Text
inside
On Equal Terms Exhibit
Coin Flip Seals Coach’s Fate
Supporting Troubled Students
February 2009 • Vol. 35, No. 1
Inauguration Opens
New Chapter
The University community gathered
in offices and meeting rooms on campus to
watch the historic inauguration of President
Barack Obama, as History and Government
faculty members shared their views in media
interviews.
“There is a new chapter opening,” said
Associate Professor of History Robert Bellinger,
director of the Black Studies program, in an
interview with Fox 25. Bellinger said he always
believed there would someday be an AfricanAmerican president, but he didn’t expect it
this soon. “You see young children—AfricanAmerican children—who are aspiring to be
president, and that’s exciting.”
Assistant Professor of Government Brian
Conley, in Washington with students for a
Presidential Inauguration Seminar, recapped
Obama’s speech in an interview with New
England Cable News. Paraphrasing the
president, he noted that “this tradeoff between
liberty and security is essentially a false one.
You don’t necessarily need to sacrifice liberty
to achieve security. I thought these were
interesting comments on what has been the
prevailing paradigm for the past eight years.”
Discussing inauguration addresses since
the birth of the nation, History Chair Robert
Allison told Fox 25: “Presidential inaugurations really are special events. Every four years
we do this and it is, as President Kennedy
said, ‘not a victory of party, but a celebration
of freedom.’ And it’s a humbling thing to realize that since 1789 every four years we have
met to inaugurate a president, sometimes
a new one, sometimes one who had been
reelected. ... It is part of the continuity of
American democracy. ... a reassuring thing.”
“This is a very important day in the lives
of many people,” said Habiba El-Derini, a
management and marketing major from Egypt.
“Outside of America, we’re all excited to see a
president who can make a change for our side
of the world instead of America alone.”
Creating the Dream: Lori Cawthorne
Jacinda Felix and President David J. Sargent honor Lori Cawthorne of Human Resources with
the Creating the Dream Award at the annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Luncheon. Cawthorne gives
generously of her time as an administrator, instructor, club adviser and mentor to students. She
has served on the President’s Commission on the Status of AHANA Faculty, Staff, and Students;
has planned yearly events for AHANA faculty and staff; and welcomes new AHANA students
and their families to the University. (Photo by John Gillooly)
Provost Rises to New Challenges
Barry Brown is an educator above and beyond everything else.
Yet he likes new challenges, which is one reason he accepted the position of University
provost six months ago, eagerly seeking the opportunity to have a positive impact at his
“home away from home.”
“I have such a high regard for this University and the people who are part of our community,” said Brown, who has been associated with Suffolk for more than three decades.
“My challenge is to make sure that we continue to have the physical and monetary resources
available to provide a quality education to people of all ages and from all walks to life.”
One of Brown’s priorities is to recognize the importance of Suffolk’s more than 60,000
alumni worldwide.
“I’m working on helping them become more involved in the University and knowledgeable
about the extraordinary progress that our schools have made in recent years,” he said. “I would
like to create an effective and involved alumni organization and base for the entire University.”
Brown supports the efforts to develop the downtown campus with a new student
center, athletic facilities, science laboratories and student housing.
“I very much would like to see these facilities become a reality over the next few years,”
he said. “To meet this goal we will require increased alumni and private-sector support; it
is essential for our growth.”
Continued on page 2
Provost
Continued from page 1
Another challenge is maintaining a strong financial base for
Suffolk students and faculties, increasing financial aid, and developing
grant and support funding from private-sector and industry sources.
Brown also cited the importance of the international programs’
growth.
The provost joined the Law School
in 1976 and has taught Real Property,
Land Transfer and Finance, Professional
Responsibility, and Biomedical Law and
Public Policy. He still teaches a Real
Property class each semester, instructing 110
students with the same passion he had when
he first stepped in front of a classroom.
“I love teaching,” said Brown, who holds
Barry Brown
an A.B. from Harvard College, an Ed.M.
from the Harvard School of Education and a J.D. from Harvard
Law School. “I could be having a bad day, but whenever I walk into
a classroom and feel the energy of the students, that all changes. It’s
such a wonderful experience to interact with students who are so
engaged to learn and to use that education to benefit themselves.”
Personable and articulate, friendly and genuine, Brown has
always been innovative in connecting with students. He’ll do
whatever it takes to make them reach their full potential.
