LSU'S Biweekly Newsletter for Faculty & Staff
June 16, 2006 |
VOL. 22, NO. 20 |
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| Volunteers at LSU’s 24-hour hurricane information hotline, which was established and staffed by the Office of Public Affairs, received approximately 6,500 calls from students, parents and citizens affected by the hurricane. |
The LSU Office of Public Affairs was awarded the Public Relations Society of America’s 2006 Silver Anvil Award of Excellence Thursday, June 8, at the Silver Anvil Awards Evening in New York.
LSU won in the national Crisis Communications – Government category for the LSU Office of Public Affairs’ “LSU Managing Crisis Communications through Hurricane Katrina.” The category involves entrants that have undertaken programs to deal with an unplanned event, requiring an immediate response.
According to PRSA, the award is given annually to an organization that has successfully addressed a contemporary issue with exemplary professional skill, creativity and resourcefulness. They must meet the highest standards of performance in the profession.
During Hurricane Katrina, the Office of Public Affairs was responsible for establishing and manning a 24-hour call center, handling and credentialing some 100 international and national media representatives that came to LSU, communicating news with the state and Baton Rouge and LSU communities, creating and maintaining a hurricane Web site and employing a crisis communication command structure for critical information and for decisions to be filtered down from LSU’s Emergency Operations Center. The department shortly thereafter developed an outreach program to share LSU’s campus model for disaster recovery and to impart key lessons learned with other universities and organizations through presentations and the book “LSU in the Eye of the Storm.”
Accepting the award on behalf of the Office of Public Affairs were Kristine Calongne, media relations director; Robin Kistler, marketing strategist; and Teresa Devlin, communications director.
This year’s competition received more than 700 entries. There were 100 finalists in the award’s categories.
PRSA is the world’s largest organization for public relations professionals. The society has more than 28,000 professional and student members. PRSA is organized into 112 chapters nationwide. The Public Relations Student Society of America has 255 chapters at colleges and universities throughout the United States, one of which is located on LSU’s campus. PRSA has established itself as the pre-eminent organization that builds value, demand and global understanding for public relations.
To see a list of winners, visit the PRSA Web site at www.prsa.org and click on “Anvil Awards” under “Connecting in PRSA” then choose “Silver Anvil Award.”
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| Stephen Lucas |
Stephen Lucas, executive director of the LSU Office of International Programs, died unexpectedly on May 23 in Italy, while on vacation with his wife celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. He was 69 years old.
Lucas, who had traveled the world extensively, was a former intelligence analyst and operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency for 15 years. He spent time living and working in Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Italy, France, Portugal, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Madagascar and Mozambique. He was also widely traveled in Europe, Africa and Latin America, and was proficient in several languages, including French, Swahili, Portuguese and Spanish.
He became executive director of international programs at LSU in 2001, and prior to that, held several other positions at LSU, including director of Academic Programs Abroad, director of development for the Office of International Programs, special assistant to the provost and special assistant to the vice chancellor for research and economic development.
He was also an associate professor at LSU, teaching such courses as Swahili language, Contemporary Africa, International Studies: Globalization and Regionalization, and Intelligence and Democracy. He had previously taught in Tanzania, France and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“The unexpected passing of Stephen Lucas is a great loss to LSU,” said LSU Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Risa Palm. “Stephen brought a broad array of experience and knowledge to his students, and played a critical role here in international programs. While international enrollment at most colleges and universities in the nation was on the decline, LSU’s international enrollment was holding steady. He understood the benefits of international diversity and was a tireless advocate for expanding the international experience of our students.”
Lucas graduated from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., in 1960 with a degree in mathematics and a minor in French. He received a degree from Universite de l’Etat in the Congo in 1964 in political and administrative science, and earned a degree from Ecole Nationale des Langues Orientales Vivantes in France in 1967 in Bantu languages with a specialization in Swahili. He also received a doctorate in sociology in 1968 from Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in France, with an emphasis in African political anthropology.
Lucas was the author of several journal articles and books, and was a member of the African Studies Association, the African Language Teachers Association, the National Association of Foreign Student Advisors, the French-American Chamber of Commerce, the Foreign Relations Association, Friends of French and Rotary International.
He is survived by his wife, Sandi, and their grown children. A memorial service in honor of Lucas was held on June 1, at St. Alban’s Chapel.
The LSU Board of Supervisors approved the following measures during its June meeting.
In other news:
The LSU Union Art Gallery Committee is sending out a call to LSU alumni requesting their photographs and college memorabilia. The photographs may be used in conjunction with an upcoming fall 2006 exhibit, “LSU Past and Present: Student Life at LSU (1869—1973),” which will also feature materials from the LSU archive collections and the LSU Textile & Costumes Museum.
The committee is looking for photographs and memorabilia focusing on student life at LSU prior to 1973. The photographs and memorabilia may focus on dorm or barracks life, student clubs or organizations, sports teams or other aspects of student life.
If you are interested in participating in this exhibit, please contact Sara Cowie at 225-578-5117 or unionartgallery@lsu.edu.
Any photographs or memorabilia selected for the exhibit will be on display in the LSU Union Art Gallery from Nov. 10–Dec. 10, 2006. The deadline to respond is Friday, June 30.
The LSU Union Art Gallery Committee and the LSU Folks’ Art Committee have opened the “2006 LSU Folks’ Art Show: Artistic Endeavors of Employees, Past and Present.” This fifth-annual exhibit showcases the artistic hobbies LSU faculty, staff, student employees and retirees explore outside their jobs. The exhibit will be on display through July 23. The show is free and open to the public.
