Vol. 16, No. 15 - Dec. 13, 2011

Ray Klinginsmith will address students as the commencement speaker for December 2011 graduation. Commencement will take place at 11 a.m. Dec. 17 in Pershing Arena.

Klinginsmith is a retired attorney in Kirksville, with 46 years of experience as a lawyer in Macon and Kirksville. A graduate of the business school and the law school of the University of Missouri-Columbia, he is a member of the Missouri Bar. In 1983, he was honored with the Thomas D. Cochran Community Service Award presented by the Young Lawyers Section of the Missouri Bar.

Klinginsmith retired in 1995 as general counsel and professor of business administration for Truman after 22 years of service. During his tenure at the University, he also served as dean of administration for a period of five years during the University’s transition to a liberal arts and sciences institution. Following his retirement from the University, he served a four-year term as a county commissioner for Adair County from 2001 to 2004.

From 1971 to 2008, Klinginsmith served as a director of the Macon-Atlanta State Bank in Macon. He now serves as a director emeritus and a member of the holding company board for the bank.


Ray and his wife, Judie, were two of the founders of the Chariton Valley Association for Handicapped Citizens, which provides services for people with disabilities with a staff of more than 100 employees. He was president of the association from its inception in 1982 until 2009, and now serves as the president emeritus. He was one of the initial trustees for the Missouri Family Trust, which was created by the Missouri legislature in 1989, and he was accorded the 1988 Parent/Caretaker Award by the Missouri Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities. He is a former member of the Executive Board for the Great Rivers Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the holder of its Silver Beaver Award for adult volunteers. Both he and Judie are members of the First United Methodist Church in Kirksville, and Ray is a former lay speaker for the church.

A Rotarian for 50 years, Klinginsmith is currently a member of the Kirksville Rotary Club. He served as the president of Rotary International for 2010-2011 and was the leader of a progressive board of directors from around the world. Klinginsmith studied at the University of Cape Town as a Rotary Foundation ambassadorial scholar in 1961, and he became the first recipient of a Rotary Foundation award ever to serve as the Rotary International president. Rotary International has 34,000 clubs in about 200 countries across the globe with a total membership of 1.2 million Rotarians.

Ray and Judie have two children, Leigh and Kurt, and three teenage grandchildren, Morgan, Grant and Sydney Perkins. Their daughter, Leigh, and her husband, Bob Perkins, are both graduates of Truman.

Truman has announced the appointment of P. Joan Poor as provost and vice president for academic affairs, effective July 1, 2012. Poor was selected for the position after a national search and currently serves as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of economics at Bemidji State University in Bemidji, Minn.

“I am very excited to welcome Dr. Poor to the Truman community,” President Troy Paino said. “Her experience with and passion for a public liberal arts education will be a tremendous asset for Truman. She has an impressive record as a teacher, scholar and administrator. She was an integral part of a leadership team that advanced the mission and public purpose of a sister COPLAC institution, and I am confident her skills, experience and creativity will serve Truman well.”

Poor’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture and a master’s degree in natural resource management from the University of Manitoba as well as a doctorate in natural resources/environmental economics from the University of Nebraska. Poor is also a graduate of the Harvard Management Development Program and the HERS Institute for Women in Higher Education Administration.

“I am honored to join the Truman State University community,” Poor said. “The energy I experienced while visiting the Truman campus was contagious. The commitment by the students, faculty and staff to the public liberal arts and science mission is without a doubt what draws me to this place.”

Prior to arriving at Bemidji State University in 2010, Poor served as the assistant to the president for planning and legislative affairs from 2006-2010, coordinator of the environmental studies program from 2002-2007 and as an associate professor of economics from 2001-2010 at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Additionally, Poor served as a Hobart Houghton Fellow in 2008 at Rhodes University in South Africa and as a visiting assistant professor of economics at the Rochester Institute of Technology from 2000-2001. She was a member of the graduate faculty at the University of Maine-Orono from 1998-2000. Since 2010, Poor has served as a consultant-evaluator for the Higher Learning Commission.

John Cochrane, the head track and field/cross country coach at Truman, was inducted into the Missouri Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame Dec. 9 in Columbia, Mo.

