Most importantly, this is your e-newsletter, and I seek your feedback and suggestions on ways to improve it. Kate Szumanski, director of college communications, is the editor of this newsletter. Please direct all comments – and news items for inclusion in future issues – to Kate at kathryn.szumanski@villanova.edu.

One of the purposes of this e-newsletter is that of making known the truly wonderful accomplishments of our faculty, staff, and students. This year, for example, we are most pleased that three of our faculty have won the University’s most prestigious awards for teaching, research, and service. Dr. Eduard Castillas (Chemistry) was named winner of the 2004-05 Lindback Teaching Award; Dr. Mary E. Desmond (Biology) has received the University’s Outstanding Faculty Research Award; and Dr. Walter Conn (Theology and Religious Studies) has received the Lawrence C. Gallen, O.S.A., Faculty Service Award.

In addition, a number of our students have received prestigious grant awards and scholarships. These awards include the Truman Scholarship for students who will pursue careers in public service; the Goldwater Scholarship for students in the sciences; and the Fulbright Scholarship, a scholarship program that aims to increase mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills. Further details of these faculty and student awards are listed in the e-newsletter.

Please join me in congratulating our faculty and students on their achievements. They have made us all very proud.

Finally, as you may know, I have been granted a sabbatical in the fall semester. Dr. Catherine Hill, associate dean of the College, will serve as acting dean in my absence. Dr. Hill, along with Associate Dean Bob DeVos, Assistant Dean Mario D’Ignazio, and our new Associate Dean for the Sciences Kel Wieder will be at your service. If anything comes up in my absence that needs the Dean’s Office’s attention, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Hill. I will be here on campus throughout the summer.

With best wishes,

Kail C. Ellis, O.S.A., Ph.D.
Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Congratulations to all faculty members who have won awards! If you would like to have your work or award featured in the College’s e-newsletter, please send your submission to Kate Szumanski at kathryn.szumanski@villanova.edu.

A special congratulations to all Villanova students who have received prestigious grants, awards, and scholarships! Visit the Web site of the Office of Undergraduate Grants and Awards at http://www3.villanova.edu/uga/newsreleasemar30.htm to learn more.

• Daniel DiCenso, a graduate student, has been awarded a Gates Cambridge Fellowship. He is one of 38 winners nationally, and Villanova’s second in four years.
• Diane Coffey, Honors and Sociology, has been named a 2005 Truman Foundation Scholar.
• Alex Kukuljevic, a doctoral student in Philosophy, was awarded a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) scholarship for research in Germany.
• Morgan Jones, Honors and Biology, was chosen as a 2005 Goldwater Scholar for students in science.
• Daniel Greenspan, a doctoral student in Philosophy, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Denmark.
• Andrew Horne, Philosophy, was awarded a Teaching Assistantship by the Austrian Government via the Fulbright program.
• Kristen Nicole Carey, Honors, Biology, and Philosophy, was awarded a Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Fellowship for 2005-2006.
• Imran Punekar, '05, Biology and Honors, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study medical ethics at the United Arab Emirates University.
• Kelly Doyle, '05, an engineering major with a concentration in Environmental Studies, was awarded a Udall Scholarship.

Villanova also had one Marshall finalist, three Fulbright finalists, and one Truman finalist. For more information, visit the Web site of the Office of Undergraduate Grants and Awards at http://www3.villanova.edu/uga/newsreleasemar30.htm.

Student Honored at Medallion Ceremony

On Saturday, May 21, graduating seniors received awards for academic excellence at the Medallion Ceremony for Academic Excellence held in the St. Thomas of Villanova Church. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences awards the medallion to students who have excelled in their field of study. Each department has named its medallion either for a luminary from the past who has deeply affected the discipline or an outstanding person who helped to shape the course of study at Villanova. This year, 37 students were honored. Shortly, the names of the winners will be posted on the College's Web site. Be sure to read the next issue of the e-newsletter for details.

Is your department sponsoring an event – maybe a panel discussion or lecture – in the summer or fall that you would like to advertise? Please send your submission to kathryn.szumanski@villanova.edu.

The Mendel Medal

Dr. Holmes Rolston III received the 2005 Mendel Medal on April 2. Dr. Rolston is University Distinguished Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University. He delivered the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh, 1997/1998, published as Genes, Genesis and God (Cambridge University Press, 1999).

Dr. Rolston was the Templeton Prize laureate in 2003. The award, presented to him by Prince Philip in Buckingham Palace, is larger in monetary value than a Nobel Prize. Dr. Rolston donated the proceeds to his alma mater, Davidson College, to endow a chair in science and religion.

Dr. Rolston is widely respected for his work in the dialogue between science and religion, especially in his reconciling of evolutionary natural history and monotheism. His Science and Religion: A Critical Survey (Random House, 1987), was a ground-breaking work. He has repeatedly addressed the question of struggle and evil in nature, finding a “cruciform creation.” In a prize-winning article, he asks: “Does Nature Need to be Redeemed?” Life is generated and regenerated in the midst of its perpetual perishing.

