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Media highlights for the week of May 10-16, 2005
A sampling of NAU programs, professors, students, staff and alumni appearing in the news
Building for the future
Amid the sea of blue mortar boards was a row of blue hard-hats. They were the graduates of Northern Arizona University's construction management program, who participated in the Friday morning commencement ceremony.
—Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 5/16/2005
Community Briefs
Carl DeRosa, a member of the Center for High Altitude Training's National Advisory Board, has been named "Teacher of the Year" for NAU's Consortium of Professional Schools. DeRosa is a professor of physical therapy at NAU and co-owner of DeRosa Physical Therapy, an affiliate of Summit Center Sports Medicine in Flagstaff.
—Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 5/16/2005
A pajama-party video from Rockville rockers
A video for "Set Phasers to Stun" by band Taking Back Sunday was created by Isaac Rentz, a friend of the band and a budding director who is still an undergrad at Northern Arizona University.
—Newsday (Melville, NY) 5/15/2005
APS exec works with forestry officials to stem outage threat
A 2003 survey conducted by the Social Research Lab at Northern Arizona University found 76 percent of adults favored controlled burns and 80 percent favored tree thinning to reduce the risk of forest fires.
—The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) 5/15/2005
Colleges struggle for right direction
NAU, which has "2+2" agreements with every community college in the state, became more responsive to the community colleges and is more actively engaged in conversations with several of them, among them, Central Arizona College.
—The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) 5/15/2005
Flagstaff divided on big-box store
A Northern Arizona University poll last month for the mail-in balloting gave the anti-big-box forces of Proposition 100 a 10-point lead over those who favor a larger Wal-Mart and, perhaps, attracting other large stores such as Best Buy and Lowe's to Flagstaff.
—The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) 5/15/2005
Lumberjack comeback
Trailing first-place Montana State by 36 points entering the final day of the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the Lumberjacks climbed from fourth in the standings to first Saturday to earn their second straight conference crown.
—Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 5/15/2005
Roadkill: Huge toll on park-area highways
Paul Beier, a Northern Arizona University professor of conservation biology, has obtained a $60,000 annual grant to analyze eight key Arizona road-based wildlife corridors yearly, including four in Southern Arizona this year, and propose ways to design the roads to handle animals.
—Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ) 5/15/2005
College board president gets degree in dual major
Pam Stroud, president of the Arizona Western College District Governing Board, attended graduation exercises Friday night for students of AWC and Northern Arizona University-Yuma. But she wasn't there in her capacity as board president; she was there as a graduate.
—Yuma Sun (Yuma, AZ), 5/14/2005
Logo-mania
Some people scoffed when Northern Arizona University made a big deal about introducing a new logo in February. They decried the $320,000 cost and said that by adopting the new logo, school officials ended a 20-year tradition by scrapping the old design. But apparently NAU students don't agree. Within a week after the logo was introduced, the school's bookstore sold six dozen each of T-shirts, sweatshirts and windbreakers bearing the new logo, spokeswoman Lisa Nelson said. Mugs, water bottles and lapel pins sold out. This past week, which ended with graduation on Friday, was "really crazy busy," Nelson said. "We've sold even more than we expected."
—The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) 5/14/2005
Longtime educator gets nod to head NAU-Yuma
Spanish professor Anna-Marie Aldaz was named the interim executive director of Northern Arizona University-Yuma.
—Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 5/14/2005
Lumberjacks relish home-track edge
Finally, the Northern Arizona track and field team got to experience what it's like to have home-stadium advantage for a big outdoor meet. And they liked the feeling. Senior Henrik Ahnstrom captured the first-place medal in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9 minutes, 20.72 seconds at the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Lumberjack Stadium.
—Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 5/14/2005
$10 million set aside for 101 photo radar
The state is researching photo radar at Northern Arizona University and will discuss an intergovernmental agreement with Scottsdale, said Doug Nintzel, an ADOT spokesman.
—East Valley Tribune (Mesa, AZ) 5/13/2005
Local school administrators step into vacancies
Payson High Special Education teacher Will Dunman was named Payson Elementary School principal. He will receive his master's degree in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona University May 13.
—Worldwest Ltd., Liability Co. (Payson, AZ) 5/13/2005
NAU's off-campus 'bet' pays off for mother of 3
Today Debbie Lucas graduates from Northern Arizona University without ever having set foot on the campus. Lucas is one of a growing number of NAU students doing their classes online from remote locations. It's a bet NAU made a decade ago that is just beginning to pay off: People outside of Flagstaff, Tempe and Tucson might want to get a college degree.
—The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) 5/13/2005
Students take a big step
More than 2,700 students from Northern Arizona University will receive their degrees in ceremonies today and Saturday in Flagstaff.
—The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) 5/13/2005
The Natural
After redshirting her first year in town, Dana Posey grabbed All-Big Sky Conference honors during the outdoor season in the hammer throw as a freshman, had the fifth-best throw in the conference championship meet (170 feet, 4 inches) and qualified for the NCAA West Regionals, where she took 14th with a throw of 162-11.
—Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 5/13/2005
Wired for Success
Amy O'Rourke and the four other women graduating today with electrical engineering degrees from NAU are in an envious position—they've all accepted good-paying jobs.
—Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 5/13/2005
Alien Planet on Our Planet
This special two-hour computer-animated program features some of the world's most renowned scientists, including Stephen W. Hawking, Michio Kaku and J. Craig Venter, plus Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas. Dr. James Kirkland is state paleontologist for the Utah Geological Survey. An expert on the Mesozoic Era, he has studied dinosaurs from the southwestern United States for over 20 years, discovering many new and important genera, including the world's oldest duck-billed dinosaur. Kirkland earned an M.S. in geology at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
—KGET 17 (Bakersfield, CA) 5/12/2005
[this clip also appeared on KTRH Newsradio in Houston, 1190 KEX in Portland, KFAB Nebraska, WIXT New York, WHP CBS Harrisburg, KYOT Phoenix, and many others]
Daphnia help to detect pollutants
Anna Lopez had visited some of the community's ponds with the Gear Up program. Scientists with Northern Arizona University and the Gila River Land and Water Department had taught the students how to conduct water quality tests.
—Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. (Casa Grande, AZ) 5/12/2005
Finances, depression often issues for 'family annihilators'
This is a "classic case" of familicide, the killing of a spouse and children, said Neil Websdale, a criminal justice professor at Northern Arizona University. "Familicides are really rare forms of domestic homicides," said Websdale, who specializes in studying domestic violence homicides. "Usually we see the guy faced with prospects of failure in life in general."
—The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA) 5/12/2005
Higher education bills taking a beating
Senate Bill 2260 would restrict tuition increases for in-state undergraduates to the rate of inflation. However, because the state does not guarantee university funding, the universities use tuition to pay for items they need that the state doesn't fund. That includes more instructors, financial aid or $3 million for NAU to retain faculty members.
—The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) 5/12/2005
Higher-cost concerns kill 4-year community college degree bill
The death of the legislation disappointed Roy Flores, chancellor of Pima Community College. Flores said even the Board of Regents, which oversees the three state universities, acknowledges that the number of students who will want a baccalaureate degree by 2020 will exceed capacity of the universities by 70,000. He said some of that gap can be picked up through online learning as well as the 2-plus-2 program run by Northern Arizona University in conjunction with community colleges. But Flores said there still will a need that the can be filled by letting community colleges offer their own degrees.
—Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 5/12/2005
Most Arizonans believe more money should be spent on forests
Seven out of ten Arizonans polled believe more more government money should be spent to restore forests. The telephone poll conducted by Northern Arizona University's Social Research Laboratory found 67 percent of those surveyed feel that it's appropriate to sell trees cut during forest thinning.
—KOLD-TV (Tucson, AZ) 5/12/2005
NAU grad ceremonies Friday and Saturday
Northern Arizona University hosts three commencement ceremonies at the Skydome for its 2,732 graduates.
—Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 5/12/2005
New McCracken principal hired
Kathleen Slowiczek will take over as principal at H.E. McCracken Middle School. Slowiczek has a doctorate in educational administration from Northern Arizona University.
—The Island Packet (Hilton Head Island, SC) 5/12/2005
Somerton family again stepping up to receive four degrees
Dina and Luciano Sr. will graduate with master's degrees in education, earned through the bilingual English as a Second Language special education training program at NAU-Yuma. Luciano Jr. will graduate with a bachelor's degree in business and April will receive a bachelor's degree in psychology, also from NAU-Yuma. "It wasn't preplanned," Luciano Sr. said of the simultaneous graduations. "The whole family did it. Your family can do it too."
—Yuma Sun (Yuma, AZ) 5/12/2005
Teacher cultivates special kids
Lori Borr, who was recently named the American Legion Special Education Teacher of the Year, is dedicated to helping children explore the world at their own pace. She teaches students with and without disabilities, developing creative lessons to meet the needs of every child. Borr earned her masters degree in early childhood development from Northern Arizona University.
—AZCentral.com (online) 5/12/2005
Awards keep piling up
Tara Cozzetto recently was named Desert Vista's top female athlete, an honor she also won last year Toward summer's end, Cozzetto will go to Northern Arizona University, where she signed to play soccer after visiting Washington State and ASU. "ASU, Colorado and Cornell sent me letters about track, but I never really followed up on it," Cozzetto said. "My favorite sport is soccer."
—The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) 5/11/2005
Big Sky track meet begins today at NAU
NAU's women notched their fifth outdoor title since 1988 last season by virtue of a one-point victory over host Weber State. The Jacks have posted 13 top-three finishes in their last 17 championship meet appearances.
—Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 5/11/2005
Chelsea Robb Named First Assistant Coach
Chelsea Robb has been promoted to first assistant coach for New Mexico volleyball. Robb, who received a degree in Health Promotion at NAU, was a member of the Dean's List three years and was named a Golden Eagle Scholar Athlete.
—CollegeSports.com (New York, NY) 5/11/2005
Governor targets prof, teacher retention
The committee, which Napolitano said would be chaired by Northern Arizona University President John Haeger, will research and advise ways to "attract, train and retain" teachers in the state.
—Arizona Daily Wildcat (Tucson, AZ) 5/11/2005
North Scott Hall of Excellence—Edith Copley: Distinguished educator
Never underestimate the power of piano lessons. Those keys were the key to opening up a successful career in music education for Edith Copley, one of this year's Hall of Excellence honorees. Director of choral studies at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff since 1990, Copley was named Arizona Music Educator of the Year by the Arizona Music Educators Association last year.
—North Scott Press (Eldridge, IA) 5/11/2005
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