On the Hill

Two Allegheny Professors Receive Fulbright Awards

Two Allegheny College faculty are the recipients of 2007-2008 Fulbright Awards: Melissa Comber, assistant professor of political science, and Christopher Bakken, associate professor of English.

Comber received a Junior Lecturing Award to the Universität Duisburg-Essen in Essen, Germany for the 2007-2008 academic year. She will teach classes related to American government, American social welfare policies, women and politics in America, and American social policies in the university's North American studies department.

Bakken, who recently received the Helen C. Smith Memorial Prize for the Best Book of Poetry in 2006 by the Texas Institute of Letters, was awarded a Fulbright to teach and do research in Romania during the spring semester of 2008. He will divide his teaching assignment between Romanian University and the University of Bucharest.

Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.

Economics Professor Returns from Fulbright Project in Ethiopia

Professor of Economics Don Goldstein completed a Fulbright Senior Specialists project at Jimma University in Ethiopia.

Goldstein spent two weeks in June working on advanced research methods with staff at the university's Faculty of Economics and Business. "These mostly very young teachers do a terrific job," says Goldstein. "They do so much with so few resources. It was a privilege to work with them." Goldstein is one of more than 400 U.S. faculty and professionals who are traveling abroad this year through the Fulbright Senior Specialists Program. Created in 2000 to complement the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program, the Senior Specialists Program provides short-term academic opportunities (two to six weeks) to prominent U.S. faculty and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at post-secondary academic institutions around the world.

Vice President's Role at Allegheny Expanded to Include Communications

President Richard J. Cook has announced that the responsibilities of W. Scott Friedhoff, vice president of enrollment at the College since 2002, have been expanded to include public relations and marketing efforts. Friedhoff, who will now serve as vice president of enrollment and communications, will also serve as spokesperson for the College.

"Scott is the consummate communicator," said Cook in making the announcement. "He developed the College's brand: that we are a college that attracts students with unusual combinations of interests, skills, and talents, or as Scott sometimes likes to say, students with 'wonderfully weird' combinations. This powerful and compelling message, which represents a distinctive position in a crowded market place, has resulted in steady and impressive enrollment results."

In 2007 application numbers at Allegheny broke records for the fourth consecutive year. More than 4,300 students from 49 states applied for one of the 575 places in the first-year class that matriculated this fall.

Widely recognized as an expert on enrollment management, financial aid discounting, tuition pricing, and institutional marketing, Friedhoff is frequently quoted in the national media, including the New York Times, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Friedhoff holds an undergraduate degree in economics and psychology from Cornell College and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa.

Dean of Students Office Announces Appointments

Yvonne Eaton-Stull has been appointed director of the Counseling Center. She previously served as director of clinical services with Safe Harbor Behavioral Health Care in Erie, Pa., and worked as a counselor at Mercyhurst College. Eaton- Stull, who earned a master's degree in clinical social work from Boston College, has also held adjunct faculty positions at Mercyhurst, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, and Penn State-Behrend.

Cherjanét Lenzy has been appointed director of diversity affairs. She developed and implemented diversity programming and advised student organizations at Scripps College and held residence life and diversity affairs positions at Macalester College, Aquinas College, and Grand Valley State University. Lenzy has a master's degree in college student affairs leadership from Grand Valley State.

Jonathan Miller has been appointed director of student activities, succeeding Ellen Kauffman Nolan, who accepted a position as associate director of alumni aff airs at Allegheny. Miller most recently served as assistant director of campus activities at Susquehanna University, where he had previously been assistant director of career services. He has a master's degree in student personnel services from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.

Allegheny Named One of North America's Best Colleges

Allegheny College has once again been recognized as one of the top institutions in the country, this time in the newly released Princeton Review. The Review features Allegheny in "The Best 366 Colleges," the 2008 edition of its annual best colleges guide.

Only about 18 percent of the four-year colleges in the United States and two Canadian colleges are in the book, which includes two-page profiles on the schools.

"We chose schools for this book primarily for their outstanding academics. We evaluated them based on institutional data we collect about the schools, feedback from students attending them, and our visits to schools over the years," says Robert Franek, vice president for publishing at the Princeton Review. "We also consider the opinions of independent college counselors, students and parents we hear from and survey."

Allegheny is featured in numerous national guidebooks including Colleges That Change Lives, Peterson's Competitive Colleges: 440 Colleges That Attract the Best and Brightest, Harvard Schmarvard: Getting Beyond the Ivy League to the College That Is Best for You and The Insider's Guide to Colleges.

Allegheny Student Athlete Turns Life Saver

During his summer job as a lifeguard in Trumbull, Conn., Matt Cellini '09 helped to revive a girl who nearly drowned.

The girl was submerged underwater for about fifteen seconds before being pulled out by another lifeguard. Cellini and his colleagues at the Beach Memorial Pool Club then administered CPR for two minutes before the girl regained consciousness. "It kind of goes along with what I hope to do in the future," says Cellini, who plans to become a doctor.

A biology major and history minor, Cellini also serves as starting fullback for the football team. In 2006, he averaged 5.8 yards per carry with one rushing touchdown. All six of his carries resulted in either a first down or a touchdown.

History Channel Features Allegheny Professor- Student Collaboration

A portion of the summer work conducted by James Lombardi Jr., associate professor of physics, and his student research assistant, Alexander Brown '09, was recently featured in the episode "The Life and Death of Stars," a segment of the History Channel series The Universe.

