Huber met recently with Dr. Julie Sullivan, president-elect, and agreed to remain for another year before ending an association with St. Thomas that began as a graduate student and continued with roles as a professor and administrator for more than two decades.

“I want to thank Sue for her exceptional service to the university,” said Father Dennis Dease, president, who appointed her executive vice president and chief academic officer on an interim basis in June 2008 and on a permanent basis the following April. “She has performed with distinction in every position she has held, and she has been a great leader and collaborator on so many projects.”

“I am pleased and grateful that Sue will remain with St. Thomas for another academic year,” said Sullivan, who will succeed Dease as president when he retires June 30. “Continuity is necessary in a position as critical as chief academic officer, especially with issues such as our accreditation visit this fall. It’s important that Sue is involved in those issues.”

Sullivan said she will launch a national search this fall for Huber’s replacement.

Huber said she will retire with mixed emotions because she has loved each of the faculty and administrative positions that she has held at St. Thomas since 1992.

“I have never been bored at work, and that’s because St. Thomas is such a dynamic institution,” she said. I can’t imagine having a more satisfying career. This is a stimulating educational community, and I will always treasure the time I have spent in the classroom with students and outside of the classroom engaged with colleagues in efforts to improve our programs and our learning environment.”

Huber joined the St. Thomas community as a graduate student and earned two degrees: a master’s in curriculum and instruction and a doctorate in educational leadership. Her bachelor’s degree in Latin and English is from the former College of St. Teresa in Winona.

She taught English in Burnsville and Roseville public schools and English as a Second Language at Hamline University before she moved to St. Andrew’s Catholic School in St. Paul as an English teacher and then principal. She was dean of continuing education and special programs at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota before joining the St. Thomas School of Education faculty.

She served as chair of the Teacher Education Department and was associate dean of the School of Education before she was appointed interim dean in 2006. She became the first dean of the College of Applied Professional Studies in 2007 after a decision to bring the School of Education and the Graduate School of Professional Psychology into the new college (since renamed the College of Education, Learning and Counseling).

Huber’s professional appointments include service on the boards of Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice, and the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at St. Thomas and St. John’s University. She is a board member at Risen Christ School in Minneapolis and a former board member of the Convent of the Visitation School in Mendota Heights.

“I try to go off the beaten track when I choose where to take my students,” said George, director of bands, Symphonic Wind Ensemble and string orchestra, and chair of the St. Thomas Music Department. “I want to take them out of their comfort zone and be pushed into a different atmosphere that they wouldn’t be able to experience here.”

This wasn’t George’s first time traveling abroad to work with international composers and music ensembles. His music exchange started 19 years ago when he was invited to Mexico City to lead a weeklong seminar at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. His charge was to discuss wind band music, form an experiment ensemble and give a concert.

The trip was such a success that they invited George back and asked him to direct and form what is now the Banda Sinfonica at the Escuela Nacional de Musica of UNAM. George returned to Mexico City two to three times a year to help develop the program until they finally hired a full-time conductor. People heard of the work he did there, and George began to receive invitations to work with other international ensembles.

Listen to the fourth movement of Roger Cichy’s Bugs, a piece commissioned by the Symphonic Wind Ensemble in 1999.

George’s research has taken him around the world to learn about the different ways countries make and perform music. As a conductor, clinician and lecturer he has traveled across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, continental Europe, Ireland and the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, China, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and India. He has worked with professional groups such as the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain and the Band of the People’s Liberation Army in  China. He also has conducted in prestigious venues such as the Sydney Opera House, the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai and the National Theatre of Performing Arts as well as the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing.

Perhaps the most meaningful benefit of these shared experiences is that they have allowed George to bring international composers back to St. Thomas to write original music for his students to perform.

“I think the most unique thing we do that most other music programs don’t is to commission new works of composers, particularly from other countries,” George said. In the last 22 years they have commissioned 80 new works for the symphonic wind ensemble, and at least half of those come from international composers.

Students learn more than they anticipate from the international pieces they have performed. Philip Smithley ’15 said that the band members were challenged last fall when they were given a piece of music titled “Desi Jhalak,” meaning “A Peek Into India,” written by Bollywood composer Shamir Tandon. Smithley said there is a “vast difference in the way music is rehearsed and performed in India, where it is not notated but rather improvised after years of studying, compared to Western music where all of our music is written out.”

George smiles as he ends a performance of the String Orchestra in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas. (Photo by Mark Brown)

Alexandra Gobell ’13 explains that the band members are often out of their “comfort zone” when performing international pieces, but that bringing the composers to St. Thomas allows them to learn about the story behind the pieces and teaches them about the composers’ native countries. Then, when possible, George takes the students to the countries where they perform such pieces as “Desi Jhalak.” Going to India was a way for the students to experience the culture of the music that they perform.

“A very important part of our touring process is the exchange of experiences. I want the students to be able to serve the culture through their music. Instead of going somewhere passively like a tourist, I want them to be immersed in the culture by meeting with their peers and trading stories and experiences of what it’s like to make music in our country, what it’s like in their country and what the differences are,” George said.

This exchange happened between Amber Neid ’14 and composer Tandon. The song was originally sent to the band in an electronic audio format without any sheet music. Neid worked with Tandon to put the song on paper so that the band could read, rehearse and perform the piece.

“That gave us a lot of practice on aural skills rather than just reading music off a piece of paper,” Neid said. “I think that made all of us better musicians. Seeing the composer light up when he heard a ‘western ensemble’ play his traditional Indian music was worth all of the work we put into it. Then, when we played it in India, it was a huge hit because it was music the audiences could relate to, but with instruments they had never seen or heard before.”

George and the students are challenged musically when working with groups of different countries, and because they are working in a new culture.

“Whenever I’m asked to conduct national music of the country I go to, it’s really intimidating because I know everyone knows it, and I’m just now learning it,” George said. “It takes a lot of study, a lot of asking questions, a lot of listening to styles of music so I approach it and seem competent.”

George has experienced many differences between how cultures approach music and rehearse. In Latin America, he learned how musicians approach rhythm differently; “What’s popular to them is highly rhythmic dances. Instead of our Top 40 music, they listen to samba and all kinds of art and dance forms. They feel these rhythms rather than read the music on the printed page.”

There are similar challenges in China where communicating meanings of the same word is expressed by tone, and George says that their music approach also is that way with bending and inflection that our language – and music – do not possess. In England or Australia, learning new terms for familiar musical functions is the challenge. “I have to think about how I’m going to say certain things and as I speak, I have to translate the terms in my brain,” George said. The same translation process happens when he must speak Spanish in Latin America. In countries where George does not know the language, however, a translator is needed, which presents numerous challenges.

Listen to a selection form Chen Qian’s Ambush! From All Sides as played by the Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

“My rehearsals are very fast-paced and to the point,” George said. “When I can’t just deliver what I want to say and I have to use a translator, I must adjust to still make it efficient. And you just hope that what the translator is saying is exactly the message that you’re trying to get across.”

In order to adapt to these situations, a certain kind of personality is needed to not only travel but also to work with people of different cultures. “If you try to force your preconceived notions onto what you’re going to experience, you’re going to be miserable. You have to have a personality that is adaptive,” George said. When he worked in Mexico, he had to get used to starting later; “When we started rehearsals at 10 a.m., we wouldn’t actually start until 11:30 a.m. At first I got upset, but then I just went with it. So, the next time we started at 11:10 a.m., then at 10:30 a.m. and then finally we started at 10 a.m. If I just tried to force it, it wouldn’t have worked.”

Traveling as part of his career was not something George expected. His first time on a plane wasn’t until he was 18 years old. Now his children, who he and his wife often bring on these trips, have seen more of the world than most adults.

“I’ve been extremely fortunate. When I started at St. Thomas I never thought my life would take me in the direction it has taken me in terms of international experiences,” George said. “The best part for me is that when I go places, people native to the culture will take me to where they go, not to where tourists go. It’s a tremendous opportunity and I feel very blessed.”

Though his interest in traveling came later in life, George’s love for music started when he was a young boy in Geneva, N.Y. “It all goes back to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass,” George said. His uncle used to have eight-track  tapes that he and his older cousin would listen to, and the sounds of Herb Alpert’s trumpet playing fascinated him.

When his cousin began to play trumpet, George was inspired to learn to play as well. He played trumpet from elementary school through high school, and then played professionally. But it was in high school when George’s interest in conducting began.

During study hall, George went to the band room to practice. When no one was watching, he stood on the podium and pretended that he was conducting a full band. Without knowing it, George was being watched by his band director. To encourage George’s interest in conducting, the band director let him rehearse a piece that George later conducted at a high school band concert.

“My life ambition was to become a high school band director,” George said. After receiving a B.M. in music education and trumpet performance from Ithaca College, he began teaching high school band in New York.

“I realized that there was more than just teaching music in high school; there’s also hall monitoring and cafeteria duty. I wasn’t interested in doing those things,” George said. So, he earned an M.M. degree in music education from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and a D.M.A. degree in conducting from the University of North Texas. During that time he also performed as a professional trumpet player and taught at the university and privately. George then came to St. Thomas in 1991.

Once a solo conductor in an empty band room, George has conducted some of the best bands and orchestras in the world, and his students are greatly benefiting from his passion and ambition. “Dr. George has been a huge inspiration for me as a future director, teacher and conductor,” Neid said. “Watching him conduct during our rehearsals has taught me a lot that I can’t learn at a desk,” Neid said.

The student musicians in Brady Educational Center practice and rehearse for perfection. But George gives them something more than notes on paper – he introduces them to the world through the music they play.

Read more from St. Thomas Magazine.

With that fame came a move to commissions of a large scale, such as the 1997 Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, the 2003 Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and across the river in Minneapolis, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, finished in 1993. These projects supplanted Gehry’s need to design domestic space. But in the summer of 2012, a Gehry-designed duplex became owner-occupied in New Orleans, a part of the actor Brad Pitt’s Make it Right Foundation’s project in the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward.

How do we connect Gehry’s Winton Guest House to the Make it Right House? What has Gehry changed, updated or invented in his domestic architecture in the last 25 years? This is the question I will be examining during my sabbatical next year.

After traveling to New Orleans several times during the last two years to lay the groundwork for this research, I realized that the city was a perfect fit for an architectural history graduate seminar at St. Thomas. And this spring, The Architecture of New Orleans course was born.

New Orleans has been called many things – the Crescent City, The Big Easy, The Birthplace of Jazz, NOLA, the City that Care Forgot. The city’s racial and ethnic makeups have created a variety of architecture found nowhere else in the United States. Settled by the French in the 18th century and controlled by Spain in 1763, New Orleans was also home to a large population of free people of color, as well as slaves.

With the arrival of the 19th century the American element of New Orleans grew with settlers from the Northeast sharing the city with immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Sicily and beyond. Each group has contributed to the architectural legacy of New Orleans in powerful ways, and students in my graduate art history seminar this spring are exploring this variety in their research with topics focusing on cemeteries, voodoo, New Urbanism in housing projects, food markets, public parks, hospitals, sacred spaces (including a contemporary Spanish Baptist church rebuilding after Katrina), colonial plantations, biophilic design, historic preservation, Pitt’s Make it Right Houses, and the connection between Walt Disney and the French Quarter.

The research provides a fabulous overview of the layers of New Orleanian architecture – strata that were made visible on a recent trip our class took to the Crescent City this past spring break.

Students found their own ways to New Orleans early in the week and researched their projects. We all gathered as a group on Thursday, March 28, at Jackson Square in the French Quarter for a walking tour of the Quarter, Central Business District and Warehouse District. I had scoped out the buildings on a previous visit and our tour required that each student present a five-minute on-the-street talk about their building as we progressed through the neighborhoods.

The students were expected to connect their presentations into our classroom discussions and also address the building as an art object. What did they see now that they were standing in front of it? There is no better way to understand the built environment than to be out in it: looking, touching and getting a feel for context and scale. I was thrilled to watch New Orleans come to life for the students.

Saturday morning found us in the Garden District at Lafayette Cemetery No. 1. The cemeteries of New Orleans, with their above ground tombs, are amazingly beautiful, and they clearly reflect the character of the city built largely just a few feet above sea level. After our cemetery visit, a little lagniappe (something extra) found us touring the adjacent neighborhood, stopping by Sandra Bullock and John Goodman’s grand Victorian-era homes.

