ISSUE 20
August
2015
GSConnect
T HE ACADEMIC AFFAIRS NEW SLETTER FOR GORD ON
Welcome Back!
Dr. C. Jeffery Knighton
Well, another fall semester is now in full swing. New students
are on campus, excited about learning, with dreams of a bright
future. Professors are back from a long (or was it too short?)
summer break, doing what we do better than any other college
in Georgia—teaching! On the few occasions over the past few
weeks that I’ve been able to break out of my office, I’ve
observed everywhere that life is good at Gordon State.
As I shared with you at our opening Joint Faculty and Staff
meeting a few weeks ago, in Academic Affairs we will be
focused on three broad goals this year. The first will be to
facilitate an increase in the number of students pursuing
baccalaureate degrees. Some departments have already been
meeting to discuss potential “tracks” within their baccalaureate.
Some departments are looking at potential articulation
agreements with other schools. Both the School of Nursing and
the School of Education are getting geared up for the BSN and
the BS in Middle Grades Education respectively. And while we
still don’t have our official retention rate yet, as I previously
shared, it looks quite respectable.
The second goal is to create additional opportunities to
maximize student success. The QEP team planning has begun
its work. The President is in the process of charging a task force
to make recommendations regarding good academic progress.
Early Alert and tutoring services are already going strong. And
I’ve been seeing lots of private advising sessions in
your offices. Thank you.
And of course, the third goal is to successfully navigate
the SACS-COC reaffirmation process. These efforts
are well under way and will involve all of us, so stay
tuned for a lot more on this goal…
With all three of these goals, communication is very important
to me. It may, then, appear strange that this will be the last
GSConnect issue for a while. Based on the feedback that I’ve
received, most of us are not reading the newsletter. The
purposes of the newsletter—to disseminate important
information and to recognize outstanding achievements—do
not appear to be being met. Therefore, over the next few
months, we will be exploring other options. How can we better
communicate information quickly and effectively? How can we
appropriately recognize outstanding professional development
and service? While I will be soliciting advice, please don’t wait
for me to call. If you have good ideas, please feel free to share
with me at any time.
Again, welcome back. I look forward to serving you during what
promises to be a very exciting year.
Dr. Erica Johnson, Coordinator
GSC's CETL has many new opportunities for faculty to discuss
excellence in teaching and learning on campus and online. The
CETL Brightspace by D2L is now available to all full-time and part
-time faculty members, with a digital teaching and learning library, schedule of upcoming events, and an area for discussions.
There is also information on how to access the resources available through Magna Publications. Please log into the CETL D2L
page and let me know what you think! Abridged versions of
some of the D2L information are also available through the CETL
website.
CETL Website
Faculty Teaching Symposium Series:
 September 14, 2:00 pm, NAH 123, Best Practice for Online
and Hybrid Teaching
 October 19, 2:00 pm, TBA, Using Media in Teaching
 November 9, 2:00 pm, TBA, Reaching Challenging Students
Presentations for the CETL:
 September 23, 2:00 pm, Russell Hall 106, Library Resources
 September 24, 10:00 am, IC 102, Library Resources
I look forward to discussing excellence in teaching and learning
with all of you at these upcoming events. Please let me know if
you have any ideas for any additional events. You can email me
at ejohnson@gordonstate.edu or visit my office in Smith Hall
112C. I will also be visiting faculty members in their offices
throughout the semester to talk about all their ideas!
The schedule of events for GSC's CETL continues to grow, and
new events will be added to the online calendars throughout the
year. Here are some of the upcoming events:
New from Business and Public Service
Susan Crumbley, executive director of Connecting Henry, Inc.,
and Barbara Coleman, director of its S.W.A.G. (Students
Working to Achieve Greatness) program, will be the first guest
speakers on Sept. 1. Additional guest speakers will be:
 Sept. 15-Ms. Jennifer Porter, Director, Monroe County DFCS
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Dr. Ric Calhoun, director of the McDonough Campus, greets
prospective students at the summer Information Day (above).
Adult learners completed and submitted applications for
admission to Gordon State College and for Weekend College,
the degree-completion program in human services for adult
learners. The first classes at the McDonough campus were
conducted Friday and Saturday, Aug. 28 and 29; students and
faculty meet again Sept. 25 and 26. The remainder of their work
is conducted online.
