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SHSU Update For Week Of March 31
- Center To ‘Ignite’ The Community For Cause
- Seminar To Examine Psychological ‘Journeys’
- Multi-Media Artist To Discuss, Judge Works
- Faculty Musicians To Jumpstart Week Of Music
- Legendary Saxophonist To Perform At Jazz Festival
- Exhibit Turns Trash To Treasure
- Student Group To ‘Walk’ For Multiple Causes
- Oliver ‘Makes’ History For Criminal Justice Academy
- Students Shine At Forensic Science Conference
- Submit Update Items Here
Center To ‘Ignite’ The Community For Cause
The SHSU Counseling Center will bring together members of the Bearkat and Huntsville communities to “ignite the night” in awareness of sexual assault and domestic violence on April 10.
The second annual Ignite the Night program will include a rally beginning at 6 p.m. behind the Lone Star Residence Hall, during which the work from art and poetry contest winners will be presented, along with speakers, performers, and tables with items for sale to benefit the SAAFE House and will culminate with a march downtown to the Walker County Courthouse.
Once at the courthouse, another short rally will be held including speakers, and the event is expected to be finished by 8 p.m.
“The Ignite the Night event is to promote awareness about and honor survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence on campus and in the broader Huntsville community,” said Maryam Ilahi, counseling center psychologist.
“Statistics indicate that someone is sexually assaulted in the United States every two minutes; and yet, sexual assault is one of the most under-reported crimes,” she said. “Therefore, our goal in hosting this event is to give a voice to all of those that have been impacted in some way by sexual assault and domestic violence.”
Ignite the Night is being held in conjunction with several university and community organizations.
For more information, contact Ilahi at 936.294.1720.
Seminar To Examine Psychological ‘Journeys’
Rowland Miller, psychology professor at SHSU, will share with students “The Perils of Self-Deception” on Tuesday (April 2), beginning at 5 p.m. in the Smith-Hutson Building's Haney Auditorium, Room 186.
The Honors 3332 Journeys Seminar will highlight how, while confidence is good, overconfidence can be dangerous, and will focus on how students should value intellectual humility.
“Despite our remarkable abilities to reason and plan, there are influential glitches in the way people think,” Miller said. “We don't process information in an evenhanded manner, and we're way too sure of ourselves. We worry needlessly, and we're more gullible than we think.
“I have found over the years that acknowledging and understanding these glitches can be humbling, but it can also make us more tolerant, more reasonable and more accurate in our judgments of ourselves and others,” he said.
An “East Coast guy” before moving to Texas, Miller earned his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Florida.
He has been teaching at SHSU since 1990.
Miller is broadly interested in the manner in which partners in close relationships maintain their satisfaction with and commitment to each other.
He is the author of three books, including the textbook Intimate Relationships.
He is also a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and a winner of the Edwin Newman Award for “Excellence in Research” from Psi Chi and the American Psychological Association, as well as the International Association for Relationship Research’s teaching award.
Miller’s lecture, sponsored by the Elliott T. Bowers Honors College, is part of a class designed to show students what characteristics lead to success.
It is open to the public.
For more information, contact instructor Patrick Lewis at 936.294.3397.
Multi-Media Artist To Discuss, Judge Works
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| Dario Robleto (above) will be the guest juror for the art department's 14th annual Juried Student Exhibition. (Below) Robleto's work, "The Southern Diarists Society," created from pulp made from brides’ letters to soldiers from various wars, ink retrieved from letters, cotton; colored paper, fabric and thread from soldiers’ uniforms from various wars; hair flowers braided by war widows; mourning dress fabric, silk, ribbon, lace, cartes de visite, antique buttons; excavated shrapnel and melted bullet lead from various battlefields. —Submitted photos |
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Artist Dario Robleto will explore the possibility of continuous love and memory over the vast reaches of time and space, as detailed in his multi-media works, on Thursday (April 4).
Robleto, who will visit campus as a lecturer and to select student works for the art department’s 14th annual Juried Student Exhibition, will share his thoughts on “The Boundary of Life is Quietly Crossed" beginning at 5 p.m. in Art Building E Room 108.
The San Antonio native will share stories, along with a selection from his collection of sounds and images, “to reveal some of the deepest influences behind his art making and his approach as an artist as researcher, archivist and storyteller,” said Annie Strader, assistant professor of art.