“Students need to relax and to love what they’re learning,” he
said. “My reward is seeing their faces when they succeed. There’s
nothing better than that.”
The provost’s allegiance to Suffolk is clear.
“The heritage, the culture, the relationship shared among our
students, faculties and staff are special,” he said. “It was like that
when I started working here more than thirty years ago, and it is the
same today. There are no barriers among us.”
Brown and his wife, Ellen Shapiro Brown, a Law School alumna,
live in Newton. He rises at 5 a.m. daily and reads five newspapers
with his morning cup of coffee. He enjoys skiing, sailing and
cheering on the Boston sports teams, particularly the Red Sox.
Immersing himself in a good history book or a biography is another
of his fond pleasures.
As he takes on the next challenge in his distinguished career,
Brown goes about his business with a spirited attitude.
“People are always asking me: What does a provost do? And I
tell them that it might be a shorter list to describe what a provost
doesn’t do in a growing and exciting University,” he said with a
laugh. Pausing, he added, “I have a great job and there’s no other
place I’d rather be.”
On Equal Terms Exhibit Celebrates Tradeswomen
The exhibit On Equal Terms: Women in Construction 30
Years & Still Organizing, at the Adams Gallery through
March 17, celebrates 30 years of women in construction.
On Equal Terms grew out of an effort by artist, poet
and educator Susan Eisenberg to learn from tradeswoman
pioneers about the struggle to bring women into the
construction trades. The personal testimonies of the many
women she has interviewed inform her work.
Federal policy changes in 1978 opened construction
jobs and apprenticeship programs to women, with
projections that women would make up 25 percent of the
construction work force by now. Yet today women hold
only about 2 percent of jobs in the building trades.
Assistant Professor Patricia Reeve of the History Department,
whose research interests include labor history and the histories of
gender and women, made the connection with Eisenberg to bring
the exhibit to the University.
“This mixed-media exhibit brings to light the experiences of
women in occupations with a long history of discrimination and
T h e S UN is publ ished by:
Office of Public Affairs
73 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02108
617-573-8447
sun@suffolk.edu
2
SUN
Executive Editor
Greg Gatlin
Managing Editor
Nancy Kelleher
Staff Writers
Karen DeCilio
Tony Ferullo
Design
Heather Clark
exclusion,” said Reeve. “Typically their voices are absent from
statistical analyses of and policy debates about affirmative action in
the workplace.”
Programming related to the exhibit includes a poetry reading by
Susan Eisenberg and a panel discussion on Boston tradeswomen’s
history and their current campaign for enforcement of local and state
compliance laws.
Eisenberg was one of the first women in the country to achieve
journey-level status as a union electrician, and she worked on
construction sites for 15 years. She is the author of We’ll Call You If
We Need You: Experiences of Women Working Construction, a New York
Times Notable Book.
Her installation employs soft sculpture, found objects, poetry,
story, photography and audio to explore issues of power and social
policy.
Coach Demands Excellence on Court & in Classroom
Heads or tails.
That’s what it came down
to when Ed Leyden was given
the choice to become the
coach of the Revere High
School girls varsity basketball
team or the boys jayvee squad
25 years ago.
“I flipped a coin to make
my decision,” said Leyden.
“Whatever came up, that’s
where I was going.”
From that humble
beginning, Leyden made
Ed Leyden
quite a name for himself in
the coaching profession, even before he joined the University as
women’s basketball coach.
At Revere High, where Leyden taught math for 37 years, his
girls teams were 84–36, a .700 winning percentage. Revere won the
Greater Boston League title his last three seasons, going 44–1 during
that time. Leyden was twice selected the Massachusetts Basketball
Coaches Association Coach of the Year and was named Boston Globe
Coach of the Year. Ten of his players went on to become captains of
their college teams.
Leyden joined the University’s women’s basketball program in
1994, facing a real challenge: The Lady Rams had had an overall
record of 85 wins and 201 losses in the previous 14 seasons.
Building on discipline, teamwork and fundamentals, Leyden has
guided the team to an average of 15 wins each season. His 1999
team holds the school record for most wins in a season, with 19; his
2000 squad won the Great Northeast Athletic Conference title; and
the Rams were ranked among the Top 20 in team defense by the
NCAA in 2003 and 2005.
