SHSU
Update For Week Of Oct. 21
Bob Dole To Give 'President’s'
Speech On Monday
Former congressman and presidential hopeful Bob Dole will
become the 12th of Sam Houston State University’s “President’s
Speakers” Monday (Oct. 22).
Dole’s lecture will be held from 10-11 a.m. in the Beto
Criminal Justice Center's Killinger Auditorium.
A former high school athlete and University of Kansas basketball
player, Dole joined the U.S. Army in 1942. His injury in combat
in the hills of northern Italy in 1945 led him to receive
two Purple Hearts. He was also awarded the Bronze Star Medal
with combat "V" for valor for his attempt to assist
a downed radioman.
After completing his law studies at KU, he was elected to
the Kansas House of Representatives in 1950, to the U.S. House
of Representatives in 1960 and to the U.S. Senate in 1968.
He ran unsuccessfully for vice president in 1976 on a ticket
headed by Gerald Ford and for the 1980 and 1988 Republican
presidential nominations won by Ronald Reagan and George H.
W. Bush, respectively. Dole received the Republican nomination
in 1996 but lost to incumbent Bill Clinton.
Since his retirement, Dole has worked part-time for a Washington,
D.C., law firm, and pursued a second career of writing, consulting,
public speaking, and television appearances.
Among his accolades are the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
awarded by President Clinton in 1997 and the American Patriot
Award, which he received in 2004.
The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, housed on the University
of Kansas campus in Lawrence, Kansas, was established to bring
bipartisanship back to politics and opened in July 2003 to
coincide with Dole's 80th birthday.
He has written several books, including one on jokes told
by the presidents of the United States and his biography,
"One Soldier's Story: A Memoir," which covers his
World War II experiences and his battle to cope with his war
injuries that was released in 2005.
The President’s Speaker Series was begun in 2002 to
bring speakers to campus who have lived successful and principled
lives.
For more information, call the President's
Office at 936.294.3415.
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Health Center To Vaccinate
Faculty, Staff
With flu season approaching, the Student Health Center will
offer free influenza vaccinations to faculty and staff on
Thursday and Friday (Oct. 25-26) in the Lowman Student Center
Atrium. The vaccines will be administered from 8:30 a.m. to
3 p.m.
There are no assigned days for faculty and staff this year,
and while those who wish to receive the vaccine may show up
at whatever time is convenient for them, the 680 vaccines
will be administered on a first-come, first-served basis,
according to health programming coordinator Michelle Lovering.
Faculty and staff will need to check in with Student Health
Center staff prior to receiving the vaccine, present an ID
and complete the vaccine consent form.
“We ask that those receiving the vaccine come prepared
with sleeves that can be easily adjusted to expose one’s
shoulder,” Lovering said. “There will be an area
to disrobe with privacy screens, but an easily accessible
upper arm will make the process faster and more comfortable.”
Viruses in the “flu shot” are inactivated (killed),
so you cannot get the flu from the vaccine.
“Protection against the flu develops at least two weeks
after receiving the shot,” Lovering said. “Until
then, you are still at risk for the flu.”
Flu vaccines should be received once a year, every fall prior
to the flu season.
In the United States, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized
from flu complications and roughly 36,000 people die from
the flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
For more information about the influenza vaccine or the administration
process, visit the Student
Health Center Web site or call 936.294.1805.
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Ballerina To Serve As Grassroots
Speaker
Lauren Anderson, retired principal ballerina and the first
black dancer to be promoted to principal at Houston Ballet,
will share her ‘roots’ and field questions on
Wednesday (Oct. 24).
The lecture, part of the Student Advising and Mentoring Center’s
Grassroots Speaker Series, will be held at 5 p.m. in Academic
Building IV's Olson Auditorium.
A native Houstonian, Anderson danced with Houston Ballet from
1983 to 2006, performing leading roles in all the great classical
ballets and appearing across the world to critical acclaim.
