Breeze, Curio, Bluestone named pacemakers

  Three JMU student publications earned national recognition at the 2004 Associated College Press conference in Nashville. The Breeze placed third out of 41 newspapers for the Best of Show category for its Oct. 28, 2003, issue. The newspaper was also a finalist in the Pacemaker competition, which received more than 2,000 entries. 

Curiomagazine, created by students in the School of Media Arts and Design's feature magazine production class, was one of eight magazines to earn a Pacemaker award. The 2003 issue was edited by Jeanine Gajewski and Travis Clingenpeel. She wrote the essay, "Does he hate me?," on Page 36 of this issue. The Bluestone was also a Pacemaker finalist for the 2003 issue. Sarah Duff ('04) served as editor-in-chief of the yearbook.

The Pacemaker, considered the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism, is the Associated College Press' top honor.      

 

Economics program ranks 15th in nation

JMU ranks in the Top 20 colleges and universities nationwide in a new study of economics education research productivity among higher education institutions. The study, conducted by Melody Lo and M.C. Wong, economic professors at the University of Southern Mississippi, used data from The Journal of Economic Education, published at Indiana University. The study tied JMU at 15th with Duke University, New York University, the University of Delaware and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"This ranking is a tribute to our faculty and their dedication to improving teaching," says Ehsan Ahmed, economics professor and director of JMU's economics program.

JMU has a nationally recognized Center for Economics Education that conducts research in economics education and serves area schools with funding from a local nonprofit organization, Shenandoah Valley Economic Education. "We couldn't have achieved this ranking without SVEE," says center director and economics professor William C. Wood.

The Lo-Wong study is included in the book, Shaping the Learning Curve: Essays on Economic Education.    

 

Professor honored for service to others

  Psychology professor Lennis Echterling received the 2004 Humanitarian and Caring Person of the Year Award from the Virginia Counselors Association. The award recognizes VCA members who care for the welfare of others, address social issues and problems, and give to others without fanfare.

Echterling, who directs JMU's counseling psychology program, has more than 30 years of experience in crisis and disaster work. Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he served as a Red Cross volunteer with survivors at the Pentagon. He is the author of three books, including Crisis Intervention: Promoting Resilience and Resolution in Troubled Times.

In 2002, Echterling received the Counseling Vision and Innovation Award from the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision and the JMU Distinguished Faculty Award. "The Humanitarian and Caring Person of the Year Award is a wonderful honor, and I am very grateful to those who nominated me and wrote letters of support to the awards committee," says Echterling. "But no one can be a caring person without the constant care of marvelous colleagues, a loving family and generous friends."    

 

JMU takes aimat the national nursing shortage

JMU received a $1.2 million federal grant to fund a new master's program aimed at increasing the numbers of nurses serving the needs of a rapidly aging population and of teachers of nursing to combat a national critical shortage of nurses.

JMU's master of science in nursing program was launched last fall thanks to a three-year Advanced Education Nursing Program grant from the Health Resources and Service Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Merle Mast, professor and head of JMU's department of nursing and project director for the grant, says the two-year master's program offers two role options: nurse practitioner and nurse educator.

Graduates of the nurse practitioner track will be certified as adult or gerontological nurse practitioners, with the focus on providing primary care. The nurse educator track will train graduates to teach in collegiate nursing programs and community education settings. Full- or part-time enrollment in the program is available and the Web-enhanced curriculum will also lend itself to working nurses.

Linda Hulton, coordinator of the master's program, says the value of the nurse practitioner track will be to improve the health and quality of life for older adults in Virginia. "In our area, there are 10 communities designated by the government as 'medically unserved' and as 'health--professional shortage areas,'" she says. "Future impact of chronic disease in the Blue Ridge region is profound, and our program will help meet that need by providing nurse practitioners who have -special training with aging clients."