On Friday, we were fortunate to visit the Lower Ninth Ward with John Williams, the executive architect of Brad Pitt’s Make it Right houses and a longtime New Orleans designer. Supported by funds from the Art History Department, we spent five hours on a bus tour with John. It was one of the greatest architectural experiences I have ever had, and I think my students felt the same.

The area is still, after almost eight years, coming back to life. The Make it Right Foundation hopes to build 150 homes in the neighborhood. But basic services such as grocery stores, schools and the like have not returned to the Lower Ninth. It’s still a very tough go for folks who have returned. Students were able to meet with residents, including John “Smitty” Smith and Ron Lewis at his “House of Dance and Feathers,” and learn their stories of evacuation and survival.

A duplex designed by Frank Gehry in New Orleans. (Photo by John Williams)

And it was here in the Lower Ninth where we encountered Gehry’s work. The pink and purple duplex, its hues selected by the homeowner, recalls the liveliness of New Orleans’ vernacular domestic shotgun houses and Creole cottages. It is built out of environmentally friendly materials and includes solar panels and other sustainable features. The variety of porches encourages engagement with neighbors and passersby.

Gehry believed in Pitt’s vision and wanted to make a house that responded to the “history, vernacular and climate of New Orleans,” as he stated on Make it Right’s blog.

The completion of the house is history in the making – a work by Gehry and a foundation that helped the hardest hit citizens of New Orleans when other entities were slow to do so. And now, the University of St. Thomas has a connection to both.

Dr. Adam Kay

Kay, Biology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 2001, and has been a faculty member in the UST Biology Department since 2005. His research interests have included the ecology of social behavior, tropical ecosystem ecology, and the evolution of sexual reproduction. The focus of his recent research is on urban agriculture and sustainability.

Kay teaches Biology of Sustainability, Animal Behavior, and Introduction to Field Ecology in Costa Rica. He also is the founder and director of the UST Stewardship Garden and co-founder of Sustain, the UST sustainability blog. He is committed to living a low-resource lifestyle with his daughter, Marike, his wife, Justa, and their two cats.

What the association discovered was that alumni appreciate St. Thomas traditions, that continuing to be involved with St. Thomas is important to alumni, and that it is essential that the value of a St. Thomas degree is continually affirmed and improved.

The survey also revealed that alumni have a deep sense of loyalty to faculty, a characteristic that became apparent when more than 800 stories about faculty members who had strong positive effects on alumni’s educational experiences were shared by the respondents.

Faculty and administrative staff members from departments across the university were mentioned, in addition to some of St. Thomas’ most notable personalities.

Of the 800 names listed, here are the five who appeared most frequently:

Monsignor James Lavin

Monsignor James Lavin

Lavin arrived at St. Thomas in 1936 as an undergraduate student and earned a degree in English in 1940. He returned to campus in 1946 after his ordination and taught religion until 1967, when he became an academic counselor. He went to work for the St. Thomas Alumni Association in 1988 as a special assistant to the president and a university ambassador who attended countless events, funerals, weddings and baptisms. Known widely as “Scooter,” he lived in Ireland Hall as an undergraduate and from 1946 to 2002. He began the practice of offering peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, also known as “Lavin Burgers,” to residence hall students in the evenings. Scooter’s restaurant – the original in Murray-Herrick Campus Center and the new version in the Anderson Student Center – carries his name, as does an award for volunteer service to the Alumni Association.

Monsignor Lavin died on Sept. 17, 2012. The first Monsignor Lavin Day was celebrated on Nov. 12, 2012, at Scooter’s on what would have been Lavin’s 94th birthday. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were served.

A respondent  to the alumni survey said Monsignor Lavin “Accepted me for the person I was. As a woman in a primarily male college, his classes were critical in my development as a professional.” Another noted his kindness and recalled a time when Lavin “Gave my wife and me money out of his pocket because we had very little.”

One respondent who lived in Ireland hall for three years said, “I will tell you without hesitation that the personal relationship and experiences I had with Father Lavin were far and away the most valuable of my college years.”

Read more about Monsignor James Lavin.

Father James Whalen

Father James Whalen

A native of Minneapolis, Whalen graduated from the St. Thomas Military Academy and earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Minnesota in 1948. He worked in advertising until 1953, when he enrolled in the Saint Paul Seminary. He was ordained a priest in 1958 and the following year joined the St. Thomas faculty as its first full-time journalism teacher. He later became the first chair of the newly-formed Journalism Department.  More than 900 St. Thomas journalism alumni studied under Whalen during his 35-year tenure at the university. Thousands of other students took his classes but did not major in journalism or, as the department evolved, programs in advertising, media studies, public relations or broadcast journalism. In addition to his work with the university’s undergraduate journalism program, Whalen, along with senior vice president emeritus Quentin Hietpas, conceived and developed St. Thomas’ Master of Business Communication program.

Father James Whalen  died on April 8, 2003, 10 years after retiring from classroom teaching.

One survey respondent heralded Whalen as “The greatest teacher I ever had. He returned my homework to me covered in red editing ink – and this is what taught me to be the writer and PR person I am today.” Another respondent acknowledged Whalen’s impact on non-journalism majors, “He was always willing to listen and give advice even though I wasn’t in ‘his’ program. (He was) a wonderful man.”

One respondent said that he “expanded my critical thinking ability and strengthened my moral values.”

Read more about Father James Whalen.

Father John Malone

Father John Malone

Malone attended Nazareth Hall and the Saint Paul Seminary, from which he was ordained in 1967. He earned a law degree, taught business law at St. Thomas for more than 25 years, did pro bono work for people who couldn’t afford a lawyer, and worked at the Ramsey County Public Defender’s Office. He served as pastor of Assumption Catholic Church in downtown St. Paul before retiring as a parish priest in 2007 and serving as a special assistant in the president’s office at St. Thomas.  In 2008, he was named vice president for mission, a role he continues today.

Respondents to the survey recalled Malone as both a teacher and mentor. “(He) is simply a great person to have in your network – spiritually, academically and legally one of the best professors out there.”

“He transcends the priest-teacher and religion-business prototype. He shows that both worlds can coexist.” Another respondent commented on the large personality Malone is known for. “He made B-law fun, yet we learned a lot. We also saw a human side to a priest – humor, great intelligence outside theology, and fantastic personal skills.”

Read more about Father John Malone.

William Malevich  

William Malevich

When asked whether there was a person at St. Thomas that had a positive influence on his or her experience, one survey respondent answered simply: “Bill Malevich. Enough said.”

Malevich earned his St. Thomas undergraduate degree in 1955. He returned in 1965 to work in admissions and counseling. Two years later he became dean of students, a role in which he began writing his column “Ask the Dean,” which appeared in the university’s newsletter The Bulletin. Over the years, students wrote him about serious issues – alcoholism and abortion – as well as about the absence of onion rings in the cafeteria and the difficulties of the subjunctive tense in German. His answers mixed wisdom and wit. “What is the meaning of life?” one student asked. His reply: “If I really gave you the answer to that question, wouldn’t it take the fun out of discovering the answer for yourself?”

Malevich retired in 1993. Today, the university gives two awards in his honor: the William B. Malevich Award, presented by USG, and the Malevich Student Leadership Scholarship.

One survey respondent recalled that “He was accessible, understanding and willing to work with students and student organizations.” According to another respondent, Malevich is “a truly caring and understanding guy who was deeply concerned about the well-being of students.”

Read more about William Malevich.

Dr. John Buri

Dr. John Buri

Buri has spent the entirety of his professional career at St. Thomas where he currently teaches a variety of courses, including the popular Psychology of Marriage and the Family. He also has served as the chair of the Psychology Department, as well as a clinical faculty associate in the Graduate School of Professional Psychology. He received his B.A. in psychology from Loras College in Iowa.  He went on to earn his M.A. and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology at Loyola University in Chicago. His book How to Love Your Wife was published in 2006.

According to one survey respondent, “He taught me and many other students many lessons about psychology, but he also helped prepare us for life and interactions with people … He was a great mentor. I routinely went to him to discuss issues and receive guidance.” Another respondent agrees, saying “My psychology mentor John Buri made marriage and family come alive.”

A former student of recalls Buri’s efforts to help during a particularly difficult semester: “He provided support and resources during a term when I was very ill that allowed me to successfully complete his class despite extended absence.”

Read more about Dr. John Buri.

*     *     *

For more information about the 2012 Alumni Attitudes Survey, visit the Alumni Association website.

St. Thomas Day recognizes the extraordinary contributions that members of the St. Thomas community have made to the university and the wider community. The awards that are presented on St. Thomas Day were instituted over a period of 60 years.

St. Thomas Day events began with Mass in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas led by Archbishop Emeritus Harry Flynn, chair of the university’s Board of Trustees. A dinner and awards program followed in Woulfe Alumni Hall, Anderson Student Center. More than 500 members of the St. Thomas community attended.

Father Dennis Dease, president of the University of St. Thomas, was pleasantly stunned at the St. Thomas Day awards Wednesday night when he was presented with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.

This marked the first year the recipient of the award was kept hush-hush until the night of the ceremony.

Dr. Rachel Wobschall, executive director of Alumni and Constituent Relations at St. Thomas, said, “The Alumni Association Board of Directors unanimously nominated and approved Father Dease. We decided to keep it a secret because of Father Dease’s humility − we thought he might not accept it if he knew about it.”

Dease’s brothers, sisters and other family members showed up at the dinner to surprise him, but he did not read anything into their appearance other than to think they were there to help him celebrate his final St. Thomas Day as president. He also did not read the printed program at his table, listing him as the Distinguished Alumnus Award winner, so when his named was announced he had a surprised look on his face. He received two standing ovations from the capacity crowd In Woulfe – one after his name was announced and the other after a video was played.

Nominations for the Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna, Humanitarian and Lavin awards are welcome throughout the year but are required by July 1 for consideration for the following year’s St. Thomas Day. For forms and more information on how to submit a nomination, visit the Alumni Association website.

Distinguished Alumnus Award

Father Dennis Dease took office as president of St. Thomas on July 1, 1991, but he has a longer association – nearly 50 years – with the university and the St. Paul Seminary.

A native of Corcoran, Minn., he taught theology at the College of St. Thomas and served as spiritual director and dean of formation at the St. Paul Seminary. Ordained into the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1969, Father Dease has myriad degrees: a B.A. in Latin and philosophy, a Master of Divinity degree from the St. Paul Seminary, an M.A. degree in counseling psychology from St. Thomas and a Ph.D. in systematic theology from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

In 1982 he joined the St. Thomas Board of Trustees. He served rector of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis from 1985 to 1991.

The university grew significantly and made many notable achievements during his 22-year tenure, including:

• Establishment of a Minneapolis campus and constructed four buildings for programs in business, law, education and professional psychology
• Construction of a dozen major buildings on the St. Paul campus, including a student center, an athletic and recreation complex, a science and engineering center, a business building, two apartment-style residence halls and a parking ramp
• A new campus in Rome (2000)
• New academic programs in law, Catholic studies, mechanical and electrical engineering, entrepreneurship and Irish studies, and quadrupled study-abroad participation with semesterlong programs based in London and Rome and many opportunities during January Term
• A tripled student-of-color population as well as a tripled number of international students.
• $765 million raised in two capital campaigns – $250 million in the Ever Press Forward campaign, which concluded in 2001, and $515 million in the Opening Doors campaign, which came to a close last October.
• Accreditation from national or international associations for all major graduate programs.

Dease will retire as president of St. Thomas June 30 this year.

Professor of the Year

Dr. Mark Neuzil, a member of the Communication and Journalism Department, will receive this year’s Professor of the Year Award. Neuzil, who joined St. Thomas in 1993, also serves as director of St. Thomas’ Office for Mission and is an adviser to TommieMedia.com.

He is the author or co-author of four books with environmental themes: Mass Media and Environmental Conflict: America’s Green Crusades, co-written with William Kovarik; Views of the Mississippi: The Photographs of Henry Bosse, which won a Minnesota Book Award; A Spiritual Field Guide: Meditations for the Outdoors, co-written with Dr. Bernard Brady; and The Environment and the Press: From Adventure Writing to Advocacy.

Neuzil earned a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Minnesota.

