July 24th, 2009

Paul Paltrineri, general manager of Zorn Dining Commons, was one of eight Sodexho employees named an “Everyday Hero” in June at a special event in Washington D.C.  Sodexho’s Heroes of Everyday Life award, now in its tenth year, honors employees who are making a difference in the fight against hunger in their local communities.

Paltrineri is chair of the board for The Community Kitchen in Keene, a nonprofit organization that provides food for local residents in need. He helps plan, organize, and staff fundraisers that raised more than $700,000 to fight hunger last year. Paul is also an advisor for the Keene State chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon, whose volunteer activities include working at the Community Kitchen.

“Paul’s commitment and dedication are remarkable,” a write up on the Sodexho Foundation website states. “While board members are expected to participate in as many fundraising events as possible, Paul has volunteered at every one since becoming a board member. In addition, he volunteers his time to work with 130 managers and staff members to support specific Sodexo/Keene State College initiatives that support the food bank directly.” The Sodexho Foundation has made a $5,000 grant to the Community Kitchen in Paul’s name.

For Paltrineri, who describes himself as a “political junkie,” an important bonus to the recognition and award was a behind-the-scenes visit to Capitol Hill. The award winners were given a tour and met with members of congress to talk about hunger.

“I was scheduled for 15 minutes of one-on-one-time with Senator Shaheen,” he said, enthusiastically describing a meeting extended into a longer appointment. “I talked about my work at Keene State and the Community Kitchen. The need is greater out there now, because of unemployment, and ­I get to see the benefits of these programs first hand.”

Paul Paltrineri (Sodexho) with U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen; courtesy photo

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The interdisciplinary courses in Keene State’s newly created Environmental Studies Department explore how people interact with the environment, incorporating the natural world as well as social and political systems. The curriculum is designed to develop students’ ability to evaluate, analyze, and synthesize complex information relating to environmental issues, and they will graduate with skills that will help them succeed in careers as diverse as environmental consulting, policy making, field research, and staff positions assisting organizations in meeting goals related to sustainability.

“The faculty of Keene State College recognized the critical importance of Environmental Studies when it established the major in 1979,” said Gordon Leversee, dean of the School of Sciences and Social Sciences. “Changing environmental challenges and opportunities have prompted this move from a multi-departmental model to a core faculty model, and the new department represents Keene State’s renewed commitment to address the environmental challenges we face.”

Four core faculty have been assigned to the new department:

• Dr. Timothy Allen teaches the popular “Energy and the Environment” course, and conducts studies of trace-element mineralogy and groundwater resources.
• Dr. Renate Gebauer is an ecologist with special expertise in plant-soil-water relationships. Her collaborative relationships include the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest Ecosystem Study in the White Mountains.
• Dr. Nora Traviss has expertise in environmental health and safety and is conducting a long-term study on human exposure to diesel exhaust particulates in collaboration with Dartmouth College.
• Dr. William Fleeger is joining the Keene State faculty this fall and brings his considerable experience in environmental policy studies, including serving as program director of the Regional Ecosystem Applied Learning Corps at Southern Oregon University. The Corps worked with over 20 land management agencies and community partners on watershed and land management issues, including the Spotted Owl project.

Emerging green technologies and concerns about climate change are hot topics in the news lately, but sustainability and environmental awareness have been a way of life at Keene State College for some time now.

A faculty-led recycling program was created in the 1970s, and the establishment of the President’s Council for a Sustainable Future (PCSF) in 1996 pushed campus operations to become more sustainable: Many departments use electric cars to get around campus; few chemicals are used to maintain the beautiful lawns, arboretum, and gardens; and in winter alternative pre-treatments minimize salt and sand use on walkways and parking lots. KSC has the only LEED building in Cheshire County (the Pondside III residence is LEED Silver), and campus construction projects seek managers with experience in high-performance buildings, C&D waste/recycling management, and indoor-air-quality management protocol.

As this culture of environmental awareness grew at Keene State over the years, so did the number of courses focusing on sustainability. Last year a new major, SPEDI (Sustainable Product Design and Innovation) was launched, expanding on existing courses in the Architecture and Safety Studies programs that have long featured sustainable building design courses, management courses grounded in sustainability principles, and safety studies courses that look for ways to reduce worker hazards. Often students in these courses have used the campus operations as case studies, including a management project to look at transportation numbers, the microbial content of campus compost, and water testing.

