communicator 2010 2011 edition

Communicator2010-2011MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences

Communicator2010-2011 edition

The Communicator magazine is published annually by the MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences for alumni, donors, friends, faculty, staff and students of the college.

We welcome comments and news items. Please send them to:Kirsten Khire, Communications ManagerCollege of Communication Arts & Sciences, 287 Communication Arts & Sciences Building, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 Email: [email protected]

Dean Pamela Whitten

Editor: Kirsten Khire, Communications Manager

Contributors: Nicole Bays, Lane Blackmer, Edward Cohen, Phyllis Kacos, Andrea Kovac, Trenton Lively, Meagan Meldrim, Kerri Jo Molitor, Tom Oswald

Designers: Ashley Calcagno, Kirsten Khire

Photographers: Kevin Fowler/dharma bum graphics, Zachary Jay, Christa Milster, Jin Myung

Printer: Quad/Graphics

College of Communication Arts & Sciences Alumni BoardEd Cohen, PresidentDiane Neal, Vice PresidentJeff Lambert, TreasurerMatt Martyn, SecretaryJim AlexanderThomas BaldwinMerri Jo BalesW. Clark BuntingDavid CoelhoNancy CrawleyBrian HamrickBarbara MasonAngela Massenberg Erika MyersJana O’BrienEd Swiderski

Visit us onlineWebsite: www.cas.msu.eduTwitter: www.twitter.com/msucommartsFacebook: www.facebook.com/msucommartsLinkedin: www.linkedin.com - Communication Arts & Sciences AlumniYouTube: www.youtube.com/msucommartsFlickr: www.flickr.com/msucommarts

Copyright © 2010Michigan State UniversityCollege of Communication Arts & SciencesAll rights reserved.™

In this edition

Alumni news

4 Dean’s Message5 Alumni Board President’s Message6 Alumni Awards8 Journalism Centennial10 Alumni Honors12 New Scholarships14 Career Boosts

Research and creative work changing lives

16 Health18 International: Africa20 Technology and Economy22 Social Media24 Video Games26 Film and Art

Around the college

28 Faculty News30 Students/Programs

Legacies

32 Tribute: James Quello33 In Memory: Jill Elfenbein

Connect with us

34 Become an MSUAA member35 Update Your Information35 Nominate an Alum or Faculty Member36 Join us at Upcoming Events

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2010 | THE CoMMUNICATor I 03

On October 16, 2009 during MSU Homecoming weekend, the college dedicated a new patio made possible by a gift from Richard Bush and Patricia McGuigan, honorary alumni award winners of the college, with support from Bob and Sally Snyder. The patio honors three special women who were mothers, scholars andSpartans: Ruth Cady Bush, Phyllis Spring Petrullo and June Bercin Snyder.


Congratulations to Dr. luCinDa Davenport, reCipient of the 2010 faCulty iMpaCt awarD

Lucinda Davenport, center, with Dean Pamela Whitten and Alumni Board President Ed Cohen, was recently named director of the School of Journalism. She developed one of the first interactive software programs for journalism education and has co-authored three nationally-known textbooks in reporting and mass communication. Of this award, she said, “Every time I look at this monument, I see a tribute to all of my colleagues and to all of you who touched the life of an MSU student. And thanks to you for that.”

Highlights of Commencement 2010

Dean’s MessagePamela S. Whitten, Ph.D.

Welcome to the 2010 edition of the Communicator magazine. It’s been a tremendously busy year in the MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences, especially in conducting research that changes lives. That is the theme of this edition, which I hope you enjoy. From helping families and residents from Michigan to Tanzania, our researchers and students are mak-ing a huge difference.

On the pages inside, you will read about some of this academic year’s greatest moments, from our student successes to our alumni newsmakers.

Our successes, which in large part are a product of all of our involvement, are

especially meaningful during a year of such change. As you undoubtedly know, MSU and all public universities are receiving significantly less financial support from the government. Our college has prepared for this reality in several ways:

• by increasing our emphasis on re-search grants and funding• by seeking increased donor and foundational support• by restructuring our college opera-tions• by making curriculum changes to benefit students headed toward tech-nology and creative careers• by increasing career opportunities for our students

• and by evaluating and changing our college to survive and thrive in any economic conditions.

To accomplish all of this, we need your involvement and support. I wel-come your communication, whether by phone, email or an in-person appoint-ment. With almost 43,000 alumni from our college, we can all make a differ-ence. SPARTANS WILL.

Phone: 517-355-3410Email: [email protected]: www.cas.msu.edu/deanblog

welcome


Highlights of Commencement 2010 Congratulations to all graDuates

In May, 948 students graduated from the college, becoming the newest alumni. At the college’s undergraduate convocation, student speaker Zaneta Inpower (BA ‘10 Advertising) said, “I am incredibly proud of my efforts and ability to prove that tenacity and goal-setting can overcome obstacles, even cultural barriers, as I wrote myself into MSU’s history simply by standing here right now and delivering this speech.”

The MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences Alumni Board, with 16 members representing all depart-ments, has made significant progress this year and I’d like to update you on some of our goals and successes.

The mission of the board is to: • provide a framework for CAS alumni to communicate formally and informally for educational, professional and social purposes; • provide an advisory service to the College of Communi-cation Arts and Sciences staff, students, and alumni;• expand interest in, and financial support for, the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at MSU.

To accomplish this mission, the board is seeking ways to connect with alumni to encourage other alumni to en-gage, become informed and invest in the college through

Alumni Board President’s MessageEd Cohen (BA ‘76 Telecommunication, PhD ‘88 Mass Media)Cohen, right, with head of the MSU Alumni Association Scott Westerman (BA ‘78 Telecommunication), and the college’s founding alumni board president Edward Deeb (BA ‘60 Advertising), at the 2010 Alumni Awards Celebration.

time, expertise and resources. These strategies will help to sustain our college over the long haul.

Following this model, our board has set up an endow-ment for the college. The endowment allows current and past board members to work towards a shared fundrais-ing purpose. Upon completion, the interest earned from the endowment will support several areas that the board feels passionate about, including the Faculty Impact Award honorarium and initiatives to engage our alumni.

We hope this endowment inspires other alumni to estab-lish similar endowments and make gifts to support stu-dents and programs. I encourage you to get involved in the college today. Every page lists a specific way you can (just look for the Spartans Will shield). Connect with us today!


on May 8, friends of the college

gathered for The Celebration: 2010 Alumni Awards Banquet at the Kellogg Center. This year, the college honored eight outstanding individuals. Alumni Board President Ed Cohen served as emcee for the event. Presenting this year’s award winners:

KELLEY L. CartEr (BA ‘07 Journalism), rising Star Alumni Award, Emmy-award winning entertainment journalist for CNN who has written for publications including the Detroit Free Press, Vibe Magazine, USA Today and The Chicago Tribune.

PhiL BErtoLini (BA ‘85 Telecommunication), outstanding Alumni Award, CIo for oakland County. Vocal Advocate for enterprise solutions in government, cross-boundary resource sharing, and inter-jurisdictional cooperation.

JamEs Gaudino (PhD ‘88 Communication), outstanding Alumni Award, President of Central Washington University, founding Dean of the College of Communication and Information (CCI) at Kent State University.

nanCY r. Kaufman (BA ‘79 Audiology and Speech Sciences), outstanding Alumni Award, creator of the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol (K-SLP), helping children to become effective vocal and verbal communicators.

stan stEin (BA ‘75 Journalism, MA ‘80 Advertising & Public relations), outstanding Alumni Award, Executive Vice President for Weber Shandwick Worldwide, the world’s leading public relations agency, and re-opened its Detroit office in 2003.

tim WhaLEY (BA ‘81 Advertising), outstanding Alumni Award, founder of EnviroGLAS, a recycled glass manufacturing company that produces customized flooring and counters made of recycled glass from many sources. He designed the awards that were accepted at the ceremony.

LorEtta sKLarHonorary Alumni Award, Vice President/regional Manager for Kohl’s, manages over $1 billion in total sales, manages 6 District Vice Presidents, over 250 executives and 3,000 hourly associates.

celebrationBACK ROW

Loretta Sklar, Edward Deeb and Phil Bertolini.

MIDDLE ROWKelley L. Carter, Ed Cohen,

Pamela Whitten and Lucinda Davenport.

FRONT ROWStan Stein, Tim Whaley and

Nancy R. Kaufman at The Celebration in May.

alumni awards

2008 Outstanding Alumni Award winner Lynn Henning signs his book, “Spartan Seasons II” for Dr. Bradley Greenberg.

the

Listen to each winner at youtube.com/msucommarts

Nominate an alum today!

cas.msu.edu/alumni

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I'm humbled as I stand here today, not being a graduate from Michigan State, but truly feeling a Spartan loyalty that is really deep, deep in my heart. I am grateful for this recognition and this award.”

— Loretta sklarHonorary Alumni Award

I really, really hope students understand the value of a career and how important it is to always network and to always stay hungry. When you stay hungry, you’re always putting out your best work, and when you’re always putting out your best work, you’re always catching the attention of people who are in positions to give you more work.”

— Kelley L. Carterrising Star Award

Just because Michigan State is a big school is not a reason that you can’t be an individual. You can seek help if you need it, you can have your own identity - but nobody hands it to you. First and foremost, it’s a school that gives those who are willing to take on a variety of challenges, the tools necessary to succeed in life, both profession-ally and personally.”

— stan stein outstanding Alumni Award

one thing I learned here at MSU is how much it is a family. It’s really a

community. It’s a family. once you’re a Spartan,

you’re always a Spartan. When you walk on

campus as a student to when you graduate and

become an alum, you’re a Spartan.”

— Phil Bertolinioutstanding Alumni Award

Luck and laughter have been the keys to my success. But,

also determination, taking risks and having a strong

belief in myself and my God-given talents.”

— nancy r. Kaufmanoutstanding Alumni Award

What I always wanted was a purpose, some-thing I could look back to and say, ‘I left a mark in what the future generation is going to achieve.’”

— tim Whaley outstanding Alumni

Award

“

“

“

“

“

Much of the advice that has guided my career I received

from the faculty and the administrators at Michigan

State University.”

— James Gaudinooutstanding Alumni Award

“

“

Mexican media CEO gives talkAlejandro Junco, president and

CEO of the Mexican media organiza-tion Grupo Reforma, was the featured speaker of the 2010 Mary Gardner Lecture on April 8.

The focus of Junco’s speech was “Adjusting the Paradigm: Building

Journalism for the Future.” The Gardner Lecture was part of the celebration of 100

years of journalism at MSU, which will continue through 2010.Junco earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the

University of Texas at Austin in 1969 and received an Honor-ary Degree of Doctor of Humanities from MSU in 2000.

The Gardner Lecture is an annual endowed lecture at MSU that focus on issues facing Latin American journalism in honor of the late MSU journalism professor, Mary Gardner. For more information about the MSU School of Journalism, go online to www.jrn.msu.edu. The archived lecture is avail-able on demand at www.spartantv.cas.msu.edu.

NPR, AP media headline lectureThe MSU School of Journalism es-

tablished the Siebert Lecture series in 1968 in honor of Frederick S. Siebert, director of the School of Journalism from 1957 to 1960 and dean of the College of Communication Arts & Sci-ences from 1960 to 1967.

Don Gonyea of NPR and Kathy Hoffman of the Associated Press, both MSU graduates, were the centennial Siebert Lecture speakers on Feb. 18. This year’s lecture topic was new technology and political coverage as part of the 100 years of journalism celebra-tion at MSU.