“My job is to be fair and do what’s best for the University and
the team,” said Leyden, who has been named GNAC Coach of
the Year four times (1997, 1998, 2000 and 2008). “Division III
women’s basketball is very competitive, and we play to win. Each
student-athlete on the team has a role that she is expected to fulfill
to the best of her abilities. We try to create an environment where
the players work hard, play smart and have fun.”
Leyden cites the role of his coaching staff—Caitlin O’Loughlin,
Shannon Kirwan and Barry Kipnes—in the team’s success.
“I’ve made it a point to surround myself with good people,” said
Leyden. “I give a lot of credit to my assistant coaches for the energy
and chemistry they provide in making our system work.”
Leyden insists that his players reach their potential on the court,
and he also demands that they excel in the classroom. The Women’s
Basketball Coaches Association ranked Suffolk among the Top 25
Division III academic teams in 2001 and 2003.
Almost every weekend from April through August is spent on the
recruiting trail. Leyden looks at both PPG (points per game) and
GPA in searching for that perfect player.
“Ed Leyden has raised the level of accomplishment of Suffolk
University women’s basketball in a manner that distinguishes him
as one of the premier coaches in New England,” said Director of
Athletics Jim Nelson. “Ed’s quiet on-court demeanor belies a fiery
competitiveness within that provides motivation to his players and
admiration from his coaching colleagues.”
In addition to his coaching duties, Leyden is now an assistant to
the director of Athletics. While it has been a long time since that
coin flip and his coaching debut, he continues to be passionate
about the game he loves.
Potpourri
Counseling Center
Reaccredited
Wayne Bonikowski, English, presented two papers: “Ford
Madox Ford’s Wartime Impressionism” at the International
Conference on Narrative in Austin, Texas, and “The Power to
Cut and Wound and Excite: Feeling and Communication after
War in Virginia Woolf ’s Mrs. Dalloway” at the Modern Language
Association Conference in San Francisco.
Jerry Gianakis, Public Management, received a $20,000 award
from IBM’s Center for the Business of Government to produce a
monograph highlighting innovative practices in public sector supply
chain management systems.
Jagadeesh Moodera, Physics, was awarded the 2009 Oliver
Buckley Prize from the American Physical Society.
David Yamada, Law School, has started a blog for the New
Workplace Institute at http://newworkplace.wordpress.com/. It
includes commentary about work and employment relations.
His scholarship and advocacy about workplace bullying was
recognized in an AsianWeek magazine feature commemorating
the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. The article can be found at www.asianweek.
com/2008/12/10/human-rights-at-60/.
The University Counseling Center has been reaccredited
by the International Association of Counseling Services, IACS,
through 2013, at which time it will undergo a site visit by the
association.
In a letter to Counseling Center Director Ken Garni, IACS
President Theresa DiNuzzo wrote: “In addition to your high-caliber
counseling services, the Board in its review was very complimentary
of your University’s commitment to student mental health as
reflected in the size of your staff, your Center’s budget and staff
compensation, and the variety of outreach programs provided to
your students. You have met the criteria for full reaccreditation by
the Board of the International Association of Counseling Services.
Congratulations to you and your staff for a Center which maintains
a high standard of services to students at Suffolk University.
February 20 09
3
Guide to Working with a Potentially Troubled Student
When a student called a College fac lty member and left a
u
garbled message, stopped attending classes and could not be reached
by telephone because his voice mail was full, it raised a red flag. A
call was made to the Division of Student Affairs, and concerned
members of the team called the police where he lived and asked
them to check on him. They discovered that he was seriously ill, and
the student ended up going to the hospital.
The Division of Student Affairs has been reaching out to faculty,
staff and students to raise awareness about supporting students who
may be troubled or dealing with difficult issues, according to Dean
of Students Ann Coyne.
As part of this effort, brochures are available to the University
community offering information on how to recognize potential
problems and seek help when there is concern about a student.
“If a student on campus is troubled or has issues he or she is
dealing with, we want to offer support,” said Coyne, who said
awareness of such need has grown in the wake of the Virginia Tech
tragedy.
“We also try to let faculty and staff know they’re not alone,” she
said. “If they think there’s something going on with a student, there
probably is. Faculty and staff aren’t expected to know how to deal
with some of these issues, nor should they tackle these problems
alone. We can give them tools to talk to the student about issues or
refer them for help.”
