www.DonateLifeCT.org. To purchase a copy of Panza's book, visit www.humanactionassociatesllc.com.

One of del Amo's photographs -- "Sarah, David" -- has been awarded a commendation in the Outwin Boochever Portrait competition hosted by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Another photograph -- "Aron, Helen, Laura" -- has been selected in the 2009 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize competition, the exhibit for which opened at the National Portrait Gallery in London on Nov. 3. Both photographs, shown below, portray interior scenes with two people sharing space in silence. 

In addition to receiving these honors, del Amo has been invited to be a fellow at the Spanish Academy in Rome during the spring 2010 semester. During her time at the Academy, she will be dedicated to pursuing her own creative activity in her field.

"It's been a good year," she says, understatedly.

Originally from Spain, del Amo came to photography as a second career.  After earning a B.S. and M.S. in mathematics from the University of Cologne, Germany, she worked as an actuary in a reinsurance company in Germany and Argentina. "I was a manager in a corporation, but I quit my job and went to grad school," she says. "I changed everything I was doing." 

She went on to earn an M.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and launched a career as a photographer. She has taught as an adjunct faculty member at Purchase College, the International Center for Photography, (ICP) and at RISD. At Southern, in addition to teaching, she coordinates the photography program, which involves managing adjuncts and working on curriculum, along with other duties. 

She recently submitted a substantial revision of the photography program to the curriculum committee. One of the revisions is the introduction of digital photography earlier in the program and the expansion of course offerings in digital photography.

Del Amo uses a film camera in her own projects. "Film cameras allow me to have much more control and blow things up really big. It makes sense for my own work," she says. She explains that large format cameras are traditionally used for architecture. "You can shift and tilt the perspective and modify the way you look at a space," she explains. "You can see a structure or space in a way you can't in reality."

Looking at space is an important part of del Amo's art. She is working on a long-term project called "Archipelago," which she describes as portraying "interactions between characters, the dynamic between them and the space they are in." In each of her photographs, she has a story in mind but tries to create narratives that are open-ended, so that the viewer can use his or her imagination.

She started working on "Archipelago" in 2004 and says, "it's a slow process. I only shoot five to eight images a year." She hopes to finish the project soon and publish it as a book. Her photo shoots take place in such countries as Spain, Germany and Argentina, as well as the United States, and she works to incorporate small cultural clues into the photographs. 

Del Amo's photographs represent, she says, "a moment on a continuum." As she sets up each shot, "Everything is very meticulously choreographed. I move things around, use props or take things away. Sometimes I am inspired by the space, sometimes by the people."

Along with shooting her work in other countries, del Amo incorporates field trips into her teaching, to help expand students' experiences beyond the classroom. She recently took a group of students to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the International Center for Photography in New York City.  While she was teaching at RISD, she twice took students to Argentina for a course she co-taught with a partner. The course was five weeks long, with part of it taught at RISD and part in Argentina. While in Argentina, del Amo and her students looked at documentary photography and photographed people. She will run the course at Southern in summer 2011.  

In May 2009, she had a show at the Transformer Gallery in Washington, D.C., and at the Spanish Institute in New York City. She is grateful to the university for being so supportive of her work. Her photographs have previously appeared in both group and solo exhibitions in venues including Hudson Franklin Gallery in New York and the Barbara Walters Gallery at Sarah Lawrence College.

Below are del Amo's most recent award-winning photographs mentioned in the story:

(Top) "Sarah, David" -- awarded a commendation in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition in Washington, D.C.

(Bottom) "Aron, Helen, Laura" -- selected in the 2009 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize competition in London 

Solodow, who is in his 18th year of teaching at Southern, has published three critically acclaimed books, 11 articles and nine book reviews and has delivered numerous conference papers. His fourth book, being published by Cambridge University Press, is due out this month. Unlike Solodow's previous books, the new book -- "Latin Alive: The Survival of Latin in English and the Romance Languages" -- is addressed to a general audience, rather than to a scholarly audience. 

His earlier books are "The Latin Particle Quidem" and "The World of Ovid's Metamorphoses." His translation into English of G. B. Conte's "Latin Literature: A History," was awarded the Modern Language Association's Scaglione Translation Prize.  

Solodow received the A.B. degree magna cum laude in Latin from Columbia University and the A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in classical philology from Harvard University. He joined Southern's faculty in 1992 as an assistant professor in the Department of Foreign Languages (now World Languages and Literatures), where he was chairman from 1994 to 2000. He was also the founding chairperson of the Judaic Studies Program. He was a visiting research scholar at Yale University from 1985 to 1988 and has been a lecturer in classics there since 2000.

At Southern, he teaches the Spanish language and Spanish-American literature along with Latin. His research interests lie in Latin literature and philology and in ancient historiography. His latest book, is, he says, "for anyone who's interested in languages, but you only have to know English to read it." The book is based on a graduate course, "Latin and the Romance Languages," that Solodow has taught at Southern every other year for several years. He explains that his wife suggested he take the material from the course and adapt it into a book. "I resisted for a couple of years and then decided to do it," he says.

In "Latin Alive," Solodow tells the story of how Latin developed into modern French, Spanish, and Italian, as well as how it has deeply affected the English language. In the course the book is based upon, students are not required to know Latin but should know French, Spanish or Italian. 

Solodow was originally hired to teach Spanish at Southern, in spite of the fact that he had always been a professor of classics. "I have never taken a course in Spanish," he says, but he knows the language well, having learned it from his mother-in-law, who is Argentinian and lived with Solodow and his wife for a year.

President Cheryl Norton says Solodow's appointment is "an indicator of the Connecticut State University System's commitment to recognizing excellence in research, scholarship and teaching." She adds, "Professor Solodow is a first-rate teacher and consummate scholar, and I am delighted that such a fine member of our faculty has been chosen for this honor."

The title of Connecticut State University Professor was created in 1987 to recognize outstanding merit among the teaching faculty in the CSU system, which in addition to Southern, includes Eastern, Central, and Western Connecticut State universities. Each university is limited to three such designated scholars at any time. As Southern's newest CSU Professor, Solodow joins a select group of outstanding faculty members who continue to make significant contributions to their fields of research and study. He is the first member of Southern's World Languages and Literatures Department to be named a CSU professor. He joins English Professor Vivian Shipley as one of Southern's three CSU Professors. Nominations will soon be sought for the third professorship, formerly held by the recently retired History Professor Hugh Davis. The university's emeritus CSU Professors are Davis, Harriet Applewhite, John Iatrides, Geoffrey Martin and Martin Glassner.

Pictured above, in photo on right: Selase W. Williams, provost and vice president for student and university affairs; President Cheryl J. Norton; CSU Professor Joseph B. Solodow, and Troy R. Paddock, professor of history and chairman of the CSU Professorship Advisory Committee.

Registration is now open. Click on the poster below to visit the Wintersession 2010 Web site.

• Assess how well we are pursuing our mission and goals
• Analyze our effectiveness as a teaching and learning institution
• Assess the extent to which we meet each of eleven standards for accreditation.

The self-study will be overseen by a Steering Committee appointed by the President. Members of the campus community (students, faculty, and staff) are invited to participate in the self-study process by serving on one of the following committees: 

• Standard 1: Mission and Purposes
• Standard 2: Planning and Evaluation
• Standard 3: Organization and Governance
• Standard 4: The Academic Program:  Undergraduate Degree Programs
• Standard 4: The Academic Program:  General Education
• Standard 4: The Academic Program:  The Major or Concentration
• Standard 4: The Academic Program:  Graduate Degree Programs
• Standard 4: The Academic Program:  Integrity in the Award of Academic Credit
• Standard 4: The Academic Program:  Assessment of Student Learning
• Standard 5: Faculty
• Standard 6: Students:  Admissions 
• Standard 6: Students:  Retention and Graduation
• Standard 6: Students:  Student Services
• Standard7:  Library and Other Information Resources
  
• Standard 8:  Physical and Technological Resources
• Standard 9: Financial Resources 
• Standard 10: Public Disclosure
• Standard 11: Integrity

The committees will begin their work at the start of the spring 2010 semester. 

Ongoing information about Southern's self-study and accreditation can be found at the university's NEASC Web site.  If you have any questions, contact Marianne Kennedy in the Office of Assessment and Planning (kennedym4@southernct.edu).

The new programs in Greece and Vietnam join the established study-abroad programs in France, Scotland, Germany, Spain, and Guatemala. For more information about study abroad at Southern, visit the International Programs Web site.

american college of thessaloniki ~ greece

Southern students can now spend a summer studying at the prestigious American College of Thessaloniki (ACT), located in Thessaloniki, Greece. The new study abroad program developed by the departments of history and philosophy offers students the chance to take two 3-credit courses at ACT; one class will be taught by a Southern faculty member and one will be taught by an ACT faculty member. The summer 2010 program is tentatively slated to run from June 20 to July 24, 2010. 

Armen Marsoobian (right), professor of philosophy and one of the organizers of the program, will be teaching one of the courses. He says that the program is open not only to Southern students but also to students at the other CSUS universities and other schools as well. He describes ACT as a "beautiful campus on a hilltop overlooking Thessaloniki. On a clear day, you can see Mount Olympus." Marsoobian's family has roots with ACT -- his grandfather and great-uncle were the official photographers for Anatolia College, ACT's incarnation in its earliest days -- but he had never visited the school until last spring, when he presented a talk and slideshow at ACT about his grandfather and great-uncle's photographs.

Thessaloniki is a center of commerce, art, music, restaurants, cinema, and high fashion, as well as a feast for the historian. Named in the 4th century BCE for the half-sister of Alexander the Great, Thessaloniki boasts both Byzantine and Roman reminders, as well as remnants of Ottoman influence, memories of St. Paul's first Christian mission, and a brilliant Jewish and Armenian heritage.

To participate in the summer program at ACT, a student must be a high school graduate 18 years of age or older. Courses offered by Southern professors will be ENG 217 Introduction to Literature and an option of an Honors College course, HON 210 Idea of the Self in the Ancient World. Both courses meet the General Education requirement. Courses available at ACT would include business, European studies, Greek, information technology, statistics, and an unusual course in open-sea sailing that Marsoobian says is serious and intensive. 

Interested students can visit the ACT Web site or contact Marsoobian at (203) 392-6788 or marsoobiana1@southernct.edu.

