The Quad

Carla D. Mebane is the new director of High School/College Partnerships- the UMKC dual credit program. She started her new position on June 11. Dr. Mebane comes from Northwest Missouri State University, where she served as the Dual Credit Coordinator since 2009. Her duties also included alternative certification, student teacher supervision and Kauffman Challenge “U” program. She previously taught at William Jewell College, Baker University and Northwest Missouri State. Mebane also was a middle school teacher in the North Kansas City School District for nine years.

Mebane received her Ed.D. in Leadership and Policy Analysis from University of Missouri-Columbia, a M.A. Ed. in School Leadership from Baker University, a M.S. Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction from Lesley University and a B.S. Ed. in Elementary Education from William Jewell College. (Material for this item first appeared in U-Matters).

Margret Fenske is joining the Theatre Department as Theater Assistant. She has been working in and around theaters for many years. She has worked for Vassar Playhouse (near Topeka, KS), Music Theatre of Wichita, Glimmerglass Opera, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Opera New Jersey, Ringling Barnum and Bailey Clown College, Stephens College, and spent fourteen years with Actors Theatre of Louisville.  Hobbies include 35 years of singing/directing/arranging music/regional staff with various Chorus Chapters of Sweet Adelines International. She has also been a church organist since the age of 15. Margret is delighted to come and be a part of theatre at UMKC. (Photo not available.)

A&S Dean’s Office Administrative Assistant, John Adicks, served as “the man on the street” for a TV 41 News Story on taxes. See:

• www.kshb.com/dpp/news/local_news/Kansas-City-Mayor-Sly-James-to-propose-property-tax-increase.

Once on that page, click the image of Mayor James under the video player. When you move the cursor over the image, it should say KC tax increases.

New Staff

Dr. Carla Mebane is the new Manager/Director of the High School College Partnership effective June 11, 2012. She comes to us from a similar position at Northwest Missouri State University.

Christa Byer is the new and first ever Marketing Manager for the College and assumes her duties on June 18, 2012. She comes to us from a similar position at the Missouri Western Institute of Missouri Western State University.

(Editor’s Note: We will have more details on each of these new members of the College family in the next issue of the newsletter.)

Staff Retirement

Teresa Crew, Administrative Associate, High School College Partnership.

As we approach the May 2012 A&S Spring Commence- ment, we thought it would be of interest to see what went into making that special moment for graduating students and their families happen.  So we talked with Rosa Nuñez who has been the A&S Commencement Coordinator since Fall 2007 in addition to serving as a staff member in the A&S Advising Office.

With a recent commencement photo as her background, she indicated that it takes around 35 people to make the single session A&S Fall Commencement happen and close to 50 for the two Spring sessions.  These include the Marshals for the procession and persons to help with such things as robing, lining up the degree recipients, checking their announcement cards and others to do last minute trouble shooting.  She recruits all of this help each semester—much of it from the A&S Advising Office staff and a cadre of loyal faculty who enjoy serving as marshals. 

Among her specific other duties are: ordering regalia for faculty and keeping track of those who have done so; arranging for sufficient seating to handle the number of students and faculty who attend (and allowing for more students than those who RSVP since many do not but still arrive to take part); turn the RSVPs into color-coded (by degree) typed announcement cards to help keep participants in the right lines and to help the announcer get the name right; to work with the Dean’s Office to be sure the script is kept current and covers any special situations such as a posthumous degree; make sure that the Commencement program includes all of those who indicated they intended to graduate as well as their listing under the correct degree program with any honors they may have earned; make sure all doctoral students who are to be hooded have a faculty member available there to hood and that the exact title of the dissertation is typed on the announcement card that the announcer will use for them. 

Rosa indicated that she mostly feels rewarded and is rarely frustrated in her role as coordinator.  The rewards come from seeing students she has advised over the years graduate, especially when they ask her to pose for photos with family.  Her few frustrations came early in her time on the job when she was surprised by requests for extra scripts ten minutes before commencement was to begin.  Now she always has extras of these and other things that might be needed.  Her most interesting story was seeing the same set of parents sitting in Sweeney waiting for the second session after having seen them there for the first.  She asked them about it and they said it was because their son was a double major in A&S so he wanted to walk with both programs.  When she indicated that she thought that was great, the father commented that they had to come back the next day since their son had a third major in Biology and, while they were getting tired of commencing, since their son was having such a great time, they were honoring his wishes and going to all three.

