Elizabethtown College News 
Back to top 8/28/2006 Exhibits bring sculpture, mixed media to Elizabethtown Two September openings will bring sculpture and mixed media to Elizabethtown College’s galleries. An exhibit of sculpture by Kristina Funk, a 2001 graduate of Elizabethtown College,  will open with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Sept. 8 in Zug Hall’s Hess Gallery. Funk’s work will be exhibited through Oct. 11.A current resident of Kingston, N.Y., Funk earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz in December 2004. She is currently a warehouse assistant/event programmer for Hudson Valley Materials Exchange, having previously taught at Elizabethtown College, SUNY New Paltz and Pratt Institute. Funk has exhibited at, among others, Pfenninger’s Gallery in Lancaster, the Samuel Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz and The College Association New York Area MFA Exhibition at Times Square Gallery in New York. Mixed media by Stacey Carter of Benicia, Calif., will open with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Sept. 15 in Leffler Chapel’s Lyet Gallery. Carter’s work will be exhibited through Oct. 14. Carter earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking from Temple University’s Tyler  School of Art. Her recent exhibitions include “Baseball & Blues: A Collection of Objects, Images and Sounds” at James Gallery in Pittsburgh; “Contemporary Art Show” installation at the San Francisco Center Galleria; and “Top of the 9th,” an invitational group show of baseball-themed art at George Krevsky Gallery in San Francisco.Carter is winner of a trustee award from the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, Calif., and of a Golden Image Award of Excellence from the Screenprinting and Graphic Imaging Association International. She is currently a printmaker for the Bay Area painters Gustavo Rivera and Bill Wheeler, as well as an educator/consultant to artists in fine art reproduction techniques at Prepress Assembly Inc. Both receptions and exhibits are open to the public free of charge. Hours for Lyet and Hess galleries are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. Back to top 8/28/2006 Kraybill co-authors book on Wenger Mennonites Based on more than a decade of research in Old Order Mennonite communities in several states, an Elizabethtown College professor has co-authored the first in-depth  study of the horse-and-buggy-driving Wenger Mennonites.“Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites: Hoofbeats of Humility in a Postmodern World” was written by Donald B. Kraybill, Distinguished Professor and Senior Fellow at Elizabethtown College’s Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, and James P. Hurd, chair of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Minnesota’s Bethel University. The book was recently published by the Pennsylvania State University Press. The Wenger Mennonites, named for their first bishop Joseph Wenger, formed in Lancaster County in 1927 when the Old Order Mennonite community divided over the ownership of automobiles. Although many Mennonite groups in North America have assimilated into mainstream culture, the Wenger Mennonites still use horse-and-buggy transportation and speak the Pennsylvania German dialect of their ancestors. In “Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites,” Kraybill and Hurd use cultural analysis to interpret the Wengers. They systematically compare the Wengers with other Mennonite groups as well as with the Amish, showing how relationships with these other groups have had a powerful impact on shaping the identity of the Wenger Mennonites in the Anabaptist world. The Wenger Mennonites have grown to some 18,000 members living in nine states. A birth rate of 8.3 children per family and a retention rate of 90 percent has produced an annual growth rate of 3.7 percent. At this rate, the group will number 31,000 by 2021. Kraybill and Hurd attribute the growth and success of this group in the midst of modern high tech culture to several factors: high fertility rate and retention of youth, strong private education, control of technology, emphasis on family values and hard work, regulation of social interaction with the outside world and use of a Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. The researchers found that these factors provide a strong sense of meaning, belonging and identity that has bolstered the vitality of the group. As Kraybill and Hurd show, the Wengers have learned that it is impossible to maintain a truly static culture, and so examining the ways in which the Wengers cautiously and incrementally adapt to the ever-changing world around them is an invaluable case study of the gradual evolution of religious ritual in the face of modernity. Back to top 8/23/2006 James B. Hoover Center for Business dedication slated for Sept. 14 The Elizabethtown College community will gather on Sept. 14 to celebrate the opening  and dedication of its James B. Hoover Center for Business. The ceremony will recognize the three donors whose support – along with gifts from area foundations, alumni, parents and friends – has allowed the College to build the $5.2 million Center: S. Dale High of Lancaster, James B. Hoover of Locust Valley, N.Y., and Edward R. Murphy of Lynbrook, N.Y.Elizabethtown broke ground for the Hoover Center in September 2005. The two-story, 30,000-square foot facility houses the Department of Business, the S. Dale High Center for Family Business and the Edward R. Murphy Center for Continuing Education and Distance Learning. Elizabethtown College’s Department of Business will enroll more than 400 majors this year, and 13 full-time tenure-track faculty members teach for the department. “Everything in the Hoover Center has been designed to promote interaction between those faculty and our students,” according