 News for Faculty, Staff and Friends of the Worcester State College Community |
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Princeton Review Names WSC a "Best in Northeast"
College
WSC Receives $200,000 Green Chemistry Grant
Co-chairs Named for
Opportunity for a Lifetime Students Join Professor in Search of Imperiled Species
Tim Hagopian
(Academic Success Center) presented a paper titled
"Cutting the Accuplacer Elementary Algebra Failure Rate in
Half" at College Board’s 18th Annual Accuplacer National Conference
in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. ,on June 26. Hagopian was also a panelist for "What's
New in Developmental Mathematics?" at the
Massachusetts Department of Higher Education conference "Sustaining Growth: A
Conference on Student Success" held at Bridgewater State College on June 18.
As
Hagopian’s abstract notes, “Forcing early Blackboard use by incoming freshmen by
sending user names and passwords
well before placement testing and registration has
opened the door to great opportunities. By requiring students to log into their
account where the 'my courses' shell provides them with key information about
the upcoming Accuplacer test and also directs them to take online practice tests
in order to refresh their (very often) rusty math skills has drastically reduced
the failure rate on the Accuplacer Elementary Algebra test and consequently
increased student morale (and hopefully retention too). Still more benefits are
that all new freshmen will have experienced Blackboard and likely used WSC
e-mail before arriving in September."
Stephen A. Morreale (Criminal Justice)
presented at the
Annual Fraud Conference sponsored by the Association of Certified Fraud
Examiners held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston in July.
The presentation, “The State of Health Care Fraud in America,” focused on
schemes perpetrated within Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurers.
Morreale discussed the rise of criminal fraud cases aimed at sub-standard
quality of care, medical identity theft, medically unnecessary testing, patient
recruiting, infusion therapy fraud, and unnecessary surgeries to increase
billing opportunities for providers.
In addition,
Professor Morreale attended the Educator’s session, to discuss interdisciplinary
studies in Fraud Examination and the benefits of a student chapter of the
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
Sudha Swaminathan
(Physical and Earth Sciences) received a $370 grant from the American
Association of Physics Teachers Bauder Fund for her proposal "Freefall with a
Flip." The grant will be used to purchase digital video cameras for
measuring acceleration due to gravity. Swaminathan will train WSC pre-med club
students to present the experiment at Worcester Public Schools participating in
the Worcester Pipeline Collaborative.
Antonieto Tan (Biology)
presented the results of his research project titled, “Rapid Identification and
Phylogenetic Inference of the Luminous Bacteria Based on the DNA Sequences of
the Amplified 16S rRNA Gene Using Novel PCR Primers” at the 108th General
Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology on June 1-5. The abstract of
his poster (R-012) is published in the meeting ABSTRACTS. The research project
was funded by a WSC faculty mini-grant during his sabbatical leave in fall of
2007.
On June 10, at Worcester’s Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church,
Henry Theriault
(Philosophy) and
Armenian Weekly editor Khatchig Mouradian
addressed a group of Armenian college students drawn from the eastern United
States for the Armenian Relief Society’s Youth Connection summer studies program
and a broader community audience on the complexities and future trends in
Armenian-Turkish relations.
At the invitation of the MIT chapter of Students Against Genocide
(STAND), Theriault delivered a talk at the Institute on the characteristic
arguments and logical fallacies of denial, on May 1. On April 10, as part of the
STAND "Days of Remembrance" event series, Professor Theriault delivered a
lecture titled “Moral Dilemmas or Moral Choices: Bystanders and Prevention
of Genocide” to Newton South High School students.
Co-chairs Named for
Opportunity for a With the quiet phase of
Opportunity for a Lifetime: A
Campaign for the Future of Worcester State College coming to an end, the
Worcester State Foundation and Office of Institutional Advancement are inviting
College faculty and staff to participate in this historic effort to raise $10
million. The campaign has surpassed the halfway point, raising over $7 million
from our generous alumni, foundations, and area corporations. WSC faculty and staff participation in this campaign is very
important, said Vice President of Institutional Advancement Thomas M. McNamara
94. Donors, foundations, and corporations like to see strong internal support
for colleges when they are considering making a large gift. I urge all of you to
help make this campaign the best it can be. McNamara has appointed Mike Wronski, director of foundation
and corporate relations, to spearhead this special campaign within the
campaign. Wronski believes he needs enthusiastic volunteers to launch
the campaign and has enlisted Francis Tuck Amory, Carol Donnelly, Elaine
Dukes, and Carolyn Dumais to co-chair the faculty and staff campaign committees.