He is a founding member of the honorary International Society for Science and Religion.

Dr. Rolston is also known as “the father of environmental ethics,” for his defense of intrinsic value in nature and of caring for creation. He is featured in Fifty Key Thinkers on the Environment (Joy A. Palmer, ed., Routledge, 2001), also profiled in American Environmental Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present (ABC-Clio, 2000), and in Encyclopedia Britannica, 2004 Book of the Year. His Environmental Ethics remains a founding book in the field.

Dr. Rolston was awarded Doctor of Letters by Davidson College in 2002. He has authored or edited six books and over one hundred articles in books and professional journals, with his work reprinted over one hundred times and in over a dozen languages. He has lectured on all seven continents; his research has been used in classes at over three hundred colleges and universities. In 2005-2006 he will be Visiting Distinguished Professor of Bioethics at Yale University.

The Mendel Medal, founded by Villanova University in 1929 and sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is awarded each year to outstanding scientists (or a scientist) who have done much by their painstaking work to advance the cause of science, and, by their lives and their standing before the world as scientists, have demonstrated that between true science and true religion there is no intrinsic conflict.

To learn more about the history of this prestigious award and past winners, visit http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/special_events/m_medal.html

Dr. Seth Koven (History) discussed his book, Slumming: Sexual and Social Politics in Victorian London, with Marty Moss-Coane on her live, call-in talk show, Radio Times, heard daily from 10 a.m. to noon on WHYY 91FM. Radio Times is produce at WHYY’s studios in Philadelphia. You can listen to Dr. Koven’s interview at www.whyy.org. Search Radio Times.

Have you appeared in print, on the radio, or on TV discussing your scholarship or commenting on current events? Let the Dean’s Office know by contacting Kate Szumanski at kathryn.szumanski@villanova.edu.

The Board of Trustees has approved two new graduate degrees that flow directly from the University’s Academic Strategic Plan. (You can access the University’s Strategic Plan at http://www.vpaa.villanova.edu/academicstrategicplan/index.html)

The University will offer a Master of Arts in Communication, which will serve students interested in either strategic communications or media and culture, and a Master of Science in Finance, designed primarily as a five-year bachelor’s-master’s program to prepare students for the world of financial services.

The inaugural issue of Academics magazine, a publication designed to highlight the ways in which Villanova fulfills its academic mission, is now available on the Web at: www.vpaa.villanova.edu/magazine/vol_1-1.pdf. The magazine is a new communications initiative sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs. The second issue will be available on the Web shortly.

The first issue of the magazine features an article on the College, “The Mission at the Core: Creating Critical Thinkers,” which examines the core curriculum. The second issue of the magazine features an article on the College, “Sustaining a Culture of Faculty Research Mentorship,” which describes undergraduate research in the biology and psychology departments and how faculty members help make that research possible.

The magazine is slated to be published two times a year and will be distributed to the parents of current undergraduate students, members of the University’s Board of Trustees, senior University officers, the Office of University Admission, the Office of University Development, and select officials at other colleges and universities. Extra copies are available in the Dean’s Office.

If you have any comments that you would like to share, please direct them to Kate Szumanski, director of college communications, at extension 8104 or kathryn.szumanski@villanova.edu.

Learn more about how your My Documents folder works here: http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/admin/my_documents.html.

K Drive

Faculty and Staff who had a K Drive will find their data in the N Drive after receiving their new computer.

2005 Rollout (PC Refresh)

Please visit http://www.unit.villanova.edu/pc/ for more concerning the Rollout.

SharePoint

Have you heard about Arts & Sciences online collaboration and communication tool SharePoint? Share and work on files with colleagues securely through the web and even access it from home. Visit https://sharepoint.artsci.villanova.edu (login with your VU username and password) or contact Chris Driscoll for more information at Christopher.Driscoll@villanova.edu

UnIT Workshops

Interested in improving your computer skills? Why not take a course sponsored by UnIT? Visit http://www.unit.villanova.edu/workshops/ to learn how.

Did you know that the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences posts a number of important forms and policies on its Web site at http://artsci.villanova.edu/fpg/faculty.html to lessen the amount of paper that piles up on your desk? Why not visit the site to learn more?

Office of Human Resources

Have questions about your health benefits or 403(b) retirement plan? Visit the Web site of the Office of Human Resources at http://www.hr.villanova.edu for useful information.

Academic Calendar

Want to do some advance planning? Why not check out the University’s academic calendar at http://www3.villanova.edu/calendar/ and begin planning ahead.

Open Houses

Want to change the format of your departmental Open House? Why not invite current students enrolled in your program to participate in your open house along with faculty and staff? Students in your program may offer new insight and a different perspective on life at Villanova and often are better equipped to answer many of the questions prospective students and their parents have. Be sure to prep your students beforehand on how to be a good ambassador of your department, the College, and the University.