SHSU
Update For Week Of April 6
Program To Shed Light
On Mixed ‘Signals’
Presenters Ben Murrie and Courtney Abbott will take a comedic
look at the good, the bad and the ugly parts of relationships
during “Sex Signals” on Wednesday (April 9).
The “semi-interactive, entertaining and informative”
presentation will be held at 7 p.m. in the Smith-Hutson Building’s
Mafrige Auditorium, according to Beth Charrier, counseling
psychologist for SHSU’s Counseling Center.
“Sex Signals” provides a provocative, in-your-face
look at issues surrounding dating and sex on college campuses.
Through the use of humor, the show explores how mixed messages,
gender role stereotypes and unrealistic fantasies contribute
to misunderstandings between the sexes, according to Charrier.
“It is a fun, entertaining way to get people to think
about how we interact with one another around dating and sexual
situations, how the stereotypes and assumptions we make about
one another affect how we proceed in those kinds of situations,
and how sometimes that makes dating/sex more complicated or
difficult than need be,” she said.
“I hope students leave with a greater sense of their
own personal experiences and perhaps how these same biases
have informed and perhaps impaired their own interactions
and start to use that to change to be more safe and respectful
of one another.”
“Sex Signals” is sponsored by the SHSU Counseling
Center, Student Activities department and psychology graduate
student Beth Caillouet.
For more information, call 936.294.1720.
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Conference To Facilitate
International Trade Discussion
Professors and economists from both North and South America
will converge on the SHSU campus to discuss the Central American
Free Trade Agreement and trade with Latin America during the
College of Business Adminstration’s Conference on Regional
Trade Agreements, Migration, and Remittances.
Organized by the economics and international business department
in collaboration with the Gibson D. Lewis Center for Business
Research and Economic Development, the conference will be
held Saturday and Sunday (April 12-13) in the Smith-Hutson
Business Building.
“Regional trade agreements, migration, and remittances
are issues that have acquired new meaning and relevance for
both developed and developing countries under the current
wave of globalization,” said Hiranya Nath, associate
economics professor and conference coordinator.
“Because of our geographic proximity to the Latin American
countries, it is important that we understand these issues
not only from the perspective of the U.S. economy but also
from the perspective of the economies of our neighboring countries,”
he said.
The event will include a keynote speech by Mauricio Cárdenas,
executive director of Fedesarrollo—an independent policy-oriented
research center in Bogotá, Colombia—who served
as Colombia’s minister of economic development and minister
of transportation in the 1990s and was named one the “Leaders
of the New Millennium” by CNN/Time Magazine in 1999.
Other conference highlights include invited lectures by Pia
Orrenius of Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Susan Pozo of
Western Michigan University, and Kamal Saggi of Southern Methodist
University, who have extensive research and policy experience;
a panel discussion by the Consul Generals of Mexico, Costa
Rica and Colombia; and presentations from researchers from
around the U.S. and from several foreign countries.
The conference is open to SHSU students and faculty and staff
members.
While there is no cost to attend the event, attendees are
asked to register by Monday (April 7).
For more information, or to register, visit http://www.shsu.edu/~eco_www/resources/conference08.htm
or contact Nath at eco_hkn@shsu.edu
or 936.294.4760.
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Cooper To Give ‘Personal’
Lecture
Tab Cooper, general business lecturer, will discuss his
life experiences and some of the things he wishes he had learned
earlier in life that would have helped with his success on
Wednesday (April 9) as part of the Student Advising and Mentoring
Center’s “Up Close and Personal” speaker
series.
"Designed to help our students and university community
build mentoring relationships with our outstanding faculty,"
the 30-minute lunchtime presentation will be held at noon
at the Farrington Pit, according to Bernice Strauss, director
of academic support programs for the SAM Center.
A police officer in Texas for 20 years, 12 of which he spent
with SHSU’s University Police Department, Cooper also
worked as a training coordinator with the university’s
Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas and facilitated
the first police chief in-service training of its kind in
the nation.
He became a faculty member in the College of Business Administration
in 2006 and has taught classes in business communication,
communication technology, business principles in an international
environment and principles of management.
