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NURSING DEAN RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS APPOINTMENT
Johnson & Johnson has appointed Cynthia Flynn Capers, dean of the College of Nur-sing, to serve on an advisory panel for the company’s recently launched national program – The Campaign for Nursing’s Future.
Capers, along with 11 other leaders in nursing, will act as an adviser to the multi-year campaign being developed to help address the national nursing shortage. The campaign, in which Johnson & Johnson estimates it will invest more than $20 million over the next two years, includes programs to enhance the image of the nursing profession, to recruit new nurses and faculty, and to retain current nurses.
“Johnson & Johnson truly is presenting a gift to nursing,” says Capers, whose own nursing and teaching career spans more than 30 years. “This is the first that I am aware of that a corporation has extended such support to the nursing profession.”
Capers, who joined UA in 1997, views the Johnson & Johnson campaign as a mechanism for nursing professionals to extend their mission and increase public awareness of their profession.
“We cannot expect Johnson & Johnson to solve all of our problems,” Capers says. “Rather we must use this gift as a tool to further our goals and to educate the public in terms of what nursing is about and the many opportunities in the field.”
The campaign initiatives include producing recruitment brochures, posters and videos for high schools, nursing schools and nursing organizations, as well as scholarship funds for students and nursing faculty. There also will be a national advertising campaign to celebrate nurses and their contributions.
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SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL IS APRIL HIGHLIGHT
Spring and Shakespeare are synonymous — at least here at the University. On April 18, the Department of English will host its annual Shakespeare Festival. The events are free and open to the public and include a lecture, an essay contest and a party celebrating Shakespeare’s 438th birthday.
University of Delaware Professor Robert B. Bennett will deliver the 2002 Cathryn Carroll Taliaferro Shakespeare Lecture at 5 p.m. in the Martin University Center, South Room. “Shakespearean Anonymity and the Virtue of Disguising” will be the title for his talk.
Bennett’s special interests include the drama of the English Renaissance and
the 20th century. His recent scholarly book is “Romance and Reformation: the Erasmian Spirit of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.”
Following the lecture, the winners of the UA Shakespeare Essay Contest will be announced. Two top prizes – one graduate and one undergraduate – and three honorable mentions will be awarded for Shakespeare papers written for UA English department courses.
The evening concludes with a Shakespeare Gala Birthday Party, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Hors d’oeurves and birthday cake will be served.
For more information call ext. 7603.
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CONGRESSWOMAN VISITS CAMPUS
U.S. Represen-tative Stephanie Tubbs-Jones of Ohio’s 11th Congressional District gave the keynote address at the Women in Higher Educa-tion’s annual Women’s History Month luncheon on March 18.
After an introduction by John LaGuardia, the University’s vice president of public affairs and development, Tubbs-Jones spoke to the group about presence of women in leadership positions in the past and the work that women are doing now, including her own efforts in congress.
Women in Higher Education also honored 111 outstanding women students who had been nominated for recognition by the deans of their respective colleges on the basis of their University leadership, community involvement and academic excellence. The students all received certificates.
Current Women in Higher Education officers are Marcia Main, president; Linda Marx, president-elect; Mae Schreiber, vice president; Peggy Lemmon, secretary; Nettie Riddick, treasurer; and Therese Lueck, past president and adviser to the executive board.
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DISTINGUISHED EDUCATION ALUMNI IN SPOTLIGHT
The College of Education will honor distinguished alumni for their achieve-ments in the field and significant contributions to their community on April 23 at the annual College of Education Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner.
Festivities begin with registration at
5:30 p.m. at Martin University Center, followed by dinner and the program. The cost is $25 per person. For more information, contact Christine Curry or Chris Franz in the Alumni Association at ext. 7270.
The 2002 College of Education Distinguished Alumni Award winners are Richard Boyd ’70, director of educational programs at the Barksdale Reading Institute at the University of Mississippi; Margie Maloney ’74, middle school teacher/resource, curriculum teacher, Jasmine County Schools, Nicholasville, Ky.; Cleorah Scruggs ’70 ’77, retired K-6 teacher, Flint Michigan Board of Education and president of Scruggs and Associates Education Consulting Services; and Sylvester Small ’70 ’76 ’84, superintendent of Akron Public Schools. The special Dean’s Award will be presented to Janko Kovacevich ’52, professor emeritus of counseling and special education at UA.
