January 29, 2004
Global Staff Exchange Participants Announced
Self-Defense Classes Available to Webster Employees
Webster Voices: Scholars Explore the Question of “Otherness”
Featured Faculty
Kampus Kudos
St. Louis Calendar Highlight
Employees of the Month
Service Anniversaries
New Employees
Condolences
Global Staff Exchange Participants Announced
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Absolon was one of four staff members selected for the new program, which is funded through a grant from the Energizer Foundation and provides an opportunity for cross-cultural experiences for staff who are not likely to have such experiences otherwise. Apart from Absolon, the other employees chosen are: Claudia Burris, senior editor and photojournalist, University Communications; Matt Nolan, director, Graduate and Evening Student Admissions; and Megan Taylor, coordinator, School of Business & Technology.
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“The selection committee had a difficult job,” Schmutz says. “There was good competition from broad areas of the University. It was a tough decision.”
While the participants have been named, the specific campus locations they’ll be traveling to have not. Schmutz says that the European campus directors are currently reviewing the participants’ applications to see how each staff member’s expertise may mesh with their particular campus’ needs. Once the locations have been determined, staff members will schedule their two-week visits to the European campuses for later this year.
Absolon, for one, can’t wait to make the trip. “I have my passport, and I’m ready to go,” she said. “All I have to do is pack my bags!” Apart from the excitement of going to Europe for the first time, Absolon also is eager to meet the people she’s been working with on a daily basis for the last 14 years.
“It’s so easy to sit behind the computer and just e-mail each other,” Absolon says. “This way, I’ll be able to see how their days work and what their frustrations are in person.”
Like Absolon, Taylor also has never been to Europe. “I’ve never been anywhere!” she says. Taylor has frequent contact with the European campuses and wants to use her visit to “gain and bring back to the home campus a more in-depth understanding and appreciation of the staffs’ and students’ culture, experience and way of life.”
Nolan plans to spend his fortnight gaining a wider perspective on the European campus admissions process, particularly the Web component, which, he says, has one of the greatest growth potentials. “I want to know what a student in Europe would be looking for in an online program,” says Nolan, whose only previous trip to Europe was to tour the slaughterhouses of France for a trade magazine he was working for at the time. His only take-away from that trip? “Cook everything well done.”
He plans on drawing much more from his Webster campus visit, particularly a better understanding of the social, political and cultural differences among students at the European campuses.
Burris, whose mother is from Germany, has been to Europe a number of times, but never for work. She’s eager to use the opportunity to update the University’s international campus photo collection, which is drastically out of date. As editor of Webster World magazine, she also plans to develop stories and sources for her own and other University publications. “I want to help them figure out what makes a good story for Webster World or for their local papers, so that even after I leave, they’ll still be able to reap the benefits,” Burris says.
The sharing of such lasting knowledge and best practices is a key goal of the program, says School of Business & Technology Dean Benjamin Akande, who conceived of the program with Stimpfl and approached Energizer with the funding appeal. “We want our staff members to exchange ideas with their European campus counterparts and build and maintain closer relationships with them to help support the University’s mission, while at the same time raising awareness of cultural differences,” says Akande.
Just as important, Stimpfl says, is the investment that the University is making in its staff members. “This program clearly says that you’re part of the educational mission of the institution and that your development as a person is important to Webster,” Stimpfl says.
Self-Defense Classes Available to Webster Employees
FROM MARY BEARY, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS WORK-STUDY STUDENT
“Do you look into, around and under your car before you get into it?” “What would you do if you were alone in an elevator and a man who made you feel uncomfortable got in with you?”These are just two of the questions that Liza Schultheis, communications supervisor, Public Safety, poses to students in her R.A.D. Systems class. R.A.D., which stands for Rape Aggression Defense, is a self-defense program designed for women, which incorporates self-defense awareness, tactics and techniques. A certified instructor, Schultheis has taught two R.A.D. courses at the University to date and will begin another one in February.
The R.A.D. Systems program is a series of four, three-hour classes that build upon each other. The classes combine lecture, Q&A and various physical defensive and avoidance techniques designed for the average woman, even those with no previous experience or background in physical training. The program culminates in a final class during which there is an attack simulation that enables students to practice their techniques.
