PURSUITS: Week of Jan. 25, 2016

Dr. Bill Reyer (English) on Saturday, Jan. 23, served as a Master Judge for the Tiffin Middle School Power of the Pen writing competition for eighth-grade writers.

Mark Zeno (Residence Life) co-presented a program at the Ohio College Personnel Association, titled Implementing a Cultural Audit. Mark's co-presenters were Dr. Karl Rishe, dean of students at Notre Dame College, and Vicky Wright, assistant dean of students at Albion College.  

Mark also presented another program at OCPA, titled Back to School: A Panel of Higher Education Doctoral Students at Ohio Institutions, with Julie Sanzone, assistant director of academic initiatives, residence life at The Ohio State University.

Dr. Doug Collar (English, Honors) was the speaker at the Traditional Victorian Dinner on Dec. 11 in Wickham Great Hall. Doug described events surrounding author Charles Dickens' trip through Tiffin in 1842 as documented in his book American Notes. Dr. Ruth Wahlstrom (English emeritra) also entertained the group with a reading of Mrs. Scrooge by England's poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. The dinner was a fund-raiser for the YMCA Backpack Program. Dr. John Bing (political science emeritus) served as chair of this year's Victorian Winterfest activities.

Cynthia Suter (Registrar) has agreed to serve as one of six faculty for the Ohio Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers' Summer Institute. The three-day professional training is offered to nominated up-and-coning professionals in the registrar and admissions divisions to learn about emerging topics and to develop leadership skills for advancement. The program will be held at the Mohican State Park in August.

Last week, Dr. Kristen K. Williams (School of Education) attended Creating Change: The National Conference for LGBT Equality in Chicago. Because of her current research on children in same-sex families, Kristen was awarded the 2016 Eric Rofes Scholarship from the National LGBTQ Task Force to attend the conference, which addressed issues such as advocacy within schools and making college campuses more welcoming to LGBTQI students.

Dr. Barbara Specht (School of Music & Theatre) attended the Midwest Band/Orchestra Clinic at McCormick Place in Chicago from Dec. 15-19.  Held each year for the past 60 years, the clinic is the world's largest instrumental music education conference with over 17,000 attendees from all 50 states and approximately 40 countries.