Worcester Telegram, MA
Sunday, October 5, 2008
College Town
By Lisa D. Welsh TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
College Town extends its condolences to the family and friends of
Becker student William L. Smith, who was killed during a recent
off-campus party.
Cyber month
October is Cyber Awareness Month, but Internet protection is a
year-round concern for Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early
Jr. So, as the only local university that assists students, faculty
and staff with a school-sponsored laptop theft program and the only
local university to offer an ID theft prevention program, Worcester
Polytechnic Institute has invited Mr. Early and his staff to partner
with its Information Technology Division at noon Tuesday in Higgins
Lab, Room 218 at WPI, 100 Institute Road, to teach the WPI community
about Internet safety. Information, software, and video examples of
how children get themselves into trouble via the Internet will be
discussed during the seminar.
A lesson in good health
Michael Samuelson, president and CEO of The Health & Wellness
Institute, outlined 12 "understandings" for living a healthy lifestyle
at Nichols College and emphasized the importance of moving out the
"Village of Someday – a self-defined state of inertia." Using an
airplane analogy of putting on your own oxygen mask before trying to
assist others, Mr. Samuelson said, "The most selfless thing you can do
is to be selfish about your own health care."
"I would suggest that what you consider to be your health plan is
actually your sickness plan," he told faculty and staff at a luncheon.
Mr. Samuelson is an internationally recognized authority in the areas
of health care economics and health and wellness, but became a patient
after discovering he had breast cancer nine years ago. After meeting a
friend who was in chemotherapy, Mr. Samuelson felt a growth in his
breast and decided to seek immediate medical advice.
"Like most men, part of me didn’t want to know," he said.
"It’s time to move past the dialogue about why our health care system
is falling apart and do something about it," he said, adding that each
of us has radar capable of detecting early warnings about personal
health issues. "In terms of your own personal health, it’s your
responsibility. It’s time to live a life of healthy uncertainty."
"Everyone has stones in their life path," Mr. Samuelson said. "You can
gingerly walk around them because you’re too afraid to know what lies
underneath. After all, it may be creepy, crawly and slimy. But once
you pick up the rock, you’re never a victim. And sometimes, you find a
real treasure."
Corduroy’s buttons pushed
The Fitchburg State College education department and McKay Campus
School took part in the nationwide "Read for the Record" program
Thursday. The annual event was created by the national early education
organization Jumpstart and the Pearson Foundation to emphasize the
importance of reading to young children. "Corduroy" by Don Freeman was
read to thousands of children across America and broke the world
record for the amount of children reading the same book on the same
day with an adult.
The Pearson Publishing Co. donated 480 copies of the children’s book
to the elementary school, a total gift of $4,315. Fitchburg State
College’s education department faculty member Nancy Murray and student
Alexa Raczkowski helped establish the event at FSC.
Becker MetroWest
Becker College has opened its MetroWest Center for Accelerated and
Professional Studies at 337 Turnpike Road, Southboro. Located near the
intersections of Routes 495 and the Mass Pike and situated right on
Route 9, the new center puts an accelerated bachelor of science degree
in business within easy access of working adults.
If walls could talk
The English department at Quinsigamond Community College will host a
screening of "Stanley’s House," a documentary by filmmaker Tobe Carey,
at 2 p.m.
Thursday in HLC 109 A and B. Stanley Kunitz, the former U.S. poet
laureate who died at age 100 in 2006, was a major literary figure and
one of the country’s most famous poets.
Mr. Carey discovered that he shared his formative years in the same
house that Mr. Kunitz had lived in as child and embarked on a personal
and historical journey to unfold the connections of people, art and
local legacy. The Kunitz home on 4 Woodford St. in Worcester is the
central focus of the film.
Lucky 13
Thirteen teacher-scholars have joined the tenure-track faculty at
Clark University.
"This is a truly outstanding group of teacher-scholars," said
President John Bassett. "It is as if their names were on the job
descriptions. They are fully committed to working with Clark students
… They will be significant players in Clark’s commitment to
challenge convention and change our world for the better."
They are as follows:
Taner Akcam joined Clark’s Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and
Genocide Studies, occupying the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian
and Stephen and Marion Mugar Professorship in Armenian Genocide
Studies on July 1. He is also associate professor in the History
Department. He recently served as visiting professor of history at the
University of Minnesota and a visiting scholar at the Armenian
Research Center, University of Michigan-Dearborn.
John Aylward has been named assistant professor of music in the Visual
and Performing Arts Department. In May and June of this year, he was a
fellow at the Sacher Stiftung in Basel, Switzerland. Just prior to
arriving at Clark, he was in residence at the Virginia Center for
Creative Arts.
Maricela Correa-Chavez, who recently finished an American Educational
Research Association-Institute of Educational Sciences postdoctoral
fellowship at UCLA, joins the Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology as
assistant professor.
Anita Hausermann Fabos has been named associate professor in the
Department of International Development, Community and
Environment. She recently worked as a senior lecturer and program
leader in refugee studies at the School of Social Sciences, Media and
Cultural Studies at the University of East London. She begins her post
in January.
John Garton has been named assistant professor in Clark’s Visual and
Performing Arts Department. For the past five years he has served as
assistant professor of art history at the Cleveland Institute of Art.
Sergio Granados-Focil joins the Carlson School of Chemistry and
Biochemistry as an assistant professor. He recently completed
post-doctoral research at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Chang Hong, who has conducted research at the International Monetary
Fund in Washington, DC, for the past two years, has been named
assistant professor in the Economics Department.
Arpita Joardar, who previously served as assistant professor of
international business at the University of Texas – Pan American, has
been named assistant professor in Clark’s Graduate School of
Management.
Robert J. Johnston has been named director of the George Perkins Marsh
Institute and professor of economics. He previously worked at the
University of Connecticut as associate professor of agricultural and
resource economics and associate director of the Sea Grant College
Program.
Olga Litvak has been named associate professor of history and Michael
and Lisa Leffell Chair in Modern Jewish History. She most recently
served as the director of the Center for Jewish Studies and associate
professor in the Department of Judaic Studies at University at Albany,
State University of New York.
Robert D. Tobin has been named professor in the Foreign Languages and
Literatures Department and the Henry J. Leir Chair in Foreign
Languages and Cultures. He recently served as associate dean of the
faculty and chair of the Division of Arts and Humanities at Whitman
College, in Walla Walla, Wash.
Heather Wiatrowski, who recently conducted research in the Department
of Biochemistry and Microbiology at Rutgers, the State University of
New Jersey, is assistant professor in the Biology Department.
Christopher A. Williams, who has been named assistant professor in
Clark’s Graduate School of Geography, previously served as a research
scientist at the Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center at the
University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Contact Lisa D. Welsh via e-mail at [email protected].
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
