Notables

Michael Bump, professor of music and director of percussion studies, was recently elected to the Percussive Arts Society Board of Directors for a four-year term. Elections took place in June from a slate of 10 members, from which two were selected. Voting was cast from an international membership of 10,000 professional performers, composers and educators. Bump currently serves as chair of that organization’s New Music and Research Committee, as well as a four-time host for the Percussive Arts Society’s annual four-day international convention.

Jesse Krebs, associate professor of music, has been appointed to serve as the next research coordinator for the International Clarinet Association. The duties of this post include coordinating the ICA Research Competition that takes place at the annual ClarinetFest conferences (2017 in Orlando, Fla., and 2018 in Ostend, Belgium), supervise the research area of the ICA website and act as a liaison to the ICA Research Center, housed at the University of Maryland Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. His two-year term of service will begin Sept. 1, 2016.

Daniel Mandell, professor of history, served as chair for the “Transnational Political Actors in North America’s Borderlands, 1800-1850,” during the annual meeting of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, in New Haven, Conn.

The Truman baseball team was highlighted as one of the American Baseball Coaches Association’s Team Academic Excellence Award winners. The bulldogs earned the award for posting a grade-point average of 3.36 for the 2015-16 academic year. They were one of only 20 NCAA Division II programs to earn the award and one of 140 college and high school programs nationwide to be named on the inaugural ABCA Team Academic Excellence list. The bulldogs had 24 players on the roster earn Academic All-GLVC in June.

Both Truman track & field squads earned recognition from the United States Track & Field & Cross Country Coaches Association for their academic achievements during the 2015-16 year. With a 3.55, the bulldog women had the fourth-highest cumulative team grade-point average out of the 117 programs honored by the USTFCCCA. The Truman men had a 3.37 team GPA that was also the fourth-highest mark among the 66 Division II men’s programs. In addition, Elijah Farrales, Dominic Kacich and Cassidy Smestad earned individual All-Academic accolades. Kacich returns to the USTFCCCA All-Academic individual honor roll and was joined by a pair of freshmen in Farrales and Smestad. Kacich had provisional marks in both the indoor and outdoor 400-meter dash and earned honors as Truman’s top male senior student-athlete. Farrales had a provisional mark in the indoor 400-meter dash, and Smestad had provisional in the indoor and outdoor shot put. Smestad qualified for the Outdoor NCAA Division II Championships and finished 15th. To earn All-Academic team accolades, the program must have a cumulative team GPA of 3.00 or higher. To earn All-Academic individual honors, a student-athlete must have a 3.25 GPA and have a provisional or automatic qualifying mark in their respective event.

The Truman volleyball team earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association team academic award for the 2015-16 season. The bulldog volleyball program also earned the Great Lakes Valley Conference team academic award after compiling a combined 3.40 grade-point average this past academic year. This is the third time in the last four years the program has earned the AVCA team academic award.