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Campus News
Aerospace engineer Donna L. Shirley broke gender barriers to become a pioneer in space exploration, motivating other women to follow their dreams regardless of the obstacles. On Sunday, May 16, she will inspire a new generation of young Americans when she speaks to graduates of Susquehanna University during the 2004 commencement ceremony at Nicholas A. Lopardo Stadium.
The ceremony, which begins at 2:30 p.m., marks the close of Susquehanna's 146th academic year. Four-hundred-and-twenty-six students are expected to receive bachelor's degrees and eight will receive associate degrees. Commencement will be preceded by baccalaureate exercises at 10 a.m. in Weber Chapel Auditorium. The Rev. Mark Wm. Radecke, university chaplain, will deliver the baccalaureate address.
As head of NASA's $150-million-a-year Mars Exploration Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Cal., Shirley was the original leader of the team that built the Sojourner Rover. Placed on the surface of Mars, the robotic vehicle allowed researchers to virtually walk around and inspect the planet's terrain. This was a first for space exploration. Never before had anyone sent an automated vehicle to the surface of another planet. The rover Sojourner, named after 19th-century abolitionist and former slave Sojourner Truth, accompanied the Pathfinder shuttle to Mars on July 4, 1997. The mission was considered an overwhelming success, capturing the attention of the international media and public.
Shirley joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1966 as the only female engineer, and worked in 24 different positions before achieving her lifelong dream to explore the mysterious red planet. Prior to the groundbreaking Sojourner project, Shirley was a mission analyst for the Mariner 10 Venus-Mercury expedition, which provided NASA with thousands of photographs of Venus and Mercury in the early 1970s. In 1979, Shirley led a project to study Saturn. Her team's work would later be used to launch the Cossini mission, which in 1997 sent probes to Saturn and its moon Titan, as well as to asteroids and a comet. In the 1980s, she led a study on making a user-friendly space station with the potential to provide income for NASA. While working on this endeavor, she began to develop her interest in robotics, which she parlayed nicely into her work on the Pathfinder mission.
Shirley joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1966 as the only female engineer. Over the years, she has held more than 20 different positions including mission analyst for the Mariner 10 Venus-Mercury expedition, which provided NASA with thousands of photographs of Venus and Mercury in the early 1970s, and project leader for a study of Saturn, later used to launch the Cossini mission which in 1997 sent probes to Saturn and its moon Titan, as well as to asteroids and a comet.
In recognition of her achievements, Shirley will be presented with an honorary doctor of science degree from Susquehanna University. Industrialist Spencer H. Wright will also receive an honorary doctorate during Susquehanna's commencement ceremony.
In 1977 the Harrisburg, Pa., native founded Spencer Wright Industries -- a privately held mid-size multinational manufacturer of carpet tufting and textile machines with major subsidiaries in the United States and England. With the acquisition of more companies, including some in Germany and Japan, Spencer Wright Industries became the largest in its worldwide market.
Prior to this, Wright served as vice president and general manager of Singer's worldwide tufting machinery operation. For more than five years in the 1980s, he was chairman, president and chief executive officer of the second largest publicly held financial institution in the Chattanooga, Tenn., area.
In 1994, he established the Wright-Bentley Foundation to fund scholarships in higher education. The Wright-Bentley Distinguished Student Service Scholarship was the first award established by the foundation, followed later by the Bentley Challenge and Alumni Scholarship Program. To date, 63 Susquehanna students have received awards through the distinguished and alumni scholarships. Wright also established the Pastor Raymond Shaheen Scholarship Endowment, in honor of Raymond Shaheen '37, H'99, his former pastor and long-time friend who serves as special assistant to the president of Susquehanna University. During commencement exercises, the university will honor Wright with an honorary doctorate of laws.
Students at Susquehanna will have the option of a new interdepartmental major in ecology beginning in the fall of 2004. Offered jointly by the biology and geological and environmental science departments, the new major will focus on the mechanisms and makings of ecosystems, and how organisms interact with their environments.
"I am very optimistic that this will become an important contributor to the sciences at SU and ultimately will truly bridge the disciplines," says Associate Professor David Richard, head of the biology department.
The new major reflects department capabilities and students interests: at least seven students have created similar programs previously through Susquehanna's self-designed major option.
The major will include new courses such as Ecosystems and Introduction to Ecology, as well as established classes like Systematic Biology, Limnology, Animal Behavior, Field Botany, Wetlands Analysis, Geographic Information Systems, and Sedimentology. The major also requires two semesters of student research.
As with all of Susquehanna's science programs, the ecology major will emphasize hands-on work with faculty in both the departments of biology and geological and environmental sciences. Professor of Biology Jack Holt has been named coordinator.
Students will also be able to gain experience at the new Susquehanna University Ecology Research Center (ERC), conveniently located across Sassafras Avenue within easy walking distance to campus. The 20-acre site will provide an outdoor laboratory for formal coursework as well as independent and collaborative work in the areas of terrestrial, landscape, restoration, and agroecology research.
Students will also have access to the Camp Karoondinha station in Union County in addition to studying several area wetlands, marshes, and state parks. It is also likely that majors will contribute to the university's ongoing research at the Centralia mine fire.
Just when you thought you'd seen it all in college guides, a new web-based guide has emerged that promises to capture what really matters in choosing a college. Colleges of Distinction does not rank colleges, rather it aims to provide students, counselors and parents with information about schools that excel in four key areas:
a strong focus on teaching undergraduates, engaging students in a wide variety of innovative learning experiences, presenting many opportunities for personal development on an active campus, and being highly valued by graduate schools and employers for outstanding preparation.
