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Good News from Arts & Sciences Faculty

The College of Arts & Sciences celebrates the achievements and good news of its students and faculty. On the following links we feature one good news item for each division in the college: Humanities and Natural Sciences & Math and Social Sciences.

News for Fall 2008

HUMANITIES DIVISION

English

On November 8, 2008 at the Millikin University Literary Festival we had the pleasure of celebrating the publication release of a new book of poetry by one of our popular English faculty members, Sandra Mckenna. Her book pf poetry, Chaos Theory, is a compilation of three previous collections: The Box of 64 includes poems for each color in the Crayola Crayon big box of colors; Not Quite Haiku is a collection of short, aphoristic poetry; and Women Under the Influence renders poetic tales about women from myth, history and the Bible. Also thrown into the mix are a few random poems just for fun, like her award-winning poem "Sex After Fifty." This book is a fun read and would make an excellent Christmas gift. You can buy a copy in the English office for $10.00 and I'm sure Sandra would be happy to personalize and sign your copy of the book.

Dr. Jim Meyer, Associate Professor of English, led two workshops for K-12 teachers recently. On September 30 he led a workshop for the elementary school literacy coaches in the Decatur Public Schools on "Culturally Responsive Reading Instruction: What we must do to get boys, especially African American boys, to read." On October 2 he presented "Teacher Inquiry Makes Better Teachers" to Lutheran school teachers and administrators at the Lutheran School Association state conference in Springfield, IL.

Dr. Michael O’Conner, Associate Professor of English, attended the Associated Colleges of Illinois (ACI) Celebration of Ten Years of Faculty Development in Technology, in Chicago Illinois on October 9 and 10th. O'Conner was the leader of the Faculty Technology Development consortium team for seven years, from 2000 to 2007. He helped lead a team of Teaching and Learning Mentors (TLMs) at ACI campuses around the state. The ACI Teaching and Learning Mentors brought technology workshops to faculty members at little to no expense, disseminating best practices for using technology to enhance teaching and learning. Activities were arranged through grants obtained by ACI from Ameritech, SBC, and AT&T. The Celebration marked a conclusion to the decade-long work of many of these Teaching and Learning Mentors.

Dr. Stephen Frech, Associate Professor of English, has won the Mississippi Valley Poetry Chapbook Prize for his manuscript The Dark Villages of Childhood. The volume, Frech's third, will be available in December of this year. Poet Gary Miranda says of the volume: "Stephen Frech’s great strength in The Dark Villages of Childhood is not the elegant metaphor, though he has some of these, but the uncanny selection of mundane details that startle by their rightness. In “The Ghost of Him,” a 10-part elegy for a childhood friend who died young, Frech calls upon every sense we own to evoke a boy’s world that is remarkably real and unmistakably American. Don’t let the “dark” in his title fool you: his images shimmer."

Dr. Devon Fitzgerald, Assistant Professor of English, attended the Thomas R. Watson Conference October 16-18 at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. She presented research titled, "More Than Just the Facts, Ma'am: New Media and the Hyperlocal Narrative." The Thomas R. Watson Conference is a biannual International conference in Rhetoric and Composition hosted by the University of Louisville. The event brings rhetoric and composition scholars from around the globe together to share their innovative work. The conference has an acceptance rate of 30% and proposals are peer reviewed. This year's theme: "The New Work of Composing" gave Dr. Fitzgerald the opportunity to present her research on the hyperlocal trend in journalistic writing. The presentation examines hyperlocalism, which marries old media ideas with new media technologies, raising issues about what qualifies as local, as news, as story, as well as who (local citizens rather than seasoned journalists, for example) contributes to news stories and the media encouraging them to do so.