New journalism curriculum under wayBy: Meagan Meldrim

MSU’s School of Journalism has overhauled its curriculum to strengthen its position as the go-to place for students wishing to become leaders in the industry.

“Critical thinking, excellent writing and superb visual communication skills are the hallmarks of our students as they learn how to research and produce news and information in distinct platforms for different audiences,” said Lucinda Daven-port, director of the School of Journalism.

The new curriculum is built upon the expertise and advice of faculty, profes-sionals, alumni, university administrators and students.

Innovative technologies are in the suc-cessful journalist’s toolbox, are pervasive in newsrooms and are in the hands of audiences. This innovation is pervasive in the new curriculum, building on solid, traditional journalism principles and theories, said Davenport.

Several major changes were made. One is that journalism students choose a con-centration in addition to the major. The concentrations include courses outside of journalism for different types of reporting such as sports, international, environmen-tal, public affairs, business and formats like electronic or TV news and visual communication (interactive graphics,

photography, design). The concentration appears on transcripts.

“As a journalism major myself, this is exciting news because the term journal-ism is so broad, and a concentration will help me make definite decision as to my focus for the future,” said journalism sophomore Zach Berridge.

Further benefits are that students can take journalism courses in their freshman year, and it offers more room for electives.

It also adds several new courses, such

as Creating and Marketing Journalism for developing innovations that have the potential for commercial success. Other classes produce students’ work in professional newspapers, radio, TV, magazine and documentary outlets. The new capstone, Spartan Online Newsroom, has students combining their research, writing and visual skills for the web. Still in place is the requirement that students have internships. Most journalism stu-dents average three.

Journalism students showcase digital media projects.

Celebrate with the J-School!

jrn.msu.edu

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By: Meagan Meldrim

As Michigan State University celebrates the 100th anniversary of the first journalism course offered on campus, MSU’s ombuds-man Stan Soffin reflects on his 30 years on the J-School faculty, including 16 as director.

Soffin, who holds a master’s degree in journalism and a Ph.D. in American Studies from MSU, joined the J-School faculty as an instructor in 1968. He was appointed director of the J-School in 1982, a position he held until 1998, when he was named the University ombudsman. His duties include helping MSU students resolve disputes within the university in a neutral and confidential manner.

“When I was appointed the director of the J-School, then dean of the college Erwin Bettinghaus told me my primary responsibil-ity was ‘to build a strong department,’” Soffin said.

He went to work in a hurry. In 1982, Soffin brought the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association to the J-School. A year later he and colleague Carrie Heeter raised $100,000 from the Gannett Foundation to create a pio-neering communication technology lab for the College of Communication Arts & Sciences. In 1985, he helped restart and bring the long-dormant Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame to the J-School.

In 1984, Soffin spearheaded a $1 mil-lion grant to establish the Knight Chair in Environmental Journalism. The program, now called the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, teaches students to research, report and write about environmental issues. Soffin jumpstarted the J-School develop-ment program, which, among other projects, established many of the student scholarships at the J-School. Alumni and friends endowed a journalism scholarship in Soffin’s name in 1998.

Soffin remarked on the changes he has seen in journalism during his time at MSU.

“Symbolically, we went from typewriter-assisted journalism to computer-assisted jour-nalism. That was an expensive and significant shift, and it’s still evolving,” he said.

Stan Soffin reflects on yearsleading School of Journalism

journalism centennial

Centennial WeekendFriday and SaturdayOct. 22-23, 2010The weekend following Homecoming culminates the celebratory centennial year. Three keynote speakers anchor a day filled with alumni and profession-als leading workshops and seminars. The event ends with a spectacular evening reception.

UPCOMING EVENTSNeal Shine LectureFriday, Oct. 15, 20102 p.m. 145 CAS The Neal Shine Lecture is named after Neal Shine, former publisher of the Detroit Free Press. This year’s lecture on Homecoming Friday celebrates the new sports journalism concentra-tion with a panel of highly successful sports reporting alumni discussing ethical situations and new technology.

The School of Journalism at Michigan State University’s College of Communication Arts & Sciences is pleased to announce the 2010 School of Journalism Centennial Committee, comprised of leading journalism alumni.

The establishment of the Cen-tennial Committee demonstrates the importance of 100 Years of Journalism Education at Michigan State University, an investment from alumni in the School of Jour-nalism and a commitment to the next 100 years of journalism. The Centennial Committee consists of the following members:

Benjamin Burns, Professor of Communications at Wayne State University

Beverly Burns, Attorney and Counselor at Law, Miller, Canfield, Paddock, & Stone

Donald Dahlstrom, Senior Communications Officer at C.S. Mott Foundation

Katherine Dahlstrom, Instructor of Journalism at Oakland University

Karen Healy, Vice President of Cor-porate Affairs & Marketing at Delphi

Larry Lee, Former Vice President at Gongwer News

Joseph Serwach, Media Relations at University of Michigan

Stan Soffin, Ombudsman at Michigan State University

Journalism Centennial Committee

Centennial Planning Committee:

Jeremy Steele, Pam Saunders, Lucinda Davenport, Bob Gould, Joe Grimm, Karl Gude, Steve Lacy and Cheryl Pell

Thank you to additional faculty for their time and efforts.

For a complete list of journalism centennial events, visit www.jrn.msu.edu

Stan SoffinCourtesy: Jason Chiou, The State News


alumni honors

Scott Westerman (BA ‘78 Telecom-munication) took the helm in January as MSU’s new associ-ate vice president for alumni relations and executive director of the MSU Alumni Asso-

ciation. Westerman came to MSU from Albuquerque, N.M., where he was area vice president for Comcast Corp.’s West Division. He spearheaded a public rela-tions turnaround for the company by leveraging social media such as Face-book and Twitter to respond to custom-er complaints. In 2001, he received the MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences Outstanding Alumni award. He has served as president on the Col-lege of Communication Arts & Sciences Alumni Board.

Telecasters alumni reunionFormer Telecasters and MSU alumni Ryan Alloway, Maureen Enright, Andrew Sobotka, Debora Del Valle, Heather Zara, Brian Murray and Tim Taylor spoke about their professions to more than 50 students and alumni in February as part of an all-day Telecasters alumni reunion for the MSU Telecasters Alumni interest group.

Book signings by alumniM.L. Elrick (BA ‘90 Journal-

ism), near right, along with De-troit Free Press fellow reporter Jim Schaefer, discuss their book “The Kwame Sutra” at a local book signing. Elrick and Schae-fer won a 2009 Pulitzer Prize in the local reporting category for uncovering incriminating text messages by former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Writer and editor Robin Stone (BA ‘86 Journalism), right, discusses the book “My Times in Black and White” by Gerald Boyd, her late husband, former managing editor of the New York Times. Stone helped edit the book and bring it to publication and shared the story with MSU students.

By: Kerri Jo Molitor

Two alumni have used their MSU journalism training at the well-known journalism corporation, National Geographic.

Anisa Abid Peters (MA ‘08 Jour-nalism), has worked with National Geographic Television since finish-ing her master’s degree at MSU. She started out working with the program “Dangerous Encounters” as a produc-tion coordinator intern and is now associate producer. Applying for the National Geographic internship was a natural choice, Peters said, because working for an international wildlife program seemed perfect for her.

“I was fortunate to get the intern-ship,” Peters said. “It was the best news I’d ever heard. National Geo-graphic’s mission is appealing because it is inspiring people to care about the planet. I knew the job would be a good fit because that’s what I want to do, through television and documen-tary film.”

From MSU ... to National Geographic jobs

Taking the helmat the MSUAA


The college was well represented by alumni at the 82nd Annual Acad-emy Awards in February, including by:• Craig Murray (BA ‘76 Advertising), whose company Craig Murray Pro-ductions created the nomination film sequences, the Governors Award sequence and the World of Sound,• Bob Murawski (BA ‘87 Telecommu-nication, Film Studies), who received an Oscar for best film editing for “The Hurt Locker” with Chris Innis• and Justin Shaw (BA ‘99 Telecom-munciation, Film Studies), who was assistant film editor on “Avatar,” which was nominated in the film editing category.

Another graduate, Ivona Lerman (MA ‘01 Journalism) was part of the National Geo-graphic family. The MSU environmental journalism program was a good choice for her, she said, because it combined her love for science and nature with her newly discov-ered passion for journal-ism.

From MSU ... to National Geographic jobsIn 2003, Lerman returned home to

Croatia and applied to be the associ-ate editor of the new Croatian edition of National Geographic Magazine. Not only did she get the job, but she was later promoted to deputy edi-tor in chief and worked there for six years.

“My favorite part of the job was writing feature stories,” Lerman said. “Among the ones I am especially proud of is the story on overfishing in the Adriatic Sea for which I got the Croatian Journalist Association’s award for excellence in environmental journalism.”

Recently, Lerman was transferred to Sensa, a health, environment and wellness magazine.

“Being a graduate from MSU’s School of Journalism opened a lot of doors for me,” Lerman said. “Also, my specialization in environmen-tal journalism and experience as an editor of EJ News provided me with a possibility to start working in the environmental journalism field right

Alum Bob Murawski and wife Chris Innis with the Oscar for editing “The Hurt Locker.” Murawski’s company Grindhouse Releasing is a Hollywood-based distribution company.

Anisa Abid Peters works on a crocodile suit for “Dangerous Encounters.”

after graduation, whereas usually this specialization comes to journalists later in a career after working several years in general beats. Overall, the knowledge and experience I gained at MSU was invaluable and it prepared me well for my career and gave me all the necessary tools to succeed in this field.”

Alum Craig Murray and his daughter Jessie at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards. Murray’s company Craig Murray Productions had a major production role in the Oscars.

Share your story!

spartansagas.msu.edu

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Lerman

Alumni shineat the oscars


new scholarships

PR firm establishes scholarshipBy: Rebecca Pagels

Investing in the younger generation in Michigan and giving back. These are the words that Jeff Lambert (BA ’93 Advertising) used to describe the Lambert, Edwards & Associates Expendable Scholarship.

When Lambert became a member of the college alumni board, he began looking for ways to give back and introduce CAS students to real-world public relations as well as investor relations, an area in which his firm specializes.

The result was the Lambert, Edwards & Associ-ates Expendable Scholarship in the Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing in the college.

As part of the scholarship offered to juniors or seniors studying public relations at Michigan State University, students will participate in a job shad-ow day at one of Lambert, Edwards & Associates’ locations. The first recipi-ents are students Jessie Murninghan and Emily Tschirhart.

Lambert considers this gift to be a perfect example of investing in the future generation, adding “I grew up in Michigan, my employees live and work here, and this scholarship will support students from Michigan.”

Lambert is the president and co-founder of Lambert, Edwards & As-sociates, founded in 1998. The firm has grown to become a top-10 Midwest-based PR firm and a top-20 investor relations firm nationally with more than 100 clients based in 20 states and five countries. The firm recently won PR Week’s Small Agency of the Year award.

By: Kirsten Khire

Creative. Someone who took a chance on others. A mentor. A family man. Smart, passionate. Great sense of humor.

These were among 1,100 qualities that people loved about George Kat-sarelas (BA ’82 Advertising) – perma-nent remembrances on a wall in the

Leo Burnett Detroit of-fice, where Katsarelas worked for many years as a creative leader.

Katsar-elas passed away in June 2009. When he passed, his

colleagues in the office sought a special way to remember a very special colleague. They created a remembrance wall and made it blue to symbolize one of Kat-sarelas’ last projects: a pro bono effort for the Detroit Public Schools. They planted an apple tree, symbolic of the Leo Burnett culture. But they wanted to go even further to keep his memory alive. The result? They established the MSU George Katsarelas Endowed Memorial Scholarship.

