Latest Faculty & Staff News

• Lonnie Calhoun was among the organizers of a reunion for those who tutored African-American students shut out of education in 1963 (10/7)

  Lonnie Calhoun, Director of Multicultural Affairs and International Student Services, was among the organizers for the reunion sponsored by the Robert Russa Moton Museum for former Queens College students who in 1963 tutored African-American students shut out of education by the closing of Prince Edward County's schools.

  Calhoun served on the planning committee for the event, held Oct. 1-4, and also serves with the ongoing group "Our Schools, Our Vision: A Shared Commitment," whose members are drawn from Longwood, Hampden-Sydney College, Fuqua School, and the Prince Edward County Schools, which helped the Moton Museum organize the reunion. Some seven of the 16 students from Queens College in New York City who tutored in the Farmville community in the summer of 1963 returned for a "recognition weekend." Two current Queens College students, who are working on an ongoing archival civil rights project at their school, also came to Farmville.

  Among the activities was a banquet Oct. 3 in which the keynote speaker was William F. Winter, a former Misssissippi governor who founded the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi. Other events were held at several churches where the Queens College students and others tutored local students (as many as 500 students benefited from the tutoring, done by about 40 tutors). Four of the four Queens College tutors who made the trip visited Longwood on Oct. 2; interestingly, one of them, Carolyn Hubbard Kamunanwire, is the wife of the Ugandan ambassador to the U.S., who was a professor of Calhoun's at the City College of New York.

  Dr. Martha Cook, Professor Emerita of English, served with Calhoun on the ad hoc planning committee for the reunion of the Queens College tutors. Both she and Calhoun are former members of the Moton Museum Board of Directors. The Moton Museum, housed in the former R.R. Moton High School, near the Longwood campus, is devoted to the study of civil rights in education.

• Dr. Robert Frank was the keynote speaker for the annual convention of the Virginia Association of Speech, Debate and Drama Coaches (10/5)

  Dr. Robert Frank, Director of International Affairs and Associate Professor of Communication Studies, was the keynote speaker for the annual convention of the Virginia Association of Speech, Debate and Drama Coaches, held Oct. 2-3 in Charlottesville. His speech was titled "What You Do Does Make A Difference." Dr. Frank, who also participated in three panels at the conference, is a former high school teacher and was a debate and speech coach. He is a member of the Virginia High School League Hall of Fame.

• Longwood University received two awards at the South Region Conference of the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) (10/5)

  Longwood University received two awards at the South Region Conference of the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA), held Oct. 1-4 in Winston-Salem, N.C., attended by Billy Boulden, Assistant Director of Campus Activities, and six students.

  Boulden and the students received the Outstanding Delegation Award, given to conference delegations that "excel in all areas of conference activity." The award is given to three delegations based on the number of delegates; Longwood's award was for the largest category, six to 10 delegates. "We were chosen the most otstanding delegation of all 95 delegations that attended," said Boulden, who is adviser to Lancer Productions (LP). Four of the six students who attended are LP members: Abby Whitlock (president), Rebecca Van Hook (comedy & novelty director), and Jessica Snyder and Jessica Prewitt (members of the Cultural Events and Traditions committees, respectively). Cam Patterson attended as SGA president, and graduate student Mariana Mosquera represented the Office of Fraternity & Sorority Life, in which she is a graduate assistant (the other students are undergraduates).

  The other award was in the graphics competition for low-cost publicity designed by a faculty or staff member (not a student) at a member school. The award recognized the publicity for the "LP Movie Previews," designed by Boulden. NACA's South Region encompasses Virginia (south of metro D.C.), North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.

• Kinman and Amoss to lead SACS reaffirmation and quality enhancement efforts (9/25)

  Longwood President Patricia Cormier has announced the appointment of Virginia Kinman, electronic resources librarian and associate professor, and Dr. McRae "Mac" Amoss, chair of the Faculty Senate and professor of French, to lead two important initiatives related to reaccreditation from the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

  Kinman will serve as director of the SACS reaffirmation, which is due in 2013. To gain or maintain accreditation with the Commission on Colleges, an institution must comply with the standards contained in the Principles of Accreditation: Foundations for Quality Enhancement and with the policies and procedures of the Commission on Colleges. The Commission on Colleges applies the requirements of its principles to all applicant, candidate, and member institutions, regardless of type of institution (public, private for-profit, private not-for-profit). Longwood earned its initial SACS accreditation in 1927 and was last reaffirmed in 2003.

