Business Administration hosting campus-wide event
Phillip Hurd, director of the Georgia Tech (GT) Department of Internal Auditing, will give a presentation on fraud investigation that is open to all students and faculty and staff members on Wed., Oct. 3, from 5-6 p.m. in the Student Center Theater.

Hurd will talk about the types of fraud GT has been detecting using their IDEA Data Extraction and Analysis software to flag potential purchasing-card fraud. On average, the department has detected a case of fraud a month for the last four years, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Department of Justice have been involved in the investigations.

Before working with the Department of Internal Audit, Hurd was the associate director for Information Systems Audit and Assessment at GT. Prior to joining GT, he served in the US Army for 10 years. Hurd holds professional certifications as a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and Certified Business Manager (CBM). He has a master’s degree in information systems from Western International University.

The presentation is sponsored by the SPSU Business Administration department and all faculty, staff and students are encouraged to attend, especially accounting and business administration majors.

SPSU alum rings NYSE bell

SPSU alumna and former member of the SPSU Foundation Board of Trustees Suzanne Sitherwood rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Aug. 30 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of her appointment as president of The Laclede Group, a public utility holding company based in St. Louis.

Sitherwood (industrial engineering technology, ’83) became president of The Laclede Group, Inc. on Sept. 1, 2011, and was appointed CEO on Feb. 1, 2012. Its subsidiary, Laclede Gas Company, serves approximately 625,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in St. Louis and parts of 10 counties in eastern Missouri. She is the former president of Atlanta Gas Light Co. and in 2010 became the first woman to chair the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

Human SPSU logo photo rescheduled for Sept. 25
Plans to take a photo using people from throughout campus to form a large human version of the SPSU logo have been postponed due to weather concerns.

The photo shoot has been rescheduled for 12-1 p.m. on Tues., Sept. 25, on the turf field next to the Gymnasium (across from the Architecture Building).

All SPSU administrators, faculty, staff and students are invited to participate and will receive a free T-shirt to wear during the shoot. Participants must make themselves available the entire hour to accomplish this massive undertaking. The resulting photo will be featured in the SPSU Magazine and on the university website.

Recent faculty activities
• Dr. Al Churella, an associate professor in Social and International Studies, authored a history book, “The Pennsylvania Railroad, volume 1: Building an empire, 1846-1917,” that will be published by the University of Pennsylvania Press on Oct. 15. “Mining a treasure trove of archival material, Albert Churella has produced a monumental history of a singularly important institution,” wrote a fellow historian who reviewed the volume. “This work will be an invaluable resource, not only for railroad historians and those interested in the Pennsylvania Railroad and the regions it served [but also] for all students of American industrial history.” A “masterful account, certain to become the authoritative history of the Pennsylvania Railroad,” said another reviewer of the 976-page tome. To read more about the book, go to University of Pennsylvania Press.

• Dr. Christina Scherrer, associate professor of industrial engineering technology, and Dr. Adeel Khalid, assistant professor of systems engineering, are working together on a research contract supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They are developing mathematical models of the transmission dynamics of tuberculosis in healthcare settings to assess the impact and costs of various infection-control interventions and strategies. SPSU received $30,000 for this project which will be completed this semester.

Financial Operations team members certified in financial management
With support from the Professional Development Fund, several members of SPSU’s Financial Operations team recently graduated from the state’s Financial Management Certificate Program.

Newly certified are: Arthur Vaughn, controller; Barbara Gray, accounts payable specialist; Vanessa Cook, budget specialist; Yousaf Farhat, accounts payables supervisor; Angela Goodman, accountant; Takiela Owens, assistant controller for revenue; Tameka Shannon, [now former] assistant controller for daily operations; and Jolene Istas, assistant director of budget and grants.

The program teaches state employees how to apply Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to the transactions and events that occur in a government environment. On completion, participants have a common vocabulary and are equipped with the language skills needed to communicate accounting and budgeting concerns in accordance with GAAP standards.

The SPSU Financial Operations team’s goal is to better serve SPSU students, faculty and staff by eliminating much of the confusion associated with financial issues and translating information in a precise and coherent way.

SPSU still among top-ranked universities in South
For the third year in a row, SPSU has been ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s list of top regional universities.

SPSU ranked 80th in the South on the magazine’s annual “Best Regional Universities” list released last week. The magazine also included SPSU as one of six institutions in the South notable for ethnic diversity.

The list also highlighted SPSU for the following:

• average freshman retention rate of 76 percent;

• 49 percent of classes have fewer than 20 students; and

• 19-1 student/faculty ratio.

Indian classical dance presentation comes to campus
Sasikala Penumarthi of the Kuchipudi Dance Academy in Duluth, Ga. will give an illustrated Indian classical dance/demonstration on Wed., Sept. 26, from 6-7:15 p.m. in the Student Center Theater. Also, costumes and jewelry will be on display.

Penumarthi is one of the most accomplished Indian classical dancers in the world and has more than 30 years of dancing experience. She moved to the U.S. in 1991 and since then has received a plethora of awards and worked with multiple dance organizations. Penumarthi is an Artist Affiliate at Emory University where she teaches courses in the dance department and also works to introduce Kuchipudi dance to the younger generation.

This is a free event sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs/International Programs, departments of Social and International Studies and English, Technical Communication and Media Arts as part of an effort to introduce international and cross-cultural fine and performing arts programs to the SPSU community. Contact Raj Sashti, director of international program development, at rsashti@spsu.edu or ext. 3266 for more information.

Cross-Cultural Conversations Committee kicks off event series
SPSU’s Cross-Cultural Conversations Committee will sponsor several cultural and educational events on campus during the 2012-2013 school year, including dance performances, international films, ethnic music concerts and educational lectures.

The committee of students, faculty and staff has been meeting regularly to discuss and plan cultural events promoting diversity at SPSU. The goal is to add to what is occurring inside the classroom by offering a variety of programs that enhance the curriculum and help build a vibrant campus community.

The first campus-wide event, held Sept. 12, was a presentation by Henry Birnbrey, a trustee of the William Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, on his experiences as a Holocaust survivor.

Birnbrey’s father was killed on Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) in 1938, when Nazi storm troopers and German citizens launched a massive, coordinated attack on Jews throughout Germany prior to forcing them into concentration camps, and his mother died a few months later. Luckily, the Birnbreys had arranged for their son, Henry, then 14, to emigrate to the United States earlier that year, where he grew up in foster homes in Birmingham and Atlanta.

By 1943, with World War II raging in Europe, Henry Birnbrey joined the U.S. Army, took part in the Normandy invasion and witnessed first-hand some of the atrocities committed by the Nazis. After the war ended, he learned that most of his extended family had perished in these camps – only two first cousins survived.

The Cross-Cultural Conversations Committee’s next event is the evening of classical Indian dance by Sasikala Penumarthi on Wed., Sept. 26.

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 35
Sept. 19, 2012