The courses are open to faculty, staff and students at a cost of $20 per person. The fee includes a course manual and allows students to retake the classes anywhere in the country, as many times as they want. The next course is forming now and will be held at the University Center on three consecutive Thursday evenings from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., beginning Feb. 12. The final class will be held on a Saturday morning—date to be determined—at Washington University.
For more information about R.A.D. Systems classes, contact Schultheis at ext. 8028.
Webster Voices: Scholars Explore the Question of “Otherness”
FROM WARREN ROSENBLUM, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, HISTORY, POLITICS AND LAW
Otherness is the quality that distinguishes “them” from “us.” The quality could be skin color, religion, language, physique, mental dis/ability, or sexual preference. In any case, otherness is seen as an immutable and threatening form of difference. During the 19th century, it became commonplace to explain these hidden wellsprings of difference through the concept of race. No one defined race precisely, and one scientist after another failed in the search for its biological underpinnings. Still, a religious-like faith in the concept of race persisted, and, in the 20th century, obsessions with otherness fueled the fires of persecution, war and genocide.Last month, an international group of scholars met on Webster’s St. Louis campus to discuss the origins of racial thinking and its impact upon recent history. The conference, “Otherness: The Construction of Race and Its Consequences in the 20th Century,” was organized by Warren Rosenblum, assistant professor, History, Politics and Law, and Holocaust scholar Wolf Gruner, Webster’s third Des Lee Visiting International Scholar. Presentations covered a variety of topics and a range of national and historical contexts. While most papers focused on Europe, there were also presentations on South Africa, Brazil and the United States.
This was the first conference in St. Louis co-sponsored by the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Patricia Heberer, staff historian at the Holocaust Museum, presented a paper on the killing of physically and mentally disabled individuals during the Third Reich. She also arranged for five recipients of the Center’s prestigious research fellowships to attend the conference. Claudia Schoppmann, a historian from Berlin, presented a paper on the Nazis’ persecution of homosexuals. Schoppmann demonstrated that the Nazis’ vicious policies against homosexuality were rooted in generations of prejudice. No one protested when 50,000 gay men and youths were arrested and convicted. Six thousand of these victims eventually met their deaths in concentration camps. Vladimir Solinari, a native of Moldova now teaching in Florida, presented on another frequently neglected topic in the history of genocide: the participation of the Romanian government in the killing of hundreds of thousands of Jews during World War II.
Two other fellows of the Holocaust Research Center presented on topics farther afield from the Holocaust per se. Aron Rodrigue, a professor at Stanford University, explored how French-Jewish academics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries sought to undermine the simplistic racial ideologies of their time. Media scholar Steve Carr discussed the image of the Jew in Hollywood’s “social problem” films of the 1930s.
Jennifer Hecht, a historian and poet from New York, presented a surprisingly funny, and insightful, paper on the science of race in France before the Dreyfus Affair. Hecht described how French scholars created a “society for mutual autopsy.” Upon the death of each society member, the member’s surviving friends dissected and analyzed his brain in hopes of finding the physiological origins of personality. While their searches proved fruitless, they did produce wonderful comic material for a future writer. The paper by historian Tom Jordan, from Southern Illinois University, considered how race theorists in Brazil borrowed the concepts of their European counterparts to argue that their country must be “whitened” through selective and controlled immigration. Ann Taylor Allen, of the University of Louisville, described how feminists in Germany and England in the early 20th century drew upon the science of race and the movement known as “eugenics” in their effort to “bring reproduction under female control.”
A number of local faculty members also gave presentations. Tracey McCarthy assistant professor, History, Politics and Law, discussed how the “othering” process is important to identity construction and can occur in both maladaptive and adaptive ways. Liberal scholars, she argued, should beware of a condescending approach toward the question of otherness that belittles people’s basic need to construct group identities. Julia Walsh, assistant professor, History Politics and Law, explored how race and national identity shape the substance and tenor of classroom discussions about American history in general and the history of the American South, in particular. Linda Woolf, professor, Behavioral and Social Sciences, and Mike Hulsizer, associate professor, Behavioral and Social Sciences, gave a demonstration on teaching the “psychosocial roots and ramifications of mass prejudice.”
