PolyDay campaign support from community, campus totals $146,500
SPSU wrapped up its first-ever corporate-community-campus fund raising campaign on PolyDay, Oct. 8, with a reception attended by the university’s community partners in addition to trustees, alumni and faculty and staff members.

Shan Cooper, vice president and Marietta site general manager of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company – the top employer of SPSU graduates – delivered a ringing endorsement of SPSU during the celebration at the Globe, noting that when Lockheed hires an SPSU graduate, “We know that we’re getting the best of the best, the best and the brightest.”

President Lisa A. Rossbacher said total giving to the campaign amounted to $146,510 as of Oct. 8, including $59,910 contributed by SPSU faculty and staff and $86,600 from alumni, civic and professional organizations and businesses in the Cobb community.

The faculty and staff annual fund recorded its highest gift total ever under the leadership of Prof. Scott Larisch of electrical and computer engineering technology (faculty chair) and Kenneth Shelton of facilities (staff chair). The participation rate was 52 percent, and there was 100 percent participation by Strategic Marketing & Sustainability Initiatives, the Office of the President, University Information Technology Services, the Career and Counseling Center, Advancement, Auxiliary Services and SPSU Police.

“We look forward to making PolyDay an annual event and to celebrating continued private support for higher education – a vital piece in the overall funding of Southern Polytechnic,” said Dr. Rossbacher.

The Advancement Office is still accepting contributions to the annual fund, but they can no longer be made through payroll deductions this year.

SPSU still rates as military-friendly institution
SPSU has been included once again in the Military-Friendly Schools guide put out annually by G.I. Jobs, a magazine for military personnel transitioning into civilian life. This guide honors only the top 15 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools that are doing the most to embrace America’s military service members and veterans as students.

SPSU was cited in the 2012 guide published last fall and is listed again in the just-released 2013 guide, available at Military Friendly Schools list.

The Military Friendly Schools list is compiled through extensive research and a data-driven survey of schools nationwide. The criteria developed by an academic advisory board include factors such as tuition benefits, flexible learning programs, the number of military and veteran students enrolled, Veterans Benefits Administration approval to accept the GI Bill, membership in Service members Opportunity Colleges, Yellow Ribbon program membership and academic accreditations.

SPSU No. 1 in Green Energy Challenge student poster competition
SPSU students took home the top prize for a poster they prepared as part of a project entered in the fourth annual Green Energy Challenge student design competition.

ELECTRI International – The Foundation for Electrical Construction and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) sponsored the Green Energy Challenge at the NECA Student Chapter Summit in Las Vegas on Sept. 30. Contractors and industry partners judged the student presentations. Contractors also come to the competition finals each year to snap up the best students about to enter the profession.

Coached by Prof. Maureen Weidner, a construction management (CM) lecturer, and supported by the Atlanta Electrical Contractors Association, SPSU students Samantha Anselmo, a senior in CM, Jamaal Stubbs, a senior in electrical engineering, and Jonathan Zambrano, who earned his degree in CM this past May, entered the 2012 Green Energy Challenge early in the spring semester. The SPSU team represented one of 18 NECA student chapters across the country that took part.

Teams were instructed to select a campus facility in need of energy-efficiency improvements, conduct an energy audit of its power and lighting systems and design a retrofit for those systems. Participants were also required to design a new solar photovoltaic and/or wind-energy-generation system for the facility and perform a financial analysis of the result. They were also asked to develop a plan to improve the energy conservation awareness of students and employees on their campus.

The winning poster prepared by Anselmo, Stubbs and Zambrano was judged on professional appearance, technical content and creativity. The prize for their first-place finish in the competition was $750. Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., was second, and Youngstown State University in Ohio ranked third in the competition.

In addition to Prof. Weidner, faculty advisors for the competition included two other members of the CM department: Dr. John Mench, a senior lecturer, and adjunct Prof. Jacqueline Stephens. John Cameli, a graduate student in business administration, also advised the team.