Jeff Cruz of Leo Burnett said the scholarship was a group decision that made perfect sense. “He was my role model. Anyone who knew George would say he was creative by trade, and he was even better with people. He understood that some people crave extra guidance and mentoring,” Cruz said. “He could see potential in people, and he would want to foster the next generation of creatives. We had to make this scholarship happen.”

Leo Burnett Detroit contributed $30,000 to set up the scholarship en-dowment with the CAS Advancement Office. The scholarship will benefit MSU advertising students, and the

first recipient is advertising student Tess Maurici, who met Cruz in April.

Leo Burnett Detroit isn’t stopping there. The advertising agency is work-ing on fundraisers, wristbands and campaigns to encourage everyone who knew Katsarelas to get involved and contribute toward the scholarship. “Our goal is to make this scholar-ship bigger and greater,” Cruz said. “The more students we can help, the better.” Leo Burnett offers matching funds to employees who make a gift.

“For us, this is about George: how he approached life, how he treated people, how he taught people in the business. He was a great guy. You would have liked George,” Cruz said.

Katsarelas was president of the Detroit Creative Director’s Council and a leader in the Detroit advertising community. He is survived by his wife Mary, sons Max and Nick and daugh-ter Elizabeth.

Create or support a scholarship!

(in any amount)

cas.msu.edu/giving

Advertising student Tess Maurici, left, is the first recipient of the George Katsarelas Endowed Memo-rial Scholarship, founded by friends at Leo Burnett Detroit including Jeff Cruz, right.

sPartans WiLL

Leo Burnett Detroit createsaward to honor colleague

George Katsarelas


The MSU Telecasters Alumni Group created and awarded its first scholarship this spring.

MSU Telecasters provides opportunities for MSU un-dergraduates to gain hands-on experience working with state-of-the-art television equipment such as cameras, lighting and editing software. Students produce, direct, write and edit their own shows. All shows are entirely created by student casts and crews.

“If you are like us, you are proud to have been a part of the Telecasters experience at MSU. It was likely a highlight of your college career that formed lasting friendships and provided a launching pad to a career in television, film, communication technology and many other fields,” said Pam Saunders, president of the MSU Telecasters Alumni Group.

The Telecasters alumni group presented a $500 scholarship in the spring to media arts and technology student Colin Marshall. Marshall is in the Honors Col-lege and in the fiction film specialization. He was editor of Telecaster productions “The Giraffe House” and “The Show.” He has helped produce videos for musical artists and a video for the MSU Office of Admissions. He also interned with the Big Ten Network. Marshall’s goal is to

Alumna creates scholarship to honor parents

film live concerts for musicians.“Life is about stories. We carry our stories with us,

share them with others we encounter and create new ones from scratch. We aim to enlighten and inspire those around us with our stories, and I want to do it on a larger scale,” Marshall said.

Telecasters alumni help students

By: Kirsten Khire

For alumni board member Diane Neal (BS ‘79 retailing), helping others achieve their dream to go to college is a fulfilled dream for her through a new scholarship she established.

Due to her family’s financial circumstances, Neal paid for her own MSU education, and she hopes this fund helps others who are supporting themselves through college.

“It was always distressing to my parents that they were unable to pay for my education,” she said. “However, it was their unconditional support and belief in me, that helped me get to the position I am at today.”

To honor her parents, Neal founded the Donald and Annette Neal Scholarship to benefit students who are transferring to MSU. “My parents helped set the stage for my success, and this scholarship honors their love and support, while providing financial support to students.”

Neal, CEo of Bath and Body Works, knows first hand how valuable this support can be to students. “I wanted to set up a scholarship fund to help out students who are unable to find resources for their educa-tion. I personally understand how difficult it is to work and go to school at the same time, so hopefully this scholarship will help ease the pres-

sure and work load for the students who receive it.”The first recipient of the scholarship is advertising student Thomas

Shaver, who hopes to pursue a career in art direction at an advertising firm. “When I gain enough experience, my ultimate goal would be to start my own business.”

Shaver will push to become a motivated student with the opportu-nity this scholarship has presented to him.

“receiving a scholarship for school means so much to me, and I’m so grateful that I was chosen to receive the Neal scholarship. Even though I believe getting a good education and going to college is extremely important in today’s world, I also believe in keeping out of debt and saving as much money as possible. Scholarships help relieve some of the burden of debt students face after graduation, while also motivating them to work harder.”

“Because I received a scholarship I will strive to achieve better grades so that I can enhance my chances for future scholar-ship awards. Another way this scholarship makes a difference in my own life is the realization that there are people who are gener-ous givers. This inspires me to also be a scholarship donor in the future so that I may help in the education of a young person.”

Media arts and technology student Colin Marshall re-ceived the Telecasters Alumni Group’s first scholarship in the spring.

Credit: Matt Radick/Residential College in the Arts and Humanities

Alumni board member Diane Neal

this inspires me to also be a scholarship donor in the future so that i may help in the education of a young

person.”-thomas shaver

(neal scholarship recipient)

“

By: Nicole Marble

For the second year in a row, dozens of Michigan State University students volunteered around the state to help organizations that protect children from abuse and neglect.

One such student is MSU public relations master’s student Halley Buchan, who is interning at the Children’s Trust Fund main office in Lansing.

“This internship has meant a lot to me. I have been able to finally use all my schooling and put it to use on actual projects that are helping to prevent abuse and neglect of children all around the state of Michigan. It has been nice working with people that truly want to help children and people in need,” Buchan said.

The Children’s Central volunteer program is part of a relationship between the Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing and Michigan Children’s Trust Fund (CTF).

In the program, advertising and public relations stu-dents are working as fundraising and publicity volunteers for CTF affiliate offices among other nonprofits statewide.

Last summer, the nonprofits received approximately $48,000 worth of contributed labor from 20 MSU under-graduate PR and advertising students over the 12-week summer break.

“PR and advertising students in our program get a great deal of exposure to child abuse and prevention efforts as well as other important social causes through various courses in the department. We help local CTF affiliates meet their objectives by giving the students a chance to show what they can do. This program benefits the student and society,” said Richard Cole, chair of the Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing.

This summer, MSU has placed student volunteers in local CTF affiliate offices in Ingham, Livingston, Gratiot, Ot-tawa, Macomb, Eaton, Wayne, Clinton and Jackson coun-ties. In addition to CTF internships, students are interning at organizations including Matrix Human Services, Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living and Cranbrook Insti-tute of Science.

Keri Keck, executive director of the Council for the Pre-vention of Child Abuse and Neglect in Jackson, said MSU intern Stacy Scheier has made a difference this summer.

“Stacy has been very busy and such an asset. She has done great things for the agency, from creating a website to developing media opportunities for the agency to get out into the community,” Keck said.

“One of the side benefits of our relationship with MSU has been the value that these interns have been able to add in our offices. That’s important,” said Michael Foley, executive director of CTF. “What may be more important, over the long haul, is the degree to which we are helping set these kids off on a lifetime course of volunteering to help prevent child abuse and neglect. I’d call that a win-win-win.”


By: Kirsten Khire

Alumni board member Jana O’Brien has set up an internship fund for advertising students so that they can pur-sue their career dreams. Often, internships are

unpaid, located in expensive locations or require travel funds. O’Brien’s contribution is helping eight students this summer to pursue their dream internships.

“I honestly attribute a lot of my career success to my summer internship experience at BBDO in Detroit in the summers of 1977-1978. It is so gratifying to see that students have been able to find similar opportu-nities in the midst of our challenging economic times and also to know that my small donation helped them take advantage of those opportunities,” O’Brien said.

Here are a few examples of students interning around the country:• Lauren Fifarek, interning at MWW in New York City; • Yale Miller, interning in Palm Springs with the Pow-ers Minor League Baseball Team; • Lynsey Tomac, intern-ing at Allied in Chicago. Fifarek says, “This

summer has been a chance of a lifetime here in New York City. I am so fortunate to attend a university that has such a strong and supportive alumni base. With the donation I received I was allowed to put it towards my experi-ence here and focus less about how I will pay for everything and more on growing not only as a young professional but as a person all around. This was my third intern-ship, but my first one out of the Lansing area.”

Host or supportan intern!

cas.msu.edu/giving

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Students help protectchildren via internshipsAlumni provides

internship help

Jana O’Brien

Lauren Fifarek

madalyn Kaltz (BA ‘10 Journalism) attended the Grand rapids Showcase and is now working in Grand rapids at SeyferthPr.

“This event helped me find a job! I think the media tour is a great idea. I also went to career network-ing events and job fairs at MSU, but with so many people present, it can be overwhelming. The agency

tour was a personal way to go to the businesses instead of having them come to us. This helps us to get a better feel for what the company is truly like. And it showed us that there are jobs out there, a lot of good jobs, and they are hiring in Michigan.

Throughout much of my college career, I knew I had to be independent and have strong self-discipline and motivation. This is what college is about. But this event built a bridge between us as students and the real work force. This is necessary for our first job, to build networking and to use the brand “Michigan State University” with pride to make us stand out in a stack of resumes.

Thank you and the team at CAS for the opportuni-ties and experiences that made me feel that personal connection and personal attention that large univer-sities often lack. Having people care if you end up successful is definitely a great feeling.”


career boosts

By: Nicole Bays

On April 16, the college hosted a showcase and networking event for Grand Rapids professionals and alumni to highlight careers in West Michigan for graduating MSU students.

Huntington Bank provided the MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences with a $10,000 donation to organize the event and support the college’s Career Services.

MSU students toured downtown Grand Rapids businesses and organizations to learn about possible career opportunities in West Michi-gan. After the tour, area professionals and MSU alumni joined the students at Tavern on the Square for a networking session.

The event was free to students, MSU alumni and local professionals, thanks to the support of Huntington Bank.

“With Huntington Bank’s close relationship with the MSU [College of Communication Arts & Sciences], we thought it would be a great opportu-nity to reach out to this year’s graduat-ing class and give them an opportunity to experience downtown Grand Rapids and career and lifestyle options avail-

able,” said Michael Lindley (BA ‘76 Advertising), senior vice presi-dent of marketing for Huntington Bank. “We hope to present Grand Rapids as a viable option for graduating seniors to consider for their future career plans. We are also excited about the opportunity for them to network with area alumni who can help them get connected in the community.”

Participating companies in the showcase included Huntington Bank, Bevelwise, Hanon McKendry, Lambert, Edwards & Associates, Meijer, SeyferthPR and Spectrum Health.

Grand Rapids businesses open doors to students...

Participants at the Grand Rapids Showcase in April 2010.

We hope to present Grand Rapids as a viable option for gradu-ating seniors to consider

for their future career plans. We are also excited about the

opportunity for them to network with area alumni who can help them get

connected in the community.”

— Michael Lindleysenior vice president of

marketing for Huntington Bank

“

Students help protect

...leading to careersuccess stories!

Growing concerns about breast cancer lead many people turn to breast cancer organizations for help with the latest information, including risk factors and treatment options.

MSU faculty, as part of a Breast Cancer and the Environment grant, are working with advocates at breast cancer organizations to help translate breast cancer research into information that families can use to reduce breast cancer risk, particularly among young girls.

This communication is vital to connect the basic science with the advo-cates, who influence the research agenda and help disseminate findings, say the faculty involved in the project.

Charles Atkin, chair of the Department of Communication, along with Sandi Smith, director of the Health and risk Communication Center, are lead-ing this project, which continues a longtime research project on breast cancer communication funded by the NIEHS and NCI.

