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Oct. 13, 2005

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SBU student wins Murray Scholarship for sixth consecutive year

For a sixth consecutive year, a St. Bonaventure University student is among the seven selected winners of the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation essay contest. The students selected, including Joe F. Werkmeister of St. Bonaventure, will each receive a $5,000 scholarship in memory of the late sportswriter Jim Murray.

St. Bonaventure University is the only school to have a student selected for this award all six years since the scholarships were established. A total of 25 selected journalism programs take part in the competition. Other school winners this year include University of Florida, Indiana University, University of Montana and Syracuse University. Student entries from Trinity College, Murray’s alma mater, and Columbia University, which awarded Murray a Pulitzer Prize, automatically receive scholarships.

“Joe Werkmeister is an excellent student and he was part of a very tough application process for the scholarship,” said Lee Coppola, dean of the Russell J. Jandoli School of Journalism and Mass Communication. “It’s obviously quite an honor for another student from our school to receive this award for a sixth year in a row.”

“It's a tremendous honor to represent St. Bonaventure as the sixth straight Murray scholar,” Werkmeister said. “Jim Murray was one of the best journalists of his time and to win an award in his honor is very exciting.”

Werkmeister is a senior journalism/mass communication major at Bona’s. He graduated from Bellport High School in Brookhaven, N.Y., in 2002. He has a 3.0 grade point average and is currently editor in chief of The Bona Venture, the student newspaper on campus.

Last summer, Werkmeister worked as a freelance sportswriter for the Times/Review Newspaper, a group of four weekly newspapers on the North Folk of Long Island. He also interned at another weekly called Dan’s Papers in Bridgehampton, N.Y.

Werkmeister has worked at The Bona Venture for nearly four years. He started as a sports staff writer, then assistant sports editor, and then sports editor. Later, he became managing editor, and is now the editor in chief.

Linda McCoy-Murray, president and founder of the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation said, “After six years of cultivating the crème of the crop at many prestigious journalism schools in the nation, it is exhilarating to see our family of Murray Scholars grow to 42 this year. Wearing the lifetime badge of ‘Murray Scholar,’ the scholarship winners are inspired to strive for a higher standard in their writing and journalistic integrity.”

McCoy-Murray established the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation in 1999 to perpetuate her late husband’s memory and his love and dedication to his extraordinary career in journalism. Murray, who died Aug. 16, 1998, began his illustrious career at the New Haven (Conn.) Register after graduating from Trinity College of Hartford, Conn. After a stint at the now-extinct Herald Examiner in Los Angeles, he joined Time & Life (now Time, Inc.). In 1954, while a Hollywood cinema correspondent for Time magazine, Murray became one of the founders of Sports Illustrated. Joining the Los Angeles Times in 1961, Murray was a 1990 Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist, and a 14-time winner of the National Sportswriter of the Year award. His outstanding work landed him a spot in the writers’ wing in Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988.

The panel of nationally known journalists who determined the 2005 winners included Larry Bohannan, The Desert Sun; Mike Downey, Chicago Tribune; Tim Kawakami, San Jose Mercury News; John Nadel, Associated Press-Los Angeles Bureau; Karen Rosen, Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Tim Sullivan, San Diego Union-Tribune; and John Walters, Sports Illustrated and SI on campus.

Werkmeister and the other six scholarship winners will be honored on Dec.12, at the “Great Ones”- Murray Scholars’ award banquet being held at the La Quinta Hotel and Resort in La Quinta, Calif.
friars with strong ties to St. Bonaventure, including SBU professor and former interim president Fr. Dominic V. Monti, O.F.M., were called into leadership positions of the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus during its chapter in June.

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Students learn they can make a difference during hurricane aid service trip

A small group of people can truly make a big difference.

Six St. Bonaventure Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) and Finance Club members, along with Dr. James Mahar, assistant professor of finance, found this out over midterm break when they flew nearly 1,300 miles to Biloxi, Miss., to clean up the damage left behind more than a month ago by Hurricane Katrina.

“You can make such an impact in just a few days, Mahar said. “Our group got
12 people out of their homes,” which were mold-infested and uninhabitable, “and on the road to Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers.”

Along with other volunteers from the organization, Hands On USA, the group did hard, physical labor in the Mississippi sun and 80-degree heat. They “gutted” the interiors of houses that had been flooded with water and contaminated with mold. Each day, they removed all the water-logged furniture, clothing and appliances from homes and ripped down walls with hammers and crowbars.

“We weren’t thinking about what we had to do,” said Christine Francis, a senior management sciences major from Seneca Falls, N.Y. “We just had the wall in front of us and knew what we had to do.”

