IUP Magazine, Winter/Spring 2021

Where Scientists Meet

Kopchick Hall, Coming in 2023

DONNING A COAT

The Oak Grove, with Fisher Auditorium in the background, after a December snow

Confronting Reality Together

As a member of the IUP family, you are probably aware of the challenges we face.

IUP is enduring its most difficult time in the past 100 years. Because of a decline in enrollment linked to a decreasing Pennsylvania population, stagnant state appropriations, and increasing staffing costs, we were already facing a tough economic reality. Add in the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the situation has only gotten worse.

If we continue spending from our reserves, IUP will be insolvent in four years. It’s the truth.

Despite this reality, I am hopeful.

We have a plan to confront our problems. It’s our vision for the future, and it’s called IUP NextGen.

We will commit to academic areas of focus based on student and employer demand and on our demonstrated strengths. We will focus on areas where we can be the best and provide our students with unique experiences.

It’s part of a culture shift at IUP, as we are becoming a truly student-centered university. We are putting our resources toward ensuring all our students have what they need to succeed both while they are here and after they graduate.

The plan includes restructuring some of our programs and reducing the number of faculty and staff members. Those conclusions were not easy to reach, and they have raised some concern.

I’ve heard from many members of the IUP family through emails, letters, and phone calls. Students and faculty members have protested. Letters to the editor have been published, and social media posts have amplified opinions.

The common thread in all of this is a passion for IUP. With words and actions, people are voicing their opinions on how the university can be better. That so many people care about IUP gives me hope that if we can work together, the next generation of IUP will be great, like the ones before it.

Addressing our problems is hard for everyone. Change is hard work. But if we don’t act now, we will be placing our future into the hands of others. That’s not something we can allow.

We are rolling up our sleeves and getting to work.

I am confident in a bright future for IUP. I hope you are, too.

Michael A. Driscoll President

More details about plans to secure IUP’s future are on pages 4 and 5 and at IUP.edu/RestructuringInfo

The Problem and the Plan

A look at the financial challenges IUP faces and the plan to overcome them.

Civil Rights in Indiana

IUP retiree Edith Cord shares her memories of a local fight that had many IUP champions.

Where Scientists Meet

Historic Campaign Concludes

Blessed with unprecedented support, IUP wrapped up a monumental fundraising effort in February.

Community of Cultures

A coordinated effort seeks to create a more vibrant, inclusive, and equitable IUP.

DEPARTMENTS

ABOVE: In October, IUP’s Theater-by-the-Grove gave livestreamed performances of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, reimagined as a 1940s radio play. In back, from left, Riley Guers (Leonato) and Addison “Addie” Minich (Borachio) performed while Megan Carpenter operated a video camera.

COVER: Detail of an artist’s rendering (also on page 12) of Kopchick Hall from above the Oak Grove, facing southeast. Wilson Hall is at bottom left and McElhaney at top right.

IUP MAGAZINE ONLINE

IUPMAGAZINE

PRESIDENT OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: Michael Driscoll

VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT: Khatmeh Osseiran-Hanna

EDITOR: Elaine Jacobs Smith ’93

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Karen Philippi Gresh ’67, Bob Fulton ’75

DESIGN: Meghan McMeans Strittmatter ’13, David Raymond ’99

PHOTOGRAPHY: Brian Henry

IUP Magazine is published by Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a member of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education.

The magazine’s address is John Sutton Hall, Room 301, 1011 South Drive, Indiana, PA 15705-1046 (telephone 724-357-3112; fax 724-357-2556; email iup-magazine@iup.edu).

Correspondence regarding any aspect of the magazine may be directed to this office. Print and web images derived from photos submitted for publication become the property of Indiana University of Pennsylvania and may be reprinted at the discretion of the university.

IUP Magazine welcomes contributions to help defray the cost of publishing. The Official IUP Magazine Form may be used for this purpose.

©2021 by Indiana University of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to excellence through diversity.

WEB

Much Ado Is Truly Something

Get a behind-the-scenes look at Theater-by-theGrove’s fall 2020 livestreamed production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing. The cast and crew pulled out all the creative stops to present live theater safely during the pandemic.

WEB

The Innovators

IUP faculty members and students are seeking new solutions to improve work and life. This video series tracks their efforts.

WEB IUP Pioneers

During Black History Month in February, IUP profiled its earliest-known Black students.

On page 1, President Michael Driscoll refers to the “tough economic reality” IUP is facing and the plan, known as IUP NextGen, to create a sustainable, more student-centered university.

The Problem

The Problem

• IUP’s projected budget shortfall for 2020–21 is $16 million

• If shortfalls continue at that level, IUP reserves will be depleted in four years

Enrollment

Declining enrollment is a top contributor to the financial challenges. Current enrollment is below the 1970 mark:

2020–21: 10,067

2010–11: 15,126*

2000–2001: 13,410

1990–91: 14,398

1980–81: 12,278

1970–71: 10,347

*IUP’s highest enrollment was 15,379 in 2012–13.

Factors contributing to enrollment decline:

• Fewer high school graduates in IUP’s traditional markets

• Fewer international students

• Slow progress in increasing student retention and persistence

Pennsylvania Public High School Graduates

June 2019: 125,515

June 2010: 131,343

Source: Pennsylvania Department of Education

These figures show a 4.44 percent decrease in graduates. In addition, experts predict another drop of almost 7 percent between 2025 and 2031.

International Students

This population has dropped steadily at IUP in recent years:

2020–21: 397 (4.05% of total enrollment)

2019–20: 561 (5.42%)

2018–19: 711 (6.28%)

2017–18: 809 (6.57%)

2016–17: 923 (7.18%)

2015–16: 969 (7.03%)

Second-Year Retention Rates

This is the percentage of IUP students who continue their studies into their second year. Efforts to improve the rate have made slow progress.

2019–20: 72.2%

2018–19: 72.3%

2017–18: 70.5%

2016–17: 71.4%

Other Financial Factors

COVID-19 Pandemic

• In April 2020, IUP refunded students more than $10 million in housing, dining, and other fees after the move to remote instruction.

• In September 2020, IUP invested $3 million in one-time grants for all enrolled students.

State Appropriations

They have not kept pace with the rising cost of educating students. Percent of IUP’s budget from state appropriations:

2020–21: 28%

1983–84: 63%

BRIAN HENRY

and the Plan

The Plan

IUP NextGen involves the restructuring of academic colleges and programs as follows:

Adopting Areas of Focus

IUP will invest more in these five areas, selected based on student and employer demand and IUP’s assessed strengths:

• Science, math, computer science, pre-engineering, and engineering

• Allied health disciplines

• Behavioral health

• Business

• Proactive cross-disciplinary and multithematic areas

Note: IUP will continue to provide a strong general education core and a breadth of academic majors including education, the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

Reorganizing Colleges

The number of academic colleges will be reduced from six to five. Academic departments within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences will be distributed broadly, including into a new college, not yet named, that will house the creative arts, humanities, and design.

While these changes will create operating efficiencies, they are also expected to provide more opportunities for collaboration, innovation, and interdisciplinary student experiences.

Reducing Programs

Following a yearlong review of its academic programs, IUP will reduce the number of programs it offers.

Decisions about which programs were eliminated or changed were based on a number of factors, including enrollment and finances, competition among other schools, job opportunities, student outcomes, demonstrated innovation, and relevance to IUP’s mission and strategic direction.

An updated list of program changes, including the shifting of programs among colleges, is at IUP.edu/RestructuringInfo

Reducing the Workforce

While IUP’s enrollment has fallen by about a third, the size of the workforce has not followed.

Declines from 2012–13 to 2018–19: Enrollment: down 26%

Employee headcount: down 6.3%

A Quick Take

Reductions in full-time equivalent* (FTE) positions since July 1, 2019, through restructuring and attrition (rounded):

Faculty: 69

Non-faculty: 117

*an employee’s scheduled hours divided by the number of hours in a full-time work week

Expected future reductions in FTE positions (rounded):

Faculty: 128 (by the beginning of 2021–22 academic year)

Non-faculty: 117 (by the end of 2021–22 fiscal year)

In October and December 2020, 82 faculty members received notice of possible retrenchment in June 2021.