We are glad to announce the transition of our Academic
Services Assistant, Ashley Travis, from part-time to full time
status. We want to welcome our newest part-time instructor of
Psychology – Jessica Traylor.
Women leaders are guest lecturers in human services
Dr. Melinda Hawley is teaching a special topics Women in
Human Services Leadership course this fall. The course will
feature 11 women who are leaders in the field:
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(Georgia Department pf Family and Children Services) and Interim
Director, Crawford County DFCS and Gordon State adjunct
professor in sociology;
Sept. 22- Dr. Margaret Venable, Interim President, Dalton State
College and former provost of Gordon State College;
Sept 29-Ms. Chandra Fussell, Senior Manager, Risk Reduction
Services, Clayton Transitional Center, GA Department of
Correction;
Oct. 6-Dr. Michelle Brown, Assistant Vice President of Student
Affairs and Dean of Students for the Oconee Campus of the
University of North Georgia;
Oct. 20- Dr. Brenda Johnson, Associate Professor of Business at
Gordon, board member of the Southern Organization for Human
Services, and Associate Editor of International Journal of
Leadership Studies;
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Oct. 27 – Ms. Tia Williams, Undergraduate Program Director,
Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Emory
University and Ms. Lakara Foster, author, entrepreneur, and
speaker, and founder of She Speaks! Inc., an Atlanta-based
consulting firm;
Nov. 3 – Ms. Missy Kendrick, Executive Director, Barnesville Lamar
County Industrial Development Authority; and
Nov. 10 – Ms. Kasey Hurtado, Regional Advisor, Division of Health
Promotion, WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for
Women, Infants, and Children).
All students are invited to attend these presentations, held from
2PM to 3:15PM Tuesdays in IC119.
Updates from Business & Public
Service Continued
Two cohorts launch Weekend College's fall semester
The second cohort of Weekend College, the degreecompletion program in human services for adult
learners, attended orientation Aug. 8 at the McDonough
campus with their Alpha cohort predecessors. Dr. Richard
Baskin gave students a Gordon State College welcome, and
Dr. Barry Kicklighter, Business and Public Service department
head, and Dr. Ric Calhoun, director of the McDonough
campus, offered support and encouragement to the 20 new
students.
The orientation included an engaging Adult Learner
presentation by Amanda Petroff and Jeffrey Isbell and
Career and Prior Learning Assessment presentations by
Coordinator Tonya Moore. Autumn Schaffer introduced
students to Brightspace/Desire2Learn, where a substantial
segment of their coursework is conducted. students also met
with their professors for initial class sessions. Bravo students met
with Dr. Brenda Johnson (BUSA 2101) and Dr. James Awbrey
(HUSV 2101), and Alpha students met with Dr. Brian Webb
(POLS 2201) and Dr. Marwan Zabdawi (MATH 2101). Staff also
welcomed students by providing special services on site. Justin
White made I.D. cards and Officer Marc Gray presented
students with vehicle hang tags.
Department of History & Political Science News
Dr. Erica Johnson
The Department of History & Political Science is pleased to
introduce its new full-time faculty members. Both of these
"new" faculty members are likely to be familiar faces, as they
have taught part-time at GSC during previous semesters.
Dr. J. Franklin Williamson received his doctorate from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a focus on
modern German history and has taught Western Civilization
surveys at GSC since fall 2013. Each summer, Williamson reads
advanced placement exams and helped develop question for
the European history exam.
Penny Cliff earned her masters degree in archival studies at
Georgia College & State University in 2002 and was director of
the Thomaston-Upson Archives while teaching part-time at
GSC. Cliff has told me that she loves teaching on our gorgeous
campus.
We are happy to have Williamson and Cliff full-time in HPS!
The Department of History & Political Science is also very
excited about the first recipient of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Scholarship! Sophia Queen is a senior, Supplemental Instructor,
and President of Phi Alpha Theta/History Club at GSC. She
studied abroad in Spain this summer, and she currently an
intern at the Old Jail Museum & Archives in Barnesville. Queen
is an outstanding student of history, and a strong representative
of our college.