I am very grateful that Tuck Amory and Carol Donnelly have
agreed to co-chair the faculty campaign and Elaine Dukes and Carolyn Dumais the
staff campaign, Wronski said. Both Tuck and Carol have been very involved in
the Opportunity for a Lifetime campaign committees and have also made
major personal commitments to support this effort. They are wonderful
ambassadors for the College and the Foundation. Elaine and Carolyn have been
longtime supporters of the Foundations Annual Fund. Through my work on proposals for foundation and corporate
grants, I have learned that many of these organizations look closely at the
level of participation of our alumni, staff, and faculty as well as our overall
number of donors, he added. The
Opportunity for a Lifetime campaign presents an ideal time for us to
increase faculty and staff involvement in
fundraising for the College. Gifts of any size are vital in this phase of the
campaign. Amory said that he is in the process of recruiting a
representative from every academic department to help out. Carol and I have
received a very supportive and enthusiastic response from our faculty to serve
as captains of their areas. Our plan is to take 15 minutes at every department
meeting to talk about the importance of faculty participation in the campaign,
he said. Championing the staff campaign will be Elaine Dukes,
accountant in the Payroll Department, and Carolyn Dumais, clerk III in the
Languages and Literature Department.
As a member of the class of 1986, I think it is important to
give back to my alma mater, Dukes said. Dumais, who has served the College
for almost 30 years, believes that the College has helped so many of our
students and grown so much in the last few years, and I want to be part of its
success. To help facilitate contributions to the
Opportunity for a Lifetime, the
Payroll Department has made it easier than ever to make a donation through
payroll deduction. The faculty/staff campaign will be officially announced on
Opening Day. However, you may visit
www.worcester.edu/opportunity
to learn more about the campaign today.
I just to try to set a path for them and find out what they want to be when they get older, said G.A.N.G Camp staff member Jacob Bottom. Sounds like great advice from a decent and responsible adult looking to give back to some of the troubled youth of his community. Indeed it is great advice, but Jacob Bottom isn't an adult at all. He's actually a 13-year old former camper turned staff member and living proof of what great strides the Worcester Police Department Gang Unit and their G.A.N.G Camp have accomplished over the last five years. G.A.N.G., which stands for Gang Awareness for the Next Generation, took place recently at Worcester State College. It is a three-week camp that educates over 300 campers a year, all hailing from Worcester, from the ages of 8-16. Worcester Police Department Gang Unit Sergeant Miguel Lopez serves as the camps director, and has been involved since its inception five years ago. Basically we're all Worcester police officers inside the gang unit and once a year we take out what ends up being 300 kids, 100 kids per week, and we put on this camp geared towards gang prevention, drug prevention, and positive adult role-modeling, Lopez said. Sgt. Lopez and his staff stress the importance of reaching kids early in life, with statistics showing gang involvement and recruitment starts as early as the age of ten. The basis of the camp is that we're trying to target these kids at an early age, between 11 and 13, Lopez said. You look at these kids, and a lot of them look very young, but this is the group that is being targeted, so we're trying to get our message out to them before anyone else does. Unlike programs like D.A.R.E., that focus more on visiting schools and educating young people in a classroom atmosphere, Sgt. Lopez and his staff take a more hands on approach, bringing the kids together in an atmosphere where relationships and friendships can be developed. We take kids from different parts of the city and we bring them together. We create a shared history among these kids and we believe that that shared history is what reduces crime and violence later on in life, Lopez said. Along with building these relationships, Lopez looks to provide the campers with positive role models of all different ages. Some of the staff members are kids who were in this camp, kids who've been in our programs, and all the lead staff is Worcester PD, Lopez said. Lopez takes pride in the fact that the officers at G.A.N.G. camp aren't just classroom cops, and that many of them will be seen on the streets, making their message hit home that much more. Although the kids get to see us in a different light at camp, we're also very active police officers, Lopez said. They'll see us on the street late at night, executing a search warrant or arresting somebody, so they know and see the real element to the whole thing. Its not like we're just telling them these things for our health, or because were told to say it. We believe in what we do and that's why we're doing it. Richie Saya, a second-year camper, enjoys the fun and exciting atmosphere of the camp, but he isn't here just to play games. I like the camp a lot because they teach you how to not be in gangs and stuff and we play a lot of games, Saya said. But people are here to learn. I wouldn't come if it was just fun and games. I came here to learn, too. Saya is one of the 300 campers lucky enough to be accepted into the G.A.N.G. camp. What started out as a camp for 50 has grown nearly six times in size in its short history. But its a problem that Lopez and his staff are happy to have. Everything is voluntary, but actually every year we have to turn kids away, Lopez said. If we had the money, we could probably do 200 kids a week.
CJ Students Assist
WPD with G.A.N.G. Camp CJ students were paired with Worcester Police officers and Worcester Boys and Girls Club staff on teams of Worcester youth from 10-15 years old. Students were engaged in classes, sports activities, police canine demonstrations, and field trips. With the assistance of Criminal
Justice Professors Steve Morreale and Matt Palumbo, students gained valuable
experience and were able to see firsthand the potential benefits of
proactive, hands on police involvement in prevention.
