facultynotes Dierenfield Wins Alpha Sigma Nu Award The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) conferred its 2010 Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award upon Bruce J. Dierenfield, PhD, professor of history and director of the All-College Honors Program. Dierenfield was recognized in the professional studies category for his book The Battle Over School Prayer: How Engle v. Vitale Changed America. Brought about by five Nassau County, NY families, Engel v. Vitale was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that determined it was unconstitutional for the New York State Board of Regents to compose a non-denominational prayer, and mandate that it be recited each day in public schools. Alpha Sigma Nu is the honor society of Jesuit institutions of higher education. Each year, the society recognizes outstanding publishing achievement by faculty and administrators in the humanities and sciences, from its 31 member Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States, Canada and Korea. Books are selected based on scholarship, mastery of literature, research findings, authority in interpretation, objectivity, readability and imagination.
College Entrepreneurs Win on National Stage Kudos to the Canisius College chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization (CEO). Under the guidance of Ji-Hee Kim, PhD, director of entrepreneurship and CEO faculty advisor, the student club won second place in the ‘Best Marketing Plan’ category at the 2010 CEO Annual National Conference in Chicago, IL. CEO is a global, non-profit organization, which provides networking opportunities for students and serves as an informational resource for prospective entrepreneurs. This is the third consecutive year that the Canisius CEO chapter took home honors from the conference, and the second consecutive year Canisius CEO students led conference panel discussions.
Research Grant Enables Thomeer, Lopata to Further Autism Studies The Organization for Autism Research (OAR) recently awarded a $30,000 research grant to the college’s Institute for Autism Research (IAR). The grant will be used to conduct a randomized trial to assess the effectiveness of an interactive software program that teaches facial and vocal emotion-recognition. Principle investigators Marcus L. Thomeer, PhD and Christopher J. Lopata, PsyD, co-directors of the IAR, will collaborate on the study with co-investigator Martin A. Volker, PhD, associate professor of counseling and school psychology at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). “Children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASDs) struggle to recognize facial expressions and vocal emotions,” explains Thomeer. “This study seeks to increase facial emotion recognition, vocal emotion recognition and social skills, while also reducing the social-communicative problems associated with HFASDs.” Marcus L. Thomeer, PhD with Christopher J. Lopata, PsyD
The study will be conducted with seven to 12 year-old children with HFASD.
“This study will be instrumental in evaluating a new potential treatment option for children with HFASDs,” adds Lopata. The IAR conducts leading-edge research on autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), and provides researchers and affiliated faculty the facilities necessary to study and treat autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in a collaborative manner. Canisius is one of only seven OAR award recipients, nationwide.
Linda A. Volonino, PhD, professor of information systems, authored a new book along with some assistance from Gregory R. Wood, PhD, associate professor of management/marketing, who served as a contributing writer. Information Technology for Management: Improving Strategic and Operational Performance takes a practical, managerial-oriented approach to demonstrate how information technology (IT) can be a critical success factor in enterprise operations. It explains that the major role of IT is to provide enterprises with strategic advantages to facilitate problem-solving, increase productivity and quality, improve customer service, enhance communication and collaboration, and enable business process restructuring. Integrated throughout the book is information on how the use of social computing, mobile computing, the Web and intranets can change how business is done in virtually all enterprises. Information Technology for Management: Improving Strategic and Operational Performance is available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.
C ANI SIUS COLLEGE M AGA ZINE • WINTER 2011
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