AU REPORTJuly 31, 2000
Headlines Aug. 14 to be last summer graduation Leischuck to get honorary degree AU to seek new Business dean Birdsong Awards to be renamed

Final summer graduation will mark end of quarters

In its final summer graduation and the final commencement under the quarter system, Auburn University will award 1,316 academic degrees on Aug. 14.

The 2 p.m. commencement in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum will mark the end of 58 years of academic terms based on the quarter system.

When classes resume on Aug. 22, Auburn will base its academic terms on semesters. As part of the shift, AU is scheduled to follow the practice of other institutions on the semester system and hold graduation only at the end of the fall and spring terms. Under the quarter system, Auburn held commencement four times a year.

Auburn was one of many institutions to adopt the quarter system in the early 1940s, and is one of the last major universities to switch back to semesters. Quarters were quickly implemented by colleges in the early days of World War II to enable male students to leave for military service at the end of a term instead of interrupting their studies in mid-term.

During the past two decades, however, there has been a rush of institutions to an early semester system, in which the fall term starts in August instead of September and ends before Christmas. As the final Southeastern Conference member to switch back, Auburn began the process in 1997.

Gerald Leischuck to receive honorary degree

Gerald S. Leischuck, who earned a doctoral degree from Auburn University in 1964 and remained to serve as an analyst, planning director, administrator and adviser to several AU presidents over the next 33 years, will receive a second doctorate from AU on Aug. 14 -- an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Leischuck, who is executive assistant to the president emeritus and executive secretary to the Board of Trustees emeritus, will receive the honorary degree at AU's 2 p.m. commencement in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

The degree, approved by the Board of Trustees in January, recognizes the Colorado native's lifetime as an educator, including contributions to AU over more than three decades in the administrations of Presidents Ralph Draughon, Harry Philpott, Hanly Funderburk, Wilford Bailey, James Martin and William Muse, and for other service to education, including a decade as a member of the Auburn City Board of Education.

In addition to assisting the university president and trustees through much of the 1990s, Leischuck was executive director of the Office of Planning and Analysis at Auburn from 1966-89.

The AU administrator also served as a member of the Auburn City Board of Education from 1977-87 and as its president from 1980-85.

As secretary to the AU Board of Trustees from 1989 until his retirement in 1997, Leischuck also served as executive assistant to President William Muse from 1992-97. He returned to the university as consultant to the Board of Trustees in August 1998, assisting the board in various capacities, including the updating of its bylaws.

Leischuck has been active in professional and community activities throughout his career, including service as international president of Phi Delta Kappa education honorary and leadership positions with Kiwanis and the AU Federal Credit Union.

The honorary doctorate is presented in recognition of Leischuck's extended service to Auburn as administrator and confidant to Auburn presidents and the Board of Trustees, as well as his leadership in the profession, involvement in civic affairs and continuing support for education.

A former mathematics teacher and principal in Colorado and California schools, Leischuck entered the doctoral program in Auburn's College of Education in 1962 with bachelor's and master's degrees from Colorado State College, now the University of Northern Colorado. After earning a doctorate in educational leadership in 1964, he remained at AU and in 1966 became executive director of Planning and Analysis.

While in graduate school at Auburn, Leischuck met his future wife, Emily Reaves. During the early years of the Muse administration, they served together in the AU President's Office, where she was assistant to the president and he was executive assistant. Desiring to provide support for future generations of students, the couple established the Leischuck/Reaves Scholarship at AU and similar endowments at Birmingham Southern College and Huntingdon College.

Supporting transition
Rep. Mike Hubbard of Auburn, right, accepts an award from Philip Browning, co-director of the Auburn Transition Leadership Institute, in recognition of the legislator's support for persons with disabilities.

State funds boost institute's work in transitions

An AU College of Education institute to help young people with disabilities successfully enter the workforce and community life will receive a boost from a $150,000 state allocation, says the institute's co-director.

Philip Browning, co-director of the Auburn Transition Leadership Institute, says Rep. Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, was influential in convincing the Alabama Legislature to approve the allocation in the 2000-01 education budget, which goes into effect Oct. 1.

Hubbard received special recognition last week for his support of programs for the disabled during the Empowerment Conference for Individuals with Disabilities at AU's Dixon Conference Center.

