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MEET THE CANDIDATES |
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| When the four presidential finalists make their visits to the college, the Blue & White is asking them to tell us something about themselves that can’t be found on their resume or application. What you might not know about presidential candidates Keegan and Walter
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Astronaut Nicole Stott to be honored at commencement
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“We are absolutely thrilled that Nicole Stott has agreed to speak at our spring commencement exercises, and we are looking forward to her visit with great anticipation,” President Tom Furlong said. “We will be presenting her with a much-deserved honorary degree.”
Stott’s employer, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), also had to approve her appearance, which they did last week. Since Stott is already in training for another Space Shuttle mission, that approval was anything but a sure thing.
A former SPC student, Stott was enthusiastic about visiting the college and made her desires known to NASA.
“I would be honored to do it,” Stott said in an e-mail to the college in January after the invitation was offered by Furlong.
Stott also will receive the college’s Outstanding Alumnus Award.
She grew up in Clearwater and graduated from Clearwater High School. She attended SPC (then SPJC) in the early 1980s because she wanted to learn how to fly and the college offered an aviation program that interested her.
“When I got out of high school I knew I wanted to do something connected to flying, but I really didn’t know exactly what,” she said in an interview for last summer’s issue of SPC Today, the magazine of SPC’s Alumni Association. “At Clearwater High they had an introduction to aviation course, and through that I learned about the degree program at SPJC.”
Although Stott went on to earn an engineering degree at Embry-Riddle, she has remained enthusiastic about the college and remembers her time here with fondness. She carried an SPC banner on her space mission. She photographed the banner over a Space Station porthole and e-mailed the photo to SPC after her return.
She is expected to present the banner to SPC during her visit.
Details of her daylong visit are now in the works.Alumni Association scholarship finalists announced
Four sophomores are finalists for the Apollo Award, the highest honor an SPC associate degree recipient can achieve. One will be named the recipient at the college’s commencement ceremony on May 8. The award, given each year since 1966, is presented by the St. Petersburg College Alumni Association.
In addition, two students are finalists for the first Alumni Achievement Award, the highest honor a 4-year graduate can receive. One will be named the recipient at the college’s commencement ceremony on May 8. The SPC Alumni Association, Inc. Board of Directors created this award in recognition of the talented students now graduating SPC at the baccalaureate level.
Students named college’s first Coca-Cola scholarship recipients
 Samantha Mitchell |
 Tara Brown-Ogilvie |
Financial concerns about how to transition from the two-year college to a four-year institution have been somewhat eased for two Clearwater Campus Honors College students, thanks to two prestigious scholarships.
Tara Brown-Ogilvie, 21, a sophomore at the campus, was named a 2010 Coca-Cola Silver Scholar, earning her $1,250 from the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation. According to Phi Theta Kappa’s Scholarship Program headquarters, she is one of the 41 award recipients in Florida since the program began in 2009.
“I was jumping up and down,” Brown-Ogilvie said. “I’m going to the UNF (University of North Florida) and I’m definitely having difficulties finding scholarships. It’s a lot harder when you’re not an incoming freshman, so I was definitely really excited to know that I can have at least one check that could help with my dorms for at least the first semester.”
The Foundation also awarded a scholarship to her friend and fellow Phi Theta Kappa member Samantha Mitchell.
Mitchell, 19, a nuclear engineering major at the campus, was named a 2010 Coca-Cola Gold Scholarship recipient, garnering a scholarship worth $1,500. The president of the college’s chapter of the Florida Engineering Society said the scholarship came as a surprise.
“I actually didn’t believe it at first,” said Mitchell, who had called Brown-Ogilvie to see whether she had won. “I was very excited to be notified that I had received a scholarship, so I called all my family and friends to let them know.”
To be selected for the scholarships, both students had to make it on the All-Florida Academic Team. The team consists of 103 students representing Florida’s state, community and junior colleges, one independent college and one independent university. This distinction is given to honor their academic achievement, leadership and service to the community.
“It’s basically a summary of all your involvement at the college,” Mitchell said. “You talk about what you’ve done at the college, how you’ve been involved with Phi Theta Kappa, what your greatest achievements are, and different extracurricular activities you do.”