“once people are diagnosed with cancer, they become information seek-ers looking for treatment and research that might help them,” Atkin said. For people not yet touched by breast cancer, organizations must be more proac-tive in reaching out to a broad audience.

“Advocates at breast cancer organizations are trying every day to increase public awareness about breast cancer efforts, especially prevention advice

for mothers and daughters. So it’s critical that they have the latest research translated at their fingertips to share with people who seek this information.”

Atkin and Smith, along with Associate Professor Kami Silk, translate hard science research – which can take decades to produce meaningful data – into health communication messages for testing with breast cancer advocates.

Atkin says the messaging will include advertising and website messages, and the research team will test messages of varying complexity with different audiences. For example, Atkin said, exposure to the chemical perfluorooc-tanoic acid (PFoA) can increase the risk of certain types of cancers in mice. This man-made chemical is found in our environment, but also many different products. The researchers want to study whether people can understand multiple ways PFoA can be reduced, and they will create multiple ads to test this example of hard science research.

recent focus groups conducted with mothers and their young daughters this summer by Kami Silk and her research team are looking at the PFoA messages as well as others that are related to breast cancer and the environ-ment research.

“The focus groups had valuable feedback for us regarding messages. We are trying to find ways to create messages for parents that are engaging and useful as the manage the health of their families.”

By: Kirsten Khire

What if entire schools and the community committed to getting fit? That’s the healthy idea for students at schools who have received Project FIT kits, designed and packaged by faculty and students from Michigan State University.

MSU is partnering with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Grand Rapids Public Schools to lead a $1 million health initiative led by the MSU College of Human Medicine to promote physical activity and healthy eating.

Project FIT, funded by Blue Cross Blue Shield, is focusing on four el-ementary schools and surrounding neighborhoods in Grand Rapids. The program, working with community organizations, seeks to increase ac-cess to safe and affordable physical activities, improve the affordability and availability of nutritious food, and increase knowledge, attitudes and be-haviors associated with healthy living, in collaboration with school staff and parents.

Associate Professor Hye-Jin Paek is leading the branding, social marketing, and promotion of the project. Paek has

partnered with colleagues throughout the Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing including Keith Adler, Henry Brimmer, David Regan, and graduate student Karina Garcia-Ruano to take a more integrative ap-proach to marketing this project. The team’s goal is to raise awareness of the initiative among appropriate audiences through educational materials, adver-tisements and promotional items – including Spanish-language materials.

“The creative part of this project is a vital complement to the research,” Paek said. “The packaging and brand-ing of the Project FIT makes it stand out. It’s a comprehensive health inter-vention project that employs the cre-ativity of advertising and marketing.”


health

social media project is potential life-saver

Breast cancer research to help advocates

According to Donate Life Amer-ica, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase education about organ and tissue donation, more than 100,000 Americans currently need life-saving organ transplants. The organization said an average of 18 people die each day from the lack of available organs for transplant.

In a new project funded through a $340,000 grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration’s Division of Trans-plantation, MSU researchers are studying ways in which social me-dia – in particular Facebook – can increase the numbers of people who register as organ and tissue donors. “There is a great need in the state of Michigan to increase the number of citizens who enroll on the state organ donor registry,” said Sandi Smith, director of MSU’s Health and Risk Communication Center and director of the project.

“We’re hopeful that we can help increase the number of young adults registering on the Web by as much as 15 percent.”

Getting creative to helpGrand Rapids get FIT


By: Elizabeth Quilliam

Michigan State University’s Children’s Central research Collaborative unit in the Department of Advertising, Public relations, and retailing hosted the inaugural “Consumer Culture and the Ethical Treatment of Children: Theory, research and Fair Practice” confer-ence in November. Children’s Central has been working with the Michigan Children’s Trust Fund (CTF), the state’s child abuse prevention agency, on a variety of initiatives including this conference.

Two plenary session speakers, two lun-cheon speakers, and 28 conference breakout sessions were included in the program that attracted scholars from six countries and 150 practitioners from 81 of the 83 counties in Michigan. The Academy was well represented in competitive paper and special topic ses-sions, and three current and former Journal of Advertising editors participated – russ Laczniak, Marla royne and Les Carlson.

royne (University of Memphis) and Carlson (University of Nebraska – Lincoln) co-chaired the conference, along with Nora rifon, Brad Greenberg and Elizabeth Taylor Quilliam, all of MSU.

researchers presented papers on a variety of topics, including television ads and violence, child development and media literacy and food advertising and branding.

Save the date for Consumer Culture Con-ference Sept. 14-16, 2012. More information is online at www.childrenscentral.msu.edu.

By: Kirsten Khire

With nationwide and White House con-cern over childhood obesity and a need for healthier lifestyles, researchers at MSU are studying food marketing and how it shapes children’s dietary behaviors.

MSU Professor Nora rifon says food marketers have increasingly targeted children with web-based approaches specifically to promote their branded food products. “Free online games, also known as advergames, are everywhere, and food products are everywhere in the games,” she says. “often, the food products in these games are not nutritiondense products.”

rifon and colleagues Mira Lee, Elizabeth Quilliam, richard Cole, Hye-Jin Paek and Lorraine Weatherspoon recently received a $418,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to identify the role of food advergames in determining children’s dietary behaviors and health status. “It’s important to study whether these games are having effects on children and their eating habits,” said rifon.

The research team aims to identify how pervasive food advergame play is among a wide variety of children. Then the team will study how food advergames attract children to their brands. Combined with information about children’s health, the research team hopes to identify factors that can contribute to improved childhood dietary behavior.

Faculty study food gameswith NIH grant

By: Kirsten Khire

Faculty members have received a $284,000 grant from the robert Wood Johnson Foundation (rWJF) to explore how digitally-delivered games can improve health.

Wei Peng, assistant professor, is working with Brian Winn, associate professor, in the Department of Telecommunication, Informa-tion Studies & Media on the project to help strengthen the evidence related to the devel-opment and use of digitally-delivered games for positive health outcomes.

Their project investigates effects of the Mount olympus game, a 3D fantasy role-playing game that requires players to move their upper and lower body in order to control their character’s movements throughout the game. Inactive college students participate in the study, which randomly assigns them to different versions of the Mount olympus game. The study examines the extent to which each version of the game meets individuals’ needs for competence, autonomy and social relatedness and how meeting these needs may motivate. More engagement is expected to lead to more physical activity in daily life, and therefore, to better health outcomes.

“our Mount olympus game will be designed with a strong theoretical foundation and play testing. We expect that the game can engage the players in a fun way and the exercise can become part of their routines,” said Peng.

Games for health focus of grant

Help us make others healthy!

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artans WiLL

Consumer Culture and the Ethical treatment of Children

Assistant Professor Elizabeth Quilliam is studying online games that incorporate named food prod-ucts. Quilliam’s research is supported by the Michigan Agricul-tural Experiment Station. Photo by Kurt Stepnitz/MSU

By: Kristen Parker

For the first time, crop breeders and agricultural specialists in East Africa will have regionally specific climate data to research and manage crops in an effort to improve food production, according to Michigan State University researchers.

Using a $430,000 Rockefeller Foundation grant, researchers will study the impact of climate change on the

drought-stricken area, including Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, said lead researcher Jennifer Olson, associate professor in the College of Communication Arts & Sciences.

“This part of Africa is getting over the worst drought it has had in many years,” said Olson, who is working with geographers, agronomists, sociologists and climatologists at MSU and in East Africa. “Climate change is leading to warmer temperatures and heightened water stress for plants, as well as less reliable rain.”

With assistance from an MSU supercomputer and the Michi-gan Agricultural Experiment Station, the research team will link a customized regional climate model with crop and water models. This will enable agriculture specialists to determine the impact of climate change on different crop varieties. As a result, they will develop crop varieties that better withstand climate change.

“Most of our research has focused on the causes and conse-quences of climate change,” said Nathan Moore, assistant profes-sor in the Department of Geography and co-investigator on the project. “This grant will apply those results in a new way by asking African specialists what their information needs are and how they want us to help.

“The project also will allow us to train African researchers how to analyze crop-climate data so they can test different possibilities themselves.”


By: Rebecca Pagels

The College of Communication Arts & Sciences and the School of Journalism are pleased to award the first Baalu Girma Expendable Schol-arship.

This scholarship was established in honor of Baalu Girma (MA ‘63 Po-litical Science and Journalism). After graduation, Girma returned to his na-tive Ethiopia where he made signifi-cant contributions to the profession as a news correspondent, mentor and editor-in-chief of several of the na-tion’s prominent newspapers. He also was a fiction writer and authored several famous novels. He was

forward thinking and uncompromis-ing in his writing or reporting. Girma was abducted in 1984 by the military government and was later killed.

“Our family is very pleased to make this scholarship available in honor of Baalu Girma,” says daughter Zelalem Girma. “To the family, this scholarship represents his commit-ment to making a difference in the lives of others. It is our hope that his story and professional life will inspire others to achieve their best and give back to society as well.”

The first recipient of this scholar-ship is journalism master’s student Yue Xu, originally from China.

Scholarship honors Ethiopian journalist

Gift aids students studying ICT

for developmentEffecting climate change

Support our global efforts, programs and students!cas.msu.edu/giving

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Baalu Girma

By: Cara Boeff

Drs. Jake and Max-ine Ferris will provide students with an international experi-ence while they bring technology to remote corners of the world.

The couple made a gift toward the Information & Communication Technology for Development Corps, a collaboration of the College of Communi-cation Arts & Sciences, the College of Engineering and the Honors College that includes a specializa-tion and study abroad program. Thanks to their donation, student recipients will receive a stipend for the costly travel expenses of participating in this hands-on study abroad experience.

“We accomplished exactly what we hoped to achieve. We made a gift reflecting our be-lief that international experiences broaden students’ perspec-tives and help them become better citizens of the world,” said Dr. Maxine Ferris (PhD ’62 Rhetoric and Public Address).


international

MSU students and faculty in Tanzania, summer 2010.

By: Lane Blackmer

Every six months for the past two years, a study abroad group known as

the Information and Communica-tion Technology for Development (ICT4D) has been going to Tan-zania, teaching locals how to do something Americans do every day — use computers in the classroom.

The ICT4D program began in 2008 as a collaboration among MSU’s colleges of Communication Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Honors. The idea of the trip to Tanzania was to develop easy-to-use computer programs, bring them to the country and set up comput-ers, as well as the programs, for the teachers and students’ use.

Eric Tarkleson, an electrical en-gineering graduate student who has attended every study abroad trip to Tanzania, said that an entire school typically gets less money than American schools get per student. This budget problem is hopelessly inhibiting for the students’ educa-tion in Tanzania.

Since books can be outdated rather quickly, computers provide more up-to-date information. MSU students go to Tanzania every six months to install new computers, update computer systems and to train the school’s faculty and stu-dents.

Students and faculty have in-

stalled computer systems in three schools since 2008, one of which run by solar power. Before traveling abroad, the students also devel-oped computer programs, includ-ing games to assist in teaching the Tanzanian students.

Computer science senior Chris Dasbach, along with student Dan Shillair, created a game called Tanzania Trader for students to test out before heading to Africa.

The game is set in Tanzania, and the player is supposed to travel and answer questions from the Tan-zanian school curriculum to help the video game character with its quests.

“Along the way the player must answer questions in order to suc-ceed in the game,” said Dasbach. “For instance, a player’s vehicle may break down and, if they an-swers question correctly, it will be much cheaper to fix.”

