Anna Robbins Celebrates 50 Years at Rider Even the few Rider students of today who know that Gee Hall was named to honor Bernice Gee have a hard time imagining Rider’s longtime treasurer as someone accessible beyond the sepia-toned memories of the University’s past. To Anna Robbins, however, Bernice Gee is as real as the residence hall that bears her name. It was Gee who brought Robbins into the Rider community as an eager clerical worker back in 1959. Today, Robbins – now Rider’s bursar – still brings the same enthusiasm to her job each day as she did 50 years ago.
Honoring 1,205 Years of Longtimers’ Service The close of the academic year and the passage of another year’s class from students into the legions of Rider University alumni are annual rites of spring on campus. These yearly milestones are met with much fanfare that draws thousands of friends and family members to Lawrenceville every May. But Rider also makes it a point to honor the administrators, faculty and staff members who have kept the institution moving smoothly through these annual cycles. Members of the Rider and Westminster Choir College communities who have devoted 20 or more years of service were fêted by the University on Wednesday, May 6, at the annual Longtimers Reception
Commencement Traffic Advisory Commencement will be held on the Lawrenceville campus on Thursday evening, May 14, for all graduate and CCS students. The undergraduate Commencement ceremony will be held on Friday morning, May 15. With a large number of visitors and vehicle traffic anticipated on both days, the following traffic guidelines will be implemented.
Scholarly Activities - May 2009 Dr. Jack Sullivan, professor of English and American Studies, appears on documentary special features for the following new Alfred Hitchcock DVDs: Rebecca (newly released by MGM), Vertigo (Universal), Rear Window (Universal) and Psycho (Universal). In addition, the paperback version of Sullivan’s book Hitchcock’s Music was cited as one of the Best Paperbacks of the Year by the London Financial Times.
Sethi Earns Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship to Teach in Hyderabad Robbie Clipper Sethi’s writing has seen her weave American culture into that of India, using experiences and observations from her own narrative to help shape her fiction. Sethi, a professor of English, will now be able to meld her American perspectives with those of students at the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in Hyderabad, India, through the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship she was awarded in April. Through the program, Sethi will teach creative writing to IIIT students at the central India campus.
Naar’s Work Purchased for Permanent Vassar Collection Harry I. Naar’s drawing Tangled View was selected for purchase through the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Hassam, Speicher, Betts and Symons Fund and has been accepted into the permanent collection of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The black-and-white ink drawing was one of four works Naar was invited to display at the Academy’s Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts this spring.
Praise for Rider’s Prudence and Cooperation at University Update Address Collaborative contingency planning and disciplined budgeting have helped Rider University weather the turbulent economic times thus far, according to President Mordechai Rozanski, who spoke to an audience of administrators, faculty, staff and students at the University Update Address in the Bart Luedeke Center Cavalla Room on Tuesday, April 21.
Scholarly Activities - April 2009 Jean Kutcher, administrative director of the Teaching/Learning Center and the Science Education and Literacy Center (SELECT), has received the United States Labor Department grant from the executive committee of the Central Jersey BIO-1 WIRED (Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development) program.
Roderick McDonald Earns Guggenheim Fellowship Dr. Roderick McDonald has spent his entire career researching and teaching Caribbean, Latin American, African American and African history, but if his enthusiasm has flagged one bit, it’s impossible to detect in his manner. McDonald’s passion for his research isn’t his alone, as he recently became the first faculty member in Rider history to earn a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. His was one of just 180 such grants for 2009-10 for artists, scholars and scientists in all fields from across the United States and Canada.
Healy, Wadley Join Annual Giving Team University Advancement recently welcomed two new team members whose energy and expertise is anticipated to bolster the Annual Fund. Ilyndove Healy is the new director of Annual Giving, and Katharine Wadley ’02 is the new associate director of Annual Giving.
On With the Show -- Pat Chmel is Retiring after 31 Years If a Broadway show enjoyed a marvelously successful three-decade run before closing, you could imagine the celebration and fanfare that would surely follow the final curtain. Alas, the curtain is falling on Patrick Chmel’s career at Rider, and his popular 31-year run was celebrated by a cast of hundreds inside the Bart Luedeke Center Cavalla Room on Friday, April 3.
Rutkowski Receives Nancy Gray Award Michael Rutkowski's commitment to Rider University was recently recognized when he was named the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Nancy Gray Award at Rider’s University Day on April 7.
Two Students, One Faculty Member Recognized at Annual Colloquium Two undergraduate students and one faculty member were honored for their commitment to improve the status of women during the annual awards ceremony at the 2009 Gender and Sexuality Studies Program Colloquium on April 2.
One Stop Services & Career Services to Hold Information Sessions About Rider Advantage One Stop Services & Career Services will be holding information sessions about Rider Advantage throughout the month of April. The Rider Advantage rewards academic performance, builds student leadership, and facilitates career planning with a generous incentive grant that helps bridge the tuition gap between your first and second year of college. The grant is awarded in addition to other financial aid and scholarship awards that you may receive, regardless of need.