News from Department
of Humanities
Robert Perry Ivey’s chapbook, Letters to my Daughter, is being
published by Blue Lyra Review of Feb. 15th, 2016. It will be
featured in Vol. 1 of the Delphi Series of books. Blue Lyra, will
sell the book on kindle and in print and at AWP. Prof Ivey will
also be performing off-site at AWP in Los Angeles. The book will
contain three chapbooks by three authors: Prof Ivey, Anna
Leahy, and Karen George. This is an interesting concept because
readers will get three chapbooks for the price of one full length.
Also, you get to see three distinct styles of poetry in one
manuscript.
Matthew Silverman is the editor of Blue Lyra Review which is a
great online and print publisher. He recently edited the
Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American
Poetry.
Blue Lyre Review Website
Dr. Rhonda V. Wilcox has published a chapter in the
book Science Fiction Double Feature, ed. J. P. Telotte
and Gerald Duchovnay (Liverpool UP, 2015). Her
essay is titled "Whedon, Browncoats, and the Big
Damn Narrative: The Unified Meta-Myth
of Firefly and Serenity."
Also:
Dr. Rhonda V. Wilcox's Reading Joss
Whedon (Syracuse UP, 2014), edited with
Tanya R. Cochran, Cynthea Masson, and
David Lavery, has won the annual
juried award for best book published in
Whedon Studies (the "Mr. Pointy"),
granted by the Whedon Studies Association. Other nominated
works included Joss Whedon's Dollhouse: Confounding
Purpose, Confusing Identity (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014)
and Joss Whedon: The Biography (Chicago Review Press, 2014).
October 2,2015 Nancy Gresham will
be inducted into the Griffin Spalding
County Teachers Hall of Fame. Prof
Gresham will be introduced at a
football game and in a parade! She
will have her picture on the teachers
hall of fame wall in the central office.
Dr. Ed Whitelock’s essay “The Devil at
the Bottom: Southern Honor Culture
in the Novels of Ron Rash” has been
accepted for publication in
Summoning the
Dead: Critical Essays
on Ron Rash, edited
by Zackary Vernon &
Randall Wilhelm and
forthcoming from
University of South Carolina Press.
Dr. Neil Boumpani has two of his original compositions
forwarded from his A&R representatives to Vin di Bona, TV
producer, for use in some future TV show. They have not found
placement yet, but Dr. Boumpani is hopeful they will be used
soon.
Jason Horn’s essay “Figuring Freedom as Religious Experience:
Mark Twain, William James, and No. 44, The Mysterious
Stranger has been published in Short Story Criticism, Volume
210, pp.237-249.
This summer Doug Davis co-wrote a new textbook for
the USG’s new American Literature II ecore class. He
also designed and taught a new colloquium class,
Global Science Fiction. Dr. Davis presented at two
professional conferences. He presented a paper on
Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A View of the
Woods,” at the annual meeting of the American
Literature Association. This paper was based on
archival research he completed in GCSU’s Dillard
library, in which he related the events in O’Connor's
story to discussion going on in her home town of Milledgeville
at the time concerning the creation of Lake Sinclair. He also
presented a paper on O’Connor’s short story, “The Displaced
Person,” at the annual meeting of the Science Fiction Research
Association, in which he used science fiction genre theory to
read O’Connor’s tale as a cold war science fiction story. Finally,
this past summer he was
invited to edit a special
issue of The Flannery
O’Connor Review on the
topic of science and
technology in O’Connor.
Study Abroad
On May 23 Dr. Karen Guffey took 13 students to
Barcelona to study Spanish, & on June 20 I brought 13
students back. Besides studying, students went on a
number of excursions. The group picture was taken in
the Güell Crypt, a work of Antoni Gaudi. The guys for
some reason thought it would be cool to look like
tourists. The selfie was in the Gaudi Experience, a 4-D
show of Gaudi's works. The other picture is of Faith
Shafer jumping a train gate. All of us had our turn at it, because
the machine would not accept our passes, the other machine
wouldn't accept a credit card or cash to let us purchase tickets,
& there was no one manning the station.
News from the Department of Math and Physical
Science
Dr. Richard Schmude has had a very busy summer crisscrossing the continent. On July 4, 2015 he addressed the Royal
Astronomical Society of Canada in Halifax, Nova Scotia on the
“Near-infrared Photometry of Venus.” Then on July 9, he
made a presentation to the Astronomical League and the
Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers at 2015 ALCON
in Las Cruces, NM; he spoke for approximately 50 minutes
about “Near Infrared Brightness Measurements of Venus.”
