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SHSU Update For Week Of March 25
- Beto Chair Speaker To Discuss Self-Regulatory Policing
- U.S. Marshals To Discuss Career Opportunities
- Concerts To Showcase Wind, Houston Ensembles
- Film To Recount Postwar Friendship For Spanish Series
- Theatre To Share Writer’s ‘Girls’
- ‘Reflections’ Concert To Express ROYGBIV Spectrum
- College To Take Teachers Abroad For Field Experience
- ‘Excellent’ Staff Member Nominations Sought
- SHSU Students Dissect Careers In Forensics
- Submit Update Items Here
Beto Chair Speaker To Discuss Self-Regulatory Policing
Tom Tyler, a leading expert on the social psychology of law and advocate for procedural justice, will present the Beto Chair Lecture on “Legitimacy and policing: The benefits of self-regulation” on Thursday (March 29), at 9:30 a.m. in the Criminal Justice Center’s Kerper Courtroom.
Tyler, a senior research scholar and professor of law at Yale Law School, will focus on his position of advocacy for the value of a self-regulatory approach to law and criminal justice.
He argues that the way the police exercise authority and the procedures that they use are central to how people react to the police.
“If the police are perceived to be legitimate, the public will willingly and voluntarily cooperate with them,” Tyler said.
In his research on profiling and community policing, Tyler found that citizens of all races show greater respect for law enforcement when they believe officers are treating them fairly.
“Even citizens who experienced a negative outcome, such as getting a traffic ticket, showed higher levels of respect for and cooperation with law enforcement as long as they believed they were not being singled out unfairly,” he said.
Prior to joining Yale Law School, Tyler taught at New York University, the University of California, Berkeley, and at Northwestern University. While at Berkeley, Tyler corresponded with Unabomber Ted Kaczynski in a series of open letters in the San Francisco Chronicle in a debate over the serial terrorist’s contention that technology should be dismantled in the society.
In addition to his work with policing and the criminal justice system, Tyler’s research focuses on social justice; organizational/social psychology; and the psychology of authority.
Among his many publications are the books Why People Cooperate (2011), Psychology and the Design of Legal Institutions (2007), Why People Obey the Law (2006), and Trust in the Law: Encouraging Public Cooperation with the Police and Courts (2002). He was awarded the Kalvin prize for “paradigm shifting scholarship in the study of law and society” by the Law and Society Association in 2000.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Columbia and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles.
U.S. Marshals To Discuss Career Opportunities
Deputy U.S. Marshal and SHSU alumna Natalie Garza will share tips on how to get a job with the federal agency during the College of Criminal Justice’s Real Talk w/CJ on Thursday (March 29) at 3 p.m. in CJava Cafe.
Garza, a recruitment officer for the U.S. Marshals Service Southern District of Texas in Houston who received her bachelor's degree from SHSU in 2007, started her career with the U.S. Marshals Service through a cooperative education program offered through the College of Criminal Justice.
Upon completion of the co-op and graduation, she was offered a position at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center to pursue a job as a deputy U.S. Marshal. After completing basic training, Garza became a deputy and was assigned to her first duty station in McAllen.
"Sam Houston State University is one of three schools in the Houston area to offer the co-op program, a paid internship that offers insight to the duties of a deputy U.S. Marshal," Garza said.
She and some of her fellow agents will return to SHSU to talk about the agency and the U.S. Marshals Service Centralized Student Career Experience Program, a 16-week work-study program open to college students pursuing degrees in criminal justice, political science, psychology, public administration, sociology or social sciences.
The U.S. Marshals Service performs a variety of tasks, including apprehending federal fugitives, protecting the federal judiciary, shielding the Witness Security Program, transporting federal prisoners and seizing property acquired through illegal activities.
"Any arrests made by a federal agency become our prisoners," said Garza. "We are the only agency that is in charge of the safe keeping and housing of federal prisoners."
