Current Issue: Volume 26 - Number 14 - April 18, 2008
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Phonathon 2008 wraps up
Curt Betebenner, Missouri Southern Foundation, says the last calls have been made in the 2008 Phonathon.
He says the response to an appeal to faculty and staff by John Messick, Vice President for Academic Affairs, was an unqualified success. Last year's faculty/staff total was 50 pledges totaling $7,700. This year employees raised the bar with a total of 64 pledges totaling $9,088.
The vast majority of the funds raised by the faculty and staff appeal goes directly back into the operating budgets of the respective departments employing the individual donors.
"It was great to see this increased interest in supporting our own efforts," Curt states. "This amount of faculty and staff participation makes a stronger argument when going out into the community and asking for support to MSSU. Being able to point to our own and say we believe in what we are doing and support Southern ourselves makes a very persuasive argument."
Curt and the Foundation staff thank everyone who helped make this year a success.
Missouri Southern International Piano Competition
Pianists from 11 countries will arrive this weekend in Joplin to compete in the Twelfth Missouri Southern International Piano Competition April 20 - 26. The pianists range in age from 10 to 30 and come from some of the most prestigious music schools and conservatories in the world. They will compete for over $46,000 in prize money plus a debut concert in Carnegie Recital Hall for the Grand Prize winner.
The day and evening competition rounds are open to the public free of charge, affording an extraordinary opportunity to hear some of the best young pianists in the world. In addition to competition rounds, the week will include an opening concert by Nancy Weems, a master class for area Honors Audition winners, programs for area schools, and programs for area school children by pianist and lecturer Justin Kolb. The week concludes with the Gala Winners Concert at 8 p.m. on April 26. Competition rounds are open to the public free of charge. Tickets for the opening and Gala concerts are $15. Students and 60-plus seniors are admitted free to all events.
Over the years MSIPC has grown in stature and prestige and enjoys a reputation in the music world for maintaining the highest standards of quality and fairness. “We have a world-class event here that truly enriches the cultural life of the region," says Vivian Leon, competition director. “We also are honored to have such a prestigious panel of international judges,” she says. This year’s judges come from France, Armenia, Hong Kong, and the United States.
As a non-profit organization, the MSIPC receives support from businesses and individuals in the community, as well as foundations. Many families in the area open their homes to host the competitors, providing an opportunity for cultural exchange.
For additional information and concert tickets, contact the MSIPC at (417) 625-9755, email msipc@mssu.edu or visit the website at www.mssu.edu/msipc.
Live broadcast of opening concert
88.7KXMS/Fine Arts Radio International® will present a live broadcast of the concert that kicks off the week-long activities of the 2008 Missouri Southern International Piano Competition.
Works by Bach, Schumann, Gershwin and Albright will be performed by Nancy Weems, MSIPC Senior Judge from the University of Houston. Opening comments will air just prior to 8 p.m.Monday night, April 21, immediately following the first-run broadcast of the popular daily series “Exploring Music” with Bill McGlaughlin
The intermission feature will include excerpts from past competitions and profiles of this year’s judging panel. Jeff Skibbe, KXMS, will host the program.
Blunt takes part in Business/Education summit
Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt is taking part in the Business/Education Summit in the Billingsly Student Center on campus today. MSSU President Bruce Speck will deliver introductions at 10 a.m.
Gov. Blunt will make remarks and participate in a roundtable session with over 170 business and education leaders beginning at 10:30 a.m. The summit is part of a statewide regional collaboration to build on the governor's strategic investments in education.
At 12 noon Cheryl Lemke, president and CEO of the METIRI Group, will deliver the keynote address. A number of activities will take place thorughout the afternoon.
Today's Brown Bag
Don't miss today's Brown Bag Lunch for faculty and staff.
Linda Hand and Michael Garoutte, Honors, will speak on "The Honors Program Now!"
