LSU'S Biweekly Newsletter for Faculty & Staff
May 20, 2005 |
VOL. 21, NO.164 |
On Monday, May 30, LSU will honor former students and veterans who have given their lives in service to their country with a Memorial Day Ceremony. The ceremony, which is open to the public, will begin at noon on the Parade Ground at the LSU War Memorial.
The event will include a wreath-laying ceremony and the unveiling of the name of 1st Lt. Christopher William Barnett, an LSU alumnus who was killed last December in Iraq. Lt. Barnett was assigned to the Army National Guard, 1st Battalion, 156th Armor Regiment, 256th Brigade Combat Team. He was a native of Denham Springs and is survived by his wife, Amanda, his parents, Bob and Judy, and his brother, Jim. Lt. Barnett was a 2001 graduate of LSU.
Barnett is the second addition to the War Memorial in the past two years. Last year, Navy Lt. Michael “Scotty” Lamana, LSU alumnus who was killed in the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon, was added to the memorial.
The LSU Memorial Day Ceremony, co-sponsored by LSU and Cadets of the Ole War Skule, will include the tribute to Barnett, presentation of an etched rendering of his name to his wife and the playing of taps. In addition, Maj. Gen. Bennett C. Landreneau, Adjutant General for the State of Louisiana, will serve as the keynote speaker. Brig. Gen. Hunt Downer, Assistant Adjutant General, will also participate in the ceremony. William L. Jenkins, president of the LSU System, will represent LSU.
Following the ceremony, there will be a “Dutch Treat” Memorial Day Luncheon at the LSU Faculty Club. Attendees will include members of the Barnett family and their friends, as well as veterans. The cost of the luncheon is $15 per person, and reservations are required. Those planning to attend the luncheon must RSVP no later than Thursday, May 26.
To RSVP or to receive more information about the ceremony, contact the Cadets of the Ole War Skule at 225-578-0420, toll free at 1-866-SALUTES or via email at cadets@lsu.edu.
Louisiana State University has awarded “Foundations of Excellence” status to seven departments, following a rigorous performance review by a panel of top university academicians and administrators.
Chancellor Sean O’Keefe announced the five-year designations, which were recommended by the University Planning Council, or UPC, for the departments of biological sciences, chemistry, English, mass communication, mathematics, music and physics.
“ At a time when we’re demanding that incoming students meet higher academic standards consistent with LSU’s National Flagship Agenda to advance this world-class, public research university, we’re raising the bar for our departments,” said O’Keefe.
This spring, all LSU colleges and departments were invited to compete for the excellence designation in a series of presentations before the 17-member UPC, which is made up of a cross-section of LSU’s leading faculty, including several Boyd and Alumni professors, representing the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and professional schools, along with senior university administrators.
“ The most important element of the Flagship Agenda is the development of departments, schools and colleges that are of nationally competitive caliber,” said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Risa Palm. “As LSU strides toward national prominence, we need to identify the early leaders, those units whose strength can become the basis for an ever-stronger faculty and curriculum.”
Recognition as a “Foundation of Excellence,” the university’s top departmental honor, brings additional funding for enriching faculty pay and graduate student stipends in hopes of drawing high-quality students and faculty to LSU.
“ Recruiting and retaining top-quality faculty raises LSU’s prospects of winning competitive government and corporate grants,” said O’Keefe. “Prestigious faculties, in turn, attract undergraduates with higher grade-point averages and test scores, improving graduation and retention rates.”
Selection as a Foundation department is based on a demanding assessment by the UPC that includes the national and international reputations of individual faculty, a review of graduate programs, an appraisal of collaborative efforts with other departments and reviews of academic progress. “The University Planning Council reached a consensus that seven of these units are particularly meritorious and should be designated ‘Foundations of Excellence’ for a new five-year term,” said Palm.
The “Foundations of Excellence” program originally targeted 12 departments for enhanced resource allocation when the effort was launched in 1999, under the theory that extra funding helps strong departments advance more quickly to national and international prominence. The new peer-review process was organized by the UPC at O’Keefe’s request shortly after becoming chancellor earlier this year. The UPC strategy effectively turns over the recommendation process to a panel of eminent university leaders and includes a number of exacting selection criteria.
“ We have fundamentally changed the way our departments are judged, making it much more difficult to achieve this level of distinction,” O’Keefe pointed out. “This process is important to demonstrate national, as well as regional, academic excellence and competitiveness.”
The seven departments newly awarded Foundation status were among the dozen departments so designated five years ago. To date, more than $5.5 million has been awarded under the program for graduate scholar awards and faculty salary supplements. Units not re-designated as Foundations will retain faculty salary enrichments already awarded.
UPC member Thomas Lynch, a professor of public administration, stressed that all departments that took part demonstrated “remarkable improvements over the past five years.”
“ I think we need to stress that the concept of the Flagship Agenda is working and our departments are focusing their efforts on achieving excellence,” Lynch said.
