December 02, 2010
Vol.Vol.
III, II,
No.No.
5 10
the list. [Yes, eager reader, you will need to wait till
January for the completion of this trilogy.]
WheelerNotes
December 11 Is Upon Us: Please remember that
December 11 is the deadline for submitting applications
for support this summer for scholarship efforts.
Remember that the Request for Proposals identifies
proposals of two types: support for research by
individual faculty members and support for joint
projects involving a faculty member and students. For
the details, please see this web site:
http://www.gdn.edu/departments/academicaffairs/fac_d
evelopment.asp
Honors Program – Phase II: One of the highlights of
the graduation ceremony in May will be the graduation
of the first student to complete the Gordon College
Honors Program. This will be just one of the many
accomplishments of Dr. Mark Milewicz, the Honors
Council, and the team of dedicated instructors of honors
courses. In Dr. Milewicz’ three year term of office, the
program has grown from 0 to 36 students, moved from
no course offerings to three each semester, has initiated
both service learning and enrichment learning activities,
and has moved into a well-appointed new home in the
Honors House on Georgia Avenue. The College owes
many thanks to Dr. Milewicz for his leadership during
this period.
Characteristic 1: The academic community at the
institution learns to celebrate and encourage small
markers of success. We must understand that about
75% of our students will be successful only if
something akin to a religious conversion occurs:
They must move from believing that education is
something that happens to them to believing that
education is something that they do … and they
must act on that belief. As happens in all such
conversions the passage from one place to another
involves struggle and backsliding. This passage
happens best within a community that takes note of
small successes and celebrates, whether the success
be completing learning support requirements,
beginning to attend class regularly, or making a C
on a difficult examination or in a difficult course.
With the celebration, we find ways to encourage the
student to complete the passage.
BaskinNotes
On the other hand, as Dr. Milewicz’ three-year term of
service draws to a close, we will need to consider who
the next leader of this important effort will be. If you
have interest yourself or have a colleague whose name
you would like to recommend, please contact the Dean
by January 15, 2011.
Faculty Development Question: The Academic
Affairs Office is considering funding a
seminar/workshop on our campus that would focus on
some aspect(s) of teaching and learning. We would
search for expert guidance to put together such an
event, but we first need to gauge the level of faculty
interest. If you are interested in the possibility, please
send an email to Richard Baskin that just says “yes” in
the subject line. If you have an idea for a topic, please
explain it in the body of your email.
Outstanding Access Institutions: I am sure that all
readers have been waiting in eager anticipation of my
promise to reveal the second of three markers or
characteristics of outstanding access institutions. In the
November DeaNotes, I discussed the third
characteristic of such institutions, the fact that at those
institutions, special attention is provided to the best
students. In this DeaNotes I identify the first item on
Nine students are completing the GC@FVSU program
this semester. On December 3, they will meet for a
lunch with Dr. Wheeler, program coordinator
Ms. Tonya Moore, and faculty members from Gordon,
and they will receive completion certificates and hearty
congratulations from all! These students will transfer to
Fort Valley State University or to a four-year program
at another institution.
DEANotes is a quasi-monthly publication of Academic Affairs
Academy of Advanced Studies in Henry County:
Ms. Glenice Graves, site coordinator for our Henry
County classes, will be working with me to develop
further our program at that site. We are working with
local school administrators and community leaders to
promote the Academy, and with students to determine
their needs. We seek to attract traditional and nontraditional students whose work schedules and family
responsibilities make travel to the Gordon College
campus difficult on a daily basis. I appreciate the fine
work that Ms. Graves has already done for the college
and our students.
Gordon First-Year Experience: Faculty members
who teach the GFYE course participated in a
presentation and workshop by Pearson Publishing on
November 19. Faculty learned more about
MyStudentSuccessLab, an important resource for
faculty and students, and discussed various components
of the course. These faculty members are also working
on revising course objectives during the busy end-ofterm period. I greatly appreciate their efforts in
continuing to reshape the course and make it as
effective as possible.
