The Quad

Tamera Murdock (Chair, Psychology) chose to approach our request differently and sent the following item to highlight both a teaching and a research high point of 2009. She also included a link to a site where the interested reader can find everything that happened in the department in the past year or so.
See: http://cas.umkc.edu/psyc/newsletter/contributions_2010.asp

New Undergraduate Psychology Offering a Big Success

Ethnic and Minority Perspectives in Psychology is a new undergraduate course that was offered this fall by Dr. Janette Berkely-Patton. Students gained a broad understanding of methods, theoretical concepts and applications of psychology relevant to ethnic minorities. For one of the course activities, students worked in groups on a class presentation and paper based on a topic and a related theory discussed in the course.

Student Feedback

Some of the topics for the students’ group projects included neighborhood disorganization and Latino communities, mental health and Asian Americans, and spirituality and health among African Americans. Here are just a few of the students’ comments about the class:

“I think all of us have learned something new about other cultures, heard from peers about their thoughts on multicultural issues, and it’s one step in a direction in bringing ethnic groups together. It has been an honor to be apart of the first class here at UMKC and I hope to use many concepts of multiculturalism that I have learned as I continue my educational professional career.” Carmen Benn

“Not only did Dr. Berkley-Patton present multicultural information that is much needed throughout our society, but she offered an environment promoting open communication and critical thinking. This class should be mandatory for all psychology majors in order to better understand and serve others.” Emilie Mendala

“This class has been very inspiring. Dr. Berkley-Patton, as well as other students in the class, helped open my eyes to certain multicultural topics. The structure of the class made us all comfortable to speak freely about our opinions and concerns. I feel this course should be mandatory for any undergraduate degree because the topics covered will help in any profession.” Jenni Branham

Dr. Catley receives $1.5 million NIH award to facilitate smoking cessation

The Department of Psychology is extremely proud of Associate Professor Dr. Delwyn Catley, who is the primary investigator on a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study methods of enhancing smokers’ motivation and readiness to quit tobacco smoking. Tobacco smoking remains one of the most significant preventable causes of death in the U.S. And although most smokers are interested in quitting, only one in five are ready to make a quit attempt at any point in time. The study will test the effectiveness of a method of motivational counseling for motivating quit attempts among smokers not yet ready to quit. It will also determine the effect of the motivational counseling on smoking cessation rates.

The study will take place over three years and involves collaborators from the Department of Psychology (Dr. Kathy Goggin), the School of Dentistry (Dr. Karen Williams), KU Medical Center (Dr. Kimber Richter), and the University of Montana (Dr. Kari Harris). Congratulations to all. Dr. Cately will be promoted to the rank of full professor on September 1, 2010.

At the start of the 2009-2010 academic year, there were 178 regular A&S faculty; 98 percent have the terminal degree in their field of expertise.

In 2009, A&S faculty obtained over $3,400,000 in external grants. There were 50 grants awarded to 31 individuals in 13 academic departments, the Dean’s Office and New Letters.

Enrollment in the College was 3,216 in Spring 2009 and 3,680 in Fall 2009.

In Fall of 2009, there were 2,908 students with declared majors in A&S.

Extramural research grant activity in calendar 2009 as reported by the UMKC’s Research Services totaled $3,404,389 for the College of Arts & Sciences.

Director Dan McIntosh

Warkoczewski Observatory on the roof of UMKC’s Royall Hall is again open to the public on clear Friday nights April through October. And through the “Warko” (pronounced ‘var-co’) one can see clearly the rings of Saturn, Jupiter’s moons, the craters of the Moon and other distant astronomical sights. (To see if it will be open, visit http://cas.umkc.edu/physics/warko)

Director Dan McIntosh (Physics) is currently involved in a major research project with colleagues at other universities employing the Hubble Telescope to study the origins and growth of galaxies. But he also says it is still a real treat to look at the planets and the Warko lets him and others do so amazingly well.

Stanley Warcoczewski with Norman Royall, Jr. at the observatory in March 1974

There is an amazing story behind the 900-pound telescope and the Observatory as well. The scope was built by amateur astronomer Stanley Warkocszewski over a ten-year period and first installed behind his home in south Kansas City where he used it to observe and photograph the night-time skies before donating it to UMKC. (See his 1970 photo of the Comet Bennett below). Warkoczewski followed his telescope to UMKC and became an Instructor with duties dealing with astronomy.

The telescope was donated to UMKC in 1974 and the Observatory was opened on the roof of Royall Hall.

McIntosh reports that a new telescope will be joining the Warco and one other now in place. A new dome to house the expanded observatory is planned for the near future. Even with some intrusion of urban sky-glow, he believes that those who visit the UMKC Observatory will be very surprised and pleased with their view of the heavens from so close to home.