The Brown Bag will be held from 12:10 - 12:50 p.m. in the Keystone Room on the 3rd floor of the BSC. Lunch is provided courtesy of Academic Affairs and Sodexho.
MSSU marks 39th year of children’s theatre
with James and the Giant Peach
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Missouri Southern will mark its 39th year of children’s theatre with the production of Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach. Directed by Pam Claussen, the work was adapted for the stage by David Wood.
The play will be presented at 2:30 p.m., April 19 - 20 at Taylor Performing Arts Center at Missouri Southern State University.
Over almost four decades, over 100,000 children have enjoyed the productions, both on weekends and during the week in schools in the Four-State area.
"Many of the original members of the Show-Me-Celebration Company have mentioned to me over the years they are so proud of the work they did. It is not uncommon for a university student to brag about seeing productions here as a child," said Director Pam Claussen.
In the play, orphan James is sent to live with his aunts after his parents are killed in an accident involving a rhino, but the aunt treats him horribly. One day, an old man gives him a bag containing the strongest magic in the world. When he accidentally spills it near an old peach tree, the most marvelous things happen, and James’ adventures begin.
Admission is $1 for adults and $0.50 for children 12 and under. (Sorry, no free passes are accepted for Children's Theatre shows.) Tickets may be reserved between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., Monday through Friday at (417) 625-3190.
Accommodations for disabilities should be made at least 72 hours prior to the production. For theatre production information or requests for accommodations related to a disability, call Terri Spencer, Theatre, at (417) 625-9393.
Veterans Enterprise Forum 2008
The Veterans Enterprise Forum 2008 will be held Friday, April 25, 2008, from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m., in Cornell Auditorium (Room 201), The Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center. The cost of the event is $50. Veterans can attend this event for FREE. Please register by April 24 by calling ext. 3128 or accessing www.mssutraining.com.
The purpose of the Forum is to provide men and women with information about educational, business, financial, and governmental programs and services that are available to American veterans. This Forum will feature a series of brief presentations from Stan Baugh, Veteran Programs, Missouri Veteran Commission; Jeanne Devitt & Brian Ollenburger, VA Home Loans, Liberty Bank; Brent Jones, Patriot Loans for Veterans, Small Business Administration; Kathy Feith, Veterans Educational Financial Aid at MSSU; Kelly Wilson, MSSU Advising, Counseling & Testing Services; Dennis Fitzgerald, Selling to the Government, Heartland PTAC; Jim Krudwig, Lisa Robinson & Karen Bradshaw, SBDC Services & Workshops, Business Opportunities for Veterans, MSSU Small Business Development Center and The Center for Entrepreneurship.
Veterans are encouraged to attend, learn about veteran benefits, and enjoy lunch and networking opportunities.
Honors Audition winners to take part in Master Class
Five young winners of the Honors Audition portion of the Missouri Southern International Piano Competition will participate in a Master Class with international judges of the competition on Monday, April 21 from 2 – 4:30 p.m. in Webster Hall on the MSSU campus. The participants are Dasol Kim, St. Louis; Robyn Meahl, Admire, Kan.; Marc Simon, Springfield; Dillon Worthington, Little Rock, Ark.; and Christina Yuen, Overland Park, Kan.
The winners were selected from a field of 18 students during the Honors Audition held in February, which was open to pianists age 18 and younger from Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. The Audition was developed for students who may not be ready to compete at the level of the major competition, giving them the opportunity to observe pianists in a world-class event and learn from master teachers.
The participants are invited to attend all Competition events as guests of MSIPC including competition rounds, lectures, and opening and closing concerts. They each will receive a $500 cash award, a medal, and a certificate during the awards ceremony preceding the Gala Winners Concert at 8 p.m., April 26. They also will receive written critiques from each of the competition judges.
The Master Class is open to the public free of charge. For information on all competition events, interested persons may call 625-9755 or visit the web at www.mssu.edu/msipc.
Earth Day celebration
An Earth Day Celebration will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Friday, April 25 (Arbor Day) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Oval.
