FYI
The News Bulletin for the
Winthrop University Community
December 2, 2010
Highest fall enrollment for internationals reached
Winthrop welcomed 180 students
from 42 countries this fall in what is
the university’s highest fall enrollment
for international students.
The International Center hopes to
attract even more students as a way to
help Winthrop and international students bridge cultural gaps. “With the
addition of a new international student
recruiter, Winthrop is actively reaching out to these prospective students.
In the past, students have found their
way to us or been recruited through
the athletics department. Now we are
actively seeking them to help bring a
global perspective to Winthrop,” said
Angie Edwards, director of the International Center.
Winthrop officials have made
global learning a priority for freshmen
and sophomores in the coming years
through a new initiative. The Global
Learning Initiative will focus primarily on enhancing the global emphasis
across the Touchstone Program for
Winthrop’s general education curriculum, and will include developing
global and intercultural experiences
for undergraduate students.
Currently, the largest majority
of international students are from
China, 62 in all, Edwards said. Most
are studying accounting through the
partnership of the College of Business Administration with Nantong
University. The second largest group,
at 27 which includes a brother and
sister, hails from Saudi Arabia.
Large concentrations of students
also come from Canada, 15; France
and Brazil, nine each; Norway, eight
students from Agder University, an
exchange partner university; and
Enrollment continued on p. 2
Roger Weikle, dean of
the College of Business
Administration,
presented Cara Peters,
associate professor
of management and
marketing, with an
award during the
Nov. 19 York County
Chamber of Commerce
Education Awards
breakfast. Peters,
the Kinard Award
winner, was recognized
along with teachers
or educators of the
year from Clinton Jr.
College, York Technical
College, and Rock Hill’s
public and private
schools.
Moore details minority
graduation success rates
to congressional caucuses
Tom Moore, vice
president for academic
affairs, recently spoke
before a joint meeting of
the Congressional Black
and Hispanic caucuses on
Capitol Hill. His presentation detailed Winthrop’s
graduation rate success
among minority populations.
In a recent Education Trust report
entitled “Big Gaps, Small Gaps: Some
Colleges and Universities Do Better
Than Others in Graduating AfricanAmerican Students” Winthrop was
singled out for its role as a national
leader in consistently showing high rates
of graduation success among minorities.
Winthrop, with an enrollment of
approximately 5,000 undergraduates of
which 27 percent are black, has graduated African-American students at
higher rates than whites every year from
2002 through 2008. About 62 percent
of black students graduate within six
years, compared with 57 percent of
white students.
“I first informed caucus members that
before 1974 Winthrop was a singlegender, single-race school, so we have
made significant progress in graduating
minority students in a relatively short
amount of time,” said Moore.
Moore explained that Winthrop’s
minority graduation success is a matter
of “intent, support and culture.” “Our
institutional leaders have made this initiative a priority for 20+ years, and the
university has numerous programs such
as LEAP, University College, and now
Graduation continued on p. 7
Around Campus
F.Y.I. December 2, 2010 Page 2
Students create eye-catching hospice campaign
Healthcare management students
recently wrapped up a semester-long
experience in which they developed marketing campaigns for local
healthcare companies. They’ll present
the results of these projects to their
clients on Friday, Dec. 3, in the DiGiorgio Campus Center ballroom.
Associate Professor Michael Matthews divided his Healthcare Management class into five teams and
paired each with a different company.
The groups developed a wellness campaign for Piedmont Medical Center, a
marketing project for Carolinas Medical Center’s new outpost in Charlotte’s Steele Creek area, a research
project for a sleep apnea clinic in
the Presbyterian Hospital system, an
exploratory survey of South Carolina
markets for Bayaba Home Health
and an awareness and fundraising
project for Agape Hospice.
The students working with Agape
worked closely with the company’s
Vice President for Marketing Beckie
Cunningham. Together they decided on “Life Blooms Eternally,” a
three-day event held at the Winthrop
Recreational and Research Complex.
The event featured 500 flower-design
umbrellas displayed lakeside. The
umbrellas were sold in honor or in
memory of loved ones in the community, raising more than $4,300 for the
hospice foundation.