Finally, Brian Kennelly, associate professor, Foreign Languages and Literatures, presented a paper on the struggle of Afrikaners to define their identity in South Africa’s post-Apartheid environment. Kennelly’s paper, which dealt with the burden of historical injustices upon a new generation, provided a fascinating counterpoint to the papers by his cross-town colleagues, Erin McGlothlin and Robert Vinson of Washington University. McGlothlin’s paper compared literary works by the children of Holocaust survivors with the children of perpetrators, finding interesting parallels in the efforts of a second generation to liberate themselves from the racial assumptions of an earlier time. Vinson’s paper returned us to the world of contested identities in colonial Africa. He considered how American blacks working in turn-of-the-century South Africa were initially granted the status of “honorary whites,” but then lost their privileges after the American government stopped supporting their pleas for civic equality.
Webster professors Dan Hellinger, department chair, History, Politics and Law, Linda Holtzmann, associate professor, Communications and Journalism; and Meg Sempreora, associate professor, English, heroically pulled disparate papers together and provided interesting comments and questions for the panelists. An audience of faculty, students, staff and members of the St. Louis community introduced fascinating questions from the floor, which made for lively discussion periods.
The final words of the conference were reserved for Wolf Gruner, our Des Lee visiting professor from Germany. For Gruner, the event was a fitting culmination of four months at Webster: teaching, lecturing and planning the conference. His remarks celebrated the rich diversity of perspectives on “otherness” and the many important intellectual friendships that had been spawned over the course of two days in St. Louis.
Organizers of the conference, which was made possible by grants from the Des Lee fund, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of History, Politics and Law, are now compiling a book of essays on “otherness,” which will include many of the papers presented at the December event.
Featured Faculty
Van McElwee, professor, Electronic and Photographic Media, currently has his video art showcased in a 25-year retrospective, called “Time Play,” at the Saint Louis University Museum of Art. The retrospective, which opened Jan. 23 and will run through April 4, features roughly two-thirds of the work that McElwee has created since he began making video in 1976.
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Twenty-eight years later, McElwee says that his body of work seems “both less and more at times.” At the retrospective opening last Friday evening, it tended toward the “more.”
“It was very satisfying to see 25 years of work all in one place,” he says. “It was great to see the way people responded to some of my old work, which is much simpler than what I do now.”
The retrospective is a tribute to the unique spot that McElwee holds in the world of video art. He has received numerous grants and awards, including the American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker Award and the National Endowment for the Arts Independent Production Fund, which he has received seven times. His work has been shown all over the world, including most recently in Paris, New York, Vienna, the Netherlands, Chicago and San Francisco.
The wide range of exhibit locations is testament to McElwee’s desire to create art that inspires universally, rather than politically. “Propaganda doesn’t inspire me, and I don’t like to preach to people,” he explains. “There’s an almost puritanical idea in the art world that art must be political because it’s the moral thing to do. I’m more interested in pleasure and in creating situations in which people can have their own thoughts and perhaps think and feel in new ways.”
Such complex work doesn’t, of course, come easily. McElwee says he spends about a year considering a piece before he even begins shooting. The image gathering process can take anywhere from three days to several years. He spent nine years, for example, collecting images for “Stupaform,” which “gathers into one moment the myriad manifestations of the Buddhist stupa, or pagoda.”
Once the shooting is complete, McElwee spends a year to a year and a half editing the images until the work is complete.
And how does he know when it’s finished?
“In the beginning, it seems I’m inside the piece, and then at some point, I feel like it’s outside of me,” he says. “And then I know that it’s done.”
Scott L. Jensen, associate professor, Communications and Journalism, accepted the 2003 Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from Missouri Gov. Bob Holden at a luncheon held in Springfield, Mo. Jensen was among 69 outstanding faculty members from Missouri’s postsecondary schools, colleges and universities to receive the award.