• The process for programmatic and retrenchment decisions is specified in the collective bargaining agreement between the State System and the faculty union, the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties. Seniority and unique qualifications to teach courses are among the considerations.

• IUP’s projected budget shortfall of $16 million for 2020–21 already factors in these faculty retrenchments.

More details about plans to secure IUP’s future are at IUP.edu/RestructuringInfo.

BRIAN HENRY

LETTERS

Research Lacking

I just finished reading the Summer 2020 edition and am compelled to make observations on the article “Professor Partners with Police.” As a retired law enforcement professional, I am concerned that Professor Adams’s research is lacking.

Any academic exercise to determine causation should use the full scope of variables, not just the ones that fit the narrative. This style of alleged research leads to faulty outcomes. Professor Adams notes that she had to “challenge her own perceptions and stereotypes of police” when she began this effort. After reading the article, it certainly gives the appearance her challenge failed. The glaring omission of how citizens act and react in the presence of police is alarming.

Further, Professor Adams adds George Floyd for relevance to her article. She could have added the fact that George Floyd could have complied with officers that day and just gone to jail.

As a 1993 graduate of IUP with a degree in criminology and 25 years of state and federal law enforcement experience, I, and all of the law enforcement professionals I worked with in four states and more than 20 cities, treated every person with respect and never once used skin color to assess “worth within society.”

Professor Adams’s myopic view of how skin color equals results in life seems to be clouding her judgment and is not befitting a true academic pursuit.

I firmly suggest IUP take a second look at this effort and reassess this effort to be more inclusive of the entire picture.

A second look at this effort should also include a wider scope of police input. Kudos to Indiana Police Department for participating, but Professor Adams needs to be more inclusive of other departments and their procedures, policies, and practices. Otherwise, she needs to limit her findings to Indiana only.

With the heightened sense of racial injustice in this country, academia needs to demand objectivity and completeness.

Gary Stark ’93 Orange Beach, AL

Police Effort Inspires

After reading [“Professor Partners with Police”], I am so proud of IUP and the Borough of Indiana. Police Chief Justin Schawl and Professor Abbie Adams should be front-page news. Addressing racism and social injustice with education and research, done on this microlevel, is what every community in the country could be doing to unite and connect.

As someone who moved to Indiana and attended Indiana High School and IUP, part of what makes the region different from other parts of Appalachia is the diversity of the university community and welcoming nature of local families. It’s inspiring to see the commitment by the police, borough, and university to hold strong with these values.

Rachel Kennedy Peters ’00 Woodbridge, VA

Start Date Incorrect

While reading the summer issue of IUP Magazine, I noticed that on page 32 [Mentors: “Crème de la Crème”] it states that IUP’s study abroad program to Nancy, France, was established in 1985.

I think this is inaccurate, since I traveled to Nancy as part of IUP’s study abroad program in 1982. It was through the leadership of Dr. Ludo op de Beeck (now deceased) at the time, if I’m not mistaken.

I traveled to Nancy, France, in January of 1982 and joined a group of IUP students who were already there for the 1981-82 academic year, so that program certainly precedes my participation in it. I think it was running for many more years before IUP associate professor [Charles] McCreary’s involvement and was established quite a while before your magazine’s stated beginning of 1985.

Susan Ramage Cooper ’82 Bell, FL

Not the First

I was happy to receive my copy of the magazine. . . . I was surprised to see the information on the IUP-Nancy, France, program, however.

The article stated that the program had started in 1985, but that is not correct. I was

in the group that was there from fall 1981 to summer 1982. We were not the first group to be there. My freshman year, in fall 1979, a student in my dorm had just come back from her junior year there, so it was already in place at least in 1978-79.

Shawn Morrison ’84 Associate Dean, School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs, College of Charleston Charleston, SC

Editor’s Note: A number of IUP sources have shed light on the start of the IUP study abroad program in Nancy. The earliest mention of a University of Nancy exchange program in the Undergraduate Catalog is in 1978. Jessica Geletka Mulvihill ’02, D’16, director of Education Abroad, found that IUP entered into an official exchange agreement with the university in 1981.

In his research, Department of Foreign Languages chair Charles McCreary found that the first formal exchanges date back to 1976. He wrote, “Dr. Victor Drescher laid the groundwork for the collaboration between IUP and the Université de Nancy 2 (now Université de Lorraine) in 1977. The summer program started a couple of years later.”

Performances Missing

I was doing a web search last night for one of the bands listed below and stumbled upon “A List of Legends” [IUP Magazine, Summer 2018]. I attended IUP from 1972 through 1976 and noticed that a few performances were missing from the list:

• The Paul Winter Consort, fall 1972, Student Union

• The Strawbs, spring 1974, Memorial Field House: Warm-up act for Dave Mason. The Strawbs were promoting their new album Hero and Heroine. I worked that concert as a volunteer stagehand for IUP’s Student Union board. After the show, about 10 of us had to carry a grand piano up the hill back to Cogswell at 1:00 in the morning.

• Virgil Fox, fall 1975, Fisher Auditorium: One of the 20th century’s premier classical organists.

• Weather Report, April 1976, Fisher Auditorium: Jazz geniuses featuring Joe Zawinul (keyboards), Wayne Shorter (saxophone), Jaco Pastorius (bass), and Peter Erskine (drums). Weather Report was promoting its new album Black Market. I sat in the front row, right in front of Joe’s keyboard rig—outstanding.

• Hall and Oates, May 1976, Memorial Field House: I remember this well, because I was unable to attend. I had to go home for the weekend to be a groomsman in my cousin Ed’s wedding.

• Return to Forever, spring 1977, Memorial Field House: Another band of jazz geniuses, with Chick Corea (keyboards), Al Di Meola (guitar), Stanley Clarke (bass), and Lenny White (drums).

Dave Bertovic ’76 Calabasas, CA

Editor’s Note: Duggan Collier also wrote, adding to the list of performers Spyro Gyra, who he said played Fisher Auditorium in the spring of 1982, when he was a freshman living in Gordon Hall. He said he transferred from IUP in 1984.

Cashdollar’s

IUP Story: Order in Advance and Save

The first IUP history in 30 years—The IUP Story: Indiana University of Pennsylvania, from Normal School to University, by professor emeritus of history Charles Cashdollar ’65—will be available this fall.

Ten years in the making, the book tells the school’s story, from beginning to the present, by focusing on its people and campus life. Prominent themes throughout its more than 400 pages are the school’s commitment to excellence and its resilience—through war, depression, and pandemic. Generously illustrated, this hardcover book is organized in 14 chronological chapters, with an additional chapter on Jane Leonard, who, as a teacher and administrator, was a central figure during the school’s first 45 years.

Place your order by June 1, 2021, and save 10 percent off the $49.95 cover price (shipping and handling not included). Complete the order form below and pay by credit card or check. Or, complete the online form at www.alumni.iup.edu/IUPStory. A book chapter will be available for previewing at this site.

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____ I am placing an advance order for The IUP Story by June 1, 2021, at a total cost of $52.95 (discounted price of $44.96, plus $4.99 shipping and handling and $3.00 sales tax).

Make check payable to the Foundation for IUP, or complete the information below to pay by credit card:

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Mail to Foundation for IUP, Sutton Hall G1, 1011 South Drive, Indiana, PA 15705-1046. Or, complete the online form at www.alumni.iup/IUPStory

Proceeds from the sale of this book go to the Foundation for IUP to promote and support the educational purposes of IUP.

Our Fight for Civil Rights in Indiana

March 15, 1965: More than 400 marched on Philadelphia Street for civil rights and held a courthouse service for James Reeb, a minister and activist killed in Selma, Alabama.

June 3, 2020 (at right): Roughly 170 gathered in downtown Indiana to support the Black Lives Matter movement and to protest George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minnesota police.

