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Mathematics Championship Luncheon planned for March 28

3/17/06

The top five scorers of the 15th annual Berks County Mathematics Championship, along with the top three high school placements, will be recognized at a banquet at noon Tuesday, March 28, in the Perkins Student Center Multipurpose room, Penn State Berks. The keynote address will be presented by Susan Phillips Speece, chancellor of Penn State Berks.

Berks to hold worldwide poverty experience

3/17/06

Penn State Berks Campus Life, along with several student organizations, will hold a program featuring a realistic picture of world hunger and poverty at 6 p.m. Monday, March 27, in the Lion's Den of the Perkins Student Center. The cost of this event is $3, which includes a meal. The meals will be provided courtesy of Housing and Food Service. All funds raised will benefit UNICEF. The program discussion will be led by Randall Fegley, assistant professor of history. The discussion will focus on the faces of poverty, many of which are children.

Students to prepare lunch for shelter residents

3/17/06

As part of Penn State Berks' monthly community service efforts performed by students, a group will travel to Opportunity House, formerly known as the Reading Emergency Shelter, on Sunday, March 19, to prepare lunch for residents. The students are responsible for preparing the entire meal, from start to finish. Opportunity House has evolved into more than just a shelter that provides a bed and a meal; it helps rebuild the foundation of a strong community by helping individuals and families create a future of self-sufficiency, self respect and responsibility.

Berks publication receives Outstanding Book award

3/17/06

"On Location: Theory and Practice in Classroom-Based Writing Tutoring," edited by Laurie Grobman, associate professor of English, and the late Candace Spigelman, associate professor of English, received the International Writing Centers Association (IWCA) 2005 Outstanding Scholarship in a Book award. This year's award will be presented at the association's Conference on College Composition and Communication in Chicago. Grobman will accept the award on behalf of herself and the late Spigelman at the event.

Security administrators remind bloggers: Watch out for spam

3/15/06

Cialis, Viagra and Prozac all may have useful purposes, but how much relevance do links to the suspicious third-party vendors selling the pills have on Penn State blogs? Little or none. Yet, according to security experts at Information Technology Services (ITS), searches of blogs and wikis in the Penn State domain often can generate thousands of references to such products. Due to increasing concerns, ITS staff members are issuing a reminder that under Penn State Policy blogs or wikis are prohibited from posting commercial links that are unrelated to the operations of the University. They also recommend that individuals who create Web sites that allow visitors to contribute content (via blogs or other electronic bulletins), continually monitor their sites for unsolicited commercial advertisements.

University's academic calendar to change in 2007-08

3/14/06

Penn State's fall and spring semesters will become identical in format under changes that slightly reorganize the University's academic calendar effective in 2007-08. The most notable change involves the fall semester, which will include a weeklong break from classes over the Thanksgiving holiday in lieu of the shorter fall break that has been held over one or two days in October in recent years. This adjustment creates fall and spring semesters that are a uniform 15 weeks in length. Final exam periods during each semester again will be composed of a five-day, Monday through Friday schedule following the 15th week of classes and a two-day weekend study period. "Over the course of the last several years there have been a number of faculty and students who raised questions about the calendar, most notably the inconsistency between the fall and spring terms. These changes bring symmetry to the calendar while addressing some other concerns," said Rodney A. Erickson, executive vice president and provost. No changes are planned for the summer and spring academic calendars.

Hospitality Career Connection planned for prospective students

3/8/06

Penn State Berks will hold its annual Hospitality Career Connection for prospective students interested in a career in the field of hotel, restaurant and institutional management at noon Saturday, March 25, in the Lions Den of the Perkins Student Center. This free event for students and their families includes a luncheon and information sessions on such topics as "The Hotel World," "The Restaurant Business" and "Institutional Food Service." Penn State Berks offers an associate degree in hotel, restaurant and institutional management.

Great Jazz Divas bring unique sound to Berks festival

3/8/06

As part of the 16th annual First Energy Berks Jazz Fest festival, Great Jazz Divas will perform at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, in the Perkins Student Center Auditorium. The husband-and-wife team of Julie Davis and Kelly Dow perform jazz and pop standards such as the music of Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, The Beatles, Al Jarreau and Jimi Hendrix. Their unique sound has the ability to fuse classical, flamenco, rock, blues and jazz together. Their latest CD, "Naked," won Best Jazz Album at the Florida Music Awards, and they were voted Best Jazz Artists by New Times Magazine.