The agency also handles federal fugitive investigations, apprehensions and extraditions, a task that often takes deputies out of the county. The marshals apprehend more federal fugitives than any other law enforcement agencies combined, including 36,100 in fiscal year 2010 alone.
"Media and TV show have now titled us 'Manhunters' which is just a Hollywood name for fugitive apprehensions," Garza said. "It’s our job—they run and our agency doesn’t stop looking for them until they’re found."
Concerts To Showcase Wind, Houston Ensembles
The SHSU School of Music will preview a program that will be performed for a national association and highlight a former Houston Symphony clarinetist during two concerts beginning Monday (March 26).
The Wind Ensemble College Band Directors National Association Convention preview will begin at 7:30 p.m. on that day in the Gaertner Performing Arts Center Recital Hall.
“The music selections are all contemporary pieces written in the 20th or 21st centuries,” said Rachel Denson, graduate conducting associate.
“The Wind Ensemble will be playing ‘Tenfold’ by Higdon; ‘Variations on a Tango’ by SHSU faculty member Kyle Kindred; ‘Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2’ by Scriabin/transcribed by Reed; ‘L'isle joyeuse’ by Debussy/transcribed by Mashima to be conducted by associate director of bands Brian Gibbs; ‘Concerto for Alto Saxophone’ by Husa, featuring interim chair of the School of Music Scott Plugge on saxophone; and ‘Snake Alley’ by Dzubay.”
Tickets are $17 for adults, $5 for students with their SamID, and $5 for children.
On Tuesday (March 27), Richard Nunemaker, a former clarinetist and bass clarinetist with the Houston Symphony, will be on campus to give a master class and perform in a recital.
The master class will begin at 3 p.m. in Music Building Room 219 and will feature SHSU clarinet students Kristine Roberts, Scott Byers and a clarinet quartet, including Stefan Murat, Bethany Lee, Hannah Colvin and Cori Reebenacker.
That evening, the Houston Clarinet Ensemble will perform a wide variety of clarinet quartet literature beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the Gaertner Performing Arts Center Recital Hall, according to Patricia Card, professor of clarinet.
The ensemble, which will be touring universities across the state, will premier two pieces during the concert, including Robert Nelson’s recently revised “Clarinet Quartet” and Reynaldo Ochoa’s “El Mirador.”
The Houston Clarinet Ensemble includes Nunemaker, Timothy Bonenfant, Nancy Angerstein and Michael Perricone.
For more information, call the School of Music at 936.294.1360.
Film To Recount Postwar Friendship For Spanish Series
The Newton Gresham Library and the foreign languages department will present its third film in the Spring Spanish Film Series, “Se te dicen que cai,” on Tuesday (March 27).
The presentation will begin at 3:30 p.m. in NGL Room 155.
Based on the book by Juan Marsé, “Se te dicen que cai” shares the story of a medical examiner who recounts the adventures he and an old friend shared in the 1940s postwar Barcelona when, in 1970, he performs an autopsy of his friend who was killed in an accident.
The two-hour drama/mystery, released in 1989, stars Victoria Abril, Jorge Sanz and Antonio Banderas. Its dialogue is in both Spanish and Catalan.
The NGL’s Spanish Film Series was planned as a result of a new service launched by the America Reads Spanish program and the American Library Association called the Dias de Cine Reading Club, which provides registered libraries with free online access to Spanish films based on Spanish literature, according to Erin Cassidy, assistant professor and web services librarian.
“My primary goal is to offer students, as well as faculty and staff, a chance to experience a different cultural perspective in an engaging way, through movies,” she said. “I also want to promote an interest in the Spanish literature collection here at the library, so suggested reading lists will be available at each film.”
The remaining films scheduled to be presented include “Nos miran,” on April 17, and “Amar y morir en Sevilla, or Don Juan Tenorio,” on May 8.
For more information, contact Cassidy at ecassidy@shsu.edu or 936.294.4567.
Theatre To Share Writer’s ‘Girls’
The Sam Houston State University Department of Theatre and Dance will present the story of a blossoming writer who gets cold feet and begins calling old girlfriends when it presents Neil LaBute’s “Some Girls,” Wednesday through Saturday (March 28-31).