The selection committee that reviewed the entries consisted of two current staff members and two past staff members: Dave Besse, LSU Union business manager; Paul Dietzel, retired LSU football coach and athletic director; Mary Lee Eggart, research associate in the Department of Geography and Anthropology; and Don Purvis, retired associate director of the LSU Union.
The mediums selected for inclusion in this exhibit range from photography and watercolor to fabric and jewelry. In addition, the special featured area of the 2006 LSU Folks’ Art Show is the Scope on a Rope, or SOAR, microscope developed at LSU. SOAR is an adaptation of the 1992 model for a study of microscope use in schools.
The exhibit features 53 works by 37 participants: M. Rodwan Abouharb, political science; Sissy Albertine, Hill Memorial Library; Luz Barona, basic sciences; Danielle Billings, human ecology; Joy Bruce, plant pathology & crop physiology; Kate Carpenter, AgCenter; Nancy Colyar, library systems; Vivian Cupples, independent study; Teresa Devlin, public affairs; Kevin Duffy, digital imaging; Mary Lee Eggart, geography & anthropology; Jade Ethridge, strategic initiatives; Sandra Gillen, purchasing; Bea Gyimah, leisure classes; Patrick Hesp, geography & anthropology; Therese Knowles, lab school; Becky Larkin, English department; Mona Lemoyne, AgCenter communications; Roberta Loflin, leisure classes; Mona McGehee, Foster Hall; Joanne McMullen, evening school; Robert McMullen, mass communications (retired); Robert Mirabello, horticulture; Betsy Neely, AgCenter; David Rousmaniere, Student Health Center; Kaustuv Roy, education; Julie Ruckstuhl, Union marketing; Karen Sirman, information technology services; Floris St. Amant, Middleton Library; Laura Teague, communication science and disorders; Donna Torres, accounting services; Christina Ufford, Union programs; Carol Wandersee, Union business office; Erin Wilbanks, LSU Dairy Store; Vincent L. Wilson, environmental studies; Rick Young, geology & geophysics; and Shirley Young, sponsored programs.
The LSU Union Art Gallery hours are 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday–Friday, and 1 p.m.–5 p.m. on Sundays.
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| WorldCom whistle-blower Cynthia Cooper |
The LSU Center for Internal Auditing is considered the best in the country, and it got even better when WorldCom whistle-blower Cynthia Cooper shared a week with about 160 IA students by teaching an intense case studies class.
The class, taught May 15-19, provided intense training for undergraduate and graduate students in the Center for Internal Auditing. According to Glenn Sumners, director of the CIA program in LSU’s E. J. Ourso College of Business, the course’s purpose is to prepare students for the upcoming internships and jobs that they will begin in the summer and fall.
Students in the course spent eight hours a day for five days in the classroom, and another eight hours outside the classroom preparing for the two presentations that they were required to give every day. The course focuses heavily on presentation skills, working as a team, dealing with stress and ethical practices, Sumners said.
Cooper’s instruction of the students was based on her first-hand experience of ferreting out the biggest corporate fraud case in U.S. history. As vice president of internal audit for WorldCom, she revealed to the company’s audit committee in 2002 that the telecommunications firm was improperly booking expenses – $3.8 billion – in order to inflate profits. Her exposure of corporate fraud was the beginning of what would result in the end for WorldCom.
As one of the teachers within the case studies class, Cooper shared in detail her WorldCom story about the challenges she faced along the way. Putting a human face to a practitioner in the industry and hearing about the challenges and courage that it takes to be a part of the internal auditing profession is what students said interested and inspired them the most about Cooper’s presentation.
“She held our attention for three hours straight, even though we only had three hours of sleep the night before. She is an incredible presenter and her story really showed us how hard the profession can be,” said Sara Bounds, a graduate student in internal auditing.
Along with sharing her story and teaching a class section, she also provided valuable critiques for students on their presentation skills.
“First she gave positive feedback and then she went into what we were doing wrong,” Bounds said. “I felt her comments were very helpful.”
Cooper brought attention to the internal auditing industry, which is considered to still be in its infancy compared to other business professions. For her courage and fortitude, TIME Magazine named her a Person of the Year in 2002. In Cooper’s honor, the E. J. Ourso College created the “Cynthia Cooper Award.” It is awarded each year to an internal auditing student who exhibits the highest level of integrity in his or her studies throughout the program. Cooper also serves the E. J. Ourso College in an advisory capacity as the chair of the advisory board for the CIA. Cooper will also address an audience of professionals during an upcoming LSU Fraud and Forensic accounting conference to be held July17-18.
“LSU is very grateful to Cynthia Cooper for spending a week as a ‘visiting professor’ with our internal audit students,” said Robert Sumichrast, dean of the Ourso College. “I know this is a class that will really stand out for them.”
Case studies is just one of the courses that students take to follow the path to an IA concentration. It is considered a capstone course that combines the knowledge of all courses taken in accounting, finance, entrepreneurship and information systems and decision sciences.
The IA concentration takes a year to complete and is mostly composed of a culturally diverse multidisciplinary group of students. Founded in 1985, LSU’s CIA program is the oldest and largest in the country, with more than 200 students. Among practitioners in accounting and auditing fields it is considered the gold standard of internal auditing programs.
For 22 years LSU CIA has been turning out highly sought-after students. Fifteen times in the past 18 years, LSU CIA students have received the “Student CIA Highest Achievement Award” on the international CIA exam. All of the four big accounting firms recruit at LSU and some only hire LSU students for their selective internship programs.