One incident that stood out in Mahar’s mind was working with the group of students and a Biloxi family of five to clean out their house.

“College-age girls reached in and picked up chunks of wood, moldy and covered with cockroaches, and then came back and did it again, all day, non-stop,” he said.

Some of the group also cut down trees that had fallen on houses and cars in order to make room for the FEMA trailers.

“Houses were completely covered by massive amounts of trees being thrown everywhere,” said Annie Werner, a junior business major from Honeoye Falls, N.Y. “One day, we removed a tree where the roots alone were taller than the 6-foot man we brought with us to chop it down.”

Besides the interior and tree crews, Hands On USA includes a street crew, which helps to give supplies and consolation to victims of the storm, and a roofing crew, which puts blue tarps over damaged roofs. The volunteer organization was did not exist before the storm but has brought more than 300 unskilled laborers from around the country together to help the devastated city.

“Working with Hands On USA was the best experience of my life,” Francis said. “I can do things at home to help, but it is better to be able to interact with the people there and actually see how you are affecting them one on one.”

“I’ve learned to think less about myself and my little problems,” Werner said. “All of these people have bigger problems. Every little thing you do helps, whether it’s picking up or donating goods.”

The group flew into Gulfport, Miss., Oct 7, stayed with other Hands On volunteers in a Methodist church while cleaning up the city, and flew home Oct 11.

“They made quite a reputation for themselves down there,” Mahar said. “They
worked their tails off.”

In addition to Mahar, Werner and Francis, students participating included Meghan Backus, a senior journalism and communication major from Mumford, N.Y., Andrew
Hartnett, a senior finance major from Syracuse, N.Y., Bridget Hurley, a sophomore business major from Horseheads, N.Y., and Sean Lynch, a senior finance major from Setauket, N.Y., as well as Mahar’s sister, Mary Mahar.

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Pulitzer Prize-winner to keynote at SBU's Communications Day

Pulitzer Prize-winner Charles Hanley of the Associated Press will give the keynote address, “Why is Journalism Important?” for SBU’s Communications Day on Friday, Oct. 21.

Hanley has been a roving correspondent assigned to the AP’s International Desk in New York for most of the past 23 years. He has reported from more than 80 countries on stories ranging from wars and summit conferences, to the plight of a threatened tribe in New Guinea. He recently spent nine months in Afghanistan and Iraq reporting on the crisis and conflicts in those countries.

Hanley’s international reporting has won awards from the Overseas Press Club, the AP Managing Editors association, Brown University’s Feinstein media awards program, and the Korn-Ferry awards for reporting on the United Nations.

Hanley and his AP collaborators also won 11 major journalism awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism and a George Polk Award for their reporting on U.S. military’s killing of refugees at No Gun Ri, South Korea, in 1950.

Hanley joined the AP in 1968 in Albany, N.Y., where he became a political correspondent, and then bureau news editor. He moved to AP Foreign Desk in 1976, served as AP assistant, and then as deputy managing editor. He was later named a special correspondent, a title awarded to only a few of AP journalists.

Communications Day focuses on the needs of high school journalists under adviser supervision. It introduces students and teachers involved in newspapers, literary magazines, yearbooks and radio and television shows to media professionals. The professional participants hold sessions ranging from sports, to public relations, to interviews to photojournalism. All professionals who participate represent a rich history in journalism experience in media and communication areas.
St. Bonaventure community welcomes everyone to attend a 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony at 12:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9, in front of Plassmann Hall for a moment of prayer and reflection in honor of those affected by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The ceremony is a way for the St. Bonaventure community to pay tribute to those affected by the tragedy. This ceremony also allows the St. Bonaventure community to remember the people who died and their families who suffered.

St. Bonaventure University welcomes the public and local businesses to join in the fellowship of the event. For more information on the event, please contact the St. Bonaventure University ROTC Department at (716) 375-2508.

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SBU to launch online community for alumni this weekend

St. Bonaventure alumni always talk about the closeness of their days on campus. Now they will be able to live those days again with the launch of the SBU Alumni Community!

University president Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., S.T.D., and National Alumni Board president Eugene O’Connor will kick off the St. Bonaventure Alumni Community, developed by the University’s offices of Alumni Services and Technology Services, during this weekend’s National Alumni Board meeting on campus.

It will officially open to online visitors starting Monday, Oct. 17. Each SBU alum will have his or her own unique user name and password for entering the secure online site, situated at http://alumni.sbu.edu.

