WP Perspectives

wpperspectives Vol. 8 No. 3 November 2010

William Paterson Students Win First Place Award in National Financial Planning Association Competition Three William Paterson students, Nathan Phillips, Nicholas Scheibner, and Cagla Yildirim, won the first place overall award in the National Financial Planning Challenge at the National Financial Planning Association (FPA) conference in Denver, Colorado recently.

Their team was one of eight finalists who were flown to Denver, Colorado for the three-day final phase of the contest, where they competed in a Jeopardy-style knowledge bowl, and had thirty-six hours to adjust their financial plan after a “life-changing event” occurred in the life of their sample client.

They presented their plan to a group of professionals and professors who were judges at the conference.

“You can either wait for opportunities, or you can create your own,” says Scheibner, a senior focused on a career as a financial planner, who recently cofounded the first official student chapter of the FPA in the United States on the William Paterson campus which led to the competition.

Concerned about facing a competitive job market and hoping to avoid a behind-the-scenes financial analysis job where continued on page 6

Xiaocun Wang (center), chairman of the University Affairs Committee at Zhejiang University of Technology, and President Kathleen Waldron sign the partnership agreement. Looking on is Shuyi Jia, a global business major

University Signs Partnership Agreement With China’s Zhejiang University of Technology William Paterson has signed a sister university strategic relationship memorandum with Zhejiang University of Technology in Hangzhou, China, that establishes the University as the Chinese university’s Students Overseas Training Center for North America.

Xiaocun Wang, chairman of the University Affairs Committee at Zhejiang University of Technology, as well as several other university administrators, visited the campus on September 24 to sign the agreement, which designates William Paterson as Zhejiang University of Technology’s preferred higher education partner in the United States.

In establishing the training center, Zhejiang will send students to William Paterson for short-term programs administered through the University’s Cotsakos College of Business. Programs include hands-on training in finance, biology and environmental science, and American culture, with plans to expand to computer science and other disciplines in the future.

“We are honored that Zhejiang University of Technology has selected William Paterson as its preferred strategic higher education partner in the United States,” says Kathleen Waldron, president of William Paterson University. “We are proud to collaborate with such a distinguished Chinese higher education institution.”

“We have enjoyed a long relationship with Zhejiang University of Technology and we look forward to expanding and developing programs that are mutually beneficial to our institutions,” says Edward Weil, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

Zhejiang University of Technology is situated in the city of Hangzhou, one of the ancient capitals of China. The university, with an enrollment of approximately thirty-five thousand students, is considered one of the top one hundred institutions of higher education in China.

wpperspectives

New Dean Believes in Collaboration This month, we continue our series of campus interviews as we speak with Candace Burns, Dean of the College of

school partners. I also believe that collegiality and positive social climate in a college helps to make our members thrive professionally and personally. I’m a progressive in terms of how I view education—it must be relevant, meaningful, applied, and, most importantly, it should help future educational professionals and their students become informed citizens and activists in bringing the best ideas to bear in educational and other work settings. Our professional development schools are an embodiment of that philosophy.

Education. She comes to the University from the University of Arkansas—Little Rock, where she served as Associate Dean of the College of Education.

During her career, she has focused on numerous education issues, including educational decision making, educational assessment and accountability, and teacher evaluation. She joined the University on July 1.

Q. What attracted you to the position of dean of the College of Education at William Paterson?

One thing that attracted me was the high quality of faculty, professional staff, students, and leaders in the College of Education and at William Paterson University. For example, a number of faculty members in the College have received Fulbright grants to immerse themselves and their students in other societies and cultures in countries such as Namibia, Rwanda, and the Netherlands. These faculty and others in the College have active scholarly agendas and expertise in issues and challenges of global and multicultural education for teachers and other educational professionals. I also much admired the quality of educator preparation at William Paterson and the dedication of the faculty, professional staff, and partner schools, especially in exploring systematically different methods, models, and pathways for educating teacher candidates. When I was interviewed, the commitment of the faculty and staff in the College of Education to sustained partnerships with the public schools was very evident. In particular, the varied offerings for new teachers in their pre-tenure years and the work of faculty and professional staff in tandem with experienced teachers to form mutually supportive learning communities had been in place for many years—even before professional development schools became the chic thing among educational organizations. I believe that the full complement of educational specialties is essential to educating individuals who are prepared to be active initiators in helping educational organizations, their students, and colleagues toward better life opportunities.

