Vol. 13, No. 28 - April 14, 2009

Three individuals, each of whom played pivotal roles in shaping Truman State University into a premier liberal arts and sciences university, have been selected to receive honorary degrees.

Former University President Charles McClain, along with former Missouri governors John Ashcroft and the late Mel Carnahan, will each be awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by the University.

Ashcroft will receive his honorary degree when he delivers the commencement address during Truman’s graduation ceremonies May 9. McClain will receive his honorary degree at a later date. Carnahan’s family will also be presented with his honorary degree, which will be awarded posthumously, at a later date.

The action to approve the honorary degrees was taken at the recent Truman Board of Governors meeting held in Kirksville. Truman’s Faculty Senate gave their support to the Board of Governors in December 2000 to award honorary degrees to recognize outstanding achievement in a field and to recognize those who espouse Truman’s values.  To date, the University has only awarded one Doctor of Humane Letters, which was posthumously awarded to the school’s namesake, Harry S. Truman, during the December 2002 Commencement.

Charles McClain has been a lifelong champion of education, and his vision and leadership were critical in shaping Truman’s current mission. After starting his teaching career in a one-room schoolhouse at the age of 16, McClain went on to found Jefferson College in Hillsboro, Mo., and served as its first president. His appointment as president of Truman (then known as Northeast Missouri State College) in 1970 ushered in nearly two decades of academic growth, development and achievement.

Under his leadership, the University was able to flourish through times of changing demographics and limited funding, as evidenced by its nationally recognized and widely emulated value-added assessment program. McClain was instrumental in the University’s designation as Missouri’s only statewide public liberal arts and sciences university, its commitment to high academic standards and the remarkable increase in the quality of its student body. McClain currently serves as the interim president of Fairmont State University.

Although John Ashcroft has a long and distinguished career in public service, to friends of Truman he might best be known as the governor who changed the mission of the University. In 1985 he signed legislation transforming Truman from a regional university to a statewide public liberal arts and sciences university.

During his tenure as governor, Ashcroft was a staunch supporter of higher education. Fortune magazine rated him as one of the top ten education governors in the country, while Financial World and City and State magazines credited him with making Missouri one of the best financially managed states in the country. Ashcroft served as Chairman of the National Governors Association Task Force on College Quality. He also worked with the Coordinating Board for Higher Education and public institutions to ensure Missouri had one of the first statewide systems of assessment in the nation.

After graduation from Yale University and the University of Chicago, Ashcroft joined the business faculty at Southwest Missouri State University. In addition to serving as governor, he has also represented citizens of Missouri as state auditor, assistant attorney general, attorney general and United States Senator. He later went on to become the Attorney General of the United States.

While McClain had a unique vision for the University, and Ashcroft’s legislation made it a reality, Mel Carnahan presided over the final step in the transformation. In 1995 Gov. Carnahan signed the legislation that changed the school’s name to Truman State University, effective July 1, 1996.

During his tenure, Carnahan came to be known as “Missouri’s education governor” for the attention he focused on the state’s schools. His administration made higher education more accessible to students through the creation of state scholarships and loan assistance programs. State and financial aid assistance for higher education increased dramatically during his tenure. In 1996 Gov. Carnahan was presented with the Harry S. Truman Keystone Award by the presidents of public colleges and universities of Missouri in appreciation for his commitment to enhance education opportunities as well as his unwavering support of higher education.

In addition to serving as governor, Carnahan represented the people of Missouri as a member of the State House of Representatives, state treasurer and lieutenant governor. He passed away as the result of a plane crash in October 2000.

Although the steps in transforming Truman State University began nearly 30 years ago, the school remains Missouri’s only statewide public liberal arts and sciences university. Truman has the highest overall graduation rate among all the public universities in Missouri, as calculated by Missouri’s Coordinating Board for Higher Education, and is one of only two public universities in Missouri with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, the nation’s most prestigious liberal arts honor society. More than 50 percent of Truman’s graduates pursue an advanced degree immediately upon graduating. The University enrolls approximately 5,900 students.

Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, will host Alan Robock, a professor of climatology from Rutgers, in a public lecture at 7:30 p.m. April 16 in the Student Union Building Alumni Room.

Robock is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and President of the Atmospheric Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union. He has been a researcher in the area of climate change for more than 30 years. Robock will be speaking on “Climatic Consequences of Nuclear Conflict-Nuclear Winter is Still a Threat,” a most timely topic given the current expansion of nuclear capabilities across nations.

Robock will also be speaking at A.T. Still University at 12 p.m. April 16 in the Mehegan classroom. His topic will be “Smoke and Mirrors: Is Geoengineering a Solution to Global Warming?”

Prior to the evening lecture Sigma Xi will sponsor its annual Spring Banquet and Awards Ceremony in the Student Union Building Activities Room. A social at 5:30 p.m. will be followed by dinner at 6 p.m.

Those interested in attending the banquet should make a reservation, for $12 per person, by contacting John Ma at johnma@truman.edu or Patricia Sexton at psexton@truman.edu.

Truman will join forces with universities from around the state to celebrate Graduate Education Week, April 20-25.

The University offers master’s degree programs in Accountancy, Communication Disorders, Education, English, Music and Biology.

Throughout the week, all six Truman graduate programs will conduct daily promotions on campus. (See Below)

The Master of Accountancy program prepares students to meet requirements to sit for the Uniform CPA examination in Missouri. Data from the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy recently ranked Truman’s program eighth in the nation for percentage of students passing all parts of the examination on the first attempt.

Students in the master’s program for Communication Disorders are able to attain hands-on experience working in Truman’s Speech and Hearing Clinic. The program is characterized by close collaboration between students and faculty as well as broad-based professional preparation.

Truman’s Master of Arts in Education program prepares students to be professional teachers, and strives to ensure graduates possess a broad realm of knowledge in addition to a mastery of subject specialization.

The ultimate goals of the Master of Arts in English program are leadership development in a select number of students, scholars, teachers and creative writers; the nurturing of a lifetime commitment to writing and literature; and preparation for work on the doctoral level.

The Master of Arts in Music program is designed to prepare students either for doctoral studies or professional careers in music. The program culminates in either graduate recitals in performance or conducting, or in a research thesis or composition.

Students participating in the accelerated Master of Science in Biology can begin their graduate studies during their senior year, allowing them to complete both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in five years.

More information about graduate programs at Truman, as well as contact and admission information, can be found online at http://gradstudies.truman.edu.

In 2006, 11 graduate deans jointly requested a governor’s proclamation to establish the first Graduate Education Week with the goal of enhancing public awareness about the impact and outcomes of graduate education.

In his proclamation for the 2009 Graduate Education Week, Governor Jay Nixon noted more than 276,000 Missouri residents have advanced degrees, and the state’s institutions are currently preparing more than 60,000 in graduate programs. Nixon calls graduate education “a catalyst for scientific discovery, economic development, workforce vitality and global understanding.”

Other schools participating in Graduate Education Week include: Lincoln University; Missouri Science and Technology; Missouri State University; Park University; Stephens College; University of Missouri-Columbia; University of Missouri-Kansas City; and the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Fifty students will be representing Truman at the 2009 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). University of Wisconsin-La Crosse will host the conference, April 16-18. More than 2,000 undergraduates from more than 275 colleges and universities will attend the three-day event.  Truman’s delegation is the third largest of all the schools attending.

The students representing Truman include: Diana Acevedo, Jesse Badoe, Kailey Burger, Liza Castillo, Sara Clark, Johnathan Cobb, Michelle Coolidge, Denise Davis, Amanda DeBrot, Hubert Ekpoh, Douglas Elliott, Theo Estes, Laura Garey, Sara Goehl, Joshua Hallows, Shannon Harbaugh, Julie Hasken, Catherine Hayward, Emily Hopson, Jacob Hummel, Johnny Ireland, Amber Jones, Karianne Jones, Michele Kaminski, Sammone Kidd, Chelle King Porter, Nathan Klessig, Elizabeth Koballa, Mark Lambert, Thomas Lecaque, Sonia Mejia, Natalie Meyers, Karen Miller, David Mohl, Peter Muelleman, Christopher Owens, Anna Pechenina, William Petry, Gemmicka Piper, Jason Qualls, Erin Randall, Katharyn Reed, Bradley Sova, Eric Steffensmeier, Abigail Temple, Jacob Thomeczek, Kyle Tracy, Stephanie Vandas, Robert Welter and Paul Witte. They will be accompanied by Faculty members Michael Goggin, Sarah Hass, Jason Miller, Chad Montgomery and Timothy Walston.

