Fall orientation welcomes largest-ever group of new students
In preparation for the start of fall classes today, the staffs of Student Life and Student Recruitment staged their largest-ever fall orientations for new students.

From July 11 through Aug. 2, Student Life Associate Director Ron Lunk and his staff welcomed 1,330 new students to the campus through a series of campus tours, presentations, meetings with advisors and fun activities known as “Journey.”

“Last year was the first time we broke 1,000 students attending the orientations,” Lunk said. “We saw 1,182 students during the month of July alone, plus we had online degree-seeking students take part in online orientation sessions, so our total has definitely increased again.”

SPSU Foundation Board of Trustees has new member
The SPSU Foundation appointed local businessman Rusty Moody to its Board of Trustees for a three-year term, effective July 1.

A 1988 SPSU graduate with an architectural engineering technology degree, Moody has more than three decades of technical and management experience. He is president of Frank Betz Associates, Inc., designer of custom and pre-drawn home plans, where he progressed from draftsman to custom client relations manager and then president.

The officers of the SPSU Foundation Board of Trustees are:

• Daryle Higginbotham (president of Marietta Nondestructive Testing, Inc.), chair;

• Don Davidson (president and CEO of Inglett & Stubbs LLC), vice chair;

• Clark Hungerford (vice president of Vinings Bank), treasurer; and

• Dr. Ron Dempsey (vice president for SPSU Advancement), secretary.

“As we continue our growth and move toward the future, the vision and leadership of the Board of Trustees continues to be instrumental in achieving our goals. We are very fortunate to have a great caliber of individuals as part of our outstanding board,” said Dr. Dempsey.

SPSU represented in Leadership Cobb 2013
The Cobb Chamber recently announced its Leadership Cobb Class of 2013, and the list of members includes SPSU Controller Arthur Vaughn.

Vaughn joined SPSU in 2007 after serving as controller at Oglethorpe University, vice president for Finance and Administration at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta, senior consultant with KPMG LLP and assistant to the chief operating officer for the city of Atlanta.

Vaughn, who was named one of Ebony Magazine’s 30 Young Leaders of the Future in 1997, earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Syracuse University, a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in finance from Clark Atlanta University and a Master of Science in Accounting from SPSU.

Residence Life welcomes two new staff members
SPSU recently added two new residence life coordinators: Vidhi Desai is responsible for on-campus apartment housing, and Amasett Economy is handling first-year housing.

Desai, a native of Queens, N.Y., has a degree in Spanish linguistics and master’s degree in college student affairs from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.

She oversees the Courtyard and Commons buildings as well as supervises a resident assistant staff of 12 students. Desai will also assist with the Women’s Residential Leadership Initiative as well as a new initiative targeting upperclassmen in which Student Life will collaborate with Career and Counseling Services to develop students’ life skills.

Economy had a double major in art and public relations at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and also holds a Master of Education degree in College Student Personnel from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

Her responsibilities include coordinating the First-Year Residential Experience (FYRE), geared towards building community through programs and events that foster growth and development for first-year students. She also coordinates the resident assistants in Howell Hall and Hornet Village 200 and handles any issues that arise in either of these buildings.

Social and Community Building Committee
Leigh Ann Soublis, associate director for campus scheduling and logistics, was recently re-elected to serve another term as chairperson of the Social and Community Building Committee (SCBC), and Internal Auditor Bill Ketchum was re-elected to serve another term as secretary/treasurer.

The SCBC sponsors on-campus activities to promote community among the SPSU faculty and staff.
These sponsored activities include the Annual Employee Picnic, the Holiday Luncheon and Stuff-A-Bus, the Soup and Chili cook-offs, Door-Decorating contests and Administrative Professionals Day.

Membership on the SCBC is open to any full-time SPSU faculty or staff member through nomination and election. If you are interested in becoming a member, ask an existing member to sponsor you.

Soublis can be reached at ext. 4100 or at lholton@spsu.edu. Ketchum can be reached at ext. 7479 or at wketchum@spsu.edu.

SPSU license plates growing in popularity
The roads of Georgia are filling with vehicles showing Southern Polytechnic State University pride, as the new SPSU license plates are now available.

“I love seeing all the mini-billboards saying ‘SPSU’ on cars around the region,” says Dr. Ron Dempsey, vice president for Advancement.

Thanks to the SPSU Foundation, the $25 manufacturing fee for the special tag has been paid for the first 1,000 applicants. The Georgia Department of Driver Services charges a $35 fee for all commemorative license plates on top of the regular charge and ad valorem taxes. A portion of this fee will be given back to SPSU yearly.

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 5, Issue 30
Aug. 15, 2012