UB Buzz

Syracuse U Remembers Pan Am 103

Syracuse University (N.Y.) marked a solemn anniversary yesterday. On Dec. 21, 1988, thirty-five of its students, who were returning home from a semester abroad in London, England and Florence, Italy, were among the 259 passengers who perished from the terrorist bombing of Pan Am 103, which occurred over Lockerbie, Scotland.
The campus held a service of remembrance in its Hendricks Chapel that featured a reading of the names of the 35 victims. A procession to the Wall of Remembrance, a campus memorial, followed. The service culminated a series of special events during the fall semester reflecting on the tragedy and its impact. Other events included art exhibits and a panel discussion on civil litigation and public diplomacy.
During Remembrance Week (Oct. 19-26), SU invited alumni from the classes of 1988-92 to campus for the university's annual Wreath-Laying Ceremony and Remembrance Convocation as well as events and gatherings throughout the weekend.
Special exhibitions of materials from the Pan Am 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives, housed on the SU campus, were on display throughout the semester. Established in 1990, the archives hold records relating to the flight.
SU created a commemorative website (http://panam103.syr.edu/) that has a list of the 35 victims with personal stories about and pictures of each student. Today's UB Daily features a piece written by Post-Standard columnist Sean Kirst who interviewed now-grown SU students who knew classmates that perished in the tragedy.

Mapping Connections

Achieve, a non-profit committed to improving high school graduation rates, has launched Post Secondary Connection, a website to serve as "a new one-stop, online toolkit to help higher education leaders effectively engage with the K-12 community to ensure that high school graduates enter college ready for success."
The new website provides links to data, research, resources (such as Achieving the Dream) and case studies from various parts of the country focused on college readiness.
The side defines some terms, such as "college ready," and has tracks for faculty, presidents, and deans.
In addition to Achieve, the Post Secondary Connection is supported by organizations ranging from ACE to the Lumina Foundation.
It might make for some interesting, light reading over the winter break.

Better Than Gym Access

A robust alumni network can be a final selling point when a student is selecting a college.
St. John's University (N.Y.) is making it worth while to be an alumni beyond the normal fitness center access and discount play ticket perks. Unemployed alumni can get a 50 percent discount on graduate program tuition, as well as have the application fee waved, for the next two years. Administrators are also highlighting the services of the Career Center for both employers and job seekers. You can read about the programs here.
Of course, in these tight economic times, if an alumni membership does include access to the on campus fitness center, and you live close enough to go, it could be a way to save money.

Auto Industry Woes Come to College

As the auto industry bailout flounders in the senate, and speculation continues about the long-term effects if the manufacturers fail, the impact is already being felt at Portland Community College.
(Left to right, Scott Morgan with students Brandon Cargill, Robbie Olea and Mark Conner. They work to replace a light on a GM truck. Photo courtesy PCC.)
The institution has partnered with General Motors on the GM Automotive Service Education program since 1985, which trains students to repair GM vehicles. Half the program credits come from the student working at a dealership—situations some students are having trouble securing.
“The need for qualified and competent service technicians is still very real, but dealerships are getting leaner and meaner,” says program instructor Scott Morgan. “The last few months have been very different from what we have experienced in the past. As with the economy as a whole, it is very difficult to find work in the current economic times.”
In true community college fashion, administrators are already developing courses in alternative energy and hybrid cars to meet future demand in those areas. Administrators also report the collision repair program is in good health, since it doesn't rely on a specific car maker.
Community colleges usually see a surge in enrollment during economic downturns, and that has held true at PCC. Spokesman James Hill says enrollment in general has grown for the fifth straight term, with full-time enrollment growing 9.5 percent during the fall term. The state uses FTE to determine funding. Hill says most of the growth has been in core credit courses, which students can eventually transfer to a four-year institution.
So far, most of the discussion of the affect of the economic downturn on higher ed has focused on reduced endowement returns, state budget cuts, and the availability of students loans in relation to rising tution. It might be time to start taking a closer look what will happen to students once they graduate.

Seasons Readings

Four new web exclusives have been posted this month, with topics covering everything from effective branding practices to maintaining accessible but readily secure campus networks. All articles can be accessed through this page.
In conjunction with "50 Best Branding Ideas," the cover story for December's University Business magazine, Randell J. Kennedy wrote about how taking a strong administrative leadership toward branding can result in a campaign that successfully reaches its mark. Kennedy is president of Academy Communications, a national consulting agency that represents higher ed institutions. His piece is titled "Best Branding Practices--Avoiding Assumptions that Miss the Media Mark."
IT departments have special requirements when it comes to network security, no doubt. Ashar Aziz, founder and CEO of FireEye, offers tips on how campuses can protect these vital resources against infiltration in his article, "Why Infected PCs Still Walk the Halls of Higher Education."
"Higher Education Moves to Online Classrooms" tells the story of The Academy of Art University and its adoption of an online recruitment and education program. By doing so, the article reports the program increased recruiting efforts by 30 percent and saved thousands in travel costs. A bonus, the decision demonstrated the practical applications of eLearning technology for students trying to earn art degrees from remote locations.
Over the past two years, the Villanova School of Business reinvented its undergraduate program and introduced a new curriculum to first-year students this past fall. In "Making Radical Change a Reality," Dean James Danko highlighted the school's process, along with providing a top ten tip list for institutions that may be considering a curricular redesign at this time.

