SIU President's Communique (2-10-2012)

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Weekly Communiqué (February 10, 2012)

SIUC Debate Team Captures Two Tournament Titles
SIUE MLK Awards Luncheon Welcomes Crowd, Honors Leaders
SIUC Student is One of 24 Picked to Attend USDA Forum
SIU Medical School to Participate in Lung Cancer Study
SIUE Chancellor Search Advisory Committee Seeks Community Feedback
SIUC Announces Spring Commencement Plans
SIUC’s Popular International Festival Opens Feb. 15
SIUE Music Faculty Featured through HEC-TV’s I Love Jazz
SIUC Students Can Apply to McNair Scholars Program
Noted Author, Professor to Keynote SIUC’s Darwin Day
SIUE Finance Professor’s Research Featured in the Wall Street Journal
SIUC Track And Field Takes First Place at Saluki Invitational

1. SIUC Debate Team Captures Two Tournament Titles

It may have been Super Bowl weekend for many around the country, but for the SIUC Debate Team, it was crunch time. SIUC walked away with wins in both of the last two tournaments of the regular debate season. The Round Robin Tournament of Champions is an invitation-to-top-teams-only event, while the Sunset Cliffs Classic is open to all collegiate debate teams. Approximately 70 teams from universities around the country participated. Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, Calif., hosts both tournaments. SIUC is the only team in history to win both tournaments in the same year, and it has done so three times. The SIU Carbondale Debate Team will spend the next month, before the national championship debates, in intensive research sessions to prepare. In 2008, the team won the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence, otherwise known as the national championships, placing second in 2009 and third in 2010, among other honors. In 2008, the team received special recognition and honor from the governor of Illinois, and was introduced and honored on the floors of both the Illinois House and Illinois Senate.

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2. SIUE MLK Awards Luncheon Welcomes Crowd, Honors Leaders

A crowd of more than 250 people gathered during a luncheon Tuesday to celebrate the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s annual MLK Humanitarian and Scholarship Awards. The presentation, A Monumental Year: It’s Our Time to Act — A Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., featured the performance, Stand, by the Black Theater Workshop Touring Company and the SIUE East St. Louis Center Performing Arts Company. This year’s guest speaker was East St. Louis Mayor Alvin Parks Jr. Award winners included Deontay “Sean” Crawford of Springfield, a junior biological sciences major with a concentration in dentistry through the SIUE College of Arts and Sciences. Crawford is the recipient of the MLK Scholarship and Humanitarian Award. Cheryl Heard, assistant director of the SIUE Kimmel Leadership Center, who has worked for positive social change for 16 years through St. Louis area grass roots organization, Racial Harmony, is the Faculty/Staff Humanitarian Award recipient. The Rev. Dorris Davis, founder of the Dorris Davis Helping Hands Shelter for homeless men in East St. Louis and dedicated community volunteer, was chosen as the recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service award. Winners of the MLK high school competition awards included Jacob Till-Meidinger of Belleville, a senior at Belleville West High School — visual art award; Berit Ericson of Columbia, a senior at Waterloo High School — poetry award; and Richard Roberts of Alton, a sophomore at Alton High School — essay award. As part of the event, members of the SIUE Gospel Choir performed during a reception in the Goshen Lounge.

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3. SIUC Student is One of 24 Picked to Attend USDA Forum

A student studying nutrition at SIUC will participate in a national diversity forum on the future of agriculture. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has named Danielle Farley to its 2012 Agriculture Outlook Forum Student Diversity Program. Farley, a senior in human nutrition and dietetics in the College of Agricultural Sciences, is one of just 24 students selected by the USDA nationwide to attend the forum titled “Moving Agriculture Forward.” The event is set for Feb. 23-24 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Va. Farley selection was based on an essay she wrote titled “Agriculture as a Career.” Farley’s essay is one of just six such winning essays featured by the USDA on its website. Her essay is available at http://www.usda.gov/oce/forum/diversity/papers/2012/Farley.pdf.

