Public Relations @ Sam

Welcome home and welcome to SHSU, vets!

2009-08-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

Pass the word around to vets. Sam wants you here. The Admissions office is creating a new Veterans Resource Center as a one-stop service center -- meet other vets, find out how to max out your benefits, especially for those who have served since 9/11/2001. Example: the housing allowance is $1,134 a month! The books allowance is $1,000 a year. Come on, vets. Welcome home and welcome to Sam.

Jim Olson, Author, Teacher, Gentle Man

2009-07-02T14:30:00.001-07:00

Sam has a lot of great teachers but Jim Olson is perhaps it’s most celebrated.
He is the only Sam professor to have earned all three of the University’s most prestigious awards – for Teaching, in 1977; for Research in 1988; and for Service in 2005.
He’s the author of more than 40 books and a two-time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize. The publisher of his latest book, the Johns Hopkins University Press, is one of the nation’s most respected publishers.
For all of that, Olson is humble, soft-spoken and unpretentious man, with a great gift of intellect and eloquence as a writer.
His latest book is about cancer and the search for cures, treatments and an understanding of how cancers, in their many forms, begin and spread. If you want to understand the arch of cancer treatment, read his book: “Making Cancer History: Disease and Discovery at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.”
He writes about the science, but also about the personalities, the egos, the politics, the rivalries and economics of cancer research and treatment.
Jim Olson knows a lot about cancer, and M.D. Anderson.
“I had cancer. I have cancer. I will always have cancer,” he writes.
Olson has been treated at M.D. Anderson off and on for the last 28 years. It was there that his left arm was amputated, just after Christmas in 1987, to rid him of an epithelioid sarcoma in his wrist that was about to kill him.
“Making Cancer History” is serious but compelling reading. Take this sentence: “For farmers and ranchers in Texas, decades of mending fences, plowing fields, and chasing cattle under cloudless skies and a blistering sun wrinkled their skin until it resembled the cracks and fissures in the parched earth,” as he goes on to make his point that such exposure to ultraviolet radiation elevates the risk of skin cancers – basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas and melanomas.
Olson’s latest feat is a pleasure to read; it will help lay readers better understand one of humankind’s more challenging problems, and may it well earn Jim Olson further awards and honors.
But he will still be on campus this fall, in the classroom, doing what he really loves to do most, teaching freshmen.

INTERNET NOW A DOOR TO A CJ MASTERS

2009-06-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

Working full-time, supporting a family and you still want to earn a promotion to a management level position in law enforcement?
Police officers, federal agents and criminal justice professionals across the nation can now earn a master’s degree in criminal justice management, keep their full-time jobs and take the courses from their living rooms.
Sam Houston State University, known internationally for its degree programs in
criminal justice, policing, corrections, security studies, victim studies and forensic sciences, will begin this fall to offer its traditional master’s degree in criminal justice and management via the internet.
Students can complete the program in two years, from home or wherever they have access to the Internet.
“The goal is to provide professionals with easy access to a high-quality graduate degree no matter where they work or live," said the dean of Sam Houston State’s College of Criminal Justice, Vincent Webb.
Driving a long distance to a university campus and taking classes during work hours is not an option for most professionals in law enforcement and criminal justice, he said.
The curriculum includes courses on management and leadership, policing, corrections, the court system, computer applications and a healthy dose of research methods, Webb said.
The program also offers access to technical support 24-hours a day, seven days a week, students will have the opportunity to learn from a faculty that includes internationally recognized experts in criminal justice.
The United States government contracts with Sam Houston State’s highly regarded College of Criminal Justice to train police and law enforcement officers from around the world on its campus in Huntsville, Texas, but also in their home countries.
“This is a quality distance learning degree that graduates will work hard to earn and will be appropriately proud of,” said CJ professor Larry Hoover, who was instrumental in designing the program.
Applicants for the online program must have at least three years of work experience in law enforcement or some field of criminal justice, and already have earned a bachelor’s degree. The application deadline for the fall semester is August 1.
For more information, or to apply online, visit http://www.cjcenter.org/distancelearning, or call Tess Johnson in SHSU’s College of Criminal Justice at (936) 294.4326.

Web Site Writing Seminar

2009-06-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

Stamats, our web site redesign firm will be back on campus July 23 and 24th to conduct "Writing for the Web" seminars. If interested contact anneo@shsu.edu.