Show times are at 8 p.m. each evening, with a 2 p.m. Saturday matinee, in the University Theatre Center’s Showcase Theatre.
“Some Girls” reveals the “natural reaction” of a young writer with a blossoming career and a beautiful, young fiancée who is waiting to get married and rush off to Cancun by his side—that is, to get nervous and start calling up old girlfriends, according LaBute.
“And so begins a single man's odyssey through four hotel rooms, as he flies across the country in search of the perfect woman—whom he's already broken up with,” the play description from the Broadway Play Publishing, Inc., says. “This by turns outrageously funny and deadly serious portrait of the artist as a young seducer casts a truthful, hilarious light on a typical young American male as he wanders through the heart of darkness that is himself.”
Tickets are $12.
For more information, call the University Theatre Center Box Office at 936.294.1339.
‘Reflections’ Concert To Express ROYGBIV Spectrum
SHSU Master of Fine Arts degree candidates will present a “reflection” of vibrant student-choreographed performances during a graduate student concert Thursday and Friday (March 29-30).
The works for “ROYGBIV: Reflections” will begin at 8 p.m. on both days in the Gaertner Performing Arts Center Dance Theater.
“The works presented will encompass many varied forms from modern to pop jazz to tap to aerial silks and are offered with an attitude alternating between parody and satire, delicacy, strength, and honesty through beauty,” said Amy Wright, dance graduate teaching assistant. “The concert is meant as a true representation of the kind of artistic ingenuity and diversity that the students are committed to.”
Ideas addressed through “ROYGBIV,” the name adopted for the graduate student concert, will include the relentless pursuit of the American dream; the feminist politics of body subjectivity, objectivity, and power; the bonds of sharing, giving, and losing in a relationship; the finality of death from the loving perspective of those left behind and the limbo of those who have passed; and the campy stereotypes in modern superhero culture, according to Wright.
Tickets are $8 and can be purchased through the GPAC Box Office at 936.294.2339.
For more information, call the dance program at 936.294.1875.
College To Take Teachers Abroad For Field Experience
Future teachers will have another opportunity to gain field experience in a Spanish primary school during the Sam Houston State University curriculum and instruction department’s second study abroad program in Spain.
Undergraduate students will have the opportunity to take CIEE 3374 and CIMEE 3375, the “Human Growth and Learning” courses for both the early years and for the middle school child, for six hours of credit in Valencia, during the first summer session, May 16 through June 21. Graduate courses will also be available.
“Living, learning, and attempting to communicate in a foreign environment will give you the first-hand experience to better understand and empathize with the diverse learners in your future classrooms,” said Karla Eidson, assistant professor of education. “Research proves that the most effective teacher education programs with regard to promoting cross-cultural literacy are those that actually immerse pre-service teachers in other cultures in other nations for teacher internships.
“Both of these courses are centered around the concept of preparing pre-service teachers to work with children of diverse language and cultural backgrounds,” she said. “These courses are applicable to all early childhood pre-service teachers and to all pre-service teachers in the middle grades, providing an international option to a majority of SHSU curriculum and instruction undergraduates.”
The cost of the trip is expected to be approximately $3,300, plus tuition and airfare.
The cost includes the stay in the Galileo Galilei Student Dormitories; weekly cleaning, including bed and bathroom linens; breakfast, lunch and diner meal plans; all transportation costs, including field experience school site visits; and student excursions, including a layover day in Paris where students will be able to tour the famous city and go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower before continuing on to Valencia.
Other planned excursions include trips to Barcelona and Morella and a five-day field trip to Madrid.
For more information, contact Eidson at kwe002@shsu.edu.
‘Excellent’ Staff Member Nominations Sought
Nominations for the Staff Excellence Award and Recognition of Service Program are due by April 13.
The annual Staff Excellence Awards will honor four employees “who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in service,” including two exempt and two non-exempt staff employees, according to the nomination form. Non-exempt employees are those subject to overtime pay.