Dai Hoc Su Pham/University of Pedagogy in Ho Chi Minh City ~ Vietnam

Southern students soon will also have an opportunity to experience Vietnam, thanks to a $99,906 grant from the U.S. State Department to help launch a study abroad program in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon).

Ilene Crawford (right), associate professor of English, is heading up the program with History Professor C. Michele Thompson (below) and Marianne Kennedy, associate vice president for assessment, planning and academic programs.

The grant paves the way for a pilot program to begin next summer that would send faculty and two Southern students to Dai Hoc Su Pham/University of Pedagogy in Ho Chi Minh City, which specializes in teacher training.

Crawford and Thompson, both of whom have studied and traveled extensively in Vietnam, say there is growing student interest in Vietnam as the country strives to play a greater role in the global economy, following in the footsteps of nations such as China.

Vietnam is now considered the fastest-developing market of the United States in Southeast Asia, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. Imports from Vietnam to the United States rose 21 percent between 2007 and 2008, while exports during that same year rose 46 percent, U.S. Commerce Department statistics show.

This would be Southern's first direct exchange program in Asia, according to Thompson. It comes as part of the university's push not only to increase the number of students participating in international programs but also to promote Asian Studies.

The program is geared toward students with interests in Asian Studies, English composition or teaching English as a foreign language. Eventually, the coordinators hope to attract any student with an interest in Vietnam.

The university is still identifying potential candidates for the initial phase. The two students are expected to spend the summer studying Vietnamese, conducting research with faculty and working closely with Vietnamese students who are learning to teach English.

Plans call for two more students to travel with faculty members in spring 2011 and three more to go the following summer. Participating students will receive credit toward their degree programs.

In addition to Thompson and Crawford, other faculty members participating in the pilot include Thuan Vu, associate professor of art, and Elena Schmitt, associate professor of TESOL (Teaching English to Students of Other Languages) and chairwoman of the Department of World Languages and Literatures.

Both Thompson and Crawford have previously worked with Dai Hoc Su Pham, which is considered one of Vietnam's leading institutions of higher education. Crawford will spend the spring semester there as a Fulbright Award Grant recipient, helping the university's faculty revamp its English as a foreign language curriculum.

If the pilot is successful, coordinators hope to pursue future exchanges between the two universities, including bringing Vietnamese students and faculty to Southern. They expect future collaborations in the fields of anthropology, art, biology, business, geography, public health, sociology and theater.

Fiction Matters: Literary Texts in Transition

An Interdisciplinary Conference
sponsored by
The Departments of English and World Languages & Literatures 

Saturday, November 7, 2009
9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Engleman Hall A120

Session I   9:45am-11:00am       
Albert R. Ascoli    "Dante, Petrarch and the Making of a Modern Reader"

Bart Ehrman    "Literary Forgeries and Counter-Forgeries in Early Christian Tradition"

11:00am-11:15am          Coffee Break

Session II  11:15am-12:30pm           
Carol Symes    "Prescription, Postscription, Transcription, Improvisation:  Deciphering the Textual Evidence for Pre-modern Performance Practice"

Sarah Beckwith     "Shakespeare's Resurrections: The Winter's Tale"

Click here to see the speakers' bios and the conference brochure.

View the conference Web site here. 

For more conference information, or to register, please contact:

Pina Palma at (203) 392-6753 (palmag1@southernct.edu)
or
Jim Rhodes (rhodesj1@southernct.edu)

Sponsored by Dr. Selase Williams, Provost and
Vice President for Academic Affairs

Funded in Part by a
Faculty Development Grant

Anne Bianchi Gundersen remembers trying to sneak up the wide stairs in the little building that housed New Haven State Normal School in the 1930s, but the creaking noises gave her away.

"The principal came out and said, 'Young lady, you're late!'"

Gundersen, 97, chuckles about that memory now, and thinks back fondly on a lifetime devoted to opening the doors of education to students of all ages and backgrounds. Although she and her late husband never had any children, she nurtured scores of youngsters during her 32-year teaching career.

"Prepare, deliver and inspire -- I believe everyone can learn, with patience," Gundersen says of her philosophy. "If you love them, you will be rewarded." 

Now, she continues to promote the cause of education through her philanthropy. A $400,000 gift to Southern will both bolster a scholarship fund Gundersen first established in 1995 and provide general support to the university's initiatives and priorities. The Anne Bianchi Gundersen Endowed Scholarship provides financial support for students pursuing a degree in education and since its establishment she has gifted more than $500,000 to the university. 

"This latest act of philanthropy reflects Mrs. Gundersen's lifelong devotion to furthering educational opportunities for others," says Megan A. Rock, Southern's vice president for institutional advancement. The gift continues a trend in which alumni support for the university has grown 35 percent during the last five years and gifts for endowed purposes increased 17 percent in the last year, Rock says.

President Cheryl Norton recognized Gundersen during the annual Alumni Homecoming breakfast earlier this month, sharing information from Gundersen's yearbook that characterized her at the time and appears to suit her well today: "Her aim is toward the goal." 

Norton praised Gundersen's generosity: "Leadership gifts such as this ensure that Southern will continue to meet its commitment to provide an affordable, accessible education to those seeking to earn a college degree."

In 1934 Gundersen received a bachelor's degree in education as a member of the New Haven State Normal School's first four-year class. Before that, she graduated from the first three-year class in 1933.

The normal school was the forerunner of what would ultimately become Southern Connecticut State University. But life on and off the school grounds was much different in the 1930s.

There were few extracurricular activities and no parties, and the big excitement on campus was if someone got married before he or she finished school, Gundersen says. She was a member of school clubs in art, travel, geography and science, as well as the Choral Art Society. 

After graduation she taught in Stratford for seven years, but when World War II started gas was rationed, meaning she couldn't get to work, so Gundersen left to take a job at the railroad. She spent some time working at the information desk -- and still recalls with warmth the time she put her husband on the wrong train from military leave. The U.S. Navy Police were waiting when he arrived late.

After the war she returned to the classroom -- this time in New Haven, where her family lived and her father owned a successful business.

Landing that job wasn't easy at first, she says, because just about everything in those days was about knowing the right people. But before long she had a job as an extra teacher for reading, which led to a 25-year career teaching in New Haven, mostly at Davis School.

She loved the children, but says the 1960s weren't an easy time to teach, so Gundersen retired in 1972.

A widow for more than 25 years, Gundersen says she had a small family, including one sister, who also became a teacher; both were directed to the career by their father. Her parents came from Bologna, Italy.

Gundersen says her secret to longevity may be that she never smoked and never drank much, "but we always had wine on the table."

"I had a wonderful family and life," Gundersen says. "We weren't wanting for anything."

Pictured above: Anne Bianchi Gundersen  (seated, second from right) is joined by President Cheryl Norton, (seated, second from left) and a group of students during the Alumni Homecoming Breakfast earlier this month. The students are: (standing, left to right) Sherrelle Coles, Chris Bandecchi, Frank Brady, Mary Faulkner, Melissa Genovese, and (seated, left to right) Patricia Dearborn, President Norton, Gundersen, and Brian Junious. Genovese is the recipient of a scholarship funded by a gift from Gundersen. 

The conference will feature keynote presentations by Eastern Connecticut State University's Anne Higginbotham, who also serves as Chair of the AAUP's Committee on the Status of Women in the Academic Profession, as well as Jean McLaughlin, a Research Associate for the Sloan Projects for Faculty Career Flexibility - American Council on Education.

Roundtable discussions will be led by faculty, work-life experts, and human resources professionals from regional institutions of higher education and corporations recognized for their work-life best practices.

The conference will take place in the Adanti Student Center Ballroom. Registration/check-in begins at 8:30 a.m. The conference begins at 9:00 a.m. and concludes at 2:30 p.m.

Higher Education faculty, staff, human resources administrators, and students are welcome to attend. Conference registration is now open. Click here to register. The $30 registration fee includes morning refreshments and lunch. Students are eligible for a $15 registration rate.

For more information contact Aimee Bonn in Human Resources at (203) 392-8848 or bonna1@southernct.edu.

The Expo will provide students with information about the wide variety of majors that are available, about the process for declaring/changing a major, and about career and post-baccalaureate program opportunities.

The Expo will help students to:

• Explore majors that Southern offers
• Make connections with faculty, staff, upperclassmen, and alumni
• Learn about career options as they relate to your major

For more information contact the Academic Advisement Center at 392-5367, the First-Year Experience Program at 392-6671, the Center for Career Services at 392-6536, or the Office of Student Life at 392-5782.

The university is leading a new state coalition that includes nine universities committed to the prevention of violence against women, thanks to a 3-year, $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The schools, in partnership with two state service organizations, are forming the Connecticut Campus Coalition to End Violence Against Women (CCCEV). The coalition members plan to join forces in an effort to reduce the incidence of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking on their campuses. They also plan to use the federal funding to enhance sexual assault awareness and prevention programs, provide training for staff, create a unified network of support for victims of violence and bolster efforts to hold perpetrators accountable through school discipline and criminal prosecution.

"Tragically, violence against women poses serious threats to the health and safety of college and university communities across the nation," says Ronald D. Herron, vice president for student and university affairs (above, left).

"In fact, the national data shows that 32 percent of all college students report some form of dating violence and/or abuse with previous partners," Herron says. "It frequently diminishes the capacity of its victims to achieve their potential and dreams. This project distinctively harnesses the energies and expertise of five public and four private higher education institutions, as well as two state service organizations."

In addition to Southern, the CCCEV includes the three other Connecticut State University System campuses (Central, Eastern and Western Connecticut State universities), the University of Connecticut, Quinnipiac University, University of Bridgeport, University of Hartford and Trinity College. It also includes the Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services Inc. and the Connecticut Police Academy's Police Officers Standards and Training Council Post.

Southern has been designated as the lead agency in the grant, awarded by the U.S. Justice Department's Office on Violence Against Women. Each of the nine higher education institutions, as well as the Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services Inc., will receive part of the funds. The Connecticut Police Academy's Police Officers Standards and Training Council Post is donating its time to the project.

Catherine A. Christy, coordinator of Southern's Women's Center (above, right), says she is excited to work with her colleagues at the other institutions and that the collaboration will be a valuable tool in addressing the societal problem of violence against women.

"College campuses are good places to offer education and awareness programs because they can influence people in a positive way early in their lives," Christy says. "In turn, this creates a ripple effect with a long-term reduction of such violence in society." 

