Student Achievement Celebrated at Senior Scholars Day

Robert Nowicki ’07, right, demonstrates an experiment involving a “Jumping Ring” apparatus during Senior Scholars Day 2007 on April 17.

In topics spanning the portraits of van Gogh to the ecology of foxes in Central Pennsylvania, students presented their research to the Susquehanna community at Senior Scholars Day on April 17. Through this annual event, Susquehanna has recognized the scholarly and creative endeavors of senior students for nearly 30 years.

University President L. Jay Lemons kicked off the event with words of welcome before turning the day over to more than 100 students who were eager to perform, display and discuss their work. Music students performed in recitals, while graphic design majors displayed their artwork. In addition, over 80 students shared their research findings through posters and oral presentations. The research covered a wide range of subjects, including red clump stars, the history of the Mifflinburg Buggy Museum, the acoustics of campus performance halls, the rise of Islamic extremism, and the perennial favorites of the sea urchin and the wolf spider.

Many of the senior participants also presented their research findings at off-campus forums, including the Pennsylvania Academy of Sciences, the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, and regional and national conferences on individual disciplines.

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Service Programs Receive National Recognitions

Maribeth White ’10, a member of Susquehanna’s Hurricane Relief Team, removes a water-damaged carpet from a New Orleans home during a March service trip.

During the 2006–07 academic year, Susquehanna students completed over 19,500 hours of community service. Through service organizations such as Circle K, Habitat for Humanity and the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, and through events including the university’s two campus-wide service days, SU GIVE and SU SERVE, Susquehanna students served over 40 local charitable and civic organizations.

Throughout the year, Susquehanna students also donated their time globally in places such as Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Belize and the Philippines during alternative-break mission trips. In addition, three service trips to New Orleans made by Susquehanna’s Hurricane Relief Team gave SU students and staff the opportunity to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. In recognition for the volunteer work being done in Louisiana, Susquehanna earned the bronze award in the 2006 NASPA Excellence Award in the category of Careers, Academic Support, Service Learning and Community Service. The university was also named to the 2006 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll and was recognized as a finalist in the St. Tammany Parish School District’s award for outstanding character and citizenship.

Recognitions for Susquehanna Athletics

Track and field standout Emily Lepley ’07 once again provided the highlights of Susquehanna’s athletics in 2006–07, becoming the most decorated athlete in Crusader history. She finished fifth in the 100-meter hurdles and seventh in the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Championships to become an eight-time All-American, breaking the Susquehanna record of seven set by track and field standout Mike Spangler from 1985 through 1988. Lepley was also named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District team in track and field, won her third straight Middle Atlantic Conference championship in both the 100-meter hurdles and the 400-meter hurdles, and ran on the gold medal-winning 4x400-meter relay team with Sarah Burkhardt ’08, Lauryn Dugan ’10 and Abby Montgomery ’10.

On the men’s side, Mike Marr ’08 earned All-America honors in the high jump as he tied for sixth place at the NCAA Championships, becoming the 36th All-American in Susquehanna men’s track and field history. He also won the MAC title in that event. In addition, standout thrower Pat Keating ’07 was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District team in track and field, and was the Blair Heaton Award winner as the outstanding senior male scholar-athlete at Susquehanna.

Thirty-two Crusader student-athletes earned first-team All-Conference honors, and three were selected as Commonwealth Conference Rookie of the Year: Bryan Majors ’10, men’s basketball; Mitch Mercer ’10, men’s golf; and Tyler Reichard ’09, baseball. Veteran coaches Ged Schweikert and Don Harnum received Commonwealth Conference Coach of the Year recognition in men’s swimming and men’s golf. Harnum’s golfers won the Commonwealth Conference championship and earned their best-ever finish in the NCAA Tournament at 15th.

Cultural and Arts Events

The university hosted a number of cultural and arts events during the 2006–07 academic year. The Lore Degenstein Gallery and programs such as the Artist Series and the Visiting Writers Series showcase master artists, dancers, musicians and writers. Last year’s lineup was as follows:

Artist Series

• ZUM
• The Saint Petersburg Classic Ballet Theatre of Marina Medvetskaya in The Nutcracker
• L.A. Theatre Works in Noel Coward’s Private Lives
• Preservation Hall Jazz Band
• Philadanco

The Lore Degenstein Gallery Exhibits

• Edward Weston: Life Work
• Impassioned Images: German Expressionist Prints
• Pull: Contemporary Music Posters
• The Artist Revealed: Artist Portraits and Self-Portraits

Visiting Writers Series

• Carolyn Forché, winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award in 1976
• Andre Dubus III, author of The House of Sand and Fog and National Book Award finalist
  
• Tom Bailey, associate professor of English and creative writing, who launched his second novel, Cotton Song, released by Random House
  
• Jennifer Haigh, best-selling novelist
  
• John Hoppenthaler, poet and assistant to Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison
  
• Patsy Sims, nonfiction author of The Klan
  
• Charles Valle, managing editor of Fence Magazine

Distinguished Guests Contribute to Intellectual Engagement

Rita Colwell

Eric Schlosser

Bill Strickland

Nadine Strossen

Each year, Susquehanna University welcomes a wide array of distinguished guests to campus for public lectures, classroom visits with students and scholarly engagement with faculty. During the 2006–07 academic year, the list included the following individuals:

• Richard Caruso ’65, founder and president of Integra LifeSciences Corporation and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year
  
  
• Rita Colwell, former director of the National Science Foundation, delivering the Claritas Distinguished Lecture in Science
  
  
• Mike Johnson, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, participating in the Arlin M. Adams Center for Law and Society’s sixth annual dialogue, Bare It or Bar It: Should Government Regulate Adult Pornography to Prevent Exposure to Minors?
  
  
• Dimon Liu, architect, author and human rights advocate, lecturing on human rights activism and the possibility of democracy in China as the university’s 30th Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow
  
  
• Eric Schlosser, author of Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market, the 2006–07 University Common Reading text
  
  
• Bill Strickland, president of Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and the Bidwell Training Center, delivering the Sigmund Weis Memorial Lecture
  
  
• Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, participating in the Arlin M. Adams Center for Law and Society’s sixth annual dialogue, Bare It or Bar It: Should Government Regulate Adult Pornography to Prevent Exposure to Minors?
  
  
• Jim Wallis, author of God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, delivering the annual Alice Pope Shade Lecture

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University Highlights were compiled by Ryan Rickrode ’11, with a contribution from Jennifer Botchie ’99, interim director of athletic communications.