As a recent fellow at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., Robleto will use as a key example his research around the Voyager space probe launched in the ’70s.
The probe, which is approaching the edge of the Solar System, contains onboard the “Golden Record,” which has been called “the greatest DJ mixtape ever recorded,” according to Robleto.
In exploring the ethics of what the present will owe to the distant future, Robleto said that this Golden Record has become “a document of humanity’s story told through sound and image and is the ultimate test of how long our memory can survive.”
His presentation was originally commissioned by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts.
The lecture will be approximately one hour and 15 minutes long and will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
Robleto, who now works and lives in Houston, received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1997.
Since then, he has been exhibiting his work extensively at museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria, N.Y.; the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver; and the Aldrich Contemporary Arts Museum in Ridgefield, Conn.
In 2009 his work was featured on the cover of Yo La Tengo's album “Popular Songs.”
Among his accolades are the International Association of Art Critics Award in 2004 for best exhibition in a commercial gallery at the national level, the 2007 Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, a 2009 USA Rasmuson Fellowship, and a 2011 a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship.
The 14th Annual Juried Student Exhibition will be held April 8-18 in the Gaddis Geeslin Gallery. A closing reception and awards ceremony will be held on April 18, from 5–7 p.m.
For more information on the exhibit or juror lecture, contact Strader at srs033@shsu.edu or 936.294.1322.
Faculty Musicians To Jumpstart Week Of Music
The SHSU School of Music will highlight both its faculty and students with a series of concerts beginning on Monday (April 1).
The Horn Studio Recital will kick off three days of music on that day, with a concert of works from baroque to the 20th century presented by the student studying horn for their music degree.
The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Gaertner Performing Arts Center Recital Hall.
“It will be an enjoyable hour of beautiful horn music,” said Peggy DeMers, professor of horn.
On Tuesday (April 2), SHSU’s woodwind faculty will tune up the evening with a chamber group performance beginning at 2:30 p.m. in the GPAC Concert Hall.
The concert will feature works by 20th-century French composers Georges Auric and Jean Françaix and 20th-century Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff, performed by Kathy Daniel, flute; Patricia Card, clarinet; Megan Heuer, oboe; and Nathan Koch, bassoon.
“We're treating the program sort of like a French sandwich with a Czech dish (piece) in the middle,” said Koch, assistant professor of bassoon. “The music, though 20th century, is mostly tonal; the French 20th-century literature has a certain cute tongue-in-cheek character that is incredibly fun to play and to listen to.”
Finally, on Wednesday (April 3), SHSU’s brass faculty will play out the series with a recital beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the GPAC Recital Hall.
The concert will showcase faculty members at SHSU who teach applied lessons to students, performing works ranging from classical and romantic music of Victor Ewald, to baroque transcriptions of Bach, to 20th-century jazz, DeMers said.
Admission is free for all three performances.
For more information, call the School of Music at 936.294.1360.
Legendary Saxophonist To Perform At Jazz Festival
The School of Music’s 54th Annual SHSU Bill Watrous Jazz Festival will swing into Sam Houston State University, featuring special guests and legendary jazz musicians Bob Mintzer and Bill Watrous, on Friday and Saturday (April 5-6).
The competitive, educational event is geared toward promoting a culture of jazz and exposing the audience to live performances of this traditional American music.
The state’s oldest festival invites middle schools, high schools and community colleges to compete for prizes based on a judge’s assessment of their musicianship. In addition to the competition, after each band plays, they are awarded a clinician session with a particular judge.
In addition to the finale performance at 7:30 p.m. each night with Mintzer, Watrous and the SHSU Jazz Ensemble, Mintzer gives an hour-long clinic each day, which is free and open to the public.
Mintzer is known as a “triple-threat” musician, equally active in the areas of performance, composing/arranging, and music education.
While touring with the Yellowjackets or his own quartet, or big band, Mintzer writes music and is on the faculty of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
He has performed and recorded with a wide variety of artists, ranging from Tito Puente, Buddy Rich, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band, James Taylor, The New York Philharmonic, Art Blakey, Donald Fagan, Bobby McFerrin, Nancy Wilson, Kurt Elling, to Jaco Pastorius, Mike Manieri and Randy Brecker.
