Fairfield Now - Winter 2008

Year in Review 2007-08

---

College of Arts & Sciences

• The College has a new dean, Dr. Robbin Crabtree, formerly professor of communication and director of The Office of Service Learning.
• The College developed two new graduate programs, an M.A. in Communication, and an MFA in Creative Writing, both of which will enroll students in the coming year.
• An endowed fund, the Sciences Institute, was established that will provide seed money for innovative teaching, curricular development, and research in the sciences.
• The Program on the Environment (formerly Environmental Studies) worked closely with University College to establish a collaborative study abroad program with the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Nicaragua. Various research programs, including urban and rural bird physiology and clean water valuation, have been set up with UCA professors.
• This year, Fairfield graduates received nine Fulbright Awards, placing Fairfield at the top of its institutional category for the awards.
  

Charles F. Dolan School of Business

• The Charles F. Dolan School of Business celebrated its 30th anniversary.
• The Dolan School, in conjunction with University College, signed an agreement with Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Rouen to act as a gateway for students from Fairfield and other U.S. universities, to study in Rouen and receive Fairfield University credit.
• Dolan students were offered 334 internship opportunities by 177 companies or organizations. Of these, 73 were new companies, including Swiss Army Brands, Connecticut Public Broadcasting, and Gartner Inc.
• Students from Dolan volunteered with the Greater Bridgeport Family Economic Security Coalition to prepare tax returns for a variety of community organizations.

School of Engineering

• In spring of 2008, the Department of Higher Education recognized SOE's Automated Manufacturing Engineering program as independent from the mechanical engineering program.
• A minor degree in nanotechnology was developed during the year and made available to engineering and science students in the fall of 2008.
• The Senior Design Project that won the 2008 Dean's Award was the Gyroscope Anti-vibration System, sponsored by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation and designed and built by a four-student interdisciplinary team.
• The school partnered with high schools from the Diocese of Bridgeport and four other public high schools to establish an engineering academy for Bridgeport students. General Electric Company has provided $400,000 for the first year of the academy and will continue its support in the coming years.

School of Nursing

• Fairfield University's School of Nursing was one of just four in the country to be selected by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to be part of a new $40 million pilot program called the "VA Nursing Academy." The program provides students in the second-degree program the opportunity to have extensive clinical experiences at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven, Conn. Ten new faculty members have been hired who are dedicated to teaching their nursing students.
• In January, the School welcomed its second class of students into the rigorous, 29-month full-time Nurse Anesthesia Program. The partnership between Bridgeport Hospital Anesthesia Associates and the School of Nursing has attracted national recognition and an influx of students from across the country.
• The dedication of the Robin Kanarek Learning Resource Center was held on June 17, 2008. This high-tech, million-dollar laboratory and center was the result of three years of focused effort by the School of Nursing Advisory Board and faculty members.
• Sixty-eight nurses from area hospitals and nursing homes graduated from the online Geriatric Nursing Certificate Program. The majority of graduates now have certification from the American Nurses Association Credentialing Center.
  

Dr. Suzanne Campbell shows off the birthing room in the Robin Kanarek Resource Center; An Engineering student in class; A Dolan School of Business student helps a client at the Burroughs Community Center in Bridgeport with tax preparations; Dr. Michael White at St. Edmund's Retreat house on Enders Island, Mystic, Conn. where the MFA in Creative Writing residencies will take place.

University College

• The role of University College Dean Edna Wilson was expanded to include an emphasis on facilitating collaboration locally and regionally, and to facilitate global relationships; the title is now Associate Academic Vice President for Global Relations and Community Engagement, and University College Dean.
• University College began new procedures to assess quality and outcomes of study abroad. The goal is to improve the integration of the study abroad experience with the liberal arts core.
• The College continued to provide online computer training certificate programs for military personnel who are pursuing advanced degrees in the military, or who are planning the transition to civilian life. More than 250 completed the program over the past year.
• The college offered EMT (emergency medical technician) training for the first time in the spring of 2008, in collaboration with the University's Department of Public Safety.

Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions

• A national accreditation site review by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) was successfully completed in February 2008. Formal approval of NCATE accreditation - the first to be granted to a denominational institution in Connecticut - was received in November 2008.
• Planning began on a program in early childhood education in collaboration with the new Fairfield University Early Learning Center, based on a regional needs assessment and the principles of the GSEAP mission.
• Successful professional development workshops were held for school psychologists, counselor educators, and early childhood professionals. More than 900 teachers and day care providers attended an early childhood lecture co-sponsored by the United Way in April.
• The U.S. Department of Education awarded a five-year grant of $1,061,000 to fund a bilingual special education program serving 25 teacher certification candidates each year. Associate Professor David Zera directs the project.

Quick Center

• The Metropolitan Opera invited the Quick Center to be a host-partner for its popular Live at the Met series of simulcast operas. Operas included La Bohéme and Tristan und Isolde. These new programs helped to increase revenues to over $1 million.
• There was a 17 percent increase in overall ticket sales this year, with Quick Center ticket sales reaching a new high of $493,883. Student attendance at Quick Center events increased by 38 percent.
• Outreach and Artsbound Schoolday Series programs included 5,435 attendees to nine school shows, with 3,137 tickets provided to schools, a 50 percent increase over last year.
• An estimated 8,000 visitors came to the Walsh Art Gallery during the season to view four exhibits. Another 400 attended the Director's Choice lectures given by the gallery director, Dr. Diana Mille.

Top row: Cristo Rey High School students visit a Biology classroom in the Bannow Science Center during a summer visit; Rev. Jeffrey P. von Arx, S.J., introduced the inaugural performance of the Metropolitan Opera House Live performance via HD at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts; The newly established Early Learning Center on campus. Bottom row: Fairfield University students studied in Nicaragua; The men's crew team in their first year as a varsity sport.

Student Affairs

• This July, Fairfield welcomed 25 Cristo Rey students to campus, offering the teens - some of whom will be the first in their families to graduate high school - a chance to see college as an attainable option. Cristo Rey schools are largely Jesuit, and serve inner city students.
• In July, after eight months of preparation, spiritual formation, fundraising, and community building, 23 students from Campus Ministry and the Media Center and four staff members immersed themselves in the Magis Experience in the Philippines and Australia. Afterward, the group joined students to participate with Pope Benedict XVI in World Youth Day.
• Last January, Residence Life challenged rising sophomores to submit proposals for theme-based living communities that included a community service component. Five women students were the clear frontrunners with their "Empowering Women" proposal. The second approved proposal was submitted by four students for an "Earth apartment" who proposed to live in an eco-friendly manner in the apartment complex.
• More than 1,500 students engaged in an intramural sport in 2007-2008, not including the approximately 250 students who participated in a club sport.
• The RecPlex added Wellness Education to its scope of services.

Athletics

• Men's rowing became the University's 20th varsity sport.
• Women's lacrosse had its best season ever with a record of 17-2, losing only to Yale and to Marist in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) championship game. The season included wins against UConn and Boston College. The team ended the season as the 2008 regular season champions, with three players on the All MAAC first team.
• Fairfield had the highest number of "coaches of the year" in the University's history - men's and women's golf, men's and women's tennis, volleyball, and men's and women's rowing.
• Men's tennis won the 10-team Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournament, defeated Yale in the school's first ever ITA Regional victory, and played for the MAAC championship. Women's tennis finished second at the New England Championships and played for the MAAC conference championship.
• Fairfield University hosted the 2008 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship First and Second Rounds.

Campus Ministry

• Students traveled to Australia and joined others from Jesuit schools around the world to share their ideas and experiences of Jesuit education, and to participate with Pope Benedict XVI in World Youth Day.
• The student-run annual Hunger CleanUp, with over 700 faculty, staff, and student volunteers, raised over $10,000. This year, cross-department and cross-division collaboration, along with growth in student sponsorship helped ignite the project.