This is the first time the college has had anyone receive this scholarship, Jeff Schering, Student Affairs Generalist and advisor for the PTK Chapter on the Clearwater Campus said.
Thank You Concert
The SPC Foundation sponsors a Thank You! Concert each year for their donors and supporters. This year’s event, on March 26 at the Palladium, featured Keyboard Conversations® with Jeffrey Siegel, The Power and Passion of Beethoven. Take a few minutes to enjoy the event photo gallery.
Faculty/A&P staff expected at graduation
Spring graduation is at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 8, at Tropicana Field. All full-time faculty and Administrative and Professional staff who did not participate in the fall 2009 ceremony are expected to participate. Commencement is an opportunity to exhibit to students and their families our respect for the work they have done and the sacrifices they have made to earn their degrees.
According to college policy, May graduation day is considered an official duty day with pay for faculty, and participation in the ceremony satisfies the duty requirements for that day (for more information, contact your program director or campus provost.) If you have a circumstance that might require your absence, a written or e-mailed request with the purpose specifically stated should be submitted to the President (via Kim Corry and cc to your supervisor) no later than April 23. You will be notified of the status of your request by April 28.
Faculty excused from participating will be expected to complete the appropriate leave form or arrange for an alternate duty day as directed by their supervisor.
Those who need to order a cap and gown should do so immediately at any on-campus Follett’s Bookstore.
Adjuncts and percent-of-load faculty
Adjunct instructors and percent-of-load faculty are invited, but not required, to participate in the May 8 graduation ceremony. Participation includes marching in the faculty processional, along with full-time faculty and A&P staff, in full academic regalia. Program directors can provide further instructions as necessary for participation.
Those adjuncts and percent-of-load faculty who wish to take part are asked to inform their program directors immediately, and make any necessary arrangements for regalia.
Ethics Team takes part in healthy debate; earns third place
The college Ethics Team took third place in the 2010 National Undergraduate Bioethics Bowl at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., last month. It was one of nine teams to compete in the weekend event, placing behind the University of Denver and the University of Miami.
“I think that they did a fabulous job,” said Maureen Mahoney, lead coach of the team and an ethics faculty member at the Tarpon Springs Campus. “Coming in third against the teams that we went up against, I think, is amazing. For most competitions, like what we are used to, we usually have between six and eight weeks to prepare 12-15 cases. This competition, for whatever reason, only sent the cases out three weeks prior.”
The annual competition provides an opportunity for students from around the country to argue some of the most pressing bioethical issues in a competitive context. Teams are given case studies to discuss and debate. The debates are judged for soundness of reasoning, focus on and sensitivity to ethically relevant factors, and thoughtfulness.
“A lot of the ethics competitions are sort of general questions, whether it be pollution, health insurance, highway transportation issues; ethical questions involving many different disciplines,” said Eric Carver, a Health Information Management faculty member at the Health Education Center, about the SPC Ethics Team. “This one was specifically focused on health care issues that were highly debated, highly controversial and required a lot of preparation.”
“There were no other two-year schools in this competition. We always manage to squeeze ourselves in because we think we can… and we can! So we do.”
The team
- Michele Zaffuto, 40, Health Services Administration major (4-yr.), Health Education Center
- Jake Holehouse, 18, Business major, Collegiate High School
- Sarah Pemberton, 22, Economics major, Clearwater Campus
- Tara Meinsen, 21, Biology major, Tarpon Springs Campus
- Stephanie Clabeaux, 23, Biology/Anthropology major, Tarpon Springs Campus
“It was really interesting to see how their views can change once they begin to research and dig up facts,” Carver said. “We had one student that supported one side of the health bill, and after researching and looking at some things on his own and talking about some of these issues, he changed his stance.”
Two new Research Briefs available online
The dissemination of relevant information is a critical component of the performance improvement process. Research Briefs are one mechanism used by the college for this purpose. Research Briefs are short publications prepared by the Department of Institutional Research and Effectiveness (IRE) that are intended to provide relevant and important information regarding a variety of college-related topics. These topics include, but are not limited to, student achievement, state accountability measures, institutional survey results, student enrollment and faculty/adjunct compensation.