 

Myrlie Evers-Williams speaks at MLKDay

Myrlie Evers-Williams, chair emerita of the NAACP and widow of civil rights movement leader Medgar Evers, spoke at JMU's 18th Martin Luther King Day observance saying, "In the spirit of Dr. King, find your dreams and live them -- because without vigilance, you will see them erode from the landscape." Evers-Williams, along with her late husband, opened the first NAACP field office in Mississippi. She was the first woman to serve full time as NAACP chair and is the author of For Us, The Living, which tells about her husband and the civil rights struggle. Medgar Evers was shot to death in 1963 outside his home in view of his family. Two trials of the accused assassin, Byron De La Beckwith, ended in hung juries. In 1994, Evers' murderer was convicted and sentenced to life in prison and died in 2001. Other campus MLK events included a poetry night, peace march, University Sunday service and a showing of Ghosts of Mississippi, the 1996 film chronicling the Evers' story.

 

Former U.S. Attorney General to deliver Madisonlecture

Former U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, who helped in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, will present the annual James Madison Day lecture March 16. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Katzenbach to the post as the nation's top law-enforcement officer. Katzenbach served from Feb. 11, 1965, until Oct. 2, 1966, when he resigned after clashing with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and his policy of ordering unauthorized wiretaps of people such as Martin Luther King Jr. In 1962, then Deputy Attorney General Katzenbach worked with President John F. Kennedy to secure the release of prisoners captured in the Bay of Pigs operation on Cuba and oversaw the Justice Department's efforts in desegregating the University of Mississippi. The following year he directed the Justice Department's field operations in desegregating the University of Alabama, personally delivering the federal government's order to Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace.

 

 

A grizzly outcome

Duke Dog's perfect voting score not enough to fetch mascot crown.

 

Although he went 11-0 in his first competition for Capital One's National Mascot of the Year title, Duke Dog lost to Monte, mascot for the University of Montana Grizzlies. Monte took the mascot crown and $5,000 prize for the second time in three years.

Fortunately, Duke Dog still has some bragging rights. He won the online vote in the mascot competition. And, oh yeah, the Dukes beat Monte and his Grizzlies in the NCAA Div. I-AA national football championship 31-21.

Last year, Duke Dog came in 13th in his first attempt to make the Capital One mascot program and served as an alternate for the 12-member mascot team. This year, the popular pooch made it to the final 12 and gained national media attention for Madison. Duke Dog and his 11 furry foes appeared at halftime during ABC's coverage of the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day. The 12 mascots also appeared in nationwide Capital One VISA marketing and billing mailings; Capital One commercials on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2; and in an Oct. 12 Washington Post article.

Capital One's national mascot competition is featured online at www.capitalonebowl.com from October to December. Each mascot's written and video applications are judged by ESPN on the criteria of sportsmanship, interaction with fans and community service. Those scores are combined with each mascot's online win/loss record and the popular vote to reach a final score. 

Duke Dog's campaign manager, senior Mike Keown, says, "I'm just ecstatic. Even though we didn't win, we garnered some national publicity for JMU. Students and alumni really showed their support in the online voting."

Keown and fellow senior James Matarese worked together to get Duke Dog on the Capital One Mascot Team. Keown handled publicity and marketing, and Matarese produced and edited Duke Dog's spirited application video, which features the popular pup's community service and interaction with fans. The video features JMU President Linwood H. Rose, men's basketball coach Dean Keener, members of the football team and JMU fans interacting with Duke Dog.

Nearly 300 collegiate teams enter a mascot in the Capital One mascot competition annually. Of the 12 college and university mascots competing for the national title, only three were Div. I-AA football program schools, including JMU. "Marketing and promoting the online vote was the hardest part of this project for me," says Keown. "Other schools that we were competing against have bigger alumni numbers, but JMU students and alumni are dedicated."

Matarese says, "Just getting Duke Dog in the final 12 was a commendable feat. Many students and fans offered substantial help in marketing and publicity efforts, voting online and spreading the word. The free publicity for JMU is awesome, and I commend everyone on their hard work."

President Rose adds, "Duke Dog went 11-0, and his competitor won with a 6-5 record. Duke Dog must feel a little like Auburn. Thank you for representing us. You're No. 1 in our hearts."

-- Michelle Hite ('88)

 

 

 

 

International science group taps professor

Biology professor Grace Wyngaard was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and officially honored at the 2005 AAAS annual meeting in Washington, D.C., in February.

Wyngaard, who joined the faculty in 1988, was recognized by the AAAS "for distinguished and innovative leadership at the National Science Foundation during the embryonic stage of integrative biology and biocomputing for developing NSF programs in environmental biology, and for research on chromatin diminution in copepods."