"Rep. Hubbard has been very supportive of our efforts to help people with disabilities make a successful transition from school to work and community life," said Browning, who is also head of the Department of Rehabilitation and Special Education in the College of Education. "Through him, we will be able to do more and reach more people than would otherwise have been possible."

The Auburn Transition Leadership Institute addresses issues, problems and practices regarding high school students with disabilities. "The purpose of transition is to prepare these students to assume responsible work and community roles as young adults," said Karen Rabren, co-director of the institute.

"The institute's mission is to help the students successfully cross the 'bridge' from school to post-school life," she said. "This mission is enhanced through the institute's programs of instruction, research and outreach."

College of Education Dean Richard Kunkel said the state support will have an impact in communities across Alabama. "As a result of Rep. Hubbard's leadership, this nationally recognized institute will be able to step up its efforts," Kunkel said.

"With the addition of this state support, the Transition Leadership Institute will be able to more fully help young people with disabilities make the transition to active and valued participants in their workplaces and communities," he added.

Over the past 10 years, faculty from AU's Department of Rehabilitation and Special Education, where the institute is housed, have been in partnership with many teachers and administrators in Alabama's public schools, Special Education Services, State Department of Education, and the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services.

Browning said the state funding will supplement more than $5 million in federal grants, which have enabled the faculty in Rehabilitation and Special Education to expand their service to the state. Most recently, AU was awarded a four-year transition grant for $800,000 from the U.S. Department of Education.

The latest federal grant is to support the Transition Leadership Institute in developing and implementing a statewide high school curriculum for high school students with moderate and severe disabilities, said Rabren. That program will better prepare these lower functioning students for a more successful transition from school to work, she added.

AU seeks director for accreditation self-study

The Office of the Provost is seeking a faculty member to serve as AU's self-study director for accreditation review by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

The deadline for nominations and applications is Aug. 30 for the position, which starts Oct. 1. The job will continue through the SACS visit in three years.

The director will be placed on a 12-month salary and will receive a 10 percent increase in salary effective Oct. 1.

David Shannon of the Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Technology is chair of the search committee, which also includes Gene Clothiaux of Physics, Gerry Gryski of Political Science, Yvonne Kozlowski of the AU Libraries and Gary Mullen of Entomology and Plant Pathology.

The director coordinates and manages the self-study process; chairs or serves on the Steering Committee of the SACS process; oversees development of the self-study plan and manual and all arrangements related to the visiting committee; and ensures that follow-up activities are in place to consider the recommendations generated by the self-study.

Apply or nominate candidates to Shannon at EFLT Department, 4036 Haley Center. Applications should include a curriculum vitae, a letter of application indicating the applicant's strengths and experience relative to the position and the names of three references on campus.

For additional information, contact Shannon at 844-3071 or by e-mail at shanndm@auburn.edu.

Interim Business dean to be appointed soon

Provost William Walker is expected to appoint an interim dean for the College of Business in early August to replace Wayne Alderman, who has resigned effective Aug. 16.

Alderman will return as a fulltime faculty member in the college's School of Accountancy.

In a July 12 letter to the college's faculty and staff, Alderman said he set a term limit of eight years when he accepted the job as dean in 1993. "I am a firm believer in term limits," he added.

Nancy Nowicki, executive assistant to Walker, said the provost is accepting nominations and letters of interest for interim dean until an Aug. 1 deadline. Nowicki said a search committee for a permanent dean will be appointed.

"Leadership is easy if you love your institution and value those with whom you work," Alderman said in his resignation letter. "For me, both have been true. We still have goals to accomplish and challenges ahead and I am ready to pass the baton."

Alderman, who in 1997 was named the SouthTrust Corporation Endowed Professor, said he is pleased with the progress made during his tenure as dean of the College of Business.

The College of Business, with approximately 4,000 students, has become one of Auburn's largest and fastest growing colleges.

A Certified Public Accountant, Alderman received his bachelor of science degree in business administration and M.B.A. from AU and his doctorate from the University of Tennessee.

Alderman was a senior accountant for Ernst & Young and taught at the University of Texas before joining the AU faculty in 1977.

