Six Marist Employees Are Honored for Two Decades of Service

Six Marist employees were honored for their 20 years of service at the 20th annual Founders' Day luncheon in the Cabaret Sept. 15.

Those recognized were Art Casey, electrician; Dennis Murray, president; Wendy Duncan, director of information technology; Sue Lawrence, assistant professor of communication; Tom O'Meara, painter; and Irma Casey, assistant professor of modern languages.

Founders' Day commemorated the 53rd anniversary of the granting of the Marist College charter.

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Faculty Focus

Pentland Press in Raleigh, N.C., has published China Prism: Yellow, Red, Green, Bro. Joe Belanger's reflections on his year in China teaching English at Lujiang University in Xiamen, Fujian Province.

The Graduate Center for Public Policy and the Bureau of Economic Research have completed a study of how well prepared New York State's jurisdictions are for Y2K. The study found that there is cause for both confidence and concern in regard to readiness among local governments. The study was conducted under contract with the Hudson Valley Technology Development Center and funded by the Empire State Development Corporation with assistance from the New York State Office for Technology. Dr. Donald J. Calista, director of the Graduate Center, supervised the study and was assisted by Wayne Mabey who is managing the project. The director of the Bureau of Economic Research, Dr. Ann Davis, and a staff member, Robert Hastings, contributed to the study. The contract includes conducting other surveys on the readiness of New York State businesses. Funding is for $285,000.

The Science on the Move program has received $125,000 from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation. Sheila Jasalavich, professional lecturer in teacher education, and Donna Berger, academic grants coordinator, spearheaded the proposal. Professor of Chemistry Andrew Molloy is director of Science on the Move.

Dr. Susan Hollis Merritt, associate professor of English, presented a paper on "Harold Pinter's Ashes to Ashes: Personal/Political Echoes of the Holocaust" at the 29th Annual Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust, hosted by Nassau Community College, in Uniondale, N.Y., March 6-9, 1999.

Professor Merritt's essay, "Post-Revolutionary Perspectives: Ancient Greek Drama in Prague," her revised version of a paper originally presented at the International Theatre Association Conference "Millennium Responses: (Dis)placing Classical Greek Theatre" at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece, was published in a volume of essays selected from this conference, (Dis)Placing Classical Greek Theatre, edited by Savas Patsalidis and Elizabeth Sakellaridou (Thessaloniki: University Studio Press, 1999).

Dr. Merritt was awarded a 1999 Marist College Summer Grant, to support travel to Prague and London, for further research on her project "The Cross-Cultural Politics of Contemporary Drama," involving participation in the International Theatre Association Conference on Scenography in Prague. It also involved meeting with playwright Harold Pinter in London, where she did follow-up research in his archive of manuscripts and papers at the British Library, and where she attended a variety of plays as part of her scholarly and pedagogical research.

In December 1999 she has been invited to present her report on the Pinter Bibliography, which, as bibliographical editor, she compiles for The Pinter Review, at the annual Business Meeting of The Harold Pinter Society at the MLA Convention in Chicago. Dr. Merritt's most recent Pinter Bibliography, expanded from one year to two years, has been published in the 1999 volume of The Pinter Review. Also published in this volume is her review of the New York premiere of Pinter's "Ashes to Ashes" by the Roundabout Stage Company, which draws upon her meeting with Pinter and her research at the British Library.

Dr. Ed O'Keefe, professor of psychology, and Donna Berger, academic grants coordinator, have written a new edition of their textbook, Self- Management for College Students: The ABC Approach. The first edition of the book, released in 1993, was rated in the top five in its field in the 1995 college edition of Rolling Stone magazine. The recent edition, published by Partridge Hill, incorporates many new elements including contemporary concepts such as emotional intelligence and practical methods for learning how to think critically and raise student EQ.

Assistant Professor of Journalism Carol Pauli won first place in open competition in the international division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication for her paper, "Professionalism and African Values at The Daily Nation in Kenya," presented at the AEJMC annual convention in August in New Orleans.