to department chair Sean Melvin. “We take a ‘heart-to-heart’ approach to teaching, and that’s been the driving force behind many features of the new building.” Tiered classrooms with state-of-the-art projection equipment and data ports have been designed to provide room for faculty to move about and interact with students. Most have been built to accommodate a maximum of 35 students. In addition, a resource room containing books, computers and newspapers will give small groups – led by a student or faculty member – a space for collaboration and research. And informal seating areas throughout the building, complete with data ports, will allow for impromptu conversations. “There is no wasted space here,” Melvin said. “Everything has been designed to allow us to work closely with students, because we do our business face-to-face.” In addition, the Hoover Center provides more space for the department’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistant (VITA) program, through which local senior citizens with limited means receive free assistance with income tax returns. Last year, students working in the program helped with the filing of nearly 90 returns. The S. Dale High Center for Family Business, established in 1995, provides member family businesses with opportunities to address and resolve their succession, management, ownership and strategic issues through a special program of seminars and access to national resources and networking. Corporate sponsors for the Center are Barley Snyder, Fulton Bank, Glatfelter Insurance Group, McKonly & Asbury, and MANTEC, Inc. The Hoover Center will provide “a permanent home for many aspects of the Family Business Center program,” according to director Mary Beth Matteo. Space has been designated for business mentoring, for member-to-member consultation programs and for affinity groups, like CEOs or young leaders. There is also a resource library that will be available to not only member businesses, but all small family businesses in the area. “We’re particularly pleased that we can open up this resource library to local family businesses that might need help finding answers to their questions,” Matteo said. The new facility has also provided the opportunity for a CEO-in-residence program, which Matteo hopes to have up and running within the next year. Being located in the Hoover Center with the Department of Business is a plus for both Family Business Center members and Elizabethtown students, according to Matteo. “This will allow us to build a more synergistic relationship between the Family Business Center and the Department of Business,” she said. “We now have space for students to attend some of our sessions and to meet with our members. And our members see the affiliation with an academic institution as a plus. It will now be easier for us to make connections between practicing business people and Elizabethtown students." Elizabethtown College’s degree programs for adult learners are now housed in the Hoover Center’s Edward R. Murphy Center for Continuing Education and Distance Learning. Since the 1970s, Elizabethtown has offered educational opportunities that extend the boundaries of the College’s learning community to include a wider and more diverse population. Through its five-week accelerated courses – available in the classroom or online – the Center caters to working adults in the central Pennsylvania region. “Accelerated courses and flexible scheduling allow our students to complete their degree in a reasonable period of time,” said Director of Marketing and Admissions Barbara Randazzo. “With the option to step in and out of the program as their life demands, they can fit their desire to learn into their busy schedules.” The Center also provides flexibility to adult learners by offering its programs at three campuses: Elizabethtown College’s main campus, Harrisburg’s Dixon University Center and Lancaster’s College Square on the Harrisburg Pike. “We foster connections with our adult learners at all three locations through strong academic advising services and vehicles like our website,” Randazzo said. “Elizabethtown College’s learning community is enhanced through the addition of adult learners, who bring a wealth of life experience into the classroom. Adult students are able to connect with Elizabethtown’s dedication to academic excellence and commitment to service to others.” With its new home in the Hoover Center for Business, the Edward R. Murphy Center for Continuing Education and Distance Learning has a new image to offer its students, according to Randazzo. “The academic atmosphere and more professional image of the Hoover Center is what our students – many of them working professionals – are looking for.” Back to top 8/14/2006 History prof's book garnering national attention  A book written by Elizabethtown College history professor David Brown has received some notable attention, including reviews in The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times and The Washington Times.Brown’s “Richard Hofstadter: An Intellectual Biography” (University of Chicago Press, 2006), has been called “an incisive interpretive profile” by The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Carlin Romano. And Sam Tanenhaus of The New York Times calls the book “intelligent and stimulating.” Brown’s biography of Hofstadter -- a Columbia University historian and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who was one of the most prominent liberal intellectuals of recent time -- explores his remarkable life story in the context of the rise and fall of American liberalism. According to Brown, Hofstadter saw that America’s transformation from a Protestant and provincial culture into a more urban and multiethnic one would inspire in rural America an anti-intellectualism  and hostility toward cosmopolitanism that was