During commencement week her days are long and her nights are short.  But after it is over, the rewards of seeing so many students and their families so happy and proud prove to be rejuvenating and her fatigue gives way to a sense of great achievement.  She is ready for the next one that will be on her in six months.  And, according to Becky Bergman, Director of A&S Academic Advising (and a former Commencement Coordinator) we can expect it to go just as seamlessly and perfectly as have all that Rosa has done in the past.

At UMKC’s 2012 “Celebration of Excellence” on March 12 six in A&S were recognized for outstanding achievements in various award areas.  They are:

Ann Hubbard(Political Science) Chancellor’s True Unsung Hero Staff Award;		Jared Bruce(Psychology) Chancellor’s Early Career Award for Excellence in Teaching;
Stephen Dilks(English Language and Literature) Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching;		Ricky Allman(Art and Art History) Trustees Faculty Scholar Award;
Jannette Berkley-Patton(Psychology) Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Community Engagement;	and	Charles Wurrey(Emeritus, Chemistry) Chancellor’s Award for Career Contributions to the University.

For more see:

• http://www.umkc.edu/news/feature.asp?id=297 .

At the 2012 Cross-Examination Debate Association National Tournament held at the University of Oklahoma the weekend of March 23-25, Gabe Cook (Communications Studies) Project Director for DEBATE-Kansas City was awarded the Public Advocate of the Year Award by the Association.  The Public Advocate of the Year award acknowledges the contribution of an individual during the past year that made a positive contribution to public discourse on matters of social import.  The award recipient need not have a direct relationship to intercollegiate debate, but must be someone who has made a significant difference in local, regional, national or international affairs.  This is the first time that someone from UMKC has won this award.  For more see:

• http://www.cedadebate.org/forum/index.php?topic=3266.0.
    

LaDonna McCullough (Administrative Assistant, Black Studies) was elected as the first President of UMKC’s Association for Women of Color organization in December 2011.  The mission of the organization is to 1) advance professional growth and development for women of color at UMKC; 2) address issues unique to women of color at UMKC; 3) take an active leadership role in encouraging, mentoring and developing women of color; and 4) create and award financial assistance to individuals for scholarship and professional development.  The organization can be reached at umkc-awoc@umkc.edu.

New Employees:

Megan Ruplinger, Administrative Assistant – Academic Advising

Ashley Webb, Administrative Assistant – High School/College Partnership

Years of Service Awards:

Betsy Beasley, Administrative Assoc. I – NewLetters, 10 years of service

Susan Schurman, Editorial Assistant I – NewLetters/BkMk Press, 10 years of service

Deborah Bopp, Academic Advisor – Academic Advising, 5 years of service

More than 100 UMKC A&S faculty and staff attended the 2011 A&S Awards Reception at The Residence on Thursday, September 8th. Interim Dean Wayne Vaught presided and introduced the new faculty present, recognized recipients of system and national awards as well as presented this year’s outstanding teaching and outstanding staff awards in the College.

TEACHING AWARDS

The 2011 Dean’s Outstanding Teaching Award for Regular Faculty was awarded to Beth Miller (pictured left), Department of Political Science.

The 2011 Dean’s Outstanding Teaching Award for Non-Regular Faculty was awarded to Julie Urbanik (pictured right), Department of Geosciences.

The 2011 Dean’s Outstanding Teaching Award for Part-Time Faculty was awarded to Mark Raab (pictured left), Department of Geosciences.

The A&S Alumni Association, represented by Pat Madden (pictured right), immediate Past President of the A&S Alumni Board, presented the 2011 Alumni Good Teaching Award to Jennifer Phegley (pictured right), Department of English.

STAFF AWARDS

The staff awards (after a College-wide nomination process and then an evaluation by peers from outside the nominees’ units) recognize those whose work excels in meeting the “Six R’s” of outstanding staff service. These are respectful, responsible, resourceful, receptive, responsive, and reasonable.

The 2011 College of Arts and Sciences Staff Member of the Year is Susan Hankins, who was the Administrative Assistant in the Department of Sociology until July, 2011 when she became Executive Staff Assistant to the Dean.

There were three runners-up from among the 12 nominees as well: Cathy Slack, Accountant in the Dean’s Office, Alicen Lundberg, Administrative Assistant, Department of Art and Art History and Mandy Seley, Administrative Associate, Department of Psychology.