As a continuous quality improvement effort, all LSU units not selected will have another opportunity to compete for Foundation status in the spring of 2007. “These departments are clearly making significant progress, and with some changes, could become eligible for designation in the near future,” Palm noted.
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| LSU students Zoltan Milic, Dzenita Maslo, Amra Durmisevic and Belma Dinar call LSU alumna and Board of Supervisors member Laura Leach (center) their U.S. mama. For the past six years, Leach has sponsored the education of six international students from Bosnia and Croatia. Not photographed are Roberta Skegro and Armin Dinar. |
Mother of three and grandmother of eight, Laura Leach, a Lake Charles resident, LSU alumna and Board of Supervisors member, has her hands full when it comes to entertaining during the holidays and at family gatherings. But when her brother-in-law, Creighton Owen, asked her to accept five more children into her life, she agreed to support and watch over them without hesitation.
On a hot, steamy, Aug. 9 afternoon in 1999, three girls, Dzenita Maslo, Amra Durmisevic and Roberta Skegro, and two boys, Zoltan Milic and Armin Dinar, stepped off the plane in New Orleans, where Leach warmly welcomed her new family members from Sarajevo, Bosnia, and Split, Croatia. The students, who were in their twenties when they arrived, lived through the destruction of the four-year-long Serbian military siege of Sarajevo. At the war’s end in 1995, the young people were hired as English interpreters and translators to assist a group of retired U.S. military officers in rebuilding the Bosnian Federation army. As a thank you for the students’ aid, Army Brig. Gen. Herb Lloyd, an alumnus of Fort Polk in North Louisiana and one of the commanding officers in rebuilding efforts, offered the students a chance to attend an American university since many of the universities in their home countries were destroyed in the war. Recognizing the opportunity of a lifetime, the students immediately accepted Lloyd’s offer. On Memorial Day weekend in 1999, Leach learned about the students though Owen, executive director at Fort Polk, and thus began her quest to find a new home and educational opportunities for them at LSU.
Now, almost six years later, “Mama Leach,” as her new children have come to call her, will watch with pride on Friday, May 20, as Durmisevic, Skegro, and Milic graduate with master’s degrees during LSU’s spring commencement exercises. Skegro and Milic will each receive a Master’s of Public Administration, while Durmisevic will graduate with a Master’s of Business Administration. Maslo will graduate in December with an M.P.A. Dinar, who graduated in 2002 with an undergraduate degree in Information Systems and Decision Sciences and is currently employed in Orlando, Fla., for Hughes Supply Inc. as an internal auditor, will return this summer to Baton Rouge to begin an M.B.A. and be reunited with his wife, Belma Dinar. Belma came to Baton Rouge in the fall of 2002 to work on a bachelor’s degree in business and will graduate in 2006. Leach said that she will be in the front row to cheer on her students as they receive their diplomas.
“ It will be a proud day,” Leach said gleefully.
Throughout their years at LSU, the students have not only received their undergraduate degrees, but they also got a taste of Louisiana alligator and crawfish, thanks to Mama Leach. The students have taught other students in Karl Roider’s history classes by retelling their own stories of living through the war. But overall, the students all say that just living in the United States is their most valued experience, and they are grateful to LSU, Leach and Lloyd for providing them the opportunity to go to college in the United States.
“ It was not only the education, it was the whole experience. It’s six years somewhere else,” Durmisevic said with tearful sincerity. “Education is like icing on the cake. It is hard for us to explain to you about what this opportunity means. But for us, it means the world!”
It was not that long ago that these students’ futures didn’t seem so bright. From April 4, 1991, through Nov. 21, 1995, the Bosnian students lived in a city under round-the-clock military siege. They witnessed their country destroyed, friends killed and discovered that neighbors were now mortal enemies.
“ For four years of the war, we had no electricity, water, heat or food. I was on bread and water for two years. We were shot at constantly for 24 hours of the day. Bombs were all over the place, and we could not go anywhere,” Durmisevic said. “Things were negative, negative, negative for quite some time in our lives, and then suddenly we came over here and got unconditional love and support from somebody we never knew or even met before.”
The extent of Mama Leach’s love came in the form of emotional and material support and providing a family base back in Lake Charles where the students were welcomed with open arms.
“ We had extreme luck with Mama in our corner, rooting for us all the way,” Milic said. “While we had a cultural adjustment to go through and some other issues that were bothering us along the way, those existential worries were pretty much resolved by giving a telephone call to Mama. We were absolutely privileged. We were cared for and carefree, just due to Mama Leach.”
This summer, Durmisevic has a full-time position lined up with Deloitte and Touche in Washington, D.C. Maslo will also intern with the accounting firm this summer. Skegro and Milic said they are searching for jobs, but will return to Bosnia and Croatia in June should they not find something in the United States immediately.
Once on their own and established in their careers they express desires to help the people of Bosnia. Maslo said she would like to “completely change the educational system back home,” while Belma, a former elementary school teacher, said she wants to build a library for the school where she worked. At the time she was there, she said there were only 15 books, and about 200 children.
