New (and Returning) Faces
Congratulations to Kristy Bayer, our new Deputy Director of Athletics/Senior Woman Administrator. Kristy, a former assistant volleyball coach for the Hornets, returns to Emporia from Arkansas Tech University. Her hiring concludes a four-month process that includes the addition of Matthew Falor as men’s athletic trainer, Brett McLaughlin as the Director of Athletic Marketing along with the promotion of Don Weast to Associate Athletic Director, Jason Santangelo to Assistant Director for Athletic Development, Ping Wang transitioning from coaching to Assistant for Compliance and former track and field cross country coach Mark Stanbrough returning to the coaching ranks as an assistant in charge of the distance program for the Hornets.
Arts and Sciences
Congratulations to Roberta Eichenberg (Professor, Department of Art), who will move to interim chair of the Department of Art on January 14.
Congratulations to Kenna Reeves (Department of Communication & Theatre). Kenna was recognized as the 2017 Collegiate Educator of the Year by the Kansas Speech Communication Association, the professional organization affiliated with the National Communication Association. Kenna served as the outgoing president of KSCA when she received the award at the group’s annual conference at Wichita State University.
Congratulations to ESU Art graduate Marco Hernandez! Marco was featured on the prospectus for the 31st Annual McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition this year. Marco graduated from Emporia State University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a Printmaking concentration. He went on to earn a Master’s of Fine Art in Printmaking from Kansas State University and currently is a Studio Art Graduate Faculty at Wichita State University.
The Quapaw Tribe held a STEM outreach event on November 16. Dwight Moore (Biology), Marvin Harrell (Math), and Claudia Aguirre-Mendez (Physical Sciences) attended. Dr. Aguirre-Mendez took six students from the Science Methods course to share hands-on demonstrations with the middle and high school students. Emporia State had the second largest number of exhibitions — second only to the University of Oklahoma.
Teachers College
Last week’s fall robotics competition drew 340 people and 38 teams over two days. In the spring, the event will be held on one day, but at White Auditorium.
Emporia State’s Department of Psychology will host the Association for Psychological and Educational Research in Kansas conference in November 2018. This will be a joint conference with the Nebraska Psychological Society.
Dr. Jim Persinger, psychology chair and professor, is the new president of Association for Psychological and Educational Research in Kansas.
Business
BizHornets in the Professional Development and Leadership for Accounting Majors class and high school students from Emporia, Northern Heights, Olpe and Hartford enjoyed the recent Etiquette Luncheon sponsored by Tim and Kristi Wright of Emporia.
Craig and Brad Clark, brothers and alumni of ESU, were the guests of the second “Executive Hour,” a forum to bring accomplished business executives on campus periodically to deliver real-world information on select topics, outline the relevance of the topic for a new college graduate, and make themselves available for questions. The next presentation of this series will be January 25.
Dr. Joyce Zhou’s Integrated Marketing Communications student team presented their marketing project to their client Kim Redeker, owner of Sweet Granada. Kim was impressed by the creative ideas presented by the student team. The ideas included a social media plan, event sponsorship, promotional package, and Virtual Reality app.
Athletics
Senior punter Justin Marcha and senior linebacker Gabe Cleveland earned First-Team All-Super Region 3 honors from the Conference Commissioner’s Association this season.
Presentations
Amanda Miracle and Deborah Hann presented their paper, “Conflicted Authority: Early Quaker Women’s Absence in Children’s Literature,” at the 2017 National Social Science Association Conference in San Antonio, Texas.
Marcia Schulmeister presented “Finding and Preserving ‘Water from Heaven’ in Northeastern Thailand,” co-authored by colleagues at Khon Kean University, the Thailand Ministry of the Environment, and an ESU graduate student at the Association of Engineering and Environmental Geologists at their annual Kansas Hydrology Seminar in Topeka, Kansas.
Dr. Antonina Bauman presented a paper prepared with Dr. Jeffrey Muldoon and two colleagues from other universities at the Southern Management Association conference in Florida. The presentation titled “Reassessing Elton Mayo” reviewed misconceptions about Mayo’s contribution to studies of human relations in organizations.
Dr. Lee Anne Coester, director of the math leadership institute in the Jones Institute for Educational Excellence, presented “Children’s Literature — One of the Best Ways to Teach Math” at the Kansas Association of Teachers of Mathematics conference on October 16 in Topeka.
Emporia State undergraduate and graduate psychology students presented research at the 36th annual meeting of the Association for Psychological and Educational Research in Kansas in Atchison on November 3-4. Presenters were:
- Morgan Davis & Skyler Reichley, “Will Colored Pencils Improve College Students’ Memory of Words?”
- Percy Spangler & Jonas N Denham, “College Students’ Enjoyment of Acting Out a Scene With or Without Instructions”
- Mohammad Abdulghaffar, “Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Teaching Thinking Skills and Teaching Thinking Programs”
- Madison Orton & Krista N. Nyman, “Will College Students Recall More Words if Paired with Matching Pictures?”
- Brettany Williams & Aidan Johnson, “Information about Social Conformity and College Students’ Self-Selected Personality Characteristics”
- Lori Ahuja, “Students’ Decisions Regarding Fictitious People with or without Tattoos”
- Rodger Belyea & Addie O’Connell, “The Pros and Cons of Taking Time Off After Graduation”
- Addie O’Connell, “The Gender Perception of Lying by Omission”
Students Brettany Williams and Aidan Johnson also presented their poster, “Information about Social Conformity and College Students’ Self-Selected Personality Characteristics,” at the Kansas Honors Connection Conference in Emporia in October.
Conferences
Dr. Lendi Bland attended the retention summit on Monday, November 20 at Kansas State University. Dr. Richard Ingersoll was the keynote speaker and presented research about teacher retention nationwide.
Kansas Literacy Professionals in Higher Education met in Topeka October 29. Faculty attending from Emporia State University were Dr. Karen Bates, Dr. Lendi Bland, Dr. Gerry Coffman, Dr. Beth Dobler, Dr. Deb Larson, and Dr. Lori Mann. Dr. Lendi Bland is the current president, and Dr. Lori Mann is president elect.
Kansas Coalition of Professional Development Schools met at Emporia State University on October 27. Dr. Matt Seimears gave the welcome and Dr. Lendi Bland, current KCPDS president, and Dr. Sara Schwerdtfeger attended.