Humanitarian of the Year

Charles Lugemwa ’03 M.M.S.E. will be honored with the 2013 Humanitarian of the Year Award for his work with Hope Medical Clinics. Lugemwa co-founded the Ugandan clinics with Father Dennis Dease.

A native Ugandan, Lugemwa serves as in-country director of Hope Medical Clinics Uganda and is manager of data management in the IT Division of the Uganda Revenue Authority.

Hope Medical Clinics Uganda provides people access to health care services, regardless of income. The organization operates clinics in the Kampala suburbs of Ndejje and Kasubi, and the Ruth Gaylord Maternity and Pediatric Hospital, which opened in January 2012.

Lugemwa lives in Kampala, Uganda, with his wife, Maria, and their three children.

Monsignor James Lavin Award

Don Traxler ’50, retired president of Northern Star Co., is the recipient of this year’s Monsignor James Lavin Award. Established in 1994, the award honors a volunteer for his or her service to the St. Thomas Alumni Association. Traxler has served the alumni community for decades as a volunteer and active participant, most notably as a member of the Old Guard and its annual reunion committees.

As a student at St. Thomas, he majored in business administration – general business management and economics. The parents of nine children, Traxler and his wife, Dolores, have provided scholarship support to St. Thomas students, and Traxler has been a member of the President’s Council since 1986.

Tommie Award

Eyo Ekpo of Andover, Minn., was voted recipient of the Tommie Award by St. Thomas faculty, staff and students. He is an entrepreneurship and finance double major. He also is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, an international business honor society; Delta Epsilon Sigma, a national scholastic honor society; and Delta Sigma Pi, a professional business fraternity; HANA, a multicultural student organization; Practicing Entrepreneurs; Senior Legacy; Real Estate Society; Undergraduate Business Council; and Tommie Ambassadors.

An athlete in varsity football and varsity track and field, Ekpo also served as a representative on the Student Athletic Advisory Committee. In track and field, he was named an NCAA All-American four times, to the All-America Academic team three times and a national runner-up for the CoSIDA First-Team All-America.

The Tommie Award is sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs and is awarded annually to a senior who best represents the ideals of St. Thomas Aquinas through scholarship, leadership and campus involvement.

N. Curtis LeMay

N. Curtis Le May, director of the Archbishop Ireland Memorial Library, was elected vice chair/chair elect of the Academic Libraries Section of the Catholic Library Association, April 2, at the association’s annual conference in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Sarah Noonan

Dr. Sarah Noonan, Leadership, Policy and Administration Department, College of Education, Leadership, and Counseling, is the author of a new chapter on talent development, titled “Educating Wizards: Developing Talent Through Innovation Education,” in The Routledge International Handbook of Innovation Education (2013). The handbook introduces an entirely new field in educational practice − innovation education − using findings from the fields of innovation, gifted education, scientific talent and education and high ability studies.

Dr. Kim Vrudny

Dr. Kimberly Vrudny, Theology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of “An Ethical Gaze? Behind the Scenes with 30 Years / 30 Lives,” in ARTS: The Arts in Religious and Theological Studies, 24/1 (2012-2013) 20-33. Vrudny is also assuming the role of senior editor of ARTS starting in July. She was elected to this role last year at the AAR. Wilson Yates, who was the founding editor, is retiring from the role at the end of this academic year.

Dr. Martin Warren, English Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of “Filling in the Template: King Arthur as an Exercise in Answering a Generation’s Questions,” published in Minnesota English Journal, 48: 55-58.

Faculty and undergraduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences Sociology and Criminal Justice Department presented their research at a regional meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society held March 27 to 30 in Chicago. Dr. Meg Wilkes Karraker and sociology students Emilee Sirek, Victoria Speake and Mitchell Wolff presented “Religious Family Values, Family Business Virtues: Preliminary Findings from a Study of 20 Family Businesses.” Dr. William Kinney and UST alum Dr. Jynette Larshus (Minot State University) presented “The Impact of Race on Popular Music Recognition: A Listener Artist Comparison.” Dr. Tanya Gladney participated in two panels, including “Academia as a Second Career” and “Networking for Academics and Professionals.” Dr. Lisa Waldner and sociology student Kylee Joosten presented “Analyzing the Use of Heterosexual Perpetration Tactics in Sexually Coercive Undergraduates.” Waldner also (with Betty A. Dobratz, Iowa State University) presented a workshop on “How to Get Published in Referred Journals” and was a panelist in “Future Trends and Issues in Publishing.” Dr. Peter Parilla received a 2013 Presidential Award for his service to the Midwest Sociological Society.

Mitchell Wolff, Emilee Sirek, Victoria Speake, Dr. Meg Wilkes Karraker

John Wendt has been named by Gov. Mark Dayton to the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission. Wendt teaches in the Department of Ethics and Business Law in the university’s Opus College of Business.

The Minnesota State Legislature created the commission in 1987 “to promote the economic and social benefits of sports.”

The personable Wendt brings an extensive background in sports and law, nationally and internationally, to the position. He is a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland; there are less than 300 CAS arbitrators in the world. Arbitrators are chosen for their specialist knowledge of arbitration and sports law. CAS has authority over all Olympic international federations and national Olympic committees.

He also served on the Ad Hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport for soccer’s FIFA World Cup in 2010.

Wendt has taught sports law at the University of St. Thomas and the University of Minnesota, and he has written more than 25 articles on sports, risk management and law. He is a member of the Centre d’Estudis Olímpics (Center for Olympic Studies) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Locally he has served on the bid committees for the Olympic Games, the International Special Olympics and the Olympic Sports Festival; in addition, he served as inside counsel for the United States Olympic Sports Festival ’90, for which he received the governor’s Certificate of Commendation for Service to the state of Minnesota.

For the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission, he has served as a planning member for the Council on Physical Fitness and Sport, on the committee of the “Olympic Wall of Fame,” on the Sports Ethics Committee, and he was co-author of the Minnesota Amateur Sports Congress Charter.

“The governor has given me an incredible opportunity to serve the people and state of Minnesota,” Wendt commented. “The Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission has a lot of good people working there and the commission has a very positive impact on the state.”

The Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission oversees 11 facilities in Minnesota, including the National Sports Center in Blaine, the John Rose Oval in Roseville, the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis, the Ole Mangseth Memorial Ski Jump in Coleraine, and the National Volleyball Center in Rochester.

Wendt has taught at St. Thomas since 1983. He was a Professor of the Year Award nominee in 2011. In the Opus College of Business, he was a Julie Hays Outstanding Teacher Award nominee in 2010, 2011 and 2012, and a Susan E. Heckler Research Excellence Award nominee in 2012 and 2013.

John Tauer, Ph.D.

As the head men’s basketball coach at the University of St. Thomas, I feel blessed and honored to work with an amazing group of players and coaches. This past season, we had a 30-2 record, tied a school record for wins, won an unprecedented 8th consecutive MIAC championship, and advanced to the Division III Final Four for the third time in school history. More important than the records and statistics are the life lessons we aim to teach our players. Some of these lessons include:

• How we respond to failure and mistakes helps us grow, prepares us for adversity, and defines who we are.
• Controlling our emotions is an important skill in life, particularly in frustrating situations.
• We win as a team and lose as a team.
• Intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic motivation. Approach-oriented motivation is better than avoidance motivation. Finding areas in life that allow us to be passionate and work well with others is invaluable.

In the Rutgers video footage, we see a coach showing his players that failure is not an option, and that mistakes will be punished both physically and verbally. Undoubtedly, players developed a fear of failure (and of their coach). Based on the video and interviews, it is clear Mike Rice’s behavior toward his players was consistently demeaning and aggressive toward his players. How and why were Mike Rice’s actions allowed to occur over time? Understanding the conditions which allowed this hostile environment to take place is important to prevent future situations similar to the one at Rutgers University. Let’s consider the situation from a number of different perspectives.

Why would a coach act like this? Learned Aggression
The research on aggression indicates there are both biological and environmental correlates of aggression. Without knowing Mike Rice’s DNA, it is a safe bet that he learned some of this behavior from other coaches. Rice was a longtime assistant coach, and it seems likely that at least one of his mentors engaged in similar behavior. In working to motivate his players, Coach Rice must have thought they required physical and mental abuse/fear in order to get them to play as hard as he wanted them to play. This approach flies in the face of the research on intrinsic motivation and long-term sustainable performance.

Why would players not turn on their coach? Obedience to Authority
Classic studies on obedience to authority conducted by Stanley Milgram at Yale University in the 1960s demonstrated how quickly and easily average people will obey an authority figure. In one version of Milgram’s study, 65 percent of participants shocked a stranger to a level that could have been fatal (no shocks were actually administered as the stranger was in a different room). The takeaway from this study was that authority figures can abuse their power, yet rarely will others stand up to the person in power.

Players on the Rutgers team undoubtedly disliked how they were treated in practice. However, for non-New Jersey residents, tuition, room and board at Rutgers at a cost of $37,805 per year (or $151,220 over four years), would be a large incentive to stay quiet and avoid risking a scholarship. Furthermore, blowing the whistle on Mike Rice could have led to an ugly situation that, depending on the outcome, could have led to the player leaving Rutgers and struggling to find another school at which to play basketball.

Why would the athletic director not fire the coach immediately upon seeing the video?
Athletic Director Pernetti saw the video yet chose not to fire Mike Rice; rather, he chose to suspend him for three games, fine him and instruct him to attend anger management classes. Pernetti may have thought he could help rehabilitate Rice, but Pernetti also may have been avoiding conflict, hoping to resolve the issue quietly and not draw attention to an athletic program that had more than its share of issues recently.

Why was the public so outraged?
When the video of Mike Rice throwing basketballs at players in practice hit the internet, public outcry was quick to follow. We have an image of how we hope coaches treat players, yet all too often the “Win at all costs” mindset seems to trump all. Why did videos like this not surface 10+ years ago? In part, because videos such as this would be more difficult to obtain and even more difficult to distribute so readily. Mike Rice is not the first coach to treat his players poorly, nor is he the first coach to use fear, vulgar language, and physical abuse as tactics to motivate his players.

Read John Feinstein’s book, A Season on the Brink about Bobby Knight at Indiana University in the 1980s and it is clear Mike Rice is not the first coach to treat his players poorly. Had there been videos of Bobby Knight doing the things Feinstein reported in his book, and an internet to spread those videos like wildfire, my hunch is Coach Knight may have had a more difficult time keeping his job as long as he did in Indiana. Furthermore, I am certain that coaches across the country engage in questionable actions as they seek to motivate, compel and push the right buttons to get their players to play hard and excel. There is certainly a fine line, as athletics are an emotional endeavor, and many coaches walk a tightrope between controlled passion and aggression and uncontrolled physical and mental outbursts. That line can be the difference between an intense, fiery coach such as Rick Pitino winning a national championship with Louisville and an intense, fiery coach such as Mike Rice being fired from Rutgers.

What is the greatest danger stemming from the Rutgers saga? The Fundamental Attribution Error
After the tragic terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, it was easy to think that if we captured Osama Bin Laden, the world would be safe again. The truly frightening reality was that there were likely thousands upon thousands of individuals who felt the same way Osama bin Laden did about America.

Along these same lines, it feels much cleaner if we believe that now that Mike Rice has been fired, we can go back to believing the “bad coach” is gone and only good ones remain. What is much more frightening is if there are hundreds, or thousands, of Mike Rices out there coaching college and high school sports. Mike Rice learned this behavior from somewhere. It seems unlikely that he is the only one of thousands of college coaches and tens of thousands of high school coaches to employ these types of coaching methods.

The Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) occurs when we underestimate the power of a situation while simultaneously overestimating the role of one’s personality in discerning the causes of a behavior. In this case, we likely commit the FAE when we overlook the powerful win-at-all-costs mentality that, when combined with the ultracompetitive world of sports helps us understand that Mike Rice was likely innately aggressive as an individual, became more aggressive in part due to what he learned from other coaches , implemented an aggressive coaching style because he believed that behavior motivated players, and did all of this in part due to an environment that allowed and encouraged aggression.

The real shame of the Rutgers basketball saga will be if the public does not engage in a conversation that revisits the true goals of sports, the best practices for teaching and motivating student-athletes, and a broad view of the culture of sports, and why this culture may be a breeding ground for ultracompetitive fear-based motivation that undermines the very goals sports aims to teach. Until that time, unfortunately, the madness of sports will not be limited solely to the month of March.

