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Campus News
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| Scenes from Arcadia's Undergraduate Commencement ceremony. |
Arcadia's Undergraduate Commencement ceremony took place on Friday, May 18. Click here for photos from the ceremony. View Commencement ceremony Web cast archives at www.arcadia.edu/commencement.
Grant Helps Institutions ‘Serve the Underserved’
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Consortium
for Higher Education (SEPCHE),
of which Arcadia University is a member, has been awarded a Lumina Foundation
for Education grant of $115,600 to help institutions respond more effectively
to their changing demographics in the college-age population, with particular
emphasis on addressing underserved populations.
The eight colleges and universities of SEPCHE envision their campuses serving in a more sensitive and sensible fashion the increasingly diverse population of students that has begun to reshape their campuses. The grant will help the member institutions to fund Phase I of the multifaceted “Serving the Underserved” (SUS) project. Read more.
Class of ’57 Celebrates 50th Reunion
Reunion 2007 brought a record number of alumni back to campus June 1-3. Members of the Class of 1957 celebrated their 50th Reunion in grand fashion with 50 percent of the class attending. They reached their goal of $100,000 as a class gift to this year’s Annual Alumni Fund and to recognize this historic achievement, the University dedicated the Castle flag pole to the class late Saturday morning. The Class also gave new flags to fly on the pole, including a new Arcadia University flag.
‘Murder on the Arcadia Express’ at Reunion
2007
Back by popular demand: Larry Presley as Hercule Poirot at Reunion 2007. The theme of this year’s Reunion June 1-3 was Welcome Home, and it featured a weekend of international festivities. Presley, in his role as the fictional Belgian detective, was just one event in a weekend that included a Saturday evening dinner called International Indulgence. In his day job, Presley is Assistant Professor and Director of Arcadia’s highly acclaimed master’s program in Forensic Science. At Reunion, Presley demonstrated the principles of forensic science through the Hercule Poirot story, "Murder on the Arcadia Express."
Arcadia Dragon Boat Paddlers in Regatta, June 9
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| Arcadia Dragon boaters practicing on the Schuykill River in Philadelphia. |
No experience is necessary to be part of Arcadia’s first-ever novice dragon boat team, which will enter the first annual Independence Dragon Boat Regatta on Saturday, June 9, said Coach Dana Davies, Arcadia’s Vice President for Enrollment Management. “You’ll learn the basics of the sport, make some new friends, get a good workout—and have a great time! You also don’t have to feel particularly athletic to participate,” she added. (Some paddlers have reported they didn’t feel particularly athletic after practice, but all survived.)
The boatload of mostly novice paddlers has had two practices, with one more on Tuesday, June 5. “The boat looked sharp last Tuesday, we are getting our timing down, and everyone in the boat looked great!” Davies said.
The regatta is a fund-raiser for Team USA and is hosted by the Philadelphia Dragon Boat Association. Davies and her team have won national and international championships and will travel to Sydney, Australia, this fall as part of Team USA in the 2007 World Championship Dragon Boat Races.
Dragon boating originated in China several thousand years ago and came to Philadelphia more recently. Davies has been dragon boating for seven years. It’s a sprint sport, and paddlers only have to “swing” the 600-to 900-pound boat—which really has a dragon face on the front—for about 2½ minutes.
Look for Wang’s Photo on Red Cross Bus
American Red Cross Penn-Jersey has acquired a mobile platelet donation bus that has a picture of Arcadia Sciences Librarian Calvin Wang plastered on it as a regular platelet donor. It will be unveiled at a dinner on June 21, where Wang will be a guest and will be recognized as a 25-gallon donor. Wang’s photo is also on a platelet donation brochure.
Upcoming Events
Spring Staff Assembly Meeting, June 6
Staff
Council will host a Spring Staff Assembly meeting on Wednesday,
June 6, in the Castle Rose Room from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Hear
campus updates from President Jerry Greiner, Vice President
for Enrollment Management Dana Davies, and fellow Arcadia
staff. For those in attendance, there will be a “Philly breakfast”
provided and a chance to win a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory worth
$100! “With so many reasons to attend, we hope to see you there!”
says Andrew Johnson, Staff Council Chair. Contact him
at johnsona@arcadia.edu
with any questions.
