Professional Notes

Dr. Jan Andrews, Social Work, and Mari-Anne Zahl of the Norwegian University of Science Technology in Trondheim, Norway, have an article, "Traces of Norwegian Influence in the Development of Social Services in Minnesota, USA, 1890-1920," in the current issue of Journal of International Social Welfare, 12 (2), 2003, April.

Dr. Eugene Audette, School of Education, offered a refereed presentation at the recent Minnesota Career Development Association's annual state conference held in St. Cloud. The title of his talk was "Work in Art, Art and Work: The Role of Aesthetics in Career Counseling and Development." The talk made the case for using art media (painting, sculpture, photography, literature, drama) in the contexts of career counseling and development, and human resource development to explore the affective and value issues that shape people's common and idiosyncratic experience and understanding of the place and function of work in their lives.

Dr. Kris Bunton, Journalism and Mass Communication, Dr. Susanna Sandmann, Modern and Classical Languages; Dr. Angela High-Pippert, Political Science; and Dr. Sergey Barabanov, Finance; were funded by the Bush grant to attend the Problem-Based Learning workshop at the University of Delaware June 16-19.  Bunton will lead St. Thomas’ campuswide Bush grant in 2003-2004.  “The Bush team and the university thank these individuals for their commitment to improving education at St. Thomas,” Dr. Robert Werner, Geography, said.

Geography Department faculty and students gave presentations at the recent Minnesota Academy of Science meetings.  Dr. David Kelley: “Landscape and Riverine Response to Climate Change”; Dr. Robert Werner: “Constructing Demographic Profiles with GIS”; Sarah Brown and Peter Rieke: “Using GIs to Determine Trade Areas and Suitable Expansion Sites for a Retail Business”; Erik Draxten: “A Method of Constructing Demographic Profiles for Franchises Based on the Demographic Profiles of Successful Competitors”; and Kyle Symoniak: “Using GIs to Evaluate Nitrate Leaching and Wellhead Protection in the Verdi Wellfield, Lincoln County, MN.”  Each of these projects was the product of collaboration.  “The Geography Department believes that faculty and students collaborating together in research is a very effective way for students to learn and further their careers,” said Dr. Robert Werner.

Dr. Camille George, Engineering and Technology Management, was a guest speaker at the American Association of University Women on April 15. She spoke about alternative energy and fuel cells. George and her Fuel Cell Engineering class were featured on the "Minnesota State Lottery's Environmental Journal" on Channel 45 and Fox Sports Net last weekend. The environmental journal specializes in stories about the environment and Minnesota's natural resources.

Dr. Julie Hays, Management Department, presented a paper co-authored with Dr. Sharon Gibson, Management Department; Dr. Kathryn Combs, Economics Department; Dr. Jane Saly, Accounting Department; and Dr. John Wendt, Business Law Department; at the Midwest Academy of Management annual meeting April 4 in St. Louis.  The paper is titled “Development and Use of an Assessment Tool Based on Course Learning Objectives” and can be found in the proceedings.

The Center for Irish Studies and the Department of Special Collections, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library Center, published with Traffic Street Press a limited edition of an Irish poet to commemorate St. Patrick's Day. Each offering in this series is edited by Dr. Thomas Dillon Redshaw and designed, printed, and bound by Paulette Myers-Rich. The third offering in this series was Eavan Boland's Emigrant Suite (2003). This volume was nominated for a Minnesota Book Award for 2003 in the Fine Press category and was recognized at the awards ceremony at the Fitzgerald Theatre, St. Paul, on May 16.

Dr. Meg Wilkes Karraker, Sociology Department, presented “What Kids Need to Succeed” at the annual Awards Day and Reception at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, as the guest of Alpha Kappa Delta-Theta of Wisconsin in April.

Dr. Don LaMagdeleine, School of Education, published the article, “Negotiating the Apparent Contradictions of Leadership Preparation: A Sociological Perspective” in the fall issue of Teaching in Educational Administration.  He also co-presented (with first author Dr. Bruce Kramer, School of Education) two papers at the April meeting of the American Educational Research Association, held in April in Chicago.  The latter two papers were titled “From Art and Science to Aesthetics: Applying John Dewey’s Philosophy to Live Leadership Dilemmas” and “John Dewey and the Premises of Educative Leadership: A Model for Developing a Pragmatic Democratic Organization.”  All three are about the importance of leaders maintaining a hard-to-sustain balance between prefabricated rubrics and contextually appropriate improvisation.

Dr. Paul Lorah, Geography Department, recently was elected to the Minnesota Chapter of the Nature Conservancy’s board of trustees.

Dr. Janet Polach, adjunct professor in the Organization Learning and Development Department, has an article, “HRD’s Role in Work-Life Integration Issues: Moving the Workforce to a Change in Mindset” in the March issue of Human Resource Development International.

Dr. John Tauer, Psychology Department, attended the Midwestern Psychological Association meetings May 8-9 in Chicago.  He gave a talk, “Stereotype Threat and Achievement Goals: Avoiding Failure vs. Approaching Success.”  This project was the result of collaboration with 2002 St. Thomas graduate Carie Muntifering that stemmed from readings in a class on cross-cultural psychology.  Their work examined
gender stereotypes and math performance and they found that females were significantly more likely to adopt avoidance goals than males when working on math problems. When participants were told that males tend to perform better than females, participants tended to live up to this stereotype with males outperforming females.  However, when males and females were not provided with any information on gender differences in math, males and females performed equally well on the test.  This research could serve as an important step in identifying achievement goals as a mediator of the negative effects of stereotype threat.