Q. What is your philosophy on leading a college of education?

One mark of a good college of education is collaboration—colleague-to-colleague, college-to-college, and university-to-university, inclusive of its larger community. This can include research partnerships with other states, international projects, or joint projects with

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Q. What are your goals for the College of Education?

I would like for the College of Education and its partners to work together to create a strategic plan. Of course, we haven’t had the opportunity to do this yet. One important personal goal of mine is to better spread the word about what we’re doing here at William Paterson in the College of Education. Another is to support and foster more collaboration so that we might have a bigger impact in terms of research around issues such as pathways to becoming teachers, teacher induction, and retention. I also believe that we are doing wonderful work along with our partners in the professional development schools, where we have model partnerships.

Our Child Development Center is nationally recognized for excellence. My dream is to have a more central teaching and research center, to create a hub for us to showcase our research on best practices in education.

Q. What are the trends in the pedagogy of teaching and how is the College incorporating them into the curriculum for our students?

One of the important emphases in higher education is multicultural and global education. There are critical pedagogies concerning what practices work best in which situations, and faculty have active research agendas around these topics. Also important is differentiated instruction, which asks the question: how do we do a better job in educating students of different cultures and ethnicities and students with disabilities? There also is a renewed emphasis on those strategies in the field of bilingual/ESL education.

Q. What can we do to help teacher candidates prepare for the future in such a challenging environment?

My former statistics professor referred to the “invisible college,” which I thought was unbearably corny at the time—the network of colleagues and professional associations that supports us in preparing for the future. In the College of Education, we call this “college” a professional development partnership. That is, our future teachers, administrators, and counselors are engaged in public schools who partner with us in mutually renewing professional development. Our teacher candidates observe early and often teachers and faculty who are lifelong learners and partners in exploring what works best in specific instructional contexts. School partners give us good feedback about our graduates, and we hear repeatedly that they come to their new work settings very wellprepared. Our partnerships help us become truly attuned to what districts need for future educator preparation; and they, in turn, look forward to working with our graduates.

Active Agenda Marks President Waldron’s First Months on Campus For William Paterson’s new president, Kathleen Waldron, the first three months on campus have been a whirlwind of activity, as she has been the guest at numerous meetings and events designed to introduce her to alumni, business leaders, and members of the community.

Top: President Waldron (right) attends the William Paterson University Foundation’s Second Annual Golf Outing. With her are (from left) Sandra S. Deller, vice president, institutional advancement; Sam Basu, dean, Cotsakos College of Business; Richard Garcia and Jeff Buonforte, both from Lakeland Bank Middle: The University celebrated Homecoming in October. With President Waldron (center) at the event are (from left) Chris McCollum ’92; Julie Ravo ’91, M.A.’92; Debbie Gantert ’77; Jean Aires ’64, M.A. ’88; Anthony Ardis ’77, with daughter Amanda Ardis; and Doug Hamilton ’75, president of the Alumni Association Executive Council Bottom: President Waldron (bottom row, second from left) and Sandra S. Deller, vice president, institutional advancement (back row, left) with members of the John Victor Machuga Foundation. (Top row) Al Dahab, Karim Kaspar, Joe Makoujy; (bottom row) June Makoujy, Georgiana Dahab, and Stacy Waldman

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wpperspectives

Science Hall West Engages Students, Faculty Faculty and students are enjoying the contemporary classrooms and research labs, as well as the collaborative atmosphere, in the just-opened 67,000-square-foot addition to Science Hall.

The addition, known as Science Hall West, maximizes the ability of faculty to teach students in sophisticated labs and small classes.

It contains eighteen state-of-the-art modular research laboratories designed to support undergraduate studies and research and twelve teaching labs for upper-level courses. Research and laboratory spaces are configured to allow for collaboration between faculty and students.