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Coach Darcy Wilson; courtesy photo

From Stuart Kaufman, Sports Information: Kids aren’t the only ones who attend camp during the summer. Keene State assistant track coach Darcy Wilson was selected to participate in the United States Track and Field and Olympic Committee (USATF/USOC) Emerging Elite Coaching Camp at the Arco Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., from July 18-23.

Wilson, who specializes in throwing events, is one of 20 coaches in each field event picked to attend the weeklong camp. “It’s a really exciting opportunity,” she said. “I’m looking forward to fine tuning my knowledge and returning home and working with KSC athletes Bryan Kolacz and Nick White and other potential recruits.”

Camp Director Mike Holman, who initiated the program 12 years ago, looks for coaches who have shown the ability to develop athletes in particular areas. “We’re trying to broaden our base of coaches in the country and hopefully get them to develop Olympians and world champions,” he said. “A vast majority of high schools around the country don’t have hammer and javelin, so it’s critical we find coaches to develop those athletes.”

Wilson, set to begin her third season at Keene State, has been instrumental in developing a top-notch Owl throwing program. Last spring, Kolacz was the national Division III champion in the hammer throw, while Dave Colina and Samantha Hirsch both qualified for the nationals in the javelin event. Wilson’s daughter, Kelsey Huckins, is also a nationally ranked thrower at Boston College.

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Jack Marshall, emeritus professor of art (photo by Dwain Hammett '92)

From Mark Reynolds, College and Media Relations: The KSC community was saddened to hear that John (Jack) Marshall, professor emeritus of art, passed away on July 7, 2009.

Dr. Marshall taught sculpture at KSC from 1973 until he retired in 2002. Many community members will recall walking by the sculpture studio - at all hours of the day - to see him working away on one of his projects. Or, more likely, they just heard him working; often, he had so many works in progress that he was hidden behind them.

Dr. Marshall had a BA in design from Massart, an MFA from Boston University, and a PhD from the Yale School of Architecture. His works have been shown in Massachusetts at the Fuller Memorial Museum in Brockton, the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, the Baak Gallery in Cambridge, and the Carl Siembab, Sunne Savage, and Ellie Reiglehaupt galleries on Newbury St. in Boston. His work has appeared in NYC at the Whitney Biennial, the Awards Exhibit of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the American Institute of Architecture, Leve House, the New School, the Allan Stone Gallery, and in a solo show at Ward Nasse Gallery in Soho. He has had European shows in Milan, Pisa, Florence, Copenhagen, Geneva, and Zurich. You can read more about Jack, or share a memory, here.

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From the IT Group: Recently there was a “Phishing” attempt sent to Keene State College faculty/staff email. “Phishing” is email spam sent by someone pretending to be an organization or person asking you to enter your personal and/or account information. If you respond to these emails, your information has been compromised.

It can be difficult to know what is legitimate email and what is phishing. Test your knowledge with this informative five-minute test - you may be surprised by what you know, and what you don’t.

At Keene State, the IT Group will never ask you to verify any information via email or any other electronic source - we already have that information. Legitimate financial institutions, the government, and the IT Group will not ask for personal information through email. You can always recognize a message from the IT Group because we use a standard email template when communicating with the campus. Critical campus-wide messages from us will always be addressed to the Outlook Global Address List (_GAL), and we will identify ourselves at the beginning of the message. Our messages always tell you to, “Contact the IT Group HelpDesk at 358-2532, email helpdesk@keene.edu, or stop by our office on the 2nd floor of Elliot Hall with questions concerning this or any other technology issue,” and our signature line provides location and contact information.

So don’t be fooled. Computer security is a partnership, and you need to be responsible for your computer security, too. Whenever you are in doubt, contact the IT Group HelpDesk. We can help! If you would like more information regarding Phishing and other helpful security information, please visit the HelpDesk website.

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From Jim Draper, Purchasing: On July 11, 2009, the Keene State College Surplus Property Program held its most successful annual summer blowout sale ever! We made more than $2,950 by recycling items to members of our community and avoided tipping fees at the local landfill. This program has many “feel good” stories, and here is one of them: The Linden School in Northampton, Mass., a school for troubled youth, filled a large truck with ten-dollar dressers.

This annual sale takes a tremendous amount of effort and hard work from KSC employees. Without their help this event would never happen. Our very special thanks go to Nate Demond, Bob MacKenzie, Jim Carley, Nancy Balla and her crew, Peter Hartz, Ken Maynard, Renee Harlow, Bud Winsor, Mary Jensen, and the student muscle: Tim Richmond, Stephanie Bayr, and Connor Snide.

