eInside Briefs

Nominate a Colleague for the 2011 Distinguished Scholar Award

The University Research Council is now accepting nominations for the 2011 Distinguished Scholar Award.

In conjunction with the annual Celebration of Scholarship, the University Research Council sponsors a program of annual awards to three distinguished scholars for outstanding research and/or creative activities at Kent State University. The cash award is $1,500, and nominations are made by peers. Awardees are selected by a committee of faculty members from related disciplines and endorsed by the full council.

To be eligible, a faculty member must be nominated. Self-nominations are acceptable. Submit the nomination no later than Feb. 23, 2011.  After all the nominations are received, the University Research Council will contact each nominee individually for detailed information and additional material to support their nomination. The awards will be presented at the Distinguished Scholar Award ceremony, which will take place during the annual Celebration of Scholarship event on April 15, 2011.

Only tenured/tenure-track and emeriti faculty at Kent State may nominate someone for a Distinguished Scholar Award. Individuals may nominate only one candidate per year.

Except in unusual circumstances, only full professors who have been at Kent State for a full five years are eligible to receive a Distinguished Scholar Award. In order to receive the award, nominees who have been at Kent State for less than 10 years must demonstrate a record of sustained scholarship and/or creative activity since coming to Kent State.

An individual may only receive one Distinguished Scholar Award. Finalists from the previous year will be asked if they wish to be considered again for the award. Therefore, it is not necessary to nominate an individual who received a nomination in the previous year.

The 2010 Distinguished Scholar Award recipients are Dr. John Dunlosky, Department of Psychology; Dr. Robert Flexer, School of Lifespan Development and Educational Sciences, and Dr. Phil Rumrill, also from the School  of Lifespan Development and Educational Sciences.

Important Message Regarding Student Registration for Classes

As we begin the new semester, the Office of the University Registrar asks for your assistance in making sure that all students are properly registered for their spring 2011 courses.

According to university policy, only officially registered students are permitted to attend courses. The link to official class rosters is found in FlashFAST, under the "Faculty Advisor Toolbox" within the "Faculty and Advisor Tools" tab. Students who are not officially registered within the appropriate time period WILL NOT receive a grade or earn credit for the course even if they attend the entire course and complete all required work.

The schedule adjustment period for students to add full-term courses ends Sunday, Jan. 23. Students are able to withdraw from any or all full-term courses through Sunday, March 20. Deadlines for courses that meet outside the full part of term can be found on the Detailed Class Search. To access the Detailed Class Search, visit the Registrar's website at http://www.kent.edu/registrar/, click the Schedule of Classes quicklink, and select "spring 2011."

Instructors are asked to remind students that it is important to finalize and verify their registration within the proper timeframe. After the published deadlines, adjustments in registration will only be considered for review by the Office of the Registrar in situations where students have fully complied with their responsibilities.

The deadline for submitting midterm grades (for freshmen only) and final grades can be found on the Registrar's website at http://www.kent.edu/registrar/calendars/index.cfm.

For additional information, please contact Jeff Gardner, associate registrar, at jgardn11@kent.edu.

Who's in Charge of Your Departmental Website?

University Communications and Marketing is asking all academic and nonacademic department heads to verify the person(s) who have access to update your website if it is housed in CommonSpot, the university's content management system.

To verify that the appropriate individuals have access, please review the Excel file at www.kent.edu/ucm/services/web/commonspot/upload/commonspot-user-account-list.xls.

The easiest way to search the file is to hit CTRL F (find), enter your department (example Justice Studies), and scan to where this 'finder' functionality takes you in the document. Be sure to click Find Next, to see all individuals associated with your department's website.

If you find that an individual(s) needs to be added or deleted from the list, please e-mail webteam@kent.edu with instructions. Those instructions should indicate whether someone's access should be revoked or whether a new individual should be added. In the latter instance, that person should also contact University Communications and Marketing at the above e-mail address for access instructions and a user training session. Training information can be found at http://www.kent.edu/ucm/services/web/commonspot/.

