PacIfic Lutheran untvenlty SCene OCtober 1989
5 Campus
computer Science De ree program arns National Accreditation The bac h e l or of sci e n ce i n co m p uter science prog ram at PLU has earned national accred i tation only six years after its add ition to the campus cu rricu lum. The accred itation an nou nce ment was made by Or. J. T. Cain, president of Com puter Sc iences Accred itation Board Inc., fol low i ng program ap proval by the board's C o m p u t e r S c i e n ce Accreditation Com mission. To date, only 80 com puter sci ence deg ree prog rams in the country hold CSAC/CSAB accredi tati on. According to Or. James Brink, chair of the PLU Department of Mathematics and Com puter Sci ence, accreditati o n means that the PLU program has met qual i ty standards, i nstituted b y CSAB, which is sanctioned by the Asso ciation for Com puting Machi nery and the Computer Soci ety of the I nstitute fo r El ectrical and Electronics Engineers. With over 150,000 members, these are the cou ntry's largest sch olarly and
M i nority St udents Ai ded By SP Scho l a rsh i p Fund N i neteen com m u n ity col lege transfer students entering Pacif ic Lutheran U n i versity this fal l have been designated Secu rity Pacific Scholars. They are Kim Armstrong, Shir ley McDan iel, Ph i l i p Eppright, Lisa Flor es, Ly n n H i n gada, Lan i Artacho, Soledad Di mayuga, Cyn thia Hawkins and Becki Switzer, all of Tacoma; G i na DeCamp and Jacq uel i ne Greer Wicker of Puyal l u p; and Paric h at Chang raksa an d Dymphna Elzie of Spanaway; Also Lau ra Hruby of Seattle; R ob e rt C u rtis of S i lverdale, Wash.; Mel issa M i nor of Tu mwa ter, Wash.; Glenn Wh itham of Gig Harbor, Was h . ; Lien Dam of Auburn, Wash.; and Wendy Lee of Costa Mesa, Calif. The students have received scholarships from an endowed scholarsh ip fund created at PLU by Secu rity Pacific Ban k (former ly R a i n i e r Bank). T h e fu nd is i n tended to b e n efit m i no rity students. The ren ewab l e schola rsh i ps are awarded on the basis of aca demic excellence.
p rofessional societies for com puting. The accreditat ion w i l l affect both prospect ive st udents and alum ni of the prog ram , B r i n k poi nted out. "It indicates t o pro spect ive stu de nts and the pro spective employers of al u m n i that the PLU program com pl ies w i t h recog n ized p r ofess i o nal standards," he said . Standards apply t o prog ram fac ul ty, cu rricu l u m , labo ratory and co m p uting resou rces, stu dents, class si zes, ad vising and institutional support. Bri n k noted that the PLU facu l ty was a major factor in achiev i ng acc red itation. He described them as a h ig h ly motivated group with a spirit of coopera tion. CSAB evaluators, who visited the cam pus during the 1 988-89 acad e m i c year, w e re also i m p ressed by the eq u i p m ent avai lable to computer science stud�nts, he added. Or. John Herzog, dean of the D i v i s i o n of Natu ral Sciences, o b served t h at few s m aller schools, such as PLU, are able to offe r com prehe nsive com puter s c i e n c e p r o g rams feat u r i n g advanced equi pment and cou rs es i n hardware and Artificial I ntel l igence.
M i nority Stud ents Earn New Awa rds For Lea dersh i p Twenty-two P L U e n tering freshmen are recip ie nts of the new PLU M i n ority Lead ersh i p Award. T h e awa rd, i n t e n d e d to encou rage m i nority students to attend PLU, includes a scholar ship st ipend between S500 and S2,500, according to PLU mi nori ty affai rs coordi nator Steven Smith. Recipients i nclude: Robert Gus tafson, A l icia Hatcher, Soon-Ok Hwang, Robert I n g ra m , Ly n n Jodoin, Laura Perez and John Shearer, all of Tacoma; Jeanette Dorner and B rian G ray of G ra ham, Was h . ; Mashelle Ath erson of J u neau, Alsaka; S h awn ita Davis of Everett, Wash.; R ichard Evans of O lym pia, Wash.; Thom as Kaneko of Longview, Wash.; Amaan Kassamali of Bel levue, Wash.; Patrick Kel l y of Laramie, Wyo.; Jerry Lee of Federal Way, Wash.; Susan Leong of A i ea, Hawa i i ; Robert Mackowiak of Ferndale, Wash .; Mon ica M o l i na of S panaway, Wash.; B l anca Rodrig uez of Su n nyside, Wash .; Catherine Sharp of Anch orage, Alaska; and Timothy Uyematsu of Anaheim, Calif.
Fred Tobiason
Robert Stivers
. Judith Ramaglia
Three Professors Earn Awards For Teaching Excellence A com m itment to exce l lence in teach ing at PLU has been sup ported for fo ur years by the Bu rlington Northern Fou ndation Facu lty Ach ievement Award s program. Awards are presented to three outstanding professors each year. This fal l's reCi p i ents are J udith Ramaglia, busi ness admin istration; Robert Stivers, rel igion; and Fred Tobiaso n, chemistry. Now in her eighth year at PLU, Ramag l ia served as d i rector of accounting prog rams last year. Her co lleag ues say the sign ifi cance of her scholarship is i nter d i sci p l i na ry strength and the enhancing of classroom teach ing effectiveness. She presented four papers at p rofessional conferences t h i s year o n topics related to in terna tional ization of cou rses. Her lan guage research i nd icates that the i nterpretation of the mean i ng of acco u n t i n g terms depends, t o a degree, on cultur al group membership. A 1 6-year faculty veteran, Sti vers was also cited for h is com m i tment to i n terdisc i p l i nary studies and hi s contributions to the Integrated Stud ies Program. One senior call ed Stivers' Interim cou rse, "Christian Moral Issues," the best cou rse he ever had . Stivers' co ntributions to the field of Ch ristian eth ics, i n partic u lar his i n novative ap proach to the economics of sustainab i lity, have earned him national atten tion. The author of two previous books, he co-authored a th i rd , Christian Ethics: A Case Method Approach, and edited a fourth, Reformed Faith and Economics,
this past year. He is described as "an energet ic and creative scholar who has brought his intel lectual gifts to
bear on mult ip!e aspects of u n i versity life." Tobiason is beginning hiS 24th year on the faculty. He contin ues to direct a nationally-recog n i zed student-facu l ty research program in the area of phenolic polymers. Last year he or one of h is stu dents presented fo u r profession al papers, i n c l u d i n g p resenta tions at the American Chem ical Society national meeting and at t h e Acad emy of Science i n Zag reb, Yugoslavia. He also auth ored or co-au thored (with students) t h ree pr ofessi o nal papers. In J u n e he and 11 PLU stu d e n ts ret u r n e d p rematu rely from study i n China due to the widespread d istu rbances there. This is h i s sixth ou tstan d i ng professor award . The S1 ,500 awards are fu nded by a Fo u n dation g rant. Recipi ents are selected from nomi na tions submitted by al l cam pus schools and d i visions. The pro gram is funded through 1 991 . Previ ous award w i n n ers were Stu art Bancroft and Gerald Myers, business ad m i n istration; Stan Brue, economics; Paul Men ze l , p h i l osophy; Wil l iam Becvar, com m u n ication arts; Ed Clausen and Chris Brown ing, h istory; Ann Kel l eher, political science; and Ann Hi rsch, n u rsi ng.