NCUR, established in 1987, is dedicated to promoting undergraduate research, scholarship and creative activity by sponsoring an annual conference for students. Unlike meetings of academic professional organizations, this gathering of young scholars welcomes presenters from all institutions of higher learning and from all corners of the academic curriculum.

Through this annual conference, NCUR creates a unique environment for the celebration and promotion of undergraduate student achievement, provides models of exemplary research and scholarship, and helps to improve the state of undergraduate education. Truman’s participation in NCUR is made possible by generous support from the Provost’s Office and is coordinated by Truman’s Next STEP Office.

Richard Bauman, an internationally known folklore scholar, ethnomusicologist, performance theorist and linguistic anthropologist will present “The Remediation of Storytelling,” at 7:30 p.m. April 15 in the Student Union Building Activities Room.

A professor emeritus of folklore and ethnomusicology at Indiana University, Bauman was presented with the Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award by American Folklore Society in the fall of 2008. It is the highest honor the society bestows, and Bauman is only the fourth person to receive the honor.

In 2006, Bauman was awarded the Edward Sapir Book Prize by the Society for Linguistic Anthropology. In addition to serving as director of Indiana’s Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies, and chair of the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Bauman twice served as the chair of the school’s Folklore Institute.

Bauman has also served as the president of the Society of Linguistic Anthropology; editor of the Journal of American Folklore; president of the Society of Fellows of the American Folklore Society; and as a member of the American Anthropological Association’s Board of Directors.

His scholarly work has included ethnographies of expressive culture in Scotland, Nova Scotia, Mexico, Texas and other settings. He is the author of more than a dozen books and monographs and more than 60 journal articles.

Bauman’s presentation is sponsored by the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies, the Folklore Minor, the Department of English and Linguistics, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Refreshments will follow Bauman’s presentation.

The Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration will feature the play “Abraham Lincoln & Frederick Douglass: A Friendship Unique,” at 8:30 p.m. April 22 in the Ophelia Parrish Performance Hall.

Sponsored by the Schwengel Lincoln Fund and the Lincoln Bicentennial Committee, the play is a continuation of events that began in October 2008 and will end in December 2009. Accompanied by the Unique Ensemble Gospel Choir, this drama stars Richard Klein as Abraham Lincoln and Michael Crutcher as Frederick Douglass. 

The action begins in March of 1860 as Douglass remarks how his relationship with Lincoln has changed over the years. He recalls his reaction to Lincoln’s election and first inaugural speech as a feeling of hope.

The Douglass/Lincoln relationship is chronicled throughout the Civil War where the pair struggled with issues such as pay inequalities for Negro regiments. The drama ends March 4, 1865 as the final phrases of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Speech linger throughout the theatre.

A reception, with music provided by the Truman University Jazz Musicians, will immediately follow the event. Reservations are not required and the performance is free and open to the public.

The newly formed Truman Student Success Center is recruiting student scholarship workers for Fall 2009 to help start the program. Positions include tutors, mentors and supplemental instruction leaders. To be eligible for a position, students will need to fill out an application and faculty recommendation form available online at http://successcenter.truman.edu and return them to the Center located at Kirk Building 112. For more information contact Todd Phillips, director of the Student Success Center, at phillips@truman.edu or 785.4264.

The Multicultural Affairs Center is looking for a senior or graduate level student to serve as a Multicultural Affairs Intern. The intern will work 20 hours a week serving multicultural students through programming, recruitment, academic counseling and more. Applications can be found on the MAC website at http://mac.truman.edu under employment and are due by 5 p.m. April 20.

