Newspaper Page Text
Page 3
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
WELCOME
continued front page 1
launched a year-long push to enhance
the success of students as they progress
toward graduation from USG institutions.
With our increased admissions standards
implemented a year ago, UWG is playing
a leading role in those efforts.
Research on college student
persistence shows that the earlier a
student is involved in both the academic
and social culture of college, the better
his/her chances are for surviving the first
year. Another UWG initiative aimed at
improving retention and graduation rates
is “UWG4O: 40 Days to Your Success,”
anew program that will encourage new
students to get involved in the early days
of their experience at UWG.
New facilities on campus will play a
role in integrating students to college life.
Last year, 612 beds became available when
the University Suites opened and this fall,
students will have the additional option of
apartment style residence halls with the
opening of Arbor View on campus. Anew
Campus Center is under construction that will
provide students with a first class recreational
facility when opened in Fall 2006.
But one of UWG’s greatest strengths
national recognition for student and
faculty accomplishments will always
play a huge role in attracting and retaining
the best and the brightest! A complete list
of our nationally accredited programs
is available in our Fact Book but allow
me to share just a few of our national
accomplishments over the past months:
• For the sixth time in the past
eight years, UWG had more Honors
students’ research proposals accepted for
presentation at the annual meeting of the
National Collegiate Honors Council than
any other U.S. college or university. UWG
students have also been recognized for
their research and academic excellence in
other national, regional and state arenas.
For example:
- Two computer science students
Sunittfa >Shenoi and Anand Patels •
wton prestigious national scholarships
from Upsilon Pi Epsilon, an honor society
for computing. UPE awards only 10 of
the scholarships annually, and it is rare
for one school to have two recipients.
Shenoi also won second prize in the
Student Research Contest at the annual
southeast conference of the Consortium
for Computing Sciences in Colleges.
- The Beta Gamma Sigma chapter
in the Richards College of Business was
recognized as a 2004 Premier Chapter by
the national business honor society. UWG
was one of only 63 schools in the U.S. to
receive this honor.
• For the fifth time in the last seven
years, a University of West Georgia
student has received the prestigious
Goldwater Scholarship, the premier
undergraduate award of its type in
the fields of mathematics, the natural
sciences and engineering. Logan Leslie, a
sophomore Honors chemistry major from
Carrollton, has been named one of only
320 students nationwide to receive a 2005-
06 Goldwater. Other Georgia schools
with Goldwater recipients this year
were Berry College, Emory University
(two recipients), Georgia Institute of
Technology and the University of Georgia
(two recipients). Harvard, MIT, Princeton,
each had four recipients, the maximum
allowed at any institution.
• A team of four UWG students was
chosen by NASA to perform a physics
experiment on acoustic fire control while
floating aboard the agency’s “Weightless
Wonder” aircraft. The group is the only
University System of Georgia team
selected as one of 50 teams from around the
country to participate in NASA’s Reduced
Gravity Student Flight Opportunities
Program. Other participants include teams
from such research powerhouses as Cal
Tech, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth,
Johns Hopkins and Purdue.
• The debate team also captured
first place at the 2005 Cal-Berkeley
tournament with unanimous decisions
against Harvard, Northwestern and
Dartmouth.
• For the 16th time in the past 33
years, a UWG debate team was recognized
as one of the top 16 teams in the nation by
earning a first-round bid to the invitation
only National Debate Tournament. West
Georgia has qualified for the championship
tournament for 33 consecutive years,
the fifth-longest streak in the country.
Other schools that received first-round
bids were Dartmouth, Emory, Harvard,
Kansas, Michigan State, Northwestern,
the University of California at Berkeley,
the University of Texas and Wake Forest.
• For the fourth straight year,
the coed cheerleading squad won the
Universal Cheerleading Association
(UCA) College Cheerleading and Dance
Team National Championship in Orlando.
In addition, UWG’s all-girl squad and all
girl partner stunt team captured second
place wins in their competitions.
• UWG faculty and staff continue
to receive national recognition. For
example:
- Dr. Michael de Nie, assistant
professor of history, won the 2(X)5 James
S. Donnelly Sr. Prize for Books on History
and Social Sciences from the American
Conference for Irish Studies for his first
book, “The Eternal Paddy: Irish Identity
and the British Press, 1792-1882."
- Cheryl Rice, director of the
EXCEL Center for Academic Success,
was presented the Outstanding First-Year
Student Advocate Award by the National
Resource Center for the First-Year
Experience and Students in Transition.
- Several UWG faculty members
were listed in 2(X)4-05 Who’s Who
publications. Dr. Janet Clark, Dr. Elena
Mustakova-Possardt. Dr. Mary Sheesley,
Dr. Partha Ray, and others.
• And, hot off the press, eight
faculty members drawn from the
sciences are working with undergraduate
students on the production and analysis
of carbon nanotubes, and have early
success to report. Carbon nanotubes have
successfully been synthesized on campus
by a team led by Dr. Bob Powell and Dr.
James Espinosa, and have been analyzed.
This is an exciting beginning.
• And, while strictly speaking,
not national-level recognition as are
the preceding points, for the second
consecutive year, UWG was listed in The
Princeton Review’s Best Southeastern
Colleges, a guidebook featuring the top
colleges and universities in 10 states.
In all we do, we continue to
demonstrate our commitment to our theme
of Educational Excellence in a Personal
Environment. At UWG, full-time faculty
and administrators teach approximately
90 percent of courses (BOR Reports).
