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Manohar Singh, dean, SCSU School of Graduate and Professional Studies

Southern has tapped Manohar Singh, former dean of the College of Professional Studies at Humboldt State University (Arcata, Calif.) with a track record of initiating new programs, to become the new dean of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies.

Singh recently began his new duties after a nationwide search concluded last November. Robert Prezant, provost and vice president for academic affairs, called him a “proven fundraiser,” and noted that he has been making the rounds on campus to meet members of the campus community and to increase his understanding of the graduate program needs.

“When you see him, please join me in sharing a hearty Southern welcome,” Prezant said. “I also want to thank Dr. Jose Galvan who recently served as our interim dean with enthusiasm and wonderful dedication.”

At Humboldt, Singh helped launch an effort to raise $10 million for an endowed R.N. to B.S.N. program. He also led the development of new programs, such as online programs in education in collaboration with Cal State Tech.

Before his role at Humboldt, he served as division head for the Division of Business and Social Sciences at Penn State University – Abington, and interim chair of the Department of Finance at Long Island University.

At Penn State, he led the effort to establish new academic programs, such as a fast track M.B.A. in collaboration with Penn State Great Valley, as well as bachelor’s degrees in rehabilitation and human services, and in accounting. He also launched four minors.

He has a background in finance and economics, having earned a Ph.D. in finance from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, and two master’s degrees in economics – an M.A. from the University of Waterloo-Ontario, Canada, and an M.A. with honors from Punjab University in India.

Singh has earned many faculty awards, including the Great Valley Award for Teaching Excellence from Penn State and the University of Nevada-Reno College of Business Researcher of the Year Award.

He served as chairman of the Penn State Grand Valley Faculty Senate and has held the title of full professor of finance since 2016.

Singh said he is excited about the opportunity to serve as the new graduate school dean, especially at this point in Southern’s development.

“I see a rewarding opportunity to serve as an anchor and a champion for our students’ personal and professional success,” he said. “It is a privilege to be part of an institution that is a pioneer in so many ways and is on an impressive upward trajectory.”

Singh said he would like the school to stand out for scientific rigor, social responsibility, market responsiveness and innovation.

“We already have several initiatives in progress to offer market demand-driven, flexible, and affordable, graduate programs in emerging areas,” he said. “We are expanding our non-degree credentials and certificate programs to serve the dynamic needs of working professionals and adult students as they aim to advance their careers.

“In addition, we are reaching out to the area employers to assess their needs and offer them customized educational and training programs for their employees. And we are creating meaningful and impactful community partnerships to promote socio-economic prosperity and regional economic development in the greater New Haven area.”

The Top Owl Social Justice Award is given to recognize contributions toward helping the university achieve its mission of creating and sustaining an inclusive community that appreciates, celebrates, and advances student and campus diversity.

This award, selected by the President’s Commission on Social Justice, will be awarded this academic year during the months of December, January, February, March, and April to recognize the contributions, leadership, and service of a worthy faculty, staff, part-time student, and full-time student.

For the month of February, the Top Owl Award winners are undergraduate student Dayana Lituma-Solis and Victoria Zigmont, assistant professor of public health.

Dayana Lituma-Solis is an undergraduate student majoring in communications disorders and, according to her nominator, is a “living embodiment of the SCSU values of Social Justice and Access.” A student representative to the Undocumented Students Support Team, she is an integral member of the team and provides valuable ideas that have been recognized by the faculty and staff members of team. Last year she led a group of students to travel to the Capitol Building in Hartford to testify in front of the Higher Education Committee to equalize access to financial aid funds for all students regardless of immigration status. She assisted in a College Access Program for ESL (English as a Second Language) students at Wilbur Cross High School. She worked under CT Students 4 A Dream, an organization that fights for immigrant rights and the rights of undocumented students throughout the state of Connecticut. As part of her work with them she delivered “Undocupeer” training for student leaders (RA’s and OA’s) at Southern.