Some of the features of the online community include:

• “Alumni News” — Get the 411 on what’s new at SBU.
• “Calendar of Events” — Check back frequently to see where and when SBU alums are getting together.
• “Search” — Looking for a former hallmate from 2nd Rob? Search the online alumni directory to reconnect with former Bona classmates, roommates and friends. An advanced search option allows visitors to search by alumni chapter and/or major.
• “My Info” — This is a listing of members’ current directory information. Alumni can customize their business and personal profiles here, with the option of requesting the information be kept private.

“We give them three options. We felt it was very important in addressing alums’ privacy concerns,” said William Grossman, Web systems administrator for the University’s Technology Services.

Alumni can access the site by registering with their first name, last name and identification number, which is printed on the mailing label of the Fall 2005 edition of BonAlumnus.

Here’s how to access the site:
• Go to http://alumni.sbu.edu
• Register with your first name, last name and ID number from the BonAlumnus mailing label
• Select a user name and password
• Reconnect with friends!

“Members of the online community will also be able to find friends and classmates on a real-time basis. Reconnecting with classmates is our No. 1 alumni request and we believe this will help alumni to make those contacts easier,” said Joseph Flanagan, director of Alumni Services.

The former Bona Talk discussion board will be integrated into the online community, but there will be a separate registration for the message board.

Those who are seeking more information or have difficulty accessing the site are asked to e-mail alumni@sbu.edu or call (716) 375-2302.

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St. Bonaventure University professor introduces podcasting in the classroom

Dr. James Mahar, associate professor of finance, is St. Bonaventure University’s first professor to introduce podcasting in his classroom.

Podcasting is making audio files available online that download automatically so the user can listen to them at his own convenience. These podcasts are most commonly available in MP3 format.

Mahar, creator of financeprofessor.com, which was named one of the top 10 finance blogs in the country by Yahoo Finance, envisions podcast to be “office hours to go,” giving audio weekly updates and reviews to his students to minimize the questions about class discussions.

“I think the podcast will do many things,” Mahar said. “It will enable people to learn in a way that they are most comfortable. Some people like to read, whereas others are better auditory learners. This will enable each to pick the way that best suits them.”

This semester, Mahar has already broadcast more than 10 podcasts, varying in lengths, with some lasting up to 12 minutes. He covers weekly reviews for various classes and also focuses on certain subject matter per broadcast, such as behavioral finance and allocational efficiency. Each site that the podcasts are posted on gives descriptions of the subject matter, as well as the date it was created and the length of the broadcast.

Mahar believes there are many benefits of podcasting. It forces him to be more organized because each week of reviews has to fit into the bigger picture of what the course is covering.

“They will be able to listen to this as many times as they wish at whenever they want and not just at professor-scheduled office hours and review classes,” Mahar said.

Mahar is also using podcast in conjunction with his financeprofessor.com blog and class blog; he said he is trying to bring the real world to the classroom, and vice versa.

For more information, please contact Mahar at jmahar@sbu.edu.

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SBU visiting professor Breea Willingham's article featured in USA Today

Ten years ago the famous Million Man March, an African-American march of protest and unity, urged black citizens to vote in elections as well as increase community activism. One and a half million African-American men registered to vote in the months preceding the March.

Now, on the eve of the 10-year commemoration of this historic moment, visiting professor of journalism Breea C. Willingham offers her personal story. The article will be featured in U.S.A. Today, the most widely distributed newspaper in the U.S.

Willingham’s story, scheduled to run Thursday, Oct. 13, looks in-depth at the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March from her perspective as a black woman with a father and brother in prison.It will also appear in Sunday's Democrat and Chronicle.

“I am extremely to USA Today for running my story and giving me the opportunity to share it with readers. I’ve been working on the project for about seven months. The writing process has been a long, hard and emotional road so finally seeing my efforts come to fruition is sweet. I hope that by sharing my story I'll be able to help someone else in a similar situation.”

Prior to joining SBU as a visiting professor this fall, Willingham served as a fellow in the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism from January to June of this year.

Previously, she covered high-profile cases during a two-year stint at the Times Union in Albany, N.Y. Willingham also received a beat reporter award for breaking a story on the financial problems of the Rochester School District in her time with the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, also in N.Y. Willingham secured a $5,000 grant from the American Society of Newspaper Editors to start a journalism program at Benjamin Franklin High School. She then ran a six-week journalism program for high school students.

Willingham received a bachelor's degree in communications from the nearby University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Pa., and a master's degree in business management from Webster University, Greenville, S.C.

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St. Bonaventure plans events for Disability Awareness Month

A “Walk for Accessibility” and two lectures are planned as SBU recognizes October’s Disability Awareness Month.

Beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, a “Walk for Accessibility” will be held to raise money for door assist devices to be installed in the John J. Murphy Professional Building. The goal is $2,600 and the walk begins with registration in front of Hickey Dining Hall. Participants are asked to either raise money or make a donation the day of the walk. For more information, contact Nancy Matthews at 375-2065.

From 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, in The Robert J. Jones Board of Trustees Room in Doyle Hall, SBU’s School of Arts and Sciences will sponsor a presentation titled “Exploring Disability in Society: Historically and Philosophically.”

Guest speaker Dr. Dwight Kauppi is a retired faculty member of the counseling and educational psychology department of the University of Buffalo, where he taught for 29 years. He received his Ph.D. in psychology in 1971 from the University of Minnesota and is a certified rehabilitation counselor and licensed psychologist.

From 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, in Murphy’s Dresser Auditorium, SBU’s School of Education will sponsor a panel discussion titled “The Transitioning Needs of Students with Disabilities: Preparing for and During Higher Education.”

Panelists include Dr. Timothy Janikowski, director of the rehabilitation counseling program and co-director of the proposed mental health counseling program at the State University of New York at Buffalo; Fran Moyer, private practitioner and counselor for students with disabilities at Erie Community College’s South Campus; Heather Haas, school counselor and special educator at Hopevale Union Free School District; James Driscoll, school counselor at Olean Middle School; Ron Hager, disability unit attorney for Buffalo Neighborhood Legal Services; Kate Monroe, director of academic services at Hilbert College in Hamburg; and Aleasa Michnik, SBU elementary education/special education student.

These events are open to the entire University community.

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SBU Theater to present original fall Shakespearean production

SBU Theater will perform an original play, “The Inner Above: A Shakespearean Journey” at 7:30 p.m, Wednesday through Saturday, Nov. 9-12, in The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.

Director Dr. Ed. Simone, associate professor and director of the theater program, is writing “The Inner Above” in collaboration with John Neville Andrews, head of performance in the theater department at the University of Michigan. Simone says that the play is actually being re-written and revised as the student actors rehearse and bring their own creative and personal responses to the work.

The cast features 12 actors playing about 30 different roles as the modern central character, a girl named Kaci, searches for meaning in her life through the lens of about a dozen Shakespearean plays.

“I’m very excited about The Inner Above as a performance piece and as a project,” said Simone, “It’s meant to be an exciting, even inspirational story about one young actor’s struggle to find self-worth and direction in life. We’ve taken a contemporary approach to some of Shakespeare’s timeless works.”

Cast Members include:

Jennifer Albanese, Allen, Texas
Patrick Devers, South Euclid, Ohio
Judy Chiariello, Franklinville, N.Y.
Ben Gregg, University Heights, Ohio
Blair Knowles, Olean, N.Y.
Emily Rose Maher, Blasdell, N.Y.
Kara Manning, Olean, N.Y.
Stephanie Nikolaou, Rochester, N.Y.
Matthew Osrsini, Allen, Texas
Gabriel Potter, Olean, N.Y.
Stephen Schrader, Fredericksburg, Va.
Elizabeth Schumer, Hamburg, N.Y.

The production is part of The Regina A. Quick Center’s semester celebrating the works of William Shakespeare, billed as “The Shakespearience.”

Simone hopes audiences will take advantage of the SBU Theater’s new “Friday Talk-Back.” Following the Friday performance of “The Inner Above,” the audience is invited to remain seated for an informal discussion with the cast, technicians, and the director about the production.

Tickets for “The Inner Above” are available to the public for $8 and to subscribers, seniors and employees for $6. Free student rush seating is available one hour before curtain time at the box office in-person with a valid student ID.

SBU Theater productions are presented by the Department of Visual and Performing Arts in cooperation with the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts and are part of the growing academic Theater Program at St. Bonaventure University.

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Lehrer, Barry share advice with St. Bonaventure students during Media Excellence Awards

Author and news analyst Jim Lehrer and Pulitzer-winning humor columnist Dave Barry shared stories with St. Bonaventure University students during the University’s Media Excellence Awards Luncheon Oct. 7 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Lehrer, who pointed out that he was receiving the Douglas Edwards Award on behalf of a whole team of people, shared personal guidelines from his career. They included, “Do nothing I cannot defend;” “Assume there is at least one other side to every story” and “Assume the person I am writing about is at least as good a person as I am.” He closed by emphasizing, “I am not in the entertainment business.”

That stood in contrast to Barry who noted as he took the podium, “I was hoping for a Supreme Court nomination, but this is really good too!”

