Campus
Math department receives $1.5 million
The National Science Foundation has awarded the math department a $1.5 million grant to develop LURE, a program that will attract students to math majors early in their college careers and prepare them for graduate study. LURE stands for Long-term Undergraduate Research Experience
The program will be administered by Richmond, but it also will include faculty at Central Michigan University, Coppin State University and Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Over four years, the grant will involve 28 faculty members and 80 undergraduates. All 11 faculty members of Richmond’s math department will serve as mentors at least once during the project.
LURE “builds upon the success of the apprentice model often used in the physical and life sciences, where scientists routinely engage first- and second-year undergraduates in research and then continue to mentor them until they are prepared to pursue graduate degrees,” says Jim Davis, professor of mathematics and director of the LURE program.
The undergraduate research component of LURE will span two summers and two academic years.
NicAttack!
Heavy smokers might be more likely to suffer panic attacks when they are deprived of nicotine, according to Dr. Ken Abrams, assistant professor of psychology.
Abrams and several students have been conducting clinical research to test that hypothesis, and they presented their findings at the annual convention of the Anxiety Disorder Association of America in Miami. Five students co-authored the presentation, including Lindsey Dorflinger, ’06, Kelly O’Connor, ’06, Ashley Wyand, ’06, Andrew Duffy, ’07, and Meghan Snyder, ’06. Dr. Thomas Eissenberg, associate professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Melissa Blank, a graduate student at VCU, also contributed.
The researchers compared 25 heavy smokers who had not smoked in 12 hours to 25 non-smokers. Participants breathed ordinary air for one minute then breathed a mixture of carbon dioxide (5 percent) and oxygen (95 percent) for four minutes. That mixture is medically safe, Abrams says, but it often induces panic attacks in people who suffer from panic disorder.
During this five-minute “CO2 challenge,” heavy smokers experienced greater increases in anxiety and had a stronger “urge to escape.” The smokers also demonstrated greater “trait levels of anxiety sensitivity and suffocation fear,” the researchers note.
Abrams has been looking at the co-occurrence of substance use and anxiety disorders since he entered graduate school at the University of Minnesota, where he worked on a study examining the role of anxiety disorders in alcoholism relapse. He believes the Minnesota study could be the basis for explaining similar failures to quit smoking.
Dining hall renovation boosts campus cuisine
As students returned for fall classes, the University was putting the finishing touches on a $9.9 million renovation of the Heilman Center. The University dedicated the new facility in a special ceremony in late October.
In addition to improving the aesthetics of the building, Dining Services has completely retooled areas for preparing and serving food. Highlights include a Mongolian grill, brick-oven pizza station, expanded salad bar and tempting arrays of freshly made desserts.
The Heilman Center also features a new convenience store called Etc. and a new campus post office with a separate entrance.
Breaking down barriers to higher education
The University has established a new program called My Horizons to support college-bound students in low-income areas of the Richmond region. The Office of Undergraduate Admission, the Center for Civic Engagement’s Build It program, Management Institute and Office of Financial Aid will coordinate one-on-one mentoring, academic and professional skills training and workshops about college admission.
Specially trained University students will help seniors at John Marshall High School polish their college applications. “Mentor duties may include critiquing college essays, helping with financial aid forms or following up on deadlines,” says admission counselor Mark Naylor, ’05.
Richmond mentors will provide guidance on a variety of higher education options for other John Marshall students. The program also will include a series of evening events for students and parents on topics ranging from the admission process to financial aid to how to make the transition from high school to college.
The program also will bring freshmen from all Richmond city high schools to the University’s campus in March for seminars on developing professional and academic skills. “This part of the program is designed to encourage and inspire students to develop their professional skills for both jobs and community interaction and their academic skills for the possibility of higher education,” Naylor says.
In addition, the admission office is partnering with the College Summit of Washington, D.C., to provide classes and workshops for students in low-income areas throughout the Richmond region. The University will host one of the workshops July 2–8.
New residence hall under construction
The first new residence hall in more than 25 years got underway this fall as the initial phase of a campus-wide upgrade of student housing.
Lakeview Residence Hall will overlook Westhampton Lake adjacent to Marsh, Wood and Thomas halls. The four-story structure will provide 141 beds in a mixture of four- and three-bed suites and single rooms. Each floor will have laundry facilities and community living rooms, and the first floor will feature a large multipurpose room, kitchen, computer lab and group-study space. Lakeview is scheduled for completion in December 2007.
During the next six to seven years, Jeter, Freeman, North Court, Thomas and Robins residence halls will be renovated into either suite- or apartment-style configurations, says University Architect Andrew McBride. The goal is to place first-year students in traditional dorms, moving them to suites for their sophomore and junior years and apartments for their senior year.