Dr. Helen Rothberg, assistant professor of business, was nominated and elected to the Taconic Independent Physicians Association board of directors this past spring. She fills the first lay position on the board in the organization's history.

During October, co-authors Dr. Rothberg and Dr. Scott Erickson, assistant professor of business, will present two papers at the "American Society for Competitiveness Conference" in Atlanta: "Competitive Capital: Sustainable Source for Competitive Advantage" and "Intellectual Capital and Competitiveness: Guidelines for Policy." Dr. Rothberg will also receive a citation as an "excellent reviewer." In Ontario in January, they will present the paper "Electronic Business, Intellectual Property and Public Policy" at the 1st World Congress on the Management of Electronic Commerce.

Professor Rothberg has been invited by the Institute for International Research to address utility industry executives at the Competitive Edge '99 Conference in Toronto on "Shadow Teams and Competitive Advantage."

Professor Erickson presented the paper "Green Marketing: Seeking Competitive Advantage under Stringent Regulation" at the Macromarketing conference In Nebraska this past August. In addition, his paper "Inventive Behavior and Patent Protection" was published in the International Journal of Technology Management, Vol. 18, 1999.

A Marist team of Dr. Rebecca Thomas, assistant professor of computer science, Dr. Geoffrey Black, assistant professor of economics, and Dr. Artin Arslanian, dean of faculty/academic vice president presented a plenary panel "Experiences in Teaching with Technology" at a conference devoted to "Rethinking Key Issues in College Learning" at Elon College in North Carolina on Sept. 24.

Dr. Arslanian published an article, "From Sages on Stage to Midwives: Student-Centered Learning and Teaching," in the Discovery Journal of Benedictine College (vol. 1, 1999).

Chris Vertullo, lecturer in mathematics, together with Michael Jenike, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Dr. James M. Claiborn of Manchester Counseling in Manchester, N.H., presented and moderated the workshop "OCD-L and Other Internet Resources" at the sixth annual Obsessive-Compulsive Foundation Conference in Arlington, Va., July 8. Particular attention was given to OCD-L, a discussion forum pioneered and maintained since 1994 by Ms. Vertullo, a parent of a daughter with OCD. OCD-L provides a global community of 450 members with online support and daily interaction with experts such as Jenike and Claiborn. Chris Vertullo was named to the board of directors of the national Obsessive-Compulsive Foundation in Milford, Conn.

The New York Council for the Humanities awarded $2,800 to Dr. Thomas Wermuth, associate chair of the history department, for a humanities lecture series he proposed. The series, which focuses on Hudson Valley cultural history, begins Oct. 20 with a lecture by Dr. Wermuth on the Hudson River Valley and the American Revolution at 7 p.m. in the Nelly Goletti Theatre.

Papers by five School of Communication and the Arts students have been accepted for presentation at this year's National Communication Association conference in Chicago in early November. Bridget M. Beherns, Jessica Holden and Meghan O'Shaughnessy will present their paper "Exploring the Reality: The Effects of Prime-Time Television on College-Age Women." Lee Orthmann and Cynthia Scott will present "An Analysis of Nurse Training on Infant Touch." Most of the authors were sophomores when they wrote the papers for their fall 1998 Com 200 class, "Communication Research: Strategies and Methods."

The Marist debate team has started a new year with a full schedule of tournaments and special events. This fall the team travels to tournaments around the Northeast including Rochester and West Point. In addition to tournament debate, the team will participate in two public debates. The first will be held in Boston's historic Faneuil Hall with students from Newbury College in mid-October. Marist will argue that the United States should remove its economic sanctions on Cuba. On Oct. 25 Marist will host the British National Debate Team in a public debate in the Nelly Goletti Theater at 6 p.m. on the topic "This House Would Censor the Internet." The British will affirm this resolution. A member of the British team is a former world- champion debater.