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President: Tuajuanda C. Jordan, PhD
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SMCM Chosen for CUR Transformations Project December 2017 St. Mary’s College of Maryland is one of only 12 institutions selected by the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) for its Transformations Project, funded by the National Science Foundation. The project kicked off on October 27-29, at The College of New Jersey, where the CUR-recruited consultants and departmental teams began their sustained work together for the next four years. Attending the meeting on behalf of St. Mary’s College was administrative co-lead of the project, Christine Wooley, interim associate dean of curriculum, and departmental co-leads Aileen Bailey, Pamela Mertz, and Kelly Neiles.
A team of 16 faculty and staff members at St. Mary’s College are participating, including principal investigator and co-lead Sabine Loew Dillingham, director of the office of research & sponsored programs. The full team is comprised of: • • • • • • • • •
The Transformations Project will revise traditional four-year undergraduate curricula in biology, chemistry, physics and psychology by focusing on high-quality undergraduate research throughout the four years of a student’s major. Participants from institutions around the country will directly engage in novel research to study the student, faculty, departmental, and disciplinary influences on the process of integrating and scaffolding undergraduate research experiences throughout the curriculum in two of the four possible disciplines.
A newsletter for the community, faculty, staff and students.
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Michael Wick, provost and dean of faculty Anne Marie Himmelheber Brady, director of the office of institutional research Pamela Mertz, CBC’s chair & professor of chemistry Kelly Neiles, assistant professor of chemistry Andrew Koch, professor of chemistry Randolph Larsen, professor of chemistry Daniel Chase, assistant professor of chemistry Geoffrey Bowers, assistant professor of chemistry Aileen Bailey, Aldom-Planseon Honors College Professor of psychology Nathaniel Foster, assistant professor of psychology Cynthia Koenig, associate professor of psychology James Mantell, assistant professor of psychology Jennifer Tickle, associate professor of psychology Elizabeth Nutt Williams, professor of psychology & chair of the psychology department Christine Wooley, interim associate dean of curriculum Sabine Loew Dillingham, director of the office of research & sponsored programs
Giving Tuesday Gets Over 1,400 Donors in 24 Hours Giving Tuesday, the social media day of philanthropy, took place on Tuesday, Nov. 28, over a 24-hour period and it was a record-setting day for St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The goal was simple: 600 donors. Based on preliminary results,1,411 donations catapulted the total amount raised to $239,589, more than $86,000 over last year. The drive was focused on positioning students for internships and scholarships, as well as donations for the Center for the Study of Democracy and the St. Mary’s Fund.
Seahawks Ethics Team Fairs Well in Competition
Ethicists (left to right) confer during the bowl: Maddie Beller ‘19, Alexis Underwood ‘18, Lindsay Chiavacci ‘19, Esteban Caballero ‘18, and Vince Mogilnicki ‘19.
Want More? News, Student and Faculty accomplishments: www.smcm.edu/news Campus Events Calendar: www.smcm.edu/events/calendar 240.895.2000 | www.smcm.edu
On Nov. 12 - 13, the Seahawks ethics team competed among 28 teams in the Northeast Regional Ethics Bowl held in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. While at the competition, what do you think the Seahawks acheived (it’s multiple choice)? A. were undefeated in the three rounds (= 6 cases); B. won 1 round and tied the two others; C. ended up (due to those ties) being one of the 20 teams not qualifying for the quarter-finals; D. were mightily impressed with the final round, between West Point and Tufts, and won by Tufts; E. were excellent ambassadors of the College to the larger academic and professional world. F. All of the above! Congratulations!
Q & A : H elen D augherty, Prof. of So c io l o g y Helen Daugherty is the G. Thomas and Martha Myers Yeager Endowed Chair in the Liberal Arts. She joined the faculty in 1982.
There is a section in sociology called social movements, and the focus of this research is to observe and analyze the way that people respond to natural disasters like floods and hurricanes, to events like the this fall’s shootings in Las Vegas, to protest events like Charlottesville or to mass destruction of communities like the wild fires in California. Although these are very different events, there is one reoccurring observation referred to as emerging norms. To study emerging norms, we ask the questions: how do people act? How to people respond? How do people cope? How do people regroup, start over on the next day, the next month and into their futures? In the case of disaster events, we very quickly see patterns develop, not random panic, not crowd mentality, but individual deliberate actions that quickly begin to restore order. Leaders emerge to guide others. Let’s take a look at the response to hurricanes, focusing on the U.S. Virgin Island, St. Croix. Why is a disaster needed to bring out the best in people? We see both, the best and the worst. A hurricanes is a “no fault” occurrence in that it could happen to anyone. Some people are grateful for what they have and are thankful that damage is minimal to them, or that they are not as bad off as others, while many are left with great loss and the devastation is visible. Best: The emerging norm is the overwhelming amount of support from all groups; neighbors checking up on neighbors and sharing what they have, strangers making donations of supplies and monetary contributions – just like the response by members of St. Mary’s College to the school district in southeast Texas.
grocery store, only to find limited or no food. The National Guard was called in to maintain order. Curfews were established. Worst and best: someone stole the generator that serviced the island’s AT&T cell tower. Someone else gave AT&T their private generator as a replacement. In Louisiana, all of the inmates of a prison had to be relocated during the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. What skills would a sociologist bring to that effort to facilitate a smooth relocation? True, but many others were also relocated. St. Croix took in hospital patients from St. Thomas. A few days later, the hospital in St. Croix was badly damaged and 600 people were relocated (not to Puerto Rico), likely to Florida. Whether it is a prison, or a hospital or some other facility, they require immediate resources – transportation, food, and caregivers or jail guards. This also means that the people providing the transportation, and the caregivers/guards become separated from their families. And people who are relocated are moved further away from their family, friends, and community and lose their social support. From a sociologist’s perspective, is there often a demographic that gets overlooked in relief efforts? Similar to above would be those who are homebound (mostly elderly) and disabled, or those who are “at home” and rely on public transportation. They are not just isolated, but may be without caregivers who they depend on and may not be able to get to them. If you are without electricity, there is no way to keep medication like insulin cold, and depending on where you are, the loss of heat or air conditioning can be fatal. In these instances, we again see emerging norms as communities bind together to solve their problems. And the most overlooked group might be the homeless, who are already homeless!
