The Virginia Festival of the Book is looking for faculty authors of “recently published books on topics of interest to the general public–history, science, current affairs, sports–really anything that would appeal to Virginia Festival of the Book attendees,” according to the program director. More information is available at the web site http://www.vabook.org/index.html/
Ernest Ackerman
The fifth edition of “Searching and Researching on the Internet and the World Wide Web,” co-authored by Ernest Ackermann, professor of computer science, and Karen Hartman, a former UMW staff member, has been published recently. The first edition of “Searching and Researching” was published in 1997, when Hartman was a reference librarian in the Simpson Library. She currently holds a position in the U.S. State Department. This edition extends the focus on formulating search strategies, understanding how to form search expressions, evaluating information, and citing resources to the social and other technologies often associated with the term Web 2.0.
Michael McCarthy
Michael McCarthy, a visiting instructor in the English department, has had his first poems accepted for publication. Poetry East, described by the American Library Association as “one of the best current journals of poetry,” will publish four of his poems in its fall issue. They are titled “On My Birth Certificate,” “Etch a Sketch,” “Enchanted,” and “Spiral Staircase.”
Beate Jensen
Beate A. Jensen, buildings and grounds preservation supervisor at Gari Melchers Home and Studio, has written an article on how to create and maintain meadows to sustain wildlife in the summer issue of Magnolia, the publication of the Southern Garden History Society. In addition to explaining how to make a meadow, the article also deals with why historic sites and other organizations that manage open land should consider converting non-native fescue lawns to native grass lands.
Andy Rush
DTLT New Media Specialist Andy Rush presented “This Old New Media Center” at the 2010 NMC Summer Conference. Fashioned after the PBS television program “This Old House,” the presentation highlighted using new media tools in a Do-It-Yourself way. Andy demonstrated how to use a set of inexpensive tools to capture and stream a live presentation. He also talked about the future of video on the web, in the form of HTML5, discussed a toolkit that everyone using new media should have, and highlighted the Digital Media Cookbook site that provides new media recipes for managing, creating, and producing digital media.
Link to presentation page:
http://digitalmediacookbook.com/nmc-2010/
If you’re interested in learning more about ways to incorporate new media into your classroom or courses, feel free to contact Andy.
Jane Huffman
Jane Huffman’s former student, a CGPS grad, dropped a note to thank her for her support. Samantha Ludwig announced she had become an American Diplomat and was headed to Tripoli, Libya, to use the education skills she learned at UMW in the local schools in Tripoli and the American School of Tripoli.
New Chief of Police
Eddie Perry has been named UMW’s new chief of police. Perry, who started work this month, is responsible for the overall operations of the police department, including forming and controlling the annual budget as well as development and dissemination of police directives. In addition, he coordinates training and fostering departmental communication.
A state employee for the past 15 years, Perry most recently served as chief of police at Thomas Nelson Community College where he directed patrol sergeants and supervised departments. He also served as a police lieutenant at Virginia State University.
Perry is secretary for the Virginia Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. In addition, he is a member of the Virginia Association of Chief of Police and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.
Ian Rogol
Ian Rogol is the new head athletic trainer at UMW. Rogol is a graduate of JMU and holds a Master of Education degree in athletic training/sports medicine from UVA. You can read more about him at
http://umweagles.com/news/2010/8/23/GEN_0823104904.aspx.
Students Gain Honors for Mathematics Department
Students Andrew Snyder-Beattie and Kevin Groat won an “Outstanding Presentation” award at Mathfest, the national meeting of the Mathematical Association of America. This year, there were over 150 student talks at the meeting and the MAA gave only 20 awards. Their project, “Geometric Brownian Motion, a Safe Assumption?” was completed as part of the Summer Science Institute under the direction of Dr. Julius Esunge. This is a significant achievement for both the students and the faculty advisor. Several faculty from other schools came up to Keith Mellinger after the presentation requesting details about the successful program at UMW.
Jay Harper
Provost Jay Harper recently participated as a new member of the Army War College 5th Annual Strategy Implementation Seminar in Carlisle, Pa. He was one of approximately 71 business, government, academic, and community leaders from across the country who took part in the three-day seminar held in July. The seminar is the capstone event of the two-year distance education curriculum at the Army War College, the Army’s senior educational institution.
The principal purpose of the seminar is to enhance student learning through exposure to a cross-section of American perspectives by reaching out to community leaders across America. Each new member is assigned to one of 20 student seminar groups and becomes an active participant in seminar discussions, sharing from their own background, experience, beliefs, and perspectives on these issues.