Board Highlights - March 2006

Office of the Dean

Nova Southeastern University
Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences
3301 College Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314
Phone: 954-262-8408
Fax: 954-262-3930
www.undergrad.nova.edu

Highlight Reports for the NSU Board of Trustees

The Office of the Dean provides periodic reviews of college activities and initiatives. These Board Highlights are distributed to the Nova Southeastern University Board of Trustees, the College of Arts and Sciences Board of Advisers, and others in the community.

March 2006

The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences has actively expanded campus and community programming – reflecting the commitment to create broader awareness and appreciation for the expertise of faculty and the diversity of disciplines represented in the college. Faculty, students, and staff have been active in these efforts, which are coupled with notable guest speakers and performances.

Recent highlights include a public lecture by Nobel Laureate, writer, and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, the NSU Theatre performance of Nickel and Dimed, and sponsorship of the inaugural A1A Marathon in Fort Lauderdale.

Distinguished Speakers
The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences welcomed Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, author and recipient of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, to NSU’s main campus in February. Wiesel is the author of more than forty books of fiction and non-fiction, including Night and The Time of the Uprooted, published in August. His visit to NSU, part of the college’s annual Distinguished Speakers Series, was sponsored by the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences in conjunction with the college’s year-long exploration of its unifying academic theme—“Good and Evil.”

During the week of Wiesel’s visit, two complementary College of Arts and Sciences panel events explored the issues of torture and of sports performance enhancement. Both are topics of great current social concern discussed through the lens of the “Good and Evil” theme.

“Torture in the Modern Age,” sponsored by the Division of Humanities examined historical and current issues related to torture. Panelists included Division of Humanities associate professor Stephen Levitt, L.L.M. and Shepard Broad Law Center professor Douglas Donoho, J.D.. The panel was moderated by Sean Erwin, Ph.D., Division of Humanities visiting professor of philosophy.
“Enhancing Human Performance: Good vs. Evil,” sponsored by the Division of Math, Science, and Technology, looked at the ethics of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. Student presentations highlighted general issues, followed by a guided discussion about controversial steroid use, led by Larry Starr, M.Ed., NSU assistant athletic director for sports medicine. Finally, a moderated faculty panel discussed scientific and ethical aspects of enhancement, including consideration of controversial issues such as anti-aging and cloning research. The panel included Division of Math, Science, and Technology faculty members Elizabeth Swann, Ph.D. (moderator), Josh Loomis, Ph.D., and Mark Jaffe, D.P.M. The event was introduced by Patricia McGinn, Ph.D., assistant professor of athletic training.

Guest Speakers
Salvador Minuchin, M.D., one of the world’s leading figures in family therapy, presented a January guest lecture. Minuchin presented his current work and described how his theoretical model—structural family therapy—offers an invaluable framework to help guide practitioners. The lecture was sponsored by the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Guest lecturer Marilyn Myerson, Ph.D., a professor of women’s studies and philosophy at the University of South Florida, spoke about “What’s Love Got to Do With It?: Understanding Complexities in Research,” in February. Myerson explored stereotypes about research, looked at the influence of cultural factors on its process, and discussed how Nobel Prize winner Barbara McClintock stepped outside the box to develop a new vision of scientific inquiry. The lecture was sponsored by the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences and organized by Allison Brimmer, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Humanities.

The Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR), housed in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences, sponsored a December lecture related to the college’s special year-long academic theme—“Good and Evil.” Candace McKinniss, a librarian with NSU’s Sherman Library, offered a literary view of “Good and Evil” through discussion of the literature of Robert Lewis Stevenson, with an emphasis on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Communtiy Partnership
The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences launched a significant partnership through February’s inaugural A1A Marathon, Broward County’s first large-scale marathon. More than 3,500 runners participated in the event’s full and half marathons. The College of Arts and Sciences joined government, corporate, and media sponsors to create a successful, signature event for the South Florida community that will continue as a major athletic weekend in the years to come. These community partnerships—that include Wachovia Bank, American Airlines, and the Sun-Sentinel— don’t just build relationships with business and government, they also extend the college’s academic expertise “beyond the classroom.”