The History Channel describes the episode as "a front row seat to the most amazing light show in the cosmos." Lombardi and Brown performed computer simulations and created visualizations of a stellar collision that help establish how stars called "blue stragglers" can be formed through the collision of "garden-variety" stars. A similar visualization by Lombardi is currently playing in the planetarium show "Cosmic Collisions" at the American Museum of Natural History, the National Air and Space Museum, the Museum of Nature and Science, and the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.

To view the visualizations on the Allegheny website go to this page.

Study Shows Allegheny's Annual Economic Impact on Crawford County to Be $93.1 Million

Allegheny College president Richard J. Cook has released the results of a study detailing the College's economic impact on Crawford County. A key finding of the study is that Allegheny's impact on the Crawford County economy was roughly $93.1 million in the year studied. Professors Behrooz Afrasiabi and Stephen Onyeiwu of the College's economics department produced the study, titled "The Impact of Allegheny College on Economic Activity within Crawford County, Pennsylvania: 2004-2005." College historian Jonathan Helmreich contributed historical context to the report.

The sixty-two-page study—which is unusual because of the rigor of its approach, which allows others to reproduce the results—found that in addition to 500 individuals directly employed by the College, another 1,031 of the jobs in the county were sustained as a result of the College's expenditures. This implies that Allegheny accounted for one out of every forty jobs in the county. In addition, 800 Allegheny graduates resided in the county, earning an estimated $35 million annually. The study also estimates that alumni visitors to the county spent $2.7 million, parents of current students spent about $2.1 million, and families of prospective students spent approximately $786,000.

Cook commissioned the study from the College's economics department. Afrasiabi and Onyeiwu developed a detailed model of the Crawford County economy in summer 2006. The year 2004-2005 was the most recent year for which complete data were available.

President Cook Joins Climate Commitment Steering Committee

President Richard J. Cook has been selected to join the steering committee of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). Cook was one of the first signatories of the commitment, a national challenge to colleges and universities to develop a comprehensive action plan to reduce their global-warming emissions.

The chief governing body of the ACUPCC, the steering committee is responsible for providing guidance, policy and direction for the program. More than 400 institutions of higher education have thus far signed the commitment.

Cook attended an ACUPCC leadership summit in Washington, D.C. in June. The summit saw the official launch of the climate commitment program with a ceremony and press conference.

Allegheny Joins National Initiative on Personal and Social Responsibility

Allegheny College is one of only twenty-eight schools nationwide invited to join the Association of American Colleges and Universities Core Commitments Leadership Consortium. The Core Commitments program explores how higher education can foster engaged citizenship, teach personal and social responsibility, encourage a respect for diversity, cultivate excellence, and implement programs that support community engagement.

"The Core Commitments program is really about re-examining the mission of education in the 21st century," says Amara Geffen, professor of art and director of the Center for Economic and Environmental Development. Geffen directs the Core Commitments program at Allegheny with Associate Dean for Wellness Jacquelyn Kondrot.

Allegheny already sponsors numerous programs designed to promote civic engagement: the Center for Political Participation (CPP), the Center for Economic and Environmental Development (CEED), the Values, Ethics and Social Action (VESA) program, the Office of Community Service and Service-Learning, Community-Based Research (CBR) and Engagement Through Writing.

"We want to create an ongoing college- community dialogue around this program," says Geffen. "Our work with our community partners is central to stimulating engaged citizenship on our campus and in Meadville."

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Allegheny faculty and students recently installed sensors and data collection systems to identify the wind power potential at Acutec Precision Machining's facility in Saegertown, Pa. Allegheny trustee Rob Smith '73 is president of Acutec. The year-long effort is a partnership between Acutec and the Center for Economic and Environmental Development (CEED) at Allegheny. Pictured at left (from left) are: Liz Straus '08 and Derik Wilcox '08, both student research assistants; Tracy Porter, an engineer at Acutec; and Rich Bowden, associate professor of environmental science at Allegheny. Other key contributers to the project include Don Goldstein, professor of economics, and Eric Pallant, professor of environmental science.

New retirees and employees who have worked at Allegheny College for twenty-five years were honored at a reception in May. Pictured at right with President Richard Cook (from left, in back) are: Dean of the College Linda DeMeritt, who celebrated twenty-five years of service, and J. Alexander Dale, professor of psychology and neuroscience, who retired from the College. Pictured in front, from left are: Supervisor of Athletic Equipment and Facilities Jack Steiger, who retired, and Associate Professor of Chemistry Nancy Lowmaster, Professor of Art Amara Geffen, and Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Finance and Planning M. Margaret Hart, all of whom celebrated twenty-five years of service. Not pictured are Director of Principal Gifts Robert Tuttle and Mathematics Instructor Jeanne Miller, both of whom retired, and Associate Professor of Economics Antoni Moskwa and Career Services Secretary Kay Nageotte, both of whom celebrated twenty-five years of service.

Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Frederick Steen was joined by colleagues, friends, and family members who gathered on campus to celebrate his 100th birthday in June. Pictured at left are (in front, from left): Dr. Steen and Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Charles Cable and (in back, from left) Larry Yartz, former member of the math faculty; Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Ronald Harrell; Professor of Mathematics Tony Lo Bello; Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Steve Bowser; and Professor of Mathematics Michael Barry.