Penn State Berks celebrates spring equinox with festival

3/8/06

Penn State Berks will celebrate the beginning of spring with a Spring Equinox Festival from 7 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, at the campus Labyrinth Walk, located just before the intersection of Broadcasting and Tulpehocken Roads in Spring Township. Some of the other highlights of the evening will include designing spring greeting cards, a drumming circle from Earth Rhythms, a vocalist and dance performance, seed and bulb planting, and a spring theme costume contest. In addition, the Labyrinth Walk will be illuminated with votive candles and luminaries, creating a magical setting for continuous labyrinth walking throughout the evening.

Berks THON dancers raise more than $11,000

3/8/06

Students from Penn State Berks raised $11,437.45 for THON, the 48-hour dance marathon to benefit the Four Diamonds Fund supporting families battling pediatric cancer, held at Penn State every year. For the first time Penn State Berks had two dancer pairs that participated in THON. Putting on their dancing shoes were juniors Tyler Matthews and Angela Phillippy, sophomore Danielle Myers and first-year student Jill Caffrey, who spent their weekend on the dance floor as other Penn State Berks students, faculty and staff cheered them on. Overall, THON raised more than $4.2 million. For details, go to http://live.psu.edu/story/16221 online. For photos of THON 2006, go to http://live.psu.edu/still_life/2006_02_20_thon/index.html online.

Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/16540

Joint Penn State-Canadian course will be taught in Toronto

3/3/06

A new Education Abroad option for Penn State students will be offered jointly by Penn State Erie and Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. Students from both universities will share a classroom for North American Politics (PL SC 299), a three-credit course to be team-taught by Robert Speel, associate professor of political science at Penn State Erie, and Gregory Inwood, associate professor of politics and public administration at Ryerson. The course will focus on comparing the political histories, politics and institutions of the United States and Canada. The course will be held at Ryerson University, located in downtown Toronto, during Penn State Erie's three-week summer session that begins Wednesday, May 10. The course is open to Penn State students from any campus location or major.

Blogs offer look into teen psychology for McKeesport class

3/3/06

In today's world, many adolescents use the Internet as a public setting to express their supposedly private feelings and experiences. After reading a few articles about this new method of teenage expression and checking out a few Web sites, Elizabeth Mazur, Penn State McKeesport associate professor, decided to use the Internet as a hands-on way for her undergraduates to study adolescent behavior. Mazur and her students analyze blogs as one type of source material for understanding and learning about the adolescent world. As one of the class's activities, Mazur's students examine blogs to gather primary data on adolescent relationships (friends, romantic interests, family conflicts, etc.) and the emotions which accompany those relationships.

Photojournalist presents 'The War You Won't See on TV'

3/2/06

Photojournalist Lorna Tychostup will discuss her experiences as a freelance journalist and photographer and as the senior editor for Chonogram magazine in a free lecture at 7 p.m. March 15 in the Penn State Berks Perkins Student Center Auditorium. To date, Tychostup has visited Iraq three times, collectively spending more than 12 weeks there. Her photographs of Iraq and its people, before and during the war, have been exhibited throughout the country.

Penn State Berks to hold spring career and internship fair

3/2/06

The Office of Career Services will hold a spring career and internship fair from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 15 in the Multi-purpose Room of the Perkins Student Center on the Penn State Berks campus. Employers from Berks County and the surrounding area will meet with students and alumni to discuss internship and full-time employment opportunities. For more information, call the Office of Career Services at (610) 396-6335.

Freyberger Gallery exhibits 'Portrait of American Hobo'

3/2/06

The Penn State Berks Freyberger Gallery will display "A Portrait of the American Hobo/The High Line" by Catherine Leuthold from March 16 to May 5. An opening reception to be held at 6 p.m. March 16. The reception and the exhibit are free to the public. Leuthold is a veteran international freelance photographer and one of the first newswomen to arrive at Ground Zero on 9/11. Upon her return, she settled in Maine and began to do a series of photographs that would be the culmination of her experiences in documenting forgotten people, the American hobo.

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