  "Assessment is a process of continuous evaluation and improvement," said Kinman. "While the SACS reaffirmation is required to maintain accreditation, it also offers the entire institution an opportunity to step back from our day-to-day activities and take a closer look at how well we are fulfilling our mission. I look forward to participating in this process of reflection and documenting the quality and effectiveness of Longwood's programs and services."

  Since joining the faculty in 2003, Kinman has served on Faculty Senate and numerous university committees, including four years on the Committee on Finance and Planning. She currently serves on the Advisory Committee for Assessment. She has authored peer-reviewed publications and presented at state and national conferences on e-metrics and library assessment. She earned an M.A. in French from Auburn University and the M.Ln. degree with emphasis on academic reference from Emory University.

  Amoss has agreed to coordinate the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), a new component of the SACS accreditation process, that reflects and affirms the commitment of the Commission on Colleges to the enhancement of the quality of higher education and to the proposition that student learning is at the heart of the mission of all institutions of higher learning. Developing a QEP as a part of the reaffirmation process is an opportunity for the institution to enhance overall institutional quality and effectiveness by focusing on an issue or issues the institution considers important to improving student learning.

  Amoss joined the faculty in 1991. The director of general education and a professor of French, he is currently chair of the Faculty Senate and in March 2009 was appointed to the 14-member presidential search committee charged with finding a successor to President Patricia Cormier.

  "The development of a Quality Enhancement Plan is a positive addition to what SACS requires from institutions," said Amoss. "Different from most parts of the compliance review, the QEP enables a university to look toward the future and focus the attention of all its constituencies on a specific area in which to improve student learning. I'm looking forward to working with the campus community in the development of Longwood's plan."
  "I am grateful to these individuals for taking on this arduous task, which is critical to the mission of the institution," said Longwood President Patricia Cormier.

  The Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is the regional body for the accreditation of degree-granting higher education institutions in the Southern states. The Commission's mission is the enhancement of educational quality throughout the region and it strives to improve the effectiveness of institutions by ensuring that institutions meet standards established by the higher education community that address the needs of society and students. It serves as the common denominator of shared values and practices among the diverse institutions in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Latin America and other international sites approved by the Commission on Colleges that award associate, baccalaureate, master's, or doctoral degrees.

• Dr. Audrey Church was recently the keynote speaker for a week-long series of presentations (9/19)

  Dr. Audrey Church, Associate Professor and Coordinator of the School Library Media Program, was recently the keynote speaker for a week-long series of presentations sponsored by the Louisiana Library and Media Professionals (LALAMP). Dr. Church spoke on "Topics and Trends by the Dozen to Empower Learners" from Sept. 14-18 in Metairie, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Alexandria, and Ruston. "I spoke 10 times in five days at five locations, sharing with those in attendance current topics and trends occurring in school libraries that impact student learning," she said. Every fall LALAMP, made up of K-12 school librarians from across Louisiana, sponsors a series of free workshops throughout the state. Dr. Church's talk examined 12 of the latest hot trends for school library media specialists.

• Longwood's Chris Moore quoted in the Dallas Morning News about the physics of punting (8/25)

  Longwood's Chris Moore, assistant professor of physics, is quoted in an article in the Dallas Morning News (25 August 2009) about how the center-hung digital scoreboard in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium is presenting a potential problem for punters who must ponder the punt trajectory to avoid hitting the scoreboard.
  
  The story, "Cowboys Stadium digital board is a hot topic," was written by Todd Archer and can be accessed online.

• Register and Sheavly co-author report on marine litter (7/29)
  

  The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has published a report co-written by Seba Sheavly, a 1975 Longwood graduate, and Katie Register, executive director of Clean Virginia Waterways (CVW) which is based at Longwood.

  Sheavly is president of Sheavly Consultants Inc., an environmental consulting firm located in Virginia Beach. The report, "Guidelines on the Use of Market-based Instruments to Address the Problem of Marine Litter," was commissioned by UNEP and provides an overview of economic tools and strategies that encourage a change in behavior that will lead to positive and lasting benefits on the marine and coastal environments. The full report, issued in April, can be accessed from the United Nations Environment Programme web site.

  For more information, view the news release.