The Centers

• The Office for Jesuit and Catholic Mission and Identity organized the President's second annual retreat in September, which focused on Jesuits mission and the University's strategic plan.
• In April, Fairfield University and the Diocese of Bridgeport sponsored a joint symposium on The Common Good.
• The Center for Catholic Studies established a working relationship with Commonweal magazine for the first annual Commonweal lecture featuring Dr. George Dennis O'Brien.
• The Center successfully submitted a proposal to an anonymous foundation for a major grant to support a conference on the Future Role of the American Catholic Media.
• The Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies sponsored and hosted 11 lectures featuring well-known individuals such as Dr. Moshe Bernstein of Yeshiva University; Dr. Deborah Dash Moore of the University of Michigan; Dr. Samuel Kassow of Trinity College; and former Counsel General of Israel Alon Pinkas.
• The Center for Faith and Public Life established an Advisory Board consisting of alumni, benefactors, and friends of the Center.
• The Thomas More Lecture series was established in connection with the alumni group, The Golden Stags.
• The Office of Service Learning developed six service learning courses that were offered in Fall 2007. Three additional courses were offered in Spring 2008.
• The Center for Academic Excellence conducted 15 workshops, focusing on topics such as professors as writers, strategies for renewing research at mid-career, responding to writing, and developing teaching strategies that embrace diversity.

Information Services

• The I.S. Division completed a new agreement with SunGard HE for administrative computing services that will enhance local decision-making and provide the University with greater control over administrative computing operations. It is projected to save the University almost $1 million over the next five years.
• The DiMenna-Nyselius Library won numerous awards during the year, including the Connecticut Quality Improvement Award, a Gold Award for Innovation, and the Connecticut Library Association's Special Award for Innovation. In addition, the Library launched the Digital Archives of University History and received the IMLS (Institute for Museum & Library Studies) "Connecting to Collections Bookshelf" grant award, the only academic library in the state to receive this grant.
• The library's innovative efforts were cited in the national publication, Library Journal, for the "Your Voice Counts" blog.

Photojournalism service learning student, Jenn Hayward works on a PowerPoint presentation with Joanne Delia, a fifth grader at St. Ann School in Bridgeport, Connecticut; The Rev. Jim Mayzik, S.J. leads Fairfield's delegation through the streets of Sydney to greet Pope Benedict XVI when he arrives at Sydney Harbor; The Common Good lecture and roundtable discussions included, from left to right, Judge Daniel Caruso of Fairfield, Rev. Jeffrey P. von Arx, S.J., and Bishop William E. Lori, Diocese of Bridgeport; Campus Ministry Immersion Experience in the Philippines: Corey Dennis '10 shares happy moments with new Filipino friends.

 

Faculty Books

Kim Bridgford
Professor of English
In the Extreme
Sonnets about World Records
Contemporary Poetry Review Press
West Chester University, 2007

Edward J. Deak
Professor of Economics
The Economics of E-Commerce and the Internet
Thomas Learning & Douglas University of Finance & Economics Press, 2007

Elizabeth A. Dreyer
Professor of Religious Studies
Holy Power Holy Presence
Rediscovering Medieval Metaphors for the Holy Spirit
Paulist Press, 2007

Jesús Escobar
Associate Professor of Visual & Performing Arts
La Plaza Mayor Y Los Orígenes
Del Madrid Barroco
Editorial Nerea, 2007

David Gudelunas
Assistant Professor of Communication
Confidential to America
Newspaper Advice Columns & Sexual Education
Transaction Publishers, 2008

Terry-Ann Jones
Assistant Professor of Sociology & Anthropology
Jamaican Immigrants in the United States and Canada
LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2008

R. James Long, editor
Professor of Philosophy
Richard Fishacre in Secundum Librum Sententiarum
Part 1: PROL., DIST. 1-20
Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Munchen 2008

