eInside Briefs

New Kent State President Beverly Warren Hits the Ground Running on Her First Day

Kent State President Beverly Warren (center) talks with
Dennis Eckart, chair of the Kent State Board of Trustees,
during a campus tour led by Flashguides. Flashguides are
student leaders from Destination Kent State, the advising
and registration program for new, first-year Kent State
students. Following the tour, Warren had lunch with the
Flashguides in the Hub.

Beverly Warren, who began her presidency at Kent State University on July 1, wasted no time getting more familiar with her new university family and the community. The first morning for Kent State’s 12th president included a walk through campus with her Cabinet, breakfast with city leaders, meetings and lunch with students and the launch of her official Twitter account.

Warren began the day with an email to the Kent State community expressing her excitement of joining Kent State, sharing the values that will guide her work and discussing her approach to the “great privilege of being your president.” Warren’s email can be found here: www.kent.edu/news/success/welcome-president-warren. She held her first meeting with her Cabinet, the senior leadership of the university who report directly to her. Following the meeting, Warren and the Cabinet walked down the Lester A. Lefton Esplanade, named after Warren’s predecessor who retired, and met with city of Kent leaders at the esplanade arch. University and city leadership then had a breakfast meeting together at the Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center in downtown Kent, Ohio.

Also on her first day, Warren toured the campus, met with Kent State students and explored the university. She had lunch with students in the Hub, a popular dining location and commuter spot in the Kent Student Center, before traveling to Kent State University at Ashtabula. Her meeting with faculty, staff and community leaders of the Regional Campus will be replicated at all Kent State campuses and the communities they serve over her first few weeks.

Warren also announced in her email on July 1 to the Kent State community that she has a Twitter account. People can follow and connect with her @PresBWarren.

As the university’s chief executive officer, Warren now oversees one of the nation’s largest university systems. Kent State’s eight campuses provide more than 300 degree programs to about 42,000 undergraduate and graduate students from throughout Ohio and the nation, and from approximately 100 countries. One of the largest employers in Northeast Ohio, the university employs more than 5,700 full- and part-time faculty and staff.

Prior to coming to Kent State, Warren had served as provost and senior vice president at Virginia Commonwealth University since 2011.

For more information about Warren, visit www.kent.edu/president.

Kent State’s Associate Dean of Nursing Collaborates With Students and Faculty in Brazil

Three-year grant allows Mary K. Anthony, Ph.D., to collaborate with nursing students and faculty at Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianópolis, SC, Brazil

Mary K. Anthony, Ph.D., professor and associate dean
of research at Kent State University’s College of Nursing
(second person seated from left), works with doctoral
students at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil.

Mary K. Anthony, Ph.D., professor and associate dean for research at Kent State University’s College of Nursing, recently returned from a month-long visit to Florianópolis, SC, Brazil. Anthony was a special visiting researcher with the Graduate Nursing Program and Nursing Department at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, from April 19 - May 20. Anthony’s visit was funded by the Science without Borders Program, which approved the research project titled, “Governance and Healthcare Management in Nursing and Health: Translation, Adaptation and Validation of International Instruments for use in Brazil.”

While in Brazil, Anthony engaged in lectures, seminars and visited local universities and healthcare organizations. She was a lecturer at four formal classes and several informal classes, reviewed manuscripts and met individually with nursing students in baccalaureate, master’s, doctoral and postdoctoral programs to discuss their research projects. She also visited a university hospital and three federally funded healthcare agencies: primary care, specialized care and UPA, an urgent care facility.

“People were extraordinarily friendly,” says Anthony, who has been invited to return to Brazil next year. “They seemed to be really glad I was there. I found it interesting to see the commonalities between the Brazilian nursing students and our nursing students at Kent State. There also were some noticeable differences in the nursing programs. For instance, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N) degree is a five-year program, and the master’s program is more general than ours. There are also no nurse practitioner or doctorate of nursing practice programs (D.N.P.), and a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) is completed in four years.”