The 2002 Outstanding Faculty Award recipients are Sandra Coyner assistant professor, curricular and instructional studies, Outstanding Teaching Award; Ann Hassenpflug, associate professor, Educational Foundations and Leadership, Outstanding Research Award; and Susan Colville-Hall and Carole Newman, both associate professors in Curricular and Instructional Studies, Outstanding Service Awards.
Campus Partner Awards will be given to Gregory Townsend, assistant professor of physics, and David McConnell, professor of geology.
Summa Health Systems will be honored as a Community Partner of the College of Education.
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BOB TAFT INTERNSHIPS PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES
University of Akron students interested in learning about practical politics are benefiting from a new internship opportunity — the Bob Taft Internship in Applied Politics — named for Ohio’s current governor.
Donald, Imogene, Samuel and Andrew Demkee established the Bob Taft Internship in Applied Politics to help political science students gain practical experience in working with officeholders, political party officials and political candidates. Benefactors continue to make contributions to the endowment.
The Bob Taft Internship is one of 20 nonpartisan, endowed internships in applied politics offered by the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics to help students defray their expenses while they work with professional politicians.
More than 100 UA students are provided assistance through the Bliss Institute internships each year, according to Dr. John C. Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics. The internships help students who work with political office holders or candidates or political party officials at either the state or federal level.
“These endowed internships give our students a distinct advantage,” Green says. “Through them, our students get the opportunity to work on focused political campaigns, in legislative and administrative offices or for political parties for a full semester. The work that they do is a part of their studies and helps them to move more fluidly from the classroom to the working world of politics after graduation.”
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DEPAUL ACCEPTS NEW CHALLENGE
Christina DePaul, director of the Mary Schiller Myers School of Art since 1995, has been named dean of the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, D.C. She will assume her new post in July.
DePaul, who holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from Carnegie-Mellon University and a master of fine arts degree from the Tyler School of Art, joined UA in 1986.
A nationally known metalsmith, she has exhibited her work throughout the world. Her pieces can be found in many private, corporate and museum collections, including the White House, the American Craft Museum and the Progressive Collection.
At the Myers School of Art, DePaul directed the school’s significant growth with the help of a 1997 endowment from arts patron Mary Schiller Myers. She led the school in increasing enrollment, the hiring this year of five new faculty members and the implementation of a major residency program that brings acclaimed artists to campus to present public lectures and work side-by-side with art students.
“This is great news for both Ms. DePaul and for our Myers School of Art,” says Mark Auburn, dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts. “Being sought for such a prestigious post is a high profile endorsement of Ms. DePaul and her talents as a leader as well as of the outstanding program that she and her faculty have built here in Akron.”
“While we are saddened to be losing a valued colleague who has done great things for the School of Art, I am pleased for her and the great opportunity she has been given,” says President Luis Proenza. “This is a very clear testament to the quality of our faculty.”
DePaul will play a key role in a major expansion at the Corcoran.
Located in a landmark Beaux Arts building across from the White House, the college and gallery are about to embark on construction of a 140,000 square-foot wing designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry that is to be completed by 2004-05.
The Corcoran ranks among America’s oldest and most distinguished colleges of the visual arts. One of the only true “museum-schools” in the country, the Corcoran College of Art and Design maintains its original partnership with the Corcoran Gallery of Art by providing its students with hands-on access to the museum’s world-class collections, curators, and exhibitions.
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NEW HIGH-SPEED CONNECTION LINKS UA AND KSU
A new high-speed fiberoptic line connecting The University of Akron and Kent State University now provides a technological bridge for such functions as collaborative teaching and research opportunities. Academic and technology officials for both schools have praised the link as clear evidence of a determination to leverage institutional strengths for regional benefit.
The “Gigaman” line from Ameritech is a direct, dedicated connection between UA and KSU, says Thomas Gaylord, UA's vice president and chief information officer. The line became operational in February.
“As the name Gigaman implies, this line has the capacity for gigabit transmission — or 1,000 megabits,” says Gaylord. “It provides much more direct bandwidth between our two institutions than our separate connections to the general Internet do, so high-end, e-learning collaborations are now enabled. An Ethernet switch will handle the translation between the two university networks."
Although the universities share the line, each school will have secure use of its own data, Gaylord adds.