Our Vice President for Academic-
Affairs, Dr. Tim Hynes, a nationally
recognized scholar and leader in his
field of Mass Communications, teaches
a core undergraduate class every year.
Our Vice President for Student Services,
Dr. Melanie McClellan, also a very
accomplished teacher and professional in
her field, taught undergraduate students in
a course designed to help them with the
transition to college. Each of the college
deans teaches or supervises undergraduate
students each year.
As I end this State of the University letter,
let me close with a few examples of my
individual commitment to Educational
Excellence in a Personal Environment:
• For the twelfth consecutive year
since I arrived at UWG in 1994-95, I
am teaching an undergraduate course
to demonstrate my commitment to our
personal environment. Last November,
the course that I teach at UWG was
selected, on the basis of a national
competition sponsored by the Decision
Sciences Institute, as one of the three most
innovative courses in the United States,
and I was invited to make a national
presentation on this course in Boston. I
mention this only to demonstrate my
complete commitment to our mission.
• UWG students, faculty, and staff
volunteer to read to, and teach reading to,
individual students every week through
the Carrollton Elementary School HOST
program. I am one of these volunteers, and
have been teaching an elementary school
child to read, in a one-on-one session, each
week during the length of the program.
Aren’t you proud of this University?
I am. I eagerly anticipate the good things
that will occur this year and we’ll brag
about them together!
Sincerely,
Beheruz N. Sethna, Ph.D.
Professor of Business Administration,
and President of the University
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Photo by Dave Word
A construction worker uses a mobile scaffold to work near the roof of the new
Campus Center.
Phase One of the center, which is being built around the existing HPE build
ing, is scheduled for completion in Fall 2006. Funding for the first two of the proj
ect’s three phases comes from an $8.25 per credit hour fee, which was approved
last year by the Student Government Association.
'Faeebook' fad sweeps
American campuses -
UWG students say 'yes'
By Crystal Farrer
Staff Writer
cfarrer 1 @my. westga.edu
There is anew
obsession on West
Georgia’s campus. Move
over e-mail. Instant
Messenger and text
messaging and say hello to
thefacebook.com.
Last Spring, students
welcomed Faeebook with
open arms as anew way to
network socially, not only
at UWG, but with over 3.4
million users from over
830 colleges nationwide.
Littledidtheyknowthat
over the rest of the semester
and during the summer
their downtime would
be spent “Facebooking”
friends and searching
profiles to see what they
were doing. Faeebook
gives new meaning to the
word “nosy.”
So, what is Faeebook?
For those who have been
stuck under a rock all
summer, Faeebook is an
“online directory that
connects people through
social networks at colleges
and universities funded by
advertisement.”
Unofficially,Facebook
is a site where students can
set up a profile, a friend
list and communicate with
others by messaging or
signing walls.
“When you have a
new message or when
you have someone who
wants to be your friend it’s
exciting - makes you feel
loved,” UWG sophomore
Blake Miller said.
Faeebook allows
students to join groups with
other students with similar
interests. If there is not a
group that favors someone,
students can establish one
of their own Faeebook
also allows students to
search for new friends both
locally and globally. They
can even search for people
from the same hometown
or high school.
Junior Melissa
Kreimer said "It is anew
way to keep in contact w ith
old friends. If someone has
moved around a lot, they
can still ‘see’ their old
friends and communicate
with them. Even though
many people’s cell phones
are incredibly important to
them, it’s not always easy
to make a phone call, but a
short message on Faeebook
helps you stay in touch.”
According to
Chris Hughes, press
spokesperson for
Faeebook, students have
complete control over
the information that they
provide to their peers.
Such information
on a student’s profile can
include screen names,
email addresses, cell phone
numbers, student interests,
relationship status and
campus involvement.
Hughes suggests that the
one of the reasons why the
site is so popular is because
it is so versatile.
“It is a reference tool,
a means of communication,
and a clean, fun site to use.
That was the whole idea,”
he added.
Faeebook began
in February of 2004
at Harvard. Mark
Zuckerberg, a student,
started off with the idea
of creating a universal
online database for college
students with social
networking functionality.
Originally,college face
books were a collection of
bad student ID pictures
and profiles of boring
information distributed
alfe meat <&eurgiau
to the students. But
Zuckerberg had the idea
of putting them online and
letting students develop
their own interesting
profiles with their own
interesting pictures.
Over 6,000 Harvard
students signed up to
join within the first three
weeks. Since it was
such a hit, Zuckerberg
thought, why not open it
up to more students. The
addiction began to spread
nationwide.
In the beginning,
students from other schools
had to make a request for
their university to be added
to the Faeebook site. After
so many requests were
made, they were granted,
and new' universities made
the Faeebook college
list. This process is slow,
so as of the first week in
September, all schools in
the United States will be
added to Faeebook.
New' schools means
more new members and
potentially more new
friends, so students can
look forward to spending
many more hours searching
for new' profiles.
In the next few months
Faeebook will be making
changes to help improve
the site. Not only will they
add over 2,000 schools
in September, they will
also spruce up the site, by
adding new functions and
features and improving the
user’s overall experience
of the site.
All a student needs is
a school e-mail address.
Faeebook is also opened to
alumni and to faculty and
staff. But students should
beware, because once they
start “Facebooking,” most
students say they may
never stop.