John Tauer is an associate professor of psychology and head men’s basketball coach at St. Thomas. 

America is a national Catholic weekly magazine that has been in continuous publication since 1909. It has a circulation of more than 36,000 and is distributed internationally. America can be read online here.

Dr. John Martens

Columnists for The Word examine Sunday Scripture readings throughout the liturgical year. The Word is a forum in which biblical scholars provide readers with practical, biblical interpretation.

“It is essential to have solid Catholic scriptural interpretation in print and online,” Martens said. “This is a good way to open up the Scriptures for people from all points of view. Perhaps they can relate and have an encounter with God.”

Martens is an associate professor in the Theology Department at the University of St. Thomas, as well as the director of the Masters of Arts in Theology Program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity.

According to its mission statement, America magazine is a forum for discussion of religion, society, politics and culture from a Catholic perspective. Directed by Jesuits and lay colleagues, America is a resource for spiritual renewal and social analysis.

Martens’ weekly column for The Word can be found on the America website.

Dr. Charles Reid Jr., St. Thomas School of Law faculty member (Reid holds a law degree and license in canon law from the Catholic University of America as well as a Ph.D. in the history of medieval law from Cornell University): Cardinal Bergoglio is in many respects a natural and expected selection as Pope. He was runner-up to Pope Benedict in 2005. What is unexpected is his inspired choice of names. Pope Francis – suggestive both of Francis of Assisi and of the great Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier. I think by choice of names he is setting the tone of his pontificate. He will be humble like Francis of Assisi. He will show a preferential option for the poor. But he will also be an evangelizer in the mold of Francis Xavier who traveled to the far corners of the world – to Japan and China in the sixteenth century – to spread the word of Christ. I think we can expect from Pope Francis a powerful vision of faith and works.

Dr. Massimo Faggioli, St. Thomas Theology Department faculty member (Faggioli holds a doctorate from the University of Turin and specializes in contemporary Catholicism, religion and politics): The selection of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis is interesting and surprising. He is the first non-European pope, the first Jesuit and the first with the courage to call himself Francis, after Francis of Assisi. It sets standards that are very high.

It also is interesting that eight years ago he was an alternative candidate to Pope Benedict. This time the cardinals took the road they did not take in 2005.

Cardinal Bergoglio was not on the short list of candidates being discussed widely. Some Italians were shocked at the selection; some there thought the cardinals would select a pope from Italy.

That Pope Francis was elected on the fifth ballot means that many cardinals had him in mind. The fifth ballot is early. Evidently, the press missed something that the cardinals had in mind.

Monsignor Aloysius Callaghan, rector and vice president at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity of the University of St. Thomas: A great gift, tremendous joy, a very pleasant surprise – “Papa Francesco.”

St. Francis of Assisi – what a model for our Church in these challenging times.

In his youth, Francis began to hear the Lord speak to him and feel the stirrings of the Spirit.

One day, while praying before an ancient crucifix in a forsaken wayside chapel of San Damiano below his town of Assisi, Francis heard a voice saying, “Go Francis and repair my Church which you see is falling into ruin.”  That call, that mandate, changed Francis’ life – he offered his life as “a gift to others.”

Yesterday a “new Francis” heard a similar call, “Repair my Church,” “Rebuild my Church.”

As he stepped out on the balcony – our Holy Father humbly invited our silent prayers for him and then he said “Let us start this journey – a journey of fraternity, love, and confidence among us.

And so we begin!

Visit Campus Ministry for more pope news.

Newly elected Pope Francis I appears on the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica on March 13. Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as the 266th Pontiff and will lead the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Dr. Sanjeev Bordoloi

Dr. Sanjeev Bordoloi, Operations and Supply Chain Management Department, Opus College of Business, is the author of a textbook titled Service Management: Operations, Strategy, Information Technology, eighth ed., McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2013 (with Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons).

Dr. Massimo Faggioli

Dr. Mark DelCogliano, Theology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of On Christian Doctrine and Practice: St Basil the Great, a volume of translations of selected homilies of St. Basil. (Popular Patristics Series 47, Yonkers: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2012).

Dr. Massimo Faggioli, Theology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of “Exit Signs: Benedict XVI and the Bureaucratization of the Church,” published in Commonweal magazine, Feb. 13.

Dr. John Martens

Dr.  John Martens, Theology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is now a regular columnist with America Magazine. His columns will appear in the section “The Word,” which appears weekly in the print magazine and online.

Dr. John Wendt, Ethics and Business Law Department, Opus College of Business, is the author of an article, “Drug Testing through the Lens of a Member of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport,” which has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport.

Peterka had been suffering from migraines and blurred vision since November and learned last week that they are due to a brain tumor. Please keep her and her family in your prayers.

Peterka’s friends, students and colleagues are encouraged to visit her Caring Bridge website. Messages of support from the St. Thomas community are especially appreciated.

Dr. Susan Huber, executive vice president and chief academic officer of the university, said he was selected from among a strong group of finalist candidates.

Vischer is one of the nation’s leading scholars in relating lawyers’ moral formation, including faith-based formation, to their professional development and excellence – a central part of the school’s Catholic mission. Huber said Vischer’s experience on the St. Thomas faculty (since 2005) and as associate dean (since 2011) prepare him well to serve as the school’s third dean since it opened in 2001.

Among his scholarly publications are numerous articles and two Cambridge University Press books – Martin Luther King Jr. and the Morality of Legal Practice: Lessons in Love and Justice, scheduled for release next month, and Conscience and the Common Good: Reclaiming the Space Between Person and State (2010). Vischer’s honors at the School of Law include Professor of the Year (elected by students) in 2008 and 2011, and Dean’s awards for Outstanding Scholarship in 2009 and Outstanding Teacher in 2007. At St. John’s University School of Law in New York, where he taught before coming to UST, he was named Professor of the Year in 2005 and received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2003.

“I am confident that Rob will lead the school to a new educational destination during this critical period of time for legal education,” Huber said. “His belief in keeping the mission of the school authentic and vibrant balances well with his concern for openly addressing the challenges facing all law schools today.”

Those challenges include a soft hiring market for new attorneys and a decrease in applications to law schools, but Vischer believes St. Thomas is well positioned to deal with critical issues.

“We have built an innovative program of legal education on our distinctive mission, which is a big draw for students,” he said. “We take professional formation seriously, equipping our graduates to excel in teamwork and building relationships, and impressing upon them the importance of developing a foundational moral commitment to serve others.” These attributes, he added, are important to employers and clients.

Vischer noted that several items have recently highlighted success at the School of Law. St. Thomas law faculty ranked 30th among the nation’s approximately 200 law schools in the 2012 Scholarly Impact Study, and second in the Roger Williams study of scholarly productivity. In the Law School Survey on Student Engagement, St. Thomas students reported above-average satisfaction, compared with law students overall, on a host of factors including development of legal knowledge and lawyering skills; academic, job/career and personal support; and others. They reported especially high comparative satisfaction on developing professional ethics and values, developing self-understanding and contributing to the welfare of the community. The School of Law recently ranked in the Princeton Review’s list of the top 10 schools with “Best Professors” (2012 ed.) and best “Quality of Life” (2013 ed.), the latter a ranking that St. Thomas has appeared in six of the last seven years. The school also ranks first in number of externships according to the National Jurist.

Vischer served as an assistant professor at St. John’s School of Law from 2002 to 2005 before joining St. Thomas as an associate professor. He was promoted to professor in 2010.

“The mission drew me here,” he said. “It’s a powerful mission, encouraging us to focus on the integration of faith and reason in ways that improve the legal system and produce more effective lawyers. I have been passionate about that since I started teaching, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to be part of a place where that is hard-wired into the institutional DNA.”

Vischer grew up near Chicago. He received a bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of New Orleans in 1993 and a juris doctor degree in 1996 from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After graduation from law school, he served as a clerk for three federal judges and as a corporate litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago.

He and his wife, Maureen, live in Minneapolis with their daughters, Sophia, Lila and Ava.

He is currently a senior fellow in the Terrence J. Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law, and Public Policy at St. Thomas and a contributor to Mirror of Justice, the leading blog devoted to Catholic perspectives on law. He also has been a regular contributor to Commonweal magazine and served three years on the Policy Implementation Committee for the American Bar Association’s Center for Professional Responsibility.

Vischer succeeded Neil Hamilton, who served as interim dean since June, when dean Thomas Mengler left to become president of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas.

Huber thanked members of the dean’s search committee, co-chaired by Thomas Berg of the School of Law and Dr. Susan Alexander, executive adviser to Father Dennis Dease, president of the University of St. Thomas.

Read more from St. Thomas Lawyer.

“John Spry: The ‘pyramid’ problem with Gov. Dayton’s sales-tax hike,” Pioneer Press, Jan. 26, 2013. Commentary by Finance professor John Spry.

“‘Business first’ for Web developer Irish Titan,” Star Tribune, Jan. 27, 2013. David Deeds, director of the Morrison Center for Entrepreneurship and the Schulze Chair of Entrepreneurship at the Opus College of Business, is quoted.

“Ask the consultant: What effects will health care law have on small firms?” Star Tribune, Jan. 27, 2013. Daniel B. Mclaughlin, director of the Center for Health and Medical Affairs at the Opus College of Business, is quoted.

“Cathedral shines during Crashed Ice championship,” The Catholic Spirit, Jan. 27, 2013. Campus Ministry’s Father Erich Rutten is pictured.

“Insurance exchanges are next big hurdle in health care,” Star Tribune, Jan. 27, 2013. Dave Durenberger of the National Institute for Health Policy at the Opus College of Business is quoted.

“Health Expert Says Fat Is ‘Awesome,’” WCCO, Jan. 28, 2013. Dietitian Christina Meyer-Jax is quoted.

“Gay marriage lawsuit on hold in Hennepin County,” Pioneer Press, Jan. 29, 2013. School of Law professor Teresa Collett is quoted.

“Working to Improve Your Auto Insurance Premium,” KSTP, Jan. 29, 2013. Finance professor David Vang is quoted.

“Law Schools Witnessing Major Drop in Applications,” JD Journal, Jan. 29, 2013. School of Law professor Jerome Organ is quoted.

“Good Question: Is Success Genetic?” WCCO, Jan. 30, 2013. Psychology professor Tonia Bock is quoted.

“State makes mark in top 150 U.S. workplaces,” Star Tribune, Jan. 30, 2013. Dean of the Opus College of Business Chris Puto is quoted.

“Survivors may get to keep a piece of fallen bridge,” Star Tribune, Jan. 30, 2013. Dean of the School of Engineering Don Weinkauf is quoted.

“Minnesota’s law schools feel the pain as student applications decline,” MinnPost, Jan. 31, 2013. School of Law communications director Chato Hazelbaker is quoted.

“Beyond Bounds: 9 Things To Know About Will DeBerg,” WCCO, Feb. 2, 2013. Tommie Men’s Basketball player Will DeBerg is profiled.

“‘What Happy Couples Do’ To Stay Happy: Get Away,” WCCO, Feb. 5, 2013. Family Studies and Communication and Journalism professor Carol Bruess is quoted.

“Obama’s legal netherworld,” American Enterprise Institute, Feb. 8, 2013. Commentary by School of Law professor Robert Delahunty.

“Ask the consultant: How will 2013 tax changes affect small businesses?” Feb. 10, 2013. Finance professor John Spry is quoted.

“Good Question: Why Not A Pope From The U.S.?” WCCO, Feb. 11, 2013. Director of the Center for Catholic Studies Don Briel is quoted.

“Gun control backers present their own State of the Union,” KARE 11, Feb. 11, 2013. Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning Rabbi-in-Resident Amy Eilberg is quoted.

“Papal resignation launches Church into uncharted waters, Minnesota’s Vatican watchers say,” MinnPost, Feb. 11, 2013. Theology professor Massimo Faggioli and Center for Catholic Studies director Don Briel are quoted.

“Papal Successor Could Impact Minnesota Catholics,” KSTP, Feb. 11, 2013. School of Law professor Charles Reid is quoted.

“Pope Benedict XVI to resign,” Pioneer Press, Feb. 11, 2013. Center for Catholic Studies director Don Briel is quoted.