“ It is one of the things I would like to do first when I get rich,” Belma said.
Leach said she plans to stay connected with the students after they leave the university and hopes to visit them one day in Sarajevo.
“ I consider it to be a great privilege and an honor to have known these young people,” Leach said. “I am delighted that it happened.”
The LSU Foundation, LSU Alumni Association and Tiger Athletic Foundation have each donated $12,000 to the LSU Tsunami Student Relief Fund to provide aid to six LSU students whose families were affected by the devastating tsunami last December.
The funds will be used to cover scholarships, books, fees and some living expenses for the students, two of whom are from India, and four of whom are from Sri Lanka.
“ At a time when the families of the tsunami victims need help most, it is great to see the LSU family step up and provide much-needed assistance,” Chancellor Sean O’Keefe said. “With all the challenges they are confronting, coverage of the cost of continuing their education will help ease the terrible burden of rebuilding their lives.”
University faculty, staff and students established the LSU Tsunami Student Relief Fund in January to assist LSU students who were affected by the tsunami. The fund was designed to provide financial assistance on a case-by-case basis to tsunami-affected LSU students. The fund is monitored by the director of the Office of Student Aid & Scholarships. Students eligible to receive aid were identified by LSU’s International Services Office, and each case was reviewed by a committee that was selected by LSU System President William Jenkins.
The fund was established through the LSU Foundation and is still accepting contributions. Donations may be sent to the LSU Foundation, Lod Cook Alumni Center, 3838 W. Lakeshore Dr., Baton Rouge, LA 70808. Checks should be made out to “LSU Foundation – LSU Tsunami Student Relief Fund.” Contributions can also be made via the LSU Foundation’s Web site at http://www.lsufoundation.org.
The LSU Manship School of Mass Communication and the LSU Health Sciences Center have created an innovative program that combines medicine and media.
Dr. Wesley Cook, a physician in internal medicine with the LSU Internal Medicine Residency in Baton Rouge, will spend a year as a visiting assistant professor in the Manship School beginning July 1. Cook will team teach courses in health communication and write about medical issues such as ethics, perceptions of doctors, prescriptions from Canada, advanced directives and patient responsibilities.
Cook will also work with the Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs and its survey research lab – the Public Policy Research Lab – to assist with interpreting data on state and national health-care policy issues. He will also collaborate with mass communication faculty on writing National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation research grants.
“The Baton Rouge Area Foundation has made it possible for the LSU Internal Medicine Residency in Baton Rouge to provide one of its talented physicians with a non-traditional opportunity,” said Dr. George Karam, the Paula Garvey Manship Professor of Medicine and program director of Cook’s residency. “Dr. Cook’s experience in the Manship School will deepen his ability to communicate critical medical information and policies to patients and the public.”
Cook graduated from the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans in 2002 and will complete his internal medicine residency on June 30 in Baton Rouge.
The Baton Rouge Area Foundation is the primary sponsor of this innovative program.
“It is important to provide a platform where a diversity of professionals can come together to explore health policies and their impact on citizens,” said John Davies, president and chief executive officer of the Foundation.
The Manship School has hosted national conferences on health and environmental issues and has faculty members with expertise in these areas.
“We want our students to be trained in reporting medical news and in helping the public understand complex medical issues. I hope this is only the beginning of other innovative partnerships we can provide for our students and faculty,” said John M. Hamilton, dean of the Manship School.
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| Chancellor Sean O’Keefe speaks with Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Cambre at the official announcement of the family’s donation to the College of Engineering. |
The LSU College of Engineering received a major boost in funding for its new chemical engineering facility thanks to a $1.25 million gift from engineering alumnus Ronald Cambre and his wife, Gail Burguieres Cambre.
Ron Cambre, a native of New Orleans, is the former CEO of the largest gold-producing company in the world, Newmont Mining Corp. Cambre recently retired from a career in engineering spanning four decades and is recognized as one of the College of Engineering’s most distinguished alumni.
Cambre officially announced his gift in a meeting with LSU Chancellor Sean O’Keefe on Thursday, May 5.
“Mr. Cambre’s generosity will have a lasting impact on Louisiana State University and the College of Engineering,” said retired U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. William G. Bowdon, president of the LSU Foundation. “It is inspiring to see people who are so accomplished in their fields return to LSU and create a better educational environment for our young people. Without question, Mr. Cambre will be a key figure in keeping LSU’s College of Engineering among the top programs in the United States,” said Bowdon.
LSU’s new chemical engineering facility is still in the planning stages, but when complete, the new building will feature classroom and laboratory facilities equipped with the latest technology and will almost double chemical engineering’s usable space on campus, ensuring that LSU remains at the forefront of chemical engineering programs. Cambre’s gift will be the cornerstone of a drive by engineering alumni to secure the remaining funds necessary for construction.