Lituma-Solis has has served as panelist for several immigration related events for Social Justice Month, including sharing her experience as a first generation immigrant at last year’s TRUMP CARD discussion. She is the president of the Hermandad de Sigma Iota Incorporada chapter at Southern, and under that role led several voting registration drives last fall to increase voting engagement by all students, but particularly Latino students. Last fall she also volunteered to give a bilingual tour to a group of more than 50 high schoolers and parents from Bridgeport and New Haven.

As a communications disorders major, she is an active member and secretary of the Autism Awareness ad Advocacy Club. In her free time, she is a tutor for New Haven Reads and works as a research assistant for the SCSU R.E.A.D.S. lab.

Lituma-Solis’ nominator wrote, “I could go on and on about Dayana’s accomplishments and contributions to SCSU’s mission of social justice. But the truly remarkable quality about Dayana is her willingness to step out of her comfort zone to assist her peers and pave the way for students to achieve their higher education goals.

“Even though she is only 20 years old, she has developed a vast network of contacts at SCSU and the New Haven community. She has referred many students and parents to my office to make a personal connection to talk about coming to SCSU. Dayana does not get any financial benefit from helping these students apply to SCSU, yet she goes above and beyond to ensure that these prospective students, many of whom are the first in their family to attend college, are able to navigate the application process and make a personal connection with key people in the faculty and staff that look like them or speak the same language.”

Dr. Victoria Zigmont is committed to improving Southern’s students’ health and well-being through her work on campus and in the community. She recognizes the relationship between social justice and academic (and personal) success for Southern students. She has been involved in several initiatives that include her service on committees, leadership in projects and grant-funded research studies to reduce food insecurity among students on campus. Her efforts resulted in greater access to food and resources in a manner that protects and respects students’ privacy. She contributed to the relocation of the mobile food pantry, creation of satellite pantries housed across campus, and planning for a sustainable large pantry. She has been successful in building momentum, creating a sense of urgency, and engaging collaborators to remedy students’ food insecurity and related needs.

Dr. Zigmont also has demonstrated her commitment to student success through her involvement of graduate and undergraduate students in her research and practice in this area. She has led and engaged her students in campus-wide assessments and steps to address identified needs on campus and in the community.

Her nominator wrote that Dr. Zigmont “is committed to a mission of social justice, which is evident in all that she does. She is an exceptional role model who fully embraces her students and colleagues with dignity, respect, kindness, compassion and civility.”

Nominate a member of the Southern community for a Top Owl Social Justice Award.

 

Xhenet Aliu

Southern’s English Department and its creative writing program, as well as the university in general, have turned out a number of successful writers over the years. One such Owl alum, whose 2018 debut novel has been enjoying critical acclaim, will bring her talents back to campus to kick off the university’s celebration of the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing Program‘s 10th anniversary.

On March 7 at 7:30 p.m., alumna Xhenet Aliu, ’01, will read from her novel, Brass, followed by a Q & A and refreshments. The reading, which will take place in Engleman A120, is free and open to the public.

Aliu graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in English and went on to earn an MFA from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and an MLIS from The University of Alabama. A native of Waterbury, Conn., she was born to an Albanian father and a Lithuanian American mother. She now lives in Athens, Ga., and works as an academic librarian.

Her debut fiction collection, Domesticated Wild Things, and Other Stories, won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, and Brass was published by Random House in spring 2018. Her stories and essays have appeared in Glimmer Train, The Barcelona Review, American Short Fiction, and elsewhere.

English Professor and Creative Writing Coordinator Tim Parrish was Aliu’s thesis director. He says, “Xhenet Aliu is a fantastic writer who perfectly exemplifies the exceptional quality of authors coming out of Southern’s undergraduate and Master of Fine Arts’ Creative Writing programs.”

The MFA program is a full-residency, terminal-degree program, preparing students for careers as publishing writers, teachers, editors, and professionals in the publishing world. While the curriculum focuses heavily on the writing workshop and the creative thesis, the MFA also requires students to study literature at the graduate level and provides opportunities for students to train for teaching collegiate-level writing, and in some cases to teach their own courses. The year 2019 marks the program’s 10th anniversary, which will be celebrated over the course of the coming year, culminating in a weekend of special activities in October.

