Campus-wide Open Forum
A campus-wide Open Forum will be held in the Student Center Ballroom on Thurs., Aug. 28, 2-3 p.m., to discuss the University's strategies and ideas for dealing with reductions in the state-allocated budget for FY09 and FY10.  The Board of Regents will be making decisions this week about how the shortfall in state tax revenues will be distributed to the individual University System of Georgia institutions, and this forum will include a status report on budget planning for the USG.  Staff, faculty, and students are all welcome to attend.

On loan from USG
SPSU is fortunate to have on loan from the University System of Georgia, the expertise of Dr. Sandra Stone. She will be serving in the role of Interim Director of the Applied Research Center in the Extended University and working on economic development initiatives for the university. Her responsibilities include helping faculty secure external funding for research as well as connecting the university with business research opportunities.

Dr. Stone earned her bachelors degree in psychology and sociology, a masters in psychology from the University of West Georgia and her doctoral degree in sociology from Emory.

SPSU welcomes its first ACE Fellow to campus
SPSU is pleased to announce that Dr. Margaret Venable, assistant vice president, Early Colleges & Academic Initiatives at Georgia Perimeter College is spending the '08-'09 academic year as a visitor to SPSU’s campus as part of the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellows program.

Established in 1965, the ACE Fellows program is designed to strengthen institutions and leadership in American higher education by identifying and preparing promising senior faculty and administrators for leadership positions in college and university administration.

Dr. Venable earned her bachelor of arts in chemistry from Agnes Scott College, a masters of science in chemistry from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in science education from Georgia State University. While at SPSU, Dr. Venable will be focusing on a freshman-year experience program and recruitment and retention of faculty from underrepresented groups.

Season two "kicks"-off
SPSU’s soccer team is gearing up for their second season. The first home game will be on Wed., Aug. 27 at 6 p.m. against Tennessee Wesleyan College. This year’s team will feature returning students, transfer students and freshmen. Notable returning players include Mamadou “Futty” Danso and James Grant. Grant was recognized as the team’s best attacking player last year and Danso made the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) newcomer of the year and 1st team all conference. Also new this season is an increase of team sponsors, including Stanno and Elysium Spirit. SPSU is the only team in the SSAC to be fully sponsored and have field naming rights sold. The new soccer field name will be revealed this season to reflect the support of the team’s major sponsor, Nuesoft Technologies, a medical practice management software company.

Prof. September
Alan Gabrielli, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, will be featured in the CobbWork’s “2008 Cobb is Work Ready” calendar. CobbWork’s is Cobb County’s non-profit workforce development agency that has collaborated with the Cobb Education Consortium (CEC) to produce the calendar. The CEC is a collaborative effort of Cobb County public schools including SPSU, Kennesaw State University, Chattahoochee Technical College, Cobb County School District, Marietta City Schools and North Metro Technical College. Together these entities work to create better programs for higher education. Dean Gabrielli, along with his fellow CEC representatives, can be found in the 2008 calendar during the month of September.

New women’s basketball coach
Usha Gilmore has joined the Lady Hornet Basketball staff as the new assistant coach. Gilmore comes to SPSU from Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., where she spent the past 3 seasons as an assistant coach. A native of Moncks Corner, S.C., she was Miss South Carolina Basketball and the South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year, both in 1996. Gilmore received her degree in sociology with a minor in African-American studies from Rutgers.

Profs. present at IEEE annual meeting
SPSU’s English, Technical Communication and Media Arts professors Matt McCool and Keith Hopper presented papers at the annual meeting of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Professional Communication Society in Montreal this summer. Dr. McCool's topic was "Can color transcend culture?" and Dr. Hopper presented "Internet-Mediated Research—Affordances, Technology, Lessons Learned."

Ask an Administrator
In a continuing effort to provide better communication with the campus, the Senior Staff have asked the office of Public Relations to add a section to the Hornet’s Nest entitled “Ask an Administrator.”  Anyone on campus may send an email to pr@spsu.edu asking about what is happening on campus. These emails will be reviewed by the Senior Staff and one or two will be selected for inclusion in the Hornet’s Nest.  If possible, the Senior Staff will attempt to personally answer all the emails that are sent.

Question: I hear that on-campus housing is full.  How long of a waiting list do we have and what are we doing to accommodate those on the waiting list?

Our waiting list number changes constantly because of incoming applications and students finding alternative arrangements. In an effort to assist students in finding appropriate housing, we are 1) attempting to place as many students on campus as possible by re-designating space and 2) connecting students with local, reputable apartment complexes. We keep information for those complexes in the housing office and several of them were available during our recent student orientation.

Singers welcome, SPSU Chorus
There is a new faculty and staff chorus on campus that began in the spring. The group started as a team effort by SPSU’s Steve Hamrick, Registrar and Pierrette Maillet, coordinator of Annual Giving and Special Events, with the goal of performing at various campus events. The SPSU Chorus meets once a week during lunch to practice. There are currently 15 active faculty and staff members in the chorus, singing four part harmonies with mixed men’s and women’s voices. The chorus is open to all faculty and staff on campus, and those interested in singing are encouraged to join. The first meeting for the fall semester will be on Wed., Aug. 27 at 11 a.m. in the Student Center Theater. To find out more information about the chorus and meeting times, you may contact Steve Hamrick (shamrick@spsu.edu) and/or Pierrette Maillet (pmaillet@spsu.edu). The first performance will be in late October, so there is still plenty of time to get in on the action!

Chancellor to visit campus
On Wed., Sept. 3, Chancellor Errol B. Davis will visit SPSU as part of his annual campus visits to all 36 schools in the University System of Georgia.

Volume 1, Issue 14
August 20, 2008