Recipients must be full-time, non-temporary staff members with a minimum of two years service at time of nomination; show meritorious performance; excel in his or her job; demonstrate outstanding abilities, innovative ideas, efficient operations, high level of motivation; and be respected by the university community.
Previous recipients are not eligible. A list of previous recipients can be found online at http://www.shsu.edu/~hrd_www/excellence/past.html.
Winners receive a financial stipend.
Any full-time SHSU faculty or staff member can nominate, and faculty and staff may nominate more than one person. Selections are made by the university’s eight-member staff excellence committee.
For more information, or to nominate, visit http://www.shsu.edu/~hrd_www/excellence/.
SHSU Students Dissect Careers In Forensics
CSI Texas came to Huntsville on March 6 with real-life presentations on crime scene investigations in Montgomery County and the diverse forensic laboratories offered by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“CSI proves that a crime has been committed, establishes key elements of the crime, links the suspect with the scene, establishes the identity of the victim and supports or refutes witnesses testimony,” said Celestina Rossi, Montgomery County senior crime scene investigator. “CSI is like a puzzle, and you’re putting all the pieces together.”
The DPS Crime Laboratories provide a variety of services to law enforcement agencies in the investigation of crimes. With 13 locations, the lab is nationally known for its abilities in forensic science, including biological evidence/DNA, drug testing, blood alcohol levels, firearms and tool marks, toxicology, latent fingerprints, questioned documents and digital/multimedia.
“You need several different sciences to get into this field,” said Jennifer Pollock, a DNA specialist as DPS in Houston. “We have to keep up with the new technology and techniques and be able to explain it to a jury.”
The DPS lab used DNA evidence to link a suspect to the murder of a prostitute in a large scene littered with beer cans, condoms and a mattress as well as in the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. Her co-worker also used DNA to exonerate Michael Anthony Green, who spent 27 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit.
“Some cases take days and some cases take years to complete,” Pollock said. “Sometimes you never know what happened in that case you worked on.”
The representatives presented on careers in forensic science during Criminal Justice Career Week at Sam Houston State University.
Before committing to a CSI career, Rossi urged students to consider the working conditions. Crime scene investigators are often called out in the middle of the night and work long hours. They are called to scenes both indoors and out in the heat of the summer. Many of the victims and the scenes are bloody and gory, and they sometimes have to face child victims.
“Your goal is to find as much evidence as possible to put someone in jail beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Rossi. “You have to deal with scenes, and it’s hot 10 months a year here. There is never a ‘right’ time—you are often called out at 2 a.m. There is a lot you don’t want to deal with.”
Submit Update Items Here
In order to assist members of the Sam Houston State University community in publicizing events, the SHSU Communications Office (Today@Sam) is now requesting that students, faculty and staff submit information about events, accomplishments or ideas for feature stories online.
Submission criteria and guidelines, including deadlines, have now been placed online, at /guidelines.html. This information is also accessible through the “Submissions” link in the right-hand navigation on Today@Sam.
From there, those submitting ideas can access forms that will allow them to provide detailed information about their idea, as well as attach event calendars, vitas/resumes or photos, depending on the type of submission.
Ideas submitted to the SHSU Communications Office are directly utilized in several ways: as news stories, “slider” or SHSU home page stories, hometown releases, and on the Today@Sam calendar.
If your submission qualifies for distribution, we will either contact you for more detailed information, or we will edit the information using SHSU/journalistic style and forward the final release to the appropriate media.
All information is verified before release, so please provide complete, accurate and timely information. Please type all responses in appropriate upper and lower cases.
For more information, contact the Communications Office at 936.294.1836 or today@sam.edu.
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SHSU Media Contacts: Julia May, Jennifer Gauntt
March 22, 2012
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu
This page maintained by SHSU's Communications Office
Associate Director: Julia May
Manager: Jennifer Gauntt
Located in the 115 Administration Building
Telephone: 936.294.1836; Fax: 936.294.1834
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu.