Dr. Randy Brooks, Professor of English and Acting Dean of Arts & Sciences, received a national award for 2008 Most Valuable Program (Runner Up) from VOYA, (Voice of Youth Advocates) magazine. VOYA is a bimonthly ”library magazine serving those who serve young adults”. For more information about VOYA, see the web site at: <http://www.voya.com/>. The award was for a series of workshops on teaching haiku at Centennial High School in Champaign, Illinois. The program, “Haiku Cut: The Social Art of Kukai Competition” was featured in the October 2008 issue of VOYA. The program, presented over three weeks at Centennial High School in April 2007, was funded by the Centennial High School Library, Tepper Electric Arts Endowment, and the Champaign Public Library. See the web site for details and photos of Haiku Cut at: <http://www.millikin.edu/haiku/competitions/CentennialHighSchool/> or see the Champaign Public Library web site page on this event is located at: <http://www.champaign.org/teenspace/create/haiku_competition.html>. The VOYA Board members who selected this as one of the Most Valuable Programs for 2008 wrote: “The Board members loved so many aspects of this program. The students were clearly absorbed throughout the activity; they attended two sessions on haiku writing and then submitted their own entries for judging. This program was exciting because it drew so many disciplines together. It brought teachers and several community contacts inside the school library for involvement.”

Bronze Man Books and the Millikin Alumni Association were co-hosts of the Millikin University Haiku Homecoming Reading on October 11, 2008. This reading was a celebration of the publication of the Millikin University Haiku Anthology published by Bronze Man Books, the student-run publishing company. This 192 page paperback book was edited by Dr. Randy Brooks, Emily Evans ‘05, Rick Bearce ‘08, and Melanie McLay ‘09. Graphic design and illustration by Michael Gurney ‘10. The art of haiku has been taught at Millikin University for over a decade, resulting in many students' publication in various haiku journals and magazines. This anthology includes 264 of the best haiku written by over 150 Millikin students and alumni. Cor van den Heuvel, editor of The Haiku Anthology, published by Norton, writes: “Randy Brooks is Chair of the English Department at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, where he also oversees what is undoubtedly the best English-language haiku program of any school in the country.” For more details see: <http://www.bronzemanbooks.com/muhaikuanthology.php>.

History

Dr. Gary Mormino '69, Professor of History, Director of Florida Studies Program; noted author, columnist; University of South Florida, St. Petersburg; was the featured speaker for the History Alumnus gathering at Homecoming on October 11. He is a 2008 Millikin Alumni Merit Award recipient.

Modern Languages

The Modern Language program continues to develop its communicative approach to language instruction, with extended opportunities for conversation labs in its new conversation facilitation room and the WJMU radio program, ESPAÑOL EN ACCIÓN in Spanish Wednesdays 8pm on FM89.5. As a host of multiple cultural events, the Modern Language department provided ongoing opportunities for our community to learn about other cultures.

Luis Peralta attended the ACTFL Convention held in Orlando, Florida from November 21st to the 23rd. The American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages Convention is the most important language event currently celebrated every year in the US. The convention gathers linguists, authors, publishers, researchers, and instructors of English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, and other languages to discuss, present, and explore the latest trends and techniques applied in the field of language adquisition and learning.

Philosophy

Dr. JoEllen Jacobs, Professor of Philosophy, wrote the Commentary for “Chapter Eleven: Mill and Taylor” in An Unconventional History of Western Philosophy: Conversations Between Men and Women Philosophers, published by Rowman & Littlefield College Publishing, (Lanham, MD), 2008.

NATURAL SCIENCES DIVISION

Mathematics/Computer Science

Dr. Joe Stickles, Associate Professor of Mathematics, received a $2000 grant from the Mathematical Association of America to help fund the second annual Illiana Undergraduate Mathematics Research Conference. This conference is a joint venture between Millikin University and Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN. This year, the conference will be held on Saturday, November 1 at Millikin.

Dr. James Rauff, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, examined and corrected the galleys for the American Mathematical Competition's eighth grade and twelfth grade competitive mathematics exams. He also wrote abstracts of 12 articles for the journal Historia Mathematica.