Watrous, a renowned jazz trombonist, has recorded with jazz luminaries such as Quincy Jones, Maynard Ferguson, Johnny Richards and Woody Herman, to name a few. He also played in the television band for Merv Griffin’s show from 1965-1968.
He has continued to work actively since the 1980s as a bandleader, studio musician and performer at various jazz clubs and is currently is on faculty at the University of Southern California.
He has recorded two albums and a DVD with the SHSU Jazz Ensemble.
Performances by both guest artists will be on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Gaertner Performing Arts Center.
Tickets are $15 adults, $12 seniors and $5 for SHSU students.
For more information, to make reservations or to purchase tickets, call the GPAC Box Office at 936.294.2339.
Exhibit Turns Trash To Treasure
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“Not Lost But Found,” featuring the works of senior studio art major Jennifer Ellison and senior photography major Elizabeth Gonzalez, will be on display in the art department’s SOFA Gallery beginning Monday (April 1).
The exhibit will include photographs and mixed-media paintings influenced and created by objects that are otherwise considered junk, discarded or outdated, according to Ellison.
“These objects each have a story or once had a purpose” and now serve as “fuel” for the artists’ minds, she said.
Gonzalez’s works are of a photographic nature, documenting what she witnesses at pawnshops and garage sales.
“She focuses on the story of the item, the person who pawned it, and, later, whomever may purchase it,” Ellison said. “As she wades through hundreds or thousands of objects, she may encounter just a few that spark her curiosity enough to depress the camera shutter.”
Ellison’s works physically implement the found objects into the works themselves, gathering mechanical, scientific, or electrical objects and combining them with paintings and drawings of her own to build machines.
“Each machine is meant to address a subject that is currently unexplainable by means of logic or scientific method,” she said.
An opening reception will be held on April 1, at 6 p.m. in the SOFA Gallery, located in Art Building A. The exhibit will be on display through April 6.
Student Group To ‘Walk’ For Multiple Causes
Sam Houston State University’s Bearkat Crew will work to raise awareness of and funds for such causes as AIDS, suicide prevention, leukemia, Alzheimer’s and autism through a month-long effort that will culminate with their “Walk for a Cause” event on April 20.
Beginning April 3, Bearkat Crew, a 501 non-profit organization dedicated to community service, is asking the SHSU and Huntsville communities to wear a specific color each Wednesday in support of various causes.
For April 3, the crew will be donning red in support of AIDS awareness; April 10, yellow, for suicide prevention; April 17, green, for leukemia; April 24, white, for Alzheimer’s; and May 1, tie-dye, for autism.
“These colors can be worn any day of the week but the main day would be on Wednesdays because this is when our regular organization meetings are held,” said sophomore Ashley Young, Bearkat Krew historian. “These colors were chosen by the Walk For A Cause committee because they felt that these were the causes that most of our peers could relate to in some kind of way.”
This activity will lead up to the group’s “Walk for a Cause” fundraising event on April 20, which will be held from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Colony Park, across the street from the University Hotel.
During the event, which is open to the public, members of the Bearkat Krew will lead a two- to three-and-a-half mile walk around campus. Check-in will be from 8-8:45 a.m., followed by a memorial stretch led by the group’s president.
Donations will be accepted from both participants and supporters who are not able to participate up until the day of the event.
Those who would like to participate should register by April 12, and those who register after that date will be asked to donate a minimum of $5 dollars, in addition to any other collected donations.
The event will allow participants to choose which cause their funds will be donated too, as all funds collected will be disseminated to various Walker County health facilities, according to Young.
“Bearkat Krew is giving the opportunity to people to choose the cause that is most important to them and to show awareness and support for it,” she said. “Our goal is to serve the community and give back to them in any way we can.
“With ‘Walk For A Cause,’ we are raising money for different issues that trouble the lives of many on a daily basis,” she said. “We want to give the community an opportunity to show awareness for all disease.”
For more information, or to register for the event, contact Bearkat Krew member Karen Fontenot at kef023@shsu.edu.
Oliver ‘Makes’ History For Criminal Justice Academy
Willard Oliver, professor of criminal justice at Sam Houston State University, recently “made” history in his role as the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences’ historian.