He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees
from SHSU, in criminal justice and business, respectively.
Cooper said he wants to use the lessons he’s learned
throughout his career in the lecture to emphasize things that
could be useful that students may not think about before they
graduate.
For more information, contact Strauss at 936.294.4455 or sam_bss@shsu.edu.
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Piney Woods Lecturer To Address
Meaty Topic
Christine Stevens, professor of mathematics at Saint Louis
University, will discuss the math behind cutting a ham sandwich
on Monday (April 7).
“Ham Sandwiches and Hairy Coconuts—An Algebraic
Topologist’s Feast,” part of the Piney Woods Lecture
Series, will be held from 2-3 p.m. in the Lee Drain Building
Room 214.
Using the “Ham Sandwich Theorem,” Stevens will
explain why different factors (asymmetrical bread, unevenly
cut ham) can still result in a sandwich having exactly half
of the ham and each slice of bread, as well as some concepts
from the branch of mathematics called topology.
A graduate of both Smith College and Harvard University, Stevens
teaches everything from pre-calculus through advanced graduate
courses in topology at Saint Louis Univeristy.
In addition, she has worked for Congress and the National
Science Foundation and is the director of Project NExT (New
Experiences in Teaching), a professional development program
that has thus far helped over 1000 new mathematics faculty
to launch their careers.
Following the lecture, a reception will be held on the fourth
floor of the LDB that will give students the opportunity to
meet and talk with Stevens.
The Piney Woods Lecture Series is funded by the Mathematical
Association of America, the Tensor Foundation, the SHSU department
of mathematics and statistics, and the College of Arts and
Sciences.
The series is designed to “invite well-known female
mathematicians to the SHSU campus to speak, and therefore
provides SHSU graduate and undergraduate students exposure
to well-known female mathematicians in a variety of research
areas,” according to Jacqueline Jensen, assistant professor
of mathematics.
For more information, call the mathematics
and statistics department at 936.294.1563 or
visit http://www.shsu.edu/~mth_jaj/pwls/.
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Festival To Showcase
International Cultures
The International Student Organization will introduce the
Bearkat and Huntsville communities to approximately 18 of
the different cultures represented on the SHSU campus during
its second annual International Festival on Sunday (April
13).
The event will be held from 1-6 p.m. in the Lowman Student
Center Ballroom.
More than 300 international students from 18 different countries
will be participating in the festival, which will include
a fashion show, cultural dances and demonstrations using videos,
as well as foods, beverages and games.
“The purpose of the festival is to internationalize
our campus and give the international students an opportunity
to share their cultures with their domestic counterparts and
to bring awareness of the number of countries represented
on our campus,” said Kanako Matsumura, festival marketing
coordinator.
“Also we would like this festival to be a place where
people from different background can interact each other and
their cultures without leaving the U.S.,” she said.
The International Festival is open to all students, faculty
and staff, as well as the Huntsville community.
For more information, call Matsumura
at 936.662.6490.
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Rec Sports To Go All In For
Poker Walk
All bets are on as SHSU students, faculty and staff walk
across campus and stop by four department booths for the annual
Poker Walk on Wednesday (April 9), hosted by the Department
of Recreational Sports.
Participants will be ‘dealt’ in from 11 a.m. to
1 p.m. in the Lowman Student Center Mall Area.
After stops at the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Initiative, Counseling
Center, Student Activities, and the Office of the Vice President
of Student Services booths, participants will return to the
beginning, where their hands will be revealed.
Prizes will be awarded for the best hand, the “High
Roller Challenge” and the “Maverick Award.”
In addition, prizes such as T-shirts, poker necklaces and
goodie bags will be raffled off.
For more information, call Stacy
Hazenberg at 936.294.1985.
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Legal Services To Give Students
‘A Night To Remember’
From party to conviction, the SHSU Students’ Legal
Services office is hoping to give participants a night they
won’t soon forget with a DWI educational seminar on
Tuesday (April 8).
“A Night to Remember” will be held at 6 p.m. in
the Lowman Student Center Theater.