“The new design encourages collaboration among the faculty since three of us are assigned to the lab space,” says Claire Leonard, associate professor of biology, who shares a research lab with fellow biology faculty members Eileen Gardner and Jaishri Menon. “It makes it easy to ask a question, or work together on a project. The space is very conducive to a collegial environment.”

Biology professor Eileen Gardner echoes Leonard’s enthusiasm.

“The idea behind the new building was to make undergraduate research easier. We now have more space to do that. The lab space also makes it more conducive to collaborate on research with other faculty since we are located together.”

Students in one of the new classrooms

The facility was designed to foster an interactive learning environment that benefits teaching and research; students are also impressed with the results.

Jesse Gasparro, a senior biology major who is applying to veterinary schools, says Science Hall West is a great learning environment. “When you are working on a project, you want the most updated experience and equipment for the best results and best data available, and that’s what the new labs provide,” he says.

Science Hall West is equipped throughout with the latest digital technology. Each classroom and laboratory has an electronic screen with ceilingmounted LCD projectors, and the entire building is outfitted with wireless technology.

“I like the fact that I can be connected to the Internet anywhere in the building,” says Pradeep Patnaik, professor of biology. “I can access my notes, data, and pictures directly from my computer for my classes, and not have to drag various pieces of equipment around.”

Donjin Oh in a quiet, light-filled spot in the building

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Biology Professor Spins Web of Research with Students Spiders are predators. Spiders make their webs out of silk. Spiders can move fast. These facts and many others about the arthropods are the basis of research for Joseph Spagna, assistant professor of biology, and his students.

“Spiders have a variety of features,” Spagna says. “They make silk and venom, and it’s interesting to see how they have evolved.

Spiders that have the best venom for their food of choice will survive better than other spiders.”

But it’s how spiders move in their environment, called locomotion, which is the current focus of study for Spagna. “I’m most interested in their methods of movement. They can be quite fast for small animals. They can run on vegetation which can be quite waxy and slippery, and they are good at getting across leaves.

Others are skilled at running across webs. Spiders are very good at various types of locomotion. That’s most of what we study here, locomotion of arthropods.”

Locomotion helps spiders get away from their own predators.

“Escape is a big deal for spiders,” Spagna says. “They have to be fast enough to escape their predators, and have different speeds for different activities. For instance, they use a slower speed to make a web, and a faster one when preyed upon. So they have to be fast enough to catch food, but fast enough to escape, and that’s what we’ve been studying the most here in the lab.”

Spagna and his students, Vivin Mohan and Edgar Valdivia, study how quickly the spiders can increase their speeds. “We use high-speed videography to document the characteristics that help spiders move,” Spagna says. “We’ve documented that when running, spiders periodically have all eight legs off the ground at the same time. Other phenomena we’ve studied include how they get their bodies up and airborne.”

Students typically spend five hours a day in the lab during the summer. They spend time setting up the cameras, which capture the day’s experiments at 4,000 frames per second. The data is downloaded into the computer where students can watch the videos and analyze it frame-by-frame to characterize the way spiders run.

A Dolomedes spider He and his students have completed one summer of research on grass and California spiders and will publish their findings in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Arachnology. He and the two students are co-authors of a paper titled “Gait characteristics of two fast moving spider species (Hololena adnexa and Hololena curta), including an aerial phase.”

Spagna believes that research opportunities are vital for students’ education. “Research crystallizes science for students,” Spagna says. “They get to synthesize facts and have the first chance to apply what they have found in a creative manner. They also get to do research on their own.”

He believes that open-ended problem-solving is a great skill to have to get answers to questions that crop up in the lab. Plus, research is a potential part of a career, and it’s good for students to know whether they like research or not.

“The value of practical education is that everything a student does in college is important,” Spagna says. “A variety of experiences is essential. Students can pull nuggets of value out of those experiences.”

Students attending a class held in one of the new labs

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wpperspectives

Student Team Promotes Youth Voter Education A team of William Paterson University students is determined to educate their peers about the important role young voters can play in the United States this fall.

Through the University’s American Democracy Project chapter, nearly a dozen William Paterson students have been making presentations in freshman seminar classes and at three Paterson high schools as part of their outreach campaign, titled “Youth Vote 2K10: No Vote, No Piece.”