Concerned faculty, staff or students can call, e-mail or fill out an
online form to begin the process of helping a student who may be in
distress.
“We get a good number of calls each semester, “ said Coyne, who
follows up by discussing the situation with the person reporting it
and devising an appropriate response strategy.
However, she needs tangible evidence of
a problem before she will contact a student.
Sometimes a faculty member will report that
a student is “off,” and she must draw the
hard facts out of them.
Signals that a student may be experiencing problems include:
• poor class attendance
• sporadic attendance at work-study jobs
• difficulties with roommates
• disturbing writings in homework
assignments
• changes in behavior and personal habits
“We haven’t come across anyone we think
is violent or threatening,” said Coyne. “Some
students are just eccentric, but people are
more aware of this after Virginia Tech.
“There’s nothing wrong with being odd; we have to accept everyone’s idiosyncrasies. But at the same time, there’s nothing wrong
with checking to make sure the behavior is merely eccentric.”
If further action is indicated, Coyne meets with the student and,
depending on the situation, may tell him or her how she learned
about the problem. She will first discuss this with the person who
made the report.
“Usually students appreciate that we are concerned about them,”
said Coyne, who after the discussion might refer the student to
an appropriate resource, such as the Counseling Center, Ballotti
Learning Center, Disability Services or Diversity Services.
The brochure will be distributed again in the fall and is available
online at www.Suffolk.edu/campuslife/22769.html.
Bar Pass Rate Exceeds 94%
Law School graduates taking the Massachusetts bar exam in
July 2008 were quite successful, with those taking the exam for the
first time achieving a 94.3 percent pass rate.
The average for all those taking the bar exam for the first time
was 92.1 percent.
“Bar exam passage rates fluctuate from year-to-year, but it is
clear from this year’s rate that our bar preparation and academic
programming, combined with hard work and participation from
our students, can lead to a high probability of success on the bar
exam,” said Dean Alfred C. Aman, Jr.
Happy New Year!
Ashley Gordon of Public Affairs hands out glow-light necklaces at the annual First Night ice sculpture event. A light show complemented the ice
sculpture in the shape of the new University icon, and visitors were plentiful despite the stormy weather. (Photo by John Gillooly)
4
SUN
On Equal Terms Exhibit
Coin Flip Seals Coach’s Fate
Supporting Troubled Students
February 2009 • Vol. 35, No. 1
Inauguration Opens
New Chapter
The University community gathered
in offices and meeting rooms on campus to
watch the historic inauguration of President
Barack Obama, as History and Government
faculty members shared their views in media
interviews.
“There is a new chapter opening,” said
Associate Professor of History Robert Bellinger,
director of the Black Studies program, in an
interview with Fox 25. Bellinger said he always
believed there would someday be an AfricanAmerican president, but he didn’t expect it
this soon. “You see young children—AfricanAmerican children—who are aspiring to be
president, and that’s exciting.”
Assistant Professor of Government Brian
Conley, in Washington with students for a
Presidential Inauguration Seminar, recapped
Obama’s speech in an interview with New
England Cable News. Paraphrasing the
president, he noted that “this tradeoff between
liberty and security is essentially a false one.
You don’t necessarily need to sacrifice liberty
to achieve security. I thought these were
interesting comments on what has been the
prevailing paradigm for the past eight years.”
Discussing inauguration addresses since
the birth of the nation, History Chair Robert
Allison told Fox 25: “Presidential inaugurations really are special events. Every four years
we do this and it is, as President Kennedy
said, ‘not a victory of party, but a celebration
of freedom.’ And it’s a humbling thing to realize that since 1789 every four years we have
met to inaugurate a president, sometimes
a new one, sometimes one who had been
reelected. ... It is part of the continuity of
American democracy. ... a reassuring thing.”
“This is a very important day in the lives
of many people,” said Habiba El-Derini, a
management and marketing major from Egypt.
“Outside of America, we’re all excited to see a
president who can make a change for our side
of the world instead of America alone.”
Creating the Dream: Lori Cawthorne
Jacinda Felix and President David J. Sargent honor Lori Cawthorne of Human Resources with
the Creating the Dream Award at the annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Luncheon. Cawthorne gives
generously of her time as an administrator, instructor, club adviser and mentor to students. She
has served on the President’s Commission on the Status of AHANA Faculty, Staff, and Students;
has planned yearly events for AHANA faculty and staff; and welcomes new AHANA students
and their families to the University. (Photo by John Gillooly)
Provost Rises to New Challenges
Barry Brown is an educator above and beyond everything else.
