ByLion -- August 11
 Work
progresses on Strawberry StadiumWorkers put finishing touches on the lettering on the front of a new "press box" on Strawberry Stadium. The structure connects to the university's new four-level parking garage and is expected to be ready for Southeastern's first home game Sept. 13 against South Dakota. The box includes new press and media facilities, coaches' boxes, hospitality suites and club seating. The 7,500-seat stadium was built in 1937. Table of Content Convocation kicks off fall 2008 semester Southeastern will kick off the fall 2008 semester with the annual faculty/staff convocation Friday, Aug. 15, at 10:30 a.m. in the Cate Teacher Education Center Kiva. Interim President John Crain will recognize the recipients of the President's Awards for Excellence, the university's highest faculty and staff honor; new emeritus faculty; and 25-, 30-, 35- and 40-year service award recipients. Following convocation, the Southeastern Alumni Association will sponsor the annual picnic at the University Center. For more information about the picnic, contact the Alumni Association at 549-2150. Table of Content Carpool message board targets 'pain at the pump' With no end in sight to pain at the pump, Southeastern has taken another step to give its students, faculty and staff a break on the rising cost of driving by creating an online carpool message board. The message board is a "one-stop shop" for connecting faculty, staff and students who want to find commuting partners. The new service is getting started just as the university is ending its four-day summer work week. For seven weeks, June 23-Aug. 8, Southeastern closed most academic and business offices on Fridays, a move designed to impact commuting expenses for employees and energy expenses for the campus. Southeastern Interim President John L. Crain said the university saved an estimated $85,000 by compressing the 40-hour work week into four days. Feedback indicates that faculty and staff also welcomed the resulting three-day weekends. "We will continue to explore various options to provide employees with opportunities to economize and to save energy," he said. One of those opportunities is the carpool message board, available to the Southeastern community at www.selu.edu/carpool. An estimated 85 percent of Southeastern students commute to campus. Read more … Table of Content This week at the Center for Faculty Excellence All workshops are held in Tinsley Hall, room 103, unless otherwise noted. Registration is required 24 hours in advance of all workshops. Walk-ins are welcome, if space is available; please call the center to verify. For information or reservation, contact the center at ext. 5791 or center@selu.edu. Sympodium training: Tuesday, Aug. 12, 1-2 p.m.; Wednesday, Aug. 13, 10-11 a.m., or Friday, Aug. 15, 1:30-2:30 p.m. -- Southeastern has recently updated more than 80 classrooms with "Smarttech's Sympodium" audiovisual equipment. The center is offering these training sessions to prepare faculty to use the new Sympodium classrooms. Blackboard introduction: Wednesday, Aug. 13, 1-2:30 p.m.; Thursday, Aug. 14, 9:30-10:45 a.m. OR 2-3:15 p.m. -- The hands-on workshop will introduce some of Blackboard's features. Topics will include how to upload a syllabus to a course, use the Course Policy and Validation tool, set courses available to students, and navigate within Blackboard as well as additional helpful hints. Table of Content Student satisfaction ranked high in ACT opinion survey Southeastern students' general level of satisfaction was rated high in a recent opinion survey of universities and their services and programs. In the annual American College Testing (ACT) Student Opinion Survey, the university received a mean rating of 4.05 on a 5-point scale by its students when asked to evaluate "this college in general." The score exceeds the national average of 3.92 and a University of Louisiana System average of 3.90. Southeastern tied with Louisiana Tech for the highest score among the eight institutions in the system. In that category, students were asked questions designed to evaluate the institution on opportunities for personal involvement in campus activities, campus media such as the student newspaper and radio station, student government, racial harmony, attitude of non-teaching staff toward students, and the institution's general "concern for you as an individual." "The ACT Student Opinion Survey is an important element in our ongoing evaluation of services and programs," said Interim President John L. Crain. "Students can be quite objective in confidential surveys, so we put considerable weight on their comments and suggestions. The survey allows us to see from a student's perspective what is working and what might need improvement." Read more … Table of Content  German