Retired Faculty Member Shares Her Story

By Edith M. Cord

In 1962 my husband, Steven Cord, and I were hired at Indiana State College, now Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Steve joined the Social Studies Department and I the Department of Foreign Languages. Steve was born and raised in New York City. I was originally from Vienna, Austria, and I had managed to survive religious persecution in Nazioccupied Vichy France. Indiana had a small Jewish community, mostly composed of merchants. We learned later that Jews had only recently been allowed to join the Indiana Country Club.

Steve’s large department served as an umbrella for all the social sciences: history, sociology, political science, philosophy, and economics. Eventually the department broke up according to each specialty, but at the time it allowed members of various disciplines to get to know one another.

Under the leadership of its chairman, Raymond Lee, the department was very collegial. We became friends with Esko Newhill, sociologist, and his wife, Ruth. We learned from them that housing was segregated in Indiana, and most members of the small Black community, left over from the Underground Railroad, were restricted to living in a rather run-down neighborhood called Chevy Chase. We learned that when Lyman Connor, who was African American, was sent to Indiana as the local administrator for the state’s Health Department, he was not able to buy housing in town, and he and his family had to settle in Chevy Chase.

The Newhills invited us to join them and their Unitarian friends for Sunday brunches at a little pizza shop on the edge of campus. Civil rights were the topic of the day. Our conversations about civil rights led us to get

MICHELLE RAYMOND, INDIANA GAZETTE

THE PENN

Edith Cord in the 1970s

involved at the local level. Since most of us were academics, the first thing we did was establish a fund to provide scholarships for any post-high school education or training for young Black people from Indiana County. Esko and I were involved with that effort. We approached Earl Handler, a local attorney and future judge. He was supportive of our efforts, and he did the paperwork to create a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization named the Human Relations Committee of Indiana County. We now had official status, and contributions to the scholarship fund were tax deductible.

The 1960s were the time of sit-ins, especially in the South. In 1964, three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Two were young Jewish men from New York, and the third was an African American man from Mississippi; all were working for CORE (Congress of Racial Equity). These events prompted our decision to hold a memorial march on Philadelphia Street. We received permission to hold the march, and three blocks of downtown Indiana were closed to traffic for a couple of hours. Our march was well attended by many members of the faculty and by a few townspeople, including Jane McGregor and Clarence Stephenson and his wife, Marcella. My husband and I decided it would be safe to take along our two young daughters, ages 7½ and 5½. Both still remember the solemn march. We started on Ninth Street and headed toward the old courthouse on Sixth Street. The merchants came out of their stores and stared at us. On the steps of the courthouse, there were speeches,

followed by singing led by a young woman from the local Black community. She had a lovely and powerful voice. After that, we disbanded without incident.

Margaret Pratt, the wife of Willis Pratt, president of the school, had organized a club for faculty wives called the Dames Club. It was purely social, with many events for the women and a few for couples, like the annual Christmas party, or for families. The club organized a pool party at the local swimming pool. The community pool, which our realtor had shown us with pride, was closed to Blacks. It was in Mack Park, on a piece of land donated by the prominent

Mack family. I should add that in 1963, the year after Steve was hired, the History Department hired a Black professor, Robert Vowels. The organizers of the pool party went to the pool administration to ensure that the Vowels family would be allowed to swim on that day. They had chosen a Monday, when the pool was closed to the public. When a few of us learned of this arrangement, we protested. We did not want to patronize a segregated facility. The party was canceled. This earned me the hostility of several faculty wives, who asked me why I picked on them. I, who love swimming, stopped going to the pool after that incident.

Meanwhile, the federal government had started to pass laws making it illegal for public facilities to bar Blacks. A woman from the local Black community volunteered to work with us. She went to the pool, accompanied by Steve and Esko, who served as witnesses as she was refused access to the facility. This gave us legal grounds to challenge the policy. What did the management do? It converted the pool into a private club. This meant that, legally, we had no recourse.

But we did not give up. To put pressure on the community, we decided to involve the churches. We prepared a petition asking that the pool be integrated. It was to be distributed to all the churches in town, and there were about 50. This job fell to Steve. He went from one church to another, and most ministers took the petition. The pool issue was now a big topic, but the town did not yield until the students got involved. They threatened to boycott local businesses

Groundbreaking for the Chevy Chase Community Center, along Fifth Avenue in Indiana, April 1971. From left: Daniel McDivitt, Frances Helman, Idus Jones, Dorothy Merritt, Norah Zink, Velma Matthews, Agnes Johnson, Lyman Connor, and Homer Isenberg.

TOM PEEL, INDIANA EVENING GAZETTE

“Change happened slowly. It took persistence, but it happened. We fought for integration, not separation.”

if the pool was not integrated. At that point, the matter came before the local chamber of commerce, and the pool management had to yield.

While this was going on, we decided to continue our efforts to inform people and get them to change their minds. We decided to create a speakers’ bureau. That became my project. I approached my colleagues at the school. I explained what we were doing, and to their credit, everyone I approached was willing to share his or her expertise. The list of speakers grew each year. I publicized the speakers’ bureau in the local newspaper. While the speakers donated freely of their time and expertise, we asked that organizations that hired the speakers donate to the scholarship fund. In this way, the speakers’ bureau fed the scholarship fund. Requests for speakers came from many sources: youth groups, church groups, civic groups—the list was long.

The topics were varied, each professor drawing on his or her own experience and specialty, and they were interesting. Norah Zink, retired chair of the Geography Department, spoke about her work in Africa. A biology professor asked whether there was a biological basis for race. Several professors spoke about the treatment of Blacks in textbooks or in literature. My husband, Steve, talked about the postCivil War period of Reconstruction. The dean of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, who was Black, addressed class differences within the Black community. One member of the local Black community, a prosperous, middle-aged family man with a successful business, shared how he was treated in town. That one was hard to listen to, as I empathized with his humiliation. Clarence Stephenson, a member of the Unitarian Fellowship from Marion Center, spoke about the early Black history of Indiana County. Eventually the topics broadened. For instance, Reverend William Richard Jr., who was blind, spoke about living with handicaps.

Housing was another issue, as discrimination was not limited to Blacks. One professor, Don-Chean Chu, wanted to buy a house in Shadowood, a pleasant housing development outside town. But he was Chinese. Someone took the initiative of circulating a petition to keep the Chus out. When this petition reached our friends the Trubitts, who lived in Shadowood— Allen Trubitt was a member of the Music Department—they tore it up and circulated a counter-petition to allow the Chus to buy a house in their neighborhood. In the end, they were able to buy the house.

While this was going on, we continued to think of ways to raise the educational

level of our fellow citizens who were Black. We knew that academic setbacks start in the early grades, so we decided to create an after-school study center. Most Black children went to East Pike Elementary School, which was integrated. Working with the teachers at East Pike, we decided to provide academic support for any child, regardless of race, from grades 1 to 4. After the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations, a community center was built in Chevy Chase. It was named the Kennedy-King Center by the local residents, and our tutoring was held there after school. We prepared snacks consisting of juice and cookies before students and tutors settled down to work. We provided a tutor for each child. That required an extraordinary effort of scheduling—before computers and cell phones—as we felt that the children needed individual attention.

The tutors were faculty wives such as Betty MacIsaac, who was a specialized reading teacher; Joy Mahachek, a retired math professor; Barbara Brody, wife of an owner of the beautiful department store in Indiana; and many more, too numerous to mention. Eventually the School of Education became interested in our efforts, as the country was moving in the direction of integration; many students from the Elementary Education Department, along with a few honor students from the local high school, became tutors. In 1980, the School of Education also helped organize an integrated Halloween party. The idea was to give children of many backgrounds a chance to have fun together.