Since its publication in early 2018, Brass has received the following honors, among others:

  • One of Entertainment Weekly‘s “10 Best Debut Novels of 2018”
  • A San Francisco Chronicle Top 100 Book of 2018
  • Named a “Best Southern Novel of 2018” by Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  • One of Bustle‘s “31 Debut Novels from 2018 That You Seriously Shouldn’t Miss”
  • Named a “Best Book of 2018” by Real Simple
  • A Spring 2018 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection
  • Starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, and Library Journal
  • New York Times’ Book Review Calendar of “Must-Know Literary Events in 2018”
  • Elle‘s “21 Best Books of 2018”
  • Southern Living‘s “Books Coming Out This Winter That We Can’t Wait to Read”
  • Huffington Post’s “60 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018”
  • Book Riot‘s “101 Books Coming out in 2018 That You Should Mark Down Now”
  • Elite Daily‘s “2018 Book Releases That’ll Make Reading More Your New Year’s Resolution”
  • Bookish‘s “Must-Read Winter Books 2018”
  • The Millions‘ “Most Anticipated: The Great 2018 Book Preview”
  • Christian Science Monitor‘s “5 New Titles to Check Out in the New Year”
  • Kirkus Review’s “11 Debuts You Should Pay Attention To”

From reviews of Brass, which is set in Waterbury, Conn.:

“Lustrous . . . a tale alive with humor and gumption, of the knotty, needy bond between a mother and daughter . . . [Brass] marks the arrival of a writer whose work will stand the test of time.” — O: The Oprah Magazine

“Aliu is witty and unsparing in her depiction of the town and its inhabitants, illustrating the granular realities of the struggle for class mobility.” — The New Yorker

“Brass simmers with anger — the all too real byproduct or working hard for not enough, of being a woman in a place where women have little value, of getting knocked down one too many times. But when the simmer breaks into a boil, Aliu alchemizes that anger into love, and in doing so creates one of the most potent dramatizations of the bond between mother and daughter that I’ve ever read. . . . I left this book with the sure sense that the characters were alive beyond its pages, though I wouldn’t dare try to guess what they are up to — Elsie and Lulu are too real for that.” — The New York Times Book Review

The Top Owl Social Justice Award is given to recognize contributions toward helping the university achieve its mission of creating and sustaining an inclusive community that appreciates, celebrates, and advances student and campus diversity.

This award, selected by the President’s Commission on Social Justice, will be awarded this academic year during the months of December, January, February, and March to recognize the contributions, leadership, and service of a worthy faculty, staff, part-time student, and full-time student.

For the month of January, the Top Owl Award winners are graduate student Mykelle Coleman; Sedell Hairston-Hatton, secretary from the Student Involvement and Leadership Development Office; and Yi-chun Tricia Lin, director and professor of Women’s Studies.

Mykelle Coleman, a second-year graduate student in the School Psychology Program, has shown a passion for and commitment to social justice throughout her time at Southern. For the past two years, she has headed the Counseling and School Psychology Department’s Social Justice/Diversity Committee, a group that designs and coordinates learning experiences to meet these goals. In addition, last year Coleman worked on the On Our Own Turf Project, a Social Justice Committee grant-funded activity that looked at issues of microaggressions, discrimination, and injustice on the SCSU campus. She also developed and led the Clothesline Project, an art-based activity dealing with issues of sexual assault and violence, and a showing and discussion about the film For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf during last year’s Social Justice Month. This year she was a student leader for two major Social Justice Month activities, the Racial Justice Film Festival and the Sleep Out America event, to bring attention to the issue of child, youth, and college student homelessness. She has also helped to provided diversity training to Southern staff.

