Presidential Election Fever Hits RMU
The RMU campus was abuzz with political fervor in March as events focused around the upcoming presidential election. On March 24, RMU-TV televised a live campus debate, with students representing presidential candidates U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), U.S. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.). The debate was part of a service-learning assignment for the Department of Communications' Media Management course. In the project, students also ran separate campus campaigns for each candidate, producing bumper stickers, buttons, fliers and websites. The Obama supporters even created a YouTube.com video entitled "Obama PSA - Colonial Chapter."

On March 31, an Internet mock-election was held for RMU faculty, staff and students. McCain won the election with 219 votes, edging out Obama (207 votes) and Clinton (126 votes). "Clearly, Obama and Clinton split the Democratic vote to their disadvantage," said Rex Crawley, head of the Department of Communications. McCain won despite the fact that a majority of respondents - 50.2 percent - indicated they are Democrats. Approximately 93 percent of election participants reported that they are registered voters.

Bill Clinton Speaks at RMU
On April 18, RMU's student organization, the College Democrats, welcomed former President Bill Clinton to the Robert Morris University campus as part of his Pennsylvania tour supporting the presidential candidacy of his wife, U. S. Senator Hillary Clinton. The event, which was held in Sewall Center Arena, drew a crowd of a few hundred people, including various members of the local media. Other notable attendees included Allegheny County Commissioner Dan Onorato, former Pittsburgh Mayor Sophie Masloff, and Susan M. Kapusta, Ph.D., '81, general manager of community affairs and the United States Steel Foundation at U. S. Steel.

RMU Hosts Autism Speaker Series and Exhibit
On Feb. 21, the Prism Gallery, a touring exhibit of artwork created by children and adults with autism, opened in Rogal Chapel with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony led by RMU President Gregory G. Dell'Omo, Ph.D. The gallery, which ran through Feb. 29, was in conjunction with the Autism Speaker Series, which enables parents and teachers of autistic children to learn about best practices, resources and ideas to support them. The series included an opening presentation by organizer Shellie Hipsky, Ed.D., assistant professor of education; a parent panel, Parent Perspectives on Autism; and Teacher Tips for Working with Students in the Autism Spectrum, presented by Rebecca Klaw.

Club Ice Hockey Team Championship
The Men's Division I club ice hockey team was named the 2008 regular-season champion for the Eastern College Hockey League (ECHL), finishing with a season-ending record of 15-14-3. The team also earned a spot in the American College Hockey Association (ACHA) National Tournament, which took place March 1-5 in Rochester, N.Y. There, the Colonials lost to eventual national champion Illinois, 4-1, in the first round.

AcoustiCafe LIVE at RMU
AcoustiCafe, a volunteer promotional organization for the regional music community, recently partnered with Robert Morris University to present "AcoustiCafe LIVE from RoMo's Cafe." The weekly show, Songwriter Sessions, is hosted by singer/songwriter J. Shields on Fridays from 5 to 7 p.m. in RoMo's Caf� in the Nicholson Center. The first show was held on Feb. 15 and featured artists Joel Lindsey and Lauren DeMichiei. Songwriter Sessions will be broadcast live on RMU's new Internet radio station, which can be streamed from www.RMUradio.com.

Visitors
On Feb. 27, author Salman Rushdie spoke to RMU students, faculty and guests at Rogal Chapel. Rushdie, the author of more than a dozen books and the recipient of several literary prizes, is best known for his novel, Satanic Verses (1988). On March 26, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt spoke at Rogal Chapel. McCourt has written numerous books, including the bestselling Angela's Ashes (1999) and Teacher Man (2005). Both authors later spoke at Heinz Hall as part of the Pittsburgh Speakers Series.

On March 31, RMU welcomed Pittsburgh native and Wall Street veteran Jack Perkowski to speak on his book, Managing the Dragon: How I'm Building a Billion-Dollar Business in China. Perkowski is the chairman and CEO of ASIMCO Technologies, one of China's most respected companies, which he founded in 1994. His new book discusses his experiences building ASIMCO from the ground up and the lessons he learned in developing the company's local management team.

On April 28, Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO and past president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), spoke at the Sewall Center and gave a lecture in the John Jay Center for Wayne Grim's Labor Management Relations course. As president of the UMWA, Trumka brought stability to a union that was long associated with violence and corruption. He also brought about significant advances in employee-employer cooperation and enhanced mine workers' job security, pensions and benefits.

VanDieren Presents at ASL Meeting
Monica VanDieren, assistant professor of mathematics, presented Stability in Abstract Elementary Classes at the Association of Symbolic Logic (ASL) Annual Meeting, held at University of California, Irvine, March 27-30. She was also invited to discuss her research at the Midwest Model Theory Meeting, April 19-20 in Chicago. VanDieren, who is RMU's first research-oriented female faculty member in mathematics, was one of the organizers of the Expanding Your Horizons Conference, held in October 2007, which encourages young women to explore careers in math, science, technology and engineering. Recently, VanDieren received a $111,211 Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), based on her research in model theory, a branch of mathematical logic.

