Gaudeamus

Jim Mackin, director of financial aid, attended the College Board Forum, focusing on issues of college admissions and financial aid, October 31-November 2 in Atlanta. He also met with Atlanta-based alumni and learned something of the ways of MARTA, the Atlanta subway system, which goes many places but most definitely not all.

Michele August-Brady, associate professor of nursing, is now a doctor as well as nurse. She defended her dissertation for the Doctor of Nursing Science degree at Widener University last month. It has the weighty title of “The Effect of a Metacog-nitive Intervention on Approach to Learning and Self-Regulation of Learning in Baccalaureate Nursing Students,” which means students who used concept mapping over a 15-week semester reported deeper approaches to learning and other cognitive benefits than students who did not.

Librarian Dorothy Glew attended the annual conference of the Pennsylvania Library Association, November 10-11 in Hershey. She went to presentations on web-page design and web-based instruction.

Media Matters

The Morning Call previewed the November 6 performance by the Eric Mintel Quartet with an article November 2. The quartet includes artist-lecturer in music Neil Wetzel, saxophone.
Prize Possessions

The Call also profiled Frederick Rooney ’75 on November 1, spotlighting his work as director of the Community Legal Resource Network at City University of New York, where he earned his law degree. Fred received the Alumni Association’s Haupert Humanitarian Award the day the article appeared.
Other winners of the 2002 Alumni Awards:

• Roy Goshorn ’58, veteran producer and assignment editor with ABC-TV News, who received the Comenius Award.
• Scott Pfeiffer ’92, who combined a major in physics and honors in music into a career in acoustical engineering with the prestigious firm of Kirkegaard Associates in Chicago. He won the Young Alumni Achievement Award.
• Tennant McGee ’96, a lawyer with the Maryland State Attorney, who received the Emerging Leader Award for coordinating alumni support that helped Moravian apply for Princeton Review’s 331 Best Colleges. We were among 14 schools accepted for the 2002 edition, causing its expansion to 345 Best Colleges.

Jack Ridge ’53, professor emeritus of physics, received the Alumni Association’s 2002 Benigna Education Award for 41 years of teaching at Moravian (1954-95).

For you newbies, Jack graduated summa cum laude from Moravian with a triple major in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. During his first years of teaching, he also worked on graduate degrees in physics at Lehigh University, completing his Ph.D. in 1965. At the same time, he and his wife, Laura, also served as house parents at Clewell Hall.

He was chair of the Physics and Earth Science Department (1959-95) and Louise E. Juley Professor of Science (1993-95). His honors include a National Science Foundation Faculty Fellowship and the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Jack retired in 1996.

The award citation praises his “one-on-one tutorials [that] helped transform numerous struggling students into dedicated physicists. . . [many of whom] have attributed their success to his influence.”

His students include Joe Powlette ’60, who succeeded him as department chair and Louise E. Juley Professor, and Joe Trodahl ’63 of New Zealand’s Victoria University/MacDiarmid Institute, who was visiting professor of physics this semester. It was fitting that Jack got to introduce Joe Trodahl when he spoke in October.

Farewell!

Cas Sowa, director of international studies, has accepted a job as regional representative for the Institute for Study Abroad. The agency is based at Butler University in Indiana, but Cas will be working with colleges in the Northeast from his home in Bethlehem. Karen Keim, who teaches English and women’s studies and also has advised international students at Moravian, becomes interim director while a job search goes forward.

Janice Tomac, merchandise coordinator for the bookstore, retired December 6, after 20 years at the College. “She has provided us countless ways to show our Moravian pride,” said Mark Reed of the business office. “She designed everything from hats and sweatshirts to pajamas and afghans.”