USG Chancellor Hank Huckaby to visit SPSU Oct. 20
The new chancellor of the University System of Georgia (USG), Henry “Hank” M. Huckaby, will visit the SPSU campus for the first time on the afternoon of Thurs., Oct. 20. He has requested to meet with student and faculty leaders and to wrap up his get-acquainted visit with a question-and-answer session for all faculty and staff members.

Huckaby was a state legislator representing Georgia House District 113 when the Board of Regents selected him in May to serve as the USG’s 12th chancellor at the conclusion of a national search. However, much of his education and his career has been within the University System.

Huckaby served in a number of key administrative USG positions, most notably as director of the Fiscal Research Program at Georgia State University, 1995-97; director of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia (UGA), 1997-00; senior vice president of Finance and Administration at UGA, 2000-06; and special assistant to the president at UGA on a part-time basis, 2006-09.

Huckaby also served as director of the Senate Research Office,1975-77; director of the governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, 1991-95; and interim chief financial officer for Sonny Perdue during Perdue’s transition to the Office of the Governor in 2003.

The chancellor will meet with the Faculty Senate shortly after his arrival, then with student leaders. He will meet with all faculty and staff members at 4 p.m. in the Ballroom, and, after making a few brief remarks, Huckaby will take questions from the audience.

Professor, students involved in energy research at EPA
Dr. Deidra Hodges, an assistant professor of Electrical Engineering, and two students spent part of their summer at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Office of Radiation and Indoor Air in Washington, D.C., as participants in the EPA’s Faculty and Student Teams (FaST) research program.

For the student portion of the SPSU team, Dr. Hodges chose Electrical Engineering major Toussaint Moseley based on his classroom performance and Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology major Aaron Love based on his letters of recommendation. Both students expect to graduate in December 2012.

Dr. Hodges, Moseley and Love spent several weeks performing research related to solar and nuclear energy at the EPA and wrapped up their stay in the nation’s capitol by presenting their findings to the agency’s radiation protection division.

Architecture professor featured on AIA Web site
Edwin Akins, an assistant professor in the Architecture Department, was recently interviewed by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for a question-and-answer feature on the institute’s Web site.

The interview focused on what it has meant to be both an architect and a professor and how he has worked to bridge these two careers. Read full text.

AIA also asked Prof. Akins to contrast how architecture students are taught to practice or design today, compared to how he was taught. “Although it seems that every year a new method or tool for drafting, modeling or measuring is developed, the education of an architect is anchored in an understanding of process and method and, as such, our foremost obligation to students remains unchanged,” he replied.

He also noted that the availability of information has evolved since he was in school, and students now have easier access to it.

Prof. Akins has been an assistant professor at SPSU since 2009 and continues to practice architecture. He is an active member of the AIA and has his own firm, Matter Architecture.

Students chalk up a fun class project
Students in English, Technical Communication and Media Arts instructor Donna Colebeck’s Introduction to Drawing class participated in a sidewalk art contest held in conjunction with the Labor Day weekend Art in the Park Festival on the Marietta Square.

Every student in the class submitted ideas for a design to fill a four-foot by four-foot square. The class ultimately created two compositions in chalk for the event, taking inspiration from the submitted drawings.

Colebeck has encouraged her students to take advantage of the local art scene, especially Marietta Square’s monthly Art Walk, held on the first Friday of the month, April through October. She was also instrumental in launching a new Art Appreciation Society at SPSU modeled on a similar organization at Harvard University. The society makes excursions to local concerts and the art walks.

SPSU alum Jim Hills to be honored at Philanthropy Day event
The Association of Fundraising Professionals’ (AFP) 2011 National Philanthropy Day event will be held on Tues., Nov. 8, at the Georgia Aquarium. Each year, AFP honors individuals and groups who, through their hard work and dedication, have enhanced philanthropy, their communities and the world.

This year’s SPSU honoree is Jim J. Hills (’77), president of Applied Technical Services Inc. (ATS), for a generous gift of $50,000 to the SPSU Foundation, which the university recognized through the naming of the Engineering Materials Lab on the first floor of the Engineering Technology Center (ETC).

Hills is a graduate of the Mechanical Engineering Technology program. ATS is a consulting engineering firm with 450 employees in 14 branch offices across the Southeast, and a number of the company’s employees are fellow SPSU alumni.

Faculty-Staff Campaign raises more than $51K
In September, SPSU had one of its most successful Faculty-Staff Campaigns ever. In just 30 days, the SPSU Foundation raised $51,332 in pledges from 257 individuals. The campaign topped last year’s total by more than $3,200 – and finished with an impressive participation rate of 56 percent!

This year’s co-chairs, Pam Frinzi, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology, and Robert Forbes, director of Procurement and Mail Services, were instrumental in helping the campaign achieve its goals – a big thank you to them!

The annual Faculty-Staff Campaign raises funds for faculty and staff development, student competition teams and scholarships, and so much more.

The SPSU Foundation awarded $250 each to:

• Student and Enrollment Services for contributing the highest dollar amount to the campaign;
• the Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology Department for being the first academic department to achieve 100 percent participation; and
• the University Police for being the first non-academic department to achieve 100 percent participation (for the second consecutive year).

Other departments and offices that achieved 100 percent participation in the campaign were: the Office of the President; the Library; Institutional Research and Effectiveness; English, Technical Communication and Media Arts; the Division of Information Technology; Construction Management; Career and Counseling; Auxiliary Services and Advancement.

To celebrate the end of the campaign, all donors were invited to a celebration on Oct. 5 where the co-chairs presented a check for the total that had been raised at that point to Foundation Board Chairman Daryle Higginbotham.

SPSU’s annual Goat Night set for Oct. 19
SPSU’s annual Goat Night in which fraternities and sororities gather for a fun-filled night of competition involving, yes, a real, live goat will be held at 7:30 p.m., Wed., Oct. 19, in the Student Center Theater. The evening will include choreographed dances, live entertainment and a skit starring the goat.

Goat Night always packs the Student Center Theater, and faculty members are recruited to judge the competition. Last year, Sigma Nu grabbed first place, Sigma Alpha Epsilon landed second and Gamma Phi Beta took home third place.

This free event is open to the entire SPSU community and promises to be entertaining.

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 39
Oct. 12, 2011