One of Coleman’s nominators wrote that she “embodies the ideals of social justice and utilizes the core values of SCSU to bring those ideals to her peers and fellow Owls. As a leader in the social justice committee, she has organized events at Southern that promote awareness of some challenging issues that we face today, both as Owls and members of our larger society.” Aside from the activities she is involved in on campus, a nominator wrote, “she exhibits a nurturing nature towards all, accepting and celebrating others constantly. She is a positive spirit who is always there for others. [She] is able to light up a room with her presence while also shining the spotlight on others around her. She has an incredible spirit that Southern is very lucky to have as a part of its community.”

Sedell Hairston-Hatton, who is also known as Dell, was described by her nominator as “such a beautiful person inside and out, and she is extremely helpful! She is very reliable and always willing to go out of her way to make sure those around her get the assistance that they need. She does a lot of behind the scenes work to make sure everything runs smoothly.”

Her nominator added that Hairston-Hatton is “a remarkable person who has a heart of gold, and it is evident that she takes her job not only seriously but has a passion for what she does. I think these are very important qualities to have as a staff member at the University, and she is a wonderful candidate for the Top Owl Award.”

As the director of the Women’s Studies Program, Yi-chun Tricia Lin has been organizing the 64 Days of Nonviolence program at Southern for many years. As part of that program, every spring semester she puts together a wide array of events to promote social justice on campus. Her nominator wrote that Lin “does this work tirelessly and on a shoestring budget” and pointed out that the 64 Days of Nonviolence program predates Social Justice Month by more than a decade. One of the most impressive feature of the 64 Days of Nonviolence, wrote Lin’s nominator, “is the wide array of topics covered, from Indigenous, women’s, and LGBTQ rights, to Black Lives Matter, to increasing social justice for girls and boys. She really is a model advocate for the teaching and learning of social justice on campus.”

Congratulations to January’s Top Owl Award winners!

To nominate someone for a Top Owl award, visit the university’s Social Justice website.

David Bakies and Melanie Savelli, Top Owl Award winners for December 2018

The Top Owl Social Justice Award is given to recognize contributions toward helping the university achieve its mission of creating and sustaining an inclusive community that appreciates, celebrates, and advances student and campus diversity.

This award, selected by the President’s Commission on Social Justice, will be awarded this year during the months of December, January, February, and March to recognize the contributions, leadership, and service of a worthy faculty, staff, part-time student, and full-time student.

For the month of December, the Top Owl Award winners are student David Bakies and Melanie Savelli, assistant professor of Communication.

David Bakies is a senior geography major and the president of the Geography Club. For the 2018-19 academic year, he is leading the food recovery program for the Sustainability Office, and spent the 2017-18 academic year interning on this project as well. Bakies oversees the daily collection of excess food from Conn Hall operations and the delivery of this food to St. Ann’s soup kitchen, a neighbor to the Southern campus.

Bakies ensures that the food recovery program has all shifts filled with volunteers, an important opportunity for SCSU students to participate and engage in an activity that actively supports food justice for all. The food recovery project puts large quantities of food on plates for neighbors who otherwise go hungry. Under Bakies’ leadership, Southern has donated more than 30,000 lbs. of fresh food, which translates to 25,000 meals.

Bakies is a non-traditional student at Southern and a decorated U.S. Army veteran. His nominator described him as “unfailingly kind and respectful to everyone, all the time,” adding that he devotes time above and beyond what is required on the projects he is involved with, simply because he is generous with his time and values helping people.

Dedicated to environmental restoration, Bakies has also involved himself with projects at the Werth Center for Coastal and Marine Studies. His nominator wrote that “he is happiest when working on projects where he can actively make a difference.” This coming spring, he will be using side scanning radar on a boat to detect and remove abandoned lobster pots, of which there are thousands, from the bottom of Long Island Sound. These abandoned traps needlessly kill marine wildlife and pose a risk to many animals, and to fisheries’ well-being.