Cochrane has been the women’s head coach since 1980 and the men’s head coach since 2006.

During his tenure, Cochrane’s track and field teams have produced 64 All-American honors and five national champions. His teams have won six MIAA conference team titles. Cochrane was honored by the NCAA Division II coaches with the Distinguished Service Award in Cross Country in 1992 and in Track and Field in 1996.

In addition, six women have been named Academic All-American during his career and his teams have been among the tops in the nation in grade-point average. The 2011 men’s track and field team had the best GPA in Division II while the women were fourth.

The Office of Student Research is offering the summer 2012 TruScholars program.

The purpose of the TruScholars program is to foster collaborative faculty-student research and creative activities to enhance undergraduate student learning. Projects supported by this program should exhibit the potential for scholarly publication, presentation at a regional or national conference, public performance or a gallery showing. The OSR will fund up to 25 TruScholar applications.

The formal part of the 2012 TruScholars program will coincide with the eight-week summer semester, beginning June 4 and ending July 27. During this time, students should devote full-time effort to their project and faculty mentors should be continuously available for consultation and collaboration. Student-faculty teams can begin their research earlier than June 4 with the understanding that there will be intense effort during the eight-week session.

To optimize the quality of the TruScholars experience, there will be a number of required elements including an orientation during the spring semester, attendance at two of three professional development workshops during the eight-week summer course session and a presentation at the final TruScholars Research Symposium taking place Aug. 25.

This application includes a project description among other components. Students are encouraged to identify a faculty mentor before the end of this semester. This will allow students to work on drafts of their application over the break.

Application guidelines, important dates and frequently asked questions can be found at the OSR website osr.truman.edu/truscholars. Questions beyond the TruScholars frequently asked questions should be addressed via email to osr@truman.edu.

The Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) has collected 2,100 lbs of food this semester for their annual food drive.

This amount has surpassed last year’s donation measurement by 500 lbs. Men’s football, volleyball, men and women’s soccer and baseball hosted collection games or events throughout the semester.

SAAC will resume the food drive next semester with collections at men’s and women’s basketball, softball, baseball and other spring sport events. All donations will be split between the Kirksville Salvation Army and the Christian Community Food Depot.

Do you know a staff member who has done exceptional work? Nominate them for a Point of Excellence Award at hr.truman.edu/recognition/excellence/. Do you know an office that provides excellent customer service to faculty, staff and students? Nominate them for the Bulldog Award at hr.truman.edu/recognition/bulldogaward/index.asp. Nominations are due by Dec. 15.

Your Local Security is sponsoring “America’s Best Blogging Scholarship” for $1,000. Students may enter by posting responses to the question asking to define the single most important issue in the upcoming 2012 election. Students must explain the issue and why and how they propose the U.S. comes to a solution that benefits the majority. After posting, students must include the embed code and share online via Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Entries will be judged by content and validation and “tweets,” “likes,” “stumbles” and “+1s” will be taken into account. The submission deadline is Dec. 31 and the winner will be announced Feb. 1. More information can be found at yourlocalsecurity.com/scholarship.

U.S. Bank is awarding 40 scholarships in the amount of $1,000 through a random drawing process. Undergraduate students attending an eligible four-year college or university participating in the U.S. Bank No Free Education Loan Program are eligible to apply. More information about this scholarship opportunity can be found at usbank.com/studentloans.

Scholarships are available through Federated Garden Clubs of Missouri, Inc., for the 2012-2013 academic year. Last year they awarded more than $13,000 in scholarships. Two students selected by the Federated Garden Clubs of Missouri will be submitted to Central Region as an applicant and to National Gardens Club Inc., as a Missouri applicant and will compete for a Central Region and National Scholarship. The application is available at www.gardenclub.org/Youth/Scholarships.aspx.
The deadline to apply March 1.

Dec. 16
Close at 5 p.m.

Dec. 17
8 a.m.-3 p.m.

Dec. 18
Closed

Dec. 19-21
7 a.m.-5 p.m.

Dec. 22-27
Closed

Dec. 28-30
7 a.m.-5 p.m.