In addition to partnering on the race, the college sponsored the A1A Marathon Health & Fitness Expo, held the day before. The Nova Southeastern University Health & Fitness Expo featured a full day of educational lecture series—focusing on strength training and nutrition—designed by Elizabeth Swann, Ph.D., director of the Athletic Training Education Program, housed in the college’s Division of Math, Science, and Technology. Seminars were led by Swann, Patricia McGinn, Ph.D., athletic training assistant professor, and an impressive roster of physicians, Olympic athletes, and seasoned sports trainers.

Students and faculty also got involved in other ways. Athletic training students volunteered during the weekend to help with race check-in and man stations along the race route that provided runners with water and encouragement. The college was also represented in the running of the race—Michele Mits Cash, Ph.D., director of the Office of Academic Services, ran the half marathon.

Comcast will broadcast a special program on March 15 about the A1A Marathon, including highlights from the Health & Fitness Expo, the race, the awards ceremony, and interviews with major sponsors, including Don Rosenblum, Ph.D., dean of the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences.

Student Accomplishments
Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences biology students Christine Lilja, Shani Kagan, and Lyubov Vayner were the co-authors on a poster presentation in December with Scott Schatz, O.D., a professor in the Health Professions Division College of Optometry. The poster, “Prevalence of Dry Eye in a Haitian Clinic Population,” was presented at the American Academy of Optometry meeting in San Diego.

Farheen F. Parvez and Kamal Kaur, biology students in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Math, Science, and Technology, presented a research poster at “Angiogenesis in Cancer and Vascular Disease,” an international medical conference held in February in Miami. Their poster, “Induction of Apoptosis by Resveratrol in Cancer Cells During Combination Treatment with Nutlin-3 and TGF- ß,” focused on research into the anti-cancer effects of complementary drug treatments. Parvez and Kaur worked on the research project with mentoring faculty members and graduate students in NSU’s College of Pharmacy. Their collaboration is the result of ongoing undergraduate involvement in graduate school research projects made possible through the College of Arts and Sciences’ connections with NSU’s graduate schools and centers. The college also provides academic and financial support for independent, mentored undergraduate research through its Undergraduate Honors Program.

Communication studies students from the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences attended the 2005 National Conference of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), held in Miami Beach in mid-December. Four students from the Division of Humanities communication studies major attended—Susan Salvary, Danielle Garcia (double major with English), Desiree Cheatham, and Cheryl Clayton. Convention sessions covered all facets of the public relations field. Speakers included educators in the field; upper-level executives from corporations, such as General Motors and American Airlines; and CEOs from many internationally well-known public relations firms. The four NSU students also had the opportunity to network with other students from PRSSA chapters from around the world. Participation in the convention was funded by the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Office of the Dean, which is committed to supporting student participation in independent research, professional activities, study abroad, and other educational opportunities outside of the classroom.

Information Exchange, a Radio X interview show devoted to NSU campus issues, airs Tuesdays from 7:00–7:30 p.m. with host Camille Wright, a communication studies student in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Humanities. Shows focus on campus social, political, and community issues. Topics for recent shows have included:

NSU’s Unity and Diversity Week—featuring interviews with Mike Brochu, dorm resident adviser, and Sami Ray, president of NSU’s campus chapter of Amnesty International.
The Good and Evil Film Series, sponsored by the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences—featuring interviews with Weylin Sternglanz, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology, and his students about the movie Crash.

Faculty Accomplishments
Mark Duncan, M.F.A., assistant professor of theatre in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Humanities, portrayed the reindeer Comet in Rude Mechanical Productions’ December production of The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, by Jeff Goode, in West Palm Beach.

Jim Doan, Ph.D., a professor in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Humanities, has been invited to give two lectures, “Ulster Scot Immigration to America” and “The Irish in the Caribbean,” at Murray State University, Murray, KY in April as part of a series on the Irish Diaspora. In addition, his paper, “Images of British Unity and Disunity in Shakespeare’s Later Plays,” has been accepted for a conference in Aberdeen, Scotland, next summer that focuses on Icons and Iconoclasts: The Long Seventeenth Century, 1603-1714.