“Search committee recommends first woman to lead University of St. Thomas, source says,” Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal, Feb. 11, 2013.

“Twin Cities Catholics React To Pope’s Resignation,” WCCO, Feb. 11, 2013. Center for Catholic Studies director Don Briel is quoted.

“University of St. Thomas’ new president could be announced Thursday,” Pioneer Press, Feb. 11, 2013.

“Woman Top Candidate as University of St. Thomas President, Source says,” KSTP, Feb. 11, 2013.

“Local Catholics react to Pope’s sudden resignation,” KARE 11, Feb. 11, 2013. Center for Catholic Studies director Don Briel is quoted.

“‘What Happy Couples Do’ To Keep Relationship Strong,” WCCO, Feb. 12, 2013. Family Studies and Communication and Journalism professor Carol Bruess is quoted.

Dr. Thomas Bushlack

Dr. Thomas Bushlack, Theology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of an article, “The Age of Skepticism: The Challenge of Relevance in a Quickly Changing Culture,” published in the journal America, 208:4 (Feb. 11).

Dr. Michael Hollerich, Theology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of “Taking Exception: Paul Kahn Rocks the Liberal Boat,” published in the December 2012 issue of Political Theology, vol. 13, no. 6, 689-692.

Dr. Catherine Marrs Fuchsel

Blaire Hysjulien, a master’s in social work student graduating this May, is co-author, with Dr. Catherine Marrs Fuchsel, School of Social Work, of two publications: “Familism, Sexual Abuse, and Domestic Violence Among Immigrant Mexican Women” (in Affilia: Social Work Journal for Women, in press) and “Exploring a Domestic Violence Intervention Curriculum for Immigrant Mexican Women in a Group Setting: A Pilot Study” (in Social Work With Groups, in press). Hysjulien has been Marrs Fuchsel’s research assistant since fall 2011. Their project examines a Domestic Violence Intervention Model (DVIM) curriculum for use among immigrant Mexican women. They are evaluating the DVIM curriculum in a 12-week, psycho-educational group format. Each week, the participants learn a different topic related to self-esteem, healthy relationships, prevention of domestic violence, and accessing resources and services in the community. They have been collecting group data for almost two years, with the fourth group conducted this spring. Hysjulien has conducted literature reviews, analyzed data, created tables and created a Power Point presentation.

Dr. David Kelley

Dr. David Kelley and Dr. Paul Lorah, Geography Department, College of Arts and Sciences, are co-authors of an article, “The USA’s Most Pain-in-the-A#% Geocache,” published in the December 2012 issue of FTF Geocacher magazine. Kelley and Lorah used computer modeling to identify the most remote, inaccessible location in the coterminous United States where a geocache could be placed and earn the dubious title of Most Pain-in-the-A#% Geocache.

Dr. Anne Klejment

Dr. Anne Klejment, History Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of two encyclopedia entries in Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, edited by Gary Okihiro and published in print and electronic versions. Klejment’s entries focus on former Minnesota state legislator Mee Moua and writer and philanthropist Le Ly Hayslip.

Dr. Kim Vrudny.

Dr. Kimberly Vrudny, Theology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of a book chapter, “Religion, Ethics, and AIDS,” published in Religious and Ethical Perspectives for the Twenty-First Century, Paul O. Myhre, ed., (Winona: Anselm Academic, 2013), 112-139.

Dr. Marty Warren, English Department, College of Arts and Sciences, was the guest speaker on Healing Journeys on A2zen.fm radio Jan. 10. Warren’s topic was “Practical Mysticism: Grappling With the World.” The description of the topic was as follows: “Too often, mystics are characterized as very private people, set apart from the rest of the community, engaged in some kind of esoteric experience that the rest of us cannot understand and that has little to do with us. But in reality, the mystic is very much connected to the larger body of the community, not withdrawing from responsibilities. Mysticism confronts institutional religion’s fascination with what the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart calls “book-learning” and challenges religions to offer their members ‘life-learning.’ Three 20th-century mystics − Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorothy Day, and Etty Hillesum − who wrestled with the gritty realities of existence, present us with an active mysticism that engages life with hope.”

Dr. Scott Wright

Dr. Scott Wright, Professor Emeritus, History Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of essays on Joseph Heco and Fred Korematsu in Great Lives From History: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (Ipswich, MA: Salem Press, 2013).

When the presidential election was in full swing and political tempers were flaring, a new student organization at the University of St. Thomas School of Law was formed to resist the partisanship and vitriol. The Public Discourse group focuses on quite the opposite: open, nonpartisan debate about how public policy issues intersect with law.

“Public Discourse was created to give people from a variety of political and philosophical perspectives an opportunity to dialogue,” said David Best, 2L, president of the organization. The idea for Public Discourse began when several first-year students formed a study group. “[W]e often digressed into policy discussions, but we also managed to usually keep it civil,” Best remembered. Several group members wanted even more discussion; hence, the Public Discourse group was born.

“One of the things that makes us unique is that, while all the members of the group have political preferences, the group itself is committed to being nonpartisan,” Best said. Although most public policy discussions inevitably involve politics, the group does not advocate a certain stance on issues. Its sole purpose is to talk.

“Society in general is too singular and partisan in its fact finding. When we can’t even agree on the facts, it hinders the quality of the discussion, and in the political context, the quality of resulting legislation and public policy,” Best said.

He believes the group’s mission – to provide a healthy discussion forum – will blend well with the overall environment at UST Law. “I have been impressed with the bipartisan nature of the school’s atmosphere. Certain individuals certainly have opinions, but by and large it has been positive,” Best said.

But while the UST environment welcomes discussion, Best sees an opportunity to strengthen the quality of dialogue on campus. “There are a good variety of guest speakers on all imaginable topics. But there is often little time for questions during or following the events,” he explained. Therefore, the Public Discourse group will sponsor several events throughout the year that facilitate conversations between speakers and audiences and allow ample question time. In theory, active discussion and debate should curb purely partisan presentations.

The group’s first event on Oct. 30 focused on how to effectively conduct public discourse. It featured UST Law professors Mark Osler and Teresa Collett, two colleagues who have publicly advocated different sides of the marriage amendment. Nonetheless, they often seek each other’s opinion and exemplify the art of “doing public discourse well.”

Last fall was incredibly busy for Osler and Collett. Both taught classes as well as lent their time as independent advocates for some of the most talked-about public policy issues of the day – all at the height of the 2012 election cycle.

Osler traveled to California to bring his well-known “Trial of Jesus” seminar to two universities while the state’s residents prepared to vote on a ballot provision that would repeal California’s death-penalty law. The seminar, which Osler has performed at various universities around the country over the last several years, takes a closer look at whether Biblical principles on the sanctity of human life comport with federal and state capital punishment laws.

Collett worked throughout the summer and fall, speaking to several churches and organizations across Minnesota to advocate for passage of the state constitutional marriage amendment. A well-known expert on the subject of marriage law, Collett has penned several opinion articles on the issue for various local and national publications.

Osler joined in the public conversation about the marriage amendment, although he had decidedly come down on the other side of the debate. One year ago, the pair wrote corresponding opinion pieces on the marriage amendment, which were published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. From that point on they have discussed the topic with each other quite regularly.

Maybe it is pure coincidence that Collett and Osler, whose offices are next door to one another, each spent considerable time teaching at law schools in southern Texas before they landed at UST Law. And maybe it is also coincidence that both are well-regarded advocates for some of the highly publicized social and public policy issues of our day. But they agree it is no coincidence that their working relationship has established a mutual sense of respect for each other’s opinions – although sometimes diverging – on a range of hot-button issues, including the marriage amendment. Both believe they are better informed individuals for engaging each other in such conversations, even amid an ever-increasing sense of political polarization among the electorate during one of the more contentious election cycles in recent memory.

“It’s been great to discuss all of these issues with Teresa because even though we may agree on one issue and disagree on another, we can have the same principled, respectful discussion throughout,” Osler said.

Collett echoed those sentiments. “Even the conversations we have over coffee or in the hallway on these issues are valuable conversations,” Collett said. “Because when I talk with Mark about such issues as the death penalty or marriage, I know I am encountering a person who is very smart, but who has also dedicated a lot of his intellectual time to thinking about the proper application and principles of justice in that context.

“We may agree on some things and disagree on others, but I think we both share that same common principle – that there are systems of communal governance and structure that are more suitable to the human person and that will create more genuine happiness – what the philosophers call ‘flourishing.’”

Although they may not always agree on how precisely to apply such principles in the context of particular laws and public policy issues, their continued dialogue provides a solid example of the atmosphere a Catholic law school such as St. Thomas strives for, said Robert Vischer, School of Law dean. “Professors Collett and Osler are both passionate, effective advocates who are wonderful models of how to disagree without being disagreeable,” Vischer said. “Inside and outside the classroom, we count on our faculty to lead the way in showing how the mission of our school can broaden and deepen conversations about law, politics and culture.”

While Collett has been at UST Law since 2003 and Osler joined the faculty more recently in 2010, both previously taught a decade or more at law schools in southern Texas before making their way north. Their impetus in trading a relatively year-round warm climate for one that includes an honest and true version of winter was of a similar vein.

Collett was a professor for 12 years at South Texas College of Law, a private, secular school in Houston, before she felt the call to serve the Catholic Church more directly in her capacity as a professor at a Catholic-affiliated institution.

Osler taught for 10 years at Baylor University School of Law, the largest Baptist post-secondary institution in the country. Although Osler is not Catholic, he is a practicing Christian and said he was drawn to UST Law because of his appreciation for the intellectual tradition of the Catholic Church’s integration of “faith and reason” in its search for truth on issues of morality and social justice.

“First and foremost, intellectual and scholastic life survived because of Catholicism for a long time,” Osler said. “And a part of intellectual life has always been that give and take, of ‘what does this mean?’ It’s great to have those conversations while being able to lean on an institution that has reasoned through those questions for many centuries.”

Collett said she was drawn to St. Thomas because of her belief that the ideal model for a Catholic law school is one that provides a framework for discussion of the application of the Church’s well-reasoned doctrines as they relate to the intersection with cultural norms and law. She said she values the Catholic principle of room for debate, but not for the sake of debate itself.

“When everything is subject to debate simply for the sake of debate, I am troubled by that idea,” she said. “For example, I don’t think the principle that we should strive toward ‘goodness’ is really subject to debate. Now exactly how do we get from here to there, how to achieve ‘goodness,’ in the context of our laws and public policy, that’s where the interesting conversation lies.”

The School of Law is a place that welcomes conversations, even uncomfortable ones, as a matter of civil discourse. Discussions of issues do not have to be separated into red and blue, as in politics. It takes both colors to form purple and it takes collaboration and consideration to inform an equitable discussion.

“To me this is what the ideal Catholic university does,” Collett said. “We collect people, many of whom have common first principles, but, who because of their own gifts and talents and circumstances of their lives may have focused on differing aspects of how to create a just legal order. And from those unique and valued perspectives, we can have some amazing conversations.”

Dean Vischer said the Catholic law school’s focus on the value of human dignity helps to foster fruitful dialogue even during an election season when the stakes of engaging in such conversations seemed so high. “As a Catholic law school, we are founded on a commitment to honor and respect the dignity of every person,” he said. “This provides a strong foundation for healthy and civil dialogue, even when we grapple with the most controversial issues of our day.”

Read more from St. Thomas Lawyer.

Dr. Susan Huber

The University of St. Thomas is pleased to announce Dr. Elise Amel, College of Arts and Sciences, Psychology Department, has been promoted to full professor. The recommendation was made by the Tenure and Promotion Committee at its December 2012 meeting and subsequently was approved by Father Dennis Dease, president of the University of St. Thomas.

The granting of promotion recognizes the achievements of faculty in their teaching, professional engagement and service to the university. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Amel for her outstanding work.

The event, which will be held in the state Capitol’s rotunda, celebrates the research of Minnesota’s private college students. Thirty-seven students from 15 private colleges and universities will display and present 28 posters describing their research in various disciplines.

Sam Jensen and Julie Rech, both seniors, will represent St. Thomas at Scholars at the Capitol. Faculty advisers also are invited to participate.