Dec. 31-Jan. 2
Closed

Jan. 3-6
7 a.m.-5 p.m.

Jan. 7
Closed

Jan. 8
12 p.m.-12 a.m.

Jan. 9
Regular Hours
7 a.m.-12 a.m.

In addition to listing numerous on-campus events, the University Master Calendar also features other helpful links, including a final exam schedule, an academic calendar, a staff calendar and a link for Kirksville events. The links are located above the calendar at calendar.truman.edu.

On-campus events for the upcoming semester can be submitted to the Master Calendar at calendar.truman.edu/submitevent.asp. All submissions must be made by someone representing a chartered organization or a recognized department, division or program of Truman State University. Any off-campus events will be posted on the Kirksville tab on TruView.

Spring semester 2012
Jan.  9- Classes begin
Jan. 16- Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Jan. 28- Kohlenberg Lyceum Event “Sleeping Beauty”
Jan. 28- Truman Showcase Event
Feb. 8- Career Expo
Feb. 16- University Conference
Feb. 29- First block classes end
March 1- Second block classes begin
March 5-9- Midterm Break
March 17- Senior Showcase Visit Event
March 20- Kohlenberg Lyceum Event “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
April 9- Spring Break
April 14- Holman Family Distinguished Speaker Series Presents Michael Beschloss
April 17- Student Research Conference
April 21- Junior Showcase Visit Event
April 27- Last day of classes
April 30- Finals start
May 2- Reading Day
May 4- Finals end
May 5- Commencement

Stephen Allen, professor of business administration, had his article, “Ethics and Project Management: A Journal Analysis,” published in the Journal of Management & Engineering Integration, Vol. 4, No. 1, Summer 2011.

English MAE students Rachel Brown, Kayla Jungermann, Ashley Kleinsorge and Melissa Stevenson attended the National Council of Teachers of English annual convention Nov. 17-19 in Chicago, Ill.

Rudolf Cesaretti, senior sociology/anthropology and history double major, presented a poster, “School Days Past and Present: A Look at Consolidation’s Impact on Rural Northeast Missouri,” in a session showcasing “First Rites: Innovative Undergraduate Student Research in Anthropology” at the American Anthropological Association meetings Nov.16-20 in Montreal, Canada. Cesaretti’s poster was recognized by the Society for Visual Anthropology as “exemplary in terms of the excellence of its presentation.” Cesaretti went with Amber Johnson, associate professor of anthropology, who presented a paper “Using Binford’s Projections of Ethnographically Documented Hunter-Gatherer Mobility in Archaeological Research” in a session “Examining Traces of Human Mobility across Spatiotemporal Scales.”

Martin Erickson, professor of mathematics, had his book “Beautiful Mathematics” published by the Mathematical Association of America. This is the seventh mathematics book that Erickson has authored or co-authored.

Daniel Mandell, professor of history, presented a paper on “The Conundrum of Collective and Individual Civil Rights in the United States,” on Dec. 2 at the 500th Anniversary Conference on Universality in Human Rights in Washington, D.C.

Truman’s Model UN team won the “Outstanding Delegation Award“ for its representation of the Islamic Republic of Iran at the American Model United Nations International Conference Nov. 19-22 in Chicago, Ill. Stephen Gott and Chelsea Rodriguez were noted for their outstanding performance in their roles. Mehdi Zaidi also was chosen by the World Health Assembly to present the final report on “Public Health, Innovation, and Intellectual Property” to the General Assembly. Samuel Kirschenheiter was selected to serve as a reporter on the International Press Delegation. He had four articles published throughout the conference and in subsequent editions of the American Model UN Newsletter.

CCF is sponsoring “Care for Aids: Book Drive” from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Dec. 13-16 in the Student Union Building.

Active Minds is hosting “Kid for a Day” from 3-6 p.m. Dec. 14 in the Student Union Building Alumni Room.

There will be a question and answer session with Gregg Siewert, professor of French, regarding the TAPIF application process at 4 p.m. Dec. 14 in Baldwin Hall 226. The applications for the program are due Jan. 15.

The deadline to submit abstracts to the Women's and Gender Study Conference is Dec. 16.