Christy says several specific initiatives are planned, including:

• a training conference, followed by a series of three Webinars, focusing on best practices involving law enforcement, campus judicial processes, prevention and response programs;
• additional training for judicial officers and campus law enforcement;
• the creation of a coalition Web site that would include resources and curricula related to the prevention of violence against women;
• a comprehensive survey of current practices at each institution;
• the development and implementation of anti-violence and awareness programs for first-year students.

She says the coalition will examine existing and potential programs for first-year students, ranging from in-class speakers to out-of-class activities.

Christy also notes that the various initiatives will be sensitive to the needs of all students, including minority, international and students with disabilities.

And now the device, called a Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI), has gotten the attention of state innovation experts. Horch, associate professor of physics, recently was chosen as the "platinum recipient" of the 2009 Connecticut Quality Improvement Award (CQIA) Innovation Prize. That first-place achievement enables Horch to compete for the national-level Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award for Performance Excellence.

Horch completed the DSSI last year and sent it to the Kitt Peak National Observatory, a national center for optical astronomy in Tucson, Ariz. He developed the instrument after receiving a $352,487 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2005, while he was an assistant professor of physics at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. In 2007, he came to Southern, where he completed the project and garnered the assistance of several of his students.

The DSSI includes two cameras and a scanning mirror system inside a rectangular box that can fit on a coffee table. "Disturbances in the atmosphere can cause images to blur together," Horch said. "But with this special instrument, it's like putting eyeglasses on a telescope. It enables you to see the two stars in a binary system distinctly."

Horch received the award Oct. 23 during the 22nd annual CQIA Partnership's Conference on Quality and Innovation at the Water's Edge Resort in Westbrook. A group of about 12 examiners determined that Horch's application was the best among the 70 people who entered the contest.

Applicants for the CQIA prizes have developed a new product, service, or process and have either solved an organizational problem or leveraged an opportunity with their innovation.

Horch recently was awarded another NSF grant -- this one for $183,447 -- which will enable him to continue his work on researching binary stars. The project will be conducted in collaboration with the Yale Southern Observatory. He will collect data to provide a better understanding of these stars and the star formation and structure of the Milky Way. The grant also will allow him to run regular physics and astronomy seminars, as well as to work with high school physics teachers in the area and to help promote careers in science to underrepresented groups in Connecticut through these talks.
 

Homecoming and Family Day

Families are invited to celebrate Southern's spirit and pride alongside their students on a fun-filled day! Family Day 2009 will take place on Oct. 17, 2009 -- see details below.

Please click here for the day's schedule.

To register for the day, please click here.

Click here for Directions

More information to come! Click here for updates. 

Alumni ~ welcome back to Southern!

Homecoming 2009, planned for Saturday, Oct. 17, promises to be a wonderful time for all, and the Alumni Tent at Jess Dow Field will bring families together for a day of fun, food, sports, and entertainment. All alumni are welcome to return "home" to Southern for a very special "Fairy Tale" Homecoming!

To see to see a complete listing of Homecoming activities for alumni, and to pre-register, click here and scroll down the page. 

See you there!

In Connecticut, meeting the needs of all the students can be especially challenging, with special education students today generally being taught in the same classrooms with other students. And for teachers who are not certified in both special education and regular education, the task can be even more daunting.

To provide teachers with the resources to deal effectively with all groups of students, Southern is launching a 6th year diploma program called "educational coach." The program -- to be offered to certified teachers, administrators, counselors and school psychologists -- will enable individuals to bring an expertise into the classroom that helps ensure that the needs of all students are met, such as through a curriculum that is diversified so that both regular and special education students can learn effectively. It also is designed so that educational coaches will be skilled in classroom management techniques that foster an atmosphere that is conductive to student learning.

The educational coaches can work side by side in the classroom in a "team teaching" situation, or serve as a mentor for a group of teachers. They also can use these skills to improve their own teaching.

The state Department of Higher Education's Board of Governors recently granted its approval for licensure and accreditation of such a program at Southern. It will be the first in Connecticut.

"We are very excited about this new program, which we believe will be a tremendous resource to schools throughout the state," said Christine Villani (pictured at right), associate professor of education and educational coach co-coordinator. Ronald Tamura, assistant professor of special education, also serves as program co-coordinator.

"Superintendents of schools throughout the state have been asking for this kind of training for their teachers," Villani said.

Villani developed the curriculum with Pamela Brucker, who recently retired after many years as chairwoman of the university's Special Education Department. 

A total of 10 courses will be required to earn the 6th year diploma. Courses will be offered starting with the 2010 spring semester. Villani said that in addition to a master's degree, the following are criteria for acceptance into the program: a 3.0 GPA; two letters of recommendation; an interview with an adviser; course work or professional development in working with culturally diverse students, and service to teaching (participating in professional organizations).

The program will instruct students in subjects such as coaching and collaborating with teachers, administrators and other service providers; diversification of instruction and assessment to address the educational needs of all students; classroom management and understanding classroom law. A fieldwork component (within classrooms) will be part of the curriculum as well.

The "educational coaches" will serve as instructional coaches in subjects such as reading, math, and writing.

For further information about the program, call Christine Villani at (203) 392-5343.

Admission is free and open to all. The Ethnic Heritage Center is located at 270 Fitch St., New Haven, Conn.

Contact the Ethnic Heritage Center for more information at (203) 392-6126 or ctethnichc@yahoo.com.

Learn more about the Ethnic Heritage Center.

Chevan, an organizer of the series, says the concerts will be about "intimate jazz -- no drums, just a piano and a bass, and one other instrument." He and Cadwallader, along with a guest, will perform in each of these "spontaneous jazz concerts that will unfold right before the audience."

Chevan and Irving point to the new private lessons program offered by the Music Department this year as making "The Art of Trio" possible. The grant for the private lessons, generously donated by the Stutzman Family Foundation, has enabled the department to hire new adjunct faculty members and, Irving says, the series gives the department "a chance to showcase these performers."

"The idea is to feature faculty members who are involved in jazz-making," says Chevan, adding that the concerts may also bring in musicians from outside the university or the region who are leaders in their respective fields. "We are bringing to Southern some of the best people from the area."

The inaugural concert will take place on Sept. 16 from 8- 9:30 p.m.

The second concert of the fall semester will take place on Oct 14 at 8 p.m., and will feature Chevan and Cadwallader, with special guest guitarist George Raccio.

Both concerts will take place in the Charles Garner Recital Hall (Engleman C112). Admission is $5.

For more information call (203) 392-6630.

Giacomo Gates, right  (photo credit: Frank Stewart) 

Rex Cadwallader, below

David Chevan, below

August 31 - October 30, 2009
Monday - Friday • 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
SCSU Multicultural Center
Adanti Student Center 234

The New Haven Holocaust Memorial was erected in 1977 by Holocaust survivors on land donated by the city of New Haven. The SCSU Multicultural Center is proud to bring the Memory & Legacy exhibit to our campus to tell the story of the first Holocaust memorial built on public land, and to preserve these memories for future generations, promoting tolerance and understanding, so the words "never again" are a reality.

Free & open to the public

School & community groups welcome

With support from SCSU Judaic Studies Program, SCSU English Department, SCSU Student Support Services, SCSU Biology Department, SCSU Public Affairs Office, and the SCSU Political Science Department.
------------------------

schedule of events

Please join us for an opening reception for Holocaust survivors, the New Haven and SCSU communities.  The reception will include a welcome from the SCSU President Norton, testimony from survivors,  a memory ceremony with SCSU staff,  students and faculty, reflections, musical entertainment, and more.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 • 1 p.m.
Adanti Student Center 201

RSVP: brownd2@southernct.edu

Info: (203) 392-5888

---------------------------------
Film Screening: Schindler's List - Free and open to the public

• Part 1: Monday, September 21, 2009 • 12 p.m.
• Part 2:  Wednesday, September 23, 2009 • 12 p.m.
   Adanti Student Center 201

• Tuesday, September 29, 2009 • 5 p.m. (both parts)
   Adanti Student Center 301

Schindler's List is being shown in honor of the Memory & Legacy exhibit and reception, to help effect positive change in each of us by overcoming racial and cultural divides. This movie is one of the most powerful movies of all time. It tells the compelling true story of the German businessman Oskar Schindler, who comes to Nazi-occupied Poland looking for economic prosperity and leaves as a savior of more than 1,100 Jews.  A charming and sly entrepreneur, Schindler bribes and befriends the Nazi authorities to gain control of a factory in Krakow by Aryanization, which he staffs with Jewish slave-laborers. Soon he is making a fortune. Among the Jews who work for him is Itzhak Stern, the plant manager, who in his benevolence sees to it that Schindler's workforce includes the most vulnerable and cherished members of Krakow's Jewish community.

MOVIE FYI: This 1993 film was a box office success and recipient of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Steven Spielberg), and Best Original Score. The running time is 3 hours and 15 minutes.

The Granoff Student Health and Wellness Center welcomes you to the Fall 2009 semester at Southern Connecticut State University. We anticipate that many of you may have concerns about this year's flu season and how we will handle H1N1 (swine) flu here on campus. An action plan is already in place, guided by the advisories for higher education institutions issued by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We are also working closely with the health departments of the State of Connecticut and City of New Haven to monitor flu conditions and make decisions about the best steps to take concerning our university. We will keep you updated on  new information as it becomes available to us. Click here for practical steps that you can take to help prevent the spread of flu at Southern.
 

"I looked through a number of poems, finding some pretty amazing things," Kuss says.  "I settled on a small autumnal poem called 'Exeunt,' setting it three different ways -- each mirroring the structure of the poem in reductive form."

Wilbur's honors include the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1957 and 1989, the 1957 National Book Award, and the 1971 Bollingen Prize, among many others. In 1987 he became the second poet, after Robert Penn Warren, to be named U.S. Poet Laureate, after the position's title was changed from Poetry Consultant.   

Kuss has received awards from the American Academy and the Institute of Arts and Letters, the N.E.A., the Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer, A.S.C.A.P., the Copland Foundation and others. His work has been performed by the 20/21st Century Consort, the Folger Consort, the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, at Merkin Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the MacDowell Colony, the Swannanoa Music Festival, the Monadnock Music Festival, Composers Inc., Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, and throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Wilbur was involved in the concert, Kuss says, reading selections from his work for approximately 40 minutes before the musical part of the concert began. Then, before each setting was performed, he read the poem aloud.  Kuss says, "It was interesting to hear his declamation compared to how the texts were set.  I discussed with him how his texts had -- in addition to great imagery -- good 'sounds' -- and a specific  'mouth feel' -- how the words hang and fall from the mouth when read aloud.  He was quite interested in this idea as a way of physicalizing the texts."