After arriving in Tanzania, MSU

students learn the language, Swa-hili, and learn about and experi-ence the culture. Two weeks later, the students went to the schools to update computers, and train and test the new games. Media arts and technology senior James Przytulski was one of the students who helped train Tanzanian teachers and stu-dents.

“The Tanzanian students were so excited to see the games and play the games,” Przytulski said. “They’d huddle around the room as we were working on the comput-ers.”

Przytulski said the trip not only made him apply the knowledge of his field, but he acquired a valuable cultural experience.

“I think employers want to see students go on trips that relate to their area of study,” Przytulski said. “Employers want to see students go to developing countries and see how technology is used.”

Top: Primary school in Tanzania. Above, (left to right): MSU students install solar panels on the roof of the school; MSU student sets up computers; computers ready in the classroom; schoolchildren in Tanzania. Photos courtesy of Andy Bruinsma, Bret Charboneau and Eric Tarkleson


technology and economy

Communication technology is

increasingly helping people find

solutions to health, economic,

employment, relationship and

community issues. It’s also an

area of expertise in the college.

msu researchers are getting youth in rural areas involved in communication technology to improve their lives and the vitality of their hometowns.

Left: Rick Lesley was able to have a remote internship to build his technology skills through the Community Ties program.

Right: Fairview, Michigan in Oscoda County where Community Ties works with the local high school to teach technology and web skills to students.

Inset: High school student and Oscoda County Community Organizer Charlie Bouverette.

By: Kirsten Khire

In a tough economy and living in a rural area with limited high-tech businesses, MSU student rick Les-ley was looking for a way to achieve his dream — hands-on experience in the field of video games. But Les-ley also wanted to stay in Michigan

and in his community. Last year, a program called Community

Ties reached out to Lesley and asked about his career goals. Community Ties is an MSU research project that aims to connect Michigan youth with internships and businesses so that students improve their opportunities and com-munities.

Community Ties connected Lesley with a company in ohio called Flash Game License that was willing to offer a remote internship for the summer.

“I actually telecommuted and it was very easy to do no matter where I was,” Lesley said.

He was able to work for them from home in Traverse City and at MSU during the school year.

Today, Lesley has graduated in telecom-munication, information studies and media, specializing in his dream – game design and development.

Many rural communities across the United States are experiencing a flight of their youth, in part due to young people seeking employ-ment and opportunity.

Two projects have addressed the issue in an innovative way. Through a nearly $400,000 grant from the Kellogg Foundation and another $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, MSU researchers are getting youth in rural areas involved in communication technology to improve their lives and the vitality of their hometowns.

“We found that some of the business owners in rural areas had no online business presence at all. It was hard for them to move forward in the information economy and very

hard to post internships online. We wanted to expose high school students to the possibili-ties of entrepreneurship and help them to lead their communities into the online world,” said Professor robert Larose, who is leading both projects.

Larose and his research team are working with youth in four communities in rural Michi-gan: including Marquette, Grand Traverse, otsego and oscoda counties.

“We have community organizers from high schools in each county. The organizers also work with local businesses to help them estab-lish an online presence and post opportunities for students to get involved.”

“The community organizers are making a difference, and the businesses are finding benefits in being able to interact with each other online,” Larose says.

“They share resources, which can benefit sectors like tourism, for example. At the same time, it shows the youth they can be successful in their own communities. It’s a win-win.”

Partner with the college on research to make a difference for

your organization!

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By: Kirsten Khire

MSU received almost $900,000 from a federal grant to expand almost 90 existing library computer centers and establish new centers to provide access for people in 15 underserved counties.

“This project is a tremendous opportunity to help our state significantly build its technology infrastructure, which is key to the future,” said Kurt DeMaagd, an assis-tant professor of telecommunication, information studies and media who is leading the project. “MSU students will gain valuable hands-on experience in helping to set up these crucial computing systems while, at the same time, boosting these Michigan communities socially and eco-nomically.”

The project is adding approximately 500 new worksta-tions at public computer centers throughout the state and will serve nearly 13,000 additional users per week.

Working with MSU on the project are the Michigan De-partment of Information Technology, Library of Michigan, other state and local government agencies and regional broadband providers.

“Michigan State University is proud to be leading this important outreach project,” said MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon. “This will assist Michigan in extending the benefits of its technology infrastructure. More impor-tantly it will serve as an economic engine by providing people in underserved areas personal connectivity, net-working and myriad educational and economic opportuni-ties.”

The sites were selected by targeting vulnerable popu-lation areas focusing on those libraries with the greatest need for additional computing capacity.

The expanded and new public computer centers will serve 15 counties that currently have limited broadband access and high unemployment rates: Chippewa, Clare,

Gladwin, Gogebic, Grand Traverse, Huron, Leelanau, Marquette, Menominee, Oakland, Oscoda, Otsego, Sanilac, Tuscola and Van Buren.

The grant, admin-istered by the U.S. Department of Com-merce National Tele-communications and Information Administra-tion, is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.


Students’ work boosts nation’s most digitally-advanced countyBy: Lane Blackmer

By creating a program to keep the nation’s most digitally advanced county at the top, a simple class project turned into a job for one student and a resume-builder for all four students involved.

In 2009, Oakland County, which is home to Detroit metro-politan cities like Bloomfield Hills, Farmington Hills and Royal Oak, was named the most digitally advanced county in the nation by the Center for Digital Government and the National Association of Counties.

Students in Constantinos Coursaris’ information technology class work for real-life clients; Oakland County has been one of those clients for the past five years.

Four students enrolled in ITM 444 for Spring 2010 — Phil Janis, Jonathan Brier, Billy Halbower and Scott Hardy — worked with the county this year. Oakland County gave the four stu-dents the job of creating a web-based crowd sourcing project. Crowd sourcing is allowing the public to give input on how to make a business better or, in this case, a county.

The students’ website, which links from the Oakland County website, works like a suggestion drop box. However, things are a little more complicated; as a suggestion is posted on the site, it becomes viewable for others. Any other person on the site can vote on the importance of the suggestion. This will give officials a better idea what the people of the county are thinking, which in turn helps with the decision making process.

So how does this help Oakland County in continuing to be the most digitally advanced county in the nation?

“The students have been providing insight and helping us innovate in regard to our website,” said Oakland County CIO Phil Bertolini. “Their assistance directly benefits the citizens of our county.”

In addition, Brier accepted a job to work full time for Oak-land County until the website is launched.

“The MSU students have a fresh set of eyes and a fresh perspective on what should be offered by government for its citizenry,” said Bertolini. “We’ve been able to provide new ser-vices [due to the students’ work] to our citizens that otherwise we would have had to procure elsewhere.”

IT students revamp database for police to catch criminalsBy: Lane Blackmer

In 2009, MSU students helped to revamp a database that helps Michigan State Police catch criminals. Three telecommuni-cation students who graduated in 2009 — John Wescott, Brian Cornille and Marcus Poteete — helped add more photos to a tattoo-matching database as well as come up with critiques and solutions to make the system more effective.

“We made recommendations along the way and had them make small adjustments to the program they were using,” said Wescott, who said the work was a great addition to his resume. “And we set up a framework for new groups to latch onto if the MSP decided to work with the college again.”

“This project provided a lot of hands on type of work that some of the companies I’ve talked to like to see,” Wescott said.

Federal grant expandsbroadband statewide

Counties receiving expanded technology with help from MSU

tion,” says Kobza. “As a leading research university, MSU brings the knowledge and expertise that is needed to guide the advancement of Gov 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 and we are privileged to be selected as their partner in this global endeavor.”

Dean Pamela Whitten said the partnership is a won-derful opportunity for the college to expand its social media research and outreach.

“The partnership with INgage Networks will signifi-cantly enhance the great work we already do every day in the social media arena. From research to consulting to teaching, we have a partner committed to working with MSU to cross new frontiers in the online world, critical to economic and social development,” Whitten said.

To learn more about this partnership, visit www.inga-genetworks.com/michigan.

By: Kirsten Khire

On March 1, MSU announced a social media research and development collaboration with INgage Networks, an award-winning enterprise social software provider.

INgage Networks is working with the MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences to conduct social media research and produce solutions to challenges faced by government, corporate and nonprofit organizations.

The pairing boosts the college’s world-class social media research, courses and faculty expertise.

INgage Networks opened a joint research and devel-opment office with the College of Communication Arts & Sciences and created 24 high-tech jobs. Multiple projects are under way, leveraging online collaboration through-out the state to create jobs, retain workers and ‘green’ Michigan.

“This partnership combines the world-class strengths of our faculty and students in enterprise social media and other sciences, plus the global reach of Michigan State University, with the industry leading strengths of INgage Networks to define and build a 21st-century economy in Michigan and beyond,” said MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon.

INgage Networks CEO Kim Patrick Kobza said the partnership was natural because of the college’s leader-ship in studying social behaviors associated with social media applications.

“Online collaboration offers organizations a cost-effective, new approach to problem-solving and innova-


social mediaThe Michigan State University College of Communication Arts & Sciences, with INgage Networks, is proud to be named a finalist for the 2010 Innovation Michigan awards.

Faculty and students are research-

ing and building social media applica-

tions. Social media is a term for online

tools that allow people to share and

discuss content, transforming them

from content consumers into content

producers. One expanding area of so-

cial media is social network sites such

as MySpace or Facebook. These sites

enable people to connect with people

they know and to share online content,

create online communities and commu-

nicate with one another.

facebook and gradesAlthough people assume that the use of

Facebook and other similar sites can have a detrimental effect on a student’s grades, this idea has not been empirically demonstrated. In fact, work by professors in MSU’s Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies & Media has shown that there are social capital benefits associated with Facebook. Social capital represents a benefit people receive from their social relationships, such as emotional support or access to new information.

Now, with a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, MSU researchers are study-ing how social network sites such as Facebook are used to connect and collaborate with others. The researchers are focusing on a number of is-sues, including how college students’ use of such tools can enhance their academic experiences.

“This work will prove interesting because it contrasts the popular conception that social network sites detract time spent on academic pursuits,” said MSU Assistant Professor Nicole Ellison, the lead researcher on the project.

Evolution of networksSome social network sites have millions of

subscribers. Think YouTube, Facebook and Wiki-pedia, for example. The dynamics behind them are intriguing – especially for researchers.

MSU researchers from the colleges of Engineering and Communication Arts & Sciences

have received a $750,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how large-scale social networks such as YouTube and Wikipedia change over time.

Assistant Professor Cliff Lampe, who studies how users interact on social media, is part of this interdisciplinary research team with faculty in electrical engineering and computer science. He wants to understand how these large-scale networks evolve and what that means for site interactions.

“These networks are constantly changing as people enter and leave them,” Lampe says.

“A deeper understanding of the structure of social networks and how that structure evolves can be applied to a variety of social issues,” Lampe said. “For example, norms around health behavior and information seeking have been shown to be defined by social networks. So, knowing how to affect those networks could cre-ate better health outcomes.”

Campus connectionsof course, social media research is hap-

pening right in our own backyard – on the MSU campus.

The MSU Neighborhoods project (www.neighborhoods.msu.edu) involves rethinking the way student services are organized. As part of the effort, MSU residential and Hospitality Services is partnering with the MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences and INgage Networks to incorporate social media into student services in a big way.

The social media project, called Spar-tan Connect, will be a way for students to share important academic and social information in new ways.

Earlier this year, students in focus groups re-ported needing more ways to navigate university resources and more support for academic goals, said Assistant Professor Nicole Ellison. Yet, they “didn’t want another Facebook.”