He offered a story from his news career — one shared with fellow Pulitzer winner John Hanchette, an SBU alum and current faculty member.

Bored with endless protests and slow news during the Democratic National Convention that nominated Dukakis, the pair stood outside the convention with boxes over their heads. Despite the fact that they admitted they were just doing it for news coverage, they got — including front-page national coverage.
Previous recipients of the Bob Considine Award wrote about the great issues of the day, he pointed out: “I’ve written more about toilets.” He noted it was ironic that he received the award a year after he stopped writing his column: “If Bob were me, he’d have stopped writing too.”

“I am in the entertainment business,” admitted Victoria Corderi, NBC News correspondent for Dateline NBC, a 1979 graduate who received the Alumna of the Year Award.

Corderi related that it can be difficult to put months into a major story and have it beaten by fluffier offerings.

She fondly recalled the school’s founder, Dr. Russell J. Jandoli, an “old-world guy, so dedicated to his craft, so dedicated to making us journalists.” She advised the students that, for her, “the key to success is that I have a lot of balance in my life,” including her husband and four children.

Also at the luncheon, Linda McCoy-Murray, widow of legendary sportswriter Jim Murray, presented the University with a first edition of “The Mark Hellinger Story” by Jim Bishop, along with a provenance identifying it as from her late husband’s estate. McCoy-Murray also congratulated St. Bonaventure on being the only university to have six consecutive Murray Scholars, one each year since the award was established.

Also honored was Chuck Scothon, senior vice president of marketing and brand development for Fisher-Price, who received the Thomas Mosser Award in honor of the SBU alum and public relations executive who was the last victim of the Unabomber.

James Miller, a 2005 SBU graduate who is now the Wayne County reporter for The Finger Lakes Times, received the Mark Hellinger Award for excellence and promise in the field of journalism.

A 2001 graduate of Aquinas Institute, he is the son of Paul and Lori Miller of Rochester, N.Y.

Runner-up for this year’s Hellinger Award is Nicole Severino, the daughter of
When not reporting, he enjoys reading, genealogy and spending time with friends and family.

The runner-up for this year’s Mark Hellinger Award is Nicole Severino, who is an account coordinator for Coyne Public Relations in Parsippany, N.J. A native of Boonton, N.J., she is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph D. Severino.

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Career Center News ...

For information on resume due dates, on-campus recruiting interviews and an interviewing program for accounting and finance majors, visit the Career Center Events Web page.

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Newsmakers ...

Dr. Elizabeth Littell-Lamb, assistant professor of history, presented a paper titled “Mediating Exchanges: The Chinese YWCA as an Intracultural Zone” at the New York Conference on Asian Studies conference hosted by SUNY New Paltz from Sept. 30 – Oct. 1, 2005. She organized and chaired the panel, “Facing East, Facing West: Encounters along China’s Cultural Boundaries” with colleagues from Rochester Institute of Technology, Pace University and Manhanttanville College. Her paper examined the way in which the Chinese YWCA mediated culture for both Western and Chinese women, focusing on the transmission of ideas on internationalism, feminism and socialism.

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Rodney Paul, assistant professor of economics in the Department of Finance, had the article “Expectations and Voting in the NCAA Football Polls: The Wisdom of the Point Spread Markets,” accepted for publication in the Journal of Sports Economics. The article develops a voting model for the NCAA Football polls and shows that game results compared to expectations (the market-based point spread) plays a significant role in the change in rankings from week-to-week during the season.

Also, Paul was invited to write the introduction to a special issue of the Journal of Economics and Finance on the subject of market efficiency in sports wagering markets. This issue contains articles on market efficiency tests by many of the top researchers in this field.

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Barbara Trolley, assistant professor of counselor education, had an article titled “Supervision Requirements for Licensing New York State Counselors: Ready or Not?” accepted for publication in the Journal for the Professional Counselor.

In addition, Trolley will be presenting a three-hour New York State School Counselor Association (NYSSCA) workshop called “De-escalating and demystifying cyber bullying in the schools” with alumnae Connie Hanel and Linda Shields, both MSEd, on Nov. 4. Trolley will also be giving a NYSSCA presentation called “The Role of the School Counselor in Special Education” with alumna Heather Haas, MSEd, on Nov. 5.

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Friday Forum

All SBU faculty, staff and administrators are welcome to all the Friday Forums.

Date: Oct. 14, 2005
Speaker: Lenna Visiting Professor Alan Dobson
Time: Lunch starts at noon, Forum goes from 12:35 to 1:30 p.m., including Q&A
Place: University Club - Above Hickey
Title: "U.S. Foreign Policy in the Post-War Years"

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