SHSU
Update For Week Of April 1
Ring Ceremony To Be Held April
12
More than 200 Bearkat juniors and seniors will receive their
official class rings on April 12 during the SHSU Class Ring
Ceremony.
The ceremony will be held at 6:30 p.m. at Austin Hall.
University president Jim Gaertner and Vice President for Student
Services Frank Parker will speak at the event, as well as
senior and 2006 homecoming king Willie Dean, who will discuss
what the ring means to him as a student.
Registration for the event will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the
Quadrangle.
Students who want to participate can still sign up to do so
by verifying their name and registering at http://alumni.shsu.edu.
The sign-up deadline is Friday (April 6).
After the event, a group picture and reception will be held,
and orders for individual pictures will also be taken.
A shuttle service will be provided from Bowers Stadium and
paid parking will be available at the University Parking Garage.
Guest seating is expected to be limited for the ceremony,
with more than 1,200 anticipated to be attending the event.
For more information, call the Office
of Alumni Relations at 936.294.1841 or 800.283.7478.
Back to top
SHSU Seeks Professional
For First Dan Rather Chair
The SHSU mass communication department is seeking a high-visibility
professional broadcast journalist for its first Dan Rather
Chair recipient.
Establishment of the chair was made possible by a $2 million
gift by Dan and Jean Rather to the university 's capital
campaign, and is the largest single monetary gift in the
university's history. Rather is a 1953 graduate of Sam Houston
State Teachers College.
The Dan Rather Chair holder is expected to present a regional
and/or national reputation in broadcast journalism, as well
as teach two classes in the broadcast journalism area each
semester, work with students in the department and work with
the department to develop workshops, seminars and other programs
that bring professionals to campus to work with students
and the campus community, including outreach activities.
Significant industry experience in broadcast journalism and
a bachelor’s degree are required, though an advanced
academic degree is preferred.
“The opportunity this brings for our students is phenomenal,”
said Janet Bridges, chair of the mass communication department.
“It should also be good for the field of journalism
as our ‘future journalists’ will have exceptional,
personal interaction with professionals who are well-known
in the field.”
The position includes a competitive salary with funds for
travel and support of research and professional activities.
The search committee is hoping to have the nine-month to
one-year position filled by the fall 2007 semester, Bridges
said.
SHSU’s mass communication department houses approximately
600 students and 14 faculty.
The department offers emphases in broadcast/electronic journalism
and production, media sales and management, print journalism,
and public relations.
Students produce a semi-weekly newspaper and the department
operates one FM radio station and a local cable-access channel.
Candidates should submit a cover letter indicating interest
in the position, vita or resume and the names of three references.
Materials should be sent to: Michael Blackman, Dan Rather
Chair Search Committee, Department of Mass Communication,
Sam Houston State University, P. O. Box 2207, Huntsville,
Texas, 77341-2207.
For more information, visit the department’s Web
site or call SHSU’s Human
Resources Department at 936.294.1070.
Back to top
Speakers To Discuss ‘Mutiny,
Tragedy’ In Houston
On the night of August 23, 1917, an armed confrontation
between black U.S. soldiers and Houston police officers and
citizens left 20 persons dead.
It resulted in the largest court-martial ever in U.S. history
and the hanging of 19 soldiers for their alleged participation,
according to David Mayes, assistant professor of history.
On Thursday (April 5), three individuals who turned the Houston
Riot of 1917 into a theatre drama and documentary film will
discuss the “Mutiny and Tragedy on the Streets of Houston.”
The lecture, part of the Joan Coffey Symposium, will be held
at 7:30 p.m. in Academic Building IV’s Olson Auditorium.
The guest speakers include John Britt, a historian from Lee
College, Celeste Walker, a Houston playwright and writer of
“Camp Logan: A WWI Drama” and Mike Kaliski, project
director for the documentary film.
For more information, call the history
department at 936.294.1475.
Back to top
Jeopardy! Champ, Prof
To Give Public Reading
Doug Dorst, a past Jeopardy! champion and assistant professor
of creative writing at St. Edward's University in Austin,
will read from his works on Thursday (April 5).
The public reading, sponsored by the English department, will
be held at 6:30 p.m. in Austin Hall.
Dorst is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a former
Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.
His short stories have appeared in McSweeney's, Ploughshares,
The Atlantic Unbound, Epoch, and other journals.
His first novel, “Alive in Necropolis,” will be
published by Riverhead in January 2008, followed by a short-story
collection, “The Surf Guru.”
In addition to the reading, Dorst will spend the day visiting
the undergraduate creative writing workshops.
The reading is open to the public, and refreshments will be
served.
For more information, contact Scott Kaukonen, assistant professor
of English,
at kaukonen@shsu.edu
or 936.294.1407.
Back to top
Theatre To Visit ‘South
Pacific’
The SHSU department of theatre and dance will present Rodgers
and Hammaerstein’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “South
Pacific” April 11-14 in the University Theatre Center’s
Mainstage Theatre.
Show times are at 8 p.m. each evening, with a 2 p.m. Saturday
matinee.
“South Pacific” is the love story of a naive young
Navy nurse and an older French plantation owner who meet on
a U.S.-occupied South Sea island.
Tickets are $12 for general admission and $10 with an SHSU
or senior citizen ID.