Change happened slowly. It took persistence, but it happened. We fought for integration, not separation. The goal was to level the playing field and to give everyone a better chance at the American dream, in which everyone can live in a free and prosperous society. I am glad we did what we did, because it was the right thing to do. I have faith that we will “live in a nation where [we] will not be judged by the color of [our] skin but by the content of [our] character,” to quote the famous words of Martin Luther King Jr. m

About the Author

Edith Mayer Cord taught foreign languages at Indiana State College and IUP from 1962 until 1979, when she left academia for the financial services industry. Certified as a financial planner, she retired in 2006 to write her first book, Becoming Edith: The Education of a Hidden Child (2008). That and its followup, Finding Edith: Surviving the Holocaust in Plain Sight (2019), detail her experiences growing up in Europe during World War II and evading religious persecution. During that period, she lost her father and brother in Auschwitz, and she was deprived of schooling for six years. In 1952, shortly before coming to the United States, she earned her licence ès lettres from the University of Toulouse. She and her late husband, Steven, who retired from the IUP History Department in 1987 after 25 years of service, had three children, and she is now a grandmother to seven. Living in Columbia, Maryland, she is a frequent speaker on her life experiences and on how to rise above difficult circumstances, transcend hatred, and protect freedom.

COURTESY OF EDITH CORD

Edith Cord in 2019

Kopchick Hall Where Scientists Meet

By Mary Ann Slater

As a member of IUP’s Geoscience Department for the past 13 years, Katie Farnsworth knows all the research her students do in Weyandt Hall, the center of IUP sciences since 1966.

The students may be in a lab—extracting tiny fossils from aging rocks, modeling and measuring water f low using a stream table, or calibrating equipment for their field expeditions.

The catch is, according to Farnsworth and others in the John J. and Char Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, not enough other people are aware of what IUP science students are learning and accomplishing.

Some labs in Weyandt are dedicated to just one science, and students and faculty members have relatively few opportunities to share their research with peers in other disciplines. Collaborative spaces for discussing ideas and planning joint projects are limited. And, those outside the college are unlikely to see IUP’s budding scientists at work.

All of that is expected to change in coming years with construction of IUP’s new, $90-million science complex, Kopchick Hall.

The building, along with the college it will house, is named for John Kopchick ’72, M’75 and Char Labay Kopchick ’73, who in April 2018 committed $23 million to IUP natural sciences and mathematics initiatives—the largest gift in school history. The building is set to open in 2023.

In September, university officials presided over the groundbreaking for the 142,536-square-foot building. That total includes 8,000 square feet of formal teaching space and 51,600 square feet of teaching laboratories and other spaces in which students will assist with faculty research. Other features include labs for anatomy and laser research, a planetarium, and a partial green roof for classes and research.

It’s the complex’s design that seems to excite Farnsworth and mathematics professor Rick Adkins the most. Both were part of a team of faculty members, staff members, and students who worked on the project with Pittsburgh architectural firm Perfido Weiskopf Wagstaff + Goettel. Their mission was to ensure that the building would be open and accessible to students and faculty members, that it would allow for more collaboration in scientific research, and that it would shine a spotlight on the achievements of IUP’s science students.

“We wanted it to showcase the science that happens at IUP—to students, to other faculty around campus, and to members of the public, as they come to or pass through our building,”

Adkins shepherded the design process, acting as liaison between faculty and architect.

“The faculty were very committed to putting science on display and to furthering interactive student research within the building,” he said.

This participatory learning and collaborative spirit are key elements in science education today, Adkins said. Students majoring in chemistry need to be proficient in that subject, but today they also need to know how a biologist or environmental scientist looks at the world.

Deanne Snavely, dean of Kopchick College, reinforced that point, saying the building’s design dovetails with the trends of working in teams and on interdisciplinary projects.

“The big problems facing humans today are very interdisciplinary,” Snavely said. “You might have an engineer, a biologist, and a chemist, all working on a project together.

They need to be able to communicate and understand each other enough to see how to work together effectively.”

Snavely detailed several ways Kopchick Hall will encourage interdisciplinary cooperation.

One is the new building’s multi-user instrumentation laboratories. These labs serve students in different classes, even in different majors, because they allow for proper storage of specialized instruments that the student researchers can share. For example, some biology, chemistry, and physics classes may all use a spectrometer, an instrument that uses light to study the properties of materials.

Specialized scientific equipment can be expensive, sometimes costing $100,000 or more. Sharing equipment in these labs can help IUP control costs by avoiding duplication, and that savings may go toward the purchase of other equipment.

Another benefit is that students will be exposed to and more apt to use a wider variety of scientific instruments.

“That is another very important aspect of the future of science—that there will be more and more instrumentation,” Snavely said. “Our students need to learn how to use these instruments and what to do with them. These multi-user instrumentation laboratories will make that possible.”

Snavely believes sharing equipment will promote better communication among students and faculty members, as well.

“When students and faculty go into this lab, they’ll talk to each other. They’ll say, ‘What are you doing?’” Snavely said. “People will learn more science, and they will interact with each other more through these laboratories.”

More collaborative experiences will also reduce barriers for students heading into careers or graduate programs, Farnsworth said. “When they get to locations where everyone is working together, where everyone is sharing equipment, they won’t have to learn those skills.”

Other design features in Kopchick Hall will help bring the work of IUP science students front and center.

For instance, many labs will be visible through large windows. Adkins described how students will be able to navigate the building’s corridors and, as an example, peek into the environmental engineering lab to watch their peers work with a f lume, a specially engineered structure for studying wave motion and water f low.

Or, he said, they may pass the imaging laboratory and see students using the scanning electron microscope, which allows them to magnify tiny objects at very high resolutions and view them on computer monitors. These images will also be projected on large screens mounted in the hallways, so visitors to Kopchick Hall will see science on display.

Window-fronted labs will also border the Oak Grove, so visitors and students passing by can peer inside and see active learning.

Within the building, this glimpse into the work of others could spur future research collaborations. From the outside, it could change the way non-science majors view the world, Snavely said.

“People will learn more science, and they will interact with each other more through these laboratories.”

Deanne Snavely

“So many people are sort of afraid of science,” she said. “They don’t know enough about it, and they want to stay away from science.”

Her hope is that seeing their peers at work in a biology or chemistry lab may pique their interest and cause them to try a science course.

The new science building also will have rooms that integrate lab and classroom spaces, which will help freshmen and sophomores especially to connect classroom learning and laboratory research.

“We definitely have a goal of engaging students early in their college experience in research activities, so they can be contributors to that laboratory work,” Adkins said. Those opportunities will make it easier for them to advance as upperclassmen.

Laboratories aren’t the only spaces designed with collaboration and communication in mind. Design committee members—largely at the request of students—also pushed for more informal areas for students and faculty members to meet and talk.

David Laughead, a December political science graduate from Ridley, was a biology student and the Student Government Association’s Kopchick College senator when he served on the building’s design committee.

The committee’s members were “very student led,” Laughead said. “Dean Snavely and Dr. Adkins worked with me to create a subcommittee to hear student concerns and what they wanted in the building.”

Chief among those requests, he said, was to make sure Kopchick Hall had adequate spaces for collaboration. In Weyandt, those areas were so few that science students often went to other buildings to work together.

Kopchick Hall will have alcoves in which students can study individually or work together, for example, on a PowerPoint presentation, syncing their laptops to an overhead monitor to visualize and share their ideas. They’ll also have access to common rooms adjacent to the labs.

“We wanted people to be able to walk out of the laboratories and find a place where they could sit and talk to each other,” Adkins said.

The complex will include rooms for tutoring and for students and faculty members to reserve for group projects. During vacant times, these rooms will offer space for students to study together.

Laughead is pleased with these features. “The new science building will have a lot more collaborative space,” he said.

While Kopchick Hall planners were cognizant of the needs of today’s science students, they were also aware that needs

will change for future generations, Snavely said. The life cycle of an academic science building is about 50 years (Weyandt Hall is almost 55). IUP’s new facility will have to adapt to trends in science over a similar period.

“This building will be very f lexible,” Snavely said. “For example, the research labs don’t really have walls between them.”