Booths will be set up by local businesses and student organizations to celebrate the Earth. For information, contact Mark Ostendorf of the International Student Ecolonomics Association at (417) 850-0064.
Adopt a Lion lets businesses show pride
The Missouri Southern Alumni Association’s “Adopt a Lion” program gives businesses throughout the community a new way to display their Lion Pride.
This program lets businesses underwrite a 3-foot-tall lion statue which will be customized to that particular business' request. Missouri Southern Art Department students, faculty, alumni and community artists will work with the businesses to decorate their lions.
Lions will be on display at area businesses from Aug. 18 – Sept. 23. Lions will then be moved to Spiva Art Gallery on the campus of Missouri Southern to be displayed during Homecoming week in October. The annual Alumni Awards reception will be held this year in the Spiva Art Gallery.
Following homecoming activities, businesses have the choice of keeping their lion for permanent display at their business or moving the lion to campus for permanent display in locations on campus.
The cost of underwriting a lion is $250. All proceeds from the project will benefit the Missouri Southern Alumni Association’s scholarship fund.
For additional information regarding a lion sponsorship or to volunteer as an artist, please contact the Alumni Association at (417) 625-9355.
Jeans Lecture in History April 24
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The fourteenth annual Jeans Lecture in History will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 24 in Webster Hall Auditorium.
The speaker will be T. H. Breen, William Smith Mason Professor of American History at Northwestern University. Breen's address is titled “It Rained Dead Cats and Dogs the Day the Revolution Began: Political Ideology and Popular Mobilization on the Eve of American Independence.”
Breen received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1968. He is interested in the history of political thought, material culture, and cultural anthropology. A Guggenheim fellow, he has held appointments at the Institute for Advanced Study and the National Humanities Center as well as the Pitt Professorship of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University and the Harmsworth Professorship at Oxford University.
His publications include five monographs, among them Tobacco Culture: the Mentality of the Great Tidewater Planters on the Eve of Revolution (recipient of the T. Saloutos Prize) and Imagining the Past: East Hampton Histories (winner of the Historical Preservation Book Prize), as well as portions of the highly successful undergraduate text, America: Past and Present. Breen has most recently published Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, with Oxford University Press, and won the Colonial War Society Prize for the best book in 2004 on the American Revolution.
The Jeans Lecture in History is named in honor of Dr. Virgil and Virginia Jeans, longtime residents of Joplin. They were lifelong learners and placed high value on education. At their deaths, contributions in their memory were made to the Missouri Southern Foundation, and it is that support that funds the lecture series. Funding is also provided by the Social Science Department.
Poetry reading
Members of "English 391: World Poetry" and of Sigma Tau Delta (the English Honor Society) invite the campus community to a poetry reading at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 17 in the Spiva Library Coffee shop.
Joy Dworkin, English, says the reading is being held in celebration of National Poetry Month. Students, alumni and faculty will read their own work and the work of favorite authors. Time permitting, audience members may be invited to read as well.
Pishkur to display in "Earthen Alchemy"
Frank A. Pishkur, Art, is one of four ceramic artists featured in the exhibition "Earthen Alchemy" held April 19 through June 6, in the Regional Gallery at the George A. Spiva Center for the Arts at the corner of 3rd and Wall Streets in downtown Joplin. Other participants are Jennifer and Nathan Falter of Springfield, MO and W. Mitch Yung, of Hollister, Mo.
An opening reception will be held for this show as well as the PhotoSpiva National Juried Photography Exhibition Friday, April 18th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The works Pishkur included in this show are vessels thrown on the potter's wheel and predominately colored with celadon green glazes. The dark clay is covered with a white slip (liquid clay) and then carved through the slip revealing the darker clay underneath, creating variations in the coloring of the glazes. Variations in the carved textures create patterns on the ceramic forms.
Pishkur's artwork has won several awards and has been featured in over 75 shows throughout the United States, including 13 solo exhibitions. In 2004 he had a solo exhibition in Seoul, South Korea. He works primarily with clay on the potter's wheel, referencing traditional pottery forms.