publishes novelA Savage Wisdom, a novel by professor of English Norman German, has been published by Thunder Rain Publishing Corp. The novel, German's second, was inspired by the life, crimes and legends of Annie Beatrice McQuiston aka Toni Jo Henry, the first and only woman executed in Louisiana's electric chair. German's fictionalized account of the true crime uses the actual names and aliases of the murderess and the fact that the killing took place on Valentine's Day in 1940. Louisiana Literature Review said, "German's novel is a stark, page-turning re-creation, rich with detail and imagery where intimacy and deception flow into a chilling tragedy. German's historical inquiry empowers the reader to imagine a woman consumed by passion, and a betrayal that conspires against the woman who 'learned, then practiced, a savage wisdom.' With the vibrancy of Louisiana color A Savage Wisdom weaves the reader into the life of a 'love-struck southern girl ... and a cold-blooded killer.'" A Savage Wisdom is available through the publisher. German is fiction editor of Southeastern's award-winning literary journal Louisiana Literature and is a past winner of the university's prestigious President's Award for Excellence in Artistic Activity. His short stories appear in literary and commercial magazines, including Shenandoah, Virginia Quarterly Review, Salt Water Sportsman, and Sports Fishing. His novel No Other World fictionalizes the life of Marie Thereze, the ex-slave slaveholder who founded Melrose Plantation near Natchitoches. He has also written scholarly essays of Ernest Hemingway, Nathaniel Hawthorn, and other American writers. Table of Content  Powell
joins Campus CompactKaren Powell has been appointed program director of Louisiana Campus Compact, a coalition of 31 Louisiana public and private colleges and universities focused on fulfilling the civic mission of higher education. Housed at Southeastern, Campus Compact unites concepts such as service-learning, leadership, volunteerism and activism with educational goals of developing college and university graduates who are prepared for a career and for life as informed and involved citizens at local, national, and international levels. Powell, who will assist Executive Director Stuart Stewart, comes to Louisiana Campus Compact after serving as assistant director of the Communication Across the Curriculum (Cox) program at Louisiana State University. Table of Content Singers sought for Northshore Chorale, University Chorus Singers from the campus and community are invited to join Southeastern's University Chorus and the Northshore Chorale, which will begin fall rehearsals on Tuesday, Aug. 26. The choirs, which combine their voices in popular concerts each semester, will meet each Tuesday from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Music Annex choral room (room 165A), said Alissa Rowe, director of choral activity in Southeastern's Department of Music and Dramatic Arts. "You do not have to audition for the University Chorus and Northshore Chorale," said Rowe. "Just come to the first rehearsal. Everyone who loves to sing is welcome." For more information, contact Rowe, arowe@selu.edu or 985-549-2334. Table of Content Professional activities  Dr.
Katherine Kolb (Foreign Languages and Literatures), right, presented
a session with French graduate Jorrit Van Belzen, left, at the American
Association of Teachers of French annual meeting in Liège, Belgium,
on July 17. Their presentation, "Liberté and égalité:
Franco-American Declarations of Rights," represented the culmination
of a year's research funded by an Undergraduate Research and Creativity
award from AHSS. Dr. Kolb and Van Belzen are pictured with Anne Jensen,
AATF Region IX Representative (Pacific).Dr. Peter Shrock (Sociology and Criminal Justice) presented a paper titled "Observations of Counteracting Effects of Political Institutions on Regulatory Enforcement" at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Boston. Dr. Anna Kleiner (Sociology and Criminal Justice) presented two papers at the annual meeting of the Rural Sociological Society in Manchester, New Hampshire. The papers were "Organizational Capacity in the Post-Disaster Context: Assessing Needs, Assets, and Lessons Learned" with John Green and Katie Kerstetter of Delta State University and JoLynn Montgomery of University of Michigan and "Pursuing Alternative Food Systems in the Lower Mississippi Delta: Insights and Lessons Learned from Farmers' Markets and the Farmers' Market WIC Program" with Green, Jesse Strassburg and Ryan Betz of Delta State University. The documentary Presence Patrol, a "personal travelogue" written and filmed by Alan Marsh (English) illustrating his experience documenting fellow Louisiana Army National Guards members' activities in Iraq in spring 2005, has been selected as a finalist at the Moondance Film festival (nicknamed 'The American Cannes," which will take place in Boulder, Colo., Aug. 29-31. Currently airing on the Southeastern Channel, the documentary was produced by Martie Fellom (Music and Dramatic Arts.) Table of Content ByLion is published weekly online (bi-weekly during the summer session) for the faculty and staff of Southeastern Louisiana University. Send submissions to publicinfo@selu.edu, SLU 10880, fax 985-549-2061, or bring to Public Information Office in East Stadium. Submission deadline is noon on Friday. Contact: Christina Chapple, chapple@selu.edu, 985-549-2341/2421. Return to By-Lion directory |