Kuss says he "deliberately fractured" the syntax of the third setting, re-arranging the texts in order to redefine the imagery. Wilbur was interested in this process, Kuss says, but less comfortable with it, as it involved altering his ideas.

Other poets and composers were also involved in the event, Kuss says, with other composers setting the texts of guest poets.  The event was recorded by a Boston television station. Following the event was a discussion about text setting and how one approaches musicalizing the words of others. 


 

The 1906 murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in Herkimer, N.Y., inspired at least two well-known versions of the story: Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy and the 1951 film A Place in The Sun, starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters. Taylor and Bay's documentary looks at the various sides of a complicated set of events, which included Gillette's declaration of innocence in Brown's death, a highly publicized murder trial, and Gillette's subsequent execution.

The extensive media coverage Taylor and Bay have received -- accessible through the links below -- was prompted by the historical re-enactments being filmed.

Herkimer Evening Telegram: "Making of A Documentary"

WKTV: "Infamous 1906 Local Murder Case the Subject of New Documentary"

Utica Observer Dispatch: "Documentary Filmed in Central New York"

On August 26, 2009, the university will hold University Forum XLIII: "How Students Learn" from 8:30 a.m.-noon. The forum will feature keynote speaker Dr. Todd Zakrajsek (pictured at left) on "How Students Learn: Strategies for Teaching from the Psychology of Learning."  Abundant research demonstrates that learning takes place when the student's mind actively engages in the material.  The major problem is determining how to increase that activity.  Within the discipline of human memory, learning, and cognition exists a vast body of literature dealing specifically with this issue.  Forum participants will gain an understanding of the basic concepts in human learning, how to present information so that students most effectively encode it into long-term memory, and how to help students know when they know.

Dr. Zakrajsek is the executive director of the Center for Faculty Excellence at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He was previously the director of the Faculty Center for Innovative Teaching at Central Michigan University and the founding drector of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Southern Oregon University, where he also taught as a tenured associate professor in the Psychology Department.  Dr. Zakrajsek received his Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from Ohio University.  He has written two introductory psychology instructor's manuals for McGraw-Hill and a student study guide for Addison-Wesley.  He has also published and presented widely on the topic of student learning, including workshops and conference keynote addresses in over 30 states and four countries in the past several years.

The forum will take place in the Charles Garner Recital Hall, ENC 112. Breakfast refreshments will be provided.  Following the keynote address, a buffet luncheon will be served (12:00 - 1:00 p.m.) in the Engleman Hall Seminar Center, ENB 121. 

To register for the event and for the luncheon, e-mail the Faculty Development Office at facultydevel@southernct.edu no later than Friday, August 21, 2009.  Contact:  Bonnie Farley-Lucas, Coordinator, Faculty Development (farleylucab1@southernct.edu).

Saltman, a professor of special education known for her humorous approach to life, retired from the university as of July 1, and is directing her summer institute possibly for the last time. The course, SED 575-01, a special education elective that counts toward a master's degree or a sixth year certificate, will take place August 3-7 at the Jewish Community Center in Woodbridge, from 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. each day. Saltman brings several outside speakers into the institute to communicate the H.E.L.P. message.  

She describes the institute as "a week of learning and laughing and finding out about yourself and how to interact with other people and how to teach with creativity." Nonteachers also take the course, although the evaluations Saltman receives at the conclusion of the course often say that every teacher should be required to take this course before working with children. 

In addition to Saltman herself, among the 15 presenters at this year's institute will be Lucie Arnaz, daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz; comedian Kathy Buckley; storyteller Len Cabral; Special Olympics athlete Loretta Claiborne; singer/songwriter Greg Cooney; children's author and illustrator Steven Kellogg, and singer/songwriter David Roth. Educational consultants, professors of education, learning specialists, and inspirational speakers will also make presentations. 

"A real camaraderie develops among the participants and the speakers," Saltman says. "We have a lot of fun -- it's a full emotional roller coaster week. And everyone tells me they learn more in this week than in any other course they've taken."

Saltman encourages anyone interested in attending the institute to register now. The cost of the three-credit institute is $1,400, which includes lunch and lab fees. Saltman points out that anyone who comes to the institute once is entitled to come back to future institutes at no additional charge. 

The "helping" spirit of the institute has been a hallmark of Saltman's career. She knew from the time she was a little girl that she wanted to teach. Her older sister was a dental hygienist, and Saltman would accompany her to schools in low-income neighborhoods, where her sister would care for the children's teeth. Saltman would read to the children while her sister worked, and she knew then that she wanted to work with kids. 

She has been teaching since 1965, and although she has retired, she will continue to teach a couple of courses next fall as an adjunct instructor. "I'm going to be here until I die," she jokes.

In demand as a public speaker, often on the topic of the therapeutic value of laughter, Saltman donates all of her speaking fees to charities. Among those she contributes to are a cancer research unit in Florida; Hadassah, a Jewish women's organization that supports hospitals and medical research in Israel, and the Hole in the Wall Gang camps.

In addition, 100 percent of the earnings from her recently published book "I'm Changing the Locks and Cementing the Windows" goes to the Hole in the Wall Gang camps, founded by Paul Newman in 1988 for children coping with cancer, sickle cell anemia and other life-threatening illnesses. Saltman wrote the book with her best friend, Ronnie Greenspan, who died in 2007. 

Saltman has given much to her students and the community over the years, and her gifts of laughter, education and support come back to her -- the walls of her Davis Hall office are plastered with posters, cards, photos, and notes from grateful students. Looking around at all of the mementos from her long, fruitful teaching career, she says, "This is my life. My students are the greatest."

Sargent first taught at Southern in the fall of 1999, and then returned permanently in 2003.  She teaches a wide variety of courses within the Communication Department, including those dealing with interviewing, interpersonal communication and small group communication."My primary responsibility is to my students," Sargent says. "This responsibility moves beyond the mastery of course material. It involves creating a sense of worth and accomplishment, fostering a climate of inquiry and respect, and developing an enthusiasm for learning that lasts a lifetime."

Her ability to create challenging courses that maximize learning while building positive student relationships is the quality most mentioned by many students who nominated her for the award.  She is equally well respected by her colleagues.

"I like to describe her as one of our teaching 'rock stars' because our students are so attracted to her teaching style," says Jos Ullian, chairman of the Communication Department. "Her classes are exciting, rigorous and informative."

Sargent's commitment to student success extends beyond the classroom to include academic advising for more than 30 students, serving as the faculty adviser for the College Republicans, and working with student interviewers on classroom communication research. 

At the university level, she is an active member of the Teaching Innovation Program Advisory Board, the Curriculum-Related Activities Committee, and the Academic Standing Committee.  She also shares her teaching expertise with Southern faculty through workshops, including the First-Year Experience Academy and the Teaching Innovation Program. Her teaching is complemented by an ongoing research agenda that includes health communication, training and development and pedagogy.

Frankel-Gramelis is the director of community education at Milford Hospital and regularly teaches two sections of a course in stress management and health promotion for the university's Public Health Department.

She is a former Southern student who earned both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from the university. "I believe being a student here myself has added to my understanding of how important it is to be involved and available to your students in and out of the classroom," she says.

Students who nominated her for the award have stressed her compassion for students and the life lessons they learned from her, as well as the positive differences she has made in their lives. 

Bill Faraclas, chairman of the Public Health Department and a former professor of Frankel-Gramelis, says he hired her to teach part time more than a decade ago. "From the very start, and without exception, she has performed her teaching role with distinction - even beyond the level I had imagined," he says. "Her energy is matched only by the joy she derives from her classroom experiences."

Outside of the classroom, Frankel-Gramelis guides and mentors student interns at the Milford Hospital Education Department and presents workshops on stress reduction and health-related strategies for Southern's resident advisers and the School of Graduate Studies. She has also shared her professional expertise through presentations for the Wellness Center, at the Women and Work Life Balance Conference and during Administrative Professionals Day.

The J. Philip Award for Outstanding Teaching is awarded annually to one full-time and one part-time faculty member.  Nominations are solicited from the entire university community.  Nominees are invited to submit their portfolios demonstrating their teaching excellence.  The portfolios are then reviewed by the Outstanding Teaching Award Committee.  Key criteria are excellence in teaching, innovation in teaching, motivational and pedagogical techniques and professional development contributions and research in their field that relate to teaching.

The committee forwards its recommendations to the coordinator of faculty development, who then forwards the recommendations to the provost.

The book is by Terrence McNally, with music and lyrics by David Yazbek. Performances are Wednesday and Sunday at 2 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. For information call (860) 767-7318 or visit www.ivorytonplayhouse.org.  The theater is located at 103 Main Street in Ivoryton, Conn. 

Nye reports that in addition to the Southern alumni working at Ivoryton this summer, other Southern theater grads are performing and working for many other theaters across New England. He says that Jenna Sisson, '08, is playing "Amber" in Hairspray at The Weathervane Theatre in Whitefield, N.H., and Josh Wills, '09, is playing Sebastian in The Tempest for Capital Classics Theatre Company, based in West Hartford. The show takes place on the campus of St. Joseph College in West Hartford, July 9-26, with shows Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 5:30 p.m. Other students are working as stage managers and technicians throughout the region as well. "Our students are using their degrees professionally," Nye says.

Fifth time is the charm

Regina Milano has taken the fifth when it comes to her education at Southern. Fifth degree, that is.

Milano recently participated in a graduate commencement ceremony in anticipation of receiving her Doctor of Education degree in educational leadership and policy studies. Upon completion of her dissertation, she will have earned a diploma for the fifth time from the university. And she will become one of only four students in university history to have earned a Southern degree at each of the four levels -- bachelor's, master's, sixth year and Ed.D.

"Southern has been like a second home for me," says Milano, a high school science teacher at the Stiles Alternative Learning Center in West Haven. "I have developed so many positive relationships with faculty and staff, as well as my fellow students."

After graduating from Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden, she entered Southern and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in communication. But it was when she returned to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in biology that her career path began to take shape. "I fell in love with biology after having worked with faculty members like Dwight Smith (currently the department chairman) and Noble Proctor (biology professor emeritus). They are among the best researchers in their field, and they brought the subject to life with collections and slide shows."

