Dear Bellarmine Students, Faculty and Staff,

Bellarmine University awarded 88 master’s and 377 bachelor's degrees during its 55th annual commencement exercises on Saturday, May 10. Curt Tofteland, founder and director of Shakespeare Behind Bars and producing director of the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, delivered the commencement address. Tofteland also received an honorary doctorate.

In addition to the conferral of degrees, several special awards were presented. Jourdan Hubbuch and Trish Todd were co-winners of the Archbishop's Medal for Scholastic Excellence (highest grade point average). The Wilson W. Wyatt Fellowship for Academic Excellence was awarded to Tumaini Malenga, and the In Veritatis Amore Award (best all around male and female as voted by the faculty) went to Trish Todd and Wesley Thomas. Faculty awards were presented to Tom Byrd and Ruth Wagoner.

Pfeffer and Davis appointments

It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of Dr. Carole Pfeffer to the position of Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. Dr. Pfeffer has successfully served Bellarmine in many faculty leadership and administrative positions over the course of her distinguished career. Her energy, passion, and effectiveness are well known and she exemplifies our commitment to excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service. Dr. Pfeffer will work closely with Dr. Doris Tegart to advance the general academic agenda with particular emphasis on strategic planning, SACS compliance issues, and the development and implementation of institutional assessment.

I am also pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Beth Davis to the position of Director of Academic Operations. She clearly demonstrated her great value to the University during the SACS effort and is well suited for success in her new post. With a BA from Centre College and an MA in International Economics from George Washington University, she has demonstrated great intelligence, effectiveness and a true sense of collaboration, and is clearly masterful in meeting deadlines, attending to details, and managing many tasks at once. Beth will focus on special projects within the academic area, QEP implementation, and the coordination of operational activities including budget oversight and the management of contracts in the academic area.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Pfeffer and Ms. Davis and in welcoming them to their new positions of responsibility, which will help us realize Vision 2020.

Bellarmine wins VITA Award

Bellarmine University has received the inaugural Louisville Asset Building Coalition/Chilton & Medley CPAS VITA Collegiate Challenge University Leadership Award in honor of outstanding volunteer contributions. Bellarmine student Barry King accepted the award from Metro United Way on May 22, 2008. It is a permanent trophy, with Bellarmine students reporting 550 hours compared to 230 for U of L and helping VITA recover some $8,000,000 in tax refunds for the community.

Bynum Appointed to National Board

At its March 29 meeting, the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) board of directors approved the appointment of Lynn Bynum as an at-large representative to its national board: Bynum has been a member of CUPA-HR since joining Bellarmine and has held a number of leadership positions in the association, including vice chair of the Kentucky Chapter from 2001-03, chapter chair from 2003-05, member of the program committee for the Southern Region’s 2007 conference and site chair for the Southern Region’s 2009 conference.

Dr. Hinson-Hasty co-edits book

Congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty in the Theology Department on the publication of Prayers for the New Social Awakening: Inspired by the New Social Creed (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008) which she co-edited with Christian Iosso, and to which she is also a contributor. The book contains a hundred prayers, by a virtual who's who in Christian theology, on the theme of the new social creed.

News from The Annsley Frazier Thornton School of Education

Professor Sonya Burton, made a presentation on Critical Literacy at the Rouge Forum conference.

Professors Deb Baker and John Sizemore represented Bellarmine at the New York Times Town Hall Meeting on March 6th entitled Linking Leadership to Learning: A More Coordinated Approach, where Bellarmine’s MA in Instructional Leadership and School Administration (MAILSA) program, was recognized as a model for principal preparation leadership.

Dr. Mary Goral conducted a presentation on the JCPS Waldorf-inspired cadre at an AERA pre-session in March in New York.

Dr. Claire Hughes made two presentations at the national Council for Exceptional Children’s annual conference in Boston in April. The first was entitled Cognitive Engagement as a Sensory Intervention for Children with High-Functioning Autism. She was a co-presenter on A Means to an End: Using Co-Teaching to Implement RTI.

Dr. Christy McGee was honored at the Kentucky Education Association’s (KEA) Retired Teachers’ Mentoring Program dinner with the “You Made a Difference Award” on March 28th in Louisville.

Dr. Corrie Orthober and her peers made a presentation at the American Education Researchers Association (AERA) annual meeting in March entitled, Assessing 350 freshmen academy students within a title I high school: A formative assessment methodology.

Dr. Christine Price and Dr. Christy McGee presented Out of the fire at the Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education in February.

Dr. Adam Renner recently published an article entitled, Desegregation, integration, and the Supreme Court: Student assignment in Louisville KY.