On the 26-27 of September, Dr. Michael Rogers, Associate Professor of Computer Science, attended as an invited speaker, the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges: Midwest 2008 Conference, in Holland, MI. The title of his talk, aimed at K-12 Computer Science teachers, was "Linux Administration". At the same conference, he was reelected, by acclamation, as webmaster and publicity chair for the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges: Midwest.

On the 4th of October, Dr. Rogers also attended the 14th Annual Buster Keaton Convention in Muskegon, MI, where he was privileged to watch the first screening, anywhere, of Buster's last film in which he had full creative control.

On the 20th of October, in conjunction with his student, Harley Eades, he attended and gave a presentation at the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) International Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages and Applications (OOPSLA) 17th Educators' Symposium, in Memphis, TN. The title of their presentation was "GPS in Computer Science I and II". Dr. Rogers also gave an astronomy presentation at the Luther Oaks Retirement Home in Bloomington, Illinois on the 20th of September.

Biology

In September, the Ecology and Evolution classes, taught by Drs. Judy Parrish, Associate Professor of Biology, Marianne Robertson, Associate Professor of Biology, and David Horn, Assistant Professor of Biology, went to Scovill Zoo for observations of animal behavior. About 70 students participated in the Cheetah/Human Interaction, entering the cheetah enclosure and having a real "hands-on" experience with the cheetahs, Jafari and Ranaka, before a guided behind the scenes tour and completing a lab assignment.

Dr. David Horn, Assistant Professor of Biology, and Mallory Neese, a former student, Mallory had a paper accepted for publication in the Transactions of the Illinois State Academy of Science titled "Population trends of raptors admitted to the Illinois Raptor Center, 1995-2006."

At the Homecoming Alumni Connections, the Biology Department featured Guest Speaker Dr. Kevin Pitz, '01, Asst. Professor of Biology, Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Tennessee at Martin. He spoke on “Millikin, Myriapods, and Me: My Path from Student to Teacher" on October 10, 2008.

Chemistry

At the Homecoming, the Chemistry department featured alumni, Dr. Janet Clark ’91 as the American Chemistry Society Lecturer. She presented "From the Big Blue to the Big Easy...Then Back Home Again in Indiana." Dr. Clark received a B.S. in chemistry from Millikin University in 1991. After graduating in May 1996 with her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry at Purdue University, she accepted employment with Exxon Research & Development Laboratories in Baton Rouge, LA and worked as a research chemist for seven years in the areas of gas conversion and low-sulfur fuels. Dr. Clark was awarded 13 US patents as well as being on the Innovator of the Year research team in 2002. Her teaching career began in the fall of 2003 as an assistant professor of Chemistry and Physics at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.

Physics

The Millikin Chapter of the Society of Physics Students participated in the Millennium Girls Symposium at State Farm HQ in Bloomington, IL on October 4, 2008. State Farm brought in many local companies, organizations, and services to help provide an opportunity for fifth through eighth grade girls to learn more about the technology industry and its potential in terms of career choices. Dr. Dan Miller, SPS Advisor and Associate Professor of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, led many members of SPS as well as math majors, Erica Lindamood and Sarah Dial, in giving these Millennium Girls an opportunity to look at the sun (using special filters) through several telescope. Dr. Casey Watson, Assistant Professor of Physics explained about solar activity and other interesting facts around the star that we orbit. Within only a couple hours, over 200 girls saw two different layers of the sun that was only possible through the use of white light and H-Alpha filters. Many of them were curious about the equipment we were using, or how the sun really shines. This event was an exciting time for all involved.

Also on October 4, the Millikin Chapter of the Society of Physics Students and the Decatur Area Astronomy Club co-hosted a night of astronomy workshops, contests, raffles, food, and observing at Friend’s Creek, IL. SPS Members and Advisor Dr. Dan Miller, Robert Arn, Shae Trumpy, Jackie Buhrmann, and Amanda Mandrell helped out during the evening, bringing a large array of optical devices during the observing session. Over 175 individuals attended this event and we exposed to views of star clusters, exploded stars, planets, and so much more.

