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President's Letter |
Hastings-Bishop Named FPW Woman of the Year
Susan Hastings-Bishop, professor and department chair of Recreation, Leisure Services and Wellness, was recognized as the 2007 Ferris Professional Woman of the Year at the FPW commencement breakfast last May. FPW annually recognizes an outstanding woman on campus who has participated in activities to enhance the status of all women, encouraged women to exercise their rights and roles in the Ferris community, and been a model of professionalism to students and colleagues. Hastings-Bishop was nominated for the honor by Lee Ann Westman, professor of Humanities. “Dr. Hastings-Bishop’s scholarly work on adolescent girls and camping supports women in recreation, and her many years of work in the Girl Scouts of America underscores her commitment to girls and recreation,” Westman said in her nomination. Most recently, Hastings-Bishop was named academic project director for the Brighter Futures Grant in partnership with the Girl Scouts of Michigan Trails. The project helps high school girls explore career options, and encourages the pursuit of a college education and youth development through community service. She has also worked with youth from the local Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization. Her work extends nationally through participation in professional organizations, committees, workshops, pilot projects, presentations and field experiences. Hastings-Bishop joined the Ferris faculty in 1988 as an assistant professor, and has held progressively more responsible positions since then. In addition to her department chair and teaching responsibilities, she advises up to 40 undergraduate students each semester. KCAD Offers Unique MBA
Students who want to pursue a Master of Business Administration can now take their studies in a whole new direction. Ferris President David Eisler and Kendall College of Art and Design President Oliver Evans jointly announced the launch of KCAD’s MBA with a concentration in Design and Innovation Management. The new MBA responds to the increased awareness of the importance of design innovation in business. The program uniquely combines the resources of a college of business with a college of art and design. The Design and Innovation Management concentration embraces collaboration as a way of making design thinking the driving force of the business process. “Most people understand that design does not mean making things look pretty, that it is not something added on at the end of the process,” said Evans. “People increasingly understand that design involves how people create the world around them, how they interact with that world and how they behave in that world.” Evans cited William Boras, the chair of Ferris’ Management department and chair of the MBA program, for realizing the importance of innovation, design and creative management in business, and also for understanding the importance of bringing business people and design people together. An interdisciplinary faculty of working professionals and industry experts teach the courses in a multidisciplinary, holistic and method-based approach. “You take the strengths of Kendall, that long history and heritage of design, and merge it with the cutting-edge, technologically based education that Ferris provides, and you provide an exciting opportunity to students,” noted Eisler. The program is committed to flexibility and accessibility for students, with courses offered in a mixed-delivery format that combines distance learning through the Internet with weekend classroom time. “The material is designed so students can access it online as well as during the weekend,” said Evans. “The courses are designed so that students, once they enter the sequence, will be able to complete the entire program in an efficient manner.” For more information on the MBA with a concentration in Design and Innovation Management, contact the College of Business Graduate Programs at (231) 591-2168 or Kendall Admissions at (616) 451-2787, extension 1113. Ferris Wins Rube Goldberg Competition
How many College of Technology students does it take to make freshly squeezed orange juice? If you want to incorporate a Slinky, a jack-in-the-box, dominoes, a hobby horse and other items in a toy-themed 345-step process, thereby setting a world record and beating out previous record holder and four-time defending champion Purdue University to win the annual Rube Goldberg competition then just five. Senior and team captain Tom Sybrandy, senior Matt Tomaszewski, freshman Mike Dunakin, senior James Travis III and junior Fred Reinecke won the National Championship at the Rube Goldberg Machine competition, held in West Lafayette, Ind., Saturday, March 31. The team took first place over Purdue, University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, Penn State University, University of Cincinnati, Hofstra University and Washington State Community College. Reinecke was unable to be at the competition due to being stationed in Iraq. “We’ve come to the competition for the past four years, and after last year’s disappointment when our machine had a malfunction, we really wanted to come back and win this year,” said Sybrandy. Purdue had previously held the world record for most elaborate