“We wanted to create a signature
event that Agape can repeat annually
to raise awareness in the community
for hospice during National Hospice
Month,” said Cunningham. “The
beauty of it is that this same marketing plan can be used to benefit other
Agape Hospices throughout the
state.”
The efforts of the students helped
Agape accomplish its goals of raising
awareness and money for hospice,
but the students also gained a lot
from the project, including real-world
experience with deadlines, goals and
tasks.
“Working hands-on with Agape
and Beckie Cunningham really allowed my group and me to get a taste
of what our major actually entails,”
said student Ellie O’Brien. “You
learn the concepts in class, but in this
project, we received the opportunity
to apply them.”
For more information about the
Agape Hospice project, contact Matthews at matthewm@winthrop.edu.
Flower-design umbrellas recently dotted the Winthrop Lake lawn. The display was part of the Love
Blooms Eternally campaign that healthcare management students developed for Agape Hospice.
Enrollment continued from p. 1
Vietnam, 6.
Winthrop also attracted students
from Venezuela, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe,
Slovenia, Ecuador, Myanmar, the Bahamas and Austria. In addition, other
exchange partner universities sent a
group of one Finnish student from the
Saimaa University of Applied Sciences,
two Australian students from Deakin
University and one Taiwanese student
from Ming Chuan University.
Several Rock Hillians have reached
out to the internationals to help them
feel welcome. Thi Le, owner of Thi’s
Place, invites all international students
to her Vietnamese restaurant one Sunday a month for a free lunch. Dr. James
Hubbard and his wife, Rachel, sponsored a Thanksgiving meal for many
students at their home.
For many years, the international
students have been supported by area
churches for regular friendship dinners
held at the Baptist Student Center.
Pat Courtney has organized monthly
dinners, as well as weekly coffee-tealanguage practice sessions.
“Pat’s kindness through the friendship dinners and through the offcampus support she offers to our
international students could never be
measured,” said Lindsey Hill, the center’s assistant director.
Winthrop has worked to ease the
transition for the Chinese students by
offering a Friday class called Pengyou,
which means friend in Chinese. David
Harwell, assistant dean for University
College, and Kat Callahan, a residential learning coordinator, have paired
American and Chinese students
together to help the internationals understand American slang and
customs. Through residence halls and
word-of-mouth on Facebook, the center recruited more than 20 American
students.
The center also sponsors trips during
fall and spring break and the holidays
to give the international students
exposure to other American cities and
landmarks.
In the spring, Winthrop will admit
several dozen French students as part
of the ESICAD-ISCOM agreement
for business and integrated marketing
communication students.
Around Campus
F.Y.I. December 2, 2010 Page 3
New scholarship to support non-traditionals
Attorney Robert H. Breakfield, a
professor in the College of Business
Administration and devoted partner
of the Winthrop community, has created a scholarship which will support
non-traditional students.
The newly created RandolphWilliams Endowment
honors his wife, Gay
Randolph ’72, ’78, the director of student services
in the College of Business
Administration, and the
late Helen Williams ’76.
Breakfield created the
Gay Randolph
scholarship to honor both
women’s long careers of assisting
non-traditional students overcome
hurdles in their pursuit of higher
education.
Williams, who worked in Dacus
Library, anonymously supported
non-traditional students throughout
her career. She wanted to ensure that
these students had the resources to
complete a college education so that
financial issues would not be one of
the obstacles standing between the
students and their degrees. Randolph’s career has focused on assisting
students in obtaining the support
they need to pursue their educations.
Breakfield hopes that the scholarship will celebrate the work of these
two women and will provide crucial
funding to non-traditional students.
Former student Jay Owens is visiting artist for pottery sale
Potter and former Winthrop student Jay Owens is the visiting artist
for this year’s Holiday Pottery Sale.
A longtime campus holiday tradition, the 21st Annual Holiday Pottery
Sale will be held Dec. 3 from noon-6
p.m. in Ceramics Room
G-10 in the
lower level
of Rutledge
Building.
Owens’
work will
be available
for purchase
as well as
pieces created
by ceramics students
and faculty,
A piece by Jay Owens
including Jim
Connell, professor of ceramics. Sale
items range from functional pottery
pieces to more decorative and ornate
creations.