“Studies show that students are more likely to register and vote if they are registered by their peers,” says Christine Kelly, professor of political science and director of the American Democracy Project on campus.

“Students as a demographic can have an enormous impact if they turn out and vote, so we are trying to get that message out.”

The presentations have focused on the leverage youth voters can have; issues that are of importance to young voters, such as health care, unemployment, and student debt; and the local elections that took place this month. In addition, the students have spent numerous hours coordinating the voter registration drive on campus.

Dominick Brown, president of the Greek Senate, says students need to be educated about the issues, especially in cities such as Paterson. “Students may not think they can have an impact, but they have more of a say than they think,” says Brown, who hails from Newark. “If they vote, they can work for change in their communities.”

Also involved in the presentations is Ace Antonio, a University sophomore who won election to the board of education in his hometown of Paramus last spring. “I worked to get students to vote for me, and I won by just fifty-four votes,” he says. “I tell students to exercise their right to vote, and also that there’s no reason they can’t run for a position themselves.”

Other students involved in the project are David Rogers, Kristal Langford, and Sebastien Jean-Baptiste, along with alumna Lizbeth Davies ’10.

Political science professor Christine Kelly (left) plans Youth Vote 2K10 with Lizbeth Davies ’10 (second from left); and students David Rogers, Sebastien JeanBaptiste, and Dominick Brown

Financial Planning continued from page 1 he’d be sitting in front of a computer all day, Scheibner took matters in his own hands. He and fellow student Michael Ciccone worked hard to start up the first student chapter of the prestigious group, with Scheibner as president, and Ciccone as vice president.

Scheibner and Ciccone began by cold calling financial planners, and invited at least one local professional a month to speak to students about financial planning and professional development.

At the competition are (left to right) Luke Dean, Guest speakers academic coordinator of the Financial Planning included certiProgram, with students Nathan Phillips, Cagla fied financial Yildirim, and Nicholas Scheibner planners like Cary Carbonaro of Stonegate Wealth Management, who gave tips on how students can use websites and technology to market themselves as financial planners, and Mark Germain of Beacon Wealth Management, who candidly revealed common mistakes made by new and veteran professionals in the field. Ciccone graduated summa cum laude this year and was hired by Pinnacle Benefits Group.

Scheibner also arranged a summer mentor program through which professionals volunteer to help students prepare for the Certified Financial Planning exam. The idea was well received by professionals, and also led to many internship opportunities for William Paterson’s financial planning students.

Scheibner was one of four William Paterson students who participated in the Financial Planning Conference in Anaheim, Ca. last year. William Paterson was one of the few schools selected to have its students serve as volunteers at the conference. They were given a free booth, which they used to showcase the University’s financial planning program, generating more attention and recognition for William Paterson among top industry professionals.

“We’re very proud of Nick and what he has accomplished,” says Luke Dean, academic coordinator of the Financial Planning Program. “He has helped our students become professionals and he has brought a lot of visibility to William Paterson University and its financial planning program.”

Scheibner enjoys the personal aspect of financial planning. His dream job would be to work for a fee-only wealth management firm where he can meet with clients and work in their best interest.

This past summer he interned at that type of firm, the Baron Financial Group in Fair Lawn, where he now works four days a week.

wpperspectives

Vol. 8 No. 3 November 2010

William Paterson University

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300 Pompton Road • Wayne New Jersey 07470 Published by the Office of Marketing and Public Relations College Hall • 973.720.2971 • fax 973.720.2418 stollb2@wpunj.edu

Students Can Find Their Perfect Match Online Using RoomBug, a Facebook Application As an incoming freshman, Catie Matteucci had the typical concerns about who would be her roommate when an email arrived from the University inviting her to try a new application that would allow her to find and select her own roommate online.

William Paterson became the first university in New Jersey this summer to use RoomBug, a password-protected network that allows students to select their own roommates online using the Facebook platform.