In anticipation of the 50th Anniversary of ACJS, Oliver wrote the official history of the academy and released that history to the membership in book format at its yearly conference, March 19-23 in Dallas.
Oliver was elected to the executive board four years ago and upon discovering that the organization once had an official historian, he moved to reestablish the position, which was completed last year. At the end of his three-year term last year, Oliver stepped down from the elected position and was appointed to the new role of historian.
“I was quite honored to have been appointed the ACJS historian; for although I am not a historian by trade, I have a strong passion for history, and the ACJS history is very robust,” he said.
The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences is the national organization for criminal justice academics. It was established in 1963, when many members of the American Society of Criminology felt that association had become too theoretical and had drifted from its early roots of being police-centric.
They splintered off and created the International Association of Police Professors in 1963, and during the late 1960s, when the federal government began talking of the “Criminal Justice System,” the IAPP changed its name to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.
Oliver began looking into the reestablishment of the historian position after conducting research at the ACJS National Headquarters in the Washington, D.C., area and coming across the early 1970s business minutes. He learned that professor Ed Farris from New Mexico State University had been the first official ACJS historian.
While in Dallas for the ACJS conference, Oliver was able to meet and interview the Farris, who shared some of the events surrounding the formation of the IAPP/ACJS. Farris was present at Washington State University in 1963 when the splinter group created the organization.
“He may be getting along in years,” Oliver said of Farris, “but he is as sharp as he probably was 50 years ago when the academy was founded.”
Although the history of ACJS written by Oliver was only available to conference attendees, the entire publication, consisting of eight chapters, several appendices, and one-page biographies of all 50 past presidents of the academy will soon be made available on-line at the academy’s website ACJS.org.
Students Shine At Forensic Science Conference
Graduate students from the College of Criminal Justice’s department of forensic science recently presented an array of research on toxicology, forensic anthropology, entomology and DNA at the discipline’s leading national conference, the American Academy of Forensic Science Annual Conference in February, in Washington, D.C.
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| Graduate student Paige Hinners presented her research on an impaired driving case during the American Academy of Forensic Science Annual Conference in February, which was attended by more than 4,000 professionals. —Submitted photo |
“The academy meeting is a wonderful opportunity for us to showcase our students and their research,” said Sarah Kerrigan, professor and chair of the forensic science department.
Cassandra Campelli’s poster, “Using Pinus STR profiling to discriminate pollen sources at the regional level: A potential tool for forensic investigation,” examined the possible use of pine pollen to help pinpoint location in criminal cases, such as linking a suspect to where a body was dumped. The research was conducted with professors Christopher Randle, Craig Echt, Bruce Budowle and David A. Gangitano, as well as graduate Jennifer Sycalik.
Sarah Sims presented “A proposed means for the detection and quantification of bath salts from blood,” which explored current lab techniques that can be used to detect components in a new class of designer drugs. The study was conducted at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science in Dallas during her summer internship with Elizabeth Todd and Chris Heartsill.
Graduate Kaitlyn Schorr’s work on “Monolithic substrate assisted micro liquid-liquid extraction of Alprazolam from urine sample,” presented by Jorn C.C. Yu, explored a new technique that could be used for faster lab analysis to extract an anti-depressant drug from biological samples.
Paige Hinners’s poster, “Phenazepan and driving impairment: A case report,” examined an impaired driving case where a driver involved in an accident showed significant impairment but had negative toxicology tests for standard drugs and alcohol.
The study, a comprehensive drug screen conducted at SHSU’s former Regional Crime Lab, found significant levels of phenazepan. The drug, used in Russia but is becoming more popular in the U.S., is 10 times more potent than diazepam. The study was conducted with Kerrigan and forensic toxicologist Monica Brady Mellon.
Sarah Bahlmann reported on “A molecular approach: Species composition of the maggot mass in human cadavers in the Piney Woods ecosystem of southeast Texas,” a study done with professors Gangitano and Sibyl Bucheli, as well as graduate Ashleigh Faris. The study used a DNA sequencing approach to determine the species’ composition of the maggot mass during human decomposition.
Finally, undergraduate chemistry student Joe Trevino presented “Quantification of color changes in human decomposition using image processing software,” a study to clarify the changes in body color during the different stages of human decomposition. The stages of decomposition help to determine post mortem intervals.
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 29, 2013
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu
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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.