Extended hours at Spiva Library
Students needing more time for research or to "cram" for finals may take advantage of extended hours at the Spiva Library from April 27 - May 5. Hours will be as follows:
- Sunday: 1 p.m. - 12 midnight
- Monday - Thursday: 7:30 a.m. - 12 midnight
- Friday: 7:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
- Saturday: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Outstanding Alumnus and Lion-Hearted nominations
The Awards Committee of the MSSU Alumni Association is currently accepting nominations for the Outstanding Alumnus and Lion-Hearted recipients. These awards are presented at Homecoming events, scheduled for Oct. 3 - 4.
Nominees for the Outstanding Alumnus must have completed their college work at least 10 years ago; have attained outstanding achievements in their chosen field; have made significant contributions to benefit their community, state or nation.
The Lion-Hearted Award is presented to someone who is not a graduate of Joplin Junior College or Missouri Southern State College or University. However, this person embodies the true heart and soul of Lion Spirit and has made a significant contribution to the institution, either through monetary or voluntary assistance.
Letters for either award may be sent by June 2 to MSSU Alumni Association/Attn: Awards Committee/3950 East Newman Road/Joplin, Mo. 64801.
Polish film next in International Festival
The next film in the current season of the International Film Festival at MSSU is Lotna (Poland, 1959). The film will be shown at 7 p.m., Tuesday April 22 in Cornell Auditorium in Plaster Hall.
Award winning director Andrzej Wajda made this film as a visually arresting and sweeping tribute to the heroic horsemen who faced German tanks during World War II. It is a striking, allegorical account of the disappearance of cavalry from modern warfare and the effect an off-white horse, named Lotna, has on various soldiers and officials in a Polish regiment. The film is important for being “exceptionally beautiful from the pictorial point of view, and definitely one of (Wajda’s) greatest film achievements” wrote Liehm and Liehm in The Most Important Art).
No admission is charged. For details call Harrison Kash at (417) 673-1261.
Senior Exhibit ‘08 to feature work by seniors
The Spiva Art Gallery at Missouri Southern will exhibit the artwork of four senior students from the University. The annual event for senior art majors is a highly-anticipated achievement for upcoming graduates.
Artists with work to be featured include: Ryan Hill of St. Louis; Rahila Khan of Ras Lanuf, Libya (currently residing in Joplin); Brandon Nepote of Joplin; and Jessica Reyelts of Mt. Vernon.
Artwork will be on display from April 20-25 at the Spiva Art Gallery of Missouri Southern State University from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
A special reception for the students will be held from 3 - 5 p.m., Sunday, April 20 at the Spiva Gallery. The public is invited to enjoy refreshments and meet the artists.
Another display by four other students will follow the one beginning April 20. Those with additional questions may contact the Art Department at (417) 625-9563.
Challenges issued in Tree Fund
The Social Science Department was the first department on campus this week to officially issue a challenge to other departments to match or exceed its $400+ dollars (as of Wednesday) collected for the campus Tree Fund. Other departments quickly began working to take part in the effort.
A landscape architect is being hired to prepare a Landscape Master Plan for the University to replace trees lost due to ice this winter. The Missouri Southern Foundation has established a fund to accept donations for the work. Send checks, money orders and other forms of payment to the Foundation with a notation that the money is for the Tree Fund.
National Issues Forum - 2008
Early in our democracy, citizens gathered to talk and learn together about their common problems before deciding how to solve them. Today’s citizens still gather and deliberate to create a reasoned public voice. Since 1981, National Issues Forums (NIF) has supported a nonpartisan, nationwide network of locally-sponsored public forums for that purpose.
Missouri Southern welcomes students, faculty staff and local community members to come together to discuss this year’s topic: "The Energy Problem: Choices for an Uncertain Future."