SOCIAL SCIENCES DIVISION

Behavioral Sciences

Dr. Linda Collinsworth, Assistant Professor of Psychology, was recently appointed as a consulting psychologist to the Department of Veteran Affairs. She will be providing didactic services to interns and staff at Illiana Health Care Services in Danville, Illinois, on issues of sexual harassment in the workplace and advances in psychological testing.

Mary Garrison, Assistant Professor of Social Work, was nominated by Acting Dean Brooks and President Doug Zemke for The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Award. She was nominated for this service-learning award because of her work to build, support and enhance the Oasis Day Center, which is operated by the Heritage Behavioral Health Center in Decatur, Illinois. In the Spring of 2008, after developing a strong relationship with the Oasis Day Center through direct service and assistance over the last few years, Professor Garrison led a team of ten Millikin University students in recent efforts to keep Decatur’s Oasis Day Center from closing. Due to a major cut in state funding, the center had a $160,000 shortfall in its fiscal 2009 budget and was in danger of being closed. Garrison felt the problem would be a great learning project for the students in her Community Mental Health class and a valuable way for her and the students to assist in the funding crisis. Although not selected as the recipient of this award, the review committee noted: “Millikin was very HIGH in the running … Congratulations on your great partnership with Heritage Behavioral Health Center, Inc. at the Oasis Center. … Your partnership is impressive in the well rounded opportunities it offers your students.”

On October 10 three alumni were featured at a panel discussion about professional experiences in Human Services: (1) Tiona Johnson '08 is a substance abuse counselor at The Wells Center, Decatur Department of Corrections; (2) Paul Lidy '04 is Assistant Director of Student Programs and RTUC at Millikin University; and (3) Heather Tousignant '08 is a Social Services Specialist (in training) for Kids Matter, Inc. in St. Louis.

Communication

A Homecoming Alumni Panel featured (1) Lisa Griebel '78, principal, Crescendo, IN, performance consulting firm; and (2) Dr. Stacy Myers, former chair, Millikin University Department of Communication, now President, Advanced Management, Inc., Oak Ridge, TN.

On October 30, WJMU radio station will be presenting a re-enactment of the 1938 radio drama "The War of the Worlds." Millikin students, staff, and faculty will fill the roles of the cast members. The broadcast will take place exactly 70 years after its original airing.

Political Science

Constitution Day was celebrated at Millikin University on September 17 with a program on the Electoral College by Political Science faculty, Dr. Mark Wrighton, Associate Professor of Political Science, Dr. Keiko Ono, Assistant Professor of Political Science, and the Pre-law advisor, Dr. Robert Money, Associate Professor of Philosophy. The program featured a debate on the merits of the Electoral College by members of the University's Moot Court team (which has distinguished itself well in recent annual statewide competitions in Springfield).

Dr. Mark Wrighton, Associate Professor of Political Science, recently published an entry entitled "Incumbency" in The Encyclopedia of American Government and Civics, a three-volume set of entries covering a wide range of terms pertaining to government and civics.

The Thomas W. Ewing Lecture for 2008 titled, "Congress to Campus" featured two retired congressmen: The Honorable Matt McHugh of New York and The Honorable Sam Young of Illinois.

On October 10, the Political Science and Law Alumni Panel featured four alumni participants: (1) Heidi Balsley '93, Corporate Attorney, Tate and Lyle, Decatur; (2) Jeff Lilly '98, Principal and Practice Director, The Third House Advocacy Group, LLC, (Indiana lobbyist), Indianapolis; (3) Lynne Wheeler Mormino '68, Technical Expert, Trainer, Social Security Administration, Tampa, FL; and (4) Sarah Smith '98, Attorney/Civil Litigator, Associate, Wendler and Ezra PC, Collinsville, IL.

Way to go Arts & Sciences faculty!

Dr. Randy Brooks
Acting Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences

 

 
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