Some labs will be divided into sections by lab benches—worktables that provide a surface to conduct procedures and space to store necessary equipment. Because the benches are mobile, lab space can be configured according to changing needs.

“As scientific disciplines change and as IUP’s focus on the sciences changes, you can expand this area or contract that area,” Farnsworth said. “You can reinvent the space for different initiatives.”

Snavely expects that interdisciplinary learning and collaboration in the sciences will only increase in years to come. She and her colleagues think the Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics is ready for this future.

“You are not in a silo,” Farnsworth said. “You don’t do everything by yourself, especially in science these days. I want students to sit together and work, whether they are in class or out of class. That’s the future.”

For Kopchick College and its students, that future is looking bright.

“We wanted it to showcase the science that happens at IUP—to students, to other faculty around campus, and to members of the public, as they come to or pass through our building.”

The construction site in January, captured by a camera mounted on Wilson Hall. For a live view, go to IUP.edu/natsciandmath/kopchick-hall

Financially Speaking

Facing financial challenges, IUP announced in October an academic restructuring that would reduce its number of programs and employees (see page 5). Some have asked if funds earmarked for construction of Kopchick Hall could be used instead to save IUP jobs and programs.

In addition, Carl S. Weyandt Hall has served the IUP science community since 1966, and many of its mechanical, electrical, energy conservation, and safety systems have surpassed their life cycles. A feasibility study showed that bringing Weyandt to modern standards would be more expensive than building anew.

The answer is no. The Pennsylvania Department of General Services, and not IUP, pays for construction of academic buildings, like Kopchick Hall. Of the building’s $90-million cost, IUP was required to raise $9.7 million, which came from private donors. Those funds have since become the property of the Department of General Services and have been used toward the building’s design and construction.

Rendering of the lower atrium

KEITH BOYER

Behind the Names

IUP’s new science building and the college it will house are named for John Kopchick ’72, M’75 and Char Labay Kopchick ’73, who in 2018 committed to the largest gift in IUP history.

John is a professor of molecular biology and the Goll-Ohio Eminent Scholar at Ohio University; Char is the assistant dean of students there. John also developed a compound that became the basis of the drug Somavert, used to treat a growth hormone disorder.

In addition to the Kopchicks, other alumni who have contributed to IUP science and mathematics initiatives are being honored with named spaces:

• Cejka Planetarium, named for Tim Cejka ’73 and Debra Phillips Cejka ’73, whose gift fulfilled the Pennsylvania Department of General Services requirement to begin the building’s construction. Members of the National Campaign Cabinet for IUP’s Imagine Unlimited campaign, the Cejkas chaired the campaign component focused on science and math. An IUP trustee, Tim retired as president of Exxonmobil Exploration Company and vice president of Exxonmobil Corporation.

• Madia Department of Chemistry, named for Bill Madia ’69, M’71 and Audrey DeLaquil Madia ’70, who, in addition to making a transformative gift, chaired the National Campaign Cabinet of IUP’s Imagine Unlimited campaign. Bill retired after more than a decade as Stanford University’s vice president for the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and after 33 years at Battelle. An interior designer, Audrey is the founder of Classic Homes.

• Anderson Rotunda, named in honor of Bonnie Harbison Anderson ’80 and her husband, Steve, and in memory of her parents, Edward and Donna Harbison. Cofounder and chief executive officer of Veracyte, a molecular diagnostics company, Bonnie served on the National Campaign Cabinet of IUP’s Imagine Unlimited campaign.

• Admiral’s Study, a tutoring room named in honor of retired Rear Admiral CJ Jaynes ’79, M’82. A member of the US Navy for 33 years, she was the first woman ever to achieve Aviation Maintenance f lag rank. See more about her on page 33. m

Kopchick Hall’s west façade, facing the Oak Grove

Char and John Kopchick during the September groundbreaking

BRIAN HENRY

Historic Campaign Concludes

Six months early and in the midst of a crippling, worldwide pandemic, IUP wrapped up its Imagine Unlimited comprehensive fundraising campaign in February. And it did so by raising $81.36 million, exceeding the campaign’s $75-million goal by more than $6 million.

That total included two onetime gifts—both made by alumni—that are the largest in university history.

One of these gifts totaled $23 million and was given by John and Char Labay Kopchick. John received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from IUP in 1972 and 1975, respectively, and Char earned a bachelor’s degree in 1973. The other gift, for $7 million, came from two of Char’s IUP classmates, Tim Cejka and Debra Phillips Cejka.

Before the Kopchick and Cejka gifts, the largest one-time donation IUP had ever received was $3.26 million given by Bob Cook ’64 in the early 1990s to establish the Cook Honors College.

The cochairs of the Imagine Unlimited comprehensive campaign are Bill Madia ’69, M’71 and Audrey DeLaquil Madia ’70.

“We have been overwhelmed— but not surprised—by the generosity of our donors and the hard work of our volunteers and staff,” Bill Madia said. “Our donors have been very clear about the impact that IUP has had on their lives and the necessity they feel to support current and future students

because of how IUP has changed their lives.

“Despite a global pandemic and the financial challenges it created, our alumni and friends never faltered in their support of IUP and our students. In fact, alumni—many of whom were new donors—stepped up with concerns and gifts to help our students and university through the pandemic.”

More than $430,000 was raised in the last nine months of the campaign to benefit the Student

The donors—more than 22,000 of them—responded and eventually made nearly 63,700 donations to the campaign. Priorities included enhancing science and mathematics, academic excellence and innovation, student success, and leadership through athletic competition.

“The Imagine Unlimited comprehensive campaign is about imagining everything that IUP can be, positioning our students to be able to change the world,” IUP President

22,003 donors raised $81,359,941 for IUP students.

Assistance Fund. Originally designated the Emergency Response Fund, it has helped more than 450 students continue their studies despite pandemic-related problems.

In April 2018, the goal for the entire Imagine Unlimited comprehensive campaign had been hiked from the original amount of $40 million to $75 million. “It was in recognition of the commitment and affection that our alumni and friends have for this university,” Bill Madia said.

Michael Driscoll said. “Donors tell us that IUP helped them to realize their own potential, and they feel compelled to pay it forward, to provide new opportunities and support to students now and in the future.”

According to IUP’s vice president for University Advancement, Khatmeh Osseiran-Hanna, “Students are at the heart of everything we do, especially the Imagine Unlimited campaign. More than 7,700 of them have received direct support through

scholarships that are part of the campaign, and thousands more will be impacted in the future.”

In addition to the Kopchick and Cejka gifts, the campaign received nine gifts between $1 million and $6.9 million and 21,943 gifts of $25,000 or less.

“While we have received a number of million-dollar gifts, the majority of donations made to the Imagine Unlimited campaign are ones of less than $25,000,” Osseiran-Hanna said. “Donors, especially our alumni, have an extraordinary affinity and affection for IUP, and even if they don’t have great financial means, they want to help students and to return in some way the gifts that IUP has given to them.”

The average amount of a gift to the university increased nearly 85 percent between 2015 and 2020. Even giving by students increased, with 391 total student donors in 2015 growing to 1,062 in 2020, a 171 percent increase.

While the Imagine Unlimited comprehensive campaign was due to end in June, and donations are continuing, the campaign’s national cabinet decided to begin 2021 with good news and announced the drive’s conclusion.

More about the campaign and its monumental impact on the university as it moves forward will appear in the next issue of IUP Magazine.

A TIME-OUT

for Athletics

By Bob Fulton

The IUP campus took on a surreal appearance for much of last year: bleachers empty, scoreboards dark, cheerleaders with no one to cheer for.

Intercollegiate athletics at IUP came to a standstill for the first time since World War II—a global pandemic rather than a global conf lict bringing activity to a screeching halt.

The raging coronavirus left defending Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference tennis champion Joanna Stralka sitting on the sidelines, six-time all-conference cross country and track performer Sam Lenze without a race to run, and three-time all-conference running back Justice Evans unable to pad his eye-popping career yardage and touchdown totals.

