Alumni Advance

REINHARD CHAIRS PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSIONS

Dr. Diane L. Reinhard, president of Clarion University, has been elected chairperson of two statewide presidential commissions. She was elected by colleague presidents of the State System of Higher Education to a two-year term.

She serves as chair of the Commission of Presidents of the State System and chair of the Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU) Commission for the Universities of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

NEW PROGRAM HELPS REGION'S YOUNG READERS

Young readers in a 10-county area of northwestern Pennsylvania will receive additional help through a new $378,000 partnership program. This program initiated by the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitative Science at Clarion University and Keystone SMILES/AmeriCorps is a response to President Clinton's "America Reads Challenge" and a well articulated education agenda.

Rural Pennsylvania Reads (R-PA-R) serves children in kindergarten through third grade by assisting them in mastering the complexities of reading by the end of grade three. The project combines the resources of Clarion University, SMILES/AmeriCorps, the Clarion University Department of Special Education and Rehabilitative Sciences, and 15 school districts.

CLARION OFFERS NURSING DEGREE IN CLEARFIELD

Clarion University is offering its undergraduate nursing degree at the Clearfield Campus of Lock Haven University this fall. The National League of Nursing (NLN) accredited BSN program is being offered through on-site instruction and distance education by Clarion's nursing faculty at Venango Campus in Oil City and Pittsburgh site at West Penn Hospital, Pittsburgh. Both Clarion and Lock Haven are members of the State System of Higher Education.

Clarion is already united with Slippery Rock University to offer a joint nurse practitioner program at the master level. Such programs support the State System's imperatives to provide access to education by offering joint programs by State System institutions.

CLARION UNIVERSITY MUSIC PROGRAMS ACCREDITED

The National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) has granted accreditation to the Clarion University Department of Music.

"Acquiring NASM accreditation has been a long standing goal of the department," says Dr. Lawrence J. Wells, chair of the music department. "NASM accreditation not only assures minimum curricular standards, it also provides a framework for future growth and curriculum development."

For many years the music education degree program has been accredited through the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Pennsylvania Department of Education. This new accreditation affirms the quality of all the degree programs based upon nationally accepted standards, including the music/business and performance degrees. All member institutions, including the finest conservatories, public and private colleges, universities, and music schools in the nation, must meet the same benchmark curricular standards and guidelines to obtain NASM accreditation. Receiving the accreditation was the culmination of a lengthy three phase process.

CLARION PROGRAM USED AT GALLAUDET

A model program developed at the Earl R. Siler Children's Learning Complex at Clarion University will be the guide used by Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C., the world's only four-year university for deaf and hard of hearing undergraduate students. Dr. Nancy Sayre, associate professor of education, was recently invited to present a week-long workshop to Gallaudet's pre-college staff about the Reggio Emilia approach to learning. For the past four years, a model developed by Sayre based on this approach has been used at the Siler Complex.

Reggio Emilia, a regional complex of 33 schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy, was selected by "Newsweek" magazine in 1991 as having the best early childhood educational program in the world.

CLARION FACULTY INITIATES MENTORING PROGRAM

Teachers teaching new teachers is part of a new faculty mentorship initiative at Clarion University. The new mentorship program is sponsored by the Clarion University Office of the Provost, the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Education and Human Services, and the Faculty Affairs Committee of the Faculty Senate. Dr. Steven Johnson, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Dr. Michael LaRue, associate professor of history; and Dr. Hallie Savage, assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders and interim director of the Honors Program, are the coordinators.

The decision to develop a campus-wide mentoring program became more important this year due to a larger than usual faculty turnover due to resignations and retirements.

CLARION UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR LEGAL EDUCATION ACCREDITED

The Clarion University Center for Legal Education was recently certified as an Accredited Provider for Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education. Although the center has been offering courses since November 1993, and has provided approved continuing legal education to over 300 Pennsylvania lawyers through nine courses since that time, it has always been required to submit each program to the state board for approval prior to offering the course according to Dr. Jeffrey Eicher, professor of finance and director of the center.

The significance of the Accredited Provider status is that the courses are now automatically deemed to meet the state board's qualifications. The Center will be listed as an Accredited Provider at the state website, www.pacle.org, and by that means and others, upcoming conferences will be somewhat promoted by the state board.

The Center for Legal Education traditionally has two conferences each year. A live conference is held at Clarion University in the fall and videotaped for use in April at the Venango Campus in Oil City. The seminars fulfill the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's requirement of continuing legal education for attorneys.

CLARION UNIVERSITY JOINS OHIO BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

Clarion University has joined the Ohio Biological Survey, an inter-institutional research program, housed at the Museum of Biological Diversity, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Steven Harris, assistant professor of biology, will be Clarion University's representative to the organization.