In 1993-94 Wyngaard worked at the NSF as a policy-setting program officer in the divisions of population biology and physiological ecology. From 1998 to 2001, she served as deputy director and director of the division of integrated biology and neuroscience. In her first year at the NSF, Wyngaard developed the Undergraduate Mentoring in Environmental Biology grant program, which encourages minority students at small colleges to study science through work with faculty mentors at research universities.

Currently Wyngaard is studying why tiny crustaceans excise DNA during early development and whether repeated DNA sequences found in many organisms are functional or "junk" DNA. Wyngaard is one of 308 members elected this year to the rank of fellow by peers in the AAAS, the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.

 

Welltraveled
JMU students rank third in study abroad

 

JMU ranked third among master's-level institutions for the total number of students who studied abroad in 2002-03, moving up one spot from the previous year.

The annual report, Open Doors, published by the Institute of International Education, surveys top institutions for study-abroad participation and ranks schools by doctoral/research, master's and baccalaureate levels.

For 2002-03, 626 JMU students participated in semester, full-year and short-term study-abroad programs. Leading the list are Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., with 800 students, and Elon University in Elon, N.C., with 737. JMU and the University of Richmond are the only two Virginia institutions to appear on the top 20 lists.

 

Creating cleaner fuel

JMU hosted a statewide conference in November to highlight the environmental and economic benefits of biodiesel fuel technology. The Virginia Biodiesel Conference was sponsored by the City of Harrisonburg, JMU's department of integrated science and technology, Blue Ridge Clean Fuels, Holtzman Corp., and Biodiesel Refinery Inc.

The conference, "Perspectives and Possibilities," focused on the production and use of biodiesel, an efficient, clean-burning fuel derived from sources such as vegetable oils, and on its future statewide and nationally. JMU and the City of Harrisonburg are using biodiesel in their bus fleets.

"The conference was a rare opportunity for a wide range of people including policy makers, environmentalists, farmers and educators to learn about biodiesel technology and to share information and experiences," says C.J. Brodrick, an ISAT professor, a conference coordinator and a leader in biodiesel research and applications in the Shenandoah Valley and Interstate-81 corridor. She has put her JMU students on the forefront of biodiesel data gathering and monitoring in the valley.

Conference speakers included Jon Van Gerpen, professor and department head of the department of biological and agricultural engineering at the University of Idaho; Patricia Passarella, leader of the U.S. Department of Energy's Clean Cities/Alternative Fuels and Biofuels program; Nic Van Vuuren, director of Virginia Clean Cities; and Rick Koontz, vice president of Holtzman Corp. in Harrisonburg.

 

Centennial Scholars Program
Building diversity in the student body

Financing the cost of higher education is a major barrier that has kept many qualified and deserving students from low socioeconomic backgrounds from attending college. To meet this challenge, JMU has developed a new program to lower this barrier for qualified underrepresented and minority students who cannot afford college. Nearly 30 students enrolled at JMU last fall through the Centennial Scholars Program.

The program is directed by Daniel Wubah, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics. Wubah is also special assistant to JMU President Linwood H. Rose and chairs the Presidential Commission for Diversity in Student Admission and Employment of Faculty and Staff. "One of the goals of the president's commission is to offer a richer educational experience for students by establishing a criti-cal mass of underrepresented populations among the faculty, staff and students," says Wubah. "The Centennial Scholars Program is a first step in this initiative."

Rose adds, "JMU graduates will work and live in diverse settings, and their success as educated and enlightened citizens will be enhanced by exposure to different perspectives, interpretations and points of view."

The Centennial Scholars Program provides a financial aid package of grants that cover students' full billable cost to attend JMU: tuition, fees, room and board for a maximum of four years. The program also provides social development and academic enrichment to students who take part in biweekly meetings with Wubah and monthly seminars. Students also work individually with mentors and interact with scholars, experts in diverse fields and community leaders.

"The program stresses the value and reward of pursuing advanced degrees and careers while developing the skills necessary to succeed beyond JMU," says Wubah. "This program enhances other JMU students' academic success since diversity enriches the educational experience and promotes growth."