Questions should be directed to Lin Danes at ldanes@kent.edu.

Mailing Workshop Series Presented by Mail Services Available for Spring

Mail Services is again hosting a series of four one-hour seminars about best practices and distribution of mail through the United States Postal Service. Join us to learn and explore the sometimes confusing rules and regulations that Kent State's mail needs to adhere to in order to obtain the best postage rates and delivery times.

Mailing Basics:                    

Thursday, Feb. 3, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Room 320, Kent Student Center

            Learn about

• Classes of mail (When to use first class and when to use nonprofit)
• Delivery standards (How long will delivery take?)
• Size (At what point do I pay more for larger or heavier pieces?)
• Design/layout (Where does the permit and address go?)

Move Update:

Thursday, Feb. 24, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Room 320, Kent Student Center

            Learn about

• Preferred formats for your mailing list
• Internal list hygiene and updates
• NCOA and CASS certification of your list
• Return mail's role in list hygiene

Using USPS Package Services:

Thursday, March 17, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Room 320, Kent Student Center

            Learn about:

• Proper package addressing and labeling

• Shipping first class packages
• Parcel packages
• Priority
• Express

Successfully Utilizing the Mail  

Thursday, April 7, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Room 320, Kent Student Center

            Learn about:

• Presorted mail
• Automated mail
• Business reply mai
• Tips to help your mail get opened and/or read

The seminars are free, and participants are encouraged to share mailing concerns or problems.

Please RSVP your attendance on the Human Resource website at http://reg.abcsignup.com/view/view_month.aspx?as=55&wp=137&aid=KENT.

For additional information, contact Steve Finley at sfinley7@kent.edu or 330-672-8703.

We look forward to seeing you at the workshops!

Summer Teaching Grant Pays Dividends in New Multimedia Journalism Class

For the first time at Kent State, student journalists and computer scientists will collaborate on real-world projects in a single course, Web Programming for Multimedia Journalism. Student media outlets KentWired and The Burr magazine, as well as professional media, including Cleveland Magazine and Akron's the330.com, have expressed interest in publishing projects the class produces.

"We're not trying to turn journalists into computer scientists or computer scientists into journalists," says School of Journalism and Mass Communication assistant professor Jacqueline Marino. "We want each student to excel in his or her chosen area of expertise in a collaborative way. I often hear 'Wow, that's cool' when I show some whiz-bang news application in class. This is the course where journalism students stop admiring from afar. They're finally going to be with people who can help them make their own whiz-bang news app."

Those skilled in programming have developed online tools to keep track of campaign promises (The Obameter), personalize searches of public data (EveryBlock), inform people of local crimes (Tampa Bay Mug Shots) and create innovative storytelling integrating user-generated content (A Moment in Time).

As the news becomes more personal and interactive, journalists know they need to collaborate with those who best understand the emerging technologies that will help media organizations inform, engage and inspire their audiences in the future.

Department of Computer Science Professor Paul Wang says, "When faculty from the Department of Computer Science and JMC get together to create and teach this interdisciplinary course, students from both departments benefit, and the university benefits. The class will certainly make students strong candidates for a growing area of employment."

Wang and Marino, along with Sue Zake (who advises Kentwired and will be the class multimedia coach), want to increase literacy among student journalists and computer scientists, who will be tomorrow's media partners. Journalism students will learn basic programming skills, including HTML and CSS. Computer Science students will learn journalism basics, such as news values, common practices and ethics.

By the end of the semester, the students will create their own news-related websites or interactive features that will include original journalistic content to be published on existing websites.