Richard Baskin presented two papers this fall: “BABY
BOOMER TEACHES SHAKESPEARE TO
MILLENNIALS—STORY AT 11: An Inquiry into
Generational Characteristics and Their Relationship to
Effective Teaching,” at the Mid-Atlantic Popular
American Culture Association conference, and “Text as
Image: Representations of the Commoner in Jack Cade,
George a Greene, and Robin Hood,” at the South
Atlantic Modern Language Association conference.
published in the Autumn, 2010, issue of Journal of
Comparative Family Studies.
GahrNotes
Drs. Amanda Duffus, Mustapha Durojaiye, Cathy
Lee, Richard Tsou, and Lynn Rumfelt attended the
1st Annual Teaching with Technology Mastering
Summit hosted by the Georgia Institute of Technology
and Pearson Publishers on November 12, 2010. The
purpose of the summit was to provide an opportunity to
network with peers across the state of Georgia and learn
many of the best practices being implemented to help
achieve learning outcomes using this new software
platform called Mastering Biology, and Mastering
Anatomy and Physiology provided by Pearson. One
important item we learned was the power of the
statistical analysis tools that may track student
performance.
Dr. Amanda Duffus gave an MNS departmental
seminar for all faculty and students entitled
“Amphibian Ranaviruses: Extinction by Infection” on
November 22nd.
Dr. Beike Jia’s paper: “Reactions between rubidium
atoms and C6F6, C2Cl4, C2HCl3, CH2=CCl2, or transC2H2Cl2 in crossed molecular beams”, has been
published by a peer reviewed journal: the European
Journal of Mass Spectrometry, in volume 16, issue 6.
Dr. Richard Schmude has given the following talks:
“The Brightness and Color of Jupiter” to people
attending the Peach State Star Gaze near Sharon,
Georgia on October 8, 2010.
BursteinNotes
Marvin Thomas has been designated as the local
scholar to provide guidance to the City of Griffin in
developing an interpretive exhibit about John Henry
“Doc” Holliday, an infamous gambler and gunman of
the Old West, who was born and raised in Griffin.
Funding will be provided by the Georgia Humanities
Council.
Joe Mayo has been accepted to conduct a 60-minute
workshop, “The Power of Graphic Organization:
Concept Maps as Heuristic Tools,” at the 18th Georgia
Conference on College and University Teaching to be
held in Atlanta on February 11-12, 2011.
Christy Flatt’s article “How Does Wives'
Unemployment Affect Marriage in Reforming Urban
China?” (with Xiaohe Xu and Xuhui Li) has been
“The Brightness and Color of Jupiter” to people
attending the Georgia Research in Astronomy (GRAM)
Conference at Georgia Tech on November 6, 2010.
-
also published two papers:
“Jupiter: Observations During the 2006-2007
Apparition” in Journal of the Association of Lunar and
Planetary Observers, Vol. 52, No. 4 pp. 29-44 (2010).
“The Remote Planets: ALPO Observations of Uranus
and Neptune in 2009-2010” in Journal of the
Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, Vol. 52,
No. 4 pp. 48-50 (2010).
-
gave a telescope viewing to about 600 people
on October 30 in Barnesville, Georgia
DEANotes is a quasi-monthly publication of Academic Affairs
Dr. Theresa Stanley reports that the new greenhouse is
up and running! The biology faculty looks forward to
many great projects. Our students will greatly benefit
from the hands-on opportunities they will get in this
lovely facility. Who knows, maybe a plant sale will
occur in the spring to support our science club.
Dr Marwan Zabdawi: On Friday 11/19/10 Marwan
attended the PKAL (Project Kaleidoscope) Atlanta
Regional Fall Meeting at Brenau University in
Gainesville, GA. The theme of the meeting was for
facilitating Partnership for STEM Pedagogy and
Undergraduate Research. As a result of this meeting, he
will be attending: NASA IGCEE (Innovations in Global
Climate Change Innovations) at Georgia Tech this
Friday 12/3/10.