The Minnesota Private College Council is the primary sponsor of the event. Each college selects and sends its own students to the event. Students will present to visitors in the rotunda from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Research Summaries

Assessing Estrogenic and Androgenic Activity of UV Filter Photoproducts

By Sam Jensen
Faculty advisers: Dr. Dalma Martinovic-Weigelt, Biology; Dr. Kristine Wammer, Chemistry

Previous research suggests that some UV filters commonly used as active ingredients in sunscreens may exhibit estrogenic or androgenic activity and produce photoproducts that are also potential endocrine disruptors. Here, UV filters were exposed to simulated sunlight to generate photoproduct mixtures and characterized by HPLC and LC-MS. Mixtures were screened for endocrine activity using two transcriptional assays. The endocrine activities of the samples were interpolated by a least-squares means procedure from a nonlinear sigmoidal dose response curve fit to the relative luminescence units of the estradiol/testosterone standards. Octyl methoxycinnamate (octinoxate) and a mixture of its photoproducts exhibited androgenic activity in vitro; one active photoproduct (4-methoxybenzaldehyde) has been identified. Octyl dimethyl para-aminobenzoic acid (padimate O) had no androgenic activity in vitro, whereas a mixture of its photoproducts was found to have activity. Utilizing flash chromatography, present work is focused on isolating and identifying the active photoproduct(s).

Great River Greening: Managing Environmental Data and Evaluating Restored Landscapes

By Julie Rech
Faculty adviser: Dr. Paul Lorah, Geography

As the significance of Earth’s natural landscapes gains increasing acknowledgment, many people are beginning to actively work toward making remedial environmental changes. With these efforts comes the question of how to measure a conservation project’s success. Great River Greening is a nonprofit organization promoting and leading volunteer and community-based restorative projects in Minnesota. It has been asking this question and is interested in understanding its projects’ successes. In partnership with this organization, field research was undertaken by studying its existing sites; further work was done in its office and at the University of St. Thomas GIS Lab, where the organization’s data was managed. Evaluations were collected, datasets were formatted and geodatabases were built. This project also had a marketing aspect, which yielded informational maps and graphics for the organization’s use. Ultimately, this project’s value will lie in its potential future use for evaluations of project sites and maps and for marketing.

Abstracts of all 28 of the research presentations can be viewed in the Scholars at the Capitol abstract booklet.

The Minnesota Private College Council (MPCC) represents 17 liberal arts colleges and universities with 60,000 students. These institutions award about 30 percent of the baccalaureate degrees in the state. The organization’s mission is to advocate for high-quality private higher education.

Editor’s note: The research of Sam Jensen and Julie Rech was conducted with assistance from the Grants and Research Office’s Young Scholars Grant Program, Community Based Research Grant Program and Student Travel Grant Program.

But you’re just going to have to deal with it. We’re not burglars or pedophiles, missionaries or Hari Krishnas. We’re looking for a place to live. We need a home and we need one now.

It’s the middle of July already and it’s a desert wasteland here in Salt Lake City. For eight days running it’s been over a hundred and the blacktop roads have begun to liquefy – not to mention this three-year drought that a thousand inches of rain won’t fix. The air is so hot and brittle it feels as though my skin might shatter, and beyond that the lease on our apartment is up in six weeks and we just can’t rent again. Jenae and I have been together for six years and have lived in nearly as many apartments. And it’s not that Utah is exactly what we imagine when we say we want a place to call home, but it’ll have to do for now. Still, we have no mover, no moving date, no home loan for that matter, and no home upon which we can make an offer.

It is not, however, for a lack of looking. Since May, Jenae and I have picked up every home buyer’s guide in the grocery store, studied each realty website till our eyes bled, and cased favorable neighborhoods so methodically we could put them back together from memory were they ever to fall apart. Then again, we’ve been driving around in Jenae’s VW Beetle, a yellow poppy waving like a drag queen from the dashboard vase; we are a threat only to good sense, fundamentalists, and long-legged passengers.

Having rented apartments for so long, we usually lived near other renters. We met in Boston where everybody we knew – rich or poor, young or old – lived in apartments, even if they owned them. In the West – and especially Utah – practically everyone we know owns her own house. Fellow waiters, writers, graduate students … everybody. Having just moved there, it made us feel like pariahs. It wasn’t just how we paid for the roof above us, it’s who we were and what we did to our communities: We were renters. An easy mark for the missionaries, for that matter.

When looking for an apartment, we had sought convenience, proximity to bars and grocery stores, off-street parking, soundproofing against the klezmer music that was always wafting around our invariably bohemian neighborhoods, a backyard for the beer-can bowling, a porch for the rocking chairs and a nice corner for the spittoon. We didn’t have to worry about the neighborhood, the neighbors, not even the place itself. It would have been like worrying about the feng shui of a bus station bathroom stall.

It’s utilitarian and temporary. Go ahead, dance with that glass of red wine, smoke those cigars, fry up some catfish, juggle those skunks. You don’t live here. You just rent. To buy a house – or at least to look in earnest for one – is to admit to yourself that you think you’re ready. At the very least, that you should be ready. Time to suck it up and recognize that there’s relatively little pride to be had in the fact that your downstairs neighbors are actually as careful as they promise about cleaning their guns or that you managed to keep a ficus alive from Halloween until Thanksgiving whereupon it shrugged all its leaves ceremonially to the floor. You’re married, you’re getting older, and your parents are looking more and more like the grandparents they are pestering you to make them. It’s getting embarrassing.

Your pathetic renter’s mailbox – the one with three former tenants’ names crossed out – is stuffed with your friends’ baby shower invitations. Just a few months ago, right after my grandmother died, five different people mentioned the word ultrasound to me on the same day. It was both onomatopoetic and devastating.

There’s something dreadful, however, about buying a house. You have to be willing to say to yourself, there go my freewheeling days of touring the Arctic on a kitepowered bobsled. So much for starting up that punk rock band that was finally going to answer The Clash’s call. If I’m hiking the Appalachian Trail, it’s going to be with a Baby Bjorn or not at all. K2 and Katmandu will have to take a bid on somebody else’s death wish. I’m getting old. Forty might be the new thirty, but nobody who’s twenty thinks so. It was time to grow up and settle down.

And, adulthood had just coldcocked us. First my adoptive dad died. And then Gram. Then Jenae’s grandfather. They all were devastating in their own ways, but Gram – her death was utterly unacceptable. All bets were off after that. Our best couplefriends were getting divorced. Doctors detected a strange mass in my mother’s abdomen, and, not to be upstaged, my grandfather started having trouble with – among a raft of other things – his colon. It all seemed to be happening at the same time, on the same day – every hour on the hour.

Between all the birth announcements and death certificates, we couldn’t tell up from down. Even the simplest facts and dates became obscured, irrelevant. All we knew was everyone but us was either dying, getting divorced, or having a kid and we were stuck with our hands in our pockets, waiting for the band to start. Life and death were coming for us, and we could either dig in, settle down and try to defend the home front, or just shake hands and walk quietly away from the line and go our separate ways.

Matthew Batt has been a member of the English Department since 2007. Sugarhouse, his debut novel, was published on June 19. Find out more about Batt at www.matthewcbatt.com.

Q & A with Matt Batt

What are your writing habits?
When I’m actively working on a project, I can pretty much do it anywhere, any time. No incense, stinky candles or fancy berets necessary. I try to abide by the 500-word-a-day rule. That’s like a long email or the equivalent of a couple of Facebook posts. Low stakes, in other words. But it’s long enough that, if you do it every day or so, you can write a book a year. Of course, the editing and revision process isn’t included there, but still. I like how it takes the mysticism out of the process and really just makes it what it is: the daily striving toward a long-term goal.

Has parenthood changed how you write?
I still have lots of other nonparenthood projects I’m developing, but there’s something so profound about parenthood that, for a nonfiction writer like me, I feel supremely compelled to write about. At the same time, knowing that my son isn’t just a hobby or a source of fascination but rather a person who deserves to have his identity unencumbered by my writing … it gives me pause.

Has writing gotten easier for you?
I feel like it’s gotten more goal-oriented and less imitative. I started out writing a lot of watered-down fiction where I was trying to sound like Ray Carver or Hemingway or Andre Dubus. Over the years I feel like now I know what my point of view is and what I sound like on the page, and it’s been extremely liberating if not actually easier.

Do you write anything other than nonfiction?
I started off as a fiction writer and remain an ardent fan of the short story, and I have a lot of ideas for a novel that have been percolating for some time. But, then again, who doesn’t?

Do you find that you gravitate to work similar to your own?
I find that I read about equal amounts fiction and nonfiction, some older/canonical work and a healthy amount of poetry, too. And I don’t know if it’s overly self- congratulatory or just silly or what, but I wish I could find more folks who write like I think I do. What and how that is I don’t guess is really for me to say, but I think the blessing and the curse of how I write is that I don’t feel terribly under any one or two writer’s sway.

Do you have a favorite piece that you’ve written?
I suppose I am pretty pleased with my essay “The Path of Righteousness” about baking sourdough bread and, you know, the fear of parenthood.

Is there something by another writer that you read over and over again?
In an oddly similar way, despite the vast differences in subject matter, I come back almost annually to Jo Anne Beard’s “The Fourth State of Matter” and David Foster Wallace’s “Ticket to the Fair.” They both do an astonishing job of taking a public event and making it deeply personal and vice versa. And, in a lot of ways, I think that’s what the best nonfiction writers are always after. Not just pathetic navel gazing but finding a meaningful and literary way to suture the public and the private.

What are the recurring themes throughout your work?
Without overthinking it (to which I am prone) I would say the fear of/attraction to commitment to huge responsibilities and/or challenges. It seems to me we live in a relatively lowstakes world where we can pretty readily make a life out of not really striving for anything. That sounds pompous, I know, but how often in your daily experiences do you encounter someone who seems to be really driven toward something important and meaningful to them? I do sometimes, but mostly not. I know I am daily tempted to do the same and often just fall right in line. But in my writing and the aspects of my life I like to write about I find myself drawn to extreme commitments and extraordinary challenges. All the better if I’m not particularly equipped or prepared for it, right?!

What are you working on now?
I just finished putting in a new kitchen floor. That was one onerous and long job, and I honestly hope I’ll never do something like that again. As for writing, I’m working on what I hope to be the final piece of a collection of essays called The Enthusiast. The manuscript deals with both personal and cultural obsessions with extremity, whether in the realm of bread baking or toddler-wrangling or more ostensibly exotic or athletic pursuits such as cave diving in Central America or ultra longdistance running. Meanwhile, I pray, no more home work.

Note: The Q&A was conducted on Sept. 18 by Kelly Engebretson for the St. Thomas Newsroom.

Read more from St. Thomas Magazine.

Greg Mowry

While I now smile at this memory, it did stimulate my imagination and ultimately led me to research optics and laser technology. The next thing that strengthened my love for science and engineering is a bit compounded: the space race along with the television series, “Star Trek.” The phrase, “To boldly go where no man has gone before” still echoes in my mind. All three gave me a thirst for discovering the unknown. (I am still trying to invent a warp drive and a teleportation device.) Finally, attending Davenport Central High School solidified my future in science and engineering. Davenport Central had math, chemistry and physics courses taught by former college professors, all of who were exciting and had an eye to the future. These teachers inspired me. Davenport Central also had access to a state-of-the-art IBM-360 computer (which dates me if you know anything about these) and a great shop program.

At Iowa State University (ISU) I earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in metallurgical engineering with a solid-state emphasis. Today that curriculum would be akin to a combined mechanical and materials engineering curriculum. There I worked as a junior researcher in the Rare Earth Information Center of Ames Laboratory under Dr. Spedding and Dr. Gschneidner. Today they are considered to be the fathers of rare-earth metal research. Both of these men, along with a host of other scientists and technicians at Ames Lab, helped hone my skills as a scientist. My work in magnetics began at Ames Lab and continues to this day. Magnetism and its applications are fascinating.

While at ISU I also was inspired to eventually pursue electronics and electric machines. A visiting professor from India was instrumental in this process. He taught the required ENGR-350 and ENGR-410 course equivalents (electricity and controls) that all non electrical engineers ‘had to take’ and his style so resonated with me that I developed a love for these topics as well. After graduating from ISU and with corporate support while working at Hewlett-Packard and later Seagate Technology, I worked on advanced degrees at Stanford University and the University of Minnesota. At Stanford I worked on a non-thesis M.S. program in electrical engineering and afterward received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering with a minor in physics from the University of Minnesota. My Stanford work focused on micromagnetic phenomena while my Ph.D. dissertation involved high-power semiconductor lasers.

