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Wagner President Richard Guarasci.

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Simmons College classroom.

Butler president Bobby Fong.

Ithaca sophomore Jennifer Gaulin packages sandwiches with the River Fund in New York City in February. The organization distributes food to the homeless.

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• ANAC Members Encourage Student Participation in Recent Presidential Election
• Elon University Establishes Law School in Greensboro
• Capital University Creates Center for Professional Development
• Valparaiso University Dedicates State-of-the-Art Christopher Center
• Quinnipiac University Receives $5 Million Naming Gift for New Athletic Center
• University of Redlands Announces $100 Million Centennial Campaign
• Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences Raises Over $2 Million in Grants
• Shooting Death of Butler Police Officer Saddens University Community
• Student Volunteerism Alive and Well at Ithaca and North Central Colleges
• Hamline University Wins World’s Top Environmental Multi-Media Award
• Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Year’s Residency at Ithaca College
• Diverse Speakers Visit ANAC Member Campuses
• Drake University Alumna Observes 114th Birthday
• Elon University Study Reveals $243 Million Economic Impact
• Belmont University Student Athletes Increase Graduation Rate
• Princeton Review Names Wagner College Nation’s “Most Beautiful Campus”

ANAC Members Encourage Student Participation in Recent Presidential Election

Many ANAC member institutions did their part to encourage their students to vote in greater numbers than in recent elections. Members invited candidates to speak on campus, held forums and informational workshops, and encouraged students to assume leadership roles in assuring that the views of both political parties and their candidates were widely known. During Jerry Berberet’s visit to the Wagner College campus at the end of September, he learned that Wagner had some thirty events on its activities calendar leading up to the election. Student government at Ithaca College began election-related programming over the summer with a communication urging new students to register and vote and the College had numerous forums and exhibits prior to a late October trial election for the campus community. Faculty were involved at many institutions in events such as the October 18 Drury University “Vote More Wisely” interdisciplinary faculty panel discussion.

Elon University Establishes Law School in Greensboro

Elon University and leaders of Greensboro collaborated in a two-year development project that culminated in late October approval by the Elon Board of Trustees to establish the Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, twenty miles west of the main Elon campus. The new school will open in Fall 2006 with about 100 students in its first class. Greensboro foundations raised $10 million in support of the new law school. The feasibility study for the school revealed that currently only 20 percent of applicants are accepted by North Carolina’s five other law schools.

Capital University Creates Center for Professional Development

Capital University has opened a 32,000 square foot facility in central Columbus to house its new Center for Professional Development. Established to create customized lifelong learning and professional development programs with corporate and other partners, the Center will offer its first classes in January. The Center will focus on highly applicable professional skills designed to meet the particular needs and priorities of client organizations in areas such as sales, marketing, management, public relations, business writing, technology, organizational development, communications, and human relations. Two examples of early Center ventures are a collaboration with BizLogx, a sales and marketing business consulting group, and a certificate program to train court reporters and case managers.

Valparaiso University Dedicates State-of-the-Art Christopher Center

With the September 18 dedication of its new Christopher Center for Library and Information Resources, Valparaiso University may have set a new standard in library design with the future in mind. The beautiful four-story, 115,000 square foot, $33 million facility integrates advanced concepts of library services and information resources with state-of-the-art technology. For example, most of the Christopher Center’s holdings are accessed through an electronic information retrieval system. The Center is situated as part of the new access to the Valparaiso campus off Rte. 30, a central feature of the campus master plan. Groundbreaking for the Christopher Center occurred April 27, 2002.

Valparaiso's new Christopher Center.

Quinnipiac University Receives $5 Million Naming Gift for New Athletic Center

Quinnipiac University recently announced that Hudson United Bank has agreed to a $5 million sponsorship of Quinnipiac’s new athletic center, to be known as the Hudson United Bank Center. The Hudson United Bank Center will be a 157,000 square-foot facility with basketball and hockey arenas separated by a common lobby, locker rooms, weight-training and fitness facilities, offices, and conference and meeting rooms. The $65 million facility is scheduled to open in January 2007, as the first building in Quinnipiac’s $150 million development project for its 230 acre Sherman Avenue campus, also slated for a graduate education center and a student residential community in future construction projects.

A rendering of Quinnipiac's Hudson Center.

University of Redlands Announces $100 Million Centennial Campaign

The University of Redlands has announced the public phase of its $100 million centennial campaign for campus improvements, endowment growth, and scholarly projects. The fact that $63 million is in hand as a result of the “quiet” phase of the campaign bodes extremely well for achievement of the centennial goal. Redlands alumnus Warren Christopher, former secretary of state in the Clinton Administration, is a member of the National Centennial Campaign Committee. Redlands will celebrate the University’s centennial year in 2007.

Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences Raises Over $2 Million in Grants

The Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences has received five grants, ranging in size from $861,182 to $205,500 and totaling $2,146,881, in support of a spectrum of interdisciplinary projects involving counterparts in other countries and several of the nation’s leading universities. The largest grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services funds a collaborative project with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Catholic University to recruit and train forty-five master’s level students to attend the Association of Research Library Academy. The Academy prepares high-level library specialists to replace the large number of retirements expected in the next few years. A $493,020 grant from the National Science Foundation will support an interdisciplinary team of computer and information scientists from China, Taiwan, and the United States who will develop image retrieval techniques to search digital collections.

Shooting Death of Butler Police Officer Saddens University Community

On September 24, the Butler University community experienced a tragedy that all campuses dread. Butler police officer James L. Davis was shot and killed while responding to a report of a disruptive stranger on campus. After a search, the stranger himself was killed after using Officer Davis’ gun in an exchange of gunfire with police. Subsequent reports indicated the assailant was mentally unstable. Officer Davis was well-known and widely respected on campus. A trust fund has been established for his three children and Butler has assured his family that the children may attend the University under the employee tuition remission program.

Student Volunteerism Alive and Well at Ithaca and North Central Colleges

ANAC members have many outstanding examples of student volunteerism and service learning. Two examples that catch the eye are the freshman “Plunge” at Ithaca College and the North Central College chemistry youth outreach program. More than a hundred Ithaca freshmen and upper class team leaders spent two days in late August working with fourteen local agencies on projects ranging from volunteering at a day care center and building trails in a park to scraping and painting the home of a senior citizen. The North Central program engaged students and faculty providing chemistry laboratory experiment sessions for area Boy Scouts and elementary school students to develop interest in science at a young age.

Hamline University Wins World’s Top Environmental Multi-Media Award

The Hamline University Center for Global Environmental Education interactive CD-ROM, “Waters to the Sea: The Chattahoochee River,” was named the world’s top environmental multi-media production at the bi-annual Wildscreen Festival in Bristol, England. Other finalists included entrees from the BBC, The National Geographic Society, The Discovery Channel, and PBS. The Center for Global Environmental Education is located in the Hamline Graduate School of Education.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Year’s Residency at Ithaca College

Pulitzer-prize winning reporter David Marcus is spending a year as scholar in residence at the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College. A former contributing editor at US New and World Report, Marcus shared the 1994 Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for his coverage of violence against women around the world for the Miami Herald. His first book will be published later this year on teenager struggles with drugs, alcohol, and depression. Marcus offered a workshop to ANAC member PR directors in 2000 as part of the ANAC national media project.

Diverse Speakers Visit ANAC Member Campuses

The number and variety of guest speakers who visit ANAC member campuses are extraordinary, not all being famous names. Some examples of 2004-05 speaker fare: Shireen Hunter, one of the world’s leading experts on Islam and the Middle East, and Jack Shewmaker, former CEO of Wal-Mart, spoke at Drury University in October; Louise Gluck, 2003-04 US Poet Laureate, gave a poetry reading in November at Susquehanna University; and Crown Prince Hamzah bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, son of Queen Noor and the late King Hussein, will deliver the commencement address at Elon University next May.

Drake University Alumna Observes 114th Birthday

Now do you believe folks live a long time in places like the Midwest?! Drake University alumna Verona Calhoun Johnston celebrated her 114th birthday in August. A member of the Drake class of 1912, Johnston would have attended her 92nd class reunion, if only some of her classmates were still around to be with her. A seven-minute videotape of her recollections of her college years, including attending the first Drake Relays, was shown at the Drake donor black tie dinner. Her love for her alma mater, along with her candor and humor, made the video the hit of the evening. Her birthday received coverage in Time magazine and NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

Elon University Study Reveals $243 Million Economic Impact

A study by economists at the Elon University Martha and Spencer Love School of Business concludes that Elon’s annual economic impact in the four county surrounding area is $243 million and the university’s presence generates 3,200 jobs in the region. In addition Elon generates a social impact, including some 82,500 hours of student voluntary service per year (9 out of 10 Elon graduating seniors have been volunteers) and the presence of some 5,000 Elon alums in the four-county region.

Belmont University Student Athletes Increase Graduation Rate

Belmont University student athletes are not only talented and smart (winners of Sun Belt Conference academic cup), but they are increasing their graduation rate, as well. The 2004 six-year graduation rate for athletes at Belmont was 64 percent, an increase of 2 points over 2003, 2 points higher than the NCAA Division I average and second highest in Tennessee.

Princeton Review Names Wagner College Nation’s “Most Beautiful Campus”

A visit to the Wagner College campus will confirm designation in the Princeton Review’s 357 Best Colleges of Wagner as the 2004 issue’s #1 “Most Beautiful Campus.” In 2002 and 2003, Wagner was ranked 5th and 3rd, respectively, in this category. For good measure, Wagner’s theatre program was named #1 in the country, as well. Not bad for a new ANAC member! Not to be outdone, the Valparaiso University College of Business Administration was ranked the 5th best administered graduate-level business school in the country in Princeton Review’s “Best 143 Business Schools” issue released in September.

Students rated Wagner most beautiful.