WhitelockNotes
Our Music Department has been busy, hosting the
Merling Trio on Sept. 22 and a performance by William
Ransom, piano, with the Vega String Quartet on Oct.
21. The next major production is our annual Choir /
Band Concert on Dec. 2. Thanks are due to Dr. Neil
Boumpani and Dr. James Wallace for their fine work.
Our Theater Department has enjoyed a productive Fall
season. Our October offering of the dramedy Sylvia,
directed by Prof. Rhonda Wooley, was well attended
and earned rave reviews from local pet and/or theater
lovers. In November, the comic and poignant Almost,
Maine, was directed by Ms. Laura King and was very
well received. Both productions feature the talents of
Prof. Tony Pearson as set designer.
Dr. Anna Dunlap Higgins presented a paper, “’Brazen
as Jezebel’: The Need for Shame in Ron Rash’s
Serena” at the Southern Appalachian Culture
Conference hosted by Gardner Webb University on
Oct. 2.
Dr. Jason Horn contributed two entries, “St. Benedict”
and “Monastic Literature,” to the Encyclopedia of
Christian Literature, edited by George Kurian for
Scarecrow Press.
Dr. Masoud Nourizadeh, Prof. Marlin Adams, and
Prof. Robert Detamore escorted a group of Gordon
students to the High Museum on Oct. 30 to view their
current displays “Salvador Dali: The Late Work” and
“Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting.”
Dr. Caesar Perkowski presented “Tibet: The Roof of
the World,” a photographic travelogue on Wednesday,
Nov. 3, in the Student Center Auditorium as part of the
Gordon Speaker Series
Dr. Mia Poston hosted an event with the Guerrilla Film
Club (with assistance from Dr. Mark King and Dr.
Marc Muneal), but the first rule of Guerrilla Film Club
is “Don’t talk about Guerrilla Film Club,” so please
skip this and read something else, thank you.
Dr. Stephen Powers and the Blackshear Literary
Society hosted poet Paula Sergi on Nov. 9 to a packed
Alumni House crowd. Sergi is the co-editor of the
book A Call to Nursing, which Dr. Powers is using in a
Learning Community section of his English 1101
course dedicated to Pre-Nursing majors. Ms. Sergi
visited the class earlier in the day.
Dr. Edward Whitelock was invited to submit a brief
article for the annual Southern Music Issue of Oxford
American magazine. His essay on Sammy Salvo’s
atomic-age teen melodrama “A Mushroom Cloud” will
be in the December issue.
Finally, special acknowledgement is due to Dr. Steve
Raynie who served as lead-person in the preparation of
our 4-year English degree application, writing the initial
proposal and overseeing its revision in relation to
questions and suggestions from the Regents Office.
Many of our English faculty offered valuable
contributions throughout the process, but Dr. Raynie
asked special note to be made of Dr. Wesley Venus
and Dr. Marc Muneal, both in their first semester here,
whose research significantly shaped the revised
materials submitted in October.
Dates & Deadlines
Dec 6
College Chorus/Concert Band
7:30PM – Fine Arts Auditorium Free Admission
JURIES
Applies Music Majors
TBA Fine Arts 116 Not Open to the Public
Last Day of Classes
Dec 7-10
Final Exams & Book Buy Back at Bookstore
Dec 10
Residence Halls close at 4:00 PM for Christmas
Dec 20Jan 3, 2011
Jan 4
College Closed for Christmas Holidays
Jan 5
Faculty Report
Jan 6
New Student Orientation – Alumni Hall
Group Advising & Registration
Auditions -- Program Admission/Scholarships
9 AM – 5 PM Fine Arts High School Students
Open Registration
Dec 2
Dec 6
Jan 7 & 8
Jan 7
Staff Report
Jan 7
Last day to withdraw & receive full tuition refund
Payment Deadline for Early & Open Regist 4:00 PM
Jan 10
Spring 2011 Classes Begin
Jan 10 – 11
Late Registration
Jan 10-13
Drop / Add
DEANotes is a quasi-monthly publication of Academic Affairs