The new line will benefit the teaching and research efforts of faculty members on both campuses, says Terry L. Hickey, UA senior vice president and provost.
“We can offer joint classes and collaborative classes where we can showcase the talents of the faculty on both ends of the connection,” Hickey says. “And this kind of high-speed line will allow the transfer of huge amounts of data, so it can promote timely research collaborations between our two institutions as well.”
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WEBCT/UA PARTNERSHIP EXPANDS BOUNDS OF EDUCATION
The University of Akron will be an official beta test site and developer for WebCT VISTA — a new generation of course management software. UA is one of a small number of universities in the United States and Canada selected as a test site.
“This new partnership positions UA in a strategic and highly visible relationship with WebCT,” says Thomas Gaylord, UA vice president and chief information officer. “It means UA will have an e-Learning infrastructure advantage with probably the single most important instructional technology tool for enhancing UA’s long range instructional vitality in the coming years.”
WebCT of Lynnfield, Mass., provides e-Learning courseware platforms for higher education. The company’s current software products provide centralized, online course management systems. WebCT software now is used at the University to support individual courses. Instructors are able to place all course materials online, set up chat rooms and send e-mails to students.
VISTA is designed to offer a wider array of teaching and learning tools, significant enhancements to overall performance and expanded support for Instructional Management System standards. The new version also offers enhanced performance and can be expanded across all server platforms.
According to the company, more than 2,500 institutions in 81 countries use WebCT in their curriculum. Current plans are to deploy the VISTA software in pilot tests with a few UA faculty members during fall 2002.
Other institutions participating in the pilot test include Purdue University, The University of Alberta (Canada) and the Georgia state educational system.
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ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENTS TO BE HONORED
The College of Engineering Distinguished Alumni Awards Breakfast will be hosted April 19, beginning with registration at 7:30 a.m. at Martin University Center. The cost is $15 per person. For more information, contact Christine Curry or Chris Franz in the Alumni Association at ext. 7270.
Established in 1990 to mark the 75th anniversary of the College of Engineering, this award honors distinguished alumni for their achievements in engineering and significant contributions to their community.
The 2002 award recipients are George Chase ’78 ’89, UA professor of chemical engineering; David Granger ’73 ’76, president, GPD Group; Mary Ellen Kimberlin ’83, assistant director, Ohio Department of Transportation; Robert Leibensperger ’70, retired executive vice president and COO of The Timken Company - president, Bearings Co.
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TECHNOLOGY TO BE TESTED ON CAMPUS
Cisco Systems, Inc. and IBM Corp. have donated equipment worth $53,000 to enable the University to test Voice Over/Internet Protocol technology (VO/IP). The test of this cutting-edge technology will help UA determine the viability of using VO/IP for the entire campus.
VO/IP allows data and voice signals to be carried simultaneously over the same telephone lines. The technology also is known as telephony. The integration of telephony services into a data network provides a more efficient system than today’s dual-network approach.
Cisco and IBM are providing three servers, software and telephones that are needed to implement VO/IP in a test environment for UA. The University will use the test to determine the feasibility of expanding VO/IP technology across campus. The donated equipment will be able to handle as many as 2,500 phones.
“The benefits of this new technology are convergence and simplicity. It ends the need to have phone lines separate from data wires,” says Thomas Gaylord, UA vice president and chief information officer. “With this technology, the University will not need to maintain the more costly current telephone architecture. By using VO/IP technology, a person can use both phone and data at the same time and, if they change offices, they simply carry their telephone to the new location, plug it in and it works straightaway.”
Ultimately, the standard for success of the test will be if users see no difference in the performance of their voice and data systems, adds Gaylord.
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ANNUAL PRESIDENTIAL SUNRISE BREAKFAST PLANNED APRIL 26
Four College of Business Administration alumni will receive Dr. Frank L. Simonetti Distinguished Business Alumni Awards on April 26 at the annual Presidential Sunrise Breakfast. Registration begins at 7 a.m. at Martin University Center. The cost is $25 per person. For more information, contact Christine Curry or Chris Franz in the Alumni Association at ext. 7270.
The 2002 recipients are Anthony Alexander ’72 ’75, president and COO of FirstEnergy Corp; Linda Wheeler Banton ’79, vice president of aerospace government relations at Honeywell International; Robert H. Black ’82, president of Cleanest Inc.; and Andy Platt ’78, director of customer service for J.M. Smucker Company.