R. James Long, editor
Professor of Philosophy
Liber III et liber IV, ed., in Bartholomaeus Anglicus,
De proprietatibus rerum
Volume I, Prohemium, libri I-IV
De diversis Artibus, vol. 78
Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols 2007

James Shanahan, co-editor
Associate Professor of Communication
The Public, The Media & Agricultural Biotechnology
CAB International, 2007

Eric H. Mielants
Associate Professor of Sociology & Anthropology
The Origins of Capitalism and the Rise of the West
Temple University Press, 2007

Emily J. Orlando
Visiting Assistant Professor of English
Edith Wharton and the Visual Arts
The University of Alabama Press, 2007

Kathleen Wheeler
Professor of Nursing
Psychotherapy for the Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse
Elsevior Press, 2007

Michael Sweeney
Visiting Assistant Professor of English
In Memory of The Fast Break
Plain View Press, 2008

Convocation speaker, Loung Ung addresses the freshman class; Holocaust speaker, Betty Deutsch; Students using the DiMenna-Nyselius Library; Brian Williams spoke at an Open Visions Forum.

 

Lectures of Note

Ferdinando Beccalli-Falco
President and CEO
General Electric International
Charles F. Dolan School of Business

William Bennett
Former U.S. Secretary of Education and co-director of Empower America
Open VISIONS Forum

Dr. Paula Cooey
Margaret Weyerhaeuser Harmon Professor of Religion at Macalester College in Minnesota
The 14th annual Christopher F. Mooney, S.J. Lecture on Church, Religion, and Society

Betty Deutsch
Fairfield resident and Holocaust survivor
Annual Holocaust Remembrance Service

Lou Dobbs
Anchor and editor of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight
Open VISIONS Forum

Harold Ford, Jr.
Former U.S. Representative (D-Tenn.), chair of the National Democratic Leadership Council
Open VISIONS Forum

Gael Greene
Culinary writer and New York magazine columnist
Open VISIONS Forum

Abby Joseph Cohen
Chief U.S. investment strategist of Goldman Sachs
Eighth Annual Charles F. Dolan Lecture

Dr. Debra Dash Moore
The University of Michigan
Adolf and Ruth Schnurmacher Lecture in Judaic Studies

The Rev. J-Glenn Murray, S.J.
Author and liturgist
The LaFarge Convocation

Nicholas Kristof
New York Times' columnist
The annual Jacoby Lunin Humanitarian Lecture and Open VISIONS Forum

The Rev. Mark S. Massa, S.J.
Karl Rahner Distinguished Professor of Theology, Fordham University
The 2008 Bellarmine Lecture

Jon Meacham
Managing editor of Newsweek
Open VISIONS Forum and University College's Ignatian Lecture

David McCullough
Historian and author of Truman
Open VISIONS Forum

Joyce Carol Oates
Author
Open VISIONS Forum

Dr. Jamie T. Phelps, O.P.
Institute for Black Studies at Xavier University
Seventh annual Anne Drummey O'Callaghan Lecture on Women in the Church

Geralyn Radowiecki Spollett '76
Associate Director, Yale Diabetes Center
School of Nursing Annual Lecture

Dr. George Dennis O'Brien
President emeritus of the University of Rochester and Bucknell University
The first annual Commonweal lecture

Dr. Elaine Pagels
Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion, Princeton University
Second annual lecture on Jewish-Christian engagement

Sergio Ramirez
Author and former vice president of Nicaragua
Barone Campus Center Oak Room

Dr. Robert Royal
President of the Faith and Reason Institute, Washington, D.C.
First Annual Thomas More Lecture

Loung Ung
Cambodian born author and activist
Fall Convocation

Brian Williams
NBC Nightly News anchor
Open VISIONS Forum

Garry Wills
Author
The Author's Forum of University College

In Memoriam

Dorothy Bennett
Trustee

Robert Bolger
Professor, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science emeritus

Alphonsus J. Donahue
Trustee

The Rev. Henry J. Murphy, S.J.
Professor of English and Religious studies, emeritus