PolyDay celebration planned for Oct. 8
The Office of Advancement invites all Faculty-Staff Campaign donors and community partners to campus to celebrate the culmination of its month-long PolyDay fundraising effort at 6 p.m. on Mon., Oct. 8, at the Globe.

President Lisa A. Rossbacher will announce the amount of money raised through both the Faculty-Staff Campaign and the solicitation of gifts from SPSU’s community partners.

Throughout the month of September, the SPSU Foundation sought to raise awareness and support for the university and its programs through community businesses and leaders. Members of the foundation, faculty and staff made personal visits to local companies and individuals.

Collaborative project unites game-design, architecture students and faculty
A collaborative venture launched this fall has upper-level students in architecture and computer game design and development (CGDD) working together with faculty members and university administrators on a project that will cap off the final year of their studies.

Students in both majors are required to complete a capstone or signature project during their last year of school. When Prof. Richard Cole, interim dean of the School of Architecture and Construction Management, approached Dr. Zvi Szafran, vice president for Academic Affairs, with ideas about increasing cross-collaboration, Dr. Szafran suggested that upper-level students in architecture and CGDD might be able to help each other out quite well.

As a result, architecture thesis students Patrick Chopson and Logan Brennan are working with 12 students in CGDD’s Capstone course. The collaboration will enrich the architectural thesis designs by illustrating them with interactive computer games.

The basic storylines of Chopson’s and Brennan’s projects involve the architecture of a colony on Mars. The CGDD students are working in teams to develop games that include a protagonist, colony leader and an antagonist. The games will advance the storylines through architectural drawings and models as the protagonist and antagonist battle over the colony.

Dr. Sam Conn, SPSU chief information officer, is supporting the effort by making virtualized software available to the project team, and Dave Parham, director of tech support in University Information Technology Services, is helping to manage the IT effort. Dr. Szafran and SPSU President Lisa A. Rossbacher are also supporting the team by serving as chemistry and geology consultants, respectively.

School of Computing and Software Engineering faculty members Dr. Jon Preston (CGDD coordinator) and Dr. Jeff Chastine (associate professor in CGDD), and architecture professors Cole, Chris Welty and Manole Voroneanu are also managing the project in various capacities.

SPSU welcomes new staff members to campus
• Rhonda Henderson is the new construction project manager in SPSU Facilities. She will provide construction project oversight for the university, including: participating in the project planning and design process; providing oversight of contractors and assuring that projects stay on schedule and are completed within budget. She previously spent five years as an active duty civil engineer corps officer for the U.S. Navy with a total of eight years of service. Henderson was last stationed in Colts Neck, N.J. as the assistant public works officer and previously was a construction manager in Gulfport, Miss. She has a degree in architecture from Tuskegee University in Alabama.

• Sonia Tosin Oteju is the new information security officer in University Information Technology Services (UITS). Oteju’s responsibilities include the development, implementation and maintenance of SPSU’s information security program, which will ensure that the university operates and maintains effective data and information security and has in place assurance practices within its business environment. She holds a master’s degree in computing from Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom and has experience in leading, implementing and supporting information security objectives in the private and public sectors. Oteju previously worked with the United Kingdom National Health Service Trusts.

• Joe Ann Jackson has joined the Financial Aid Office staff as the new receptionist/administrative assistant. She assists students and parents by phone or in person with financial aid concerns and also performs administrative duties. Jackson has an associate’s degree in fashion and marketing from Milwaukee Area Technical College and plans to complete her bachelor’s degree at SPSU. Prior to her arrival here, Jackson worked at Kennesaw State University and Point University in East Point.

Wear denim this Friday; support breast cancer awareness
The SPSU Staff Council is urging the campus community to wear jeans and other denim apparel on Fri., Oct. 5, as part of Lee National Denim Day, an event created by Lee Jeans to support the American Cancer Society’s breast cancer programs.

During the day, Staff Council members will deliver special gifts to SPSU employees who are breast cancer survivors.

The organization will also collect donations for Lee National Denim Day between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Oct. 8-10 at tables in the Engineering Technology Center gallery, the atrium of Building J and the lobbies of the Student Center and Building N. Anyone who donates $1 or more will receive a breast cancer pin. For $5 or more, donors will receive a pin and a cookie or cupcake. Donations may be designated “in memoriam” or “in honor of” an individual.

Library launches new SPSU Hive Search
The SPSU Library has launched a new search interface, SPSU Hive Search, which is available now to users.

Hive Search allows for searches of books, articles, images, videos, multimedia and websites in one search box. It includes multiple sources such as the SPSU catalog and many other databases to which SPSU subscribes. Hive Search also has a specialized inter-library loan request form so users can borrow from other libraries or colleges.

Access to the SPSU Hive Search is via a new tabbed box on the library’s main page at www.spsu.edu/library.

For more information on how to navigate Hive Search, visit http://guides.spsu.edu/hive_search or contact Librarians Amy Coughenour (acoughen@spsu.edu) or Aaron Wimer (awimer@spsu.edu) at ext. 7471.

Discount CPA review courses a first in Georgia
SPSU is the only institution in Georgia offering students online review courses for the certified public accountant (CPA) exam at a discounted rate through a partnership with Becker Professional Education.

Dr. Don Ariail, associate professor of accounting, and Dr. Russ Hunt, dean of the SPSU Continuing Education Center, worked out an arrangement in which Becker will offer its prep courses to students in SPSU’s undergraduate and graduate accounting programs at a substantially reduced price.

The exam consists of four parts. Students may take the Becker prep course for each individual section of the exam or take all four courses for a bigger discount. Students at other universities can go through SPSU to take the courses, but their cost will not be as low as the rate offered to SPSU students.

Hornets swim team swims laps around competition
The SPSU Hornets intramural swim team competed in a swim meet at Georgia College and State University (GCSU) in Milledgeville last month.

Along with GCSU, the Hornets competed against Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia. The men’s team placed third overall and the women placed first overall in the 500-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly competitions. All the SPSU women that competed in the 500-meter freestyle placed first, second or third overall in the event.

“Every member who attended the meet competed in relays, and many achieved their best times,” said Hornet swimming co-presidents Meg Linsmayer and Catherine Reece. “The meet was definitely a success, and the team is looking forward to the next one at the University of Tennessee on Oct. 6.”

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 37
Oct. 3, 2012