“It’s cool,” says Matteucci, who specified that she wanted a roommate who is neat, academically focused, and willing to take turns helping each other with homework and cleaning their room. That’s how she found fellow freshman Becky Wance, who noticed that Catie’s preferences closely matched her own. Once the pair started corresponding via Facebook, they discovered that they had a lot more in common. Both are education majors, honor students, like performing in plays, love everything Disneyrelated, and even share a penchant for rainy weather.

“Most of the students are comfortable with it and love it as a way to evaluate potential roommates,” says Whiteman. The real test of the program will come in February 2011, when current students will be using the RoomBug application and have four weeks to search for prospective roommates for the fall semester.

“We plan to supplement the program with roommate matching parties, so that current students can meet each other in person.”

“The advantage of using RoomBug is that it allows students to find roommates using Facebook, a social network that nearly all students are already comfortable using,” says Patricia Whiteman, associate director, residence life.

When students select their own roommates, they take more responsibility for the decision, work out any differences, and are more likely to remain roommates throughout the first year, adds Whiteman.

“RoomBug is a controlled, secure network that requires a password,” she explains. Once students have paid their deposit and have a contract for housing, they are given an access code that permits them to participate.

“It’s awesome,” says Becky Wance, Matteucci’s roommate, describing her own success with the RoomBug application. Becky and Catie are now watching Disney movies together, inviting friends over, and having sing-a-longs. “We’ve become really good friends,” she adds.

RoomBug users can browse through Facebook profiles of potential roommates, finding common friends, and searching for users with shared interests such as favorite books and movies. Users are able to interact with each other via Facebook in a variety of ways, including direct messaging, in order to get a better sense of a potential roommate. Facebook privacy settings allow students to filter how much information about themselves they want to reveal to others.

This year, nearly 50 percent of all incoming freshmen selfselected their roommates through connections they made themselves or through visits to campus at events like Admitted Students Day, the Scholarship Luncheon, Orientation, and the Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) program, according to Whiteman. “We thought it would be good to include another way for students to self-select their roommates, and thus far it appears to be working.”

Roommates Catie Matteucci (left) and Becky Wance

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wpperspectives

New Sculptures Grace Campus

For twenty years, William Paterson University has housed a significant collection of outdoor sculpture, providing the entire campus community with a rare opportunity to interact with artwork on a daily basis in a setting outside a gallery or museum.

In the past year, three new sculptures have been added to the collection. Two are in Zanfino Plaza on the walkway between the Cheng Library and Wayne Hall: “Tango” by California artist Bill Barrett and “Odyssey ( A Journey)” by New York artist Maria Hall. The third, “City in a Mine” by Caspar Henselmann of New York, is situated on the lawn opposite the 1600 Valley Road Building, and is the first sculpture sited there.

“The continued development of the campus has opened new locations for the placement of outdoor sculpture,” says Nancy Einreinhofer, director of the Ben Shahn Galleries, who created the Sculpture on Campus program in 1990. “These new works have allowed us to integrate art throughout the campus that can stimulate discussion and discovery among our students, faculty, and the public.”

With twenty-two works, the University’s Sculpture on Campus program represents one of the largest collections of public sculpture in New Jersey. William Paterson is the only higher education institution in the state with a formal program dedicated to placing public sculpture.

Einreinhofer encourages members of the campus to stop by the Ben Shahn Galleries for a self-guided booklet that provides a map of the collection, as well as information on each sculpture, including a biography of the artist and an artist’s statement about the work. “Contemporary sculpture reflects the culture we live in, and because public sculpture is large-scale, it is confrontational by nature,” she continues. “Ultimately, the question is how sculpture addresses us as human beings, and challenges our thoughts and feelings. This is rewarding for all of us.”

“Tango” a nine-foot-tall work by Bill Barrett “challenges gravity as its forms dance in an upward and outward movement,” says Einreinhofer.

The sculpture was donated to the University by Dr. Jay Hyman

Caspar Henselman’s “City in a Mine,” is the artist’s second sculpture located on the campus. “Most of my work has a scientific connotation,” he says, and reflects “an analogy to the structural order found in biological organisms”

Maria Hall’s abstract steel sculpture “Odyssey (A Journey)” deals with the “relationships of form and space,” says the artist

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