In Brazil, education at public universities, such as the Federal University of Santa Catarina, is offered at no cost to students.

Mary K. Anthony, Ph.D., Kent State
University nursing professor and
associate dean, poses with José Luís
Guedes dos Santos, assistant professor
at the Federal University of Santa Catarina,
Brazil. Dos Santos studied with Anthony
during a visit to Kent State’s College of
Nursing last year.

The collaboration between the two universities began when Assistant Professor José Luís Guedes dos Santos of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, then a Ph.D. candidate, discovered Anthony’s research and writings on shared governance while doing research for his dissertation. He contacted her and ended up traveling to the U.S. to study with Anthony at Kent State for five months last year.

The successful collaboration led Guedes dos Santos’ professor, Alacoque Lorenzeni Erdmann, Ph.D., head of research for Group of Studies on Administration, Healthcare Management and Management Educational in Nursing and Health (GEPADES), wrote a grant to bring Anthony to Brazil. Erdmann’s grant was approved by the Brazilian government in November 2013.

The joint effort of both nursing departments has resulted in an institutional cooperation agreement between Federal University of Santa Catarina and Kent State. As part of this agreement, several Brazilian Ph.D. nursing students also will travel to the U.S. to study with Anthony over the coming year. In August, Federal University of Santa Catarina nursing student Alini Pestano will arrive at Kent State’s College of Nursing where she will study how nurses manage the process of organ transplantation with Anthony for five months.

Since Anthony’s visit in May, eight Brazilian nursing students have submitted requests to travel to the U.S. to study in the College of Nursing over the next two years. Anthony also has been invited to write an editorial for publication in Texto & Contexto Enfermagem, a quarterly international journal of the Federal University of Santa Catarina. In addition, she recently co-authored two abstracts with professors Guedes dos Santos and Erdmann for presentation at the U.S. International Nursing Administration Research Conference in Dallas in November.

For more information about nursing research at Kent State, visit www.kent.edu/nursing/research.

For more information about nursing programs at Kent State, visit www.kent.edu/nursing.

Golden Flashes Continue Success in the Classroom

Fans cheer on the Kent State University men's basketball
team during a game in the Memorial Athletic and Convocation
Center. The Kent State men's basketball team boasted the
highest spring term GPA in recorded history.

Kent State University's student-athletes continued their run of success in the classroom during the spring of 2014 by posting the third highest term grade-point average in recorded history.

The athletic department finished with a 3.085 spring GPA, a number that ranks behind only a 3.11 in the spring of 2013 and a 3.10 in the spring of 2012.

The department's current cumulative GPA of 3.139 remains the highest in recorded history.

"Our goal is to graduate student-athletes with meaningful degrees," says Director of Athletics Joel Nielsen. "These grade-point averages indicate that our students will be prepared to go out into society and contribute in the fields of their choice. Successes in the classroom translate to successes on the field, and that is revealed by our recent stretch of wins in the Cartwright Award, the Reese and Jacoby trophies and the Wagon Wheel Challenge."

Twelve Kent State teams recorded term and cumulative GPAs over 3.0, including three with term GPAs above 3.4 and five with cumulative GPAs above 3.4.

A total of 22 student-athletes scored perfect 4.0 GPAs. They are included among a group of 234 Golden Flashes with term GPAs at 3.0 or above (61 percent of Kent State student-athletes) and 118 with term GPAs above 3.5 (30 percent).

"What impresses me most about our student-athletes is their desire to be the standard bearers of the Mid-American Conference athletically as well as academically," says Randale Richmond, associate athletic director for academic and compliance services. "We have student-athletes who compete at the highest level athletically and receive all the praise and accolades that comes with that success on the playing field, yet they're in our offices working with our academic counselor, tutors and learning specialists to see how they can get a 3.0 up to a 3.5.  They hold each other accountable and display remarkable perspective and resolve and truly embody the ideal of student first athletes."