Yet he likes new challenges, which is one reason he accepted the position of University
provost six months ago, eagerly seeking the opportunity to have a positive impact at his
“home away from home.”
“I have such a high regard for this University and the people who are part of our community,” said Brown, who has been associated with Suffolk for more than three decades.
“My challenge is to make sure that we continue to have the physical and monetary resources
available to provide a quality education to people of all ages and from all walks to life.”
One of Brown’s priorities is to recognize the importance of Suffolk’s more than 60,000
alumni worldwide.
“I’m working on helping them become more involved in the University and knowledgeable
about the extraordinary progress that our schools have made in recent years,” he said. “I would
like to create an effective and involved alumni organization and base for the entire University.”
Brown supports the efforts to develop the downtown campus with a new student
center, athletic facilities, science laboratories and student housing.
“I very much would like to see these facilities become a reality over the next few years,”
he said. “To meet this goal we will require increased alumni and private-sector support; it
is essential for our growth.”
Continued on page 2
Provost
Continued from page 1
Another challenge is maintaining a strong financial base for
Suffolk students and faculties, increasing financial aid, and developing
grant and support funding from private-sector and industry sources.
Brown also cited the importance of the international programs’
growth.
The provost joined the Law School
in 1976 and has taught Real Property,
Land Transfer and Finance, Professional
Responsibility, and Biomedical Law and
Public Policy. He still teaches a Real
Property class each semester, instructing 110
students with the same passion he had when
he first stepped in front of a classroom.
“I love teaching,” said Brown, who holds
Barry Brown
an A.B. from Harvard College, an Ed.M.
from the Harvard School of Education and a J.D. from Harvard
Law School. “I could be having a bad day, but whenever I walk into
a classroom and feel the energy of the students, that all changes. It’s
such a wonderful experience to interact with students who are so
engaged to learn and to use that education to benefit themselves.”
Personable and articulate, friendly and genuine, Brown has
always been innovative in connecting with students. He’ll do
whatever it takes to make them reach their full potential.
“Students need to relax and to love what they’re learning,” he
said. “My reward is seeing their faces when they succeed. There’s
nothing better than that.”
The provost’s allegiance to Suffolk is clear.
“The heritage, the culture, the relationship shared among our
students, faculties and staff are special,” he said. “It was like that
when I started working here more than thirty years ago, and it is the
same today. There are no barriers among us.”
Brown and his wife, Ellen Shapiro Brown, a Law School alumna,
live in Newton. He rises at 5 a.m. daily and reads five newspapers
with his morning cup of coffee. He enjoys skiing, sailing and
cheering on the Boston sports teams, particularly the Red Sox.
Immersing himself in a good history book or a biography is another
of his fond pleasures.
As he takes on the next challenge in his distinguished career,
Brown goes about his business with a spirited attitude.
“People are always asking me: What does a provost do? And I
tell them that it might be a shorter list to describe what a provost
doesn’t do in a growing and exciting University,” he said with a
laugh. Pausing, he added, “I have a great job and there’s no other
place I’d rather be.”
On Equal Terms Exhibit Celebrates Tradeswomen
The exhibit On Equal Terms: Women in Construction 30
Years & Still Organizing, at the Adams Gallery through
March 17, celebrates 30 years of women in construction.
On Equal Terms grew out of an effort by artist, poet
and educator Susan Eisenberg to learn from tradeswoman
pioneers about the struggle to bring women into the
construction trades. The personal testimonies of the many
women she has interviewed inform her work.
Federal policy changes in 1978 opened construction
jobs and apprenticeship programs to women, with
projections that women would make up 25 percent of the
construction work force by now. Yet today women hold
only about 2 percent of jobs in the building trades.
Assistant Professor Patricia Reeve of the History Department,
whose research interests include labor history and the histories of
gender and women, made the connection with Eisenberg to bring
the exhibit to the University.
“This mixed-media exhibit brings to light the experiences of
women in occupations with a long history of discrimination and
T h e S UN is publ ished by:
Office of Public Affairs
73 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02108
617-573-8447
sun@suffolk.edu
2
SUN
Executive Editor
Greg Gatlin
Managing Editor
Nancy Kelleher
Staff Writers
Karen DeCilio
Tony Ferullo
Design
Heather Clark
exclusion,” said Reeve. “Typically their voices are absent from
statistical analyses of and policy debates about affirmative action in
the workplace.”