Worst: We see looting as desperate people begin to do desperate things. Tempers flare. For example, in St. Croix, several days after the hurricane, there were mile-long lines of people waiting to get into a
What’s Happening in Sports The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) reports nearly 2,000 pounds of food was collected by Seahawk varsity teams for the annual SAAC Food Drive in conjunction with the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) Food Challenge. With help from parents and fans of the SMCM men’s and women’s basketball teams, SAAC collected 1,880 pounds, the most the committee has collected in seven years. Canned food was delivered to the Food Pantry at St. Cecilia’s Church in St. Mary’s City. SAAC has raised Megan Cannon ‘18 over 5,500 pounds since joining the Challenge in left, and Caitlin Catch- 2011. mar ’19 during the SAAC food drive.
SMCM is a Top 25 Gem for Women in STEM; WiSH Hosts Math Girl Day St. Mary’s College of Maryland has been listed among the Top 25 Hidden Gems for Women in STEM by CollegeRaptor.com. For a college to be included in the list, it must have at least 30 percent of the degrees awarded in STEM fields, with a high percentage of women receiving the degrees. Those STEM women living in the Women in Science House Living & Learning Center (WiSH) hosted Math Girls Day at the College’s Schaefer Hall, something they do each semester for middle school girls from Esperanza and Spring Ridge Middle Schools. This fall, 44 girls partook in math-related activities, and enjoyed a guest speaker and lunch in the Great Room. Alumna Katie Savin-
Math Girls Day provides middle school girls a STEM day at SMCM.
Murphy ’12, who currently works at MediSolv in Baltimore, Md., was the guest speaker. WiSH opened in 2006 and is the longest continually run LLC at St. Mary’s College. It was formed to provide a space for students to create programming that supports women who want to be STEM majors or go into STEM fields. There are currently 16 members. Students who live in WiSH earn educational course credit for their activities.
Best Food Anywhere, Right Here at SMCM! David Sansotta (general manager) and the rest of the Bon Appétit team at St. Mary’s College of Maryland were selected as one of five Bon Appétit Accounts of the Year. The team scored extremely high (97.7%) on its COR Sustainability score (which measures adherence to Bon Appétit’s dozen-plus sustainability commitments, from Farm to Fork purchasing to Seafood Watch-approved seafood and more). It also received very high marks for customer satisfaction. “OK people, this is our 15th college tour and the food here is by far the best we’ve experienced,” wrote the parents of a prospective student on a comment card. “If you’re a student, enjoy. If you’re searching, look no more.”
Kudos to...
Elizabeth Nutt Williams (prof. of psychology) is co-author of the article “Feminist Critique of and Integration With Diagnostic and Therapeutic Treatment Models” in the “APA Handbook of the Psychology of Women: Vol. 2. Perspectives on Women’s Private and Public Lives,” edited by C. B. Travis & J. W. White (2017). Kristi Tredway (visiting asst. prof. of women, gender & sexuality studies), has published a chapter in “The Palgrave Handbook of Feminism and Sport, Leisure and Physical Education” (Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2018). The article, “Judith Butler, Feminism, and the Sociology of Sport,” chronicles the ways in which Judith Butler’s theories of gender performativity have influenced and been used in sociological scholarship on women and LGBT athletes and sport participation. David Kung (prof. of mathematics) received the Sister Helen Christensen Service Award by The Mathematical Association of America – Maryland-District of Columbia-Virginia Section. Each fall, the award is given to individuals whose work or volunteer efforts for service are above and beyond expectations. The award is named after Sister Helen Christensen, in honor of her lifetime of service to mathematics education and the section.
Ben Click (prof. of English) was a conference speaker at the 8th International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College in Elmira, N.Y. on August 3-5, 2017. Click will return to Elmira College in May 2018 as an invited speaker in “The Trouble Begins” Lecture Series. As invited speaker, he will reside at historic Quarry Farm, where Samuel Clemons did most of his writing as Mark Twain. In January, Click presents on Twain at the MLA conference in New York City. His talk is titled “Permeating Silences Permeating Discourses: Mark Twain’s Rhetorical Art of the Unspoken.” Also in January, Click begins a five-year position as editor of “The Mark Twain Annual,” published by the Pennsylvania State University Press. His essay, “Rhetorical Listening: Silence, and Cultural Consubstantiality in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Revisiting the Raftsman’s Episode Again, Ugh!” will be published in the spring 2018 edition. Benjamin Ertman ’18 (psychology and ILC) has authored a paper with Eduardo Romano, senior research scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. The article, “Determinants of Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol or Drugs Among Latino Immigrants in Miami-Dade County, Florida,” (Taylor & Francis Online) examines the driving while impaired by alcohol and drugs behaviors of Latino immigrants who have access to a vehicle. Many immigrants of low socioeconomic status do not drive while impaired due largely to limited access to a vehicle.