perilous in a mass democracy.This idea makes Brown’s biography particularly timely, considering the United States’ current culture of blue vs. red state. Claude Marx of The Washington Times writes that Brown’s examination of Hofstadter’s work “sheds some light on contemporary politics. That’s why [the book] is especially timely in view of the problems facing those on the left side of the ideological divide.” And Christopher Shea of The Boston Globe writes, “As it happens, some of [Hofstadter’s] themes seem presciently in tune with our times, too – tension between rural and urban America, grass-roots distrust of expert and intellectuals, democracy’s vulnerability to demagoguery. All of which make Brown’s biography, the first of Hofstadter, especially timely.” Brown received his Ph.D. in American history at the University of Toledo and has been teaching at Elizabethtown College for nine years. “Richard Hofstadter: An Intellectual Biography” is his second book. He is currently working on a study of the University of Wisconsin’s contribution to historical writing in the 20th century. Back to top 8/11/2006 Golf program ranked in Golf Digest  Elizabethtown College's golf program has been honored with a place on Golf Digest’s "Academics First” list for men in the magazine’s second-annual college guide. Elizabethtown is ranked 42nd on the list of 50 colleges and universities in the magazine’s September 2006 issue.According to the magazine, for those “who are excellent students first, golfers second, these schools [on the "Academics First” list] provide the best education and an opportunity to play.” The list includes institutions from all three divisions of the NCAA. In Golf Digest’s breakdown of the rankings, Elizabethtown College has scores in the top 20 percent in the academics category and in the top 30 percent in the coaches/facilities and the player growth categories. Elizabethtown is ranked 25th out of the 30 NCAA Division III programs that made the list. Provided by The Etownian Back to top 8/7/2006 College names six to faculty Elizabethtown College welcomes six new tenure-track faculty members at the start of the 2006-07 academic year.  R. William Ayres IV has been named director of the Center for Global Citizenship – which brings together activities in international studies, service-learning and peacemaking -- and associate professor of international relations. He previously served as an associate professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis, where he has taught since 1999. He has also served on the faculty at the University of Mississippi and at St. Mary’s College in Maryland. An accomplished scholar, he has published numerous articles on ethnic conflict and national secession conflicts. Ayres earned a bachelor’s degree from Williams College and a master’s degree and doctorate from Ohio State University.Christina Ciocirlan has been appointed assistant professor of management. A doctoral candidate in public administration at Penn State University, she previously studied at Auburn University, Central European University in Budapest, University of Essex in England and Babes-Bolyai University in Romania. Ciocirlan maintains a personal and scholarly interest in environmental stewardship and has written on the political economy of “green” taxation and the challenge of integrating sustainability in the practice of strategic management in business and organizations. Scott Hendrickson will serve as director of the Pre-Law Program and assistant professor of public law. After completing an undergraduate degree at Wartburg College, he studied law and earned a J.D. at the University of Iowa. Subsequently, he studied political science at Washington University in St. Louis, completing both a master’s degree and a doctorate. Through his research, Hendrickson has studied judicial independence by examining the role of constitutional guarantees of tenure for federal judges. Kristi Kneas has been appointed as assistant professor of chemistry. For the past six years, she has been on the faculty at Maryville College in Tennessee, where she was granted tenure. Kneas is a graduate of Randolph-Macon College in Virginia and completed her doctorate at the University of Virginia. Her scholarly interests are in computer interfacing and the development of novel, luminescence-based sensors for biological and environmental applications. Charla Lorenzen has been named assistant professor of Spanish. Immediately following her undergraduate studies at the University of Iowa, she spent a year as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Valladolid, Spain. She then studied Spanish literature at the University of Kansas and completed both a master’s degree and doctorate in foreign language education at the University of Texas. Heather Watson will serve as assistant professor of engineering. She holds three degrees in mechanical engineering: a bachelor’s degree from the University of Detroit, a master’s degree from Georgia Institute of Technology and a doctorate from New Mexico State University. For the past two years, she has been on the engineering faculty at Clemson University, with previous experience in the aerospace industry. Back to top 8/2/2006 Bailey named vice president for finance Elizabethtown College has named Richard L. Bailey of Freeland, Md., as vice  president for finance.Bailey previously as assistant vice president for financial systems at Loyola College in Maryland. Prior to that, he served for seven years as director of financial accounting systems at Johns Hopkins University. He also held positions in banking for a number of years. Bailey earned a bachelor’s degree in business and management from the University of Maryland, where he graduated with highest honors, and an executive MBA from Loyola College in Maryland. |
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