Christine Wells, media relations coordinator, University Communications, was selected as a participant for the Spring 2004 Women In Leadership Class at the Coro Leadership Center in St. Louis. A part-time, four-month program, Women In Leadership is designed to enhance leadership skills and community awareness among women in the St. Louis metropolitan area.
Carol D. Nelson, site director, Memphis Naval Support Activity Campus, Tenn., was awarded the Presidential Excellence Award by President Richard S. Meyers for leading the campus to record growth.
Mary Meade, adjunct professor, San Diego Metropolitan Campus, has formed a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in Valley Center, Calif. Trained by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, CERT connects volunteers with local emergency service providers to assist residents in times of disaster. Eighteen days after Meade taught her first certification class, the area was hit with the Paradise firestorm
Ina Von Ber, adjunct professor, San Diego Metropolitan Campus, recently had her book, “Writing Winning Research,” published by XanEdu. Written in laymen’s language, the book is designed as a workbook for learners who are beginning to collect information for a master’s thesis, final project or doctoral dissertation. It also explains how to select and research topics, focus and begin writing.
H. Keith Wade, adjunct professor, Lakeland, Fla., completed his Doctor of Business Administration degree at Argosy University in Sarasota, Fla.
Edward E. Middleton, adjunct professor, Jacksonville Metropolitan Campus, Fla., was inducted into the University of Missouri’s Civil Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni. The academy recognizes outstanding achievement, excellence and leadership in engineering and civic affairs.
Stefan Geyerhofer, adjunct professor, Vienna Campus, presented his work on the integration of systemic family therapy models at the first European conference of Strategic and Systemic Therapies in Arezzo, Italy. At the conference’s closing ceremony, Geyerhofer was elected as a board member of the newly founded European Network for Strategic and Systemic Therapies. The board was established to help facilitate research and communication among interactional psychotherapists in Europe.
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St. Louis Calendar Highlight
Monkey Business…
The School of Communications is hosting, “Let’s Put A Monkey In It,” a fun-filled discussion on how advertisers use humor to sell their products. The discussion, which is part of the Webster University Worldwide Communications Series, will be held on Friday, Jan. 30, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Emerson Library Conference Room.
The lecture is free and open to the public. A light lunch will be served.
For more information on St. Louis events, check the online calendar.
Employees of the Month
January 2004
FROM THERESA ARNOLD, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS WORK-STUDY STUDENT
Congratulations to the January winners of the Employee Spotlight Award: Pam Lewis, department associate, Facilities Operations and Debbie Grimes, department assistant, Charleston Metropolitan Campus.
Pam Lewis manages the Facilities Operations front office and has worked for Webster for nearly 10 years. Her nominator says that she does so “professionally, admirably and effectively.” As part of her job, Pam performs some special projects at Webster, such as maintaining campus signage and making sure classrooms are maintained so they can be held as scheduled. In addition, she designed a new uniform logo for workers, as well as assisted with the creation of the updated computerized work order system. According to her nominator, Pam always finds “innovative and creative” approaches to doing her job well.
Pam also has gone out of her way to ensure that students with disabilities have everything they need to help them succeed in the classroom. Pam received a thank-you note from one such student, thanking her for the lengths she went to in making a classroom available for use.
Pam was surprised to hear she had won the award. She found out at a meeting when her co-workers presented her with a framed plaque. She enjoys her job and says that she works with a “good group of people.”
“Everyone is friendly… we work as a team—Facilities Operations is the definition of a team.” Pam is also approaching her 10-year marriage anniversary in September; the ceremony was held in the Webster University Center in 1994. “Webster is a part of my family, I guess,” she said.
Pam chose a savings bond as her prize. She is expecting her first grandchild in April, so the award will go to her newest family member.
Debbie Grimes is the department assistant at the Charleston Metropolitan Campus. She has worked for Webster for over five years. Her nominator says that Debbie has “stepped up to the plate and taken charge” since the loss of a long-time employee at the Charleston campus.