The Ohio Biological Survey, founded in 1912, is an inter-institutional organization of 72 Ohio colleges, university, museums, state agencies, metroparks, arboreta, and other organizations. In addition, the Survey includes individual and corporate members. By cooperation with the professional staffs of the membership, the Ohio Biological Survey produces and disseminates scientific and technical information concerning the flora and fauna.

The inter-institutional structure of the Survey provides for unique opportunities to utilize the widely diverse expertise of the professional staff of member institutions. In the role of coordinator, the Survey initiates, sponsors, and/or directs research on specific subjects as well as on broad environmental and inter-disciplinary topics.

CREATIVITY FUELS CLARION HONORS PROGRAM AND CAMPUS ACTIVITIES

Creativity used by some of the world's modern era scholars will fuel this year's Honors Program and other academic activities at Clarion University. "Creating Your Work" is the theme of the 1997-98 Honors Program. Seven creative minds, Freud, Shakespeare, Graham, Ghandi, Darwin, Picasso, and Stravinsky were selected to be celebrated each month during the academic year according to Dr. Hallie Savage, Honors Program interim director. Academic departments within the scholarly disciplines were invited to collaborate in promoting a scholar of the month. The academic departments and the Honors Program will collaborate in presenting and publicizing the scholars.

The Program will link the celebration of scholars with events already scheduled on campus.A series of invited speakers will be sponsored by the Honors Program to augment this collaboration and a bulletin board outside the Honors Office will feature the scholar of the month and events.

The Honors Program, established in 1986, includes a core of interdisciplinary courses which are substituted for some of the required courses for graduation. The 21-credit program is spread over four years. The Honors Program currently has 80 students enrolled. Minimum qualifications for a freshman to enter the Honors Program are: an SAT score of 1100 or more and a good record of achievement and leadership in high school. All sophomore, junior, and senior honors students receive a scholarship, renewable annually by those who stay in the program, from the Clarion University Foundation.

CLARION UNIVERSITY SEEKS TO IMPROVE ADVISING

Improving advising, both for faculty and students, is the goal of the new Advising Services Office at Clarion University. Dr. Donna Poljanec, formerly an academic counselor in the Academic Support Services Office, has accepted the new role of advising coordinator for the Fall semester.

The effort started with a series of programs in September. Workshops for faculty, both at the Clarion and the Venango Campus, Oil City, concerning the university's general educational requirements for students opened the month. The workshops were held in conjunction with the General Education Council. This led to 'Freshman Advising Week' where all departments were encouraged to meet with freshman and explain the general education requirements. The month will conclude with a workshop for faculty on how to use Clarion University's computerized Student Information System to help advise the students.

Students will receive additional help through a series of seven workshops, "Major Decisions: A Career Development Series," including: Campus Career Resources, Exploring Myself and Careers, The Decision Making Process, Exploring Career Possibilities, Clarion University Majors, Learning Outside the Classroom, and Developing a Career Portfolio. The offices of Career Services and Advising Services are collaborating on these workshops.

CLARION UNIVERSITY MUSIC PROGRAMS ACCREDITED

The National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) has granted accreditation to the Clarion University Department of Music.

CLARION UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES ADD NEW AUTOMATED SYSTEM

It may not be the starship Voyager of television fame, but the new Voyager Public Access System at the Clarion University libraries has greater potential on an academic journey. Voyager replaces the old on-line catalog system which was overloaded and slow. It provides a wide choice of search options and permits more specific searches than the previous online catalog.

Searches on Voyager are menu driven starting from such topics as subject, author, title, journal title, etc., and can include advance searches that involve and/or/not selections. Searches can also be conducted by medium such as book, newspaper, magazine, and audio/visual.

Voyager is now available to the campus-wide community in a number of ways including:

Dedicated Online Catalog PCs located in the Carlson and Suhr libraries; text access from campus and from home by using existing VAX procedures to access through a text-based interface on the Academic Vax machine (VAXA); through a local web browser to the Clarion University Libraries' homepage; or by connecting directly at http://voyager.clarion.edu.

Additional information is also available from the system including: status of an item within the library; protected patron information, allowing patrons to check on what they have checked out from the library and its due date; reserve materials status; and links to other libraries.

CLARION UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR LEGAL EDUCATION ACCREDITED

Prior to 1993, attorneys from the Clarion area typically had to travel to Pittsburgh, Erie, and State College to attend live continuing education seminars.The Clarion County Bar Association contacted Clarion University about the potential for Clarion University to become one of the centers authorized to provide these programs, resulting in the establishment of the Center for Legal Education through the College of Continuing Education.

CLARION UNIVERSITY JOINS OHIO BIOLOGICAL SURVEY