Now a resident of Travelers Rest,
S.C., Owens earned his B.F.A. in
ceramics at Utah State University. He
has studied with ceramics artists in
New Jersey, Maine, North Carolina
and Niger, West Africa. His work,
which he describes as “a remix of
pottery and drawing,” has appeared
in exhibitions across the U.S. Owens
also served as the
visiting artist for
2008’s pottery sale.
The 21st Annual Holiday
Pottery Sale is
part of Rock Hill’s
ChristmasVille, a
four-day festival of
Christmas-themed
events. A percentage of proceeds
from the pottery
sale will go to the
ceramic scholarship fund and to
purchase new equipment.
Contact the College of Visual
and Performing Arts at ext. 2323 for
more information about the pottery
sale. To find out more about Owens, visit his website at http://www.
jayowensceramics.com.
Speed control devices to
encourage slower driving
Traveling Alumni Drive and
around the Winthrop Lake will soon
be a bit bumpier, but those bumps are
meant to further enhance pedestrian
safety.
For several years, Campus Police
has fielded complaints about speeding vehicles along these campus
spots. After the completion of a
speed study of these areas, executive
officers approved the spring installation of three raised crosswalks along
and near Alumni Drive – one at the
crosswalk near University Place and
the Johnson parking lot, one near the
intersection of Founders Lane, and
the other on Heritage Lane (from the
West Center to the Johnson parking
lot). Two speed bumps also will be
installed around the Winthrop Lake,
one on the hill leading toward The
Shack and the other on the straightaway near the soccer fields.
According to Police Chief Frank
Zebedis, these preventative measures
will further ensure that the campus
community and visitors adhere to the
campus-wide speed limit of 20 miles
per hour. “In the last five years we
have had 350 accidents, four of which
have involved a pedestrian. While
this is a low number considering the
amount of daily pedestrian traffic, it’s
four too many, and we’re taking these
measures to further ensure pedestrian
safety across campus,” said Zebedis.
Winthrop in the News update
F.Y.I.’s Winthrop in the News
section has moved officially to the
website at http://www.winthrop.edu/
news-events/secondary.aspx?id=12510.
The site provides links to the media
outlets where Winthrop faculty and
staff members are quoted. If you are
interviewed, contact Judy Longshaw,
news and media services manager, at
longshawj@winthrop.edu.
Around Campus
F.Y.I. December 2, 2010 Page 4
Birgbauer’s research uses chicken embryos to study the human eye
When biology faculty
member Eric Birgbauer
decided to concentrate on
studying how the nervous
system works in the human eye, he turned to the
lowly chicken egg.
Figuring out how a
single, fertilized egg
develops can provide answers in how
human eyesight works, or better yet,
doesn’t work.
Birgbauer, an assistant professor of
biology, came to Winthrop four years
ago to help with the INBRE grant
project and expects to continue his
regenerative research in the second
round of funding. He is working to
understand how the chicken’s nerve
system grows normally so it can be
replicated to fix injuries through regeneration. Humans who suffer with
glaucoma or some sort of traumatic
injury may benefit from such regeneration of their optic nervous system.
The chicken embryo’s eye is large
in comparison to the rest of the body,
making up more than 10 percent of
its size. The chicken head develops
more rapidly than the rest of the
body, so observing the development
of its nervous system in a short time
span is ideal. Birgbauer is interested
in learning how the embryo forms
and then connects itself into a complex and functioning system.
When the nerve cells, known as
neurons, are
formed,
they send
out long
path
finders,
or axons.
The axons
navigate
through
tissue to
connect
to the
correct
targets,
Birgbauer
said.
He
wants to know how the axons know
where to go, where to connect, and
what molecular cues in the tissues are
used by the axons to find the pathways.
So far, Birgbauer and the students
involved in his research know that
the optic nerve forms when specific
neurons in the eye, called the retinal
ganglion cells, send out axons. The
axons are tipped by growth cones that
guide them through the tissues and
connect with their target.
Birgbauer said previous research
over the past 30 years has pinpointed
proteins as the way axons are guided.
However, his research is looking more
at how another class of molecules,
lysophospholipids, could be key at
signaling cells.
The lipids bind to and activate
certain proteins as well as inhibiting neurons when cultured. “I have
shown that lysophosphatidic acid
causes growth cone collapse of retinal
ganglion cells in vitro,” Birgbauer
said. “This leads to the hypothesis
that lysophosphatidic acid may be an
important axon guidance molecule for
retinal cells by acting in an inhibitory
manner to direct the cell’s growth
cones away from lysophosphatidic
acid-secreting tissue.”