Milano later earned a Master of Science degree in biology, when she realized she wanted to enter the teaching profession.   

She landed a job 13 years ago as a high school science teacher at Sacred Heart Academy. Three years later, she opted to enter the public education arena and for the last seven and a half years, has taught science at Stiles.

Milano credits her mother, Jane Ciarlone, who serves as coordinator of Southern's Office of Study Skills Enrichment, with instilling in her the value of education. She said another impetus for her drive toward earning the Ed.D. is probably rooted in her own experiences as a student.

"As a student, particularly in high school and as an undergraduate, things didn't always come easy," she says. "But in the long run, that extra effort that I had to put in made me appreciate accomplishments in education even more and gave me an extra motivation to achieve. I also think it has helped me as a teacher to see things from a student's perspective."

She is thinking of becoming an adjunct faculty member at the college level and plans to work more closely with animals, such as pursuing training in the field of wildlife rehabilitation and writing for publications that focus on animals.

Milano said helping animals has been a passion of hers for many years. She credits Rosalyn Amenta, a Southern faculty member, with helping her during her undergraduate days to generate the intellectual fire power to convert her love of animals into tangible results that benefit them and improve the environment.

training the stars

Brian O'Loughlin was already living what many people would regard as the American Dream -- happily married with a rewarding career that was providing him with countless travel opportunities and the chance to hobnob with some famous people.

As a personal trainer, he worked with the likes of Hall of Fame golfer Chi-Chi Rodriguez and "The Big Man" Clarence Clemons, a saxophone player for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.

Yet, one thing was missing from an otherwise fulfilling life -- a college diploma. O'Loughlin had been an active member of campus while he was enrolled as a Southern student in the late 1980s and early 1990s. O'Loughlin was nearly finished with his coursework, when the lure of a steady paycheck from a local gym led him to take a semester off from school. That one semester off led to another semester and then another. Eventually, he ditched plans to finish school when he relocated to Florida as part of an effort to further his personal training career. And the effort succeeded in enhancing that career.

Despite his success, the thought of forgoing that degree gnawed at him for years. He was particularly pained because his parents were always huge advocates of education.

"Being so close and never finishing -- it killed me inside," O'Loughlin said. "It chased me all around the world. No matter what I did, I never forgot that I didn't finish college."

That one misgiving was finally erased recently, when O'Loughlin received a Bachelor of Science degree in exercise science. He finally had decided to take action about a year ago, when he got in touch with Frank Ladore, a friend from his college days and now interim director of Southern's Office of Academic Advisement. He wanted to see what it would take for him to complete his degree. Ladore, after analyzing his transcript and consulting with several university staff members, informed him that only two classes were needed to complete the degree -- a foreign language and a world history class. So, O'Loughlin successfully completed courses in Spanish and Western Civilization at Indian River State College in Florida, where the credits would be transferred to Southern.

"I felt like a thousand-pound weight was lifted off my shoulders," says O'Loughlin, who credits Ladore for helping him to rewrite his life story. "He changed my life...he was so awesome and so helpful."

While at Gold's Gym in Stuart, Fla., O'Loughlin worked as a trainer and developed nutritional programs for clients. One client, Susan Loretti, then married to professional golfer Larry Loretti, recommended O'Loughlin to Rodriguez, who became a regular client.

He worked for Clemons for five years on several different tours, noting that the grueling schedule was "consistently inconsistent." He frequently got by on three hours of sleep. O'Loughlin says he once traveled to Spain, Germany, and France in a 24-hour period.

"I was able to meet some of the best musicians in the world," he says. "These musicians are the legends...talented beyond words."

O'Loughlin now works as a therapist at the Egoscue Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where he helps people correct their posture through specific exercises and stretches to eliminate pain. His work at the clinic offers new challenges and rewards.

PREVENTING INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE 

Anne Bubriski admits she "grew up in a bubble." "I never knew about domestic violence," she says, until a college course she took as an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut opened her eyes and changed her life. "I read a chapter in a textbook about domestic violence, and it was shocking to me that it existed. Reading about it got me interested in the process and the dynamic."

Bubriski came to Southern three years ago to earn a master's degree in women's studies and wrote her thesis on "Breaking Silence: African American Women Resisting Structure and Intimate Partner Violence." She graduated last month and in August will head to Florida, where she will enter the doctoral program in sociology at the University of Central Florida, one of only a few Ph.D. programs that offer a specialization in domestic violence. She received a teaching assistantship that will provide a full tuition waiver and a monthly stipend. The UCF sociology program has a nationally renowned scholar on violence against women, so the program is a good match for Bubriski.

Bubriski is particularly interested in domestic violence -- also known as intimate partner violence -- with regard to gender, class and race. In her thesis research she looked at the disproportionate representation of African American children in the welfare system and at the connection between child removal and IPV. Even as victims of IPV, African American mothers, in particular, often have to prove that they are "good mothers" in order to get their children back. Bubriski says that women's studies emphasizes giving back to the community, and she wants to turn her research into practice and get into preventive work, particularly with young men.

The statistics on IPV are tough: Bubriski says that one in four women in the United States has been a victim of domestic violence. "I couldn't believe it when I read this statistic," she says. Eighty to 85 percent of survivors are women, and 45 percent of first-time violence happens when a woman is pregnant. Abuse is also a problem among same-sex couples, Bubriski says, and she plans to look more into that in her graduate studies.

Bubriski says domestic violence is more complex than many people realize. "It's not enough just to say 'you can't hit a woman,'" she says, adding that there are seven or eight aspects of abuse. "Controlling behaviors are big -- controlling money, isolating a woman from her friends, manipulating the kids against her, cutting down her self-esteem. It's not usually that a woman gets hit out of the blue; other issues often come first. This is why I think preventive work is so important -- there's misunderstanding about what constitutes abuse."

Bubriski's thesis adviser, Yi-Chun Tricia Lin, director of the women's studies program, says that whatever Bubriski does "is driven by a greater vision for social change. Working with the underrepresented and underprivileged is her goal, and she finds her calling in making a change in a world that is marred by inequality." 

a time for everything

Working two jobs and helping to raise three boys while going to Southern part time, Anthony Gadsden has learned to make the most of his time.

"During the time school is out, it's unbelievable what the kids and I accomplish," Gadsden says, noting that he tries to spend "every ounce of time" with his children when he isn't at work or studying.

He applies that same ability to make the best use of his time when he is working, as well. A nurse's assistant at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport, he was voted "Employee of the Year" in 2000, just a year after taking that position. He previously had worked in the medical facility's kitchen and later patient transport, before colleagues had suggested he become a nurse's assistant.

He recently earned a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology after starting at Southern in 2004.

In addition to taking classes, he has worked full time at St. Vincent's and has held down a part-time job at Jimmy's Hip Hop, a fashion store in Bridgeport. Between the two jobs, he regularly works every day, with the exception of every other Sunday. But Gadsden, 36, says the sacrifices he has made because of work and school were well worth it. Getting his degree was important, he says, because he wants to be an example to his children -- Dominick, 17; Anthony Jr., 10, and Brandon, 7. He says he could not have achieved his goal without support, particularly from his family.

"It's called having a great wife," Gadsden says about the key to his success and ability to juggle work, school, and family responsibilities.

Gadsden's hectic schedule didn't leave much time to enjoy the campus life as much as he would have liked, but he says the people he met at Southern were "unbelievable" and he loved the campus environment.

While he has a fulfilling career, Gadsden says he would like to explore his options now that he has a college diploma. He is particularly interested in helping people with substance abuse issues for a state agency, such as the Department of Children and Families or the Department of Adult Probation.

During internships, Gadsden got to see what a career in counseling would be like, and feels that it could be his true calling. Counseling seems like a good fit, he says, because he enjoys helping people, giving them "a breath of hope" for change.

Michael Ryan, professor of sociology, says he has been impressed by Gadsden. "Anthony just walked in one day as a typical advisee and I was impressed by his spirit and continued to be impressed during his tenure at Southern," Ryan says. "He made a phenomenal impression on all of the sociology professors. He's just an example of someone who very, very much appreciates the opportunity to receive an education."

This event provides an opportunity for alumni and friends to support and encourage the academic and athletic growth of Southern's student athletes. All proceeds from the tournament will be used for student scholarships and program enhancements for the Athletics Department. For more information and to register, click here: www.southernctowls.com

Russian philosophers had a rare chance recently to learn more about how their American counterparts view their discipline when Philosophy Professor Armen Marsoobian and his co-editor John Ryder traveled to Moscow for a book launch of the Russian translation of their book, "The Blackwell Guide to American Philosophy." The launch took place Sept. 26 at Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow.

Ryder is director of international programs at the State University of New York (SUNY) System Administration. SUNY and Moscow State University are engaged in a partnership that dates back to the mid-1970s. Marsoobian is editor of the journal Metaphilosophy, in addition to being a member of the Southern Philosophy Department faculty.

The U.S. State Department's Moscow Embassy chooses a few American books for translation into Russian each year and subsidizes these books' publication. Marsoobian says his and Ryder's book was chosen for publication in 2008 because of the high level of interest in Russia on the subject of American philosophy. 

Marsoobian explains it is not easy to publish American books in Russia without a government subsidy, and while the publishing industry in Russia used to be state subsidized, the number of academic books published has dropped since the end of the Soviet Union. 

"Philosophy is a pretty big subject area in Russia," he says, adding that at Moscow State, 2,000 undergraduates are studying philosophy, down from 4,000 before the collapse of the U.S.S.R. "It's staggering how large the university's philosophy program is," he says. Moscow State, home to the largest university building in the world, was the leading educational institution for the Communist world during the time of the Soviet Union but has now opened up.

Marsoobian explains that in Russia, a book launch is an academic event, similar to a conference. At the launch of his and Ryder's book, a dean of the university spoke, as did representatives of the embassy and the publisher, along with Marsoobian and Ryder. Then the audience had a chance to speak about their work in American philosophy and how they see this book being useful to them, or not. A book signing and reception followed the discussion.

About 30 philosophers attended the launch, Marsoobian says. Many had copies of the book, and some of these scholars had worked on American philosophy. "One person argued that there's no such thing as American philosophy," Marsoobian says. "He argued that you can't identify philosophy with a particular nation, that it transcends national identity and characteristics." 

