People

Kudos

Please congratulate Dr. Hema Ramanathan. She has been awarded a Fulrbight-Nehru Research Scholarship for 2011-12. The scholarship provides support for nine months of research in a host country. Dr. Ramanathan is an associate professor in the College of Education, Collaborative Support and Intervention. She will be conducting research in India from August 2011 to July 2012. Her ethnographic study is entitled “Academic Desegregation in India: Private Schools and The Right to Education Act.” It seeks to understand the processes by which administrators and teachers in private schools plan and implement policies and practices to successfully accommodate students from economically weaker and socially disadvantaged sections of society. It also looks at how they help these students assimilate into their schools while maintaining high academic standards.

Thumbs up: to Dr. Sunil Hazari, associate professor of business education at Richards College of Business. Dr. Hazari presented a paper, "A Qualitative Study of Adoption of Social Media for Personal Finance Investing," at the Southern Association of Information Systems (SAIS) conference, which was held in Atlanta on March 25-26, 2011.

Please congratulate Susan Fishman-Armstrong, a laboratory coordinator at the Antonio J. Waring, Jr. Archaeological Laboratory. She has received a $1,000 fellowship from the American Association of Museums. The Dun-Rite Fellowship provides financial assistance towards the cost of the AAM annual meeting in Houston, Texas, May 22-25, 2011. She is the collections manager and helps UWG and the Waring Lab maintain federal compliance and accreditation for museum standards.

Kudos to Dr. Danilo M. Baylen, associate professor of Instructional Technology and Design. Dr. Baylen is among 12 scholars selected to participate in the 2011 Governor's Teaching Fellows Summer Symposium Program. The program is sponsored by the Institute of Higher Education and the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Georgia. It offers Dr. Baylen an intense, two-week summer learning experience on the UGA campus.

The symposium offers a combination of structured instructional and faculty development activities and independent study for each participant. The selection process is quite competitive. Last year's summer class had 12 faculty members from a variety of USG institutions.

Kudos to Dr. Scot A. Lingrell, associate vice president for enrollment management. Dr. Lingrell was recently appointed chairman of the Enrollment Management and Retention Professional Activities Committee of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO). During the national conference in Seattle, Dr. Lingrell also made three presentations: “Admissions 101—Preconference Workshop for new Admissions officers”; “Managing Up: Leading your Executive Council or Board on Enrollment Issues”; and “No Pedestals Please!: Managing Campus Expectations of Enrollment Management.”

Cheers to the Mass Communications Department. Its professors, students and volunteers pulled off a successful and informative Media Day 2011, the 30th anniversary of the gathering. Dr. Chester Gibson, the founder of Media Day, and his wife, Faye, attended. Veteran journalist Shaunya Chavis-Rucker was the keynote speaker and received the Distinguished Alumni Award. Chavis-Rucker graduated in 1988. She advised students to get as much experience as they can through paid and unpaid internships while still in school.

Media Day 2011 fun facts: 100 Tweets; at least 137 students participated; 70 were Mass Comm majors; 16 were Pre Mass Comm; at least 25 students volunteered; and more than 45 media professionals were on hand to share knowledge and wisdom. Other majors who participated: Art; Biology; Chemistry; English; Environmental Studies; Math; Music Education; Pre-Accounting; Pre-Early Childhood Education; Pre-Finance; Pre-Management; Pre-Management Information Systems; Pre-Marketing; Pre-Nursing; Pre-Psychology; Pre-Speech Pathology; Pre-Sport Management; Psychology; Sociology; Sport Management; Theatre; and, of course, Undeclared.

Please congratulate Dr. Jason Huett. He has been appointed associate dean of Online Development and USG eCore. “Those of you who know Jason know he is a very active scholar,” wrote Dr. Donald Wagner, the dean of Extended Degree Programs and USG eCore. “Much of his scholarly work focuses on the issues of online education. He manages well the difficult task of remaining thoughtful while at the same time compiling a most prolific portfolio of superb publications and presentations. His work reflects his energy, wit, and an extraordinary grasp of the online environment, its advantages and disadvantages for those of us in academe. As such he brings to his new tasks in Extended Degree Programs (satellite campuses, Evening/Weekend University, and our Distance and Distributed Education Center) and USG eCore a rich perspective developed as a faculty member. We welcome Jason and look forward to his assistance in moving UWG further into the developing world of higher education.”

Kudos features UWG faculty and staff articles and book publications, conference attendance and presentations, grants, organizational leadership and awards. E-mail your news to the Campus Chronicle editor.