Left: A chicken embryo
His students remove the retinal
pieces from the chicken embryo and
culture them to see whether the nerve
cells will send out axons.
Junior biochemistry major Jarod
Fincher has worked to culture chick
retinal pieces in vitro and has investigated which pathway’s disruption
leads to growth cone collapse. Junior
biology major Sam Robinson Jr. has
explored developing a method to
culture chick embryos outside the egg
that allows analysis of lysophosphatidic acid and their receptors. And
sophomore biology and mathematics
major Josh Owens has spent time
cloning silencing RNA genes to inhibit lysophosphatidic acid receptors.
The chicken eggs used in Birgbauer’s experiments are donated by
a local egg supplier in Monroe, N.C.
Students travel to the supplier every
few weeks to bring back three dozen
eggs which are then kept in cold storage, around 55 degrees Fahrenheit, for
up to three weeks.
For more information on Birgbauer’s research, contact him at ext. 6288.
PROFILE
F.Y.I. December 2, 2010 Page 5
Lane Lovegrove turns love of punk rock into documentary, book
When Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten snarls
out “God Save the Queen,”
some people just hear
noise. Lane Lovegrove’09,
operations manager for
Winthrop’s Social and Behavioral Research Lab, hears
a political agenda that can’t
be ignored.
In punk rock, the message is louder
than the noise. Punk rock isn’t noise,
it’s noise with a purpose – and a highly
political one at that. In his future book
and documentary, Lovegrove will find
the connection between punk and the
development of political attitudes.
“Punk rock is very political, and it
expresses a wide variety of opinions and
ideologies,” said Lovegrove. His upcoming book and documentary, both entitled
“Culture of Anarchy: The Politics of
Punk Rock, Mohawks, Combat Boots
and Torn-Up Jeans,” will examine the
politics of punk rock and popular culture.
The two-part project, born out of his
longtime interest in punk rock music,
will include interviews with musicians,
workers and fans in the industry from every side – liberals, conservatives, those in
the middle and those who have adopted
extremist views, like a white supremacist
he knows. Lovegrove aims to capture
every viewpoint.
“He has a political message, and it’s
important to understand where he’s coming from, to have him be heard and hear
him explain the ‘why’,” explained Lovegrove. Lovegrove also has studied extreme
leftist environmental groups like Animal
Liberation Front (ALF) and Earth
Liberation Front (ELF), their terrorist
activities and how they are influenced by
straight-edge metalcore bands (who refrain from using alcohol, tobacco or other
recreational drugs) like Earth Crisis. He
has interviewed bands in the local punk
scene as well as nationally known bands,
like The Ataris, that have performed in
Rock Hill. He’s also done interviews in
Chicago. The on-camera interviews will
complement Lovegrove’s book, which he
hopes to finish in fall 2011.
Lovegrove has turned his combined
interest in political science and punk
into academic research in other ways. In
October, Lovegrove served on a panel to
discuss “Working in
the Creative Class” at
the 2010 Old Town
New World Conference, “Punk Rock,
Unemployment
and the Knowledge
of Economy.” The
one-day conference
focused, in part, on
creativity, punk rock’s
do-it-yourself attitude
and how that attitude
relates to economic
development.
“Punk rock has a
strong do-it-yourself
work ethic. It’s about
finding your own niche and being a selfstarter” – important qualities in a worker,
said Lovegrove.
He discovered punk rock at age 12,
and he and his friends spent their teen
years bringing bands to their hometown
of Summerville, S.C., renting venues,
promoting the shows – even cleaning up
after the concerts. He learned early the
spirit of self-sufficiency that infuses the
punk rock genre. It wasn’t until he took
an American government class, though,
that he began to appreciate the political
– and educational – nature of the music.
“When I took that government class,
I realized that there were so many things
discussed that I had learned about from
punk music,” said Lovegrove. The bands
he listened to as a teenager – including
California-based groups The Circle Jerks
and the left-leaning Dead Kennedys –
produced songs with messages about
Congress and corruption in government.