Both Hewlett-Packard and Seagate Technology (two of the three large corporations that I worked for) required that all young engineers/scientists partner with experienced senior-level mentors. My mentors noted in me an aptitude for academics and discussed the possibility of ultimately transitioning from industry to academia. When the offer to join the School of Engineering at the University of St. Thomas materialized, it occurred at a time when my family and I were poised to pursue the opportunity for which I had prepared a lifetime. This launched my adventures at St. Thomas.

While working at Seagate Technology I also had the opportunity to take a significant amount of job-related international travel. Over the years this significantly altered my views on people, wealth, entitlement; and ways of doing business. My travels ultimately provided the stimulus and direction for applying the results of my research.

If one were to list the disciplines that are important or useful for alternative energy research, then the list would minimally include physics, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, energy systems and electronics. In an unplanned and serendipitous manner, my career (the accumulated degrees and experiences in almost all of these disciplines) was an excellent preparatory process for this research.

My first international research project (and first alternative energy project) came shortly after arriving at St. Thomas. The project involved collaborative work with faculty at the Technical University of Moldova (TUM) in the capital city of Chisinau. The research launched me into the world of both small and large power systems as well as solar, wind and hydro-based alternative energy systems. I led a team of six St. Thomas students to the TUM during a long and cold J-Term circa 2005. The team performed extremely well and the research progressed so fast that it was clear to me that alternative energy research would become my last great focus area. In addition, it became very clear that there was a need to develop small, robust and economic power (and water) systems for use in developing countries. The success of this research could make a significant and positive impact in many developing countries.

The alternative energy research and development that began in Moldova ultimately expanded into multiple research lines – all with a humanitarian focus. To date this has included: Developing the alternative energy power systems for a150-bed hospital in Dodoma, Tanzania, inventing a method for erecting grid-size wind turbines (for use in developing countries) that does not require cranes, inventing a new catalyst and heat exchanger for portable biodiesel productions systems for use in developing countries, a village solar-power-lighting project in Uganda, a small wind turbine project that is currently ongoing, development of a technical MSME program at St. Thomas that has a power requirement and the pending announcement of a technical MSEE at St. Thomas, which contains a significant power, power electronics, electric machines and alternative energy emphasis. This work has engaged several dozen undergraduate and graduate students over the past seven years. Many of these students are now working in energy related fields. The research has also spawned multiple senior design and additional research projects.

There is a great need for social entrepreneurship with the goal of developing economical and robust systems that provide fresh water and electricity. The engineering challenges are significant but surmountable. It simply takes will and funding. Engaging students in these research projects resonates with the students who often view social entrepreneurship, with an engineering emphasis, as a positive and valuable alternative to conventional corporate careers. The work is exciting. It is one thing to perform
research that ultimately helps develop systems using the techy toys that we have available in developed countries; e.g. the United States. The question is whether the research can pave the way for engineering systems that help people in developing countries, where the techy toys and spare parts are not available and where the work will be done without technician support. This is not to mention what happens when people come to depend on these systems and they fail (hence the need for economics and
robustness).

The work that the student teams and I have performed has demonstrated that research with a social entrepreneurial focus can lead to discovery, peer-reviewed technical publications, patents and importantly, solutions and products that benefit society. To me this demonstrates a holistic approach that integrates career, heart, mind and soul.

Over the years I have lost track of the number of undergraduate and graduate students who have been engaged by my research; however, they all are an integral element in all of my research.

My research projects are selected so that students will be challenged as they grow and mature, learn to solve problems and earn that “sense of ownership” that comes from substantive contributions toward a common vision. I make sure that the students are engaged in tasks that I cannot do; or more often then not, do not know how to do. This empowers the students because they develop the solutions, not me.

I have been blessed with the opportunity to meet and work with an amazingly diverse and truly wonderful group of colleagues, sponsors and friends (along with a very supportive family) while helping others. It was either in Tanzania or Uganda that I saw a billboard that read, “Our most valuable resource is our people.” This statement resonated with me and captures why I truly enjoy my work and my student researchers, and why I invest myself in this endeavor while remaining focused on the people whom I help.

Greg Mowry is associate professor at the School of Engineering.

 From Exemplars, a publication of the Grants and Research Office.

My college years found me at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., where I did work in chemistry and environmental studies. My motivation stemmed from my interest in, and concern about, the practices that are used to grow crops and raise animals. I wanted to learn more about how human activities are impacting our environment, particularly freshwater sources like those impacted by the runoff from my family’s farm.

I moved to Princeton University for my graduate work. There, I studied pollutants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are components of oils and tars and byproducts when fossil fuels are burned. My work contributed to our understanding of how quickly bacteria can break these molecules down in the environment. I examined how easily various PAHs can get into the bacterial cell and be transformed by enzymes within the cell. I returned to Minnesota to perform postdoctoral work at the University of Minnesota; in an interdisciplinary project (with advisers in chemistry, civil engineering and environmental health sciences), my work focused on a class of contaminants of relatively recent concern – pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs).

At St. Thomas, my work has continued to focus on PPCPs. Numerous studies have reported the occurrence of pharmaceuticals at low levels in surface waters, and interest in this topic has moved beyond the scientific literature to the popular press. For example, a story by the Associated Press highlighted the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the  drinking water supply of at least 41 million Americans. Extensive research is ongoing to determine the potential effectiveness of various treatment processes for removing pharmaceuticals in waste-water treatment plants. Legislation has been proposed both at the state and national levels to regulate use or disposal of pharmaceuticals; a bill recently passed by the Minn. House and Senate will regulate pharmaceutical disposal while a current bill in the U.S. Congress would restrict the use of antibiotics for agricultural purposes. While the environmental occurrence of these compounds clearly has spurred interest in both the scientific community and the public realm, major gaps still remain in our understanding of their significance and potential health and ecological impacts; therefore, the critical question of which PPCPs are of the most concern is still largely unanswered.

The primary goal of my research group is to elucidate some of this needed information about what happens to PPCPs (fate) and what kind of impacts they may have (effects) in the environment. Our research projects are designed to efficiently identify PPCPs of likely concern to focus future monitoring campaigns, treatment strategies and regulatory efforts. We have been directing most of our effort to date toward one subset of PPCPs: antibiotics. This is due to concern about the potential threat of development of enhanced antibacterial resistance due to long-term exposure to low levels of antibiotics.

We have completed several projects designed to understand the role sunlight plays in breaking down antibiotics in sunlit surface waters; this is called photodegradation, and the resultant transformation products are called photoproducts. We are particularly interested in potential biological activity of photoproducts. Identifying all photoproducts for all antibiotics found in natural waters does not seem a practical goal, especially when it is anticipated that the majority of these products will not have ecological significance. It is also not acceptable, however, to ignore the potential for products to have impacts; therefore, we use a bacterial assay as a screening tool to identify those compounds for which photoproducts may retain antibacterial activity. This allows us to focus efforts for comprehensive product identification on those compounds for which it is necessary, and to provide valuable information as to which compounds may be of the most long-term concern. In related projects over the past few years, we have expanded beyond looking at reactions due to natural sunlight and begun studying reactions that occur during water-treatment processes. As is the case for photochemical transformations in natural systems, a major interest of ours is in understanding the significance of transformation products. We wish to efficiently determine whether water treatment strategies may be creating molecules that retain biological activity. While all of our published work in environmental fate of PPCPs has involved antibiotics, we recently have expanded into examining potential endocrine disruptors. In collaboration with Dr. Dalma Martinovic-Weigelt from the University of St. Thomas Biology Department, we are using breast cancer cell assays to assess whether photoproducts of UV-filter molecules used in sunscreens are likely to have significant estrogenic activity.

On the effects side, we are very interested in the potential for the low, subtherapeutic antibiotic concentrations that are found in natural waters to result in proliferation of antibacterial resistance among environmental bacteria. Resistant environmental bacteria are of concern because they can serve as a reservoir for antibiotic resistance genes that can potentially be transferred to pathogenic strains. Our work to date primarily has focused on the impacts of triclosan, a commonly used topical antibacterial compound (e.g. handsoap, toothpaste), on bacterial communities in natural waters from Lake Superior to the San Francisco bay area to local waters impacted by waste-water treatment plants (WWTPs). In our most recent project, we are looking at several classes of antibiotics in collaboration with researchers at the University of Minnesota and Gustavus Adolphus College. We are measuring antibiotic concentrations and antibiotic resistance among bacterial communities at several sites and hoping to elucidate the relative impacts of agricultural and human-based sources. Our study sites are in a portion of the Minnesota River basin and include those same drainage ditches I fished in when taking a break from bean walking as a child.

I have conducted all of my projects at St. Thomas in collaboration with my incredibly able and fun group of undergraduate research students. My six current group members range from freshmen to seniors; all work full time during the summer and squeeze in as many hours as they can during the academic year. They learn so much from this part of their St. Thomas experience: how to communicate their findings clearly, orally and in writing; how to design experiments and refine those experiments as they learn more; and how to fail and keep trying until they succeed. My group alumni have done well with their post-St. Thomas ventures. Three are in graduate school, with three more headed that way next fall. Two are in medical school, two are working as chemists and one as a high school chemistry teacher. I couldn’t be more proud of all of these wonderful students with whom I have had the privilege to work, and I am excited to keep discovering important information about contaminants in our waters with future generations of Tommies.

Kristine Wammer is associate professor of chemistry at the College of Arts and Sciences.

 From Exemplars, a publication of the Grants and Research Office.

This year, on Monday, Nov. 5, after making a list and checking it twice, the credit union distributed Christmas Club checks worth $95,316.35 to the club’s 98 members, an average of $972.62 per person. Now that’s nice!

“People watch for the green envelope,” remarked Adrienne Sturm, manager of the credit union for 27 years. That, and the colorful holiday-themed check inside the envelope.

The Christmas Club has been a feature of the credit union for more than 20 years, according to Sturm. “I was just looking for ways to get people interested in the credit union, and I had heard of such a thing, so I decided to try it,” she said.

The advantage of the Christmas Club, Sturm points out, is discipline, which would-be savers often lack with regular savings accounts, where withdrawals can be made at any time during business hours. That money is not so easy to access in a Christmas Club account.

Christmas Club funds are disbursed once a year during the first week of November, with a one-time annual dividend. “But if club members want their money along the way, they can certainly have the money, but they have to actually close the account and they get no dividend,” Sturm said.

The dividend this year is .25 percent, same as the regular shares receive. The credit union guarantees that the Christmas Club dividend will not be less than the lowest dividend paid on regular shares for the previous four quarters.

It’s not the interest, however, that entices credit union members to also become Christmas Club members. Kelly Engrebretsen, University Relations, the club’s 99th and newest member, joined recently because it’s an easy way to save money to buy Christmas presents for her family.

“My family stopped exchanging gifts years ago, but in recent years, a few of us have had kids (including myself!), which means I need to budget for Christmas again,” she said. “Saving just $20 per paycheck through the Christmas Club means I won’t have to be as thrifty or, more importantly, use my Mastercard next year.”

Almost everyone in the club funds their accounts through payroll deductions, but a few stop by the office in Room 209, Loras Hall, to make deposits.

The credit union, with approximately 1,100 members, and the Christmas Club, is open to all employees of the university and their families, and all employees of St. Thomas Academy and their families.

The credit union is “essentially a co-op,” Sturm explained. “It’s a cooperative. It’s owned by its members. It’s not anything political or anything else. Members put money in, and other members borrow it. … I think some people think that we have St. Thomas money. We don’t. The only money we have is the money members have put in. The only money we lend is the money members have given us to lend.” (Accounts are insured by the National Credit Union Administration, an independent federal agency, for up to $250,000 per member account.)

No need to worry about borrowing money, however, when you save over the course of an entire year through the Christmas Club. Just look for that green envelope during the first week in November.

Oh, and Virginia – have a very merry Christmas Club Christmas.