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From the IT Group: All network and information system services will be down from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, July 25, as part of the Data Center Upgrade Project. This upgrade will improve power distribution and power management to systems and improve the air-cooling and fire-suppression systems. The following systems will not be available:

• Outlook (including Outlook client and OWA access)
• Datatel
• P & Q file storage
• internet access
• WebAdvisor
• MyKSC (only offline for those working on campus, with the exception of the Student Services tab. This will be unavailable to those working from on campus or off campus)
• Blackboard (only offline for those working on campus)
• Hosted server solutions (Bookstore, Judicial, Health Service scheduling)
• Library connection to Keene Library
• Campus Safety camera feeds, ticketing system, 8800 phone directory,

ID swipe-card door-entry notifications (physical door access with ID card would still work)
We appreciate your patience. If you have any questions regarding this or any other technology issue, please feel free to contact the HelpDesk at 8-2532, email us, or stop by our office on the 2nd floor of Elliot Hall.

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Irene Herold (Mason Library) chaired the College Libraries Section meeting at the American Library Association’s annual conference July 9–14 in Chicago.

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The campus community’s thoughts are with Mike Caulfield (CELT). His father, Arthur Edmund Caulfield, died on July 18. He was 66 years old.

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Campus News will appear on alternate weeks during the summer (next issue is July 23), returning to a weekly schedule in the fall (weekly issues will resume on August 27). Deadlines will continue to be noon on Monday before the next Thursday’s issue.

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KSC journalism students placed third in the Outstanding Student Reporting category of the Society for Environmental Journalists’ (SEJ) 2009 Awards for Reporting on the Environment. Melissa Ball, Randall Booth, Casie Brown, Meghan Foley and Ian Lord received recognition for their investigative package, “Getting The Lead Out,” which was published in the 5/8/08 issue of KSC’s student newspaper, The Equinox.

SEJ will honor the winners and present the awards on October 7 at an awards ceremony at the SEJ’s 19th annual conference. Nearly 800 journalists, academics, and others are expected to attend the five-day gathering.

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The University System of New Hampshire Board of Trustees, on recommendation from its Academic Affairs Committee, has promoted 12 Keene State College faculty members, awarding tenure to nine professors.

Tenure

Rebecca Dunn (Health Science)
Michael Hanrahan (Computer Science)
Wayne Hartz (Technology, Design and Safety), Associate Professor
Robert Kostick (Art), Associate Professor
Donna Paley (Technology, Design and Safety), Associate Professor
Kristen Porter-Utley (Biology), Associate Professor
Marianne Salcetti (Journalism)
William James Stemp (Sociology), Associate Professor
Barbara Ware (Modern Languages)

Promotions

Phyllis Benay (English and Interdisciplinary Studies), Professor
Matthew Crocker (History), Professor
Christopher Cusack (Geography), Professor
Gregory Knouff (History), Professor
Mark Long (English), Professor
Elisabeth Roos (Theatre and Dance), Professor
Margaret Walsh (Sociology), Professor

Emeritus

Judith Hildebrandt, Associate Professor Library (2000–2009)
Robert Madden, Associate Professor Library (1976–2009)

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Dr. Jerry Jasinski (Ann Card photo)

Dr. Jerry Jasinski (Chemistry) has been appointed co-editor of Acta Crystallographica Section E: Structure Reports Online, the open-access structural journal of the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr).

The IUCr promotes international cooperation in crystallography and contributes to all aspects of crystallography: promoting international publication of crystallographic research; facilitating standardization of methods, units, nomenclatures, and symbols; and forming a focus for the relation of crystallography to other sciences.

The technique of single-crystal X-ray crystallography allows accurate and precise determination of the full three-dimensional structure of a molecule and the spatial arrangement of molecules relative to the neighboring molecules. These studies have an impact in a number of areas, ranging from synthetic chemistry to systems of biological interest and cleaning of the environment.

The online journal provides an easily accessible publication mechanism for the growing number of inorganic, metal-organic, and organic crystal structure determinations. In 2007, the journal published over 5,000 structures. Articles are published in a short-format style with enhanced supplementary materials (HTML and PDF supplements, CIF, structure factors, graphics), a much richer collection of material than is provided by publishers of other structural journals.