Programming related to the exhibit includes a poetry reading by
Susan Eisenberg and a panel discussion on Boston tradeswomen’s
history and their current campaign for enforcement of local and state
compliance laws.
Eisenberg was one of the first women in the country to achieve
journey-level status as a union electrician, and she worked on
construction sites for 15 years. She is the author of We’ll Call You If
We Need You: Experiences of Women Working Construction, a New York
Times Notable Book.
Her installation employs soft sculpture, found objects, poetry,
story, photography and audio to explore issues of power and social
policy.
Coach Demands Excellence on Court & in Classroom
Heads or tails.
That’s what it came down
to when Ed Leyden was given
the choice to become the
coach of the Revere High
School girls varsity basketball
team or the boys jayvee squad
25 years ago.
“I flipped a coin to make
my decision,” said Leyden.
“Whatever came up, that’s
where I was going.”
From that humble
beginning, Leyden made
Ed Leyden
quite a name for himself in
the coaching profession, even before he joined the University as
women’s basketball coach.
At Revere High, where Leyden taught math for 37 years, his
girls teams were 84–36, a .700 winning percentage. Revere won the
Greater Boston League title his last three seasons, going 44–1 during
that time. Leyden was twice selected the Massachusetts Basketball
Coaches Association Coach of the Year and was named Boston Globe
Coach of the Year. Ten of his players went on to become captains of
their college teams.
Leyden joined the University’s women’s basketball program in
1994, facing a real challenge: The Lady Rams had had an overall
record of 85 wins and 201 losses in the previous 14 seasons.
Building on discipline, teamwork and fundamentals, Leyden has
guided the team to an average of 15 wins each season. His 1999
team holds the school record for most wins in a season, with 19; his
2000 squad won the Great Northeast Athletic Conference title; and
the Rams were ranked among the Top 20 in team defense by the
NCAA in 2003 and 2005.
“My job is to be fair and do what’s best for the University and
the team,” said Leyden, who has been named GNAC Coach of
the Year four times (1997, 1998, 2000 and 2008). “Division III
women’s basketball is very competitive, and we play to win. Each
student-athlete on the team has a role that she is expected to fulfill
to the best of her abilities. We try to create an environment where
the players work hard, play smart and have fun.”
Leyden cites the role of his coaching staff—Caitlin O’Loughlin,
Shannon Kirwan and Barry Kipnes—in the team’s success.
“I’ve made it a point to surround myself with good people,” said
Leyden. “I give a lot of credit to my assistant coaches for the energy
and chemistry they provide in making our system work.”
Leyden insists that his players reach their potential on the court,
and he also demands that they excel in the classroom. The Women’s
Basketball Coaches Association ranked Suffolk among the Top 25
Division III academic teams in 2001 and 2003.
Almost every weekend from April through August is spent on the
recruiting trail. Leyden looks at both PPG (points per game) and
GPA in searching for that perfect player.
“Ed Leyden has raised the level of accomplishment of Suffolk
University women’s basketball in a manner that distinguishes him
as one of the premier coaches in New England,” said Director of
Athletics Jim Nelson. “Ed’s quiet on-court demeanor belies a fiery
competitiveness within that provides motivation to his players and
admiration from his coaching colleagues.”
In addition to his coaching duties, Leyden is now an assistant to
the director of Athletics. While it has been a long time since that
coin flip and his coaching debut, he continues to be passionate
about the game he loves.
Potpourri
Counseling Center
Reaccredited
Wayne Bonikowski, English, presented two papers: “Ford
Madox Ford’s Wartime Impressionism” at the International
Conference on Narrative in Austin, Texas, and “The Power to
Cut and Wound and Excite: Feeling and Communication after
War in Virginia Woolf ’s Mrs. Dalloway” at the Modern Language
Association Conference in San Francisco.
Jerry Gianakis, Public Management, received a $20,000 award
from IBM’s Center for the Business of Government to produce a
monograph highlighting innovative practices in public sector supply
chain management systems.
Jagadeesh Moodera, Physics, was awarded the 2009 Oliver
Buckley Prize from the American Physical Society.