This summer, thousands of students who know they are coming to MSU are becoming part of these online neighborhoods before they arrive on campus. When they arrive in September, they will continue to access the system for ongoing first-year experience support.

“Spartan Connect is student-centered – we are finding out what students need directly from them. And we are connecting with students more than ever,” said Vennie Gore of MSU residential and Hospitality Services.

The goals of Spartan Connect are to facilitate the transition to MSU and to improve the college experience while the students are on campus. A wonderful Spartan experience getting even better? That’s something every MSU alum can celebrate.

advancing michiganAcross the nation, University Extension op-

erations are at a crossroads and facing momen-tous changes in assessing the needs of people they serve. MSU Extension (MSUE) and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station (MAES) are no exception. MSUE and MAES are helping with mortgage, nutrition, credit and other ques-tions, while engaging in innovative leading-edge research to address the issues that matter most to Michigan residents. MSUE and MAES are always looking for opportunities to serve people in new ways.

Every few years, the two MSU units are required to conduct a federal needs assessment, which was normally conducted in the form of a survey.

This year, the process was different. MSUE and MAES gathered feedback from a variety of stakehold-ers using a specially designed social media platform with a crowdsourcing application in which ideas can be proposed, and the crowd can vote them up or down.

Assistant Professor Cliff Lampe leads the re-search team with corporate partner INgage Networks to strategize and deliver the social media platform.


Got a project for our Social Media research Lab?cas.msu.edu/socialmedia

sPartans WiLL

Spartan Connect is student-centered -

we are finding out what students need directly from

them. And we are connecting with students

more than ever.”

- Vennie Gore, MSU Residential

and Hospitality Services

“


By: Kirsten Khire

Since the launch of the video game specialization and the growth of the Games for Entertainment and Learn-ing Laboratory, MSU is increasingly designing and developing video games for businesses and nonprofits for both entertainment and serious purposes.

MSU has specific laboratories and experts focused on the study and development of video games. In the Games for Entertainment and Learning Laboratory (www.seriousgames.msu.edu), faculty and students design inno-vative prototypes and techniques. They complete games for entertainment and learning as well as to advance state-of-the-art knowledge about social and individual effects of digital games.

Funded research projects include the following:• a $284,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to explore how digitally-delivered exercise games such as Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revo-lution can improve health.• a $277,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study motiva-tion and serious gaming.• a funded project to create an edu-cational game for Tanzania, as part of the Information and Communication Technology for Development program.

video games

Game made to help

By: Tom Oswald

A Michigan State University professor and his students have developed a new video game that they hope will help children and others in war-torn coun-tries avoid death and injury from unexploded land mines and other explosives.

Known as UXOs, or unexploded ordnance, the United Nations Mine Action Service estimates they kill or injure as many as 20,000 people per year around the world.

“The goal of the project is to teach children in Cambodia and other at-risk areas to recognize and avoid unexploded ordnance,” said Corey Bohil, a visit-ing assistant professor in MSU’s Department of Telecommunication, Informa-tion Studies & Media who headed the project.

In the game, the player is tasked with navigating through a maze, trying to help his or her pet find food. The player is presented with a number of indica-tors – warning signs that an explosive device might be nearby – and attempts to avoid them. “If the player recognizes the indicators and avoids them, then the pet finds the food and everyone is happy,” Bohil said.

Bohil said part of the motivation for developing the game was that other methods of teaching children how to avoid UXOs were not effective.

“For years the local communities would try to teach people how to avoid landmines,” Bohil said. “They would have presentations made to community elders, publish booklets and nothing would work.”

The game was developed by students in a class Bohil taught called “Col-laborative Game Design.” A prototype of the game was presented at the Mean-ingful Play Conference at MSU more than a year ago where it received rave reviews.

Bohil and his students worked on the game with the Golden West Humani-tarian Foundation. Based in California, the foundation is the only nonprofit charity in the country devoted to the removal of unexploded ordnance. Fund-ing to continue with the project and improve the game was secured from the U.S. State Department’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.

Let the games

BEGIN: Many projects

under way

Fund a video game project or a student!

seriousgames.msu.edu

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children in war zones


Associate Professor Brian Winn and MSU students of the Spar-tasoft student group with the new Ford Fiesta.

By: Kirsten Khire

It’s Fiesta time for Michigan State University students!The students in Spartasoft, MSU’s student video game

developers’ organization, won a video game design chal-lenge against the University of Michigan’s WolverineSoft

to create an application tied to the U.S. launch of the new Ford Fiesta.

The winning video game design team showcased its game March 9-13 at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

This fall, Ford Motor Credit Company and Ford Motor Company asked the competing student groups this fall to create an online video game to help educate young buyers on using credit responsibly as part of Ford’s Winning At Money challenge.

In just three months, the MSU student team of Jordan Ajlouni, Adam Breece, Chris Cornish, Marie Lazar, Jason Maynard and Jon Moore created the game “DealerTown Ford.”

In “DealerTown Ford,” the player runs his or her own dealership. Through play, the player not only grows the dealership, but also learns the details of vehicle financing and the importance of maintaining good credit.

“Michigan State came out on top because their game presents a Sims- or Tycoon-like dealer simulation that ties closely to a real-world experience. Their graphic execu-tion was also top notch. Plus, it’s fun to play and holds a few surprises,” said Terri Denhof, program manager at Ford Credit who coordinated the competition with Charles Jaekel, sales support specialist at Ford Credit.

MSU wins Ford video game design competitionagainst UM Wolverines

Students help build ‘Man vs. Wild’ gameBy: Lane Blackmer

You may have seen “Man vs. Wild” on TV. Thanks to the help of MSU students, you’ll be able to be Bear Grylls, at least in a video game.

In January, Michigan-based video game design firm Scientifically Proven Entertainment partnered with Associate Professor Brian Winn and his class to tackle the beginning stages of creating a game based on the Discovery Channel series.

Winn said the students first built pro-totypes based on the survival challenges Grylls has to overcome in the actual TV show.

“In order to make a good game, it’s important to test ideas,” Winn said.

Scientifically Proven Entertainment used these prototypes to gain insights into how the game will look and behave.

Creating a prototype for a video game involves multiple people and roles

in art, design and programming.Telecommunication senior Adam

Rademacher said, “I think it’s really interesting the way games bring a lot of different disciplines together.”

CEO of Epicenter Studios and Scien-tifically Proven Entertainment Nathaniel “Than” McClure saw an opportunity in having students work for him and said utilizing the students was a win-win situation.

“For the students they get hands on with a developer and get a ‘real world’ credit on a shipped title,” he said. “We got an incredibly talented and enthusi-astic team that provided great ideas and assets. Our goal is to continue to build and foster the relationship so we get to groom and pick the top talent coming out of the top university in the state.”

Rademacher said this program provided him valuable experience and more drive to own his own game studio someday.

“It’s a glimpse of the real world,” Rademacher said. “You can sit in a classroom…but you don’t really get a feel for real-life video game design until you graduate into the real world. With this project, you’re kind of one foot in academia and one foot in a professional environment.”

The “Man Vs. Wild” game will hit the shelves in November, McClure said. An early version of the game was on display in June at the annual E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) industry event in Los Angeles.

children in war zones


By: Nicole Bays

The WKAr-produced music series, “BackStage Pass,” was recently selected for na-tional distribution by the National Educational Telecommunications As-sociation (NETA), and students in the college have had a large role in the production.

“Going national is huge. We have the opportunity to have our names attached to the production – it looks great on a resume,” said student Andrew Kozlowski, associate producer at “BackStage Pass.”

“BackStage Pass” is recorded in WKAr’s largest campus studio at MSU, showcasing some of Michigan’s best musicians in a variety of genres. The series features performances, followed by behind-the-scenes conversations with musicians talking passionately about their craft.

“BackStage Pass showcases a variety of Michigan musical art-ists. We promote the program through word of mouth, and it has really worked – we have five seasons worth of artists waiting to be on the program,” said Andrew Zeko, camera operator at “BackStage Pass” and telecommunication, information studies & media sophomore.

About 20 student interns and employees perform a multitude of duties for the program, including producing, lighting, staging, camera operating, audio, photography and post-production.

“We could not do this without the students,” said Timothy Zeko, “BackStage Pass’” executive producer. “They provide quality work and new perspectives.”

“I sent in my application and was asked to come in for an interview. Now, I am a student intern,” said Luke Schwarzweller, audio production assistant at “BackStage Pass” and media arts & technology junior. “I have learned so much and I hope to come back next season.”

For more information visit http://wkar.org/backstagepass/.

Behind the scenes of BackStage Pass

Faculty and students win local ADDYs

Top: Faculty Henry Brimmer, Hye-Jin Paek and Therese randall Brimmer.

Above: Faculty member Larry Steinberg.

Faculty and students of the college received ADDY Awards at the 2010 Mid-Michigan Creative Alliance com-petition in February.

Faculty winners include the following:

• Henry BrimmerGold ADDY Award for design of 2010 Toyota Land Cruiser calendarGold ADDY Award for design of Do-nate! poster Gold and Judges’ Choice ADDY Awards for design of FIT campaign

• Lawrence Steinberg Gold ADDY Award for copy write of Donate! poster

Student winners include:

• Matthew Bambach (media arts and technology major)

Gold and Best of Student Interactive

ADDY Awards for lead of animation of Pinball Wizard in Who’s Tommy

• Kathryn Hoffman (advertising/telecommunication major)

Silver ADDY Award for STAY [in Michigan] campaign

• Andrea Zagata (journalism major)Gold ADDY Award for Visual Thesau-rus ad campaign

“The award gala was pretty fun and it was cool to see all of the different exhibits,” said Zagata, Gold ADDY Award winner and journalism senior. “Advertising is such a different world from newspaper design and I’m really happy I chose to look at advertising while at MSU.”

Listen to an interview with the stu-dent award winners on youtube.com/msucommarts.

Student Brianna Gardner controls the camera for BackStage Pass.

Some of the brightest stars from Michigan’s University research Corridor (UrC) institu-tions are joining forces to make a feature film, the first pilot project of the Michigan Creative Film Alliance, a collaboration to help build and drive talent and resources toward the state’s fledgling film industry.

The film, “Appleville,’’ involves students and faculty from UrC partners Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University, who are each playing a role in taking the new film from idea to story to finished project, serving as writers, directors, actors and other creative talent as part of the 2010 Creative Film Alliance Summer Film In-stitute. Seven MSU students and half a dozen MSU faculty are among the team.

The program brings together Hollywood professionals with university faculty to create a learning environment for students from the three universities. The schools will leverage their combined expertise and resources in the film arts to create synergy and build talent that will invest their creative talents in Michigan.

“By combining the expertise in film of our universities, the Creative Film Alliance is creat-ing more opportunities for our students, many of whom already produce and direct while in college. This program will provide them with advanced film career training needed for Michi-gan’s growing film industry,” said Bob Albers, faculty specialist in the college.

Team members from the three universities gathered in early July for a production retreat, and began production in August. They will

begin post-production work in September and hope to begin preparing the film for submission to various film festivals later this fall. The proj-ect is being financed through the support of a Michigan Economic Development Corp. grant.

The college has a robust film and media arts initiative, which includes creative produc-tion, teaching, and community outreach. The college offers degree programs for film-related careers and two film-related specializations: fiction film production and documentary studies in partnership with the MSU College of Arts and Letters.

For more information, visit www.mi-cfa.com.