Awards in Engineering renamed for AU's provost

The College of Engineering's prestigious Birdsong Teaching Awards will be renamed for William F. Walker, AU's provost and vice president for academic affairs, beginning with next year's faculty honorees.

Auburn alumnus Fred Birdsong and his wife Mary Lou endowed the teaching awards to recognize and motivate outstanding teaching achievement by faculty members involved in the instruction of engineering students, said Larry Benefield, dean of the college.

Through the $500,000 endowment, the Birdsongs also fund the Fred and Mary Lou Birdsong Scholarship for Study Abroad, a program that has allowed Auburn engineering students to complement their education with study in Europe, South America, and the Pacific Rim.

"Fred and Mary Lou's generous contributions to the College of Engineering have been very much appreciated, and I am humbled by their decision to extend this honor to me," Walker said.

Under the terms of the endowment agreement, four awards are presented annually for one-year terms. The superior teaching award carries a stipend of $10,000; the three merit teaching awards carry stipends of $5,000 each.

Fred Birdsong, a 1934 chemical engineering graduate, is a retired vice president of Blue Bell, Inc., of Greensboro, N.C. In renaming the honors program, Birdsong noted that one of Walker's first actions in the provost's earlier role of dean of engineering was to recommend financial awards for outstanding teachers.

"We liked that idea, and decided to set up an endowment," Birdsong said. "As Bill Walker conceived, designed, and implemented this program, and enthusiastically believed in it, it is most appropriate that the award bears his name."

Auburn biologists receive $2 million NSF grant

Two AU biologists are part of a team of three researchers awarded a $2 million grant by the National Science Foundation to study an infectious disease that devastated populations of house finches in the eastern United States during the last decade.

Geoff Hill, Alumni Professor of Biological Sciences, and Sharon Roberts, an associate professor of Biological Sciences, received the grant along with Scott Edwards, an avian populations geneticist from the University of Washington.

Hill says 60 percent of the population of house finches east of the Mississippi River died in the mid-1990s from mycoplasma gallicepticum bacteria, the equivalent of conjunctivitis, also known as pinkeye, in humans.

The disease was first observed in the birds in Maryland and peaked along the Eastern Seaboard in 1995. However, it wasn't until 1996 that Alabama saw the impact of the disease.

"Anyone who banded birds or watched birds could see that house finches were sick," said Hill. "Their eyes would get very swollen. We had already read newspaper articles about what had happened on the east coast in the previous year, but no one really knew what was happening to the birds yet. All we could write on our observation sheets was sick or not sick."
Since the disease peaked, Hill said the mortality rate of the disease has reduced by around 50 percent each year.

"You have to look really hard to find a sick bird now," Hill said. "It's difficult to find one if we need one."

The combination of Roberts, a microbiologist; Hill, who has done extensive research on bird plumage and songs; and avian genomics specialist Edwards will allow a comprehensive look at the disease, Roberts said.

"As a microbiologist, I can look at the relationship between the host (the bird) and the parasite (the bacteria) and what is changing inside the bird as a result of the infection," he said. "As an ornithologist, Geoff is highly qualified to look at the behavioral changes of the birds and any changes in their appearance. Finally, Scott can tell us about any genetic changes in the birds that die as well as those that live.

"This combination of expertise allows us to look at a complex situation in a much more meaningful way."

Roberts has facilities for serological studies and the detection, isolation and molecular analysis of the bacteria. Edwards has tools that enable genetic examination of both infected and uninfected birds.

Hill has been observing thousands of banded house finches for more than 10 years -- particularly studying sexual selection and mate choice.

The trio of researchers has the combined resources to look at four distinct populations of house finches in making any combination of comparisons -- the populations both before and after the outbreak of MG. They include a California population of wide genetic diversity and a 100-year-old Hawaiian population of limited diversity, both of which have not yet been exposed to the disease.

Roberts also has strains of the bacteria collected at the disease's peak and after the steep decline in mortality.

One of the study's goals is to identify the reason for the steep decline in the rate of mortality caused by the bacteria. Roberts says one hypothesis is the weakest birds died at the peak of the epidemic leaving far fewer birds whose genetic makeup left them susceptible to the disease.

n"That's one thought," Roberts said. "Sort of a survival of the fittest. And that's one thing that we're looking at is why and how the mortality rate dropped so rapidly. But there are so many ways that we can go with our combined expertise and the resources we have at our disposal. It's the sort of thing where no one of us could do all this, but, with all of us working together, this work has so much potential."