The Women’s Resource Center is now hiring staff members for the Fall 2009 semester. The WRC hires scholarship workers and welcomes volunteers. Return a completed application to the WRC located in the Student Union Building Center for Student Involvement Complex by April 22. Interviews will begin April 27. For more information or to download the application visit http://wrc.truman.edu.

The Jack J. Isgur Foundation is accepting applications from students enrolled in the field of education in the humanities, such as literature, fine arts, music, art, poetry and dance. The Foundation awards scholarships to students studying at universities who indicate an interest in teaching courses in the above-described areas in school districts located in the State of Missouri, preferably rural school districts. The scholarship is available to students at the junior and senior levels, as well as graduate students. For further information or an application, stop by the Truman Financial Aid Office in McClain Hall 103.  Deadline for submission is April 15.

Abbott & Fenner Business Consultants will be awarding up to $1,000 each year to the winner of this scholarship. To apply students will submit an essay on one of the two topics that appear on the scholarship page of their website at http://www.abbottandfenner.com/scholarships.htm. Further information is available at their website. Application deadline is June 20. 

The BigSun Organization is offering a $500 scholarship to a deserving student athlete, regardless of their respective sport. Please visit http://www.bigsunathletics.com to learn how to apply. Deadline for submission is June 27.

The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis is a non-profit organization that provides access to higher education to St. Louis area students through interest free loans. The program assists students with financial need. Applicants must have a minimum cumulative 2.0 grade point average, demonstrate good character, and must be a permanent resident of St. Louis City, St. Louis County, the Missouri counties of Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, St. Charles or Warren, or the Illinois counties of Clinton, Jersey, Madison, Monroe or St. Clair for at least two years prior to application. Applications are due April 15, 2009. For more information call 314.725.7990, e-mail info@sfstl.org or can pick up an application packet in the Financial Aid Office.

Beta Theta Pi will host a volleyball tournament to benefit Camp Quality at 12 p.m. April 18.

Camp Quality, located in Kansas City Mo., is dedicated to the enhancement of the lives of children diagnosed with cancer.

Teams will consist of three men and three women. The registration fee is $30 per team. Teams and registration fees must be submitted by April 16. Brackets and game times will be sent via e-mail April 17. For the registration application see any member of Beta Theta Pi or download it from http://www.zeta-xi.com and e-mail it to jjk7673@truman.edu. Completed applications and registration fees can be placed in the Beta Theta Pi’s mailbox in the Center for Student Involvement or given to any Beta Theta Pi member.

Truman’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) unit was recently recognized by the U.S. Army as one of the top performers of Cadet Command’s 273 units for the 2007-2008 school year for having achieved their assigned commission mission.

Several Truman students were honored by the Missouri Broadcast Educators Association (MBEA) for outstanding efforts in student media.  An April 3 luncheon in Jefferson City honored first place and honorable mention winners from more than two dozen audio, video, and multi-media categories in the annual MBEA student media contest. Truman students awarded first place plaques include: Dan Rettke, a senior communication major from Washington, Mo., for television commercial for News36; Kyle Magee, a senior communication major from Wildwood, Mo., representing the Truman Media Network for convergent reporting of the 2008 elections; Tyler Killen, a junior communication major from Kirksville, Mo., and Paul Vogl, a junior communication major from Chesterfield, Mo., for sports programming at KTRM; and Jessica Wright, a December 2008 graduate from Fulton, Mo., for station promotion at KTRM. Truman students awarded honorary mentions include Jackie Gonzalez, a senior communication major from Bonita, Calif., for a radio news feature, as well as Killen and Vogl for play-by-play coverage of Truman sports on KTRM. Following the award ceremony, the students attended media workshops in the state capitol. Mark Smith, assistant professor of communication and media adviser, is immediate past president of the MBEA.

Taner Edis, associate professor of physics, was a panelist at the McGill Symposium on Islam and Evolution, March 30-31, in Montréal, Canada. More information, including webcasts, can be found at http://www.mcgill.ca/eerc/symposium/.