OTHER RECOGNITIONS

Interim Dean Vaught also recalled for those present that two of the three newest UM Curators’ Professors were from the College: Kathy Goggin (Psychology) and Kathleen Kilway (Chemistry). He also noted that the College had two of its faculty awarded Guggenheim Fellowships this year: Clancy Martin (Philosophy) and Christie Hodgen (English).

New Employees:

Desiree Belezos,  Academic Advisor – Advising Office
Rita Hayes,  Admin. Assistant – Sociology
Sharon Pflughaupt, Admin. Associate I – Theatre

Years of Service Awards: 

Jennifer Underwood, Admin.Assistant – Communication Studies, 30 years of service
Jeannette Lowery, Admin. Assistant – Foreign Languages, 15 years of service
Hea-Kyung Shoemaker, Admin Associate – Applied Languages, 5 years of service.

Promotions/Reclassifications:

LaShawna Harris, Interim Manager of High School College Partnership
Deborah Foster,  Administrative Associate – Economics

Retiring Employees:

Ruby Sanders, Admin. Assistant – A&S Advising Office, 7 years of service.

Susan Hankins has joined the A&S Dean’s Office as Executive Assistant to the Dean. She replaces Cyndi Mahoney who returned to a staff position in the English Department.

Susan started working at UMKC in May, 2008 as an Administrative Assistant in Sociology. She says she has enjoyed every day of her work at UMKC with faculty, students and fellow staff members. Susan sees a great opportunity in the College of Arts & Sciences to reach out to students in the community who may be staying closer to home for their college career, transitioning from community college, or are non-traditional students returning for a degree. Often, she believes, it is a personal engagement that influences students to choose a university; someone took the time to answer questions, make a phone call, send an invitational e-mail or meet with a student on campus.  Working together, she feels we can make for a better experience for current and future students.

We welcome Susan to Scofield Hall.

Linda Breytspraak (Chair, Sociology) reports that the Department presented its annual faculty and student awards at its graduation reception held May 5th at the Chancellor’s Residence. The event was well attended by students and their families, community leaders and faculty.

Jennifer Huberman (left) was the recipient of the department’s 2011 Distinguished Teaching Award for her creative accomplishments in course development and strong peer and student evaluations.  The honor includes a cash award.

Graduating seniors Sherrell Dandy and Alexander Frisbie each received the Edward Tomich Memorial Award. This award is presented to students whose personal commitment to the highest academic and humane values remains constant in the face of obstacles which might have daunted students of lesser spirit. These individuals provided the inspiration to students and faculty for which the late Sociology Professor Edward Tomich was similarly noted. Sherrell is the mother of 2 children who worked hard and overcame several struggles to receive her degree.  Alex plans to use his sociological and anthropological knowledge to join the Peace Corp after graduation. Each student received a cash award. For more on the Tomich Award see:

• cas.umkc.edu/sociology/tomich.asp

The Sociology department also recognized dual major Kianda Simmons for her dedication and service to the urban community with a Community Involvement and Leadership award.  Kianda initiated and fosters a program with middle school girls called “Precious Minds.” She meets weekly with the students to expose them to higher education and encourage better daily choices in order to set and achieve personal and educational goals. Kianda was presented a gift card in addition to the award. For more see:

•  www2.kcmsd.net/Lists/News1/DispForm.aspx?ID=1185

Years of Service Awards:

   
Rose Bell to End 32 Years of Service to UMKC in April 

Becky Bergman, Reggie Bassa, Rose Bell and Dean Karen Vorst at Retirement Reception

Rose Bell, Senior Academic Advisor in A&S Academic Advising, will retire on April 7, 2011, after 32 years at UMKC, including 30 years in the College of Arts and Sciences. Rose began her tenure in the College as the Administrative Assistant and Coordinator for A&S Scholarships and then as Executive Staff Assistant for many deans. Rose moved to A&S Academic Advising in 1993 and eventually became the College’s first Senior Academic Advisor. Rose served on a number of campus-wide committees over the years, including the Staff Assembly’s Governing Board, the Student Scholarship Selection and Appeals Committee, and the Chancellor’s Extended Cabinet. Rose also served on the board of MACADA (Missouri Academic Advising Association) and was an instructor for A&S 100 (freshman seminar course) for a number of years. Rose earned multiple awards in her years in the College, including the UMKC Outstanding Service and Support Staff Award (1986-87) and the PET (Paraprofessionals Evolving into Teachers) Project Service Award (1997). Rose is also a proud alumna, having earned both her BA in CJC and her MA in Higher Education at UMKC