For the first time in 75 years, sports schedules were wiped out. Spring and fall 2020 competition were the first to fall victim to the virus, and winter

sports were canceled by PSAC decree in November. Athletics are tentatively set to resume this spring. The emphasis is on tentatively, given how the pandemic has made a mockery of long-range planning.

“It’s awful when you have a kid who asks you, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ And you really can’t tell them, because you just don’t know,” swimming coach Chris Villa said in the fall.

Athletics were abruptly shut down in mid-March 2020 as COVID-19 cases surged in the United States. The IUP men’s (28-2) and women’s (28-3) basketball teams were thus denied the opportunity to host the Atlantic Region tournament at the Kovalchick Complex, a possible springboard to a berth in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight. Baseball and

Sam Lenze in February 2020

Joanna Stralka in fall 2019, the season she won the conference singles title

All-conference running back Justice Evans in fall 2018

softball players missed out on their annual spring break trips to the South. Swimmers

Rachel Johnson and Paige Mikesell, competing at nationals in Geneva, Ohio, left early when the four-day meet was canceled before reaching its halfway point. And men’s track participants, who were anticipating a big season, never had the opportunity to prove their optimism was justified.

“It was definitely devastating,” said Lenze, a senior distance specialist. “Our indoor track season [2019-20] went incredibly well, and we were really geared up to have a great outdoor season. It’s never a hundred percent sure that everything’s going to go great, but, dang, we were primed.”

Stralka, a sophomore from Sweden who captured the PSAC singles crown in the fall of 2019 and was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Atlantic Region Freshman of the Year, had hoped to claim a second title in 2020. Now she’s just hoping to play—period.

“Our main goal is to win the regional championship, but now we don’t know if there will be a championship, we don’t know if we’re going to have conference matches, we don’t know if we’ll be able to compete at all,” Stralka had said last fall. “So it’s really hard to keep the motivation and intensity at 100 percent during practice. We know we’re practicing for a goal, but we don’t know if we’ll actually be able to reach the goal, because of the pandemic.”

Evans, a senior who has piled up 2,443 rushing yards and scored 25 touchdowns, felt lost on idle autumn Saturdays when he typically would have been scampering over the Miller Stadium turf.

“It’s actually been kind of stressful,” he said. “It’s hard for everybody, not playing. But you’ve just got to stay focused, control what you can control, and be ready for when they do let us play.”

Which might be soon for some IUP athletes. The PSAC has rescheduled championships for cross country, a fall sport, and swimming, a winter sport, both of which the NCAA considers low-risk activities, for this spring. Teams will engage in abbreviated seasons, followed by championship events in late March for cross country and late April for swimming.

The university was expecting to move forward with its regular spring sports seasons as IUP Magazine went to press. But there are no guarantees. That kind of uncertainty has been gnawing at IUP’s athletes since last March.

“It does take a toll on their mental health and wellness— the unknown, the unforeseen, wondering if they’ll compete again,” said Todd Garzarelli, athletics director.

Athletes were permitted to begin workouts—in small groups only—when they returned to campus for the fall semester, to provide them some slight sense of normalcy. The university formed a COVID-19 task force, composed of coaches, administrators, and health professionals, to offer support and guidance. In addition, the Athletics Department launched a virtual speaker series to help athletes improve their skills, knowledge, and overall wellbeing outside of sports.

“We wanted to build a platform, an educational platform

to really connect with the student-athletes in a manner that previously we weren’t able to, because they were so busy with games and competition,” Garzarelli said. “We wanted to engage them in a different manner, so we developed a speaker series to give them tips and tools to help them navigate this tough time.”

Those Zoom events have touched on a variety of topics: mental health and wellness, social injustice, voter registration, coping with the loss of identity as an athlete, and leadership within a sports team and within society in general. Renowned motivational speaker and best-selling author Jon Gordon addressed athletes in November.

“Attendance at these meetings is optional,” Villa said, “but our turnout has been phenomenal. I think, on the first one, we had just about every athlete accounted for. So they’re really taking advantage of the services and things that we’re offering them.”

Even if it’s only lending an ear.

“Everyone’s been awesome,” Lenze said. “You know, we’re students—we’re going to make mistakes. We’re just a bunch of kids who want to see our friends. So when the restrictions started coming into play, and we started crossing some boundaries, everyone was very supportive, very understanding, just super compassionate. They knew how much we were struggling and how much losing that social aspect was just killing us. They care about us—that’s the one thing we got. They’re all about, how can we help you?”

Administrators and coaches have been providing that kind of support since last March, when sports at IUP came to a halt for the first time since World War II.

“We’ve been very transparent from the beginning with our student-athletes,” Garzarelli said. “The bottom line is, we’re always going to put them in a position to be successful on and off the field. They came here to IUP to compete for and win championships, and hopefully we can get back to competition on the shorter side and give them that opportunity.” m

“It’s hard for everybody, not playing. But you’ve just got to stay focused, control what you can control, and be ready for when they do let us play.”

“The bottom line is, we’re always going to put them in a position to be successful on and off the field.”

Community of Cultures

By Marilyn Kukula

In the fall, diverse groups of students walked the campus on a mission, accompanied by IUP President Michael Driscoll, other administrators, and faculty members. Their purpose was to explore whether their particular cultures were represented on campus and to point out where the university may be falling short. IUP’s leaders, in turn, got to see the campus through the eyes of these students.

Problems were uncovered, and plans for change are in the works.

Nabiha Islam ’18, who is pursuing a master’s degree in criminology, was among those who took part in this “walking audit” of campus. A graduate assistant in IUP’s Social Equity and Title IX office, she helped compile notes from students’ observations.

Efforts like these appear to be working. Since coming from Long Island to IUP’s Cook Honors College as a freshman six years ago, Islam has noticed changes at IUP.

“Coming here was the biggest culture shock for me,” she said. “I definitely think we’re getting better. It feels like there’s less tension than there was before on campus between different racial groups and ethnic groups.”

The walking audit is one example of work being done all over campus to achieve that change, said Elise Glenn, IUP’s chief diversity and inclusion officer and Title IX coordinator.

“These are ongoing strategies to develop the culture, not just one-offs,” Glenn said. “Every time we do something, it’s part of a purposeful effort to grow our culture. All of these actions fit under that umbrella.”

The university’s efforts can be grouped into three main areas of cultural development: training and education, empowering students (in the classroom, on the athletic field, and in their social lives), and engaging all members of the IUP community in a vibrant, inclusive, equitable culture.

“I do truly believe that training is one of our most effective tools if we’re going to make the culture change that we need to make,” Glenn said.

“If we don’t understand how Black and Brown students feel, how students from other marginalized groups feel, what obstacles they face, and address those, we can’t make the improvement in our culture that is needed.”

Bringing diversity facilitator

Justin Brown M’13 to campus three times to talk with students, student leaders,

and employees has been a highlight of those training efforts, as has the work IUP faculty and staff members have done on the Difficult Dialogues Project, which offers guidance in conversing with people of different viewpoints.

Initiatives like Breaking the Barrier discussions that tackle diversity-related topics aim to empower students, as does support for student groups like UBORA Men, which helps male students of color realize their full potential.

In October, the Anthropology Department presented “Is Race Real?” a program examining the role of race in society. This spring, a panel discussion on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the professional workplace is planned, featuring alumni and others who are active in that field.

Student leaders, like Islam and like Austin Marsico ’20, who is working toward a master’s degree in school counseling, also are forces for positive change on campus.

As former vice president of IUP’s Diversity Peer Educator Program, Marsico has given presentations to student groups—most recently a fraternity and a women’s sports team—on topics such as race, gender, and ageism.

Through a graduate assistantship, Marsico is starting a peer mentoring program for students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other sexual identities. Marsico is also working with Tedd Cogar of the Center for Multicultural Student Leadership and Engagement to assist IUP’s Pride Alliance organization.

“I’ve seen change come, especially in the last year,” said Marsico, who has two bachelor’s degrees from IUP, one in religious studies and the other in English literature. “Professors are really interested in listening to students and making things better for everyone.”