Since taking them on, Debbie has accepted and performed new job responsibilities effortlessly and with a great attitude. One of her job duties is maintaining the schedules for advisors, and she “constantly makes changes” in order to serve students in the best way possible. Students are one of her main concerns, and she strives to help them however she can. When it comes to staff relations, Debbie is also a team player. “She even volunteers to help others when she catches up with her work,” says her nominator. In addition, Debbie devoted many hours of her time to the staff holiday party to make sure it was a success.
Debbie was “totally shocked” when she heard about her award. She is happy in her position at Webster and her favorite aspect about the job is the staff. “I love it here,” said Grimes. “I have never had a job like this. It is like family.” She also stands behind Webster as a great education and would “recommend it to anyone.”
Debbie chose a paid day off as her prize.
Employees everywhere are eligible for the monthly Employee Spotlight Award. Using the nomination form is easy!
Service Anniversaries
January 2004
The University extends its appreciation to the following individuals who have ably served the institution for many years:
Anna Barbara Sakurai, professor, Math and Computer Science, 40 years
Susan Halloran, coordinator, Students and Enrollment Management, 20 years
Gary Bergfeld, associate professor, Biological Sciences, 15 years
Fran Blumentritt, coordinator, Human Resources, 15 years
Kathleen Crabdree, department associate, Administration, 15 years
Carol Connor, department associate, Career Services, 15 years
Claudia Garnes, representative, Beaufort Naval Hospital, 10 years
Denise Harrell, associate director, Graduate and Evening Student Admissions, 10 years
Diane Schultz, assistant director, Pope AFB, 10 years
Joshua Daily, department assistant, Mail and Copy Center, five years
Liz Jokerst, department associate, School of Communications, five years
Bucky Jones, director, Fayetteville Metropolitan Campus, five years
Julie Stone, assistant professor, Biological Sciences, five years
Mary Todd, representative, Registrar, five years
Nancy Wilson, associate professor, Communications and Journalism, five years
New Employees
A warm welcome to the newest members of the Webster family:
Frank Borovilos, general clerk, Los Angeles AFB, 310-647-3403 or speed dial #6 105
Tania Dow, academic advisor, Los Angeles AFB, 310-607-8006 or speed dial #6 105
Barbara Downs, director, Dayton, Ohio Campus
Melissa K. Epperson, department assistant, Fort Leonard Wood, 573-329-6777, replaces Gaby Dougherty.
James Gallogly, circulation assistant, Emerson Library
James C. Harrison IV, coordinator, Film Series, ext. 7525, replaces Mark Syp.
Alma Jean Henderson, department assistant, Downtown Campus, 314-968-5966, replaces Linda Young.
Terry Irving, academic advisor/program coordinator, Irvine Metropolitan Campus, 949-250-7855, ext. 20 or speed dial #6 097
Jennifer Jamison, representative, Jacksonville Metropolitan Campus, 904-268-3037 or speed dial #6 099, replaces Jennifer Todd.
Peter Maher, assistant professor, Management, ext. 8622, replaces Rad Alrifai.
Timothy Meeks, skilled electrician, Facilities Operations
Tammey R. Pearson, department assistant, Fort Leonard Wood, 573-329-6777, replaces Joseph Adams.
Leonor Ramirez, department assistant, Irvine Metropolitan Campus, 949-250-7855 or speed dial #6 097
Kelli D. Sibilio-Dye, department assistant, Fort Stewart, Hunter Army Airfield, 912-876-8080 or speed dial #6 092
Matthew Sullivan, skilled groundskeeper, Facilities Operations
Marlon L. Wellington, technician, Pope AFB, 910-436-0014 or speed dial #6 024, replaces Michael Sumrell.
To learn more about job opportunities at Webster, go to the Human Resources Jobs site.
Condolences
The University extends its sympathy to Jennifer Broeder, assistant professor, Nursing, on the death of her father; to Michael Parkinson, department chair, Music, on the death of his mother; and to Mary Bevel, associate professor, Multidisciplinary Studies, on the death of her mother.
Webster University faculty and staff.
Jeryldine Tully, Editor
University Communications
Marianne Kirk, Contributor
University Communications
Pete McEwen, Technical Advisor
IT
Betsy Schmutz
Human Resources
© 2004, Webster University