The event will feature a 35-minute film produced by the Texas
Department of Public Safety and the Hays County Courts that
details the accounts of a student's experience from party
to arrest to jail to trial and finally conviction, driving
viewers down the avenue of a DWI to see the aftermath.
The event will also include a question and answer session
with a panel consisting of a criminal defense attorney, a
police officer and the SHSU dean of students.
Following the seminar, free pizza, drinks, T-shirts, and games
will be provided in the Kat Klub for attendees.
For more information, call Students’
Legal Services at 936.294.1717.
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Film To Max Out Topic Of Debt
The American Democracy Project will show “the movie
you can’t afford to miss” with its presentation
of “Maxed Out” on Saturday (April 12).
The 2006 documentary, part of the “Burning Issues Film
Series,” will be shown at 7 p.m. at the Katy and E.
Don Walker, Sr., Education Center.
“Maxed Out” looks at “an increasingly important
issue in American society and for college students: consumer
debt,” according to John Newbold, ADP film series coordinator.
Taking on America's debt crisis, author/director James D.
Scurlock touches on related issues like race, corporate malfeasance
and political subterfuge in a multi-media approach that incorporates
statistics, news excerpts, and interviews, but “it's
rarely dull,” said Kathleen C. Fennessy in an Amazon.com
review.
“For some viewers, this will be a dispiriting documentary—three
subjects recount the suicides of relatives who found their
debt too much to bear—but in explaining exactly how
lenders and creditors make money, ‘Maxed Out’
can help others to avoid some of their most egregious practices,”
she said. “In other words, debt may be a downer, but
knowledge is power.”
"Maxed Out" will also be shown at 3:30 p.m. on April
15-16 in the Lowman Student Center Theater.
All three "Burning Issues" showings are free and
open to both the SHSU and Huntsville communities.
Each showing will be followed by a brief reception with punch
and cookies and a discussion.
"The purpose of the 'ADP Burning Issues Film series'
is to contribute to the academic and cultural life here at
SHSU by bringing in films that address or relate to critical
issues facing the world today," Newbold said.
For more information, contact Newbold
at 936.294.1274.
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Lions Club Roars Into Existence
At SHSU
 |
| Thirty-five SHSU students became charter
members of the new on-campus chapter of the Lions Club,
a world-wide service organization, on March 29. |
Sam Houston State University recently became the first university
in the Houston district to form a chapter of Lions Club International,
an organization dedicated to answering “the needs that
challenge communities around the world.”
Thirty-five SHSU students officially became members of the
campus chapter on March 29 during charter night.
The service organization will serve the SHSU community, participating
in such events as American Cancer Society’s Relay for
Life and the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk,
both held annually on campus, as well as in the community
with such entities as the Good Shepherd Mission, and will
also work with the Huntsville chapter for special programs,
according to group adviser Charles McDowell.
After the organization was approached by Helen Keller in 1925
to serve as “Knights of the Blind,” the Lions
Club adopted “eye sight” as their main philanthropy.
SHSU’s chapter will do its part as “knights”
by collecting eyeglasses and working with Huntsville’s
school nurses to help provide eye examinations and glasses
for the underprivileged, McDowell said.
Membership into the Lions Club is “by invitation,”
but students interested in becoming a part of the group can
attend meetings, which are held on Thursdays in the Lowman
Student Center, and functions and then request an invitation.
For more information on meetings or SHSU Lions Club activities,
contact chapter president Kayla Hughes at kch003@shsu.edu
or membership Elizabeth Reagan at ear004@shsu.edu.
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Equinox Springs New Planetarium
Tour
With the Vernal Equinox officially bringing in Spring on
March 20, the physics department will also switch gears from
its Winter series with a tour of the “Spring Skies and
Hubble Vision” on Friday (April 11).
The planetarium series program, which shows attendees which
constellations, stars and planets they can expect to see in
the upcoming weeks, will be held at 7 p.m. in the planetarium,
located in Farrington Building Room F102.
These constellations include Gemini, Cancer, and "what
I call 'galaxy country' with the constellations of Virgo,
Coma Bernices, Leo and Ursa Major," said Michael Prokosch,
staff aid for the physics department.