More great teachers

2009-06-17T08:03:00.000-07:00

Ask any Sam alum and he or she will tell stories about great teachers they had at Sam. This is not just PR. It's a fact. Sam is large enough to attract great teachers and small enough that every Sam student is going to have the privilege of learning from them. Here's a good example. It's from a column written by 'Doc' Blakely in the Wharton (TX) Journal-Spectator:

"One of my agriculture professors at Sam Houston State University had such an impact on me that I still have flashbacks to some of his life lessons, especially with every spring garden. Dr. Shackelford was an East Texas boy who probably should never have left the farm but like he used to say, "A Grapefruit is just a Lemon who had a chance and took it."

Everybody called him affectionately 'Dr. Shack.' He was an agronomist and horticulturist. He loved to tell stories about his days growing up on a farm and how he was inspired to get off it."

If you have had your own story about a great teacher, we'd like to hear it.

2009-06-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

Hey, Veterans, welcome home and welcome to Sam.

To serve you better, we're creating a new Veterans Center where you can hang out with other veterans and reservists; we have several hundred enrolled as students here. Also, we're holding a orientation especially designed to answer your questions about using your GI Bill bene's, other sources of financial aid, and academic advising and support. That Orientation will be August 6 in the Lowman Student Center. For more info, call Teresa Ringo at 936.294.1061 or email her at tringo@shsu.edu.

Web Site Redesign Updates

2009-06-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

Our Stamats team returned to campus - see Today@Sam for photo and related story as our web site redesign project moves forward. Web site key messages include our high quality education with a high return on investment, the up close and personal caring found at SHSU, and our culture and traditions. Faculty and student success stories will appear throughout the web site pages. Plus, we'll have some WOW features that you'll want to see on Aug 27th when Dr. Gaertner reveals the design at the Faculty/Staff meeting.

Your web site redesign comments are invited and students interested in participating in a focus group on Wed, July 22, please contact me here or at anneo@shsu.edu.

Web Site Redesign Focus Groups

2009-05-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

SHSU's web site redesign company, Stamats will be back on campus Tuesday, June 2 and Wednesday, June 3 for Creative Focus Groups. We have some time slots open and are looking for SHSU faculty, staff and students that want to share their opinions about the web site. If interested, contact Ann O'Meara, Director of Marketing either at anneo@shsu.edu or at 936-294-3492 or post your comments.

Paul Ruffin named Texas Poet Laureate

2009-05-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

The Texas Commission on the Arts has named Paul Ruffin the 2009 Texas State Poet Laureate.

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The Texas Commission on the Arts has announced the 2009 and 2010 appointments for the positions of State Poet Laureate, State Musician, State Two-Dimensional Artist, and State Three-Dimensional Artist; and

WHEREAS, Honorees are chosen for the exceptional quality of their work and for their outstanding commitment to the arts in Texas; nominees must either be native Texans or have resided in the state for at least five years; in addition, they must have received critical recognition from state, regional, and national publications, and they must have attained the highest levels of excellence in their respective disciplines; and

WHEREAS, The 2009 Texas State Poet Laureate is Paul Ruffin, a Distinguished Professor of English at Sam Houston State University; the author of six acclaimed books of poetry as well as several volumes of fiction and nonfiction, Mr. Ruffin has published poems in hundreds of journals and anthologies; he is also the founder and editor of The Texas Review and the director of Texas Review Press; and

WHEREAS, Willie Nelson is the 2009 Texas State Musician; this legendary Texas performer was playing the guitar at the age of 6 and performing at 10; after establishing himself in Nashville as a hit songwriter, he returned to Texas and soon became world-famous as an interpreter of his own songs and as an icon of the outlaw country music movement; he has further distinguished himself as a film and television actor and entrepreneur, as well as an ever-popular touring concert artist who has been involved in numerous charity events such as FarmAid; and

WHEREAS, The 2009 Texas State Two-Dimensional Artist is Rene Alvarado; born in Mexico, he came to the United States with his family as a boy, and his work powerfully evokes the values and heritage of his native country, finding universal resonance in the rich particularity of Mexican culture; his work has been featured in galleries and exhibitions throughout Texas and the Southwest; and

WHEREAS, Eliseo Garcia has been selected as the 2009 Texas State Three-Dimensional Artist; his inspiring bas-relief sculptures pay homage to the importance of family, love, and spirituality while reflecting the ancient cultural traditions of the Aztec and Mayan civilizations; often carved out of Texas limestone, his works are on permanent display in arts centers, hospitals, libraries, and other public buildings across the state; and