For more information, call the theatre
department at 936.294.1329.
Back to top
Conference To Show How To ‘Meet
The Needs’
The Sam Houston Council for Exceptional Children will teach
College of Education students, current teachers or anyone
interested in the field of special education how to meet “the
needs of all learners” on April 13.
The 2007 SCEC Special Education Conference will be held from
8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. at the Region 6 Education Service
Center’s Professional Development Center in Huntsville.
The conference features locally- and nationally-recognized
speakers and professors who will provide innovative, student-centered
sessions regarding critical topics in the field of special
education and educational assessment, according to SCEC president
James Williams.
Among the many topics participants can learn about, keynote
speakers Bonnie B. Carter and Will Carter will discuss “Exploring
Nonverbal Learning Disabilities” and “It’s
Another Beautiful Mind: Personal accounts of an adolescent
recovering from Traumatic Brain Injury,” respectively.
Participants will receive seven hours of professional development
credit.
The cost of the event is $25 for pre-registration, or $35
for day-of registration. Those who pre-register will receive
a personalized lanyard bag made especially for the event.
Registration forms can be found at www.shsu.edu/~org_shcec,
and all proceeds benefit the SCEC’s campus efforts.
The Region 6 Service Center is located at 3332 Montgomery
Rd.
For more information, contact Williams at 832.452.3155 or
jew001@shsu.edu.
Back to top
Bookstore To Host
Student Employment Sessions
Looking for a job? The Barnes and Noble University Bookstore
will host two student employment sessions on Monday (April
2) and Tuesday (April 3).
The informal meetings, held at 3 p.m. on Monday and 10 a.m.
on Tuesday, will inform students of what employment opportunities
are and will be available in the store. Those interested only
need to attend one of the two sessions, which will be held
in Lowman Student Center Room 320.
Potential applicants are asked to bring a completed application,
which can be obtained online at http://shsu1.bkstore.com/images/application.pdf,
and class schedules for the summer and fall semesters, as
well as a final exam schedule.
University bookstore employees receive a discount on textbooks
and other merchandise.
For more information, call the bookstore at 936.294.1862
or visit http://shsu.bkstore.com/.
Back to top
Program To Allow Officers
View Of Mexican System
A new program through the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement
Management Institute of Texas will allow Texas police officers
to learn about the Mexican law enforcement system.
The Spanish Immersion Program for Law Enforcement, co-sponsored
with the Kukulcan Educational Spanish Community in Cuernavaca,
Mexico, will allow Texas police officers to tour the prisons,
visit the courts, the police academy and meet with police
officials to exchange views and ideas while learning Spanish,
according to Carolyn Martinez, international police program
coordinator for LEMIT.
“The goal is to not only learn Spanish pertinent to
law enforcement but to also help law enforcement understand
the culture,” Martinez said.
During the program, law enforcement officers will stay with
host families and attend classes at Kukulcan during the day,
with site visits to the prisons, police agencies and the police
academy.
LEMIT will offer 15 partial scholarships for the program,
which will be held Aug. 4-18, to Texas Law Enforcement officers.
In addition, Martinez also negotiated terms for a study-abroad
Spanish Immersion Program for criminal justice students, which
will begin during the summer of 2008.
“This program will focus on Spanish for students planning
on working in the field of law enforcement,” she said.
“Such cooperation with our Mexican counterparts will
provide immeasurable mutual benefits and understanding in
law enforcement issues.”
For more information on either program, call Martinez
936.294.4600.
Back to top
Publication Party To Be
Held For Prof’s Book
 |
Conversations about living in the city called the execution
capital of the world provide the focus for a newly-published
book by two communications experts with ties to Sam Houston
State University.
"‘Prison City: Life with the Death Penalty in Huntsville,
Texas,’ takes an ethnographic approach as it looks beneath
the placid surface of Huntsville and sheds light on controversial
issues usually hidden behind penitentiary walls," said
Ruth Massingill.
Massingill, who has taught communications at SHSU since 1989,
and Ardyth Broadrick Sohn, former holder of the Warner Endowed
Chair of Journalism, are the authors.
A publication party is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on April 12
in the Sam Houston Memorial Museum's Walker Education Center.
The book includes interviews with Huntsville residents, inmates
and guards. Topics include crime and punishment, vengeance
and forgiveness. Pictures from local historical archives complement
the narrative.
"These stories are poignant and highlight the incarcerated
population’s increasing influence in the political and
cultural landscape of the United States," Massingill
said.
Massingill also credited Debbi Hatton, speech instructor,
and Tina Baiter, 2005 SHSU graduate, for their help on the
project, as well as Mickey Herskowitz, current Warner Chair
holder, who previewed the book and calls it a "remarkable
work of scholarship turned drama."
A number of Huntsville residents who are quoted in the book
will read from it during the publication party.
Signed copies of the book will be available and the Huntsville
and university communities are invited.
For more information, visit the Sam Houston Memorial Museum
events listing at http://www.shsu.edu/~smm_www/News/
or call Massingill at 936.294.1494.
Back to top
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.
Back to top
- END -
SHSU Media Contacts: Frank
Krystyniak, Julia May,
Jennifer Gauntt
March 30, 2007
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu
|