Dr. Schmude also wrote “Whole-Disk Brightness Measurements of Mars: 2011-2012” that was recently published as the
featured article in the Journal of the Association of Lunar &
Planetary Observers: The Strolling Astronomer , Volume 57,
Number 3, Summer 2015.
Dr. Bernard Anderson along with thirteen MATH 1501
students traveled to the Columbus State Calculus
Contest. Congratulations go to Gordon State student
Paul Fallin who took third place in the college calculus division
and received a $40 prize.
Dr. Marwan Zabdawi’s biography has been selected for
inclusion in the forthcoming 70th Platinum Anniversary Edition
of Marquis Who's Who in America, which is scheduled for
publication in September of 2015.
Congratulations are extended to Dr. Allen Fuller who recently
was honored by East Newton Baptist Church for serving 30
years as the church organist. The East Newton congregation
led by Pastor Tom Lee celebrated Dr. Fuller’s lengthy service
to the church with a special worship service and dinner in his
honor.
Dr. Fuller learned to read music and play saxophone under the
tutelage of renowned band director T.K. Adams at Cousins
Middle School and he took a few informal organ lessons. He
began playing organ for the church in 1985 at the tender age
of 15. While a student at Emory University, Fuller enrolled in
“a year’s worth of music theory,” he wanted to take another
year of classes, but they invariably coincided with the math
classes he needed in order to graduate. When Fuller was a
junior in college he got his first piano and started playing that
as well.
Today, Dr. Fuller is the church organist and sometimes plays
the piano. He also volunteers his time most Friday evenings
volunteering to play music from the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s for
residents of an assisted living home. He believes that, “music
reaches parts of a person that other communication
sometimes can’t. It can touch emotions and often bring back
memories.”
Updates from Hightower Library
We are well into the semester and the building renovation is
now underway. We are extremely excited about the
transformation that is taking place. The renovated building will
have more hard-wired computers and wireless access, more
flexible and comfortable seating, 20 group and individual study
rooms, Presentation Practice Room, Assistive Technology Room,
after hours lounge/study area, multi-purpose group study area,
two library instruction classrooms, self-checkout book system,
vending machines, and lockers. THANK YOU for bearing with
us as we adjust to our temporary home in the IC Building and
re-think our work flow and services offered. It will all be worth
the wait and compromise. We are also excited about the
opportunity this provides us to introduce new ways of delivering
services and resources. And YES, we do have other news to
share besides information regarding the
renovation.
Follow us on Facebook and like us on
Instagram for updates.
We also kicked off our Personal Librarian Program during the
Summer NSO sessions and continued to spread the word to the
faculty at their Fall meetings. We are grateful to all the
departments and schools for allowing us to talk with you about
this new program. We discussed how students can schedule
one-on-one consultations with their assigned librarian for
research assistance. Faculty/staff are able to do the same. We
will help you plan for your research assignments as well as your
scholarly research activities.
We will continue providing
library orientations for your
classes so please contact
Beth Pye at
Be on the lookout for some new
workshops for students (Your
bethp@gordonstate.edu or
Hightower Library) to be offered
fill out the online request
through the Student Success Center,
form.
Workshops
and for faculty (ALG + Library
Resources + Renovation = Your
Students’ Success) offered through
CETL. The student workshops will be
offered September 28 and 30, both
at 2pm in SSC 107. The faculty
workshops will be offered
September 23 and 24 at 2pm and
10a respectively (locations to be
determined). Also, inform your
students that they may go to the
McDonough Public Library to use
their computers or seek research
assistance if they live in Henry
County and/or attend Gordon State
at McDonough classes. GSC library
resources are available on the MPL
website.
The library staff is also
happy to inform you that
we are offering trials to
multiple databases this
semester: Naxos Music
Library, Alexander Street
(music), and Mergent
Intellect (business). Your
personal librarian should
have conducted you
regarding these database
trials. We would appreciate
your feedback regarding
the usefulness of these
resources.
Happy Birthday,
GALILEO!
New databases have
been added or updated
across USG. Newsbank
has added search by
topics. Proquest has
added numerous databases including an
e-book collection of
125,000 titles as well as
It is hard to believe that GALILEO will
re-instating LION
be 20 years old on September 15.
