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Letter from the Dean
Dear Friends of the College,
On Saturday, May 19, the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Villanova honored its top graduates at
the annual
Medallion Ceremony for Academic Excellence. Our graduates are
beginning an exciting new chapter in their lives, and it was an honor to be
a part of commencement celebrations such as this event that recognized and
honored the achievements of our finest students.
With summer nearly here, we in the
College have more time to
seriously reflect on our purpose and values, and work to ensure that we are
living up to our mission. We take our responsibility as educators seriously;
it is our mission to provide an atmosphere of responsible learning to a
varied group of students who will be called to intellectual, moral, and
professional leadership during the course of their lives. Continued assessment, evaluation, and improvement
remain integral to our commitment to student-centered learning.
I want you to know that the College remains dedicated to its mission and
seeks to improve and enhance its commitment to our students, faculty, and
staff at every level.
Thank you for continuing to read the
College's e-newsletter, the newly named,
Inside A&S. We appreciate your continued interest in the
life of the
College, and we welcome your
feedback. I wish you
and your families a wonderful summer.
Sincerely,
Rev. Kail C. Ellis, O.S.A., Ph.D.
Dean of the College
In College News …
College Announces New Department of Geography and
the Environment
The College is pleased to announce the new Department of Geography and the Environment,
a department which links
the social sciences and the natural and physical sciences. The department will integrate the disciplines
of geography and environmental science in seeking to understand the
interaction of people and the natural environment in specific places and
around the world. Three degree programs will be offered.
The Geography degree program (B.A.) focuses on the interaction of
humans with the natural and physical environments of the earth from a spatial
perspective. The program’s graduates will have a fundamental understanding of
the patterns of human social dynamics and physical processes at the earth’s
surface, such as globalization and global climate change, within the context of
places, landscapes, and regions. Graduates will also be trained in the use of
geospatial technologies as tools in addressing many modern concerns. The
geography degree is a traditional arts degree requiring 10 classes in geography.
Geography courses count toward the social science general education requirement.
The Environmental Studies degree program (B.A.) focuses on the
interface between environmental science and relevant social sciences, including
public policy, political science, law, economics, sociology, and planning. The
program’s graduates will have a fundamental understanding of the biological,
chemical, and physical principles that underlie the structure and function of
the natural and physical environments of the earth coupled with a foundation in
the social sciences that underlie the relationships between humans, as
individuals and/or societies, and the natural and physical environments of the
earth. The environmental studies degree is a multidisciplinary arts degree built
around a variety of social science courses, with a few additional science
courses required.
The Environmental Science degree program (B.S.) focuses on the
application of biological, chemical, and physical principles to understanding
the natural and physical environments of the earth. The program’s graduates will
have an understanding of and appreciation for the processes and interactions
that occur both within and between the atmosphere, the biosphere, the
lithosphere, and the hydrosphere and be able to assess and address the direct
and indirect influences of human activities on the integrity of the earth’s
systems. The environmental science degree is a multidisciplinary science degree,
which requires at least eight laboratory science classes. Interested students
should be encouraged to take science classes beginning in their first year.
For more information, please contact
Dr. Keith Henderson.
College Offers Students, Faculty, and Staff Access
to Mideastwire.com
The
College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences is pleased to offer to its students, faculty,
and staff access to Mideastwire.com,
an Internet-based news service that employs a team of translators from around the
region to gather important stories from and about the Middle East. Its core
product is a daily e-mail newsletter to English speaking subscribers that
aggregates key English language stories about the Middle East together with
translated Arabic and Persian stories that appear via the print, radio, and
television media of the region.
While there are now more than 500 Arabic and Persian
news outlets reporting stories from and about the Middle East, there is
currently no affordable means for English speakers to gain access to much of
this content. As a result, the overwhelming majority of English speaking
businesspersons, students, journalists, and others who have an interest in
the affairs of the region are largely unaware of what the Middle East media
is covering and how they are covering these stories.
Mideastwire.com aims to
close this gap by offering a daily e-mail newsletter of concise, translated
briefs covering some of the key political, cultural, economic, and opinion
pieces appearing in the media of the 22 Arab countries, Iran, and the Arab
Diaspora.
For more information, please contact
Mideastwire.com.