The program will also explore “all things Hubble,”
from its launch, discoveries, and famous images taken, such
as the Hubble Deep Field, Hubble Ultra Deep Field, the Pillars
of Creation and more with “Hubble Vision,” according
to Prokosch.
“The Hubble Space Telescope is expected to receive
a final service mission from the space shuttle in summer of
2008 to extend its life well into the next decade,”
he said. “Space will never again look the same.”
The planetarium seats up to 29 visitors and includes a dome
that is approximately 18 feet in diameter and more than 20
feet high in the center.
“Essentially a time machine, the planetarium's projector
can show how the night sky appears to an observer at any point
in time from any place on the earth, from 100,000 years in
the past, to 100,000 years into the future,” he said.
The program will last approximately one hour, and admission
is free.
Other show dates for the semester include April 25, May 9
and May 23.
For more information on current show times for the
planetarium or the observatory, call 936.294.3664
or e-mail Prokosch at vis_mwp@shsu.edu.
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Juried Show To Feature
Best Of Art Department
The SHSU art department will open its studio doors to the
public as art students compete for scholarships and awards
during the 9th Annual Juried Student Show beginning Monday
(April 7).
The exhibit will be held in the Gaddis Geeslin Gallery, located
in Art Building F, through May 1.
The juried show features the creativity of the art and photography
students whose works, including drawings, paintings, printmaking,
ceramics, sculptures and animation, were judged and selected
to be a part of the exhibit, according to art department audio/visual
librarian Debbie Davenport.
This year’s guest judge is Kirk Demarais, an animated
e-cards creator for Dayspring, a subsidiary of Hallmark, and
the author of "Life of the Party," a pictorial history
book of the world's oldest prank and magic company S.S. Adams,
for whom he also designs.
A reception and awards ceremony will be held on April 24,
from 5-7 p.m. to announce the recipients of the numerous art
scholarships, endowments and the winners of the Juried Student
Exhibit.
“During the reception, the art department will open
the doors to the art studios,” Davenport said. “Guest
are invited to walk about the classrooms and hallways and
view student artwork.”
For more information, contact the art
department at 936.294.1317.
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Agriculture Students Selected For
National Offices
SHSU students Amy Wilson and Jessica Pittman were recently
elected national president and national secretary, respectively,
of Delta Tau Alpha, a national agricultural honor society.
Wilson, a junior horticulture and crop science major from
Centerville, and Pittman, a junior general agriculture major
from Colmesneil, were elected by delegates during the 49th
national convention at Fort Hays State University in Hays,
Kansas.
Both are members of the SHSU chapter, which is the DTA’s
largest with approximately 90 members.
“Amy and Jessica will work on securing new chapters
and improving the national organization,” said Dwayne
Pavelock, SHSU chapter DTA adviser. “Members currently
receive several benefits for being accepted into the society,
but the national officers know that so much more if possible.”
The primary purposes of DTA include the “promotion and
recognition of high standards of scholarship, leadership,
and character among agricultural students,” Pavelock
said.
Membership in the organization is by invitation only and is
given primarily to agriculture majors who rank in the top
30 percent of their university class.
In addition to the officer elections, Jordan Kiker, a senior
agricultural mechanization major from Winnie, completed his
term as national southern region vice president. Kara Saha,
a junior general agricultural major from Bay City, served
as the chapter’s delegate.
Members also participated in business sessions, tours and
the agricultural Knowledge Bowl.
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Send Update Items Here
Information for the SHSU Update can be sent to the Office
of Public Relations electronically at Today@Sam.edu
or to any of the media contacts listed below.
Please include the date, location and time of the event,
as well as a brief description and a contact person.
All information for news stories should be sent to the office
at least a week in advance to give the PR staff ample time
to make necessary contacts and write the story.
For electronic access to SHSU news see the Public Relations
Web page Today@Sam.
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- END -
SHSU Media Contacts: Frank
Krystyniak, Julia May,
Jennifer Gauntt
April 4, 2008
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu
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