Trial Averted

Princeton announced today a settlement has been reached in the legal dispute over control of the Robertson Foundation, preventing the need for a trial and saving both parties millions of more dollars in legal fees.
The Robertson Foundation was endowed by Marie Robertson in 1961 to support the graduate program of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Six years ago, members of the Robertson family sued the university for control of the endowment after they disputed the choice of an investment firm for the Foundation.
The key resolution in the dispute is the  Foundation will be dissolved with the assets transferred to an endowed fund solely controlled by the university.
The university will also use part of the funds to “reimburse the Banbury Fund, the charitable foundation that the Robertsons used to pay their legal bills,” Princeton University President Shirley M. Tilghman, explained in a statement. “We continue to believe that this was an inappropriate use of the Banbury Fund’s assets, and we hope that as a result of the reimbursement the Banbury Fund will return to funding the charitable purposes for which it was established by Marie and Charles Robertson ’26 more than 60 years ago.”
Additional funds will go toward a new charitable foundation created by the Robertson family to encourage students at other colleges and universities to prepare for careers in government service. This is preferable to spending the money on legal fees, Tilghman wrote, since it is compatible with the goals of the Woodrow Wilson School.
To combat misinformation about the case while it was going on, Princeton's media relations team built webpage summarizing key points.
Cass Cliatt, director of media relations, discussed her efforts to inform media coverage of the case in a "Behind the News" item for the December 2007 issue of UB, which can be found here.

Gearing Up for the Inauguration

As excitement over the historic 2009 Presidential Inauguration on Tuesday, Jan. 20, is stirring up requests for tickets and travelers' lodging in Washington, D.C., George Washington University--with a campus in the district's Foggy Bottom neighborhood--has prepared for the festivities.
GW officials introduced a Special Inauguration Overnight Guest Policy that will allow residential students to host relatives and friends in their rooms from Friday, Jan. 16, 2009, to Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009. Students must preregister all their overnight visitors for approval and security reasons, with sign-ups due by Friday, Dec. 12.
Guests will be approved on a first-come, first-served basis with consideration given to the student demand of each residence hall.
The visitation policy has a number of requirements:
 - Hosts must accompany guests at all times for entry into the residence halls.
- Guests will be required to show a picture ID at building entry and may be asked to produce identification at various other times during the weekend if stopped by campus police or other local security.
And, especially:
- Guests may not sleep in common spaces or hallways and should familiarize themselves with emergency safety and evacuation procedures in the residence halls.
The notice also reminded students that they are not permitted "to sublease or rent their space" under the terms of the university's Undergraduate Housing License Agreement.
The GW community will continue to celebrate well into the evening of Jan. 20 at the GW Inaugural Ball. A GW tradition, nearly 4,000 tickets for this year's event sold out in a day, according to an informational website.
The guest list for the black-tie affair includes GW students, faculty, staff and alumni, parents, and other family members, and extends to members of Congress and the incoming Obama Administration as well as United States ambassadors. The site's FAQ section mentions that the new President and Vice President are also welcome, but it's understandable if they can't make it.

A View From Afar

(Note: John Sumansky, director of the Center for Economic and Entrepreneurship Education at Misericordia University is in Macedonia teaching entrepreneurship and economics as a Fulbright Scholar. He wrote this editorial as the presidential election was unfolding and observed how people in this Eastern European country reacted to it.)

The U.S. presidential election was a political out-of-body experience for me. I sat in my Tetovo, Macedonia flat watching events unfold in another country—my country.
I stayed up all night watching returns on CNN Europe. Because of the time difference, the election results did not start coming in until after midnight. So, it was 5 a.m.—with me in a caffeine-induced stupor—when I heard that Sen. Obama had reached the 270 electoral votes necessary to become President-elect Obama.
It was exciting, so I flipped through channels to see what other stations were doing. I counted five different stations doing live coverage of the elections in five languages. I was impressed with how much “live’’ coverage was being given to the election from places like Kosovo, Albania, Croatia and Serbia—not to mention BBC and local Macedonian stations. (more)