Culligan tours with Days of the New

Paul Culligan is going out on tour again this summer as the drummer with the band Days of the New. The band has sold upwards of 4 million copies of their records worldwide and the song, "Touch, Peel and Stand" was at number one on the Billboard charts for 17 weeks straight. In addition, Days of the New had three other songs in the top 40. Days of the New continues to sell out where ever the band travels. Also, Paul will be playing on the next record, entitled "Purple" due out this fall. He will travel all over the USA and Canada this summer and in-between teach at Bellarmine in the fall.

Padgett wins "Creative and Innovative Teaching Award"
Congratulations to Dr. Barry Padgett, who received the Academy of Educational Leadership's "Creative and Innovative Teaching Award" for his MBA business ethics pedagogy. To be eligible for consideration, an individual must be nominated by a member of the Allied Academies and undergo evaluation by the Teaching Awards Committee. Dr. Padgett's work was judged by the committee to be worthy of the designation, "Distinguished Teachers."

Biology Department News

Katy Blair (Class of 2008) presented a poster of her research at the annual conference of the American Institute of Biological Sciences held in Arlington, Virginia, on May 12-13. She competed against other undergraduate students, as well as graduate students, in a student contest. The poster was titled “The Ambrosia Project: Analysis of a cDNA library from Giant Ragweed pollen and Initial Examination of Allergenic Pectate Lyase”. It was co-authored by Dr. Joann Lau and Dr. Dave Robinson (Biology Department).

Dr. Dave Robinson and Dr. Joann Lau presented an hour-long webinar hosted by Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (Hercules, CA). It was entitled “From Plants to Sequences: A Six-Week College Biology Lab Course”. There were 84 attendees (which is the most that Bio-Rad has had for any of their webinars). Attendees included a classroom of high-school students in Florida, as well educators in places as far away as Taiwan.

News from the Lansing School

Congratulations to Dr. Kathy Hager for having her IDC 301 course in gerontology accepted by CCSA in Sidney, Australia for 2009

Dr. Nancy Urbscheit and Dr. Megan Danzel have just returned with a group of physical therapy students from an intense learning experience at Curtin University in Perth, Australia.

Dr. Mark Wiegand and Dr. Tony Brosky, along with a group of physical therapy students, have teamed with Dr. Adam Renner in Jamaica. The faculty and students will be doing service and learning in a physical therapy clinic for needy children.

Dawn Ginter, Robert Holland and LaShannda Harris (former nursing student) have published an article, "DATA BITS: Medication Errors in a Rural Hospital Setting" in the Kentucky Nurse, April, May, June, 2008 issue.

Mallory Brake, BSN student, has been accepted into the VALOR Externship program at the Veteran's Administration Medical Center, Louisville for Summer 2008

News from Foreign Languages and International Studies

Gabriele Bosley was a presenter on the topic of "Integrating Theory, Research, and Application for Program Design" at the 2008 FORUM on Education Abroad Conference in Boston on April 3, 2008. She also presented on the topic of "Intercultural Growth and Learning in the International Education" at the 2008 NAFSA Conference in Washington, D.C. on May 30, 2008.

Dr. Bosley had her co-authored article on "Dynamics of Cultural Contents: Meta-level Intervention in the Study Abroad Experience" published and released in the book "Developing Intercultural Competence and Transformation" in May 2008 by Stylus Publications in Higher Education, with a book signing arranged by NAFSA in Washington D.C. on May 30, 2008. Finally, Bosley has accepted an invitation by the EFIL (European Federation of Intercultural Learning) and the Friedrich Schiller Universität/Jena to present at the "Moving Beyond Mobility" Conference in Berlin, Germany, October 13-14, 2008 on “Combining Theory, Research and Design in the Development of Target-Culture Behavior Through Meta-Level Analysis During Cultural Immersion”.

Julien Carriere presented a paper entitled, "Samuel Beckett and Music: The Influence of Franz Schubert’s Death and the Maiden on All that Fall," at the 28th Annual Cincinnati Conference on Romance Languages and Literatures in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 9.

Nelson Lopez' book "Andrés de Claramonte, Valiente negro en Flandes: edicion para actores y editores" was published and released in April 2008 by the prestigious European & professionally peer-reviewed scholarly press, Reichenberger with offices in Barcelona, Spain, and Kassel, Germany. Dr. Lopez also translated and directed for the stage Sergio Vodanovic's El delantal blanco (The White Apron). A Chilean play on social class struggle and inequalities. Produced by the ST@B at Bellarmine University for their Festival of Shorts.

Melody Carriere presented a paper entitled, "Creolizing the Canonical Text: Maryse Condé’s Caribbeanness in La migration des cœurs" at the University of Cincinnati's Annual Romance Languages and Literatures conference.