National Office of Kappa Delta Sorority to Fund Kent State Chapter's Confidence-Building Efforts

Teniell Trolian

Kappa Delta Sorority, creator of the Confidence Coalition, recently announced the recipients of its "Confidence U" grants to provide confidence-building programming.  Five universities - Kent State University, University of Kentucky, University of San Diego, University of Virginia and Wittenberg University - will each receive a grant of $5,000.  The "Confidence U" grants were designed to provide funds for Panhellenic offices to raise awareness of the many issues related to lack of confidence among young women, such as eating disorders, dating abuse, alcohol abuse, relational aggression including hazing and cyberbullying, and other risky behaviors. 

Kent State University's chapter of the sorority will use the money to help fund a confidence day and a confidence workshop for middle- and high-school students.

"The Kent State Panhellenic Community is so grateful for the opportunity to partner with Kappa Delta and the Confidence Coalition to develop programs that will impact the confidence of women at Kent State University and in the Kent, Ohio community," says Teniell Trolian, assistant director for Greek Affairs at Kent State.

Meet Dr. Fashaad Crawford, Assistant Vice President in the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Fashaad Crawford

Dr. Fashaad Crawford became part of Kent State University in August. At that time, he became Assistant Vice President, Strategic Planning, Diversity Assessment and Research Management, for the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The position involves strategy planning, assessment and correlated research for all of the Kent State campuses as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion.

"So far, one of my key responsibilities centers on creating a venue to engage the campus community in an on-going review of various diversity constructs," says Crawford.

Crawford reports directly to Dr. Alfreda Brown, Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

The Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is a relatively new division at Kent State, and Crawford says he is proud to join the team.

"The division consists of very hard-working staff, faculty and student employees dedicated to cultivating, sustaining and enhancing excellence in all that we do," explains Crawford. "We aspire to ground our initiatives empirically with clear and measureable objectives, and with collaborations throughout the university community that will prepare our students for the increasingly diversified workforce they will engage upon graduation."

Prior to Kent State, Crawford was employed in various areas of higher education at other universities, including admissions, financial aid, athletic academic services, College of Education, Diversity, Retention Research Management, and for the Provost of Undergraduate Affairs. Most recently, he was a faculty member in the Higher Education Administration master's and doctoral program at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

As a faculty member, Crawford published and presented his research at the local, national and international levels, including serving as co-principal investigator for various research projects commissioned and funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education. Also while serving as faculty, Crawford advised students including a Fulbright Fellowship recipient and co-chaired and served on several dissertation committees.

"Working in higher education in a state that is contiguous to Ohio for many years provided me with an opportunity to become very familiar with Kent State University," adds Crawford. "Kent State is one of the nation's cutting-edge universities that embraces a praxis of continuous process improvement. In addition, the university has placed an increased focus on issues of diversity and inclusive excellence, all of which make the university very appealing."

Crawford received his undergraduate degree in history from South Carolina State University, graduating with honors. At the University of Louisville, he received both a master's degree and a doctoral degree in educational leadership and organizational development, concentrating in higher education administration, policy assessment and K-20 student achievement. He is a native of Cheraw, South Carolina.|

Outside of his Kent State life, Crawford enjoys reading, writing and spending time with his family. He is also an avid sports fan.

To reach Crawford, e-mail him at fcrawfo1@kent.edu.

By Carrie Drummond
 

Kent State University Press Announces New Series of Limited Edition Collectors Plates

The first of ten limited edition collectors plates commemorating the sesquicentennial of the U.S. Civil War, is now available from the Kent State University Press.

Individually hand-wrought from forged aluminum, these commemorative plates feature a detailed recreation of the Siege of Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861, and Secretary of the Treasury John A. Dix's handwritten order to Union treasury agents.

Each six-inch diameter plate arrives in a custom presentation box, perfect for safekeeping, and with a certificate of authenticity, making this a unique and historic gift.

No more than 1,000 plates of each type will be made. Both plates are now on display in the showcase near the library elevators. The price for one plate is $49 (plus $6.50 shipping and handling) or $79 for the pair (plus $13 shipping and handling). Ohio residents add 6.5% sales tax ($3.31 for one plate or $5.33 for two plates).