SPSU welcomes new staff this fall
• The Business Office recently welcomed a new student account representative, Lindsay Jeffcoat. She graduated from SPSU in August with a degree in business administration and previously worked as a student assistant in the English, Technical Communication and Media Arts department. Her responsibilities include performing accounting functions, accounting reconciliations and financial management reporting. Jeffcoat also compiles financial information and processes journal entries into various accounts.

• The Human Resources (HR) Office has a new HR assistant, April McLeroy. She is responsible for processing newly hired student assistants/interns and faculty and staff members. McLeroy comes to SPSU with more than 10 years of HR experience and has a degree from Hawaii Pacific University, Honolulu.

Men’s soccer team gearing up for end of 2012 season
Heading into today’s Southern States Athletic Conference home game with Brewton-Parker, the Southern Poly men’s soccer team stands at 9-3 overall. With only three matches left in the regular season, the Hornets are 5-2 in the Southern States Athletics Conference (SSAC), one of the strongest National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) conferences in the country.

“The season has been filled with highs and lows so far,” SPSU head coach Kom Momeni said. “We are statistically having a very good year, but we are not playing as well as we should at times. Our youth and inexperience shows too often.

“The good news is that our only losses in conference have been to the No. 1 and No. 2 teams. There is much more soccer left to be played and our team is growing and learning every day.”

The Hornets began the season rated third in the nation y in the NAIA coaches’ poll – their highest ranking in the six-year history of the program – before moving up to No. 2. They are currently ranked tenth.

Emeka Maduka, a senior forward from Lagos, Nigeria, is leading the team in scoring (28 points), goals (13), shots (62), shots on goal (31) and game-winning goals (six).

One week ago, senior goalkeeper Dennis Kramer, from Berlin, Germany, was named both the SSAC and NAIA National Defensive Player of the Week. Earlier this year, Southern Poly freshman midfielder Adis Islamovic, out of San Diego, Calif., was honored as the SSAC Offensive Player of the Week.

Chinese delegation meets with deans, VPs
SPSU hosted a delegation from one of its partner schools in China earlier this month.

A vice president and the deans of different schools at Ningbo University in the Zhejiang Province, close to Shanghai, met with SPSU vice presidents, deans and department chairs to exchange reports on the status of program development between the two universities, ask questions and make future plans.

Ningbo University has 19 faculties and colleges and offers 65 undergraduate programs and 56 masters-level programs. The number of full-time undergraduate students at the institution is 23,000, with 700 in-residency postgraduates.

“Strong programs exist between our two institutions with all the necessary leadership, faculty support and student involvement,” said Linda Sun, assistant director of International Programs at SPSU. She noted that five faculty members and four students from Ningbo University are on campus this semester. Meanwhile, an SPSU student is in China studying at Ningbo and tutoring students in English.

“Our plan is to send a second group of SPSU study-abroad students to Ningbo University in May 2013 for courses in culture and international business [the first group visited the university in July],” she said. “We hope to welcome additional Ningbo students to our campus in fall 2013.”

SPSU hosted another successful Georgia Game Jam
The 2012 Georgia Game Jam held at SPSU last month drew 150 participants who competed in teams to develop video games from scratch in the space of 48 hours. Organizers reported that more than 15 games were created.

Students from SPSU, Georgia Tech, Savannah College of Art and Design, University of West Georgia and Art Institute of Atlanta convened on the second floor of the J Building on Friday evening. From then until late Sunday afternoon, they developed games with little or no sleep, fueled chiefly by Chick-fil-A, pizza and high-energy drinks. Students at the jam also collaborated with students from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, via Skype to create music/audio for the video games.

At the closing ceremony, local game studio Hi-Rez helped select the best of the games produced, and the winning teams received passes to the SIEGE regional gaming conference.

In 2011, SPSU hosted both the Georgia Game Jam and the Global Game Jam.

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 39
Oct. 17, 2012