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4. SIU Medical School to Participate in Lung Cancer Study

The SIU School of Medicine in Springfield, the Southern Illinois Healthcare Cancer Institute in Carbondale and the Illinois State Cancer Registry will collaborate on a two-year study that will explore disparities in the treatment of lung cancer in southern Illinois. SIH Cancer Institute is an affiliate of Simmons Cancer Institute at SIU. Studies have shown that lung cancer mortality rates and cases of lung cancer are higher in southern Illinois than other Illinois counties. The $249,998 project is funded by the American Cancer Society, Illinois Division. The two-year project, “Collaboration to Reduce Lung Cancer Disparities in Southern Illinois Delta,” will include the 16 most southern counties in Illinois: Alexander, Franklin, Gallatin, Hamilton, Hardin, Jackson, Johnson, Massac, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Randolph, Saline, Union, White and Williamson. The mission of Simmons Cancer Institute at SIU is to serve the people of central and southern Illinois by addressing their present and future cancer needs through education, research, patient care and community service.

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5. SIUE Chancellor Search Advisory Committee Seeks Community Feedback

Last November, the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Chancellor Search Advisory Committee was formed to assist in efforts to find the replacement for Chancellor Vaughn Vandegrift, who, after eight years of distinguished service, plans to retire at the conclusion of Academic Year 2011-12. The committee is seeking participation and feedback from the SIUE, Edwardsville and Glen Carbon communities, which will be vital in the new Chancellor selection process. A form to submit comments or items that are considered important in the search process to the committee has been added to the Chancellor Search site. On-campus interviews of the finalists are currently scheduled for the end of March and early April, with the naming of the new chancellor planned for the May 2012 SIU Board of Trustees meeting.

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6. SIUC Announces Spring Commencement Plans

SIUC has announced plans for spring commencement ceremonies. Three ceremonies are planned, all of which will take place on May 12 in the SIU Arena. The 8:30 a.m. ceremony will include the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Mass Communication and Media Arts. The 1:30 p.m. ceremony will include the Colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Applied Sciences and Arts, Engineering, and Science. The 5:30 p.m. ceremony will include the Colleges of Business, and Education and Human Services, and the School of Law. Individual colleges and schools may also schedule individual commencement-related events, which will be announced later. A commencement website, now under development, will include detailed information that will help with planning for the commencement ceremonies.

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7. SIUC’s Popular International Festival Opens Feb. 15

In celebration of people and cultures around the world and of the diversity within, SIUC welcomes International Festival 2012 this month. Organizers are celebrating the half-century birthday with the theme “Celebrating Our Past. Rejuvenating Our Future.” for the 2012 International Festival. The festival features several special events on Feb. 15 and 17. Kicking things off is the Parade of Flags. International students will assemble at the Northwest Annex about 10 a.m. on Feb. 15, dressed in native attire and carrying the flags of their nations. The International Food Fair follows, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Student Center Ballrooms. The International Festival wraps up with a pair of events on Feb. 17. The evening begins with the International Buffet in the Renaissance Room from 5 to 7 p.m. The grand finale is the International Festival Culture Show at 7 p.m. on Ballrooms B, C and D.

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8. SIUE Music Faculty Featured through HEC-TV’s I Love Jazz

Higher Education Channel Television (HEC-TV) has SIUE in the spotlight this month, featuring the University’s jazz programs. Musical guest SIUE Professor of Music Rick Haydon, who manages the recording studio and is the director of Jazz Studies at SIUE, talks about jazz during the segment and performs with a quartet. In the channel’s education segment this month, Building Blocks of Jazz, Haydon joins HEC-TV’s Phil Dunlap to discuss rhythm guitar in jazz music. From the station’s Don Wolff’s archives, Jazz Gem features 7-string guitarist, Bucky Pizzarelli. According to the station, audiences will meet the “Rising Stars of Jazz,” who are students from the SIUE Jazz program. As St. Louis’ leading producer of education, arts and cultural television programming, HEC-TV is the only television station in the metro area with the mission statement “to strengthen and promote the education, arts and cultural communities in the St. Louis Metropolitan area.” Major funding for the station comes from the St. Louis County Commission for Educational Media. It is programmed by the Higher Education Consortium, which is a compilation of the 12 colleges and universities and 62 cooperating school districts in greater St. Louis. The HEC-TV Board of Directors is comprised of the presidents, chancellors and leaders of member colleges and universities. Haydon, who is one of the first SIUE jazz program graduates, said he has been pleased with its evolution since its inception in 1982. According to HEC-TV’s website, its programming reaches 630,000 subscribers each minute of each day. Programming is available for general viewing, as well as to teachers for use with appropriate curriculum and classroom materials. The site continues, “Winner of the prestigious Station of Excellence from the Mid America Emmy association in 2010 and 2011, HEC-TV is committed to producing and presenting programming that engages the audience, illuminates subjects, and challenges viewers.” For show times click on the “TV Schedule” tab.