In 1990, she became the first black ballerina to be promoted
to a principal dancer at the Houston Ballet and one of the
few at the head of a major ballet company anywhere in the
world, according to the Houston Ballet Web site.
In April 1999, Anderson was featured on the cover of Dance
Magazine and has also been featured in the magazines People
and Pointe, as well as on the television programs "A&E
Breakfast With the Arts," "CBS News Sunday Morning,"
and the game show "To Tell the Truth."
She has been honored by The Martin Luther King Foundation,
Coalition of 100 Black Women, YWCA, by the Urban League, Delta
Gamma Foundation, Texas Woman’s Chamber of Commerce,
Houston City Council and the Texas Legislature.
In January 2007, Anderson assumed her new role of outreach
associate in Houston Ballet’s education department,
where she teaches ballet classes at Houston Ballet’s
Ben Stevenson Academy, conducts master classes at area schools
and “lectures to students on dance and her historic
career as one of America’s most distinguished African-American
ballerinas,” the Houston Ballet Web site said.
Following her lecture, a meet-and-greet with refreshments
will be held in the Student Advising and Mentoring Center,
located in ABIV Room 210.
The event is sponsored by the academic support programs of
the Student Advising and Mentoring Center; the Elliott T.
Bowers Honors Program; Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority,
Inc.; and the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement
Program.
For more information, contact Bernice Strauss, director of
academic support programs for the SAM
Center, at 936.294.4455.
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Professor To Discuss
Loyalty, Police
John I. Kleinig, professor in both the John Jay College of
Criminal Justice at the City University of New York and the
Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the Australian
National University, will discuss “Loyalty and the Police”
on Tuesday (Oct. 23).
The speech, part of the College of Criminal Justice’s
Beto Chair Lecture Series, will be held from 9:30–11
a.m. in the Criminal Justice Center’s Hazel B. Kerper
Courtroom.
Kleinig has authored nine books, including those in progress,
on such topics as ethical issues in various areas, policing
and criminal justice, according to his vita.
Among his degrees are a bachelor’s and master’s
degree, which he received from the University of Western Australia;
a doctorate, which he received from the Australian National
University; a bachelor of divinity from the Melbourne College
of Divinity; and a fellowship of the academy from the Australian
Academy of the Humanities.
He divides his teaching time between the United States and
Australia, teaching from February through July at CAPPE and
from August through January at CUNY, according to his vita.
The lecture will be followed by discussion in the Bates Room
for graduate students.
For more information, call the College
of Criminal Justice at 936.294.1635.
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St. Mary’s Mathematician
To Move Students In Circles
Katherine Socha, assistant professor of mathematics at St.
Mary's College of Maryland will discuss “Moving in Circles”
on Wednesday (Oct. 24).
The discussion, part of the Piney Woods Lecture Series, will
be held from 2-3 p.m. in the Lee Drain Building Room 214.
The talk describes some of the speaker’s favorite mathematical
things and how they relate to circles, according to the abstract.
Socha received her bachelor’s degree from Reed College
in 1990 and her doctorate from the University of Texas at
Austin in 2002.
She spent two years teaching at Michigan State University
before moving to Maryland to teach at the public liberal arts
college, located near Chesapeake Bay, in 2004.
Following the lecture, a reception will be held on the fourth
floor of the LDB that will give students the opportunity to
meet and talk with Socha.
The Piney Woods Lecture Series is funded by the Mathematical
Association of America, the Tensor Foundation, the SHSU department
of mathematics and statistics, and the College of Arts and
Sciences.
The series is designed to “invite well-known female
mathematicians to the SHSU campus to speak, and therefore
provides SHSU graduate and undergraduate students exposure
to well-known female mathematicians in a variety of research
areas,” according to Jacqueline Jensen, assistant professor
of mathematics.
For more information, call the mathematics
and statistics department at 936.294.1563 or
visit http://www.shsu.edu/~mth_jaj/pwls/.