Put the Arts in Comm Arts!

cas.msu.edu/givingsP

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f i lm and art

Faculty and students win Michigan EmmysMichigan State University graduate Mollie Rehner never

thought she’d hear her name follow the phrase “and the Emmy goes to…,” but dreams became reality for her and recent MSU alum Anthony Siciliano on June 5.

Rehner and Siciliano received an Emmy in the category of Non-News Student Production for their work on Episode 34 of “Sideshow,” an MSU student TV comedy show.

“(We were on stage at the Emmys, and) a spotlight shined down on us and it was just a surreal feeling,” said Rehner, who graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

Siciliano, who also graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in media arts and technology, said he still has to remind himself that he really did win an Emmy.

“Every once and a while a smile will creep up on me and I will have to chuckle to myself because I am really happy, but somewhat still in disbelief,” Siciliano said.

Sideshow is one of five original productions of the MSU

Telecasters student group. It airs online as well as on RHA TV and LCC TV.

Rehner and Siciliano have both been working on “Side-show” as cast and, later, as producers for approximately four years.

Also, faculty member Troy Hale of the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies & Media was part of the “MSUToday Show” team recognized with three Michi-gan Emmy Awards on June 5 at the Emmy Awards Gala in Detroit.

The “MSUToday Show” team produces Michigan State University feature content for the Big Ten Network.

Hale was part of the MSU team receiving the following Emmys:• Best magazine program: “MSUToday #11” • Best news report-light feature: “Drumline” • Best documentary-cultural: “MSUToday Presents: A

Season of the Band”

3 universities, 1 creative film alliance

MSU faculty member Bob Albers talks to students about film.


In addition to receiving national kudos for raising awareness about con-temporary issues, the Michigan State University-produced documentary “Ar-abs, Jews and the News,” has screened at four film festivals from coast to coast.

The 30-minute documentary created by MSU faculty members Bob Albers and Geri Alumi Zeldes and students explores metro Detroit reaction to news coverage of the July 2006 war in Lebanon.

The film is a two-year project featur-ing interviews with MSU academics, students and reporters from The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Arab Ameri-can News, The Jewish News and other publications.

In January, “Arabs, Jews, and the News” won the Award of Merit: Con-temporary Issues/Awareness Raising from The Accolade Competition.

In February, MSU hosted a screen-ing of the film at the Islam and the Media conference on campus. The same month, it was selected for the Ameri-caFree.TV Virtual Movie Festival and received the award for Best Documen-tary.

In March, the film also was screened at the 15th Annual International Hol-lywood Family Film Festival, the documentary received an award from the Indie Fest Film, and two students researchers who worked on the project- Jennifer Orlando and Jessica Lipowski were featured by MSU for their under-graduate research.

In April, the film received the Broad-cast Education Association’s Award of Excellence in the faculty category of the Media Arts Festival and was selected for the Riverside International Film Festival.

It was also screened at the Manhat-tan Film Festival in July where it was recognized with the Film that Heals award.

The film was uplinked by the Na-tional Educational Telecommunications Association, which provides program-ming to 95 PBS stations nationwide plus the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

For more information visit www.arabsjewsnews.org.

Joe Walther, a professor in the departments of Communication and Telecommunication, Information Stud-ies, and Media, has received the Nation-al Communication Association (NCA) Charles H. Woolbert Research Award.

The award recognizes a journal ar-ticle or book chapter that has stood the test of time and has become a stimulus for new conceptualizations of com-munication phenomena for a decade or more after publication.

Walther received this award for the 1996 article “Computer-Mediated Communication: Impersonal, Interper-sonal and Hyperpersonal Interaction,” published in Communication Research, which has now been cited in other publications more than 1,500 times, the greatest number of any article in the field.

Notably, this is the first time in the National Communication Association’s 96-year history that a member has received two Woolbert awards. Walther received the award previously in 2002 for a 1992 publication.

Congratulations to faculty who re-ceived Michigan State University awards on Feb. 9 at the All University Awards Convocation.

At the convocation, the following awards, recognizing teaching, research and outreach efforts, were presented to faculty of the college.

Dean Pamela Whitten received the Distinguished Faculty Award in recogni-tion of outstanding contributions to the intellectual development of the univer-sity.

Associate Dean Maria Lapinski and Assistant Professor Cliff Lampe both received MSU Teacher-Scholar Awards.

Michael W. Casby, a professor in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, has been named a Fel-low of the American Speech-Language-

Hearing Association (ASHA). Fellowship of the association recog-

nizes professional or scientific achieve-ment and is given to members who have made outstanding contributions to the professions. The award is one of the highest honors that ASHA can bestow and is retained for life.

Casby’s teaching, administration, re-search and service career has spanned more than 30 years. He has published numerous articles on language develop-ment and disorders in a variety of major disciplinary journals. His work concern-ing relationships between cognition and language in children has contributed to important changes in practice and policy, especially for children with men-tal retardation.

Professor Ewen Todd is one of five Michigan State University researchers recently named Fellows by the Ameri-can Association for the Advancement of Science.

Todd of the Department of Adver-tising, Public Relations, and Retail-ing, earned the AAAS honor along with MSU neuroscience professor S. Marc Breedlove, psychology profes-sor Thomas H. Carr; biochemistry and molecular biology, professor Robert L. Last, and fisheries and wildlife professor Joan B. Rose.

Distinguished contributions over 40 years to interdisciplinary food safety research and administration involving food microbiology, disease surveil-lance, risk assessment social science and international collaboration are what brought Todd his AAAS Fellow designa-tion. An internationally known expert on foodborne disease and risk assess-ment, Todd is former head of MSU’s National Food Safety and Toxicology Center.

He has been involved with the reporting and surveillance of foodborne disease, developed methods to detect E. coli and salmonella, determined the impact of seafood toxins, and devel-oped risk assessments for pathogens in foods. His current projects include institutional food safety, contamina-tion in deli meats and leafy greens, and improvements to consumer recall com-munication.

faculty newsMSU documentary

earns honorsProfessor receives 2ndNCA Woolbert Award

Faculty receiveMSU awards

Professor namedFellow of ASHA

Professor namedAAAS Fellow


Faculty member winsNCA award

University Distinguished Professor Charles Atkin, chair of the Department of Communication, has been chosen as this year’s winner of the Gerald M. Phil-lips Award for Distinguished Applied Communication Scholarship. He will receive the award at the National Com-munication Association awards banquet in November.

Atkin has been on the faculty of the Department of Communication since 1971. He teaches and conducts research on mass communication campaigns, particularly in the health domain.

Based on sustained accomplish-ments in applied research on health campaigns, he received the 2006 De-cade of Behavior Award from a consor-tium of social science organizations.

Current grants focus on collegiate alcohol prevention campaign strategies and breast cancer communication. His latest book, “Public Communication Campaigns” (with Ron Rice) was select-ed as the NCA Health Communication 2006 outstanding book of the year.

Associate Dean Steve Lacy received the 2010 Paul J. Deutschmann Award for Excellence in Research at the 2010 Association for Education in Journal-ism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Denver Conference.

The award honors journalism schol-ars who have an outstanding record of achievement in journalism and mass communication research. It has become one of the highest honors that AEJMC can bestow on a member.

Lacy is associate dean for graduate studies and a professor in the Depart-ment of Communication and School of Journalism. He has written and co-written more than 90 refereed journal articles, over 50 refereed conference papers, 10 book chapters and four books. He has co-edited two other books, written numerous articles and is the former co-editor of the “Journal of Media Economics.”

He served as director of the Michi-gan State University School of Journal-ism from 1998 to 2003 and is a former president of the AEJMC.

Charles Salmon, Ellis N. Brandt Endowed Chair in Public Relations and former dean, was named a scholar of the distinguished 2010 Rockefeller Foundation Scholar in Residency Award program at the Bellagio Center in Lake Como, Italy. The exclusive and highly-selective program provides an arena for exploring new ideas and finding solutions to some of the most difficult global problems. Residency participants include scholars, scientists, artists, journalists, writers, non-governmental organization practitioners and policy-makers from around the world.

Salmon is currently editor of Com-munication Yearbook and a visiting faculty at the Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya, Israel. He is past dean of the college.

new people and positions

New faculty members:

soo-Eun Chang, assistant professor in the Department of Communicative Sci-ences and Disorders

Laura dilley, assistant professor in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders

ivan alex Games, assistant professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media

ian hewlett, manager in the Social Media research Laboratory

swarnavel Eswaran Pillai, instructor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media and the Department of English/Film Studies

rick Wash, assistant professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media and the School of Journalism

Valeta Wensloff, outreach specialist in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media

Leadership changes:

Lucinda davenport, director of the School of Journalism

steven Lacy, associate dean for graduate studies of the college

maria Lapinski, associate dean for research of the college

robert albers and Geri alumit Zeldes“Arabs, Jews and the News” documentary film, MSU 2009

howard BossenPA Books; “Luke Swank” video recording PCN 2009

Lucinda davenport and robert Larose“Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology,” 6th edition, Wadsworth Cengage Learning 2009

William donohue“Communicating and Connecting: Func-tions of Human Communication,” 3rd edition, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company 2008

John molloy“U.S. Constitutional Freedoms in the 21st Century,” Custom Publishing 2009

sandi smith“New Directions in Interpersonal Com-munication research,” Sage Publications Inc. 2009

Books and Works by faculty members

from 2009-2010

Nominate a professor for the Faculty Impact Award!

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Faculty membergets research honor

Endowed chairis Rockefeller scholar


of the hundreds of participants university-wide, the following students from the college received awards at the University Undergradu-ate research and Arts Forum in April:

• Kristina marks (Media Arts & Technology) and anthony siciliano (Media Arts & Technology - first place oral presentation award for The Greening of Flint

• stephanie sparks (TISM), nicholas Baker (Media Arts & Technology), Gary Cox (Media Arts & Technology), Jake fields (Communication), sean Bowman (Media Arts & Technol-ogy), alex Witte (TISM), and Patrick ronan (TISM) - first place oral pre-sentation award for Publicly Defended: Michigan’s Fight for Public Defender reform

• Greg hall (Communication) with MSU student allison repp - first place poster award for A Focus Group Study Involving Mothers to Develop Effective Messages for Breast Cancer risk reduction among Pre-Adolescent and Adolescent Girls

The annual University Undergraduate research and Arts Forum (UUrAF) provides MSU undergraduate students with an opportu-nity to showcase their scholarship and creative activity. Held each spring in the MSU Union, UUrAF brings together an intellectual com-munity of highly motivated students to share their work with faculty, peers and external audiences.

Approximately 535 students from 14 MSU colleges and 282 faculty mentors participated in the 2010 forum.

Three doctoral students, Jih-hsuan tammy Lin, han Ei Chew and hillary shul-man, won top oral and poster presentations at the second annual MSU Graduate Academic Conference in March.

Lin, who is studying media and information studies, won top oral presentation for her work on “Do Video Games Exert Stronger Effects on Aggression than Film? Media Modality and Identification on the Association of Violence and Aggression.” Lin said she had an interest in this topic and found that subjects who played

video games demonstrated a greater increase in aggressive affect, aggressive cognition and physiological arousal than subjects who simply watched a movie. She said this study has provided useful information on society and human behavior.

shulman, who is studying communica-tion, also won the top oral presentation for her presentation titled “Exploring Social Norms as a Group-Level Phenomenon: Do Political Social Norms Exist and Influence Participation on College Campuses?”

Chew, who is studying media and informa-tion studies, won the top poster presentation for “The Use of online Social Networking by rural Youth and its Effects on Community Involvement.” Chew said that his findings have contributed to a better understanding of online social networking.

