Prof. Richard Cole appointed interim dean
Vice President for Academic Affairs Zvi Szafran appointed Prof. C. Richard Cole interim dean of the School of Architecture and Construction Management following the retirement of Dean Bill Barnes in June.

“Prof. Cole has had a long and distinguished career, both in professional practice and in academia,” Dr. Szafran noted.

He is a licensed architect with a master’s degree in architecture from Georgia Tech and a certificate from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) and has maintained an architectural consulting practice in the area of commercial design since 1989. He served as vice president and project manager at Wise, Simpson, Aiken and Associates from 1978 to 1989.

Prof. Cole has taught second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-year Design Studio courses at SPSU since 1987, as well as the architecture core course Professional Practice and Ethics. The Student Government Association chose him as their Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year in 1989 and 1990, and he served as moderator of the SPSU Faculty Senate from 1989 to 1990.

During the 2011-12 academic year, he chaired the Architecture Department’s Academic Council, which developed the department’s newly adopted strategic plan.

The search for a permanent dean will commence in fall 2013.

MET faculty, students design statue for Novelis
Novelis – the world’s leading producer of rolled aluminum and largest recycler of aluminum cans – recently called on the expertise of SPSU to help put the finishing touches on its new Global Research and Technology Center in Kennesaw, which opened June 15.

Stefan Erdmann, vice president of Novelis Global R&D, approached Dr. Simin Nasseri, an associate professor in the Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) department, and asked her to design a statue of a transformer for the new, modern center. Dr Nasseri and three of her students – Chris Cutter, James Smith and Timothy Del Rocco – designed a 10-foot tall all-aluminum statue using mainly the company’s aluminum sheeting. Their design, which incorporated hexagonal elements representing SPSU, illustrates Novelis’ mission of transforming raw aluminum into useful products.

SPSU alum and Foundation Board of Trustees President Daryle Higginbotham (MET, ‘89), and his team from Marietta Nondestructive Testing Inc., fabricated the statue for Novelis.

“This collaboration enhances the success potential of SPSU-Novelis projects, the quality of the research work produced and the quality of young future engineers,” said Dr. Nasseri, who attended the center’s grand opening with SPSU President Lisa A. Rossbacher and other local and state government and Chamber of Commerce dignitaries.

Novelis said the center will create 150 additional jobs in Cobb County and that it will partner with SPSU to offer research and internship opportunities, as well as jobs for graduates.

Athletics splits from Recreational Sports
SPSU’s Athletics department will become a separate entity from Recreational Sports, effective July 1, according to Vice President for Student and Enrollment Services Ron Koger, who says the restructuring is a sign of the university’s growth.

“As our student body grows, we are having to expand our sports programs, other student services and the facilities to accommodate these services,” said Koger.

Koger noted that SPSU needs to add two additional sports to its roster by 2014 in order to maintain eligibility in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Having an athletic director dedicated solely to intercollegiate athletics will allow the person in this position [see following article] to focus on that expansion, he said.

Karl Staber, who has served in a dual role as director of both Recreational Sports and Athletics for the past 15 years, will continue as director of Recreational Sports, a role that will have him presiding over plans for the future expansion of the Recreation and Wellness Center.

Matt Griffin named new athletic director
Matt Griffin has been named as SPSU’s new athletic director, effective July 1.

Griffin comes into the position after serving seven years as assistant athletic director and nine years as head baseball coach.

In the past nine seasons, Griffin has accrued a 364-169 (.682) record and currently averages 40.44 wins per season.

In 1998, Griffin graduated from the SPSU baseball field with a degree in business administration and joined the Chicago Cubs organization. He played in the Cubs’ minor league for two years before returning to SPSU as assistant coach for the baseball team. Four years later, he was promoted to head coach and has held that title for the past nine seasons.

He has won multiple awards including being named the 2007 SSAC (Southern States Athletic Conference) Coach of the Year, 2007 and 2008 NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) Georgia Dugout Club Coach of the Year and the 2009 NAIA ABCA (American Baseball Coaches Association) Region Coach of the Year.

In 2009, he set a school record in wins in a season (53) and recorded the highest ranking in SPSU baseball history (4th). Griffin also has nine straight 30+ win seasons.

Under his leadership, 10 Hornets have been drafted to play professional baseball, including the two young men listed in the following article.

SPSU players drafted to Texas Rangers and Atlanta Braves during MLB draft
SPSU baseball players Casey Shiver and Matt Kimbrel were selected in the 2012 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft. Shiver was selected by the Texas Rangers and Kimbrel by the Atlanta Braves.

Shiver, a junior right-handed pitcher from Loganville, Ga., was the 27th pick in round ten making him one of the highest drafted players in Hornet baseball history. He ranks No. 13 in Division 1 of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in total innings pitched (102.100) and No. 15 in innings pitched per game (6.822). Leading the team in strike-outs with an average of 7.92 per game, 90 total, he is a member of the Southern States Athletic Conference All-Conference 2nd Team. Shiver has an earned run average (ERA) of 3.17 over 15 games this year.

Kimbrel, also a junior right-handed pitcher, was selected by the Braves in the 31st round. The Huntsville, Ala., native also had an impressive year on the mound with the Hornets. He is second on the team in most games pitched (20) this season. He has an individual game high of six strike-outs on two separate occasions this year and an ERA of 4.54. Kimbrel is the younger brother of Braves pitcher/closer Craig Kimbrel.

To date, 25 Hornets players have gone on to play professional baseball.

Recent faculty activities
• Dr. Tom Rotnem is serving as president of the Georgia Political Science Association (GPSA), the second largest statewide political science association in the country. He was elected to the position in the fall of 2011 and will serve through the end of 2012. The GPSA issues awards for outstanding papers and service to the organization and holds an annual fall conference in Savannah, in conjunction with the Criminal Justice Association of Georgia.

• Dr. M. A. Karim, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, authored an article in the April 2012 issue of Environmental Technology titled “Enhancement of electrokinetic decontamination with EDTA.”

Grad student receives DoD scholarship, job
Brian Anderson, a graduate student in the Computer Science program, received a scholarship under the Department of Defense (DoD) Information Assurance Scholarship Program (IASP) and has been offered a position with a federal agency.

Anderson will have his tuition fully covered, receive a stipend of $1,900 during the 10 months of his scholarship, will be allotted a budget through the campus bookstore for computers/electronics, and have all travel expenses for attending security conferences paid.

After graduation in the spring of 2013, Anderson will work for the U.S. Army Cyber Command in Ft. Meade, Md., in the same facility as the headquarters of the National Security Agency.

Prior to starting his graduate program, Anderson earned degrees in both mathematics and computer science from SPSU.

The DoD/NSA awarded Dr. Max North, professor of Management Information Systems and director of SPSU’s Visualization & Simulation Research Center, a grant of $38,000 for the IASP scholarship, and he chose to award the scholarship to Anderson. This funding was awarded in a competitive process that was open to many departments at SPSU.

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 24
June 27, 2012