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A&M Prof To Discuss
Macroeconomic Consequences
Dennis Jansen, professor of economics at Texas A&M University,
will present his paper, "The Macroeconomic Consequences
of Remittances," on Wednesday (Oct. 24).
The lecture, part of the SHSU Economics Fall 2007 Seminar
Series, will be held at 3:30 p.m. in Smith-Hutson Building
Room 139.
Jansen, who also serves as director for graduate studies at
Texas A&M, received his doctorate from the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
His research interests include monetary policy, inflation
and business cycle fluctuations, stock market fluctuations,
on which he has published extensively in respected publications
such as the “Economic Journal,” “Review
of Economics and Statistics,” “Economica,”
and the “Journal of Money, Credit and Banking,”
among many others, according to Hiranya Nath, associate professor
in SHSU’s economics and international business department.
Jansen also served as the editor of “Economic Inquiry,”
a highly-ranked general interest economics journal.
For more information, contact Nath
at 936.294.1265.
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Program To Pass Along ‘Ultimate
Money Skills’
The Bearkat OneCard and the Multicultural and International
Student Services offices will team up to teach students 'Ultimate
Money Skills' on Tuesday (Oct. 23).
Students can attend the program at either 11 a.m. or 6 p.m.
in the Lowman Student Center Theater.
The program will teach students how to develop smart money
management skills in college that will lead to a lifetime
of financial independence, including the appropriate use of
credit, the basics of banking, how to design a budget, taking
control of student loan debt, and protecting your identity.
"Our mission is to educate students on the 'tricks of
the trade' to be more financially responsible," said
Kristy Vienne, Bearkat OneCard Services director.
Prizes will be given away, including a $200 Barnes and Noble
gift card for the individual grand prize and a $250 scholarship
for the organization with the most representatives at the
event.
The program is part of UniDiversity
Week, hosted by the Office of MISS.
For more information, contact the Bearkat
OneCard Office at 936.294.2273.
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Conference To Converge Math
Professionals, Students
Professional and budding mathematicians will have the opportunity
to learn from professors from around the world and the nation
during the department of mathematics and statistics’
Second Annual Workshop on Constructive Function Theory on
Friday and Saturday (Oct. 26-27).
The two-day conference will kick off on Friday at 2 p.m. in
the Lee Drain Building with a colloquium on “Landau-Kolmogorov
type inequalities and their applications” featuring
Vladislav Babenko, Dnepropetrovsk National University in the
Ukraine.
Other Friday talks include “Geometric constraints for
finite elements: why they arise and how to deal with them”
by Tatyana Sorokina, from Towson University; “Hyper-spectral
image data dimensionality reduction” by Jianzhong Wang,
from SHSU; and “Divergence-free SBFs on spheres and
other surfaces,” by Francis Narcowich, from Texas A&M
University.
Saturday will begin with coffee from 9:30-10 a.m. in LDB Room
419, followed by eight workshops, including “Norming
Sets in Multivariate Approximation: An Overview” by
Joe Ward, from Texas A&M; “Subdivision schemes induced
from refinable scaling functions” by Jian-ao Lian, from
Prairie View A&M University; and “Linear precision
for toric patches” by Luis Garcia-Puente, from SHSU.
Friday’s workshops are scheduled to end by 6 p.m., and
Saturday’s workshops are scheduled to end by 3:40 p.m.
No registration is required, and all lectures are open to
any professors or students interested in the field.
The workshop is funded by the SHSU College of Arts and Sciences.
A full schedule of events is available at http://www.shsu.edu/~yvb001/Seminar/workshopOct07.html.
For more information, contact Ken W. Smith, chair of the mathematics
and statistics department, at kenwsmith@shsu.edu
or 936.294.3523.
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Organization To Draw Donors
For Rivalry Blood Drive
The Sam Houston Association of Medically Oriented Students
will take SHSU’s rivalry with Stephen F. Austin State
into the blood bank.