Melanie Savelli teaches COM 150, World of Communication. Her nominator wrote that one requirement in the course is to watch weekly TED Talks that provide perspectives students don’t typically seek out. Recently Savelli had her class listen to a podcast called “Conversations with people who hate me,” in which the host had a conversation with someone who sent him a hateful message. The nominator, a student, explained that “at first, I was turned off by the immediate message and tone of the ‘someone’ who sent the message, but listening to the whole podcast I was able to hear and witness a change. Not only did the host and guest have a constructive exchange but the guest realized why and admitted to feeling guilty for sending the message. Dr. Savelli is requiring students to listen to a podcast that is an example of how to break the barriers that prevent both opposing parties from having a constructive conversation.”

The course has also included assignments such as watching a TED Talk about a woman who left the Westboro Baptist Church and now works to show people how to have more productive dialogs and how to manage the emotions and stress that comes with talking about controversial topics.

The nominator emphasized how these assignments have given students more tools to engage in difficult conversations with those who may not agree with them. Other students in the class have also expressed that the videos have made an impact on them.

Congratulations to December’s Top Owl Award winners!

To nominate someone for a Top Owl award, visit the university’s Social Justice website.

With an extensive career related to admissions, Tony Pace will soon assume the role of director of undergraduate admissions at the university, as a SUOAF temporary appointment. Pace has extensive admission and enrollment experience at institutions including Trinity College, Holy Cross College, Vanderbilt University, and Xavier University of Louisiana. He also has a successful record of account and relationship management with the College Board Southern Regional Office. Pace is a veteran professional with Customer Relations Management software (Slate, Salesforce) experience, a strong knowledge of college admissions issues, and extensive knowledge of changing demographics that impact admissions strategies. He also is experienced with leveraging financial aid and its use in college admissions using data to propose strategic changes to the admissions process.

Tony Pace

During his most recent assignment as the Interim Director of Admissions at Xavier (2017-18), Pace provided daily leadership and supervision of admissions recruitment and operations staff. He managed strategies that adjust to changing environments and trends in recruitment and admission of freshmen and transfer students. He implemented an aggressive recruitment program designed to attract and retain a diverse pool of freshmen and transfer students from traditional and non-traditional markets. By using best practices and current technological solutions to manage the inquiry and applicant pools, he and his team achieved a 16 percent increase in applications, 10 percent increase in completed applications, 9 percent increase in admits, and 18 percent increase in deposits. Pace supervised implementation of social media tools to better engage prospective, applicant, and admitted students.

Additionally, he identified training and professional development opportunities for professional and operations staff to improve staff functionality. He worked in tandem with the appropriate offices, and collaborated in the development of promotional/marketing plans that support the academic mission of the institution related to undergraduate admissions.

Clara Ogbaa was recently named the university’s new Director of Library Services. Ogbaa has been the Director of Library Services at Gateway Community College since 2008 and the Interim Director of Education Technology at Gateway since 2016. Under her leadership and management, the GCC Library experienced tremendous growth and a complete transformation of library services and resources for students. Ogbaa oversaw the successful consolidation of the GCC Long Wharf and North Haven campus libraries’ services and collections and moved them into the new state of-the-art downtown college facility. The consolidation improved services and facilities, increased students’ information literacy and increased the educational technology skills of students and faculty. As Gateway’s representative on the CSCU Council of Library Directors, she was highly involved in the 2017 implementation of the new system-wide library platform;  Ogbaa will remain on the Council, now as Southern’s representative.

Ogbaa has presented locally, nationally, and internationally on information literacy and emerging technologies. She is a member of the American Library Association, the Association for College and Research Libraries, and the Connecticut Library Association.

Prior to her work at Gateway, Ogbaa was Administrative Librarian at Texas State University (2004-2008), and Coordinator of Library Instruction here at Southern (1998-2004). Ogbaa holds her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from University of Bridgeport, and her master’s in library and information science and bachelor’s in English from University of Texas at Austin.

Ogbaa, speaking about joining the Buley Library team, says that she is delighted to come back to Southern as library director and believes this opportunity at Buley will be an amazing experience. “I am excited about the myriad of opportunities created by extensive study areas, computer stations, makerspace — tools that can help our students think, create, explore, innovate, collaborate, and fulfill their dreams.

