SHSU
Update For Week Of Aug. 13
Convocation To
Welcome Freshmen Aug. 19
This year’s incoming freshman Bearkats will receive
their official welcome to Sam Houston State University by
university president James F. Gaertner, Student Government
Association president Christopher Whitaker and approximately
100 university faculty and staff members during the second
New Student Convocation on Saturday (Aug. 19).
The ceremony, for students and their families, will be held
at 5 p.m. in the Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.
“This is their official welcome to SHSU and where they
become official Bearkats,” said First Year Experience
director Keri Rogers. “It’s our opportunity to
help them get started on the right foot for college, since
the first day of class will only be two days off.”
Rick Rigsby, motivational speaker and a faculty member in
Texas A&M’s communications department, will discuss
"Making an Impact, Not an Impression" as a special
speaker.
The ceremony has a graduation-like atmosphere, with faculty,
staff and administration members dressed in caps and gowns
and the traditional processions, but students and their families
are not required to dress up for the event, according to Rogers.
The FYE Office and the Huntsville-Walker County Chamber of
Commerce have also worked together to familiarize students
with off-campus activities in the community after the event
by providing discounts for students to eat at various restaurants,
as well as entertainment sites around town.
For more information, call the First
Year Experience Office at 936.294.3422.
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Office To
Host Orientation For International Students
The Office of International Programs will host its first
international student orientation Aug 17-18.
"It’s a totally new activity,” said Reiko
Clark, director of the Office of International Programs. “To
my best knowledge, an orientation for internationals that
lasts two days hasn’t been offered."
The international student orientation will include many of
the things that a domestic student orientation includes. Things
like advising, computer account setup, and class registration
will be offered.
In addition, international students will be offered information
that domestic students don't usually get, such as information
on basic immigration laws and regulations, where to go to
buy groceries and how to use the school health care system.
OIP received help from students in the International Student
Organization, who put together a video for the orientation.
"The main point of the video is to let students know
that we support them," said Yusuke Kamiya, ISO member.
The OIP and the ISO both want to see a more friendly internationalization
process happening at SHSU.
Clark said it is important for international students to have
a good experience at SHSU in order to keep internationals
coming back.
"Our goal is to internationalize Sam Houston, to get
more internationals coming in and more people going abroad,"
Kamiya said.
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Calendar Information
Sought For Today@Sam
Need to publicize an event?
Share your information with the Public Relations Office!
PR is currently updating and creating its calendar pages
for the fall semester. Send your departmental calendars or
events to today@sam.edu
or jenniferg@shsu.edu
or fax the information to 936.294.1834.
Please include the date, location and time of the event, as
well as a brief description and a contact person. These calendars
are continuously updated throughout the semester, as well
as the year.
Information collected for the Today@Sam calendar pages, at
/calendars/,
is used by various media outlets, as well as our own office
for news stories and releases.
It is requested that information be sent to the office (to
Frank K, Julia, Jennifer or through the e-mail link on Today@Sam)
at least a week in advance to give us ample time to write
a complete and thorough story, as well as give us plenty of
time to make necessary contacts.
For more information, call 936.294.1836.
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Schedule Outlines Times
For Fall Class Preparations
Various departments will be on hand to provide students
with assistance in registration, financial aid and making
payments Aug. 17-18.
Students will be admitted to the Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum
between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. based on the Registrar’s
fall alphabetic schedule, found at http://www.shsu.edu/~reg_www/schedule/fall2006/registration.html#regprocess.
Stations will be set up for various needs, including Residence
Life, for housing and food contracts; Student Accounts, for
changes to parking or installment options before paying tuition
and fees; Financial Aid, which will also be for students with
past due balances; Cashiers, for payment of tuition and fees;
Visa/Mastercard Cashier, for those paying with a credit card;
and University Police, for parking permits, which will require
a paid fee statement.
Those who need to obtain a Bearkat OneCard should go to Coliseum
Door 14 or Lowman Student Center Room 320, and those making
payments or who need financial aid processed should go to
Coliseum Door 26.
In addition, those who need assistance with registration should
report to Estill Building Room 331 at the designated time,
outlined in the alphabetic schedule, with a tentative schedule,
including CID numbers and alternate selections.
All students must present a picture identification card, such
as a driver’s license or a Bearkat OneCard, to be admitted.
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Professors ‘Communicate’
At Peruvian Conference
Speech communication professors Debbi Hatton and Mary Evelyn
Collins, along with mass communication professor Ruth Massingill,
recently spoke at the Congress of the Americas Conference
held in Lima, Peru.
The SHSU professors were three of only 100 Americans competitively
selected to attend the conference, which brings together leaders
from academia, business and politics to discuss advances in
technology, public policy and intercultural communication.
At the event, Collins discussed the Texas stone house as a
cultural icon, while Massingill and Hatton gave two presentations;
the first focused on aspirational advertising's effect on
the Mexican culture and the second examined communication
systems used by prison inmates and officials to disseminate
their message.
The prison information was based on their new book, “Prison
City: Life With the Death Penalty in Huntsville, Texas,”
which is due out this fall, according to Hatton.