Christopher Toner

Philosophy is the pursuit of wisdom – this is the meaning of the word, but we also might say it consists in asking “why” in a serial and dogged fashion. Growing up in a household at once Catholic and academic (my father was a political scientist, and my mother, not yet a convert to Catholicism, was taking courses and reading widely in religion), I think I was sort of groomed to ask “why” in such a way. I entered college intending to study physics as a way of answering such questions, but early on I took a required philosophy course that changed my path. The course began with what philosophers call the issue of personal identity – what makes you the same person over time? I approached this by asking questions about whether the Star Trek characters who entered a transporter in one location were the same people as those who came out at the other end – after all, those people were assembled from different atoms and so forth (and what if there was a malfunction and two Kirks walked out of two different transporters?). I was intrigued, and by the time the course moved on to arguments for and against the existence of God, the mind-body problem and the nature of morality, I was won over.

I was drawn to moral philosophy, in particular, by the influence of another Notre Dame professor from whom I took a class. In the English-speaking world, most moral philosophers work in one of three schools of thought: utilitarianism (focused upon the consequences of actions), deontology (focused upon moral rules or laws) and virtue ethics (focused upon character). This course took a historical view of the subject, asking which school could most effectively criticize the others while at the same time being best able to withstand the criticisms of the others. By the end of this course, I was convinced of both the virtue ethics approach, and the importance to the study of moral philosophy of knowledge of its history.

During graduate school, and in the years following, I have focused on virtue ethics and its history. A central claim of this school is that virtuous character and action are necessary, and rational, because they are essential to human flourishing or happiness. Some of the main questions that drove me were, if that’s the case, why doesn’t virtue ethics boil down to “enlightened self-interest,” and why, therefore, shouldn’t it be rejected as being a form of egoism? These questions held special interest for me because this approach to ethics has been central to the Catholic intellectual tradition. My dissertation and a number of published articles have focused on this question.

Much of my research also has focused on important figures in the history of virtue ethics, including Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. What did they mean by the Greek and Latin terms we translate as “happiness,” and how does that bear on whether we should understand the theory they championed as egoistic or not?

The third main area of my research has been military ethics. Always interested in the field due to my own military background, I turned to researching it much more intensely out of necessity when I went to work for the Air Force. I focused on both abstract issues, such as the logical structure of just war theory, and more concrete questions, such as whether it is ever permissible to kill the innocent intentionally in war (e.g., in socalled “supreme emergencies”). I found that, in fact, virtue ethics, at least in some forms, is not egoistic. Properly understood, “happiness” or “flourishing” as used in the tradition does not refer to a private psychological state or feeling of well-being, but to the achievement, in character and in action, of human excellence – it’s concerned more with “being good” than simply with “well-being” (Aristotle, for example, held that true happiness consists in virtuous activity, not just in pleasure or satisfaction); moreover, since we are naturally social, this excellence is always excellence as a member of a community. If correct, this will enable virtue ethicists to answer what always has been one of the most important objections to their approach to moral theory.

My published work has received some attention – some appreciative, some critical. To the extent it wins acceptance, it will change the nature of key discussions of virtue ethics: It will enable philosophers to detect and (I hope) weed out forms of virtue ethics that are in fact egoistic, while allowing defenders of non-egoistic forms to dispense with a stubborn criticism and move on to other research problems.

In the area of military ethics, some of my research has bearings on how just war theory is understood and what its implications are for when and how we should fight. For example, one point I have argued in a couple of articles is that the direct, intentional killing of the innocent is always wrong – here I buck a trend among even liberal theorists of thinking that such killing can be justified in “supreme emergencies.” I hope my research here also has some practical influence – if it were to help even one soldier to understand better why the principle of civilian immunity is exceptionless, I think I would have done something meaningful. My hope is that it might do so through professors at the academies and staff colleges who may read my work.

While I have not been able to engage students in the production of my research (St. Thomas doesn’t have graduate students in philosophy, and philosophical research is anyway often a solitary endeavor), I have very much engaged them in some of the main questions that drive my research and have drawn on arguments I’ve made in my published work to provoke thought and – sometimes – a bit of controversy (in the good, discussion-provoking sense). For example, when it comes to just war theory (which we study in the Ethics class I teach most semesters), most students think that it is sometimes (rarely) permissible to kill civilians – e.g., they think that the bombings of  Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified since, arguably, they saved so many American lives. I present an argument I’ve developed that tries to show that if they believe this, they should (to be consistent) also believe that an individual (any individual) could kill innocent people to protect himself, something most are not prepared to believe. I do this not necessarily to win the students over to my view, but to challenge them to identify assumptions they’ve (perhaps unconsciously) made, to confront the implications of conclusions they draw, and to wrestle with various views, including their own – whether ultimately to criticize them or to justify them.

Philosophy, I said, is serially and doggedly asking “why,” and trying to understand “what it’s all about.” Each philosopher starts afresh, free to ask “why” regarding any claims of his predecessors. Yet no philosopher starts from scratch – each, if he is wise, profits from the struggles of those who went before – each takes part in a great tradition. Philosophy is a conversation and debate that literally spans millennia. The prospect of furthering that conversation – even just here and there, even just a little – is a wonderful one.

Christopher Toner is assistant professor of philosophy at the College of Arts and Sciences.

 From Exemplars, a publication of the Grants and Research Office.

SWPBIS is a set of intervention practices and organizational systems for establishing a positive social culture and intensive individual behavior supports needed to achieve academic and social success for all students (Sugai, Homer and Lewis, 2009). It is based on a three-tiered prevention model designed to match the needs of the student with the intensity of the intervention. Through this social culture, educators aim to create an environment that will support appropriate behavior and minimize problem behavior and prevent an existing condition from worsening (tertiary prevention).

To date, over 16,000 schools nation-wide are implementing SWPBIS (pbis.org), and in Minnesota over 300 schools are involved in training or are trained and actively implementing SWPBIS (MDE, 2012; Neilsen Gatti, Ryan and Adams, 2011). The majority of participating schools are typical public schools; however there is an increasing variety of alternative schools, juvenile justice programs and Federal Setting 4 schools participating. For example, in Minnesota, of the 300 schools implementing SWPBIS, seven schools involved in the MDE-sponsored initiative are Federal Setting 4 schools.

Federal Setting 4 schools are programs in which all students have IEPs and are placed in these programs due to their significant needs and supports for challenging behavior. In all of the Federal Setting 4 programs participating in the study 50 percent to 93 percent of the students are eligible to receive free or reduced lunch and approximately half of the students served in these programs are students of color. One component of the mission of our college is advancing the common good. By conducting research at these programs and addressing issues of teacher efficacy we are addressing this important part of our mission.

Several researchers have examined the efficacy of SWPBIS on student outcomes, systems processes and structures to support teacher implementation in these alternative sites (Joliette and Nelson, 2010; Lewis, Jones, Horner and Sugai, 2010; Nelson, Sprague, Jolivette, Smith and Tobin, 2009; Simonsen, Britton and Young, 2009); however, there are no published studies examining the relationship between SWPBIS and special education teacher factors of burnout and perceptions of efficacy. This is particularly important in the field of EBD where burnout is significant, teacher retention is a challenge and a large number of teachers are not fully licensed.

This project started as a Community of Practice (COP) with leaders from the first five sites involved in Minnesota’s Project on SWPBIS getting together to share common challenges and solutions for similar issues in implementing SWPBIS in their programs. Kim Adams, Char Ryan, and Shelley Neilsen Gatti initiated this during fall 2010 and continue to communicate with these leaders on ways to continue the COP. Due to the challenges associated with different school calendars, different day start and stop times and geographical challenges (over 40 miles across the metro) the teams are exploring creative ways to stay in touch. In addition, we have established a WIKI to share common documents.

Ryan, Adams and Neilsen Gatti presented information regarding the COP at a regional conference last winter. At this conference, we attended a presentation by Rob Horner, one of the founders of SWPBIS, where he discussed fidelity of treatment and various ways to measure the impact of SWPBIS. During this presentation he discussed the use of teacher burnout and efficacy as one dependent variable of SWPBIS. Ryan, Adams and I brought this back to our COP to see if they would be interested in participating in a study on this. Last spring we began researching the issue and invited Busch to assist us in this project.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relation between outcomes of teacher well-being (burnout and perceptions of efficacy) and the implementation of SWPBIS in separate site schools for students with EBD. The research question is: What are teacher perceptions of self-efficacy and burnout in Federal Setting 4 programs and how do these differ in SWPBIS schools at different phases of implementation and during different times of the year?

There were a variety of reasons why this sparked our interest. First, all of us had various experience with Federal Setting 4 programs, with Adams having the most recent and firsthand experience as the director of a Federal Setting 4 program. As a result of this experience we all understood the unique nature of this type of setting and realized that it was one of the most high-stress settings in which special educators worked. In addition, we were all excited about the potentially positive impact SWPBIS could have on the working conditions of teachers in SWPBIS. Finally, Adams’ school participated in the state SWPBIS training, as the second Federal Setting 4 program trained in SWPBIS, and recognized the issues these programs were dealing with were significantly different than those of the typical public school. Ryan has taught in Federal Setting 4 and served as the Minnesota specialist in EBD where a priority was placed on teacher retention, supply and demand of teachers for students with EBD. Due to Adams’ immediate experience, Ryan’s experience as a trainer and Neilsen Gatti’s work with teachers in training, we realized the importance of examining SWPBIS in these programs.

To date, we’ve collected and scored the survey data for fall 2011, and we’ll collect spring data during April and May. We’ve had a number of developments over the past six to nine months. We continue to have support from the MN ECSU, and our department funds a graduate assistant to assist on various aspects of the project. Recently, Busch was awarded a Faculty Development Grant to fund our consultation with Dr. James Appleton in Georgia. In addition, Ryan has been in correspondence with Horner throughout the planning and implementation stages of the project, and he has offered his support. Finally, we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the reception of the administration and staff at the programs. They are excited that they are getting acknowledged for their work, that their perceptions are valued and believe they are making a contribution to the field.

We all feel strongly about conducting research that impacts students and educational professionals. This project focuses on teachers on the frontline of providing services to students with EBD and how professional development models allows them to be better teachers by increasing their sense of efficacy and decreasing burnout.

On a different note, and as described below, one important insight is the importance of collaboration as a research team. We couldn’t do this project alone, and this established collaboration should provide the conduit to continue future research and collaboration between St. Thomas and schools. We think this research will have an impact on the field. It builds off the work already completed on the use of SWPBIS in alternative and separate sites, and it will increase the knowledgebase on how SWPBIS impacts teachers’ perceptions of efficacy and burn out. This may have immediate impact in our state by providing important ways to retain licensed and experienced EBD teachers in these Federal Setting 4 programs. In addition, this research may give us important information on how programs refine the implementation of SWPBIS in Federal Setting 4 programs. Finally, each of the sites will have more information on the impact of SWPBIS on their staff, which may lead to improved professional development and support of staff.

We each have various aspects of this project that have been fascinating for us. The use of teacher efficacy as a dependent variable to examine how individuals/adults benefit from PBIS has been particularly fascinating. Secondly, we are learning about and using new statistical methods to analyze data. We each have played an important role in the project and really need each other’s expertise and connections to pull this project off.

We’re excited about the next steps of the project. First, we will finish the spring round of data collection and score all of the data. We will work with Appleton to analyze the data and write the results of the study. We plan to present the results of the study at various conferences, namely the Association for Positive Behavior Support, the Council for Exceptional Children and the Midwest Symposium Leadership Conference on EBD. In addition we plan to submit our results to Exceptional Children and the Journal for Positive Behavior Interventions. Finally we plan to continue COP with leaders of the programs by putting together a strand at a fall and spring conference so we’ll have regular and ongoing opportunities to communicate with one another, which will allow us to put this knowledge in the hands of practitioners.

Over the course of the project, two graduate assistants have participated in the project. One student was from the English Department and helped collect, score and enter data. The second student is in the Department of Special Education and Gifted Education. She has and will continue to help with data collection, scoring, entering and writing various manuscripts and presentations proposals.

Neilsen Gatti and Todd W. Busch are both assistant professors in the Department of Special Education and Gifted Education in the College of Education, Leadership and Counseling. Char Ryan is a coaching coordinator and evaluation specialist for the Metro Regional PBIS Implementation Project (MRIP) and works at the Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health (MACMH). Kimberly Adams is director of special education programs (behavior) for the Minneapolis Public Schools. Additionally, she is an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas in the College of Education, Leadership and Counseling.

 From Exemplars, a publication of the Grants and Research Office.