WHEREAS, Fort Worth native and Denton resident Karla K. Morton has been named as the 2010 Texas State Poet Laureate; a songwriter and children’s book author as well as a celebrated poet, Ms. Morton performs her poetry across the state and has recorded her poems with musical accompaniment; she is a founder of the Denton Poet’s Assembly and a member of the board of directors of the Greater Denton Arts Council; and

WHEREAS, Sara Hickman of Austin will be the 2010 Texas State Musician; this talented singer-songwriter has recorded many critically acclaimed albums; the daughter of a painter and a weaver, the multitalented Ms. Hickman is also a painter; she supports many social causes through her work and regularly performs and records music for children; and

WHEREAS, Austin painter Marc Burckhardt has been named as the 2010 Texas State Two-Dimensional Artist; born in Germany and raised in Texas, Mr. Burckhardt combines European imagery with thematic material from contemporary American life; his mischievous wit is enhanced by his adoption of the glazing and varnishing techniques of the old masters, and his work has been featured in galleries and shows around the nation and across the world; and

WHEREAS, The 2010 Texas State Three-Dimensional Artist will be John Bennett, who began sculpting figures in 1976 and cast his first bronze in 1985; acclaimed for his sculptures of women, he has created works depicting women from all walks of life, from Old West legend Annie Oakley to 98-year-old Alice Reeves, a former schoolteacher and granddaughter of a slave; one of his pieces was selected by the Women’s Museum for display at the White House in 1999; and

WHEREAS, The men and women who have been selected to hold these prestigious posts for the next two years have all greatly contributed to the vibrant cultural life of the Lone Star State, and Texas is indeed fortunate to be home to these talented artists; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas hereby honor the 2009 and 2010 appointees to the positions of State Poet Laureate, State Musician, State Two-Dimensional Artist, and State Three-Dimensional Artist and extend to each of them sincere best wishes for continued creativity and achievemen

SHSU web site re-design

2009-05-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

We are interested in your comments on the new university web site redesign project which is part of our brand strengthening effort. We want to know what you like about our current site, what you like about other university sites, and what the SHSU web site needs to do better. Let us know your thoughts prior to July 30, 2009 as this is a University-wide project. Work should conclude in October 2009.

In late calendar 2008, the process of the SHSU web site redesign began. The web site redesign committee of Dr. Heather Crowson, Dr. Keri Rogers, Mark Adams, Thelma Mooney and Ann O'Meara (chair) selected Stamats to do the work. Frank Holmes, Dr. Crowson and Ann O'Meara are the project sponsors. Stamats work includes: Discovery, Architecture, Web Site Design, Creative Concepting, Template Deliveries, Content Development, Delivery, a Virtual Campus tour, and a communications plan. We'll also have multiple videos on the site.

"the most amazing graduation ever"

2009-05-19T07:27:00.000-07:00

Maura got her wish: she lived to see her graduation day, but, sadly, she passed away Tuesday.

You can see the FOX news story on their website.

Or visit her mother's blog:

Sam graduated 1700 students at its three commencement events last weekend, but one of the most remarkable events was a commencement of one last Wednesday. Maura de Sousa couldn't attend her event on campus so family, friends and faculty from the department of music brought graduation to her hospital room. You can see it on YouTube. Search for "the most amazing graduation ever." Maura is fighting cancer. See Maura, family, friends, and teachers laugh, cry, sing and celebrate her commencement together.

Bearkat Baseball

2009-05-15T06:36:00.000-07:00

The team's doing great. Two more games left before tournament time May 20-23 in Corpus Christi. Today, May 15, and tomorrow, Saturday. 2 p.m. and 1 p.m.

If you've got student loans and IOU's

2009-05-15T06:31:00.000-07:00

If you got loans, you're not alone (no pun intended.)

A lot of Sam students are borrowing money to pay for room, board, tuition, etc.

If you're falling too far into debt, go see Kristy Vienne at the Student Money Management Center. They're there to help . . .

Her phone number is 936.294.2600. Her email is kristyvienne@shsu.edu

Great teachers at Sam

2009-05-04T13:42:00.000-07:00

I'm interested in hearing from students and alumni about their experiences with great teachers. I know we have a lot of great teachers out there, people like Jim Olson in History. He has just published another book, by the way.

Welcome!

2009-05-04T08:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Sam Houston State Blog.