Islam has also been involved through her assistantships on campus. Last year, she helped with the Culture Café, which was started to give international students a comfortable setting in which to ask questions and to get to know others on campus. This year, she is helping organize a new group, IUP Students against Racism.

“I’m definitely happy I came here. It came to be my home away from home,” Islam said. “I think there’s a bright future for IUP, going up from here.” m

Nabiha Islam

Austin Marsico

UBORA Men executive board, from left, Samaj Schell, Malik Turner, and Davis Kazako

ACHIEVEMENTS

• The Pennsylvania Principals Association gave Susan Sibert, Professional Studies in Education, the Frank S. Manchester Award for journalistic excellence for her work on Pennsylvania Administrator magazine.

Starting the Dialogue

Veronica Watson, professor of English and convener of the Frederick Douglass Institute Collaborative, secured funding from the 400 Years of African American History Commission to offer two programs across the State System. One, “Let Me Read You Your Rights,” aims to improve students’ understanding of their constitutional rights and increase their positive interactions with law enforcement. The other, “I Fear for My Life,” pairs students with faculty mentors to collect materials about the deaths of unarmed African Americans at the hands of police for a book of the same name.

Faculty Awards

• NACADA, the Global Community for Academic Advising, recognized Kalani Palmer, a faculty member in the Human Development and Family Science program, with its Region 2 Excellence in Advising award for 2021.

• In September, art faculty member Sean Derry won first prize in sculpture at Art of the State, an annual exhibition at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. His winning piece, to borrow breath, was an intricate kinetic installation that mimicked breathing.

• For her service to Region 2 of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Nancy PipkinHutchinson, Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance, received the Gold Medallion, the highest regional award. This spring, she concludes her three-year term as chair of design, technology, and management for the regional festival.

New Partnerships

• IUP and Westmoreland County Community College recently signed a dual admissions agreement, streamlining the process for students who earn an associate degree at the community college to complete a bachelor’s degree at IUP.

• IUP and Point Park University recently enabled students to receive a BS in human resources management from Point Park and an MA in human resources and employee relations from IUP in five years. Students accepted into this “4+1” program begin taking graduate classes during their senior year at Point Park.

Pivoting Prize

At the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s 2020 Tech 50 Awards in November, IUP received the “Top COVID Pivot” award. With coronavirus cases on the rise in March 2020, IUP—in 10 days—moved 1,500 courses taught by nearly 650 faculty members from in-person to remote delivery.

At the Eagles’ Helm

An IUP assistant more than a decade ago, Nick Sirianni was named head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles in January. He’s the third member of the IUP football family to earn an NFL head coaching position, after Jim Haslett ’91 (New Orleans Saints and St. Louis Rams) and Ben McAdoo ’00 (New York Giants).

Coveted Coverage

Last year, the Mid-Atlantic chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences nominated Gail Wilson’s Digital Sports Production class for a College Production Award in the student production, live sports category. The nomination was for the class’s coverage of the 2019 Coal Bowl, in which IUP defeated Cal U.

Gone Platinum

IUP’s chapter of Phi Kappa Phi honor society was one of only 21 chapters to receive a Circle of Excellence Platinum Distinction Award from the national organization. Founded in 1993, the chapter has 393 members, including alumni.

Constitution in Crisis

In January, political science faculty members David Chambers and Gwen Torges lent their expertise to an IUP Q&A series, Constitution in

Crisis. Topics included free speech, impeachment, and sedition. The series is available at IUP.edu/news-events/ constitution-in-crisis.

New Trustee

Anne White of Indiana has been appointed to the IUP Council of Trustees and will serve through 2026. She is a vice president in human resources at S&T Bank.

Marketing Results

IUP’s Marketing and Communications Division recently won six Education Digital Marketing Awards and three CASE District II Accolades Awards for projects including IUP’s Flexible Identity System, the 2019 President’s Report, the 2018-19 Report to Donors, and several videos.

Rankings

• Princeton Review’s Best Colleges guidebook, 20th consecutive year

• Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education’s College 2021 Rankings

• U.S. News & World Report’s Best National Universities and the Top Performers in Social Mobility

• Money Magazine’s Best Colleges for Your Money 2020

• College Magazine, top 10 colleges and universities in Pennsylvania

• MA in Criminology, MEd in Mathematics Education, and MS in Nursing online programs, U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 Best Online Programs

• Master of Business Administration program, the Princeton Review’s Best Business Schools for 2021: On-Campus MBA Programs

INDIANA GAZETTE

KEITH BOYER

Milestone Generosity Recognizing Scholastic Excellence

Leaving a Legacy

Dolores “Dotsy” Spinelli Gigliotti ’70 and her husband, Vincent, both grew up in Indiana. Dotsy’s relationship with IUP was established early. She and her brothers, George and Gregory, attended Keith School on campus. Their father, George, founded the Guidance and Counseling Department at IUP, and their mother, Ruth, received her undergraduate degree in public school nursing in 1962 and her master’s degree in school counseling in 1964.

George earned his degree in mathematics education from IUP in 1968. Dotsy and Greg graduated in 1970—Dotsy in elementary education and Greg in biology. With his degree, Greg went to work for the FBI in the Hairs and Fibers Lab and soon was recruited as a special agent. On March 15, 1973, he was killed in the line of duty at 27.

After they moved to New Mexico, Dotsy and Vince contacted an estate attorney to update their wills. When asked what they would like to have happen to their estate, Dotsy remembered a feature in IUP Magazine about an alumnus who had made an estate gift. That was the spark.

The decision to include IUP in their estate plans was easy, they said. They trusted IUP to make the right decisions—to choose the right students to receive scholarship support, to be inclusive, and to help those in need. Their estate gift will support the Gregory W. Spinelli Memorial Criminology Fund and the Dr. George L. Spinelli Memorial Scholarship and will be used to establish the Dr. George L. Spinelli Enhancement Fund for the Department of Counseling.

“Working with IUP to shape these funds has been a great experience and a continuation of my brother’s and father’s time at IUP,” Dotsy said. “We’re happy we are able to carry on their legacy in perpetuity.”

Fifteen years ago, Barry Day ’72 established the IUP Outstanding Computer Science Student Award to support students who excelled in that major.

“The award recognizes not only scholastic excellence,” Day said, “but also the importance of being a community citizen—those who have made significant achievements in computer science endeavors and contributions to mankind.”

Through a recent planned gift from Day, the award will continue to motivate IUP computer science students to work toward becoming well-rounded professionals.

Originally from Somerset, Day believes the discipline and rigor associated with his IUP mathematics experience have served him well in the varied and challenging assignments he has had in his career. He often recommends IUP to others, he said, and periodically has welcomed IUP computer science interns into his organizations.

IUP’s Imagine Unlimited campaign inspired the university community—both on and off campus—to come together in support of IUP’s future. The campaign will enable IUP to step forward as a national leader by transforming the student experience through scholarships, program enhancements, and new and modernized facilities. Learn more on page 17 and at IUP.edu/imagineunlimited

The university community is grateful for the following gifts and pledges of $25,000 or more, made through the Foundation for IUP. The gifts described at left are included.