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UA ALUMNUS REMEMBERS ALMA MATER
The College of Business Administration’s building campaign has benefited from a bequest from alumnus Robert L. McCormick Jr. In 1978, McCormick established a life insurance policy to benefit the university. After his death in November 2001, the bequest was valued at more than $130,000.
A 1948 graduate of the College of Business Administration, McCormick went on to become chairman of Homestead House, Inc., one of the nation’s largest retail furniture companies. In 1993, he received the Frank L. Simonetti Distinguished Business Alumni Award. McCormick was involved early on with the “Evening with the Accountants” program, and committed himself to make it a mainstay of the college. Each September, the program allows students to meet with representatives of accounting firms and businesses to gather information for internship opportunities.
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'SUITE' DEAL ON ORACLE SOFTWARE
Business students at the University can learn two important lessons from the acquisition of a full suite of enterprise-wide management software — the practical uses of the software and the real-world art of negotiating a great deal for it.
The Department of Management has acquired the $2.5 million Oracle E-business Suite for a nominal $3,000 per year, says Roger C. Mayer, department chair. The suite includes more than 100 modules, including finance, human resources, supply chain management and customer relationship management. A database and other tools such as the Oracle Design, Developer and Discoverer data mining software also are included.
The cutting-edge software suite offers many exciting possibilities for the UA business curriculum, according to Bindiganavale S. Vijayaraman, an associate professor of management and information systems, who negotiated the Oracle deal. Although CBA has started teaching courses on the suite in the management program, the college will soon use the software in the finance, accounting, marketing and other programs, he says.
“There are very few universities that have the full access to the Oracle suite that The University of Akron now has,” Vijayaraman adds. “Once our students have the opportunity to be trained on both the Oracle and PeopleSoft systems, that will truly put CBA and our students on the cutting edge.”
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EXTENSION OF DATA LINES UNDER WAY
The University of Akron is expanding the service area for modem lines that allow faculty, staff and students to dial into the University’s data network from their home computers.
New modem data lines are being extended into Portage County communities. Lines have been in service for Cleveland and Canton municipal areas since last summer. The extension will permit students, faculty and staff in the Atwater area to dial into the UA intranet using local telephone services.
From July to December 2001, five lines from Cleveland and five from Canton have served UA personnel and students living in those areas, helping them to realize savings over using long-distance telephone lines.
Based on the use of 1.3 million minutes of telephone time, UA community members living in the Cleveland and Canton municipal areas who used dial-up modems to connect to The University of Akron data lines realized an estimated savings of more than $100,000 in the last six months of 2001. The estimate is based on costs of eight cents per minute for long-distance telephone charges.
The University of Akron paid just over $5,000 to provide that service to its students, faculty and staff.
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GAR FOUNDATION ESTABLISHES ZODROW ENDOWED FUND
The GAR Foundation, a private charitable trust established by chief executive officer of Roadway Express Inc. Galen J. Roush, has presented a $200,000 gift to the University in memory of UA alumnus Charles F. Zodrow. The gift establishes The Charles F. Zodrow Fund for Faculty Development for the George W. Daverio School of Accountancy in the College of Business Administration.
Zodrow, who died in September 2001, was an emeritus director of The University of Akron Foundation. He also had received an Alumni Honor Award. Known for his civic involvement and leadership, he served as president of the Akron Community Foundation and as a member of the GAR Foundation's distribution committee.
A veteran of World War II, Zodrow earned a Juris Doctor from the School of Law in 1958. He joined Roadway Express in 1959 and served as chairman and CEO from 1982 until his retirement in 1987.
“The gift from the GAR Foundation in memory of Charles Zodrow is a fitting tribute to a true gentleman who served as a role model to many,” says President Luis M. Proenza. “Mr. Zodrow was highly regarded in our community, because his business success was founded on an honest, respectful and determined journey toward innovation and excellence. It is appropriate that the GAR Foundation, whose founder exemplified the same principles, has devoted resources to Mr. Zodrow’s legacy.”
The Charles F. Zodrow Fund for Faculty Development will make funds available for professional develop- ment opportunities for faculty in the school of accountancy to foster expertise in the varied fields of accountancy. As these faculty members become better able to direct the program, a pattern of leadership and innovation will develop where senior faculty members will serve as mentors to newer faculty to take their teaching research and service to the next level.
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