Culture
Cirque Éloize performs ‘Rain’
Back by popular demand, the Modlin Center presents “Rain,” a performance by Cirque Éloize, Jan. 27–30 in the Alice Jepson Theatre.
“Rain” features acrobatics, juggling, contortion and the high-flying artistry of aerial rings and trapeze. Death-defying performers have dazzled more than 3 million spectators in the past 12 years, including Modlin Center patrons in 2003.
Tickets go on sale Jan. 5. For more information about Modlin Center performances, call (804) 289-8980 or visit http://modlin.richmond.edu.
Teaching the teachers
Joe Ben Hoyle, associate professor of accounting, was “scared to death” when he taught his first college class in 1971. Now his students are the ones who are nervous.
“Over the years, they have named me The Most Feared Professor, The Professor Least Likely to Retire, and The Professor Most Likely to Ruin Your Grade Point Average,” he recalls.
Despite his tough-love approach to teaching, a majority of Robins School undergraduates also picked him as their “favorite professor” in a recent survey by BusinessWeek Online. Hoyle, who employs the Socratic method in the classroom, has won the University’s Distinguished Educator Award five times.
Now Hoyle is sharing his tricks of the trade in a free online book called Tips and Thoughts on Improving the Teaching Process in College—A Personal Diary.
“This book was created as a discussion of teaching, about the day-to-day challenges and rewards of walking into a college classroom to help increase student thinking, learning and understanding,” Hoyle writes in the introduction. “I hope that a few of these pages will provide you with at least a modicum of benefit.”
Last fall, Hoyle wrote a column for Richmond Alumni Magazine called “In the Classroom, Easy Doesn’t Do It.”. The column was immediately reprinted by the Stanford University Center for Teaching and Learning and later translated into Hebrew by the Journal of Teaching in Higher Education, which reaches all college professors in Israel.
When Hoyle talks about teaching, people listen.
Visiting lecturer displays Turkish art
Ilgim Veryeri-Alaca, a visiting lecturer in the Department of Art and Art History, will display her work in the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art from Jan. 16–March 25. Veryeri-Alaca is an assistant professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.
The exhibition will feature mixed media on paper, combining traditional techniques, such as Turkish marbleizing, with printmaking processes.
The exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information visit University Museums.
Faculty
Professors’ column wins Templeton award
Two Richmond professors, Dr. Jonathan Wight and Dr. Douglas Hicks, won an award from the John Templeton Foundation for their opinion column “Disaster Relief: What Would Adam Smith Do?”
The commentary appeared in the Christian Science Monitor Jan. 18, 2005, and was reprinted with permission in the spring 2005 issue of Richmond Alumni Magazine.
Wight is associate professor of economics and international studies. Hicks is associate professor of leadership studies and religion. They shared a $10,000 prize for the column, which called for quick, selfless action in response to the Indian Ocean tsunami.
“Contrary to popular myth, Smith did not endorse selfish individualism,” they wrote. “Acting quickly to alleviate suffering is more fundamental than the market.”
Books
Epic Revisionism
Why did Joseph Stalin’s propaganda machine glorify figures from Russia’s past, such as Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible and Leo Tolstoy?
Dr. David Brandenberger, assistant professor of history, and co-editor Dr. Kevin M.F. Platt note that Ivan the Terrible was a particularly “problematic hero.” They offer the following sample of textbook editing to illustrate the point:
“Ivan grew up among despotic boyars, who insulted him and fostered all his character flaws. As a youth, Ivan would ride through Moscow on horseback, scaring and running down peaceful residents for amusement. He sentenced one of his closest boyars, Andrei Shuiskii, to be torn apart by dogs.”
The Russian spin doctors were trying to create a “myth of origins,” say Branden-berger and Platt, “to generate popular support and historical legitimacy for [Stalin’s] regime.”
More faculty books
First Amendment Law Handbook. Rodney Smolla (editor), law school dean, Thomson/West (2006). Articles and essays—written by prominent lawyers—cover a variety of First Amendment issues.
Disability Rights and the American Social Safety Net. Dr. Jennifer Erkulwater, assistant professor of political science. Cornell University Press (2006). Erkulwater analyzes the politics of disability benefit programs.
Honest Work: A Business Ethics Reader. Dr. Joanne Ciulla, professor of leadership studies, Dr. Clancy Martin and Dr. Robert Solomon. Oxford University Press (2007). Ciulla highlights ethical problems that students are likely to face.
Law of Lawyer Advertisting. Rodney Smolla, law school dean, Thomson/West (2006). Two volumes cover the ethical and constitutional issues governing lawyer advertising in all 50 states.
