Latest Faculty & Staff News

• Lonnie Calhoun was an invited attendee to the National Conference on Climate Governance sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, held Dec. 11-12 (12/19)

  Lonnie Calhoun, Director of Multicultural Affairs and International Student Services, was an invited attendee to the National Conference on Climate Governance sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, held Dec. 11-12. “I was invited because of mutual academic interests in terms of the activities that my office has sponsored or co-sponsored,” Calhoun said. The academic conference, which featured leading scholars and practitioners, examined the role that government should play in dealing with climate change. The proceedings will lead to a “policy report and an edited, peer-reviewed book to help guide the new presidential administration and Congress,” according to the Miller Center of Public Affairs, a leading nonpartisan policy institution.

• Video developed for contest highlights Longwood's sustainability efforts (12/2)
  

  Longwood University staff members Robin Dickson, Kelly Martin and Louise Waller and student Amanda Thomas collaborated on developing a video to enter in the National Wildlife Federation's Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming video competition. Colleges and universities across the nation compete annually by creating a three-minute video showcasing how their institution is confronting climate change. Two winners will be selected, each of which will receive a $500 grant and five "Campus Climate Challenge" T-shirts, and the winning video will be featured in a multimedia broadcast in April 2009.

  Everyone is encouraged to vote by watching the video and clicking on "Vote Now" below the video in the green bar. Forty percent of the judging is based on the number of combined views and votes from the online community, with the remaining 60 percent based on NWF's judging of video content. Only one vote per IP address is allowed. Voting began Dec. 1, 2008 and will end Feb. 1, 2009. For more information about the competition, visit www.nwf.org/campusEcology/chillout. Dickson is a multimedia specialist, Martin is sustainability coordinator, Waller is space planning and real property manager, and Thomas is a recycling coordinator

  For more information on Longwood's sustainability efforts, please visit: 
  www.longwood.edu/greencampus

• President Patricia Cormier gave the Presidents-to-Presidents lecture at the annual meeting of AASCU, held Nov. 23-25 (12/1)

  President Patricia Cormier gave the Presidents-to-Presidents lecture at the annual meeting of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), held Nov. 23-25 in Williamsburg. Dr. Cormier was chosen by the AASCU board of directors to deliver the lecture, which an AASCU spokeswoman described as a “signal honor” in which the designee “addresses colleagues on leadership based on his/her experience.” Dr. Cormier, a former chair of the AASCU board of directors, spoke on “An Expression of the American Mind: Citizen Leaders in the Global Marketplace” during the luncheon Nov. 24. Also at the meeting, attended by about 200 presidents and chancellors from around the country, Dr. Raymond Cormier, Visiting Professor of French, participated Nov. 23 in the “Orientation/Mentoring Session for Spouses/Partners of New Member Presidents.” He was one of four panelists in the discussion, presided over by Jo Hern Curris, director of AASCU Spouse Programs. AASCU is the leadership association of 430 public colleges and universities.

• Virginia Kinman gave two presentations at the XXVIII Charleston Conference: Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition on Nov. 6-7 (11/21)

  Virginia Kinman, Electronic Resources Librarian and Associate Professor, gave two presentations at the XXVIII Charleston Conference: Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition on Nov. 6-7 in Charleston, S.C. “Using Usage Data to Support Collection Management Decisions during an Economic Slowdown” dealt with how the Greenwood Library has used electronic resource usage statistics for journal and database collection decisions. Co-presenter Gayle Baker, professor and electronic services coordinator at the University of Tennessee Libraries, provided the perspective of a research library. As an invited panelist for “Usage Statistics: Best Practices and Practical Applications from a Librarian’s Perspective,” Kinman provided an overview of how usage data are collected and repurposed at the Greenwood Library to evaluate electronic resources within the context of overall library collections and services. The Charleston Conference is an informal annual gathering of librarians, publishers, electronic resource managers, consultants and vendors of library materials.

• Longwood President Dr. Patricia Cormier will deliver AASCU's President-to-Presidents lecture (11/20)
  

  The Board of Directors of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) has selected Longwood University President Patricia Cormier to deliver the President-to-Presidents lecture at the association’s Annual Meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia.

  A tradition at the AASCU Annual Meeting for more than 30 years, the President-to-Presidents lecture is a signal honor bestowed by the AASCU Board of Directors on one of their colleagues. The president chosen generally addresses colleagues on leadership based on his/her experience. Cormier will discuss An Expression of the American Mind: Citizen Leaders in the Global Marketplace at the luncheon on November 24.

  For more information, view the news release.

• Dr. Raymond Cormier, Visiting Professor of French, lectured Nov. 13 to the Irish-American Society of Greater Richmond (IAS) (11/14)

  Dr. Raymond Cormier, Visiting Professor of French, lectured Nov. 13 to the Irish-American Society of Greater Richmond (IAS) on “The Cattle Raid of Cooley – Crown Jewel of Early Irish Epic Poetry (but underappreciated).” The Cattle Raid of Cooley is an epic-like tale considered Ireland’s Iliad. Dr. Cormier is an expert on early Irish epic literature, which he said “remains a neglected genre” derived from an “ancient pan-Celtic heroic tradition” whose earliest development some scholars date as far back as the Iron Age (third century B.C.). Dr. Cormier discussed, among other topics, how The Cattle Raid of Cooley (Táin Bó Cúailgne in the Irish language) and many other heroic narratives were committed to manuscript in Old and Middle Irish during the Early Medieval period. Before his talk, he was introduced by IAS member Dr. Helen Warriner-Burke, a member of the Longwood Board of Visitors whose husband, Pat Burke, a former member of Longwood’s history faculty, was the group’s co-founder and first president.
  

• Dr. Richard Chassey will have a paper published in the Spring 2009 issue of the Journal of Student Conduct Administration (11/6)

  Dr. Richard Chassey, Director of Honor and Judicial Programs, will have a paper published in the Spring 2009 issue of the Journal of Student Conduct Administration, a publication of the Association for Student Judicial Affairs. The paper, "Development of Critical Thinking Skills among Student Judicial Board Members," describes a year-long research project involving volunteers from the Honor and Judicial boards. "The outcome of the project indicates that the students gain significant critical thinking and communication skills as a result of their membership on the boards," Dr. Chassey said.