In an attempt to rectify SHSU’s loss by one-unit last
year, SHAMOS, in conjunction with the Gulf Coast Regional
Blood Center, will host the second blood drive on Monday (Oct.
22), from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Lowman Student Center Ballroom.
Last year’s drive collected 105 units of usable blood,
with 32 deferred donors.
“If we had just 2 of the 32 who so kindly came to give,
we could beat them,” said Brian Louden, SHAMOS president.
Donors must bring a valid picture identification in order
to give, must weigh at least 110 pounds and must be “in
general good health, without any cold or flu symptoms,’
according to the Gulf Coast Web site.
Louden also encourages participants to eat a good breakfast.
“We had amazing turn out last time, but with the expansion
of the university we should be able to double what SFA gives,”
he said.
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Graduating Seniors
Invited To ‘Destination Graduation’
It’s a “must go” if you’re interested
in a hassle-free December graduation.
There will be free food, prizes and gifts, and a chance to
take care of last-minute graduation details.
These are all attractions of Destination Graduation, an event
for seniors graduating this fall, which will be held on Wednesday
(Oct. 24), from 1-3 p.m. in the Lowman Student Center Ballroom.
Various campus departments will also be on hand to give out
information about that next big education destination—graduate
school.
“This event is held to provide students a place to gather
any last-minute details regarding graduation and take care
of any issues affiliated with account information, graduation
status information or GRE (Graduate Record Exam) questions,”
said Zach Valdes, publications coordinator for the Registrar’s
Office.
For more information, call the Registrar’s
Office at 936.294.
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Music To Have Swingin' Concert,
Marching Festival
The SHSU School of Music will play host to a jazz concert,
as well as more than 30 high schools, with a concert and a
contest beginning Tuesday (Oct. 23).
On that day, the SHSU Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Laboratory Band,
under the direction of music faculty member Trent Hanna, will
perform a variety of swing, Latin and more modern works at
7:30 p.m. in the Criminal Justice Center’s Killinger
Auditorium.
Among the pieces that will be performed are “Milestones”
by Miles Davis, “New York State of Mind” by Billy
Joel and “Have You Heard” by Pat Metheny.
The concert will also feature the sax section on an arrangement
of Cole Porter's “Easy to Love,” Hanna said.
The concert is free and open to the public.
On Saturday (Oct. 27), the Bearkat Marching Band and SOM
will welcome more than 30 high school bands from Texas and
beyond to perform and compete in the annual Sam Houston State
Marching Festival. The contest begins at 8 a.m. at Bowers
Stadium.
“This special event is one of the premier marching festivals
in the country with well over 8,000 fans in attendance,”
said Fred Vélez, BMB director.
Nationally-recognized judges place and adjudicate each group
in a preliminary and finals format before crowning a grand
champion at the end of the festival, he said.
Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for students and children
under 6 are free for the entire day.
For more information, call the School
of Music at 936.294.1360.
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Center To Give Study Skills,
Grad School Advice
The Student Advising and Mentoring Center will teach students
to “study smart” and help students prepare for
graduate school with two programs beginning on Monday (Oct.
22).
The second Study Skills Workshop Series of the semester is
comprised of six one-hour sessions that focus on studying
smart, procrastination, time management, reading textbooks
and note taking, test taking strategies and stress management.
Sessions will be held on a variety of days and times through
Nov. 30 to accommodate student schedules.
The Graduate School Information Meeting, where students can
find out about financial aid, organizing the application and
the grad school timeline, will be held on Monday from 6-7:30
p.m.
Both workshops will be held in the SAM Center, located in
Academic Building IV Room 210.
Space is limited, and students are encouraged to call or
stop by the SAM Center to sign up.
For more information, call 936.294.4444, e-mail samcenter@shsu.edu
or visit the SAM
Center, located in Academic Building IV Room
210.
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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
Oct. 19, 2007
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu
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