Two new Research Briefs have been developed:
Fall 2000-Fall 2009 Classroom Performance Evaluation
The purpose of this brief is to evaluate the performance of students in developmental and lower-division college credit courses. Performance was defined as the percent of students passing (earning a grade of A, B, C, D or P). For developmental courses, an additional category was recognized for students not completing (receiving a grade of N—showing progress). For the purpose of this brief, developmental refers to all college preparatory courses (below college level), such as English as a Second Language, Topics in Student Success, English, Mathematics and Reading.
2007 Summary of Community College Survey of Student Engagement
The purpose of this brief is to evaluate the results of the 2007 Community College Survey of Student Engagement. The survey was designed to measure how engaged students are in learning. SPC administered the 2007 CCSSE to randomly selected classes during the spring 2007 term.
Shutting down to save on energy costs
Based on current usage, it is estimated that between $35,000 and $100,000 in energy costs can be saved each year by making minimal changes to everyday computer usage habits and implementing a desktop power procedure.
“Last year, we had a big discussion at Cabinet about it,” said Doug Duncan, Vice President of Administrative and Business Services. “We had agreed that shutting down the computers saved energy.”
These changes are not designed to interrupt everyday office workflow. Office computers would not need to be shut down during lunch breaks or during department meeting times so long as the computers’ inactivity periods do not exceed two hours.
- Office, library and computer lab computers should be shut down when not in use.
- Faculty need to remind students to shut down classroom computers at the end of the day.
- Utilizing energy conservation tools, such as Microsoft’s Energy Star settings, for additional savings: set computer monitors to turn off after 10 minutes of non-use, and computers to switch into hibernation mode after 30 minutes of inactivity.
Although there is officially no rule in place, Duncan encourages employees to shut down their computers when they are not in use.
The new computers being installed will be pre-set to utilize the power saving settings.
“We have asked all the TRS’s to do that,” Duncan said. “We’ve asked that they set the computers up all the same way.”Clearwater Campus student selected for NASA College Scholars Program
Walter Manger, 33, a Clearwater Campus student, has been selected to travel to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to participate in a three-day on-site event starting May 20.
On March 16, Manger was officially selected as one of 60 community and junior college students from across the nation to be part of the pilot National Community College Aerospace Scholars program. To qualify, students had to complete four Web-based assignments during the school year and maintain a 96 average. They will apply what they have learned during the year to work with NASA engineers.
The program offers students from across the nation the opportunity to interact with each other as they learn more about careers in science and engineering. Students form teams and establish fictional companies interested in Mars exploration. Each company is responsible for developing a prototype rover, designing a line drawing of the rover, and forming the company infrastructure including budget, communications and presentations.
National Community College Aerospace Scholars is a pilot program based on Texas Aerospace Scholars, originally created by the state of Texas in partnership with NASA and the Texas educational community. Both programs are designed to encourage community and junior college students to enter careers in science and engineering and ultimately join the nation’s highly technical workforce.
The on-site experience at Johnson Space Center includes a tour of facilities and briefings by noted NASA employees—including astronauts.Thank you
I want to thank all my friends and family at the college for the outpouring of support, well wishes and sympathy they have expressed through my husband, Paul’s, recent illness and passing. Words do not seem like enough to express my sincere gratitude to all who have been and continue to be there for me during this most difficult time.
Karen Nadeau, Tarpon Springs CampusMeeting notices
The Development Committee for the Board of Directors for the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art will meet on Wednesday, April 21, 3 p.m. in the Interactive Gallery of the museum to discuss general business.
The Collections Committee for the Board of Directors for the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art will meet on Wednesday, April 28, 2:30 p.m. in the Associate Curator & Registrar’s office in the museum to discuss general business
Board of Trustees Notices
The St. Petersburg College Board of Trustees will meet on the following dates at the EpiCenter, 13805 58th Street North, Largo, Florida:
April 13, 4 p.m.
Final decision on selection of next president for SPC
Room 1-453
View legal notice
April 21, 8:30 a.m.
Routine business
Room 1-453
View legal notice
View Rules Development notice
BOT Meeting highlights (March 16, 2010)