David Yamada, Law School, has started a blog for the New
Workplace Institute at http://newworkplace.wordpress.com/. It
includes commentary about work and employment relations.
His scholarship and advocacy about workplace bullying was
recognized in an AsianWeek magazine feature commemorating
the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. The article can be found at www.asianweek.
com/2008/12/10/human-rights-at-60/.
The University Counseling Center has been reaccredited
by the International Association of Counseling Services, IACS,
through 2013, at which time it will undergo a site visit by the
association.
In a letter to Counseling Center Director Ken Garni, IACS
President Theresa DiNuzzo wrote: “In addition to your high-caliber
counseling services, the Board in its review was very complimentary
of your University’s commitment to student mental health as
reflected in the size of your staff, your Center’s budget and staff
compensation, and the variety of outreach programs provided to
your students. You have met the criteria for full reaccreditation by
the Board of the International Association of Counseling Services.
Congratulations to you and your staff for a Center which maintains
a high standard of services to students at Suffolk University.
February 20 09
3
Guide to Working with a Potentially Troubled Student
When a student called a College fac lty member and left a
u
garbled message, stopped attending classes and could not be reached
by telephone because his voice mail was full, it raised a red flag. A
call was made to the Division of Student Affairs, and concerned
members of the team called the police where he lived and asked
them to check on him. They discovered that he was seriously ill, and
the student ended up going to the hospital.
The Division of Student Affairs has been reaching out to faculty,
staff and students to raise awareness about supporting students who
may be troubled or dealing with difficult issues, according to Dean
of Students Ann Coyne.
As part of this effort, brochures are available to the University
community offering information on how to recognize potential
problems and seek help when there is concern about a student.
“If a student on campus is troubled or has issues he or she is
dealing with, we want to offer support,” said Coyne, who said
awareness of such need has grown in the wake of the Virginia Tech
tragedy.
“We also try to let faculty and staff know they’re not alone,” she
said. “If they think there’s something going on with a student, there
probably is. Faculty and staff aren’t expected to know how to deal
with some of these issues, nor should they tackle these problems
alone. We can give them tools to talk to the student about issues or
refer them for help.”
Concerned faculty, staff or students can call, e-mail or fill out an
online form to begin the process of helping a student who may be in
distress.
“We get a good number of calls each semester, “ said Coyne, who
follows up by discussing the situation with the person reporting it
and devising an appropriate response strategy.
However, she needs tangible evidence of
a problem before she will contact a student.
Sometimes a faculty member will report that
a student is “off,” and she must draw the
hard facts out of them.
Signals that a student may be experiencing problems include:
• poor class attendance
• sporadic attendance at work-study jobs
• difficulties with roommates
• disturbing writings in homework
assignments
• changes in behavior and personal habits
“We haven’t come across anyone we think
is violent or threatening,” said Coyne. “Some
students are just eccentric, but people are
more aware of this after Virginia Tech.
“There’s nothing wrong with being odd; we have to accept everyone’s idiosyncrasies. But at the same time, there’s nothing wrong
with checking to make sure the behavior is merely eccentric.”
If further action is indicated, Coyne meets with the student and,
depending on the situation, may tell him or her how she learned
about the problem. She will first discuss this with the person who
made the report.
“Usually students appreciate that we are concerned about them,”
said Coyne, who after the discussion might refer the student to
an appropriate resource, such as the Counseling Center, Ballotti
Learning Center, Disability Services or Diversity Services.
The brochure will be distributed again in the fall and is available
online at www.Suffolk.edu/campuslife/22769.html.
Bar Pass Rate Exceeds 94%
Law School graduates taking the Massachusetts bar exam in
July 2008 were quite successful, with those taking the exam for the
first time achieving a 94.3 percent pass rate.
The average for all those taking the bar exam for the first time
was 92.1 percent.
“Bar exam passage rates fluctuate from year-to-year, but it is
clear from this year’s rate that our bar preparation and academic
programming, combined with hard work and participation from
our students, can lead to a high probability of success on the bar
exam,” said Dean Alfred C. Aman, Jr.
Happy New Year!
Ashley Gordon of Public Affairs hands out glow-light necklaces at the annual First Night ice sculpture event. A light show complemented the ice
sculpture in the shape of the new University icon, and visitors were plentiful despite the stormy weather. (Photo by John Gillooly)
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