Department of Psychology Now Offering Two Combined Bachelor’s/Master’s
Programs
The Department of Psychology now offers
two
five-year bachelor’s/master’s degree programs. In the first program,
students earn both a B.A. and an M.S. in psychology. This program provides
an especially strong foundation for individuals who plan to pursue a Ph.D.
in one of the many subfields of psychology. It also serves the needs of
students who are unsure of their future professional goals and of
individuals seeking a terminal master’s degree before entering the work
force.
Whereas this program emphasizes basic theory and research in psychology, the
second bachelor’s/master’s program has a decidedly applied focus, combining
a B.A. in psychology with an M.S. in Human Resource Development. This
program specifically prepares students to enter the work force as human
resource professionals by providing a comprehensive background in the basic
human resource competencies with emphasis on global, strategic, and
developmental issues.
In both programs, students take graduate and well as undergraduate courses
during their senior year. Several of the graduate courses count for both
graduate and undergraduate credit, allowing the master’s degree to be
obtained in only one additional year.
Learn more
here.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Partners with
the Financial Times
Providing Students With Global
Perspectives on World Events
 The
College of Liberal Arts
and Sciences has partnered with the
Financial Times, internationally recognized for its authoritative
news, comment, and analysis, to provide students and faculty with full
access to the FT’s electronic edition and to FT.com’s Level Two subscription
service. This partnership will enable the University to further educate its
students on socio-economic and geo-political issues that affect everyone
regardless of a student’s major.
How To Access the Financial Times Online
There are many ways to access the FT online:
Save the Dates!
Please mark your calendars for these important events:
Liberal Arts Open House
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Early Action Candidates' Day
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Candidates' Day
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Please click
here for the complete academic calendar.
Event Round-up
Be sure to visit the
College's home
page for a more complete rundown of upcoming events!
VCLE to Host the 2007 Carlyle Studies Conference in July
The Villanova Center for Liberal Education (VCLE) will host the
2007 Carlyle Studies Conference on July 12-13, 2007. The plenary speaker
is Chris Vanden Bossche from the Department of English at the University of
Notre Dame. For more information, please contact
Marylu Hill.
Make Plans Now to Visit the Mendel Exhibit ... Coming to Philadelphia's
Academy of Natural Sciences
Villanova University and The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia
proudly announce their partnership to present the traveling exhibition,
“Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics,”
which will visit the Academy at 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway from May
28 to September 28, 2008. The exhibition will be available to only five tour
venues in the United States through 2008: Philadelphia (Villanova and the
Academy of Natural Sciences), Chicago, Washington, D.C., Columbus, Ohio, and
Memphis, Tennessee.
During the exhibition’s Philadelphia tour, all Villanova students, staff,
and faculty who present valid identification will receive free general
admission to the Academy of Natural Sciences. It is our hope that you will
find this special exhibition informative and enjoyable.
To learn more about the exhibit, please visit
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/mendel/. For more information, please contact
Kate Szumanski.
Faculty in the News
-
Craig Bailey, Ph.D., an assistant professor of history, has
published the article, "The Nesbitts of London and their Networks," in
Irish and Scottish Mercantile Networks in Europe and Overseas in the
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, edited by David Dickson, Jan
Parmentier, and Jane Ohlmeyer, (Academia Press: Gent, 2007), 231-249.
-
Jesse Frey, Ph.D., an assistant professor of mathematical sciences,
recently completed a study that uses Bayesian analysis to determine
which batting averages in major league baseball are the best indicators
of ability. Frey's findings appears in the May issue of The American
Statistician.
For more information, please
click
here.
-
Mercedes Juliá, Ph.D., a professor of classical and modern languages
and literatures, has published a book entitled: Las ruinas del
pasado: Aproximaciones a la novela histórica posmoderna
(Madrid: Ediciones de la Torre, 2006). A special presentation of
this book took place on March 14, 2007, at the Atheneum in Madrid,
Spain.
-
Richard N. Juliani, Ph.D., a professor of sociology, spoke at the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on his history of
Philadelphia’s Little Italy. Dr. Juliani is the author of the newly
released book, Priest, Parish, and People:
Saving the Faith in Philadelphia's "Little
Italy."
