Vol. 12 No. 7 - Oct. 9, 2007

A variety of activities have been planned for Truman students and their families this weekend as part of the annual Family Day. Faculty, staff and their families also are invited to meet the visiting families and share in the events.

Following tradition, this year’s events are designed to provide families with information as well as opportunities for a wide variety of entertainment from the University.

Some events occur before Family Day officially begins. Author Jason Offutt will share ghost stories about the public places in Missouri at 7 p.m. Oct. 12 in the SUB Conference Room. “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to the Show-Me State’s Most Spirited Spots,” published by Truman State University Press, will be available for purchase and signing at a ghostly special price of $15 each. Truman’s Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Lab Band will follow at 8 p.m. in the Baldwin Auditorium.

Activities kick off at 8 a.m. Oct. 13 with coffee and doughnuts on the Student Union Mall. The Student Union Building Georgian Room is the rain location.

Author David Nichols will be on hand to sign copies of “Founding the Future: A History of Truman State University,” published by Truman State University Press. The book will be on sale at $30 each.

Parent Seminars will follow the reception at 9-9:50 a.m. and 10-10:50 a.m. in the SUB Conference Room and SUB Activities Room.

There will be library tours from 9-11 a.m. at Pickler Memorial Library starting every 10 minutes.

The Truman Baseball Team will also scrimmage at 10 a.m. at the Baseball Field.

The festivities move to Baldwin Auditorium at 11 a.m., where parents will hear from President Barbara Dixon, Student Senate President Matt Szewczyk, a junior English and philosophy & religion double major from Columbia, Mo., and members of Truman’s Parent Council. There will be a ribbon cutting for the Baldwin Auditorium renovation. Franklin Street will also perform.

After the assembly, families are invited to a barbecue-style tailgate lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Red Barn Park. Lunches must be purchased in advance and the cost of the lunch is $6.50 per person. Students with a meal plan will not need to pay if they present their student ID at the tailgate lunch.
 
Tickets can be purchased online at http://store.truman.edu/familyday until noon Oct. 11. After that time, tickets can be purchased by calling the Public Relations Office at 660.785.4016. Click on Family Day Tailgate Lunch Tickets to purchase the tickets. For online payments, Truman accepts, Mastercard, Visa and Discover credit cards. Tickets will not be mailed. Please bring a blanket or lawn chairs and look for the tent in Red Barn Park.

The Ninth Annual Festival Centennial will take place from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. in the Centennial Hall Courtyard.

The Red Barn Arts & Crafts Festival will take place from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Downtown Kirksville.

Truman’s Phi Kappa Phi chapter is sponsoring a book drive from 8 a.m. to noon Oct. 13 in the Student Union Building to help the Truman Speech and Hearing Clinic create a lending library for their clients. They are collecting new and gently used book up to the fourth grade reading level. For more information about the book drive, contact Teresa Heckert, professor of psychology, at 660.785.7530 or e-mail theckert@truman.edu.

Families with an interest in sports will get a chance to see the Bulldog football team in action vs. Pittsburg State (Kan.) at 2 p.m. at Stokes Stadium. General admission tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for children under 12 and senior citizens. Reserved seating is $8. Admission is free to students with a Truman ID. Tickets may be purchased online at http://gobulldogs.truman.edu/store. For more information, contact the Athletics Box Office at 660.785.4235.

Entertainment continues throughout the night with the Student Activities Board sponsored performance of InPulse, an a capella group, which will be opened by Truman’s own True Men. This event will take place at 7 p.m. in Baldwin Auditorium. It is free for students with a Truman ID and $2 for General Admission. The whole family is welcome.

Cantoria Singers, Wind Symphony Band and University Orchestra Concert will take place at 2 p.m. Oct. 14 in Baldwin Auditorium.

Log on to http://www.truman.edu/familyday for more information.

Storyteller and author, Jason Offutt will tell ghost stories from his new book, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to the Show-Me State’s Most Spirited Spots” at 7 p.m. Oct. 12 in the Student Union Building Room 301.

Offutt’s book, published by Truman State University Press, includes haunted stories from Civil War sites, mansions, university halls, the Jesse James Farm and other sites throughout Missouri open to the public. Offutt draws from hundreds of interviews for this serious but witty look at Missouri’s haunts, bringing together history, folklore and intrigue.

Offutt is a journalism instructor at Northwest Missouri State University and a syndicated humor and paranormal columnist.

He will be available to sign books at 4 p.m. Oct. 12 at Hastings and at the Truman campus event.

The University Art Gallery is delighted to present the exhibitions “Ephemera” in the main gallery and “A Strong Foundation” in the side gallery. The Gallery invites the Truman community to a reception at 6 p.m. Oct. 16 to view these engaging collections of work. The exhibits will be displayed until Nov. 15.

“Ephemera” includes the works of artists Ginger Sheridan, John Keech, Alexandra Dooley and Stephen Fessler. In their unique ways each artist explores concepts of the fleeting and insubstantial.