Prober’s Business of Sports Elective Takes Students Behind the Scenes Pick up the phone and give the defending World Series champions a call, and the first three words you’ll hear from a cheerful receptionist are, “World Champion Phillies!” It’s a fun reminder of the business behind the game, how the marketing minds of Philadelphia’s Major League Baseball franchise eagerly seize the immediate appeal of the team’s recent on-field success.
Scholarly Activities - March 2009 Dr. Hernán Fontanet, assistant professor of Spanish, had his new book, Modelo y subversión en la poética de Leónidas Lamborghini, published by Mellen Press. According to the publisher, Lamborghini is one of the most well known, but least studied, contemporaneous Argentinean poets.
Rider Gets Fit Through Health, Fitness Initiatives A number of members of the Rider community are taking advantage of campus programs geared toward a happy and healthy lifestyle. Through a number of health and wellness initiatives, close to 200 participants, including students, faculty and staff, are reaping the benefits of exercise, healthy eating and teamwork.
Come Celebrate University Day on April 7 The entire Rider community is invited to celebrate University Day on Tuesday, April 7. Traditionally, University Day is celebrated on or near April 13 each year to recognize the day in 1994 when Rider officially achieved university status.
Actors, Director of ‘The Pillowman’ Recognized By Kennedy Center Two actors in Rider’s recent production of The Pillowman, along with the play’s director, received praise for their performances from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. They will be recognized during the Center’s American College Theater Festival next year.
Col. Carey to Receive Alumni Achievement Award from Department of Communication and Journalism Colonel Roger E. Carey, an alumnus of Rider University, will receive the Alumni Achievement Award from the University’s Department of Communication and Journalism on Monday, March 30, at 5 p.m. The award will be presented at the annual Ceremony of Merit, at which students in the department are recognized for exemplary performance in academics and service. Col. Carey will give an address on the importance of pursuing excellence.
Actors, Director of ‘The Pillowman’ Recognized By Kennedy Center Two actors in Rider’s recent production of The Pillowman, along with the play’s director, received praise for their performances from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. They will be recognized during the Center’s American College Theater Festival next year.
Aetna Wellness Presentations March 17 and 25 Human Resources has invited Rider University’s health insurance provider, Aetna, to present an informative seminar entitled Getting the Most Out of Your Health Benefits With Aetna.
Call for Nominations for 2009 Nancy Gray Award The Nancy Gray Award Selection Committee is seeking nominations for this year’s Nancy Gray Award, one of the highlights of University Day, which will be held on April 7. Please submit your nomination no later than March 27, 2009.
Scholarly Activities - March, 2009 Dr. Phillip Lowery of the Department of Biology has received grant funding from the National Institutes of Health for his proposal entitled Mutagenesis and Functional Screening of Casein Kinase 1 Epsilon (CK1e) for Circadian-Relevant Phenotypes. The award is for $188,913 and is for the period of December 1, 2008, through November 30, 2011.
Areas of Exploration -- Franz Tapped to Lead Area Studies Program Dr. Barbara Franz can call upon her own international background in her new role as director of Rider’s Area Studies minor program, but she figures her own varied academic background might provide a more solid foundation than anything else. “It’s a very multidisciplinary program,” said Franz, a native of Austria who studied Communications in her homeland before coming to America to pursue advanced degrees in History and International Relations. “It will really work well with all kinds of majors.”
Small Business Consultants Conceive Winning Ways For years, Rider’s College of Business Administration has encouraged its students to learn, experience and lead. The College’s Small Business Institute (SBI) has taken the concept of “experience” to heart, giving students valuable familiarity with real-life business situations before they even earn their degrees. The results have been fruitful, as two teams from Rider earned national honors for their work at the Small Business Institute Association’s 33rd Annual National Conference from February 12 to 14 in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Picture This -- Naar Selected to Exhibit Works in Academy of Arts and Letters Show Harry Naar is one of just 30 artists from across the United States who have been selected to participate in the Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts by the famed American Academy of Arts and Letters. The participants will be considered for eight awards in art from the exhibit, which will be held in the Academy’s New York gallery from Tuesday, March 10, until Sunday, April 5.
CDLS Offers New Leadership Opportunities Sparked by the new influence of Laura Seplaki, the Center for the Development of Leadership Skills has been offering new activities and programming this year, including a workshop for student athletes and musicians, and a networking event for female student leaders, in order to enhance leadership training university-wide. Seplaki took over the reins as associate director of the Center for the Development of Leadership Skills (CDLS) and director of the Center’s Leadership Development Program (LDP). College of Business Administration Assistant Dean John Farrell is the director of CDLS.
Markoe to Deliver Annual Dominick A. Iorio Research Lecture Andrew Markoe, professor of Mathematics, will present the annual Dominick A. Iorio Research Lecture, Tomography: Medical Imaging from the Mathematical Point of View, on Friday, April 3, in the Daly Dining Hall Princeton Room following a dinner set to begin at 5 p.m.