Ben Mulvey, Ph.D., assistant dean for curriculum and instruction in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences, has published a review of Therapy for the Sane: How Philosophy Can Change Your Life by Lou Marinoff in the European Journal of Psychology, Volume 1, Number 4, November 2005.

Lorraine Stanchich, an adjunct instructor in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences, participated in a poetry reading in the Alvin Sherman Library’s Connections Café in January. Stanchich, the author of Witness, a collection of her poetry published in 2003 by Epic Press, teaches classes in writing in the Division of Humanities.

Theatre Production
NSU Theatre in February presented Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, playwright Joan Holden’s stage adaptation of the best-selling book by journalist Barbara Ehrenreich. NSU Theatre, part of the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Humanities, is open to all members of the NSU community interested in the theater arts. In the fall, NSU Theatre produced The Burial at Thebes, poet Seamus Heaney’s translation of Sophocles’ Antigone. The final offering of the 2005–2006 season will be the Night of the Assassins. Cuban playwright Jose Triana’s drama about family conflict amid revolution, first produced in Cuba in 1965, was subsequently banned there for 30 years. The performance is scheduled for two evenings, April 7 and 8, 2006.

Faculty Lecture Series
Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences initiated its Faculty Lecture Series in January. The series explores the college faculty’s diverse areas of interest in the humanities, biological and physical science, and social and behavioral sciences. Ten events were scheduled for the winter semester.

January. Allison Brimmer, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Humanities, discussed how we develop conceptions of our identities, in “What Do We Really Know, Anyway?”
January. Tom Fagan, Ph.D., associate professor in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences, discussed the reality of life in American prisons in “Prison Facts and Myths.”
February. Robin Sherman, Ph.D., assistant director of the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Math, Science, and Technology, spoke about efforts to study and protect South Florida’s coral reef systems in “Building artificial reefs with used tires? Bad idea.”
February. “U.S. Foreign Policy During World War II and the Cold War” included presentations by Division of Humanities history professors David Kilroy, Ph.D., Stephen R. Levitt, LL.M., and Tim Dixon, J.D., and was moderated by humanities professor Jim Doan, Ph.D.
February. To complement NSU Theatre’s production of Nickel and Dimed, faculty members from the Division of Humanities met for a post-performance conversation about disparity in the workplace, welfare reform, business ethics, and other issues. Participating faculty members were Allison Brimmer, Ph.D., Chetachi Egwu, Ph.D., Sean Erwin, Ph.D., Vicki Toscano, Ph.D., and Kate Waites, Ph.D.
February. David McNaron, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Humanities, asked, "Is Open-mindedness a Virtue?" and discussed how to distinguish the virtue of open-mindedness from various imposters.
Upcoming—March 14. Darren Hibbs, Ph.D., assistant professor of philosophy in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Humanities, and his students will discuss “The Problem of Evil.”
Upcoming—March 21. Evan Haskell, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Math, Science, and Technology. A lunchtime talk with NSU Oceanographic Center faculty and senior Ph.D. students, noon–1 p.m. Parker 241.
Upcoming—April 4. Gary Gershman, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Humanities. Follow-up on study abroad to Europe noon–1 p.m. Parker Lobby.
Upcoming—April 20. Elizabeth Swann, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Math, Science, and Technology. Follow-up on Study Abroad trip to Greece noon–1 p.m., Parker 241.

Ars Flores, NSU’s orchestra in residence, will perform its April Fools Family Concert on Saturday, April 1, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. in the Miniaci Performing Arts Center. Ars Flores is a unique center for musical education, made up half by seasoned professional musicians and half student “fellows” from colleges and high schools.The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences proudly partners with Ars Flores as the orchestra provides musical education and collaborative opportunities for the Nova Singers and other campus arts organizations.

Black History Month
As part of NSU’s Black History Month celebration, the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of Public Affairs co-sponsored a February film and discussion series to focus on important moments in African American history. Films were followed with discussions about film, law, and history moderated by members of the faculty.