Susquehanna is one of about 150 colleges and universities selected for inclusion in the guide by high school guidance counselors, concerned parents, and college admission professionals. According to author Wes Creel, today's high school senior "is faced with a college search that is pressure-filled and highly commercial in nature. A world of publications exists just to offer rankings for colleges...often these rankings do not take into account what really matters about a college." The guide seeks to give students, counselors, and parents an unbiased look at the college admissions process, empower families to evaluate colleges, and introduce them to a national group of colleges and universities that excel in the four areas of distinction.
The Web site recognizes that "Susquehanna University encourages high achievement, ethical leadership and service to others, and makes it easy for students to customize their four years of study with internships, student-faculty research and exciting off-campus experiences." To read more about what makes Susquehanna a distinctive college, go to www.collegesofdistinction.com and click on college search.
Susquehanna's virtual tour, online at www.susqu.edu/tour/, was recently honored with the CampusTours.com 4-Star Virtual College Tour award for April 2004. This Web site, found at www.CampusTours.com, honors a select college tours each month.
"Susquehanna University's elegant virtual tour entices students with a good mix of academics, student life and extracurricular activities," said the CampusTours Awards Committee, calling the tour "an excellent online excursion."
Visiting Scholar-in-Residence Mary Catherine Bateson, an eminent writer and cultural anthropologist who has focused most of her work on the lives of women, was the keynote speaker for the 2004 Annual Conference of the Mid-Atlantic Women's Studies Association (MAWSA) hosted by Susquehanna University on Saturday, Feb. 21.
Bateson spoke on "Women as Pioneers of Lifelong Learning" at the conference, "Women in Rural Communities: Maintaining Activism, Cultivating New Experiences, Advancing Scholarship." Geisinger Health System and Sunbury (Pa.) Community Hospital co-sponsored the event.
Diverse panels throughout the day related to women's studies teaching, research, health care, and the experiences of rural women in Pennsylvania and around the world. Specific topics include the status of reproductive freedom in Pennsylvania and violence against women in rural Pennsylvania.
During her five-day visit to campus Bateson met with Susquehanna students, faculty, and staff in a series of classes and receptions. She also met with 18 visiting gifted high school students from the Washington, D.C., SEED Public Charter School founded by the Schools for Educational Evolution and Development (SEED) Foundation as the first inner-city public boarding school for grades 7 through 12.
Bateson is currently spending three years as a visiting professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education. For a decade, she was the Clarence J. Robinson professor in anthropology and English at George Mason University, where she is now professor emerita.
In addition, Bateson serves as president of the Institute for Intercultural Studies. She has written and co-authored many books and articles, and lectured across the country and around the world. Her most recent book, Full Circles, Overlapping Lives, was lauded by The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and several university presidents and scholars.
The Mid-Atlantic Women's Studies Association (MAWSA) is a regional organization, connected to the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA), which was founded in 1977 to further the development of women's studies throughout the world at every educational level and in every setting. Simona Hill, associate professor of sociology at Susquehanna University and organizer of the 2004 conference, is vice president of MAWSA.
Mary Catherine Bateson is just one of many distinguished visitors who helped enrich the learning environment during the spring 2004 semester. Among others who visited campus recently are:
Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School Martin Marty presented "When Faiths Collide," the Alice Pope Shade Lecture on March 23.
Former New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis and retired Maj. Gen. Michael J. Nardotti Jr. engaged in a dialogue on "Liberty and Security? Challenges in a New World Situation," sponsored by the university's Arlin M. Adams Center for Law and Society on March 16.
Vivian Banta, who is vice chairman for insurance at Prudential, and ranked as the 27th most powerful woman in business today by Fortune magazine, presented the annual Sigmund Weis Memorial Lecture on March 29.
Lori Hope Lefkovitz, the Gottesman Kolot professor of gender and Judaism at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Philadelphia, presented the April 18 Yom Hashoah Lecture: "Living in History and Shaping Losses," sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program and the Department of Religion and Philosophy.
Robert Boswell, author of eight critically acclaimed books and a faculty member in the creative writing program at the University of Houston, served as a Visiting Writer in Residence for five days and delivered a public reading on March 31. He was one of four visiting writers reading at Susquehanna during the spring semester.
For information on upcoming events on the Susquehanna campus, log on to www.susqu.edu/pr/calendar2.htm, e-mail commoffice@susqu.edu, or call 570-372-4119 to request a printed calendar of events.
At its winter meeting, Susquehanna University's board of directors approved an increase in tuition and fees for the 2004-05 academic year.
Comprehensive fees for next year - which include tuition and fees, room and board - will total $31,650. The $1,660 increase is 5.5 percent of current fees.
"While we are doing all we can to offer the highest quality educational experience and to control our costs, we know that increases in tuition and fees are a concern," said University President L. Jay Lemons. "We believe they are necessary to fulfill our mission, to remain competitive among the leading national liberal arts colleges, and to respond to other external forces, such as extraordinary increases in health insurance costs. We believe that a Susquehanna education is an exceptional value."
In the year ahead, Susquehanna will add more full-time faculty positions, begin implementation of a new software information system, make modest increases in compensation for faculty and staff, and begin planning and design work for new building projects
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