device with a machine that incorporated 125 steps. Ferris’ effort, in which the team invested more than 3,000 hours, is being submitted to Guinness World Records, which officially recognized Purdue’s previous effort for “Largest Rube Goldberg.” “At the beginning of the year we set the goal of 300 [different steps],” said senior Tomaszewski. “We wanted to win as well as the set the world record for the most steps.” Despite the whimsical nature of the event, the competition requires students to apply a wide-range of engineering skills and work closely together to problem-solve the many ways in which their intricate contraptions can fail to achieve their end result. Winning machines must complete two successful runs. Points are deducted if students have to assist the machine once it has started. Judges award points based on the creative use of materials, team chemistry, flow of machine and the theme of a machine. “As advisor, I could not be more pleased with a team that made it their goals to win and set a new record, and then met both of those goals,” said Thomas Hollen, associate professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology. Hollen and Dan Wanink, associate professor of CAD Drafting/Tool Design, were faculty advisors. As a result of their win the team and their device appeared on NBC’s Today Show, as well as the Jimmy Kimmel Show. The team is also the subject of a documentary film. An independent company from California has been following and filming the team since last year’s competition. The competition is named for Rube Goldberg a cartoonist made famous by his elaborate drawings of devices requiring many steps to perform everyday tasks. Sponsors included Omega Engineering Inc.; Minute Maid Co.; BAE Systems; Bosch Group Inc.; Daimler-Chrysler Corp.; General Electric Co.; Kimberly-Clark Corp.; Lockheed Martin Corp.; and Motorola Inc. Purdue’s Colleges of Engineering and Technology also support the event. Governor Appoints New Board of Trustees Members
Last March, Gov. Jennifer Granholm appointed two new members to the Ferris State University Board of Trustees: Patrick La Pine and Sueann Walz. La Pine, of Farmington, is vice president of government affairs for the Michigan Credit Union League. In this position he oversees the legislative, regulatory, grassroots advocacy, political action and compliance support activities of the league. Prior to joining the MCUL, La Pine was legislative assistant to State Representative Agnes Dobronski and community liaison for U.S. Senator Donald Riegle Jr. Walz, a resident of Big Rapids, is the assistant vice president and manager for Independent Bank of Big Rapids. She is a member of the Ferris Foundation Board of Directors, a member of the University’s Founder’s Club and served as co-chair of the fundraiser for Ferris’ Bulldog Hockey Locker Room. Walz was co-chair of the Mecosta County Chamber of Commerce Holiday Gala and in 1996 served as Chamber president. “We are pleased to welcome Patrick La Pine and Sueann Walz to our Board of Trustees,” said Ferris State University President David Eisler. Ferris Students Research Consultants’ Ethics
For a high-profile criminal trial these days you need a judge, a jury, attorneys, media consultants, DNA experts, handwriting analysts and maybe a psychic or two. Ferris students Shauna Nicholson, Briana Richardson and Andrew Gallavan recently researched and authored a paper entitled “The Ethics of Trial Consultants: A Controversial and Evolving Profession.” They presented their findings in an undergraduate scholarship roundtable on communication ethics at the Central States Speech Association Conference in Minneapolis, Minn., this past March. The students spent months researching the struggle of the American Association of Trial Consultants to develop a coherent and consistent code of ethics. In addition to a thorough literature review, their paper included extensive interviews with practicing litigation consultants such as Ronald Matlon, executive director of the AATC. Lead writer and researcher, senior Shauna Nicholson, is vice president of the Ferris Communications Association and member of the National Communication Association Student Clubs, which sponsored the roundtable. “Public awareness of the industry is increasing,” says Nicholson, citing the influence of such media outlets as Court TV. She also explains that the range of ‘experts’ who can influence a trial is also increasing. “Pretty much everybody’s getting into this field if they think they have a service to offer.” In addition to their presentation, the Ferris students attended numerous panels on communication theory, participated in a graduate school open-house, and took a three-hour seminar in critical thinking taught by Ferris professors Donna Smith, Mark DeKoster, Kimberly Beistle and George Nagel. In a public presentation at Ferris, Nicholson thanked their advisor, Neil Patten, as well as Department of Humanities Chair Grant Snider and College of Arts and Sciences Dean Matt Klein for co-sponsoring their trip. “I’m really grateful we have such a supportive faculty community that backs our research and ambitions.” Nicholson, Richardson and Gallavan have submitted “The Ethics of Trial Consultants” to be considered for the NCASC paper of the year. |
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