Marsoobian was given copies of books and articles in Russian, and in turn, as a token of gratitude, he gave the faculty a gratis subscription to Metaphilosophy. "They haven't been able to get many English language journals so they were very happy," he says. 

Marsoobian is also trying to encourage more submissions to the journal from Russia. The journal is international but doesn't receive many submissions from Russia, and Marsoobian wants to make Russian philosophers more aware of it. "Being able to go to Moscow opens the door to new potential collaborators," he says.The Moscow State faculty said they'd like to bring American and Russian philosophers together to talk about philosophy across the East/West divide and to consider such questions as whether nationality affects philosophy. 

Marsoobian was in Russia for a week, from Sept. 25 to Oct. 1. He divided his time between Moscow and St. Petersburg, where he also met informally with faculty at a university. He has been invited back to Moscow State to give a series of lectures and hopes to work out an exchange of some kind between Southern and Moscow State.



 

Special Olympics Connecticut will host its annual Summer Games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, June 5, 6, and 7, 2009.  Most events will take place on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University with the soccer competitions being held at the Hamden Hall Country Day School Soccer Fields in Hamden.

Over 2100 athletes & partners from across the State will be competing for medals in sports such as soccer, cycling, aquatics, gymnastics, track and field, and tennis.  When not competing, the athletes can visit Olympic Town and take part in creative activities or go to the Healthy Athletes area where they can get their eyes, ears, feet, and teeth checked or get a quick massage - all for free.

SPECIAL OLYMPICS CONNECTICUT SUMMER GAMES

June 5, 6 & 7

2,141 Athletes & Partners
864 Coaches
4,000+ Volunteers

SITES & SPORTS COMPETITIONS
Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven
Aquatics, Athletics, Cycling, Gymnastics, Tennis & Housing

Hamden Hall Athletic Fields, Hamden
Traditional & Unified Sports Soccer

SPECIAL EVENTS
Law Enforcement Torch Run - June 3-5
3 days...statewide...3,500+ law enforcement officers, volunteers
& Special Olympics athletes running over 640 miles throughout 100 cities and towns

Opening Ceremonies - Friday, June 5, at Jess Dow Field, SCSU
A dynamic celebration with a parade of athletes, ceremonial lighting of the
Olympic Flame and family entertainment

Olympic Town - Saturday, June 6, & Sunday, June 7, at SCSU
Educational, Cultural, & Interactive Activities

Healthy Athletes Village - Saturday, June 6, & Sunday, June 7, at SCSU
Health screenings with Special Smiles, Opening Eyes, Fun Fitness, Fit Feet,
Health Promotion, Healthy Hearing and Massage Therapy

Victory Dance - Saturday night, June 6

Family Hospitality - June 6 & 7, at SCSU

TENTATIVE COMPETITION SCHEDULE
Friday, June 5
12:00 PM - 4:00 PM - 200Meter Run & Walk, Developmental Aquatics

Saturday, June 6
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM - Competition @ all venues

Sunday, June 7
8:00 AM - 4:00 PM - Competition @ all venues

For more information, call (203) 230-1201 or visit http://www.soct.org/

The trip is being made possible in large part by the generosity of the Stutzman Family Foundation, which last year announced its intention to fund a music lessons program for Southern music majors. Represented by Walter Stutzman (below, left), who just graduated from Southern in May with a bachelor's degree in music, the foundation made the gift to the choir because, as Stutzman says, "We wanted to be sure that people in the department could go on this trip and take advantage of this opportunity."

The opportunity is one that Gemme and the choir have been dreaming of for a few years. Simon Carrington, director of the Yale Schola Cantorum and professor of choral conducting at Yale University, invited the Southern choir to take part in the Dublin performance, which he will conduct. Gemme and the students were interested in joining, but cost was an obstacle. 

The Dublin "Messiah" is one of many similar events taking place around the world this year, which marks the 250th anniversary of the death of composer George Frideric Handel. Handel, born in 1685, was a German-English composer whose works include "Messiah," "Water Music" and "Music for the Royal Fireworks." He composed "Messiah" in the summer of 1741, and the work premiered in Dublin in 1742. Among the most popular works in Western choral literature, the oratorio includes the beloved "Hallelujah Chorus." 

When Gemme and the choir discussed the possibility of such a trip, students who were interested said they could probably afford half the cost, which is about $4,000 per person. "We thought about it again in the fall, and then the economy started to tumble," Gemme says. "We weren't sure the university could afford to support the trip financially."

Enter Stutzman. When he heard about the choir's interest in the Ireland trip, and about the cost being an obstacle, he made a generous offer.  

"Walter said we need music more than ever in these dark times," says Gemme. "He sees music as being a light in the darkness." He offered to provide $53,000 - about half the cost of the trip - with the balance being covered by students' personal funds as well as money raised through fundraisers.
Choirs from all over the world will participate in the performance, and Stutzman sees great value in this "chance for Southern's musicians to be part of the international music community. These opportunities don't come along very often."

In addition to rehearsing and performing, the choir will go sightseeing in Ireland and in London. A few of the students have traveled, but many needed to get their passports for the trip. Gemme points to cultural exposure as one of the main benefits of such an experience. "Being able to perform in a choir of singers from all over the world in a place like St. Patrick's Cathedral, and to be singing a masterpiece like 'Messiah' in the place where it was premiered, is so exciting," she says. 

The choir performed "Messiah," parts 2 and 3, at Spring Glen Church in Hamden on May 8, along with some singers from the church congregation. The trip to Ireland is June 14-22.      

"Even though these students already love singing," says Gemme, "this experience has the potential for changing their lives."
 

But last June, she was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis -- a progressive disease in which scar tissue forms in the lungs and eventually destroys the lungs' capacity to deliver an adequate amount of oxygen to the bloodstream. In addition, she has several related conditions, such as pulmonary hypertension. As a result, Lynch is hooked up to an oxygen tank nearly 24 hours a day, whether it's the large converter that turns air into pure oxygen or one of her portable tanks that provides her with 20 to 30 minutes of oxygen apiece. In addition, she takes immune suppressor drugs, steroids and even Viagra to improve blood flow.

Nevertheless, none of that has kept her from her job. She simply has had students move the oxygen converter from her office to the classroom and remains connected to it with a 50-foot cord that allows her to move around in the classroom. "I can still walk, talk and drive, so why not keep teaching?" she says. "Sure, it is more difficult now. But I've never been one to just sit at home all day."

Her courageous approach to life has even caught medical professionals off guard. "My doctors just roll their eyes when I tell them I am still teaching," says Lynch, who adds that the person who makes the oxygen converter was surprised when she asked him about purchasing a second such device to keep in her SCSU office. "He told me he's never gotten such a request before because people my age who use the converter usually just stay home."

Gregory Paveza, dean of the School of Health and Human Services, says Lynch exemplifies dedication to her students and the university. "In most instances, folks with Barbara's illness would have simply given up," he says. "Her fighting spirit is admirable and is a quality that we should all aspire to have."

And while Lynch - who has taught at Southern for about 35 years -- is retiring at the close of this semester, she has not ruled out serving as an adjunct faculty member.

Nevertheless, her zest for life belies the seriousness of her illness. No cure exists and her treatment, at best, may slow down the progression of the disease.

"When I was finally diagnosed with it, the doctor told me that he had good news and bad news," Lynch says. "The good news was that it wasn't my heart. But the bad news was that it's this. And he told me that while they can fix many bad hearts, they can't fix lungs in this condition. In fact, when I asked him why he became a doctor who specialized in lungs, he said it was because it is the 'last frontier' in medicine. There is so much they still need to learn about lungs."

She says a lung transplant could "buy a few years," but that she is not eligible because of her age. Nevertheless, she is open to drugs in the experimental phase.

"Lungs are very complex little machines, yet we all take them for granted, until something like this happens," Lynch says.

She would like to help educate the public about pulmonary fibrosis. "Even though there isn't a cure yet, early detection is still important because the disease can be treated earlier and extend a person's life.

"The only real symptom I had initially was a little shortness of breath," she explains. "At first, I thought it was just because of my advancing age."

But the worsening of symptoms eventually prompted her to seek medical attention about 16 months ago. She went for a variety of tests and was finally diagnosed with the illness in June 2008.

Pulmonary fibrosis can be caused by a variety of factors, but often is idiopathic (no known cause). Lynch believes her case might be hereditary, noting that her mother had similar symptoms before dying in 1983 of Legionnaires' disease, an ailment that affects the lungs. She adds that pulmonary fibrosis was not something that was readily diagnosed at that time. "It makes me wonder if that's what she had," she says.

As for the future, Lynch remains realistic about her prognosis, but also hopeful. "Let's just say that I'm still buying green bananas," she said.
 

Undergraduate Commencement ceremony

friday, may 29, 2009

connie chung ~
investigative reporter, news anchor

An award-winning investigative reporter and one of the most recognizable faces on American television, Connie Chung has been a powerful force in the news industry for more than 35 years.

She began her long career in TV news in 1969 in her hometown of Washington, D.C., where she worked at WTTG-TV Metromedia (now Fox), first as a copy person, then as a news writer, and later as a news reporter. She joined CBS News in 1971 as a national correspondent for the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. In 1976, she moved to Los Angeles, where she spent seven years as an anchor.

In 1983, she joined NBC News as a national correspondent and anchor. Her assignments included anchoring the Saturday edition of the "NBC Nightly News," "NBC News at Sunrise," "NBC News Digests," several primetime specials, and a news magazine. While at NBC News, Ms. Chung was a substitute anchor for "NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw." She was a floor correspondent at the 1984 political conventions and a podium correspondent during the 1988 conventions, and provided political reporting and analysis during the presidential campaigns and election nights in 1984, 1986, and 1998.

Ms. Chung rejoined CBS News in 1989 as an anchor and correspondent of "Saturday Night With Connie Chung" and also anchored the Sunday edition of the "CBS Evening News." In 1990, she became the anchor of the Emmy Award-winning CBS News primetime magazine program, "Face to Face with Connie Chung." During this time, Ms. Chung conducted a series of exclusive interviews, including the first and only national television interview of Joseph Hazelwood, the captain of the Exxon Valdez, and the first interview with Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson after his announcement that he was HIV positive.