RMU Named to Community Service Honor Roll
On Feb. 18, the Corporation for National and Community Service named RMU to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to disadvantaged youth. The Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. Honorees were chosen based on a series of factors including scope and innovativeness of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses.

College Bowl Team Places Second in Region
The RMU College Bowl team finished second in Region IV during the annual tournament at California University of Pennsylvania, Feb. 22-23. RMU defeated every team in the region except for the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. Team members included graduate student Jessica Thompson '07 (captain), sophomore finance major Justin Mosovsky, freshman actuarial science major Matthew Feryus, senior social science major Sam McCoy and sophomore actuarial science major Steven Stanovich. The team, which was coached by Provost David Jamison, J.D., and Joe Laneve '05, achieved this result in dedication to their late teammate, Michael Tatalovich.

Students Cast in Pittsburgh Musical Theatre Production

Seniors David Toole and Kathlene Queen were cast as Tony and Maria in the Pittsburgh Musical Theater (PMT) production of West Side Story, May 8-18, at the Byham Theater. Toole and Queen played the same roles in RMU's production of the musical in November 2006. In PMT's production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which ran from Jan. 24 to Feb. 3, Toole portrayed Joseph and Queen was in the ensemble. Toole's Colonial Theatre resume also includes the Balladeer in Assassins, Cain in Children of Eden, Berger in Hair, Robert E. Lee in The Civil War and Edward Rutledge in 1776. Queen's Colonial Theatre resume also includes Squeaky Fromme in Assassins, Yonah in Children of Eden and Sheila in Hair.

Inagural Exhibit at the New Media Arts Gallery
From March 19 to April 19, the Robert Morris University Media Arts Gallery presented Brit by Brit - Contemporary Ceramics by Rod Bugg and Stephen Dixon, the inaugural exhibition in the Media Arts Gallery's new location at the RMU building at 600 Fifth Ave. in downtown Pittsburgh. Designed by Edge Studio, the new 2,000-square-foot gallery opened as part of the University's $5 million renovation plan for the 100,000-square-foot property, and it will feature the work of students and faculty as well as exhibitions by local and international artists. The gallery will also be used for lectures, meetings and other University events.

Media Arts Faculty Participate in Local Arts Events
Carolina Loyola-Garcia, M.F.A., assistant professor of media arts, recently curated an exhibition entitled Deliciously Disposable Earth, which appeared at the Three Rivers Arts Festival Gallery and featured her film, Pascua Lama: A Contemporary Quest for El Dorado. Co-directed by her sister, Gloria Loyola, the documentary follows the confrontation between a Chilean valley farming community and a Canadian mining company. The work of Hyla Willis, M.F.A., assistant professor of media arts, was also featured in the gallery. Her project, Cell Track: Mapping the Appropriation of Life Materials, is about the patenting and privatization of the human body. Part-time media arts faculty member Cara Erskine, M.F.A., was the curator of an exhibition entitled Plastic Poetics, which was featured at the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, where she also works as exhibitions coordinator.

OverAchievers
Donald "D.J." Klinefelter, a senior media arts major, was awarded a prestigious Broadcast Education Association (BEA) award for his video, Untitled Keyframe Animation #6, which won first place in the annual Student Video Production Awards in the Animated/Experimental/Mixed category. Klinefelter received his award at the BEA annual conference in Las Vegas, April 16-19.

Lori Rankin M'08 has been named the 2007-08 Engineer of the Year by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (AMSE) Pittsburgh Section. Rankin, who received her M.S. in engineering management, works as a project engineer at FedEx Ground in Moon Township, where she manages conveyor systems projects.

Garrett Kaiser, a junior management major in the RMU International Cooperative Education Honors Program, was recognized as a "Top 100 Intern" by the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network. Kaiser, an intern at Northwestern Mutual Financial in Pittsburgh, ranked 79 out of 1,500 interns nationwide.

Community
On March 27, at Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland, the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra welcomed the MBA Network, an organization that connects Pittsburgh's Business professionals. The event was collectively supported by the deans of various Pittsburgh business schools, including Robert Morris University's School of Business.

RMU's student chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA) received a $1,000 grant to help a community nonprofit organization. In a strategic partnership with the Girl's Hope Foundation of Pittsburgh and the Young Leadership Board (YLB) of Pittsburgh, the chapter assisted in the planning, preparation and promotion of the Hearts & Hopes event on Feb. 8, which raised approximately $23,200 for the Girls Hope Foundation.