“A Strong Foundation” displays faculty selections from first-year studio foundations courses. These pieces range from still life to figure to 3D design, a cohesive sampling of strong foundation work.

The University Art Gallery is located on the ground floor of Ophelia Parrish. Gallery hours are Monday-Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 4:30 p.m. Gallery exhibits, talks and most other events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the interim gallery director, Emily Booth, at 785.5386 or ebooth@truman.edu.

Truman is participating in the Quincy Symphony College Ticketing Plan, which allows faculty, staff and students to attend all of the concert events in Quincy, Ill., completely free of charge by presenting their Truman ID at the concert ticket desk.

The Quincy Symphony Orchestra is celebrating “A Legacy of Excellence,” the 60th anniversary season. The first performance of the season will be at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13 at the Morrison Theater, Quincy Jr. High School, 14th and Maine St. in Quincy.

The season begins with “Generations,” featuring cellist Harriet Yount, her children Marcia Yount and Letitia Yount Bryant, and violinist Brian Gehrich in a performance of Haydn’s “Sinfonia Concertante for violin, cello, oboe, bassoon, and orchestra.”

Other works on the program include Brahms’ “Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn,” and Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 2 in D Major.” Composed in 1873, Brahms’ “Variations” was his first work for orchestra in 14 years, and predates his First Symphony by three years.  The “Variations” are often regarded as Brahms convincing himself he was ready to write a complete symphony.

For those who are not faculty, staff or students of Truman State University, tickets for “Generations” will be available at the door or may be reserved in advance by calling 217.222.2856. Individual concert tickets will be $15 for adults and $12 for senior citizens, with children under age 18 admitted free and encouraged to attend.

Congress presents the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation which is an educational scholarship program designed to provide opportunities for outstanding U.S. students with excellent academic records and demonstrated interest in, and potential for, careers in mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.

The scholarship award covers eligible expenses up to a maximum of $7,500 per year. Junior scholarship recipients can expect to receive a maximum of two years support. Senior scholarship recipients are eligible for a maximum of one year of support.

To be eligible, a students must have one or two years remaining before earning a bachelor’s degree (as of the end of the current academic year), be a full-time student, stand in the upper fourth of the class with at least a B average grade, and be a U.S. citizen, resident alien, or U.S. national who will pursue a career in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering.

The Foundation will award scholarships to students in April 2008. The deadline for declaring the intent to apply to a Goldwater Adviser is Oct.15.

Interested students should contact Dana Vazzana at dvazzana@truman.edu as soon as possible and no later than Oct. 15.

The National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) recently sent out a national call for proposals from students to submit abstracts and applications for the 22nd National Conference on Undergraduate Research to take place April 10-12, 2008, at Salisbury University in Maryland.

Again this year, the Next STEP Office will be coordinating the application process for the Truman campus; only abstracts submitted through this process will be eligible to receive funding to attend the conference from the University. Truman students will use Truman’s online application at http://step.truman.edu/ncur to submit an abstract for consideration by Oct. 30. Students may start submitting abstracts to Truman’s site immediately. Each submission will be reviewed at the departmental level according to a process determined by the department. Departmental reviews will be completed by Nov. 16. Once an abstract is approved by its department reviewers, each student will submit some additional information to the Truman-base Web tool; this information must be supplied by Nov. 27. This additional information will be checked for accuracy by the Next STEP Office, and the Next STEP Office will then submit each approved student abstract to NCUR for their consideration by Dec. 1.  

Address any questions about the process to Jennifer Thompson by e-mail at step@truman.edu or Jason Miller by e-mail at millerj@truman.edu.

KTRM is currently streaming online 24 hours a day.

The Library has added a new database, Grove Music Online – the online version of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the definitive reference source for music. You can access this database through the A-Z site index at http://library.truman.edu/.

8:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
Oct. 9
in front of McClain Hall
(south entrance)

(weather permitting)

Activity: Billiards
Division: Open
Deadline: Oct. 15
*Captains’ Meeting: 4:30 p.m. • Oct. 18
Play Begins: Oct. 21
                
Entry forms and information sheets may be picked up at the Student Recreation Center (lobby area). Entry forms are to be deposited into the metal box located at the Member Services Desk in the Student Recreation Center. The entry deadline for each sport will be 11 p.m. on the date posted above. Online registration is available. Captains’ Meetings for each sport will take place on the Thursday evening following the entry deadline (unless otherwise noted) at 4:30 p.m. in the conference room of the Student Recreation Center. Official rules for each sport are available online at http://recreation.truman.edu.

Marijke Breuning, associate professor of political science, has been awarded a contract to edit book series titled “Studies in Foreign Policy Analysis” by Brill Publishers, the Netherlands. She will co-edit the series with Bertjan Verbeek of Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Breuning will have a book out in November titled “Foreign Policy Analysis: A Comparative Introduction.” This book is a short text for introductory (lower division) classes on foreign policy analysis.