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9. SIUC Students Can Apply to McNair Scholars Program

SIUC is inviting eligible sophomores and juniors to apply for membership in a prestigious academic program that honors a fallen astronaut. SIU Carbondale’s McNair Scholars Program serves students from two populations. The first population includes students from all ethnic backgrounds who are both first-generation college students and from low-income backgrounds. The second population includes students from underrepresented minority groups. The program is seeking academically competitive students with a grade point average of 2.75 or higher. The program uses mentoring by faculty and others to support educational and professional development activities that lay a foundation for academic success. The program is named for Ronald E. McNair, a physicist and astronaut who was one of seven astronauts killed in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. SIUC is one of the more than 200 universities that host the program. To apply, students should visit the website to find out more information. The application deadline is March 7.

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10. Noted Author, Professor to Keynote SIUC’s Darwin Day

An author, professor and editor of a top biology journal will be the keynote speaker at the seventh annual Darwin Day event at SIUC. Massimo Pigliucci’s lecture, “Nonsense on Stilts: Why it’s Important to Separate Science from Bunk,” is set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9, in the Student Center Auditorium. The Darwin Day Foundation and SIU Carbondale’s University Honors Program present the event, which is free and open to the public. Pigliucci is a professor of philosophy and editor of Philosophy & Theory in Biology. The event coincides with Charles Darwin’s 203rd birthday. The event is part of the University Honors Program. Co-sponsors include the College of Science, Department of Geology, Department of Microbiology, Department of Philosophy, Department of Plant Biology, Department of Zoology and Sigma Xi.

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11. SIUE Finance Professor’s Research Featured in the Wall Street Journal

Understanding corporate stock buybacks can be a tool in an investor’s arsenal, if investors closely examine the trades made by insiders leading up to the buyback announcement. Shrikant Jategaonkar, an assistant professor in the SIUE School of Business, has studied the relationship between share repurchases, insider buying and stock performance between 1991 and 2006. His working paper titled “If it’s good for the firm, it’s good for me: Insider trading and repurchases motivated by undervaluation” was highlighted in a Wall Street Journal article on Saturday, January 21st, 2012 (Buy Signals: How to Decipher Stock Buybacks). SmartMoney.com columnist Jack Hough explored share buybacks and the possible implications of this activity for investors in his article. Hough cited a variety of reasons why managers choose to repurchase their stock and how in some cases this can be a signal to invest in that company. The study shows that stock repurchases associated with unusually low insider buying outperformed other stocks by almost 9 percent over a 4-year period. In contrast, firms with unusually high insider buying prior to stock repurchases earned an abnormal return of 29 percentage points over the same period. Jategaonkar, who is an alumnus of SIUE’s School of Business, earned an M.S. degree in Economics and Finance in 2004. Prior to returning to SIUE, he received a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Arizona. The SIUE School of Business is among an elite 10 percent of business schools worldwide that have earned the prestigious seal of approval from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International. The School’s accounting program is accredited through AACSB International. Less than 30 percent of AACSB-accredited business schools also hold the accounting accreditation. For the sixth consecutive year, the SIUE School of Business has been named an outstanding business school by The Princeton Review. The publication’s The Best 294 Business Schools: 2012 Edition recommends the School as one of the best institutions in the U.S. to attend to earn an MBA.

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12. SIUC Track And Field Takes First Place at Saluki Invitational

The SIUC men's and women's track and field teams won the 2012 Saluki Invitational that concluded Feb. 4 inside the SIU Recreation Center. The women's team scored 195.5 points to beat Austin Peay in second place by 112 points and the men scored 248 to win by 152 points, over Southern University who finished second. In all, the Saluki women won five events in the meet, four of which came on Saturday. The men won seven events over the course of the meet, five of those were on the final day. Kenya Culmer had the highlight individual performance of the weekend, as she broke the school record in the high jump that was set by Felicia Hill in 1999. The Nassau, Bahamas native recorded a jump of 5-10.00 to take the title in the event. Overall, the Salukis recorded 13-second place finishes, and 10-third place finishes to breeze past the eleven competing schools.

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