Meat Matters. Dr. Sydney Watts, assistant professor of history. University of Rochester Press (2006). Watts examines the interplay among butchers, politics and market culture in Paris before the French Revolution.
Mexico Is Missing and Other Stories. Dr. David Stevens, associate professor of English and creative writing. Ohio State University Press (2006). Stevens tells 23 short stories that are clever, sardonic and off the wall.
Quarantine. Brian Henry, associate professor of English and creative writing, (editor). Ahsahta Press (2006). Henry combines poetry and prose to portray an Englishman dying of the plague in 1665.
Reports of Cases in the Court of Exchequer in the Time of King Charles I. Dr. Hamilton Bryson, professor of law (editor). William S. Hein & Co. (2006). This book taps primary legal sources from the revenue court of England from 1625–48.
Passing the fitness test
Men’s Fitness magazine rates Richmond the 10th fittest college in the nation. The magazine’s second annual ranking of the 25 fittest colleges appeared in its October issue.
To find the fittest colleges, Men’s Fitness asks The Princeton Review to survey nearly 12,500 students from 115 colleges and universities. The rankings are based on responses to questions about diet, physical activity, sedentary time (other than studying), availability of fast food on campus, gym hours, access to nutritionists and how fit students consider people on campus.
Richmond ranks highest among Virginia universities, one notch ahead of the University of Virginia. Others making the grade include Roanoke College, Virginia Tech and the University of Mary Washington. Pennsylvania’s Dickinson College ranked No. 1.
The fittest schools offer a range of nutrition and exercise choices, rather than forcing students into a regimen, says Neal Boulton, editor-in-chief of Men’s Fitness.
Richmond is currently constructing the Weinstein Center for Recreation and Wellness, scheduled to open in January with a three-court gym, running track and state-of-the-art fitness center. Total cost of the new facility is $13.5 million.
“I have always believed we have outstanding and comprehensive recreation and wellness programs at the University of Richmond,” says Tom Roberts, director of recreation and wellness. “With the opening of the Weinstein Center, we will have even greater programs and facilities. The construction of this facility will communicate clearly that the University is as committed to students’ health and wellness as it is to their intellectual development.”
Events
UR events highlight Jamestown 2007
The University is hosting several events and programs to commemorate the founding of Jamestown 400 years ago. All are free and open to the public.
News of the Colonies. This art exhibition features prints, maps and European perceptions of the New World. It runs from Jan. 23–April 28 in the Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center on the second floor of the Modlin Center.
A Slave Ship Speaks. This historical display showcases the wreck of the Henrietta Marie from Feb. 3–May 18 in the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art on the first floor of the Modlin Center.
Rule of Law in Democracies. This conference will feature legal luminaries—including U.S. Supreme Court justices—from the United States and Great Britain. It will take place April 11–13 at the School of Law.
The Leadership of Discovery. Sponsored by the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, this conference will be held on campus in September 2007.
Staff
Bittner promoted to assistant VP
The University has promoted Molly Dean Bittner to assistant vice president for advancement. In this new position, she will supervise advancement services, including alumni and gift recordkeeping, donor prospect research, donor stewardship and special events.
Bittner joined the University in 1992 and has worked extensively on development projects with the Robins School of Business and with alumni and parents in Richmond and New York.
Campaign
Retired professor makes 75,000th gift
The Transforming Bright Minds campaign recently received its 75,000th contribution—a $25 unrestricted annual fund gift from Bill Jordan, a retired associate professor of health and sport science.
Jordan, R’53, taught physical education and coached track at the University from 1966–2001, and he currently serves on the board of the University of Richmond Alumni Association.
“I’m a little embarrassed that this gift was only $25,” Jordan says with a laugh. “I believe it is the first unrestricted gift I ever made to the University.” Over the years, Jordan has made several larger contributions to Spider Sports programs, particularly track and field.
“Richmond is truly fortunate to have so many donors at all levels supporting this campaign,” says Dave Johnson, vice president for advancement. Gifts have come from more than 27,000 individual donors, including 50 benefactors who have contributed $1 million or more. Attracting 50 $1 million donors was one of the campaign’s goals, and the University achieved it in October, more than 18 months ahead of schedule.
“The fact that the campaign already has attracted 50 donors at the million-dollar or more level demonstrates that these individuals and organizations deeply share the University’s vision for excellence,” Johnson says.
The latest million-dollar donors have supported a variety of programs, including scholarships, faculty research, academic programs, a new faculty chair, the Westhampton Center, Robins School of Business addition, School of Law addition and the proposed campus stadium.
As of mid-November, the campaign had raised more than $190 million. The overall goal is to reach $200 million by July 30, 2008.