The Long Walk Home—Sissy Spacek and Whoopi Goldberg in a film about the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott. Discussion Moderators: Gary Gershman, Ph.D. (Division of Humanities) and Robin Sherman, Ph.D. (Division of Math, Science, and Technology).
BaadAsssss Cinema— A documentary examining the short-lived but deeply influential 1970s black independent film movement now known as “blaxploitation.” Discussion Moderators: Allison Brimmer, Ph.D. and Chetachi Egwu, Ph.D. (Division of Humanities).
The Challenge of Freedom—Episode four of the PBS series Slavery and the Making of America, which covers the Civil War to the start of the Civil Rights Movement. Discussion Moderators: Eileen Smith, Ph.D. and Alicia Jackson,Ph.D. (Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences).

As part of NSU’s Black History Month celebration, David P. Kilroy, Ph.D., associate professor of history in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Humanities, lectured in February on the role of African Americans in the U.S. Military. In his presentation, Kilroy focused on the subject of his 2003 book, For Race and Country: The Life and Career of Colonel Charles Young. Colonel Charles Young served at the turn of the 19th century and up until 1917 was the highest-ranking African American officer in the U.S. Army. A history of Young's life transcends the fields of military, diplomatic, and African American history.

As part of NSU’s Black History Month celebration, the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences and the Alvin Sherman Library cosponsored “A Literary Explosion” at the Sherman Library in February. The event featured readings by local writers and an open mic session in the second floor gallery of the library where the art exhibition “Rock My Soul: The Black Legacy of Rock and Roll,” is on display. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority’s Upsilon Xi Omega Chapter sponsored the event’s reception.

Film Series
The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences is sponsoring a film series that explores the theme of “Good and Evil.” Weylin Sternglanz, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology in the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences organized the series. Crash (2005) was shown in January, Europa, Europa (1999) was shown in February, and Born into Brothels (2004) will be shown Thursday, March 16, 2006. All films are followed by a post-film discussion.

Dance Classes
The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences is sponsoring free dance classes during winter semester for all students, faculty, and staff. In February, renowned dance teacher and choreographer Jackie T. taught her unique style of funk, jazz, and hip-hop fusion. Upcoming classes include urban fusion/hip-hop with Zedrick Bumbrey in March and Modern Dance with Soledad Centurion Yedro of the Miami Contemporary Dance Company in April. Classes are organized by Chetachi Egwu, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Humanities.

Student Sevices
The Fifth Annual Graduate Schools Planning Day—sponsored by the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences—was held in February. Representatives from NSU graduate programs, as well as from programs at other universities, were there to meet with students, answer questions, and provide application materials. A wide variety of disciplines were represented. Other institutions represented include the University of Miami, the University of Central Florida, Barry University, Florida State University, Saint Thomas University, and the University of South Florida. Students at all levels were encouraged to attend and start planning ahead for their graduate school education.

A series of special writing workshops are being offered to NSU students throughout the winter semester by the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Office of Academic Services. The “Grammar and Writing Process Workshops” are geared toward two student populations—NSU students in general who need support for grammar and the writing process, and students whose first language is not English, who have a greater need for grammar and sentence structure. Mark Jaffe, D.P.M., an assistant professor in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Math, Science, and Technology, brought undergraduate volunteers to January’s Southwest Focal Senior Health Fair in Pembroke Pines for a day of medical outreach. College of Arts and Sciences students Richard Voskoboynikov, Julee Gil, Jasmine Rivas, Shardal Koppar, and Marcia Durity assisted Jaffe, learning hands-on how to perform a lower extremity Health Fair screening history and physical exam. They screened over 30 people in a little over an hour. The students also networked with graduate students from NSU’s College of Occupational Therapy. This is the second year Jaffe and his students—under the auspices of the NSU Health Professions Division’s Senior Services Team—are performing health care outreach.

The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Office of Admissions is seeking undergraduate students interested in returning to their high school during Spring Break to speak with prospective students and guidance counselors about their experience at NSU. Participating students will receive a $50 bookstore gift certificate.

Farquhar Forum
The Fall 2005 issue of the Farquhar Forum, the community magazine of the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences, is online. The Farquhar Forum highlights accomplishments and activities of the college’s faculty, students, and alumni. The fall issue includes articles on several key college programs and activities, including the college’s current annual theme (“Good and Evil”), as well as profiles of study abroad programs in the Amazon, the “Psychology View From NSU” television show, and student research in genomics. The magazine is published twice a year by the college’s Office of Information Services.