SHSU
Update For Week Of Dec. 16
Entergy Grant Lights
Up Three Departments
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| Entergy customer service manager Stan
Foley (third from right) presented an $18,000 grant on
Friday morning to (from left) FCS chair Janis White, COE
dean Genevieve Brown, provost and vice president for Academic
Affairs David Payne, CHSS dean John De Castro and education
associate professor Carol Parker, for three projects benefiting
the Huntsville community. |
An $18,000 grant from the Entergy Charitable Foundation will
allow three departments to share their knowledge with the
Huntsville community.
The grant was presented to provost and vice president for
Academic Affairs David Payne by Entergy Huntsville customer
service manager Stan Foley on Friday (Dec. 14) morning.
“Sam Houston State University deeply appreciates the
generosity of Entergy in supporting our efforts to serve students
and enhancing the university community relations,” Payne
said.
The three-fold grant will be disbursed to the family and consumer
sciences and mass communications departments and the College
of Education.
FCS will develop a brochure on energy-efficiency for low-income
customers and mass communications will work with Walker County
Emergency Management in radio notification systems for such
events as Hurricane Rita, Foley said.
The College of Education will work with the Boys and Girls
Club in mentoring and “closing the achievement gap”
for junior high students at Mance Park Middle School to help
with the transition from high school to higher education,
according to Carol Parker, associate professor in the educational
leadership and counseling department.
“Our goal, with the ECF grants, is simple,” Foley
said. “We want to leave the world a better place than
we found it by working to create real education, employment
and housing opportunities in the communities we serve.”
In addition to the SHSU grant, Entergy also funded two other
Huntsville-area entities: the Community Organization for Missionary
Endeavor (COME) Center received $3,000 for school supplies
for students in kindergarten through fourth grades and the
Walker County United Way received $4,000 for youth scholarships.
The EFC accepts applications three times per year, and the
application deadlne for the first 2008 cycle is Feb. 1.
Departments interested in an ECF grant can contact Delia
Gallinaro, assistant director of Research and
Special Programs, who helped coordinate the “bundled”
proposals, at 936.294.3760.
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CS Donation Starts
Up TAKS Lab For High School
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| Hull-Daisetta High School principal
Quinn Godwin and technology coordinator Joyce Tulley (center)
accept 15 refurbished computers, two printers and two
scanners on Friday from computer science department chair
Peter Cooper (left) and visiting assistant professor Li-Jen
Shannon and Property coordinator Wayne Frosch (right). |
The Sam Houston State University computer science department
gave the gift of learning this Christmas to Hull-Daisetta
High School on Friday morning when it donated 15 refurbished
computers to the school.
The systems were refurbished by members from the Sam Houston
Association of Computer Scientists, using equipment donated
by computer science faculty and staff members, as well as
equipment discarded by Computer Services, according to computer
science visiting assistant professor Li-Jen Shannon.
“They (SHACS members) came to the lab outside of class
time voluntarily and built the system together,” Shannon
said. “It was a great accomplishment for the students
to have some hand-on experiences through James’ (Branch,
SHACS president) leadership.”
The class A school also received two color printers and scanners
as part of the donation.
The annual program is part of the student organization’s
community outreach project for schools that have a need for
the computers.
Hull-Daisetta High School, located near Liberty, will use
the equipment to open a TAKS lab for its students.
"Our campus was rated unacceptable this year, so this
is something that we definitely need,” said HDHS principal
Quinn Godwin, who added that the school has received a grant
that will allow them to purchase software.
Over the past four years, the computer science department
and SHACS have also donated computers to the Livingston, Shepherd
and Big Sandy school districts.
HDHS was one of four schools that contacted the department
this year requesting the donations. Because the school needed
20 systems and SHSU was only able to complete 15, SHACS and
the computer science department will donate the other five
after they are completed next semester, Shannon said.
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Picasso Project Collaborates
In NSF Grant
Texas A&M has recruited foreign languages professor
Enrique Mallen’s online
Picasso Project to help with research for one
of its National Science Foundation grants.
TAMU’s Center for the Study of Digital Libraries will
study the online database, which chronicles nearly 14,000
of Pablo Picasso’s art and literary works. Mallen started
the project while teaching at TAMU in 1997 and moved it to
SHSU when he came here this fall.
“The purpose of the grant is to investigate how users
of the Picasso Project will be utilizing Picasso manuscript
documents which are simultaneously encoded for text and graphic
composition,” he said.
The “relatively small NSF grant” has a budget
limit of $450,000 over three years, but “it constitutes
one more significant step in the collaboration between the
humanities and computer science,” Mallen said.
“Many of Picasso's literary texts include graphic materials,
and his manuscripts are considered artworks in their own right,”
he said. “When analyzing this material, it has become
obvious that a simple evaluation of Picasso’s writings
in terms of texts misses the point. It is crucial to investigate
how these texts are inscribed on the page.”
The grant proposal aims to support analysis and understanding
of documents whose meaning depends on both the textual content
and the visual representation of that content.
“Providing access to images of Picasso’s original
writings has been a major contribution to Picasso scholarship,”
Mallen said. “This work will extend this capability
dramatically, allowing scholars to interact with the visual
content of these works for the first time.”
The grant proposal will also involve the participation of
SHSU students in Mallen’s classes as the project unfolds,
“as they use the relevant documents themselves,”
he said.
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Two Earn Second Lieutenant
Bars
Two senior ROTC cadets joined the ranks of the second lieutenants
in the U.S. Army on Friday afternoon during the SHSU military
science department’s winter commissioning ceremony.
Taking the Army Oath of Office were Charles Robert Pipes and
Idris Teniola Taiwo.
Pipes, a Garland native, will also receive his Bachelor of
Arts degree in history, with a minor in military science,
during Friday’s commencement ceremony.
While in ROTC, Pipes was a member of both the color guard
and the Schuder’s Rangers Company for three years, holding
leadership positions in both.
He received a commission as a field artillery officer in the
Texas Army National Guard and will serve his first duty assignment
with the 1st Battalion, 133rd Field Artillery Regiment, 36th
Infantry Division in Nacogdoches.
Taiwo, a Houston native, will receive his Bachelor of Science
degree in criminal justice, with a minor in military science,
during Saturday’s commencement ceremonies.
A two-year Army scholarship recipient, he was a member of
both the ROTC Schuder’s Ranger Company and color guard,
as well as vice president and president of his residence hall,
and played intramural sports for all four years of college.
Taiwo will begin his Army career in Korea on active duty in
the infantry branch detail of the Signal Corps.
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Famous Basketball Team
To ‘Globetrot’ Into Coliseum
The Harlem Globetrotters, one of the most popular and recognized
basketball acts in the world, will make their first SHSU appearance
in three years on Feb. 4 in the Johnson Coliseum.
“Magic as Ever” 2008 world tour tickets will go
on sale on Wednesday (Dec. 12) and can be purchased through
the Recreational Sports Department, in Health and Kinesiology
Center Suite 162, during normal business hours or online at
http://www.ticketweb.com.
Tickets range from $16 for general admission seats to the
$51 for “Magic Circle” seats. SHSU students, faculty
and staff will receive a $3 discount when they present their
Bearkat OneCards.
The Feb. 4 performance will be held at 7 p.m.
The Harlem Globetrotters have performed more than 20,000 times
and entertained presidents and popes during their 82-year
history.
For more information, call 936.294.1740 or 936.294.1985 or
visit http://www.shsu.edu/recsports.
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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
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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
Dec. 14, 2007
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu
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