Kaitlyn Sullivan, a senior agricultural science major from Verona, Wis., along with other young leaders spent the summer working with the Sports Crusaders. This is a nonprofit faith based organization that teaches kids the fundamentals of basketball, soccer, baseball, softball, cheerleading and volleyball. The day begins with a skill specific to the sport being taught, with a devotion time later.

George C. Sumter, a junior computer science major from Warrensburg, Mo., and Matthew Beaky, associate professor of physics, had their paper “Delta Scuti Component Discovered in Eclipsing Binary System BO Her” accepted for publication in the Information Bulletin on Variable Stars. Sumter’s research was conducted at the Truman Observatory as part of the summer 2007 Next STEP program.

Truman’s Partners in Prevention Coalition (MOPIP) recently awarded incentives to two students who participated in the Missouri College Health Behavior Survey (MCHBS). Students who completed the anonymous online survey in April 2007 were eligible for a drawing for $50 Barnes & Noble gift certificates. The recipients were Brian Easley, a senior agricultural science major from Fulton, Mo., and Dustin Mayfield, a junior biology major from Jackson, Mo.

Football players are selling “Dog Tags,” which is a discount card that can be used at many different Kirksville businesses. The card only costs $10 and is active until Sept. 1, 2008. Money raised goes to the football program. Call Shannon Currier at 785.4252 for more information.

For a limited time, the Bulldogs are making available Truman basketball T-shirts, long sleeve T-shirts and practice shorts made by Champion. T-shirts are $20 each and practice shorts are $25 each. Most items are available in adult sizes small-XL. Contact women’s basketball coach John Sloop at jsloop@truman.edu before Oct. 15 to find out more information on how to place an order.

The Truman Theatre Department presents “Uncle Vanya” by Brian Friel, a version of the play by Anton Chekhov, at 8 p.m. Oct. 9-13 at the James G. Severns Theatre. Admission is free. E-mail ronrybs@truman.edu for more information.

Missouri Voter Registration forms are now available in Kirk Building 112, at the Cashier Window, in the residence halls, and at the SERVE Center. For more information visit http://conduct.truman.edu and click on the Voter Registration Link. To vote in the Nov. 6 election, people must register to vote by Oct. 10.

Physics Colloquium will take place at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 10 in Magruder Hall 1000. Refreshments will be provided at 4:20 p.m. and G. Dan Waddill, professor and chair of the physics department at University of Missouri-Rolla, will present “What Photoelectrons Can Tell Us About Surfaces and Their Properties.”

International Film Festival presents “Daratt” from France, Chad, Belgium and Austria in 2006. This will be shown at 7 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Downtown Cinema 8. Contact Bev Perrachione at bevperra@truman.edu or 785.4234 for more information or log on to http://rcp.truman.edu/internationalfilm.htm.

John Ishiyama, professor of political science, and Marc Becker, associate professor of history, will present the Global Issues Colloquium titled “International Election Monitoring - Promises and Pitfalls” at 7 p.m. Oct. 11 in Magruder Hall 2001. International observation of elections has become increasingly common, with the Carter Center, the European Union, the International Republican Institute (IRI), regional organizations such as the Organization of American States (OAS), among others commonly sending observer missions. How successful have these missions been in promoting democracy and transparency? Should we have international observer missions for elections in the United States?

Windfall will be having a writing workshop from 7-9 p.m. Oct. 11 in McClain Hall 306 in order to help people get material ready for the first fall submission deadline. For those with prose pieces longer than four pages, please e-mail them to windfall@truman.edu at least 24 hours ahead of time. Feedback will be given on poetry, prose and art. E-mail windfall@truman.edu for more information.

IT Services invites faculty, staff and students to TechBreak at 1:30 p.m. each Friday in the Student Union Building Room 320. This weekly series is an opportunity to share information about new and existing IT Service offerings. There will be snacks and conversation. Additional details and the topic schedule can be found at http://its.truman.edu/techbreak.

The Bike CO-OP is offering mobile workshops from 3:30-5:15 p.m. the second and fourth Friday of every month on the Quadrangle. The next one will be Oct. 12. There will be various replacement parts, tools, and mechanics to help students repair their bike. Parts costs are as follows: Tubes: $3/tube; break housing: $2/ft.; shift housing $3/ft.; and cables: $3/ft. All lessons are free, but donations are encouraged. Contact Cassie Phillips at cphillip@truman.edu for more information.

The Bike CO-OP is working in conjunction with SAB and Student Senate to will present BandFest: In Favor of a Bike Co-Op. A variety of student and local bands will perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 12 on the Quadrangle. In addition to the performances, there will be speeches to rally support, a bike giveaway, mechanic demos, and more. The rain site will be the SUB Activities Room. Admission is free. Contact Haley Ray for more information by calling 314.807.1528 or e-mailing hvr468@truman.edu.

Free Echo yearbooks will be distributed from 8-11 a.m. Oct. 13 on the Mall, by the fountain. Contact Emmy Thomson at ent013@truman.edu for more information.