“With our beautiful newly renovated library, our library stands as a rich resource for learning, research, and scholarship on campus.  With a team of dedicated, knowledgeable library faculty and staff working well together the library will provide effective services and programs that will positively impact student achievement and success in a welcoming learning and social environment. Some of my goals are to maximize our new space, to effectively collaborate with all the shared resources in the building, and to provide effective access to information sources and services.”

 

Thanks to Rebecca Hedreen, Library Coordinator for Distance Learning, for contributing to this story.

Photo credit: Shirley Anderson

2018 graduates from SCSU Commencement

Undergraduate students at Southern soon will have the ability to complete their bachelor’s and master’s degrees in a combined five years in several majors as part of a package of new accelerated programs.

Robert Prezant, provost and vice president for academic affairs, has announced that the new pathways officially have begun with the start of the fall semester. They will be available to students who are pursuing the following degrees: B.S. in computer science, B.S. in recreation and leisure studies and B.S. in athletic training. In addition, the existing accelerated program option for those seeking a B.S. in chemistry has been revamped to better meet the needs of those students.

“These new programs will enable students to save time and save money, while continuing to provide the full benefit of a high quality educational experience,” Prezant said.

A bachelor’s degree traditionally takes four years to complete, while a master’s degree typically takes two years of study for a full-time student. Therefore, the new program will enable students who are interested in pursuing both degrees to shave a full year off the time that it generally takes to finish. That will save students a full year’s tuition and expenses, as well as enable them to become eligible to enter the job market a year sooner.

The programs will continue to offer the traditional four-year bachelor’s degrees and two-year master’s degree tracks. But those students looking to complete both degrees in a total of five years are generally encouraged to apply for acceptance into an accelerated program during the spring semester of their junior year.

The programs generally enable students to replace 6 to 12 credits of undergraduate electives with graduate level courses in their major during their senior year.

Michael Kingan

Michael Kingan has been named Southern’s new vice president for institutional advancement, effective July 9, 2018. He will oversee Development, Integrated Communications & Marketing, and Alumni Relations and will also serve as executive director of the SCSU Foundation.

“Michael has exhibited a passion for developing and growing advancement programs,” said President Joe Bertolino. “This has resulted in expanded educational opportunity for tens of thousands of students and several generations of tomorrow’s global citizens and leaders.”

Kingan has served for more than 25 years in a number of diverse institutions, including the Universities of Michigan, Washington, Iowa and New Mexico. He was the first Chief Advancement Officer at the Singapore American School, one of the world’s premier international schools, with an enrollment exceeding 4,000 students in grades pre-kindergarten through 12.

“As it approaches its 125th anniversary this fall, Southern is a diverse, vibrant institution with wonderful traditions and great potential,” Kingan said. “During my on-campus interviews, I was particularly impressed by the pride exhibited by students, faculty, staff and alumni as well as President Bertolino’s institution-wide commitment to social justice and to being a good neighbor to the community at large.”

Most recently, Kingan was the vice president for development and alumni relations at the University of Texas at Arlington, a Carnegie Research-1 institution that ranks among the top five most diverse student populations of all comprehensive public universities in the nation.

He has prepared and successfully launched comprehensive fundraising campaigns throughout his career and has expertise in identifying fundraising priorities, collaborating with university leadership, faculty, staff, alumni, and volunteers and facilitating gift engagements that result in substantial growth in institutional support.

“Private funding sources are essential to advance Southern’s mission of academic excellence, access and service for the public good,” Kingan said. “I look forward to working with my new colleagues to identify new areas of support for the institution and to spread the word about the vital role that Southern plays in Connecticut’s economy.”

Kingan earned his undergraduate degree in political science from Austin College in Sherman and his Master of Public Affairs degree from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He served as an instructor in the Overseas Service Corps of the YMCA in Keelung, Taiwan, before embarking on his career in philanthropy and advancement. He is married to Mary Laing Kingan and they have two grown children, Will and Madeleine.

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