Internet technology
Emily Myers, right, and Ursula Sandefur, center, work on a web page for Myers' Social Work class, while Ed Williams of Journalism, left, develops his course via the web. Myers and Williams are two of eight faculty who participated in a summer academy on Internet technology.

Liberal Arts faculty learning to apply new technology

Eight faculty in the College of Liberal Arts have spent the summer in the classroom, but instead of teaching they have been learning about Internet technology and how to apply it to their teaching.

The faculty won a competitive summer academy program sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts which has allowed them to receive specific training on how to bring the Internet into their courses.

Ursula Sandefur, the instructional technology coordinator for the College of Liberal Arts, and James Barnes, instructional media advisor with AU's Instructional Media Group, co-lead the program.

"Web information is available to students around the clock, and that makes a big difference to students," Sandefur said. "It's important from an academic side that we teach faculty how to best use the information and tools out there."

Nan Fairley, an associate professor of journalism, is developing an on-line magazine which will become a class spring semester on Advanced Design. The magazine will incorporate students' best articles and photographs. Students in the Journalism Department's advanced design class will design the online magazine.

Emily Myers, director of AU's Social Work program, is establishing a web page for a new introductory course in social work. "This is the way teaching is going and I wanted to learn things I could bring back to my faculty," she said.

Nan Jiang, an assistant professor of English who teaches courses in English as a Second Language, said he wanted to take advantage of the interactivity available today for teachers and students.

Campus Roundup

BC/BS representative on campus
AU's Blue Cross/Blue Shield representative will be on campus in Ingram 212 from 10 a.m.-noon, Aug. 8, to meet with faculty and staff who have questions or need assistance concerning their BC/BS insurance coverage. No appointment is necessary.

Scanning available for final exams
Test Scoring Services in Tichenor 120 will provide computer scoring of scan sheets for faculty to use in grading final exams. The service will be available from 7:45-11:45 a.m. and 12:45-10 p.m., Aug. 9-11. For additional information, contact Bruce Holt at 844-9904.

Child Study Center has open spaces
AU's Child Study Center, a halfday preschool for children ages 2-1/2 to 6, has spaces available in the Transition to Kindergarten class. Applications are also being accepted for the center's waiting pool. The center is east of the Haley Center Concourse. Call 844-4696 for enrollment information.

Unsung Hero: Nancy Ray-Monroe

This week's Unsung Hero is Nancy Ray-Monroe, office administrator in the Department of Management, College of Business. She has been at AU for more than 13 years. She was asked:

What do you do in your current job? "I provide assistance to the department head, faculty and students and supervise the overall general operations of the largest department in the College of Business."

What is the most rewarding part of your job? "Our great faculty, staff and students. I find it very gratifying to do my best to make their day a little smoother."

What is the most challenging part of your job? "Time management -- meeting the many demands of a very large academic department."
What makes Auburn special? "The 'family' atmosphere. People caring about people."

What was your first impression of Auburn University? "Southern Hospitality. Coming to Auburn from a large metropolitan area in the West, I found warm, friendly, helpful people working together for one common goal. That was an inviting change."

How has that impression changed? "My first impression has not changed. I continue to feel that everyone works together for the betterment of the whole."

What words best describe Auburn as a work environment, learning environment or just a place to be? "Again, I must say Southern hospitality. The faculty, staff, students and educational opportunities make Auburn the place to be."

What do you like to do when not at work? "I enjoy time with family and friends. I especially love spending time with my two grandsons -- they are the joys of my life. I line-dance with a few co-workers once a week and relax with needlework or a good book."

If you were not doing this job, what would you most like to do? "I would like to work in some aspect of counseling for women and children."

What person or persons do you most admire and why? "I admire people who have the compassion to work with disabled children. I admire Wayne Alderman, dean of the College of Business, for his efforts and accomplishments in moving the College forward. We are fortunate to have such a fair, compassionate and supportive dean."

What is your favorite line from the Auburn Creed and why? "'I believe in honesty and truthfulness, without which I cannot win the respect and confidence of my fellow men.'"