More events can be found on the Events Calendar.
CAMPUS HAPPENINGS
Seniors Beat Faculty, Staff at Softball
The seniors won again this year, but the faculty and staff gave the annual softball game a valiant effort. For this story best told in pictures, click here.
B2EST Answer to School Violence: Chess
The
B2EST answer to school violence is a friendly game of chess.
On Wednesday, May 23, about 47 behaviorally challenged schoolchildren
from six Philadelphia area schools came to the Arcadia University B2EST
Activity Day for a chess competition.
While schools that outlaw tag make the news, these schools are using chess to teach some important life lessons, among them how to win and lose. Chess also provides a gameboard for strategizing and planning ahead in a situation where actions have consequences.
The chess players are students from special classrooms run by Arcadia University’s B2EST program. At the B2EST Activity Day, held on May 23, the winners of each round of chess advanced until the championship round. Brandon Rivera of Philadelphia, a student from Austin Meehan, won the tournament and was awarded a trophy and a new bicycle. Other activities include a picnic lunch and sports events. Accompanying the children were 20 parents and 24 teachers and educators.
The B2EST Program of Arcadia University specializes in developing positive and effective approaches to deal with challenging behaviors. Goals include improving classroom management, effective behavior management, and developing positive behavioral supports for parents, teachers, and schools. Using research-based strategies, the program helps adults to support children and adolescents with problem behaviors, to reduce discipline referrals and school violence, and to increase academic performance.
Schools with B2EST run classrooms participating in the Activity Day are: Edmunds Elementary; Roosevelt Middle, Pennypacker Elementary, Harding Middle, Leeds Middle and Austin Meehan Middle
in the news
Arcadia University’s B2EST program was mentioned in the June 3 “School Notes” section of Montgomery County’s Neighbors Philadelphia Inquirer and in the Northeast Times. B2EST’s Activity Day was held on May 23 for behaviorally challenged children.
Dr. Jan Walbert, Vice President for Student Affairs and President of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor on “Best Practices for Making College Campuses Safe,” as reported on PR-inside.com May 16.
On Thursday, May 3, Jan Walbert was interviewed live on WCAU affiliate NBC Show: 10! on “five things you can do to help your teenager make the tough transition from high school to college.”
Arcadia University’s graduation was mentioned during KYW affiliate CBS’s Eyewitness News at 5, 5:30 and 6 a.m. May 18 on travel gridlock on 309, and Route 73 because of Commencement exercises.
Arcadia University’s Black Male Development Symposium 2007 was mentioned in the April 15 Philadelphia Sunday Sun.
Cindy Rubino, coordinator of Arcadia’s community service office was part of a front page story in The Intelligencer on Friday, May 18, on “Right Way to Be Left.” The article deals with college students who are packing up to leave for the summer or are graduating and about the stuff they didn’t want or couldn’t fit in their cars. For over 12 years, Rubino has been developing a collection and distribution program. “My first year here, when I walked out and saw what was left over, it was disturbing to say the least,” Rubino told the Intelligencer. Rubino has coordinated to have things donated to a wide array of groups in the Bucks-Mont. area.
Faculty
Dr. Robert Thompson, Associate Professor and co-chair of Political Science wrote an article in the June 1 Popmatters remembering the late former Russian president, Boris Yeltsin. Thompson had visited Russia in 1992, after which Yelstin had been elected, and visited again in 1996. “I watched the Yeltsin presidential campaign when it rocked Moscow’s Red Square. During the summer of 1998, I visited the infamous Kreisky Prisor in St. Petersburg and saw a disturbing view of Russian justice during the Yelstin era. During my trips, I walked the streets, rode the metro and lived as a local (as much as a visiting foreigner could do). Read more.