Individual team accomplishments include:

• Baseball earned third best spring GPA in recorded history
• Men's basketball boasted highest spring term GPA in recorded history
• Women's basketball – 83 percent of team finished with a 3.0 or higher term GPA
• Field hockey had three students graduate with honors
• Football earned second highest term GPA in recorded history
• Golf senior class earned a 3.498
• Women's golf earned highest GPA for the year (fall 2013 and spring 2014 combined) since 2007
• Gymnastics earned second highest term GPA in the department
• Women's soccer recorded highest GPA in the department with all student-athletes above a 3.0 GPA
• Softball senior class boasted a 3.825 average cumulative GPA
• Men's track and field finished with 36 student-athletes above a 3.0 GPA
• Women's track and field finished with highest team GPA in recorded history
• Wrestling earned highest team spring term and cumulative GPA in recorded history
• Volleyball earned highest term GPA in five years (spring 2009)
  

Important Information About Final Grading of Summer 2014 Summer I (S1) Classes

Online final grading for summer 2014 Summer I (S1) courses meeting from June 9 through July 12 begins Thursday, July 10, via FlashFAST. Grading also is now available for any summer 2014 course section that was flexibly scheduled and has an end date no later than July 12, 2014. The deadline for grading submission is midnight on Tuesday, July 15. Any final grades for Summer 2014 Summer I (S1) courses not reported in FlashFAST by the grades processing deadline will have to be submitted using the Grade Change Workflow. These summer 2014 Summer I (S1) courses will be available in the Workflow on Thursday, July 17.

Incomplete Mark and NF/SF Grades:

The administrative mark of IN (Incomplete) may be given to students who are unable to complete the work due to extenuating circumstances. To be eligible, undergraduate students must be currently passing and have completed at least 12 weeks of the semester. The timeline shall be adjusted appropriately for flexibly scheduled courses. Graduate students must be currently earning a C or better grade and are unable to complete the required work between the course withdrawal deadline and the end of classes. Instructors are required to complete and submit an Incomplete Mark Form to the department chair when an incomplete mark is assigned. Access the form from your Faculty Toolbox in FlashLine.

The grade SF (Stopped Attending–Fail) denotes that the student stopped attending the course and did not formally withdraw and must be accompanied by a date of last attendance in the course.

The grade NF (Never Attended–Fail) denotes that the student neither attended one class session nor formally withdrew from the course.

For complete information on university grading policies including Incomplete Mark and NF/SF grading policies, procedures and timelines, please visit the Grading Policies and Procedures section in the university catalog at www.kent.edu/catalog.

Grades Processing Tips and FAQ may be found on the Office of the University Registrar's website at www.kent.edu/registrar/facstaff/facresc.cfm. Any faculty members needing personalized instruction on submitting their grades via FlashFAST should contact their campus Registrar's Office during normal business hours for assistance.

To access FlashFAST to post your final grades, login to FlashLine from www.kent.edu (click FlashLine Login from top right menu bar) then click the Faculty & Advisor Tools tab. Locate the Faculty Toolbox, and select Final under the Submit Grades heading.

Troubleshooting TIP: FlashFAST is accessible from any Internet-capable computer that has the cookies function enabled. We recommend that you clean out your cookie and cache files regularly to help your computer run faster, and to potentially restore and/or improve your access to FlashFAST and/or FlashLine by improving your connection to the server. Our Helpdesk is prepared to offer assistance with these issues. Please contact them at 330-672-HELP (4357) for one-on-one assistance and technical issues.

Send Us Your Summer Vacation Photos

It is summer vacation season again, and e-Inside wants to feature some of your best vacation or staycation photos.

Submit your favorite vacation or staycation photos to einside@kent.edu by Tuesday, July 22, and depending on the number of entries that we receive, they might be featured in e-Inside. Please use "Summer Vacation Photos" as your email subject line.