-
Timothy W. Kirk, Ph.D., a Catherine of Siena Fellow in Ethics and
visiting assistant professor of philosophy, published a paper, "Managing
Pain, Managing Ethics," in the April 2007 issue of
Pain Management Nursing. The paper offers a moral analysis and
proposes an evidence-based decision making strategy for home hospice
nurses caring for patients who's loved ones are not administering pain
medication adequately.
-
Krista Malott, Ph.D., an assistant professor in counselor education,
participated in a panel discussion on the issues presented in the film,
Freedom Writers, at West Chester University.
Learn more here.
-
Patrick Markey, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology, was
featured in Business Week in an article entitled, "Games Do Cause
Violent Behavior (But Not Much)."
Read the full article here.
-
Charlene Mires, Ph.D., an associate professor of history, was
appointed to the editorial board of The Journal of American History,
the leading journal in the field of American history, at a recent
meeting of the Organization of American Historians.
-
Democracy in Chile: The Legacy of September 11, 1973, (2005), edited
by Silvia Nagy-Zekmi, Ph.D., a professor of classical and
modern languages and literatures, and Fernando Leiva, has won the 2007
Arthur P. Whitaker Prize for best book, awarded by MACLAS, the Middle
Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies.
-
El arte de vivir: Aproximaciones a la poesia de Pedro Lastra, edited
by Silvia Nagy-Zekmi, Ph.D., and Luis Correa-Diaz, was published
in Santago de Chile in January of 2007.
-
Christopher C. Roberts, Ph.D., a Catherine of Siena Teaching Fellow,
has published a book, Creation and Covenant: The Significance of
Sexual Difference in the Moral Theology of Marriage, (T&T
Clark/Continuum, New York and London, 2007). The book is about the
history of marriage, theological theories of personhood, and, in a
tangential way, the gay marriage debate.
-
Paul Rosier, Ph.D., an assistant professor of history, spoke at the
Charles L. Durham Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia on
Wednesday, April 18. The topic of his talk: "The Changing Face of
American Sports." Dr. Rosier spoke about how Jackie Robinson, Wilma
Rudolph, Billie Jean King, and other athletes have expanded the
boundaries of American sports to include both women and men, and people
of all races.
-
Melanie Vile, Ph.D., director of grant development in the College,
was featured in a recent Philadelphia Inquirer article entitled,
"Climate Change: The Local Picture."
Alumni in the News
-
Sharon McDaniel, '97, '01, is the new Director of Human Resources at
the Chesapeake Utilities Corporation in Dover, Del. McDaniel
earned her master of science in Human Resources Development and her
bachelor of science in Business Administration from the University.
Learn more here.
-
Ann Marie Tarnowski, '91, '97, received the Key of Honor Award from
the Brick Memorial Key Club at its 61st annual New Jersey district
convention. Tarnowski is a former student of Ray Heitzmann, Ph.D., a
professor of education. The Key of Honor Award is the most prestigious
award that a Key Club District confers on an individual. Tarnowski
graduated with a BS and an MA in education.
Students in the News
-
Sarah Blanchard ('08, Sociology/Honors) was
recently selected as a finalist in the Harry S. Truman Scholarship
competition, which supports undergraduates who plan careers as public
servants and agents of change.
-
Emily Brault ('08, Biology/Honors) received
Honorable Mention in the Morris. K. Udall Scholarship for her commitment
to a career in environmental sciences.
-
Jaclyn Farwell ('07, Nursing) was recently
awarded a Fulbright Teaching Assistant Grant to teach
English as a second language in South Korea next year. Through the
Fulbright program, Jacy will also pursue the Language Training
Initiative to learn the Korean language.
-
Christine Feldmeier ('07, Chemistry and
Biochemistry) is this year's recipient of the
Thomas J. Mentzer Memorial Award granted by the
Center for
Peace and Justice Education. The award honors a Villanova graduating
senior who has contributed significantly, through his or her volunteer
service work, to "expanding opportunities for the poor and
underprivileged." Next year, Feldmeier will study medicine at Thomas
Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, where she intends to continue
to enlist support for and serve the San Juan clinic. She plans, in her
words, “to use my medical training in the future to continue to make a
difference in the lives of the poor.”