Members of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City will be present to guide their tour. For a view of the “Warko” today see: http://cas.umkc.edu/physics/warko/
For more on Dan’s research on galaxies see:

• www.publicbroadcasting.net/kcur/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1635370
• www.umkc.edu/news/news-release.asp?id=886

Barry Anderson (Art and Art History) was named by The Pitch as the 2010 winner of its Mastermind Award for the Visual Arts. The award was presented on April 3, 2010. See:
– www.pitch.com/2010-04-01/news/masterminds2010

Erik Olsen (Economics) has been awarded the Louis O. Kelso Fellowship from the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers to study the broadened ownership of capital in the U.S. The award of $12,500 will cover the period from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011 will support his research and permit him to attend conferences and workshops at Rutgers. For more see:
– www.smlr.rutgers.edu/KelsoFellowships.pdf

Virginia Blanton (English) gave an invited lecture April 9 at Vassar College sponsored by its Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program based on her discovery of a 15th century manuscript at Cambridge University detailing the lives of 19 female saints. For more see:
– www.miscellanynews.com/2.1579/prof-blanton-to-deliver-lecture-on-new-medieval-lit-1.2214426
– http://medievalnews.blogspot.com/2010/04/repackaging-female-saints-lives-for.html

Felicia Londre (Theatre) used her recent UMRB grant for research on the history of local and regional theatres. See the recent KC Stage Blog for more:
– http://kcstage.blogspot.com/2010/04/preserving-enchanted-years-of-stage-by.html

George Gale (Philosophy) has received word that a paper he co-authored in 1993 with John Urani (who was a member of the Physics Department Faculty) has been chosen as one of the leading papers of that decade by the retired editor of The American Journal of Physics. The paper was titled: “Philosophy Midwifery and the Birth Pangs of Modern Cosmology.”
– www.kzoo.edu/ajp

Anthony Ladesich, Brad Hodgson and Jordan Kerfeld, former Department of Communication Studies students, were recognized by Paste Magazine, a leading entertainment magazine in the U.S., in March 2010 when it included their works on its DVD music and film sampler for Spring 2010. Ladesich has won an Emmy for some of his film work while Hodgson and Kerfeld each has won a Missouri Broadcasters Association Best Short Film award in the last two years.

Years of Service Awards
5 years: Dennise Todd, Academic Advisor

From their FY 2009 grant efforts, 13 departments in the College will be getting a total of $217,822 dollars in Research Incentive Funds (RIF) that came to UMKC as F&A (overhead recovered from the granting agency) from the grants and contracts obtained by their faculty. Three of seven Humanities Departments, all four Natural Science Departments, and six of the seven Social Science Departments will get their shares which can then be used to support other research-related activities of those departments.

Again, it is with sadness in our hearts but happiness in our memories that we report the passing of another A&S colleague. Professor Emeritus of Chemistry K. L. Cheng died in Newport Beach, CA, on March 30, 2010. He was 95. Professor Cheng began his career at UMKC in 1966 and retired in 1990. In his lifetime, he had established several scholarships for students in Chemistry. The Department is accepting and attempting to match donations to the K.L. Cheng Undergraduate Scholarships in his memory. Contact: KIlwayk@umkc.edu. For more on Cheng’s career see:
http://cas.umkc.edu/chem/chm_news.asp

Revision to February 2010 ORS Grants Report for A&S
The following two separate contracts from NIH totalling $450,000 to Professor Peng had not been listed in the February ORS report when the last issue of the E-Zine was published.
The inclusion of these awards increased the A&S February total to $993.722 and the A&S total through the end of February to $1,117,449.

A&S Senior Wins National Phi Kappa Phi FellowshipRachel Waldener has just been awarded a $5,000 fellowship for graduate study in AY 2010-2011 by the national organization of this honor society. Rachel is graduating with three majors: biology, chemistry and Spanish.Student Affairs Honor Recipients NamedNine A&S students were among those named as UMKC Honor Recipients by the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management for Spring 2010. Those honored are: Sadia Aslam, John Scott Beeler, James Gilmore, Ariel Green, Tara Kloeppel, Keren Lowenstein, LaDonna McCullough, Tyler Mustro and Jasmine Powell. Congratulations to all!

(3-31-10)

Editor’s NoteThis April issue of the A&S E-Zine will be the last regular issue until we resume publication in September. Keep sending us items over the summer and we will again have an “end of summer“ issue to recount them. The “Special Issue” reporting on the special accomplishments of A&S Faculty in calendar year 2009 will be appearing sometime in early summer as it has taken more time to compile the materials than had been anticipated. — Dale Neuman, Editor