Groups of 8-10 citizens will read a brief brochure on background facts (prepared by the non-partisan Kettering Foundation), and then meet to talk informally about various approaches to the problem. Meetings will be held at Spiva Library Main Floor fireplace area. There is no fee to participate, but you must reserve a place.
The next forum will be held from 6 - 8 p.m. Mon, Apr 21.
To sign up, contact: Ann Wyman, Social Science, at wyman-a@mssu.edu, Webster 229, 625-9697 or Steve Smith, Social Science, at smith-st@mssu.edu, Webster 227, 625-3008.
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Environmental Health Club, ZTA clean Newman Road They worked on this project the afternoon of Monday, April 14 for about 2 hours. Approximately 10 members of each organization took part in this annual activity, which has been taking place in the spring semester for the past several years.
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TFACULTY/STAFF
Project Stay staff members, Julie Blackford, Susan Craig, Stephanie Hopkins, and Shavonne McCoy, attended the MO-KAN-NE professional conference in Kansas City, Missouri April 9 -11. At the conference, they learned that Project Stay students Howie Lindeman and Rebecca Head were awarded scholarships from the MO-KAN-NE professional organization. Howie and Rebecca competed with students from Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska to win the scholarships.
The MSSU chapter of Delta Epsilon Chi, a student organization emphasizing marketing, management, and entrepreneurship, sent 11 members to its International Career Development Conference in Atlanta April 12-16. Five of the students were top-ten finishers in their events: Brent Bertelsen & Boryana Georgieva, Business Ethics; Niki Ansell & Lauren Bates, Business Law; and Mariya Gavrilova, Travel and Tourism Marketing. The club's faculty advisor, Scott Cragin, received the "Adviser of the Year" recognition.
Michael Lawson, Biology, has had an article on the antibiotic resistance problem accepted for publication in The American Biology Teacher.
Kexi Liu, Music, adjudicated at the Kansas State Music Festival held in Wichita on Wednesday, April 16. He was one of the three adjudicators for the large instrumental groups.
Rusty Raymond, Music, was the guest conductor for the Central Ozark Conference Honor Band that rehearsed and performed on April 12 in Marshfield. The group consisted of the finest players from the respective band programs of Willard, Ozark, Nixa, Marchfield, Republic, Branson, Bolivar, Buffalo, Rogersville, and Reeds Spring.
June Roys, Art, along with students Jason Courtney, Austin Edison and Tony Otero, attended the 4th Annual National Student Show and Conference hosted by the Dallas Society of Visual Communicators, April 3-5 in Dallas, Tex. Conference events included student portfolio reviews, roundtable discussions, 15 breakout sessions, a student job fair, and judging of student design work by a panel of nationally acclaimed experts.
For a detailed story on the conference, visit http://www.mssu.edu/news/2008/roys_dallasspring08.html.
Debra Snodgrass, Music, will play Chopin's Piano Concerto in F minor with the Southeast Kansas Symphony at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 23. Debra won PSU's Concerto competition in January of this year. The performance will take place in McCray Auditorium on the campus of Pittsburg State University
Joaquin Rodriguez Suro, Foreign Languages, had an article entitled: "Aura de Fuentes y la razon pura" ("Fuentes' Aura and Pure Reason") accepted for publication in Texto Critico, Journal of the Institute of Linguistic and Literary Research of the University of Veracruz in Mexico. The article examines Carlos Fuentes´novel Aura taking into account Immanuel Kant´s "Critique of Pure Reason" and how it reflects a particular view of Mexican history.
CLASSIFIED
For Sale: 35' aluminum extension ladder. Great shape. $100. Also have 10" Sears Table Saw with extensions and stand. 3 blades for $100. Call ext. 9821 or e-mail trudeau-w@mssu.edu.
For Sale: Year old English Bulldog, female, brindle color. She is fixed and very lovable. She is good with children and other dogs. Please call Misti Knisley at (417) 621-5212 or e-mail knisley-m@mssu.edu.