-
Katrine Herrick ('08, Management and
International Business/Honors) was recently selected as a finalist in
the Harry S. Truman Scholarship competition, which supports
undergraduates who plan careers as public servants and agents of change.
-
Haig Norian ('08, Electrical Engineering)
has been awarded a 2007 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. Haig was one of
317 Goldwater Scholars selected from among 1,110 applicants for this
prestigious undergraduate award, which recognizes excellence in the
sciences, engineering, and mathematics and which supports students who
are planning research careers in these fields.
-
Nicholas O'Donoughue ('06, Electrical
and Computer Engineering) received the 2007 National Defense Science and
Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. Nick is currently pursuing a
Ph.D. in Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, studying
signal processing within the Time Reversal Imaging Group in the ECE
Department at CMU.
-
Robert Zellem ('08, Astronomy and
Astrophysics/Honors) received Honorable Mention in the Barry M.
Goldwater Scholarship competition for his outstanding academic record
and his contribution to the research efforts in our
Astronomy/Astrophysics Department.
-
Shannon Doyle ('07, Biology) is competing in
the 2007 Miss Pennsylvania Scholarship Pageant. She plans to attend
Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in the fall. Read all about
her pageant experiences and her pageant platform -- "Home
Away from Home: Enriching the Lives of Hospitalized Children” -- here.
-
Jason Merritt, a senior astronomy and
astrophysics major, and Christopher Night Pilman, '02, who is now
finishing his Ph.D. in astrophysics at Harvard University, have
published the following peer-reviewed scientific paper with Edward
Sion, Ph.D., entitled, "Hubble Space Telescope Spectroscopy of
the Dwarf Nova VW Hydri in Superoutburst," in the March 2007 issue of
the
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. This
journal is one of the top five highest impact international journals in
astronomy and astrophysics and is published by the University of Chicago
Press.
IT Corner
-
New Phone System Coming -- As you probably know, a new phone system
will be installed July 4 to 8 requiring every phone to be
replaced. Please note that saved messages on the current system will not
carry over to the new system, nor will distribution lists. More details
are available at:
http://unit.villanova.edu/voip/
-
New E-mail System Coming -- Our College will be the first area
migrated to the new system, beginning on June 4 (we do not have a more
detailed schedule, but will send it out when it becomes available).
Similar to the PC rollout, it will require a hands-on configuration of
each computer (which on average could take around 1 hour). If you are
not available at the time your department is migrated, then you will be
completed in the fall semester. Instructor-led training on the new
Outlook E-mail client will be available (on Mondays and Tuesdays, June
4 to July 31, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.), and we recommend that everyone
attends. You can find out more about the new email system at:
http://unit.villanova.edu/exchange/
-
Scantron Upgrade -- The aging Scantron test-grading system will be
upgraded to the newest version this summer. Please note that the old and
new systems will be unavailable during Summer Session I due to
renovations of the basement of the St. Augustine Center for the Liberal
Arts. Instructor-led training
is being made available to heavy users of this product in June.
Additional training and support documents will be available late summer.
The system will reside in a new room. Look for an e-mail update in
August.
-
Tablet PC Pilot -- The College will be piloting 10 Tablet PCs with
faculty beginning this fall. A Tablet PC is a “convertible laptop” with
the capabilities of being written on through the use of a digital pen
and touch screen technology. This technology has the possibility of
being integrated into the learning experience. The purpose of the
pilot is to collect feedback on evaluating the value of this product as
a teaching aid to our faculty. If you are interested in becoming
involved, please send an e-mail
to
Christopher Driscoll.
-
SharePoint upgrade -- Over the summer, current sites on the College
SharePoint server will be migrated to a newer version of the SharePoint
Web-based collaboration tool. Sites will be moved one at a time, and
owners of sites will be contacted by College IT staff to coordinate. The
current SharePoint system will continue to run until all sites have been
migrated to the new system.
Send Your News Items and Event Notices for Publication Is
your upcoming event not listed in this e-newsletter? Do you wish it was? Do
you need help broadening your outreach efforts, publicizing events, and
getting the word out about the accomplishments of your faculty?
Learn more here! Please submit your announcements or events via our
online submission form or directly to
Kate Szumanski. Kate
will include it in the next issue of the College’s e-newsletter. |