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From the IT Group: Departments across campus are purchasing netbooks (the lighter, smaller, version of laptop computers) because of their compact size and inexpensive price tag. Netbook users typically rely on online applications, and services that do not require powerful computing power. They are perfect for travel if your needs are limited to reading email and surfing the web, if you don’t need large storage capacity or fast processing, and if you can live without high resolution graphics and a large screen.

While they fit this need for basic computing, the IT Group does not currently support netbooks. HelpDesk staff won’t be able to help you operate, load applications and/or troubleshoot if something goes wrong. However, if they are purchased with KSC funds, you are still required to comply with all KSC policies regarding equipment purchase and disposal, data security, and privacy.

As with all computers accessing the KSC network, netbooks must meet the standard IT Group security requirements with the installation of McAfee anti-virus software, and windows updates and patches installed. If you have any questions about this or any other technology issue, please feel free to contact the HelpDesk at 8-2532, or stop by our office on the 2nd floor of Elliot Hall.

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Construction on Wyman Way began on Monday, June 29 and will continue through Saturday, July 18. Signs will be posted to help direct traffic to available campus parking. Directions and updates.

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From the IT Group: As part of the Data Center Upgrade Project being completed this summer, all network and information system services will be down on Saturday, July 11, from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m., and on Saturday, July 25, from 8 a.m. to noon.

The following systems will not be available during these outages:
• Outlook (including Outlook client and OWA access)
• Datatel
• P & Q file storage
• Internet access
• WebAdvisor
• MyKSC (only offline for those working on-campus, with the exception of the Student Services tab. This will be unavailable to those working from on-campus or off-campus.)
• Blackboard (only offline for those working on-campus)
• Hosted server solutions (Bookstore, Judicial, Health Service scheduling)
• Library connection to Keene Library
• Campus Safety camera feeds, ticketing system, 8800 phone directory
• ID card swipe card door entry notifications (physical door access with ID card would still work)

The Data Center Upgrade Project will improve power distribution and power management to systems, and improve the air cooling and fire suppression systems. We appreciate your patience as we work to schedule these two Data Center outages when they will have the least amount of impact to campus operations. If you have any questions regarding this or any other technology issue, please feel free to contact the HelpDesk at 8-2532, email or stop by our office on the second floor of Elliot Hall.

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From Amanda Warman, Campus Safety: With the approval of the Cabinet, the College’s Emergency Notification System Policy has been updated to include the use of the system for notifications of curtailed operations in addition to notifications of imminent emergency. This will enable us to better communicate information to faculty, staff, and students. A copy of the policy is available on the Campus Safety website.

City Watch, our emergency notification system, is moving to an enhanced platform and will require everyone to re-register their information in order to receive notifications. The updated system will let users update their information on their own when needed.

Please feel free to contact Amanda Warman, 358-2766, if you have any questions or concerns.

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In June, Assistant Director of Campus Safety Christopher Santiago received the Northeast Colleges and Universities Security Association (NECUSA) Professional Achievement Award for his work coordinating the logistics for the Keene State College Centennial Relay event on April 15.

In May, Jerry Jasinski (Chemistry), president of the American Institute of Chemists (AIC), presented the 2009 AIC Gold Medal Award to Dr. Oliver Smithies, the Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Weatherspoon Eminent Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina, at the annual Chemical Heritage Foundation Awards Ceremony in Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Smithies, a giant in the fields of biochemistry and human genetics, has won numerous recognitions, including election to the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the Royal Society of London, and has received many prestigious awards, including the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (along with co-recipients Mario R. Capecchi and Sir Martin J. Evans). His work led to the now classic gene knockout experiments in mice that are used to study gene function and to create mouse models of human diseases.

Jasinski also presented the 2009 AIC Pioneer Awards to Dr. Keith Carron, vice president and general manager of Intervac Photonics, DeltaNu, and a Research Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wyoming, and Dr. Debates Mukherjee, chairman of the Raman Center for Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Sciences at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS).

New Faces, New Places
From Karyn Kaminsky, Human Resources: Please welcome the following newly hired staff members to KSC: Sarah Strong, business services assistant, Student Financial Services; Gregory Williams, Campus Safety officer, Campus Safety; Katey Kimbal, Campus Safety officer, Campus Safety; Craig Cashman, Campus Safety officer, Campus Safety.

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From Karyn Kaminsky, Human Resources: Please welcome the following newly hired staff members to KSC: Sarah Strong, business services assistant, Student Financial Services; Gregory Williams, Campus Safety officer, Campus Safety; Katey Kimbal, Campus Safety officer, Campus Safety; Craig Cashman, Campus Safety officer, Campus Safety.

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