“Overall, we were thrilled with the opportunity to meet
colleagues from around the world and discuss the possibilities
of forming collaborations for future research projects,”
Hatton said.
“Many times, the immigration debate clouds Americans'
perspective of the Latin people, which has a culture rich
in history,” she said. “All the Latin American
scholars were excited about the potential for future dialogues
that would ease tensions for both sides of the issue because
we all understand that communication is paramount to opening
markets, solving problems and building bridges to the future.”
Conference participants were chosen based on their submissions
and reputation in the communication discipline. All three
of the SHSU professors who attended have worked extensively
with international organizations dealing with communication
issues.
The bi-annual Congress of the Americas Conference, held Aug.
2-5, was joint-sponsored by the International Communication
Association, the American Communication Association and the
University of San Martin de Porres.
Following a nation-wide news conference the delegates from
the conference were welcomed by the legislature of Peru.
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Book On Fort Worth Featured
In Star-Telegram
In the 1930s, an African-American banker named Bill McDonald
made history in Fort Worth.
During the time of the Great Depression, McDonald’s
Fraternal Bank and Trust Company lost $209,500 when Texas
National Bank collapsed, and because he had invested his money
in that bank, McDonald said it was his responsibility to replace
the loss.
He quelled concerns about his Fraternal Bank and Trust Company
by writing a personal check to cover the loss.
Those kinds of stories are the ones found in SHSU history
professor Ty Cashion’s book “The New Frontier:
A Contemporary History of Fort Worth & Tarrant County,”
recently featured in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which tells
about the city beginning at the turn of the 20th century.
“The entire project rested on the assumption that the
frontier had been beaten to death,” Cashion said in
the article. “So I was going to begin with the year
1900 and do a chapter for every decade in the 20th century.”
He also added an introduction covering Fort Worth’s
first 51 years at a reader’s suggestion.
The book could be considered a coffee-table book because of
its more than 350 photographs, many of which have never been
published before, but Art Chapman, Star-Telegram staff writer,
called that assertion misleading.
“All too often, the term signals a book that is only
graphically pleasing—the kind of book you simply flip
through looking at the images, giving only cursory attention
to the text,” Chapman said in the story. “That
would be a mistake with ‘The New Frontier.’ Cashion’s
narrative is informative, engaging and well-written.”
While the book cannot be called a complete history of Tarrant
County because of many omissions, “compared to its many
predecessors, it measures up well,” Chapman said.
Cashion’s book costs $49.95 and is available on www.amazon.com,
as well as on a limited basis through bookstores.
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Davidson Receives National
Beto Award
Christie Davidson the assistant director of the Correctional
Management Institute of Texas, an institute within SHSU’s
College of Criminal Justice, was presented with the Dan Richard
Beto Award on July 23.
The award is presented to an individual who has provided distinguished
and sustained service to the probation profession.
She received the award at the annual awards breakfast of the
National Association of Probation Executives in Chicago, Ill.
Davidson joined the CMIT in 1994 as its first employee. Beginning
as an administrative assistant to the executive director,
she took over the responsibility of the NAPE secretariat in
1995, and has been the primary point of contact for NAPE members
since that time.
During her tenure with the institute, she earned a Master
of Business Administration degree and assumed positions of
increased responsibility, including project coordinator and
chief of staff. She was later promoted to the institute's
assistant director.
In 2004, Davidson was named executive director of NAPE.
In presenting the award, outgoing president Cherlyn K. Townsend
spoke about Davidson's commitment to NAPE, her significant
knowledge base, and excellent relationship she has developed
with the probation profession.
"I feel very honored that the association decided to
give me the award. I am fortunate to have a good working relationship
with the association," Davidson said.
Dan Richard Beto, retired director of CMIT and a NAPE past
president for whom the award is named, was extremely pleased
with the selection of Davidson, who worked closely with him
for more than 11 years.
"I could not think of a better choice for this award,"
Beto said.
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Hotel Manager Earns Top
Honors At Conference
 |
| University Hotel general manager Richard
Serrill (right) accepts the outstanding student award
from THLA chairman James Walsh during the 61st Annual
Short Course conference. |
Richard Serrill, general manager at SHSU’s University
Hotel, was recently awarded the 2006 Dr. James Taylor Outstanding
Student Award, given to the most “outstanding individual,”
during the 61st Annual Short Course held in Houston.
Serrill was selected as the award recipient of the Taylor
award after having been chosen by his peers as the top student
in his group. More than 200 students attended the conference
and were divided into six groups.
“I feel very fortunate to have won the award especially
after being chosen from 203 others from various companies
(such as Marriott, Hilton and Omni),” he said. “I've
only been in the hotel side of hospitality for a year and
a half when the course took place.
The annual conference, hosted by the Texas Hotel and Lodging
Association, is an overview of the hospitality industry touching
on all possible subjects of the industry over the five days
of the course, with most of the emphasis on the Texas portion
of the industry, according to Serrill.
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Send Update Items Here
Please send information for the SHSU Update to the Office
of Public Relations at SHSU. 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
Aug. 13, 2006
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu
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