From 1993 to 1995, Ms. Chung was co-anchor of the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and Connie Chung," and anchor and correspondent on "Eye to Eye with Connie Chung." During that time, she covered the historic Israel/PLO signing ceremony at the White House. She also obtained an exclusive interview with Chinese leader Li Peng on the five-year anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Ms. Chung was a floor reporter for CBS News during the 1992 national political conventions and provided analysis during election-night coverage in 1990, 1992, and 1994.

During 1997, Ms. Chung was a fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In November 1997, she joined ABC News as co-anchor and correspondent on the ABC News primetime news magazine "20/20."

During the 1999-2000 "20/20" season, Ms. Chung was awarded the Amnesty International Human Rights Award for her report that revealed that young women in Bangladesh were being brutally burned with acid as revenge for turning down advances from men.

During that same season, Ms. Chung won several awards for "Justice Delayed," an investigative hour that uncovered new information in the 1966 murder of Ben Chester White, an African American from Mississippi. Her report led the U.S. Justice Department to re-open the case after more than three decades and to indite, try, convict, and sentence Ernest Avants for the murder.

In January 2002, Ms. Chung joined CNN to anchor "Connie Chung Tonight." She left on-air duties at CNN in March 2003.

The first Asian American and only the second woman to serve as nightly news anchor on a major TV network, Chung has received three Emmy Awards, including two for best interview/interviewer. In addition, she is the recipient of a George Foster Peabody Award, honors from American Women in Radio and Television, and an Outstanding Young Woman of America Award.

Ms. Chung graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Science degree. She has been married to Maury Povich since 1984. The couple lives with their son, Matthew, in Manhattan.

graduate commencement ceremonies • thursday, May 28, 2009

Orlando L. Taylor ~

Vice Provost for Research, Dean of the Graduate School, and Professor of Communications, Howard University

afternoon commencement speaker

Orlando L. Taylor is currently Vice Provost for Research, Dean of the Graduate School, and Professor of Communications at Howard University. He has held many other positions at Howard, including Dean of its School of Communication and Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs. [photo credit: Howard University]

Prior to joining the Howard faculty in 1973, Vice Provost Taylor was a faculty member at Indiana University. He also has served as a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Dr. Taylor is a national leader in graduate education and within his discipline. He is currently or has served previously as a member of numerous national boards, including the Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), for which he served as Board Chair in 2001. He is also a Past President of the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools and the National Communication Association. He is a former member of the Advisory Committee of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources of the National Science Foundation and of the Advisory Council at the National Institutes of Health. He is also the former president of the Consortium of Social Science Associations and a current member of the Board of Trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Board of Directors. He chairs the National Advisory Board for the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, a major NSF-funded center at the University of Wisconsin.

As Graduate Dean at Howard University since 1993, Vice Provost Taylor has played a significant role in assuring Howard's continued national leadership in graduate education. Howard, a richly diverse institution, produces more African American on-campus Ph.D. recipients than any research university in the United States. Vice Provost Taylor is a leader in several national initiatives involving graduate education. He has been a particularly vigorous advocate and spokesperson on topics and issues relating to access and equity in higher education.

Vice Provost Taylor has raised several million dollars in research, training and program development grants from federal and private sources during his career at Howard University. Currently, he serves as PI on major grants from the National Science Foundation to increase the production of minority Ph.D. recipients in science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) and in the social, behavioral and economic (SBE) sciences; as well as from the U.S. Department of Education to develop collaborative academic and research programs between universities in Brazil and in four European Union countries with Howard University and several others in the United States. He is the author of numerous articles, chapters, and books.

Vice Provost Taylor has earned honorary doctorates from Purdue University, Indiana University, The Ohio State University, Hope College and DePauw University. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association awarded him its highest award, Honors of the Association, and the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan awarded him its Distinguished Service Alumni Award.ward.

Dr. Taylor received his bachelor's degree from Hampton University, master's degree from Indiana University, and Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan. 

michael bolton ~
singer, songwriter

evening commencement speaker

During the course of his extraordinary career, Michael Bolton - singer, songwriter, and social activist - has sold more than 53 million albums and singles worldwide, and has won, among his other numerous awards, two Grammies for Best Male Vocalist and six American Music Awards. A native of New Haven, Conn., he has earned a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame and sold out arenas worldwide. The dynamically diverse performer has also sung and recorded with such iconic talents as Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, and Ray Charles, played guitar with B.B. King, and had his music sampled by hip-hop superstar Kanye West (featuring megastar Jay-Z) and also on a CD/DVD by John Legend.

A prolific songwriter as well, Mr. Bolton has composed songs for legendary artists including Barbra Streisand, KISS, Kenny Rogers, Kenny G., Cher, Peabo Bryson, Patti Labelle, Joe Cocker, Marc Anthony, Greg Allman, Wynonna Judd, and many others. He has earned multiple honors as a songwriter, including BMI's Songwriter of the Year, Song of the Year, and Million-Air awards, ASCAP's Writer and Publisher Awards, and a Hitmaker Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He's one of a very few artists to have written with the incomparable Bob Dylan. Mr. Bolton has also collaborated with noted songwriters Diane Warren, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Desmond Child, and Babyface. 

Mr. Bolton believes in giving back in his own way, too. A dedicated social activist, he established the Michael Bolton Foundation 16 years ago - now Michael Bolton Charities, Inc. (MBC) - to provide assistance, education, and shelter to children and women at risk from poverty, as well as physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Since its inception, the MBC has raised significantly more than $7 million in funding for local and national charities. The organization focuses its efforts in Connecticut and New York, with the goal to deepen and empower children's engagement in their own educations and futures and to develop educational support through scholarships, workshops, incentives, and internships. The foundation also collaborates with the corporate and business community, state and local governments, schools at all levels, and social services to develop outreach programs and employment opportunities for children across socioeconomic and multicultural lines.

Through the MBC, Mr. Bolton has also been deeply involved in, among other campaigns, the struggle to raise awareness about domestic violence. He is vice chair of the board of advisers of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) and, in May 2008, he served as co-chair of the 30th anniversary worldwide celebration of the violence against woman's movement.

Mr. Bolton served as executive producer for the Lifetime Network's documentary "Terror at Home: Domestic Violence in America," for which he wrote and recorded the song "Tears of the Angels," which was nominated for an Emmy Award. Mr. Bolton's organization has enabled him to testify before both houses of Congress, notably as a champion of The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and as an advocate for the safety of women and children generally. He believes that of all the opportunities that his career has afforded him, this is the most important.

Mr. Bolton has served as honorary chairman of Prevent Child Abuse America, national chairman for This Close for Cancer Research, and is a board member for the National Mentoring Partnership and the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. Among the philanthropic awards Mr. Bolton has received are the Lewis Hine Award by the National Child Labor Committee, the Martin Luther King Award by the Congress of Racial Equality, and the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations.

Vice Provost for Research, Dean of the Graduate School, and Professor of Communications, Howard University

Orlando L. Taylor is currently Vice Provost for Research, Dean of the Graduate School, and Professor of Communications at Howard University. He has held many other positions at Howard, including Dean of its School of Communication and Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs. [photo credit: Howard University]

Prior to joining the Howard faculty in 1973, Vice Provost Taylor was a faculty member at Indiana University. He also has served as a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Dr. Taylor is a national leader in graduate education and within his discipline. He is currently or has served previously as a member of numerous national boards, including the Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), for which he served as Board Chair in 2001. He is also a Past President of the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools and the National Communication Association. He is a former member of the Advisory Committee of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources of the National Science Foundation and of the Advisory Council at the National Institutes of Health. He is also the former president of the Consortium of Social Science Associations and a current member of the Board of Trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Board of Directors. He chairs the National Advisory Board for the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, a major NSF-funded center at the University of Wisconsin.

As Graduate Dean at Howard University since 1993, Vice Provost Taylor has played a significant role in assuring Howard's continued national leadership in graduate education. Howard, a richly diverse institution, produces more African American on-campus Ph.D. recipients than any research university in the United States. Vice Provost Taylor is a leader in several national initiatives involving graduate education. He has been a particularly vigorous advocate and spokesperson on topics and issues relating to access and equity in higher education.

Vice Provost Taylor has raised several million dollars in research, training and program development grants from federal and private sources during his career at Howard University. Currently, he serves as PI on major grants from the National Science Foundation to increase the production of minority Ph.D. recipients in science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) and in the social, behavioral and economic (SBE) sciences; as well as from the U.S. Department of Education to develop collaborative academic and research programs between universities in Brazil and in four European Union countries with Howard University and several others in the United States. He is the author of numerous articles, chapters, and books.

Vice Provost Taylor has earned honorary doctorates from Purdue University, Indiana University, The Ohio State University, Hope College and DePauw University. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association awarded him its highest award, Honors of the Association, and the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan awarded him its Distinguished Service Alumni Award.ward.

Dr. Taylor received his bachelor's degree from Hampton University, master's degree from Indiana University, and Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan. 

During the course of his extraordinary career, Michael Bolton -- singer, songwriter, and social activist -- has sold more than 53 million albums and singles worldwide, and has won, among his other numerous awards, two Grammies for Best Male Vocalist and six American Music Awards. A native of New Haven, Conn., he has earned a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame and sold out arenas worldwide. The dynamically diverse performer has also sung and recorded with such iconic talents as Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, and Ray Charles, played guitar with B.B. King, and had his music sampled by hip-hop superstar Kanye West (featuring megastar Jay-Z) and also on a CD/DVD by John Legend.

A prolific songwriter as well, Mr. Bolton has composed songs for legendary artists including Barbra Streisand, KISS, Kenny Rogers, Kenny G., Cher, Peabo Bryson, Patti Labelle, Joe Cocker, Marc Anthony, Greg Allman, Wynonna Judd, and many others. He has earned multiple honors as a songwriter, including BMI's Songwriter of the Year, Song of the Year, and Million-Air awards, ASCAP's Writer and Publisher Awards, and a Hitmaker Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He's one of a very few artists to have written with the incomparable Bob Dylan. Mr. Bolton has also collaborated with noted songwriters Diane Warren, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Desmond Child, and Babyface. 

Mr. Bolton believes in giving back in his own way, too. A dedicated social activist, he established the Michael Bolton Foundation 16 years ago - now Michael Bolton Charities, Inc. (MBC) - to provide assistance, education, and shelter to children and women at risk from poverty, as well as physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Since its inception, the MBC has raised significantly more than $7 million in funding for local and national charities. The organization focuses its efforts in Connecticut and New York, with the goal to deepen and empower children's engagement in their own educations and futures and to develop educational support through scholarships, workshops, incentives, and internships. The foundation also collaborates with the corporate and business community, state and local governments, schools at all levels, and social services to develop outreach programs and employment opportunities for children across socioeconomic and multicultural lines.

