2008 Service Award recipients
All faculty and staff are invited to attend the 2008 Service Awards Program. This is the annual program which recognizes employees and upcoming retirees for their dedication and service to the University. Tenure and promotions, as well as Outstanding Faculty and Staff awards are also presented during this annual event. The program will be held on Monday, Apr.12 in the Student Center Ballroom from 12 – 1:30 p.m. Please come and recognize the Outstanding Staff Awardees and support the following list of Service Award honorees:
5 Years – Gary Bohannon; Letitia J. DeNard; Charles H. Duvall; Robert P. Forbes; Jeffrey T. Hughes; Ruston M. Hunt; Harry Shelton Jr.; W.T. White
10 Years – Gouranga C. Banik; John L. Bauer; Gus A. Becker; Pojen Chang; Donna F. Coder; Venu G. Dasigi; James Herbert; Mary A. Hill; Carol S. Jelks; Sarah D. Milton; Bryce K. Payton; Ronny L. Richardson; Anthony P. Rizzuto; Lisa A. Rossbacher; Khalid M. Siddiqi; Leigh Ann Soublis; Helen Anne Spivak; Jeffrey H. Wagner; Daren R. Wilcox
15 Years – William J. Carpenter; Jacquelyn L. Cochrane; David L. Easterwood; Howard F. Itzkowitz; D. Paul Meeks; Julie Newell; Muhammed A. Obeidat; Jeffrey L. Orr; Philip E. Patterson; Hassan Pournaghshband; Emmitt Smith; Omar Zia
20 Years – Edna Arnold; Linda L. Lewis; George A. Scott; Sandra Vasa-Sideris
25 Years – Robert A. Harbort Jr.; Ronald C. Kelley; Jack R. Pace; Mary T. Phillips; Joseph Lyndon Pitman; Rebecca Rutherford; Michael G. Thackston
30 Years – Alan M. Gabrielli
Retirees – Sidney Davis; Ray Morgan; Michael Murphy; Gloria Dawn Ramsey; Ann Watson

SPSU Earth Day Family Fair
SPSU is celebrating Earth Day by hosting the Girl Scouts on Sat., Apr. 26. The day will be fun and educational, with a focus on science, technology and the environment. Each registered Girl Scout will receive an event patch and will have access to multiple hands-on activities. There will be lots to do and see for accompanying family members too. Ample free parking is available and lunch is included for the Girl Scout and her family members. Activities will be held on campus from 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. The event fee is $5 per girl. If you have a Girl Scout, or know someone who does, and would like to register for the event, go to http://www.girlscoutsnwga.org/ and select Events & Things to Do; the top link on the page is Council-sponsored events and activities click that; then find the link for Multi age levels Apr/May/June 2008.

New journal publication for Dr. Siddiqi
Dr. Khalid Siddiqi, chair of the Construction Management department, wrote an article, "Role of Education and Industry Towards More Sustainable Construction" that was published in the International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management Volume 8, Nos 2/3, 2008. Besides the role of the educators, the article provides details about the positive role played by the Build Georgia Awards Program instituted by the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Georgia towards promoting more sustainable construction.

Dr. Dasigi visits P.K. Fokam Institute of Excellence in Africa
Dr .Venu Dasigi, chair of the Computer Science and Software Engineering department, recently visited the P.K. Fokam Institute of Excellence in Yaoundé, Cameroon, to mark the start of a new collaborative program between the institute and SPSU. The program will allow students to complete the first three years of their degree program in Yaoundé before coming to Marietta, Ga., to complete their undergraduate degree, and possibly a master's degree, at SPSU. At the moment, the programs offered at the Institute of Excellence are computer science and information technology, but the intention is to start offering additional programs later.

The P.K. Fokam Institute of Excellence was established in 2007 by Dr. Paul Fokam, President of the Afriland First Bank, which he co-founded in 1987. Dr. Fokam established the Institute of Excellence to create a cadre of leaders in Africa who can spearhead the economic development of Africa, as well as promote its culture.

Woman of Achievement
Congratulations to Kit Trensch, director of Development, on her nomination for the 2008 YWCA Tribute to Women of Achievement. Kit was nominated for many reasons including her ingenuity in developing an annual scholarship dinner here at SPSU, as well as increasing the overall SPSU Foundation Endowment by 10 percent. Other notable achievements include her service on the Steering Committee of the Cobb Executive Women and the Board of Directors Georgia Planned Giving Council.

Parking space raffle winners
The University Honors Program sponsored a parking raffle that raised over $600 towards future study abroad opportunities for honor students. This year 14 honor students traveled to Rome, Italy as part of the Honors City as Text Interdisciplinary Seminar course. The purpose of the course is to help students gain an understanding of how the culture of a city impacts their chosen majors. The University Honors Program contributed over $2000 in support of this year’s honor student trip and hopes to do same for future trips. Raffle tickets were sold to both faculty and students. Winners of this year’s parking raffle are: MET faculty member Dr. Simin Nasseri and SPSU honor student LaRon Bell. Nasseri won a parking space of her choosing for the next year while Bell won the opportunity to use faculty parking for the next year.

Published paper in Educational Technology
Educational Technology, the primary international scholarly publication for educational technology leaders, has accepted for publication an article authored by assistant professor Dr. Keith Hopper, of the English, Technical Communications & Media Arts department and graduate student Rebecca Hendricks, of the Information Design and Communication program. The article, "Technology Integration in the College Classroom-A Baker’s Dozen Frugal But Promising Strategies," defines the current problem of educational technology integration in higher education as it relates to program efficacy. The article will be published in late 2008.

Volume 1, Issue 5
April 2, 2008