Nicholas Wilsey, a junior physics major from Warrensburg, Mo., and Bandon Decker, a senior physics major from Lawson, Mo., presented research conducted at the Truman Observatory at the 2009 Mid-American Regional Astrophysics Conference in Kansas City, Mo. Wilsey and Decker were accompanied at the conference by Matthew Beaky, associate professor of physics. Wilsey’s presentation was titled “Revisiting the O’Connell Effect in Eclipsing Binary Systems,” and Decker spoke on “Phase Dependent Spectroscopic Monitoring of Cepheid Variable Stars.” Both projects described work carried out as part of the summer 2008 Next STEP Program.

Megan Dowdy, a senior art major from Wildwood, Mo., was recognized for work accepted to the Fifth Annual National Student Show and Conference in Dallas, Texas. Dowdy received: a Best of Show Award; a Judge’s Choice Award; Best of Category for Poster Design; and 1,400 Words Award for Best Copywriting, which is a scholarship award. In addition to Dowdy, Victoria Weaver, a December 2008 graduate from Eureka, Mo., was included in the show. More than 2,400 submissions were received with slightly more than 100 works accepted.

Martin J. Eisenberg, associate provost and associate professor of economics, has been named an American Council on Education Fellow for the 2009-10 academic year. The ACE Fellows Program is designed to strengthen institutions and leadership in American higher education by identifying and preparing promising senior faculty and administrators for responsible positions in college and university administration. Thirty-eight Fellows, nominated by the presidents or chancellors of their institutions, were selected this year in a national competition. Fellows spend three weeks discussing higher education issues organized by ACE, reading extensively in the field and engaging in other activities to enhance their knowledge about the challenges and opportunities confronting higher education today. Each ACE Fellow will focus on an issue of concern to the nominating institution while spending the next academic year working with the university president and other officers at a host institution.

Mustafa Sawani, professor of economics, and Zuriashe Patterson, a Truman alumna, had their paper “Economic Growth and Political Instability in Ethiopia,” accepted for publication. It will appear in the May 2009 “Regional Business Review.”

College Republicans will sponsor Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer who will speak about the economy and his ongoing work for the 9th district in Washington, D.C., at 6 p.m. April 14 in the Student Union Building Alumni Room. Immediately following the presentation, Luetkemeyer will take questions from students.

The Faculty Weekly Lunch Series will “Addressing Institutional Issues Through Strategic Promotion and Tenure Criteria” at 12:30 p.m. April 15 in the Student Union Building Spanish Room.

The Global Issues Colloquium will continue with a presentation by Jennifer Leigh Disney, from Winthrop University, entitled “Women’s Activism and Feminist Agency in Mozambique and Nicarague” at 7 p.m. April 16 in Magruder Hall 2001. Disney will trace the mobilization of women in two revolutionary contexts, comparing the strategies and outcomes of various organizational forms developed in Mozambique and in Nicaragua over the past 30 years. She will also explore how the military struggles against colonialism and imperialism fostered feminist agency leading to the evolution of each movement and how it changed in a post-revolutionary climate.

The Women’s Resource Center will host “A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, A Prayer,” a powerful collection of monologues from men and women about violence against women from Eve Ensler, at 7 p.m. April 17 in the Baldwin Hall Little Theatre.

The Student Council for Exceptional Children is taking volunteer buddies for the Special Olympics Spring Games. Buddies will volunteer from 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. April 18 and work one-on-one with the athletes. Lunch will be provided. For more information or to sign up to be a volunteer buddy contact Laura Columbo at lac6736@truman.edu.

The Quincy Symphony Orchestra will present “French Connections” at 3 p.m. April 19 at the Quincy Junior High School Morrison Theater in Quincy, Ill. Admission is free to Truman faculty, staff and students with an ID.

Students for a Sensible Drug Policy will sponsor “Know Your Rights” with Dan Viets at 7:30 p.m. April 23 in Baldwin Hall Little Theatre. Attorney Dan Vites will discuss drug policy issues under the Obama administration while informing students of their legal rights in theory and in practice. Viets will speak on his role in the initiative process that decriminalized marijuana in Columbia, Mo. This event is free and open to the public.