Deborah Rosenthal to Speak at Spring Semester Faculty Lecture Series The Rider University Faculty Lecture Series is a forum for faculty to share high-quality research primarily with other faculty and administrators. The content of each presentation depends on the faculty member’s current research or artistic interests. Each presentation is approximately forty minutes, followed by a question and answer period, and a reception. Please join us this Thursday, February 26, in the BLC Art Gallery from 5 to 6 p.m. as Deborah Rosenthal, professor of Fine Arts, presents Deep Time: Landscape Metaphors in Abstraction.
TIAA-CREF Open Enrollment Meeting Eligible employees have received an invitation to attend the semiannual TIAA-CREF Open Enrollment meeting scheduled for Friday, March 6, at 10 a.m. in Sweigart Auditorium. All eligible employees will be able to enroll in the University retirement plan effective April 2009.
All Rider employees are also welcome to participate, as our TIAA-CREF representative explains the various investment options and other features of the retirement plan. Enrollment packets and current investment information will be provided at the meeting.
Scholarly Activities Mary Morse, associate professor of English, was one of three speakers invited to the Delaware Valley Medieval Association meeting at Princeton University on December 13. Her paper, Julitta and Quiricus: Childbirth Protectors in Medieval English Manuscripts and Devotional Traditions, examined prayers to the martyred mother-child saints Julitta and Quiricus in a number of English manuscripts, including birthgirdles.
TIAA-CREF Open Enrollment Meeting Eligible employees have received an invitation to attend the semiannual TIAA-CREF Open Enrollment meeting scheduled for Friday, March 6, at 10 a.m. in Sweigart Auditorium. All eligible employees will be able to enroll in the University retirement plan effective April 2009.
Outstanding Citation -- Peters Honored for Bibliographical Excellence Dr. Pearlie-Mae Peters had studied to become a secondary-school English and theater arts teacher while at Grambling State University, but was pushed by her professors to continue her education at the master’s and doctoral level. “My professors thought I had great potential,” said Peters, who graduated with the highest academic average in her program. Their instincts were correct, as Peters recently earned her most recent in a line of professional honors when she received the Modern Language Association Bibliography Fellows Award in San Francisco.
United for a Greater Community Rider University’s campaign in support of the United Way of Greater Mercer County is now under way. An independent, nonprofit organization, United Way plays many roles in its work to address the underlying causes of human problems and to create lasting changes in people’s lives – turning donor investments into results that matter in our neighborhoods.
Eder Teaches in Panama Through Fulbright Program Students in the Management Information Systems seminar, which Dr. Lauren Eder taught at the Universidad de Panama, came well prepared for the midterm. “They came in with ink cartridges and paper, and some students even brought in printers,” Eder said. “In an emerging country like Panama, people do what they need to do to get something done.” Similar to her class, Eder, the chair of the Department of Computer Information Systems, became resourceful and adaptable while she taught the Ph.D. seminar as part of a Fulbright Specialists Program during Rider’s winter break in January.
Materna Accepted into Academy for International Education Dr. Linda Materna, the director of Rider’s Center for International Education, has been accepted into the NAFSA: Association of International Educators’ Academy for International Education. This nine-month program will provide Materna, along with 50 participants from various U.S. universities and institutions, the opportunity to broaden their base of knowledge and network throughout the field of international education.
Rider "Pack the House Challenge" and National Girls and Women in Sports Day on February 15 The Rider University Department of Athletics will compete in the NCAA sponsored "Pack the House" Challenge on Sunday, February 15 during its women's basketball game against Niagara University at 2 p.m. The goal of the program is for each participating school to set a women's basketball attendance record.
Painted from Memory – Deborah Rosenthal’s Work Reveals the Landscape of Her Thoughts Deborah Rosenthal chuckles a bit at the inquiry, and you know it’s not the first time she’s heard it. She repeats the question just asked of her: “What kind of paintings do I paint? I always say there are two kinds of painting – good and bad. I’m constantly striving to do the former.”
Rider Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony The Department of Athletics would like to invite you to the 2009 Athletics Hall of Fame Induction ceremony being held on Saturday, February 7, 2009.
Idol and Idyll: Figure + Landscape in the Work of Deborah Rosenthal and Barbara Goodstein Idol and Idyll: Figure + Landscape in the Work of Deborah Rosenthal and Barbara Goodstein is curated by Deborah Rosenthal, Professor of Fine Arts, Rider University for the Rider University Gallery. This exhibition showcases the work of a New York painter, Deborah Rosenthal, and a New York sculptor, Barbara Goodstein, who have known each other for many years, and whose work shows cross-influences and common interests.
Westminster Honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with Concert on January 26 Westminster Choir College of Rider University will pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a special concert on Monday, January 26 at 7:30 p.m. in Bristol Chapel on the Westminster campus in Princeton. Admission is free, and the community is invited to attend.
Presidential Inauguration All Rider University faculty, staff and students are invited to gather together as a community to witness the historic moment when Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, January 20, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Science Building, Room 102. Managers should use their best discretion in determining whether it is important to keep their office staffed, at least minimally, during this time.
Faculty Development Days Offer Day and Evening Sessions From January 21 - 23, Faculty Development Days will include two keynote speakers and 12 different sessions focusing on Advisement, Innovative Instruction, and Diversity. Three of the technology sessions will be repeated in the evening for anyone unable to attend daytime sessions.