He broadened his interest to include
punk rock bands from all sides of the
political spectrum.
Lovegrove said that the vast diversity
of the punk rock genre helped shape his
politics, which he describes as middleof-the-road.
“I can see all sides of an issue, and that
comes from being aware of the issue. If
not for punk rock, that wouldn’t be the
case,” he said. “The awareness of these
bands reinforces my point of view that
things are complicated and it isn’t all
black-and-white.”
What fascinates Lovegrove is that not
all his childhood friends and fellow punk
fans turned out the same way – quite the
opposite, in fact.
“We all grew up in the same town and
basically had the same upbringing, but
everyone went in different directions politically,” he said, noting that some have
middle-of-the-road views while others
have become extremely conservative or
liberal. These differences continue to
spur his interest in studying punk rock,
which has changed in practice but not
spirit since its development in the mid1970s as an alternative to arena rock and
the hyper-wealthy, out-of-touch-withyouth artists who played it.
“These bands give us an idea of what’s
going on in the world,” said Lovegrove.
“And punk rock forces us to question
the world around us, and I think that’s
the important thing.
Lane Lovegrove
Position: Operations manager,
Winthrop Social and Behavioral
Research Lab
Education: B.S., political science,
Winthrop; associate’s degree, journalism, Spartanburg Methodist College
Hobbies: Barbecue judging (both
Lovegrove and his wife, April ’99,
assistant to the dean of the College of
Arts and Sciences, are certified S.C.
BBQ judges)
Around Campus
F.Y.I. December 2, 2010 Page 6
Papers and presentations
Events calendar
All events are free unless otherwise noted.
Through Dec. 9
“Edmund Lewandowski –
Precisionism and Beyond”
Rutledge and Patrick Galleries
Dec. 2-Jan. 4
Dacus Library 125th exhibit:
“Holidays at Winthrop”
Dec. 2
Presentation: “Does HIV Look
Like Me?”
Presenter: Todd Murray, executive
director/co-founder of Hope’s Voice
8 p.m., Dina’s Place
DiGiorgio Campus Center
Dec. 3-4
Senior Choreography Showcase
Dec. 3, p.m.; Dec. 4, 2 p.m. and 8
p.m., Johnson Theatre
$8w/ID; $15 public
Dec. 4
Movie: “Eat, Pray, Love”
7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. (Bingo
following at 11:30 p.m.),
Dina’s Place – DiGiorgio Campus
Center
$2w/ID; $5 public
Dec. 5
Winthrop Collegiate Choir/
Winthrop Jazz Voices
4 p.m., McBryde Hall
Dec. 6
Winthrop/Carolinas Wind
Orchestra
7:30 p.m., Byrnes Auditorium
Dec. 7
Faculty/Staff Holiday Drop-In
2-4 p.m., DiGiorgio Campus Center
ballroom
Dec. 3
Garnet and Gold Friday
Wear school colors to show support
Dec. 10
Garnet and Gold Friday
Wear school colors to show support
Holiday Pottery Sale
noon-6 p.m., G-10 Rutledge
Building
Dec. 12
Women’s basketball vs.
Southern Poly State
1 p.m., Winthrop Coliseum
Holiday Tree Lighting
6 p.m., Tillman fountain
Winthrop Opera Workshop
7:30 p.m., Frances May Barnes
Recital Hall
Performance: Blues singer
Gaye Adegbaolola
8 p.m., The Edge
DiGiorgio Campus Center
Men’s basketball vs. Jacksonville
University
3:30 p.m., Winthrop Coliseum
Dec. 16
Graduate Commencement
7 p.m., Winthrop Coliseum
Dec. 18
Undergraduate Commencement
11 a.m., Winthrop Coliseum
Winthrop was well represented at
the National Middle School Association conference held Nov. 4-6
in Baltimore, Md. Kelly Costner,
Counseling, Leadership and Educational Studies, and Beth Costner,
mathematics, presented “Creating a Language-rich Mathematics
Classroom for English Language
Learners.” Costner and David
Vawter, Counseling, Leadership
and Educational Studies, presented
“Using Differentiated Instruction to
Enhance Your Work with English
Language Learners,” and Vawter also
presented “Success for All Middle
School Students through Differentiated Instruction” and “The Adolescent
Brain: Reaching and Teaching.”