“I am certainly elated to win the top poster presentation, and I think the win bears testimony to the strong training that the CAS professors are providing,” said Chew.

Faculty and students of the college were among those receiving awards at the MSU Senior Class Council’s outstanding Senior, Faculty and Staff Awards reception in March.

The awards given by the MSU Senior Class Council honored “those persons who exemplify achievement both in and out of the classroom.”

Faculty member Constantinos Coursaris was one of two MSU faculty members to re-ceive the outstanding Faculty and Staff Award.

“I’m proud of not what I have accomplished individually, but for what MSU as a whole has accomplished and my affiliation with MSU,” said Coursaris, assistant professor of the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies & Media and adjunct professor in the MSU Usability and Accessibility Center.

Currently, Coursaris is the faculty advisor of Associated Students for Career orientation in Telecommunications (ASCoT), the faculty lead of a Japan study abroad program in that focuses on “Technology and Culture: Commu-nication and Games” and is working on numer-ous research projects related to usability and advertising across mobile and social media.

Christine rohrkemper and michelle Lu (communication) were two of 20 MSU seniors to receive the outstanding Senior Award.

rohrkemper currently is the lead technical assistant of an interior design class, IDES 250.

Lu was a residential mentor in McDonel

Hall, an intercultural resource aide for the MSU residential communities, an undergraduate researcher conducting an independent project on the effects of mass media in the college and a member of the MSU Fencing Club.

For the second year in a row, Michigan State University has taken first place in the National Team Selling Competition at Indiana University. The four-member MSU student

team included communication seniors Lindsey archambo and anthony housley and MSU marketing students mela-

nie Pine and mike scavuzzo. The winning team received $2,000. Fifteen universities from across the United States participated in the national competition in october.

MSU launched a sales communication specialization in January 2009. Archambo, Housley and Pine are enrolled in the special-ization, which is a partnership between the Department of Communication and the Depart-ment of Marketing in the Eli Broad College of Business.

Advertising senior nick Lucido has been elected the Public relations Student Society of America (PrSSA) 2010-2011 National Commit-tee president.

“I’m so grateful to have been part of the advances the current national committee made during the past year, and this has prepared me to lead the society as national president,” said Lucido. “I’m confident the incoming national committee will be able to continue advancing the society while leaving their mark on the organization.”

Voting took place March 13 at the PrSSA 2010 National Assembly in Austin, Texas by a majority vote of delegates. This is the first time for an MSU student to serve as PrSSA president.

“The national president of PrSSA is the chief administrative officer of a 10,000-member society,” said Lucido. “My plans are to make sure that we’re continuing to expand member

undergraduate researchand arts award

Graduate students wintop presentations

senior class honorsfaculty and students

for 2nd year, students winnational sales competition

student namedPrssa president

By: Trenton Lively

As stage manager for the f irst Big Ten stage production of “Palmer Park,” junior Sarah DeBoer did more than just study to prepare for a career in production management.

DeBoer is majoring in media arts and technology with a special ization in f ict ion f i lm and a minor in theatre. Fall semester, she decided to take on the challenging job as stage manager for the theatre production because the op-portunity seemed to be a perfect match for her interests.

“Working on this production was a very interesting ex-perience because the play itself takes place very close to home,” said DeBoer. The story fol lows a group of people f ighting for integration in an upper middle-class neigh-borhood in Detroit called Palmer Park. The production was held at al l Big Ten campuses during the 2009-2010 academic year for the f irst t ime.

“I have learned that hands-on experience is the best education,” said DeBoer. “Classes wil l give you the ground rules, but there is noth-ing l ike working on set, dealing with various people, problems and any other surprises that may pop up during the production process.”

Some past product ions that DeBoer has been in-volved with include the repertory dance show “orche-sis,” where she worked as stage manager, and a stage product ion cal led “Snapshot,” where she worked as an assistant stage manager.

benefits, keeping on top of public relations industry trends like social media and making sure that our organization is giving our mem-bers the right tools and right information so that they can be successful in their careers.”

Two graduate students received presti-gious Michigan State University awards on Feb. 9 at the All University Awards Convoca-tion.

Graduate students hillary shulman and thomas isaacson received MSU Excellence-in-Teaching Citations. Shulman is a doctoral student pursuing a communication degree. Isaacson is pursuing a Ph.D. in media and information studies.

Since 1969, almost 40 graduate students in the college have received this distinguished honor.


students/programs

Student stage manages historic MSU production

Last fall, the college launched three new specializations:

• Fiction film production, which combines the study of production with film history and theory. Students learn aspects of fiction filmmaking including editing, sound design, directing, screenwriting and acting for the camera.

• Documentary studies, which introduces students to the history, theory, and production of documentary forms and modes of expression. The combined analysis/production model gives students an opportunity to develop multi-media skills that can directly translate into careers in journalism, film, radio, news and creative arts.

• Information and communication technology for development, a program that prepares students with the knowledge and skills necessary to understand and apply information and communication technology in developing economies to achieve both economic and social goals through theoretical foundations and real-world applications.

The college is finalizing an integrated media arts curriculum to cover students involved in creative degrees from the departments of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing, Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media and the School of Journalism.

The new curriculum, expected to be finalized in fall 2010, will combine all de-partmental creative activties into a college - wide curriculum. This transformation will allow opportunities for groundbreaking innovations for undergraduates pursu-ing degrees and specializations in advertising, design, film, journalism, media arts and technology and more. These students will learn the basics of media produc-tion and storytelling and also advanced work related to their discipline in video, design, web design, photography, graphic design, animation, video game design etc. In addition, the curriculum will bring together our creative producers in the college to develop collaborative projects.

Look for more on the integrated media arts curriculum and all programs at www.cas.msu.edu/programs.

Program updates

Encourage success.Be a mentor!

cas.msu.edu/alumni

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artans WiLL

Student Sarah DeBoer, right, stage man-aging Palmer Park last fall.

Graduate studentswin msu awards


MSU alum James H. Quello, former commissioner and acting chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, passed away on Jan. 24, 2010 at the age of 95 in Alexandria, Va.

The James H. and Mary B. Quello Cen-ter for Telecommunication Management and Law at Michigan State University was established in 1998 to honor the Quellos, both MSU alumni. They met while stu-dents on campus in the 1930s.

Quello, a former chairman of the FCC, retired in 1997 after serving on the commission for 23 years. He was a World War II veteran (lieutenant colo-nel and battalion commander in France and Germany), former VP and station manager of WJR Detroit as well as VP for that station’s parent company, Capital Cities Broadcasting. Quello is a past president of the Michigan Association of Broadcasters and recipient of its lifetime achievement award. In 1995, he was named to Broadcasting & Cable’s Hall of Fame and received the National As-sociation of Broadcasters Distinguished Service Award in 1994. Quello received awards and honorary degrees from Michigan State University, including the MSU Distinguished Alumni Award in 1998 and an honorary MSU doctor of humani-ties in 1977.

Pamela Whitten, dean of the College of Communication Arts & Sciences, said Quello left a tremendous legacy at MSU and worldwide.

“James Quello was a dear friend of MSU, and we will continue to honor his memory through the work at the Quello Center,” Whitten said. Quello received the college’s Outstanding Alumni Award in 1974.

Faculty member Steven Wildman has been the James H. Quello Endowed Chair of Telecommunication Studies and direc-tor of the James H. and Mary B. Quello Center for Telecommunication Manage-ment & Law at MSU since 1999.

“As a longtime student of commu-nication industries and policies, it has been the high point of my career to work at this center devoted to carrying on the Quello legacy of service through contributions to communications policy,” Wildman said. “Jim was a true champion of our work at the center and of MSU. He was also a wonderful human being. For those who knew him personally, he will best be remembered for his personal warmth and generosity of spirit.”

The Quello Center was founded to assist both the public and private sectors through cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research on telecommunication manage-ment and policy while serving as a cata-lyst for the development and adoption of balanced telecommunication policy solutions. The center continues contrib-uting to the private sector’s alignment with the economic and political realities of communication industries.

For more information about the Quello Center and to make a gift in James Quello’s honor, please visit www.quello.msu.edu.

FIRST: (left to right): Quello Center Director Steven Wildman, Quello Advisory Board mem-ber and C-SPAN co-founder John Evans, Jim Quello, and former Dean James Spaniolo.

SECOND: Jim Quello and his wife Mary.

THIRD: Jim Quello, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), and NAB president Eddie Fritz.

FOURTH: The Quello Center Advisory Board in 2002.

A tribute to James Quello, 1914-2010

Jim Quello and Quello Center Advisory Board member and former FCC chairman Richard Wiley.


legacies

In Loving Memory

Dr. Jill Elfenbein

Born June 13, 1951, Dr. Jill Elfenbein passed away on May 6, 2010.

Elfenbein was an associate professor in the Department of Communicative Sci-ences and Disorders for 17 years, specializ-ing in audiology. In 2006, she was named a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). The award is one of the highest honors that ASHA can bestow. She received the MSU Teacher-Scholar Award in 2000.

She was a graduate of the University of Iowa, where she earned her master’s and doctorate degrees in speech pathology and audiology.

In addition to serving as professor, Elfenbein was a champion of many projects and groups on the MSU campus. She was the faculty advisor for the undergraduate student organizations USAC and, most re-cently, NSSLHA. She encouraged students to fund-raise, volunteer and participate in community projects such as the MSU Teddy Bear Picnic. She was a key coordina-tor along with faculty from Social Work and Deaf Education of the American Sign Language (ASL) Living/Learning Op-tion program in Snyder-Phillips Hall that

launched in fall 2008.Elfenbein was involved in a long-term

community health project, studying inher-ited forms of deafness with MSU faculty. Together the faculty formed the Com-munity-based program Cooperative for Studies Across Generations. The program builds on a 10-year relationship between researchers and community members in a cluster of rural communities in mid-Mich-igan. The faculty work from this long-term project has been published in the “Ameri-can Journal of Human Genetics.”

Elfenbein was head of the College Ad-visory Council from 2008-2009. She was active in many professional and academic organizations, including the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the American Academy of Audiology, the Michigan Speech-Language-Hearing Asso-ciation, the Michigan Association for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Hands & Voices.

Share your memories of Dr. Elfenbein. You can post tributes on the college’s Facebook wall at www.facebook.com/msucommarts. We also welcome your notes and photos which can be sent to [email protected].

Top to bottom: Dr. Elfenbein with col-leagues on the CoSAGE project; Dr. Elfenbein performing audiology tests; Dr. Elfenbein teaching sign language at MSU Grandparents University.

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celebration the

Nominate an alum or friend for a 2011 CAS Alumni Award.Deadline October 1, 2010

Nominate a faculty member for the 2011 Faculty Impact Award.

Deadline January 28, 2011Nomination forms are available online at:

www.cas.msu.edu/alumni

Save these 2010-2011 dates and go online to www.cas.msu.edu for more info

september 8 – Earn, Learn & intern event

october 1 – deadline for College alumni award nominations

october 14 – msu Grand awards

october 15 – neal shine Lecture

october 15 – msu homecoming Parade (6 pm)

october 15 – College homecoming Bash

october 16 – msu Green and White Brunch

october 22-23 – Journalism Centennial Celebration

January 28, 2011 – deadline for faculty impact award nominations

february 18, 2011 – speed networking

may 7, 2011 – the Celebration: Cas alumni awards

There’s even more in our online edition: www.cas.msu.edu/communicator

CommunicatorCollege of Communication Arts & SciencesMichigan State University287 Communication Arts & Sciences BuildingEast Lansing, MI 48824

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