(Literature Online) with
Starting with only 2 databases in 1995,
Fulltext. Additionally, we
GALILEO has grown from 100+ to
have obtained CREDO
300+ databases for each USG
Information Literacy
institution. We are proud of this shared
Modules. This resource
service offered to our students. Be on
the lookout for a celebration in the
will help us expand our
near future.
library instruction
program. Instructors and
students will need to register in order to access the modules.
Links can be provided on web pages as well as in Brightspace/
D2L. Instructors teaching ENGL 1101, ENGL 1102, and GFYE
0097 will be enrolled automatically for Fall semester. You may
select whether you want to use them or not. Tutors in the
Student Success Center will also be able to use the models to
help students. More information about registration and the
content included in the modules will be forthcoming. Lastly, the
public library has added a database called Mango Languages
that can be used to assist anyone wanting to learn a foreign
language. All you need is a library card from your local public
library and the public library’s GALILEO password (this is
different from the GSC GALILEO password). Check out these
resources and more in GALILEO or on the library’s web site
under Electronic Resources.
Additionally, we have changed the way in which we order books
for the collection. Faculty will no longer receive paper copies of
Choice Review and be asked to circle titles to send back to
Dr. Sonya Gaither for purchase. Baker & Taylor has transferred
the purchasing of all academic books over to their academic
division called Yankee Book Peddler (YBP). All book requests can
be made electronically through their GOBI system. The library
staff is able to set up accounts or shopping carts to allow for
recommendations to be made electronically. We will approve
the recommendations then YBP will fill the order and ship the
titles to us. We will work with faculty on how to make requests
electronically. In the meantime, if you have any items you would
like to order please send them to Dr. Sonya Gaither at
sgaither@gordonstate.edu). We will purchase any and all titles
until funds have been exhausted.
Hightower Library (Continued)
Library Fun
Fact
Have you noticed a different form for requesting items through
Interlibrary Loan? WorldCat has made it easier for library users to
request items through their database. Any item not owned by Gordon
State or not obtainable through GIL Express may be requested using this
new form. Any questions about ILL can be sent to Brenda Rutherford
(brendar@gordonstate.edu).
Additionally, our library catalog system (Voyager) is approximately 15 years old and will be
changed to Ex Libris’ ALMA system. GIL Express will remain in effect and will not change. What
does this mean? We will have a new interface to our library catalog and a more efficient way to
process and add books to the collection using shared records. The new system will also be a
shared service across all USG institutions and is scheduled to go live in 2017.
Upcoming RFP: Textbook Transformation Grants
The Request for Proposals rounds 4 and 5 has been announced. All proposals should be submitted via
Georgia Tech’s online grant management software called CompetitionSpace. Early submission is
suggested so that you may receive feedback before the submission deadlines. Detailed information may
be found on the Affordable Learning Georgia website. A brief summary of proposals and links to WebEx
meetings and archives may be found below.
AFG Website
Deadlines
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Round 4: September 7, 2015
WebEx Meeting Link: 10/5/15
Round 5: December 15, 2015
Password: open
Single Course: $10,800
Sections/Courses/Department-Wide: $30,000
Categories
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for great customer service. Each
staff member received a stuffed toy
fish in their favorite color.
Additionally, we share “Tell Me
Something Good” at staff meetings,
and each week a staff member
receives the library’s mascot,
Winston, for something they did
worthwhile. This week, Winston is
staying in Guillebeau Hall to guard
over the Archives Reading Room as
he was bestowed to Beth Pye. Every
staff member has received Winston
at least once in the last year. Please
help me say ‘Thank You’ to such a
great staff for all they do to serve
our campus community.
Round 5: Monday, October 5, 2015, 4:00pm
Funding Levels
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The library staff has adopted the
FISH Philosophy as our foundation
No-Cost-to-Students Learning Materials
OpenStax Textbooks
Specific Top 50 Lower Division Courses
There will be at least one webinar per round for RFP review and Q&A.
Round 4 Archive: 7/22/15
Round 4 Archive: 8/12/15
2015 Days to
support Gordon
Gives
8/28/15
9/11/15
10/09/15
10/23/15
10/30/15
Round 4 Slides
Meeting number: 648 453 632
11/20/15
12/18/15