Several members of the Worcester Police in attendance of the camp
are alumnus of WSC.
Activities took place on campus, at Foley Stadium and at Shore Park.
Campers traveled to the Southwick Zoo, Department of Youth
Services Holding facilities, and the Worcester County House of
Corrections. Students assisted in organizing
and supervising several activities, bonded with Worcester at-risk youth
and met management and members of the Worcester Police Department Gang
Units.
The following Criminal Justice students participated: Kaylyn Hewey, Kendra Kellett, Blakely Belisto, Anjeza Xhemollari, William White, Danielle Porter, Christina Bisbee, Carlos Sousa, Ryan Arseneualt, Nicole Schrunk, Kevin OBrien, Tom Belanger, Dan Hartz, and Richard Rice. Photo by Professor Morreale.
WSC Students Join
Professor Tracy in Search You may be familiar with the myth of lemming mass suicide. In fact, you may have
even used the lemming metaphor to describe those who Randall Tracy (Biology) acknowledges this myth. Yet, his quest to find the Southern bog lemming in central Massachusetts was futile until June 3, when one lone lemming was discovered at Broadmeadow Brook. A lemming is a small hamster-like mammal. Bogs are, or were, its favored
habitat. Massachusetts has lost bogs over the last 120 years, Tracy said. But
that isn't the whole story. He suspects a change in the surrounding vegetation
has something to do with the decline of lemmings, too. No one in years has looked at the Southern bog lemming, he said. The
Massachusetts Division of Wildlife has no idea of where the lemmings are. Tracy notes that
there's a historical record of lemmings in Worcester County.
But the last one was identified in the 1950s or 60s, he said. Nobody Well, not nobody. Tracy worked with three undergraduate students to find the
Southern bog lemming and the New England cottontail rabbit, a species of
special concern, in Massachusetts. The students have done literature reviews of the habitats of these small
mammals. They've been working in Broadmeadow Brook, Lancaster town forest and
Poutwater Pond, an area between Holden and Sterling, to catalog species. Tracy built 30 large wooden rabbit traps, which are specially designed for
biological research. These supplement 200 aluminum Sherman traps he purchased
with a previous mini-grant. The traps are of the Have-a-Heart variety: They
are not invasive. Student researchers bait these traps with rolled oats, then
set them in the evening. They also put three cotton balls inside the traps so that an animal can make a
nest in there, Tracy said. We don't want them to suffer hypothermia in the
trap. Come early morning, the students return to the traps to catalog the species and
gender of the animals in them. They release the animals once they've catalogued
them. Tracy, who is in his fifth year at Worcester State College, is particularly
interested in metabolic studies of small mammals. The central questions behind
his 2007-08 mini-grant, Quantifying Animal Diversity in Worcester County:
Continued Undergraduate Student Research at Worcester State College, are why
are these species in decline? And what is it about certain environments that
allow these species to live there? Students are actually able to do science, Tracy said of this project. He
recruits student researchers from his ecology and introductory biology classes. The mini-grant covered the cost of materials for the wooden rabbit traps. Tracy
also bought cameras equipped with motion sensors. These are mounted on trees and
capture movement of larger animals in the three research areas of central
Massachusetts. The cameras have digital cards, which the student researchers
download to see which species were in the area. Tracy secured permits for this field research from the Massachusetts Division of
Fish and Wildlife. These are imperiled species, he said of the lemming and New England
cottontail.
Tracy's research team may have a better chance of learning about the rabbit than
the lemming. Although the New England cottontail was once the only rabbit
species in New England, it currently is a mere 8 percent of the rabbit
population in Massachusetts.
TRANSFERS:
Stephanie Formica
PROMOTIONS:
Robert P. Daniels, III
WELCOME TO:
Sara Grady
Steven Miller, Jr.
David Needham
Cheryl Vieira
NAME CHANGE:
Anne Marie Heyes
GOOD LUCK TO:
Don McCabe, Graphic Artist
from the
**Please Note - Links to online newspaper
articles may
Colleges await word on when projects can start
Bruso pockets another
victory at Pine Ridge
College Town
WSC outsources e-mail to Google
Regional Digest
First
test in college a toughie
Worcester State outsources e-mail to google |
Monday, August 18, 2008
COMING UP
Tuesday, September 2
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During
the month of July, student volunteers from the
WSC Criminal Justice Program
joined with staff from the Worcester Police Department Gang Unit, and
the Boys and Girls Club of Worcester for three separate weeks of Gang
Prevention Summer Camps. 
blindly follow their leaders to their deaths.