Commencement 2008
Robert Morris University held its 83rd annual commencement on Saturday, May 10, in the Sewall Center at its Moon Township campus. For the first time, the University held separate ceremonies for graduate and undergraduate students. Mark Roosevelt, superintendent of the Pittsburgh Public Schools, was the keynote speaker of the graduate ceremony; alumnus Norman F. Mitry, president and CEO of Heritage Valley Health System, spoke at the undergraduate ceremony.

CARES Receives Grant
The Center for Applied Research in Engineering and Science (CARES) received a $60,000 grant from Pittsburgh-based Innovation Works to fund the development of an automated storage and parts feeding system for Glassautomatic Inc. Glassautomatic provides glass decorating services for glass manufacturers, large retailers and catalog companies. CARES serves as the industrial outreach arm of the School of Engineering, Mathematics, and Science (SEMS) and offers contract research, joint grant development and continuing education opportunities to industry.

Nuclear Medicine Program Unveils New Laboratory
RMU's School of Nursing and Health Sciences celebrated the launch of its two new degree programs with a dedication ceremony April 25, outside the newly renovated Benjamin Rush Center.

Following the dedication ceremony, the school held an open house inside the center, featuring student demonstrations of diagnostic imaging and presentations by nurse practitioner students on a variety of health topics. The Benjamin Rush Center, formerly the RMU Admissions Building, was renovated to house the Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Medicine Technology and the Doctor of Nursing Practice programs, both new programs launched last fall. The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) is the first State Board of Nursing-approved program of its kind in Pennsylvania, while no other institution in Western Pennsylvania offers a four-year degree in nuclear medicine technology. The Doctor of Nursing Practice degree aims at preparing nurse practitioners at the doctoral level, and to enhancing the practice of advanced practice nurses with experience as clinical specialists, registered nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives or practitioners. Nuclear medicine is a highly sensitive diagnostic imaging tool that allows physicians to detect diseases and study organ function. Because it produces low-resolution images, it is increasingly combined with other imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Scholarships
On April 6, RMU presented freshman Jen Sabol with the first Bayer Scholarship in Environmental Science. The scholarship, which is worth $1,000/year for four years, is awarded to a student who enters the Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science program, has an SAT score in excess of 1100 and has maintained a QPA of 3.5 in his/her freshman year at RMU.

On Feb. 7, Lisa Richbourg, a student in the School of Adult and Continuing Education, was awarded a $500 scholarship by the Continuing Education Association of Pennsylvania, which awards only two such scholarships each year. To qualify, students must have a minimum GPA of 3.5, be enrolled as a non-traditional student and have completed 24 credits at their current school. Richbourg is majoring in organizational studies and currently has a 3.6 GPA.

On April 9, RMU held its annual Scholarship Luncheon. Over 100 guests attended the event, which is held to recognize the University's scholarship donors and recipients. This year's luncheon featured brief speeches by Ross Pisano, national vice president of the National Association of the Wolves, and student scholarship winners David Toole '08 and Erin Neely '09.

Movers & Shakers
Not So Disposable, a video by Dana Hackley, student media adviser, was named winner of the Green Your Routine video contest held by Ziddio, a national video-sharing website. Entries had to focus on how the creator would change his or her routine in order to better the environment. Hackley, who is the mother of a toddler, focused her video on the waste created by disposable diapers, which are the third largest source of waste in landfills.

Daniel P. Barr, Ph.D., assistant professor of history, was awarded the Philip S. Klein Pennsylvania History Prize from the Pennsylvania Historical Association for his article, A Road for Warriors: The Western Delawares and the Seven Years' War, which appeared in the association's journal, Pennsylvania History. The article examined the strategies and motivations behind the Delaware Indians' decision to fight with the French in the French-Indian War.

Daniel J. Shelley, Ph.D., professor of education, received the Pioneer Award from the Pennsylvania Association for Educational Communications and Technology (PAECT) at the annual conference held in Hershey in February 2008. Shelley received the award for his work in the early days of technology implementation as a teacher at RMU, and also for his work at the Connellsville Area School District and Edinboro University.

Yasmin S. Purohit, Ph.D., assistant professor of human resource management, was named chair of the Careers Track for the Eastern Academy of Management (EAM) 2008 Annual Meeting, held May 14-17 in Arlington, Va. The EAM is a learning community devoted to the advancement of management theory, research, education and practice. Purohit was nominated for his 10 years of EAM involvement, both as a graduate student and as a professor.

Memorial Garden Groundbreaking

On April 22, RMU held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Memorial Garden at Rogal Chapel. Initiated by the RMU Patriot Scholars, the garden is being given by the RMU community in memory of Jonathan Gilbert and Michael Tatalovich, who were killed earlier this semester; Josh O'Bannon '07, who passed away in April; and other deceased members of the RMU family. Other contributors to the project are the 2008 Senior Class, Delta Zeta Sorority, Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Council, and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.