DegreeWorks to roll out this summer
Starting this summer, SPSU students will have a new tool to help them chart their progress towards graduation. DegreeWorks, an advising, transfer articulation and degree-audit program, has been integrated into SPSU’s existing Banner system and will be available to students by early June.

“Students, for the first time, will have the opportunity to see their degree programs from the perspectives of advisors and the registrar’s office,” said Steve Hamrick, registrar and assistant to the vice president for Academic Affairs.

“Students will have the ability to find out what courses they need to graduate and where they are in terms of finishing their degrees. Degree requirements are put into the system based on department and major. Once a student develops a graduation plan with his or her advisor, DegreeWorks applies that plan to the graduation requirements and shows where each planned course will fit, complete with a progress bar for degree completion,” Hamrick explained.

In addition to providing degree requirements, DegreeWorks also functions as an academic planning tool. Hamrick believes that students will benefit from the GPA calculator,including “one which will show your current classes and allow you to speculate about what grade you might earn. It will project a GPA based on whatever you decide to input.”

There will also be a “what if” tab that allows students to select another major to see how courses already completed would fit into that degree program.

For more information on DegreeWorks, contact the Office of the Registrar at ext. 4200.

Hello/Goodbye for dean of arts and sciences post
The SPSU community bid a fond farewell earlier this month to Dr. Alan Gabrielli, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, who is retiring this month after 33 years of service to the university. The following week, the university selected his successor, Dr. Thomas Nelson, professor and department head of biology at North Georgia College & State University (NGCSU), who will start July 1.

Prior to joining NGCSU in 2008, Dr. Nelson served for 14 years as professor and director of the Environmental Biology Program at Eastern Illinois University and five years as chair of the Biology Department at Arkansas Tech University. Dr. Nelson holds a degree in biological sciences from Illinois State University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in ecology from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

Dr. Nelson’s research specialties are in wildlife ecology and directing undergraduate research, areas to which he has contributed over 30 professional papers and 70 presentations at conferences and workshops.

Dean Gabrielli, who was awarded the rank of professor emeritus on April 25, joined the SPSU chemistry faculty in 1978 and has been dean of the School of Arts and Sciences for the past 10 years. He served as the university’s director of continuing education from 1986 to 1993.

He plans to remain in Marietta and “keep busy” in retirement.

Dr. Julie Newell honored for service to CTE
The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) saluted Dr. Julie Newell, chair of Social and International Studies, at the final faculty meeting of the year for her devotion to the center’s goals.

Newell “has been an advocate for and supporter of the CTE since it was created in 2002,” said CTE Chair Dawn Ramsey, reading a statement from the CTE Advisory Council (CTEAC), of which Dr. Newell was a member for eight and a half years.

CTEAC credited Dr. Newell with having developed and maintained the Teaching Partners and Teaching Brown Bag programs that support SPSU faculty.

“In recognition of her grassroots advocacy for SPSU faculty, the energy she brought to CTEAC and the leadership she shared to make SPSU a better place for faculty, staff and students, the current members of CTEAC wish to recognize and honor Dr. Julie Newell for her past and future service to the CTE,” the statement concluded.

CTE leadership set for 2012
The following faculty members have been selected for positions within the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) for the coming year:

CTE Advisory Council
Lester Dollar, Industrial Engineering Technology
Mohammed Mayeed, Division of Engineering

CTE Teaching Fellow for Advising
Greg Conrey, Mechanical Engineering Technology

CTE Advising Fellow
Sonia Toson, Construction Management

CTE Teaching Fellow for Scholarship of
Teaching & Learning
Adeel Khalid, Division of Engineering

CTE Teaching Fellow for Orientation/Mentoring
Becky Rutherfoord, Information Technology Department

Recipients of CTE Mini Grants for Teaching/Advising Excellence
Keely Clay, Industrial Engineering Technology
Adeel Khalid, Division of Engineering
Hassan Pournaghshband, Computer Science and Software Engineering
Jon Preston, Computer Science and Software Engineering
Jennifer Vandenbussche, Mathematics
Chi Zhang, Information Technology Department

Recipients of CTE Professional Growth and Development Grants
Adeel Khalid, Division of Engineering
Mohammed Mayeed, Division of Engineering
Joyce McGriff, Business Administration
Svetlana Peltsverger, Information Technology Department
Jennifer Vandenbussche, Mathematics
Larry Wang, Mathematics
Chi Zhang, Information Technology Department

Recipients of CTE Conference Support Grants
Adeel Khalid, Division of Engineering
Joyce McGriff, Library
Sandra Vasa-Sideris, Business Administration
Chi Zhang, Information Technology Department

Hornets fall short of bid for the NAIA World Series
The SPSU Hornets’ 2011 season wrapped up on May 13 after three games in the opening round of the NAIA Baseball Championship in Paducah, Ky.

The team’s crowning moment came that morning with a 5-1 win that eliminated Bellvue University from the tournament. However, this win was bookended by an 8-7 loss to Tennessee Wesleyan College on May 12 and a 6-3 loss to William Jewell College on the evening of the 13th. No. 3-seeded Tennessee Wesleyan emerged the winner of the tournament’s Paducah Bracket and will advance to the NAIA World Series at the end of the month.

Congratulations to the Hornets for another great season of SPSU baseball!

Physics grad wins award for poster on thesis work
Graduating physics major Jennifer Black recently received first place in a regional competition for her poster presentation of her SPSU thesis work.

Under the direction of Assistant Prof. Kisa Ranasinghe, Black presented at the National Society of Physics Students meeting of Zone 6, which includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Puerto Rico. The meeting was held at Georgia Tech.

The title of Black’s research was “Search for the Rigidity Transition in Lithium Oxide Silicate Glass Systems Using Modulated Differential Scanning Calorimetery (MDSC).”

Black is planning to pursue her graduate degree in physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

SPSU volunteers man booth at Taste of Marietta
A group of volunteer administrators and staff volunteered at the SPSU booth at the 18th Annual Taste of Marietta, which attracted approximately 100,000 hungry people to Marietta Square on Sun., May 1.

The volunteers were: Ron Koger, vice president for Student and Enrollment Services; Dave Cline, director of Institutional Research; Tara Adams, manager of Housing Operations; and Bennie Houck, a student records specialist in the Office of the Registrar. Throughout the day, they chatted with prospective SPSU students, new fall admits, alumni, and current, former and retired faculty and staff members while handing out 300 SPSU rain ponchos, 100 wrist bands and 200 pens along with every single department and university brochure they had brought with them.

“By the end of the day, we had only the shirts on our backs,” Koger reported.

Have news to share?
If your department has an upcoming event or other news to share with the campus community, please send an e-mail with all the pertinent information to Diane Payne (dpayne@spsu.edu). To be considered for use in a specific issue of the SPSU Hornet’s Nest, a news item must be submitted no less than four weeks before the date of the issue.

Volume 4, Issue 18
May 18, 2011