Through the MBC, Mr. Bolton has also been deeply involved in, among other campaigns, the struggle to raise awareness about domestic violence. He is vice chair of the board of advisers of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) and, in May 2008, he served as co-chair of the 30th anniversary worldwide celebration of the violence against woman's movement.

Mr. Bolton served as executive producer for the Lifetime Network's documentary "Terror at Home: Domestic Violence in America," for which he wrote and recorded the song "Tears of the Angels," which was nominated for an Emmy Award. Mr. Bolton's organization has enabled him to testify before both houses of Congress, notably as a champion of The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and as an advocate for the safety of women and children generally. He believes that of all the opportunities that his career has afforded him, this is the most important.

Mr. Bolton has served as honorary chairman of Prevent Child Abuse America, national chairman for This Close for Cancer Research, and is a board member for the National Mentoring Partnership and the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. Among the philanthropic awards Mr. Bolton has received are the Lewis Hine Award by the National Child Labor Committee, the Martin Luther King Award by the Congress of Racial Equality, and the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations.

The Connellan Prize, open to students at the four CSUS universities, is named for the former poet laureate of Connecticut, who was also the CSUS poet-in-residence. The John Holmes Award, given by the New England Poetry Club, the oldest poetry club in the country, is presented for a single outstanding poem by an undergraduate or graduate student enrolled in a New England college. Vivian Shipley, professor of English and a prize-winning poet herself, calls the prize "significant."

Keylock has been working towards an M.A. in creative writing at Southern but was accepted into the university's new M.F.A. program in creative writing, which starts in the fall, so he will continue his work in that program. He earned his undergraduate degree at Southern, as well as an M.S. in English with teacher certification. 

An English teacher at Newtown High School, where he teaches juniors and seniors, Keylock also co-coaches, with poetry slam champion Elizabeth Thomas, Connecticut's youth poetry slam team. Keylock explains that slam poetry is "more urban and hip hop" than what he teaches or writes himself but that "the kids love it."

Slam poetry, performed for an audience and judges, "can be very contemporary," Keylock says. "It can be a response to war, or to something else in the news, and it can be highly personal." The best slam poets, he says, are the ones that work "both on the page and on the stage." The youth slam team Keylock co-coaches is now headed to represent Connecticut at Brave New Voices / International Youth Poetry Slam and Festival in Chicago in July.

Keylock's own poetry is largely inspired by his experiences within the volatile atmosphere engendered by the Irish/English conflict in England during the 1980s, when he was growing up. 

"As a kid in England," he says, "I had jobs picking potatoes and baling hay, and these were the only times in my experience when English and Irish would mix. There were a lot of Irish in my town, and in the '80s, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was pretty big. There was tension between the Irish and the English. Bombs were going off every week in England. Leaving England and being away from it for so long, I write a lot about that topic now because I have some distance from it."

Keylock left England when he was almost 17, backpacked around Europe and came to New York City by himself when he was 18. Always a reader, he found books to be great traveling companions. He only began writing poetry in earnest about four years ago, once he had finished his teacher certification. "I started writing and just got into it," he says. "I started reading more about poetic structure and form and learning more about the genre. I became more willful in my choices as I wrote." 

He started writing "The Tattie Hawker" on his own and finished it in a workshop. The poem draws on the tensions Keylock recalls between the Irish and English in his hometown and portrays an English boy's futile crush on an Irish girl. Having taken poetry writing workshops with both Shipley and English professor Jeff Mock, Keylock gives credit to both for having helped him shape this poem. 

Mock describes Keylock's poems as "tough-minded, gritty, muscular and still elegant." Shipley says Keylock's poems "offer the consolation of an intelligent human spirit who speaks of what flails at his heart. He struggles with the blackness and is not broken, showing us that we must not refuse to look away from the world, from its terror, but that we also must not ignore its ravishing beauty."

Keylock received the Connellan Prize at a writers' conference at Central Connecticut State University in April. 

Click here to read "Font."

Click here to read "The Tattie Hawker."

The quartet comprises this year's nominees for the Henry Barnard Foundation Distinguished Student Award. Each year, Southern chooses four outstanding students for the award who have at least a 3.7 GPA and have demonstrated outstanding participation in university and/or community life. A total of 12 students are selected each year from the four campuses of the Connecticut State University System.

Alberto Cifuentes, Jr. (at left), a media studies and English major, has a 3.75 GPA. He plans to continue his studies after taking a semester off to work for a state or national grassroots/nonprofit issue advocacy group.

Cifuentes has been a member of LGBTQIA Prism for two years, the last year as its co-president. He also has been treasurer of the Media Studies Club and secretary of the SCSU chapter of Amnesty International. He has been employed as a student worker in Buley Library since 2004. He serves as co-chairman of the Connecticut chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. He led a discussion last year for the Ella Grasso Youth Action Conference on the new teen driving laws. He has been a recipient of the Sylvia Spino Endowed Scholarship and the Dr. Adelaide P. Amore Memorial Endowed Scholarship, both from the SCSU Alumni Association.
"Alberto is not only a sophisticated critical thinker, outstanding researcher and exceptional scholar, but a human being who demonstrates kindness, generosity and empathy for every other living creature," says Rosemarie Conforti, chairwoman of the Media Studies Department.

Megan Rudne (at right), an art education major, has a 3.8 GPA. She plans to pursue a Master of Science degree in special education with a specialization in autism spectrum disorders.

Rudne is a member of the President's Sustainable Climate Committee and the Environmental Futurists Club. She has been employed as a student worker for the last two years in the Office of Judicial Affairs and for the last two and a half years as a resident adviser in the Office of Residence Life. She has been feeding homeless people on the New Haven Green for the last two and a half years. She was the recipient of the Sylvia Leggiero Spino Memorial Scholarship from the SCSU Alumni Association in both 2007 and 2008.

"She interacts with students at all levels and engages them in constructive community activities," says Mitchell Bills, chairman of the Art Department. "In addition, her past work as a nanny, a teacher, a Big Sister and a camp counselor speaks to her interest in working with younger children."

Catherine Shortell (at left), a history/secondary education major, has a 3.81 GPA. She plans to seek employment as a high school social studies teacher. 

Shortell is a member of the executive board for Zeta Delta Epsilon, the university's honors community service organization. She has been a member of the Newman Society for four years, including a term as its president in 2005. She has served as a volunteer at the St. Ann's Soup Kitchen, as well as having participated in the Hunger Awareness Crop Walk and the New Haven Cook and Care Walk-a-thon. She has volunteered as an SAT prep coach for Project GEAR UP. She worked as a private tutor for the last seven years for students in grades 6 to 12, including home-schooled students in the subjects of social studies, science, English and Latin. A member of the Honors College, she has been a student teacher at Sheehan High School in Wallingford. She has been a care giver for her mother, who is a quadriplegic.

"I admire her steadfast commitment, her remarkable grace and maturity, her ability to balance academic endeavor with love of family and selfless service to her mother," says Terese Gemme, Honors College director. "Often in these recommendations, we extol our students for their notable sense of responsibility. Seldom in my experience has the acknowledgement of this attribute been so richly deserved."

Walter Stutzman (at right), a music major, has a 4.0 GPA. He plans to teach music appreciation, theory and/or piano in a secondary school in Connecticut.

Stutzman is a nontraditional student, opting to pursue a music degree after working 30 years in the field of software design and implementation. In so doing, he was able to convert his hobby of music into his vocation. He has served as a volunteer accompanist for the choir at Temple Beth Tikvah in Madison. He earned departmental honors in music last year. He had earned a Master of Arts degree from Yale University in linguistics in 1975 and a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Pomona College in 1971.

Jonathan Irving, chairman of the Music Department, describes Stutzman as someone who "helps fellow students in ways that often go without any publicity; a person whose moral character rises to an example of humanity through often silent deeds, but with a conscience for service towards the betterment of life." 

Through his family foundation, Stutzman recently made a gift to the university to establish and support the Southern Applied Music Program. The program will provide free weekly private voice or instrument lessons to all declared music majors who maintain a C-minus or better average in music courses.

http://southernct.edu/emailblast/4_30_09/ESS_RWJrLecture_2009.pdf

The event is sponsored by the Department of Sociology, Alpha Kappa Delta, and the Sociology Club. 

Date and Time: Friday, May 8, 2009, 3-4:30 p.m.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Location: Engleman Hall C112

Contact Information: Dr. Jessica Kenty-Drane, (203) 392-5689, kentydranej1@southernct.edu

Kuss has received awards from the American Academy and the Institute of Arts and Letters, the N.E.A., the Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer, A.S.C.A.P., the Copland Foundation and others. His work has been performed by the 20/21st Century Consort, the Folger Consort, the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, at Merkin Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the MacDowell Colony, the Swannanoa Music Festival, the Monadnock Music Festival, Composers Inc., Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, and throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

His recent projects include a Soprano Saxophone Concerto written for and premiered by Branford Marsalis and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, music for the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon, cellist Fred Raimi, and for Hesperus -- ensemble-in-residence at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.    

Mihai Marica, a 2008 graduate of Southern, began his training as a cellist at the age of seven at the Music High School in his native city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Now a member of Yale Cellos and a student of Yale's celebrated cello teacher Aldo Parisot, Marica won the 33rd International Music Competition in Vina del Mar in Chile, regarded as one of the most prestigious music competitions in the world. He played a Carnegie Hall debut concert in 2008 and is currently the acting principal cellist of the New Haven Symphony.

The ONE concert, sponsored by SCSU, will take place at 8 p.m. at Battell Chapel, located at the corner of College and Elm Streets, New Haven.

Since its founding in 1974, Orchestra New England has presented over 700 concerts, most at ONE's home base at Yale's Battell Chapel, with other engagements taking place in concert halls throughout New England and along the Eastern seaboard. Maestro James Sinclair has served as the music director of ONE since its founding. His versatility in delivering superb performances in a variety of styles -- from the Baroque to pop literature -- drives the remarkable success of ONE.

To order tickets for the May 2 concert, contact the Shubert Box Office at (203) 562-5666 or (888) 736-2663 or online at www.shubert.com.

For more information about ONE, visit the ONE Web site.