Dr. Dennis Gallagher, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning Assessment, was quoted in the June 1 The Chronicle of Higher Education. Gallagher was among a group of academics who attended the annual meeting of NAFSA: Association of International Educators. In one of the sessions, attendees discussed the growing practice of study abroad for freshmen, mental-health problems among students going overseas, and the ever-present hassles brought about by “helicopter parents” who continue to hover over college-age children, even when they are studying abroad. “At Arcadia, freshmen have the option of spending their first semester in London or Stirling, Scotland. About 10 percent of the freshman class participates,” said Gallagher. “Only high achievers are invited to apply,” he said.
Dr. Carol Leiper, retired Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy and Director of Arcadia’s Dan Aaron Stay Fit Exercise Program for Individuals With Parkinson Diseases or Multiple Sclerosis, wrote an “Invited Commentary” in the May 2007 monthly Physical Therapy. Leiper congratulated the authors on their proposed study of “Effect of Aerobic Training on Walking Capacity and Maximal Exercise Tolerance in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: A Randomized Crossover Controlled Study” and wrote in her commentary “that studies such as this help us to formulate better hypotheses for future interventions.”
Larry Atkins, Adjunct Professor of Journalism, wrote a commentary May 18 for the Philadelphia Daily News on “Hands off Michael Moore.” He wrote about Moore’s new documentary Sicko, which focuses on the problematic U.S. healthcare industry and HMOs. Atkins writes about how the Treasury Department is investigating Moore’s trip to Cuba asking for proof that he works for a “news-gathering organization” and about those who accompanied him. Moore filed his request six months prior to his departure. The travel and trade ban excludes anyone other than full-time journalists, government officials, members of international delegations, full-time professionals and family. “Doesn’t the government have anything better to do? Instead of shooting the messenger, it ought to focus on our failing health system,” Atkins wrote.
Alumni in the News
Cristopher Sefransky ’07, a Bachelor of Science Honors graduate in Accounting, co-wrote with Thomas Brinker, Professor of Accounting, an article on “The Expanding Definition of S Corporation Ownership: An Overview of the Basics” in the May 2007 issue of the Journal of Financial Service Professionals.
Emily Capella ’77 has been promoted to superintendent of the Lenape Regional High School District, as reported in the April 27 Philadelphia Inquirer. Capella began her career as a social studies teacher at Cherokee in 1977. She earned her master’s degree in secondary school administration from Rowan University. Read more.
Gerald A. Miller Jr., who earned his M.A.Ed. in 1987 and who teaches social studies at LaSalle College High School in Wyndmoor, was in the May 13 “Student Spotlight” in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Miller, a Vietnam veteran, teaches the history of Vietnam, including a visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. “The course covers Vietnam from the Trung Sisters through present-day Vietnam,” Miller said. “We look at the military, social and political forces that make Vietnam history a valid way of look at the past.” As reported, he also participated in the 25th anniversary celebration of the Vietnam Wall on March 26 and was part of the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Vietnam Education center, which will be constructed adjacent to the Wall. The center is designed to each America’s youth about the Vietnam war.
Kathy Mosley, ’06 who earned her master’s in Educational Leadership and is currently residing in the Quakertown school district, will run for one of two open seats in Region 3 for the board of school directors as reported in the April 12 Free Press (Quakertown). “I feel that my education background can lend a lot in terms of reviewing curriculum and programs and understanding some of the standards that need to be met by students,” said Mosley.
Krystal N. Gula, ’07 who received her BA in International Business and Culture, was listed in the May 2 Beaver County Times (Beaver, Pa.) on her induction into the Kappa Upsilon chapter of Delta Mu Delta, an international honor society in business administration at Arcadia. Gula graduated cum laude with departmental honors.
Publication Information
Contributors: Donna Whitlock '05, University Relations Administrative Assistant. Photos: Joshua Blustein, Associate Professor of Psychology. Web Producer: Sue Gettlin, University Relations Web Designer. Managing Editor: Lori Bauer, Director of University Relations.
The Arcadia University Bulletin is distributed to students, faculty and staff weekly on Tuesdays during the academic year and bi-monthly in the summer. Campus members are encouraged to submit information to be included in the Bulletin. The deadline for submission will be the Friday before each edition. E-mail information to UR@arcadia.edu or call Lori Bauer, University Relations, 215-572-2970.
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