Michael Matthews, healthcare
management, spoke Nov. 9 on
“Healthcare Reform-Planning for the
Impact of Healthcare Legislation” to
the Charlotte, N.C., chapter of the
Financial Planning Association as
part of a one-hour credit continuing
education course.
Julian P.S. Smith III, biology, presented a seminar entitled “Evolution
of Epidermal Replacement” at Francis
Marion University on Nov. 10. The
talk summarized recent research done
by Smith, four Winthrop undergraduate biology majors and collaborators
at the Institute of Zoology, University
of Innsbruck.
Professional activity
Shelley Hamill, physical education, sport, and human performance,
received the 2010 Outstanding Contributions to Health Education Award
from the S.C. Association for the
Advancement of Health Education. As
co-chair of the S.C. Health Standards
writing team, Hamill helped develop
the first-ever S.C. Academic Standards
for Health and Safety Education that
provides grade-level performance
indicators for grades K-8 and high
school. The work of the committee
was historic and provided to those in
the field of health education a fundamental guide for recognizing the
knowledge and skills students should
acquire at each grade level.
Around Campus
F.Y.I. December 2, 2010 Page 7
Welcome to Winthrop
Faculty and staff members engaged in a friendly tug-of-war match with students during the Nov. 16
Global Learning Initiative games. Other games, along with international music and food, rounded out
the activities. The event was held to provide information on the university’s Global Learning Initiative.
In brief
F.Y.I. is available online for Winthrop University
faculty and staff, and is created by the Office of
University Relations, 200 Tillman Hall,
Rock Hill, SC 29733.
Editor: Monica Bennett,
bennettm@winthrop.edu
Contributing writers: Meredith Carter ’05,
Judy Longshaw and Jill Stuckey ’02, ’07
University Relations Staff
Associate vice president and executive director:
Ellen Wilder-Byrd ’88, ’94
Director of communications: Monica Bennett
Art director: Allen Blackmon ’86
Senior Web developer: Kimberly Byrd ’94, ’08
Web developer: Jamie Ray ’98
News and media services manager: Judy Longshaw
News services coordinator: Meredith Carter ’05
Publications and digital imaging manager:
Jill Stuckey ’02, ’07
Senior graphic designer: Richie McCorkle ’01
Designer: Matthew Cousineau
Administrative specialist: Judy Knowles
Next Issue: December 15, 2010
Deadline: December 3, 2010
•The men’s soccer team received
the 2010 NSCAA College Team
Academic Award. It is the third time
in the last four seasons that the team
has been on the list. Winthrop was
among 125 NCAA men’s soccer programs that accumulated a team GPA
of 3.0 or higher during the 2009-10
academic year.
•The women’s soccer team was one
of 436 teams nationally to earn the
NSCAA Team Academic Award by
posting a team GPA of 3.0 or higher
for the 2009-10 academic year. The
NSCAA Team Academic Award was
the first in program history.
Sylvia Szymanski,
Center for Career and
Civic Engagement, was
recently hired as an administrative assistant. The
Chicago, Ill., native, who
now lives in Tega Cay,
earned a bachelor’s degree
in mass communications
from the University of Illinois. She
previously worked as a career consultant at King’s College. In her spare
time, she enjoys horseback riding,
jogging, reading and playing with her
two dogs.
Jane R. Wilkes ’77,
mathematics, recently
joined Winthrop as a
lecturer. The Union, S.C.,
native previously worked
as a district math specialist for Union County
Schools. In her spare
time, she enjoys reading,
watching movies and plays, listening
to music, watching sports and playing
board games with her grandchildren.
Wilkes earned national board certification in 2000 and was Union High
School’s 1991 Teacher of the Year.
Graduation continued from p. 1
TRiO programs (Student Support
Services and McNair Scholars) and
the Academic Success Center to provide assistance to help retain students.
In addition, our campus culture is
remarkable. Students are accepting of
one another, and a student is treated
like a student, regardless of color,”
said Moore.
Willie Lyles III ’06, a staff member
for U.S. House Majority Whip James
Clyburn, D-S.C., and former chair of
Winthrop’s Council of Student Leaders, also attended the session and was
able to provide caucus members with
personal feedback and experiences
based on his time at Winthrop.