Dolores Spinelli Gigliotti ’70 and Vincent Gigliotti, a planned gift in excess of $2.3 million to support the Gregory W. Spinelli Memorial Criminology Fund and the Dr. George L. Spinelli Memorial Scholarship and to establish the Dr. George L. Spinelli Enhancement Fund for the Department of Counseling

William Scheeren ’68 and Judith Scheeren, a planned gift in excess of $1.3 million to support the Dr. and Mrs. William O. Scheeren Scholarship for students in the College of Education and Communications, the Dr. and Mrs. William O. Scheeren Enhancement Fund for the IUP Labyrinth Center, and the Dr. and Mrs. William O. Scheeren Enhancement Fund for the IUP Literacy Center

Raymond Kinter ’67, M’68, a planned gift of $750,000 to establish the Raymond C. Kinter Fund for the Allegheny Arboretum at IUP, providing financial support for the arboretum and for public art on campus

Charles Winwood ’69 and Christine Villella Winwood ’71, a planned gift in excess of $206,000 to establish the Christine Villella Winwood Scholarship for students pursuing a degree in the Department of English and the Charles W. Winwood Scholarship for students pursuing a degree in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice

David Brown ’76 and Cynthia Hawkins Brown ’77, a planned gift of $175,000 to establish the David E. Brown and Cynthia

A. Brown Scholarship to support students in these programs: Early Childhood and Special Education, BSEd; Mathematics Education, BSEd; Management Information Systems/Information Systems, BS; Computer Science/Software Engineering, BS; and Middle-Level Education, BSEd

James Curtis ’74 and Ann Curtis, a pledge of $50,000 to support the expansion of facilities in downtown Punxsutawney for the Academy of Culinary Arts

Garry Hess and Linda Hess, a gift of $42,000 to support the Glenn C. Hess ’37 and Virginia Niessner Hess Scholarship for freshman students in the Early Childhood and Special Education or Middle-Level Education programs

Dorothy Salsgiver, a planned gift of $35,000 to establish the Dorothy Peterman Salsgiver Scholarship for Nursing and Allied Health for full-time juniors or seniors in the Department of Nursing and Allied Health

Pamela Hale McGuire ’69 and John McGuire, a gift of $30,000 to support the McGuire Enhancement Fund for the IUP Literacy Center

Leonard A. and Mary Jane Schafer Foundation, a gift of $30,000 to support the Fund for the IUP Library and the Student Assistance Fund

An anonymous pledge of $25,000 to establish the IUP Alumni Veterans Scholarship for Athletics to support student-athletes, with preference given to students from Cambria County and to students with a minimum grade point average of 3.0

Robert Basehore ’71 and Kathie Kuvinka Basehore ’71, a $25,000 pledge to establish the Bob and Kathie Basehore Boardwalk Bowl Scholarship to support participating members of the IUP football team

Gerald Clark ’69 and Cheryl Dunlap Clark ’68, a planned gift of $25,000 to establish the Jerry and Cheryl Clark Boardwalk Bowl Scholarship to support participating members of the IUP football team

Barry Day ’72, a planned gift of $25,000 to support the Barry Day Outstanding Computer Science Student Award for seniors enrolled full-time and pursuing a degree in computer science

William Grant ’75 and Mary Grant, a gift of $25,000 to support improvements to the weight room and training equipment

Charles Hasse ’71 and Kathleen Hasse, a pledge of $25,000 to establish the Charlie and Kate Hasse Boardwalk Bowl Scholarship to support participating members of the IUP football team

CJ Jaynes ’79, M’82, a gift of $25,000 to support the Natural Sciences and Mathematics Building Fund (see page 33)

IUP Alumni Association, gifts totaling $25,000 to support the Student Assistance Fund

Ruth Riesenman ’64, a pledge of $25,000 to support the Riesenman Family Scholarship, the University Museum Enhancement Fund, and men’s basketball

ALL ABOUT ALUMNI

Calling for COVID-19 Stories

How has the coronavirus pandemic changed your life, your family, or your community? IUP Special Collections and University Archives is collecting correspondence, documents, email, journals, personal ref lections, scrapbooks, newspaper articles, and more about COVID-19 for use by future researchers. Send materials related to your experience to Harrison Wick, IUP Special Collections librarian and university archivist, by email at hwick@iup.edu or by mail to Stapleton Library, Room 302, 431 S. 11th St., Indiana, PA 15705.

1950s

In her room at Concordia of Monroeville, Dorothy Jakovac Wratcher ’53 proudly displays her Indiana State Teachers College/IUP memorabilia, including a stuffed bear, pioneer medallion, and yearbooks, she said. Even her wedding included two college friends; Jean Vairo Delia ’52, Dorothy’s sorority sister, was maid of honor, and Mary Lou Kline Hansen ’53, Dorothy’s roommate, was a bridesmaid. Dorothy said she still keeps in touch with some of her classmates.

1960s

Last spring, Los Angeles-based composer and tuba player Jim Self ’65 released a new album, The Light Fantastic, with guitarist John Chiodini. A performer on more than 1,500 soundtracks for motion pictures and television, Jim played the “Voice of the Mother Ship” in Close Encounters of the Third

Kind. He is a 2003 recipient of IUP’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

After more than 50 years as a speech pathologist, MaryAnn Uncapher Murphy ’67, M’71 has retired. Most recently, she worked at Eastern New Mexico Medical Center in Roswell.

1970s

Perhaps best remembered in the IUP community as the first male Homecoming queen, having won the title in 1971, Tim Leventry died August 27, 2020. During his time at IUP, Tim was an art major and a cartoonist for the Penn student newspaper. Later making his home in Brea, California, he became known for his vintage hand lettering on vehicles, particularly Volkswagen buses.

Archbishop David Mahaffey, who had been the ruling hierarch of the Diocese of Alaska of the Orthodox Church in America since 2014, died November 27, 2020. He attended IUP in the early 1970s.

Sara “Sam” Wallace Little ’74 died June 18, 2020, a year after achieving her vision of establishing the Little Art Bank, a center for the arts in Hanover for people of all ages and abilities. A teacher at Hanover High School for 38 years, she was named Pennsylvania’s 2006 Secondary Art Educator of the Year and a 2013 recipient of WGAL’s Teacher Impact Award.

Retired from the US Army Reserves and from ANW Home Inspection Service, a business he owned in Washington state, Gregory Mueller M’76 has spent recent years traveling, including to Spain and Germany in 2019. A fourth-degree member of the Knights of Columbus, he also repairs walkers and other equipment for those with physical limitations.

In May 2018, Diane Stazer Sabatos ’76 retired from Clearwater (Florida) Central Catholic High School. She taught math for 28 years and taught a course in the International Baccalaureate program. Now, she helps her husband with his home-based travel business. Together, they have traveled throughout Europe, the US, and the Caribbean. A photo appears on the Alumni Extra website, www.iup.edu/magazine/ alumniextra.

In August, Poisoned Pen Press released book four in the popular Ryan DeMarco mystery series, by Randall Silvis M’76 In No Woods So Dark as These, former police sergeant DeMarco and his girlfriend are lured back into the fray after three bodies are found in their close-knit community. Randall received IUP’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001 and an honorary doctorate in 2007. Learn more at www.randallsilvis.com

Lynn Bladel-Iseman ’77 shared that her late husband, David Iseman ’77, had a book published posthumously. Released in June 2020, Copperhead’s Demons tells the story of a wholesome NFL linebacker who suddenly faces a host of temptations. A journalist for more than 30 years, David wrote the book between chemotherapy treatments before his death on October 8, 2019. Parents of five, he and Lynn were married 43 years.

Last spring, Craig Pennington ’77 published his second novel, West of the Alleghenies. The book is in part a historical account of one of his ancestors, Fergus Moorhead, the Indiana area’s first permanent settler, who was captured by Native Americans in 1777 and sold to the British. Craig added to the story by inserting Moorhead into other historical events during the year he was away from his family. An Indiana

native, Craig now lives in Bradenton, Florida. His books are available through major retailers.

A victim assistance specialist with Homeland Security Investigations in Newark, Lynne Wilson-Bruchet ’77 led a five-day training for Armenian law enforcement officers on investigating crimes involving minors. She was invited by the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Office of the US Embassy in Yerevan.

Semiretired for four years, Gary Wotherspoon ’77 and his wife, Thalia, live in Garrett County, Maryland. As seasonal employees at Deep Creek Lake State Park, they have been on the front lines of what the coronavirus pandemic has made a very busy park year. “We have seen record attendance both in our camping area and our day use (beach) area,” Gary wrote. “Our facilities are overwhelmed.” Gary said he looked forward to resuming his pre-pandemic activities of singing in the community chorus and playing clarinet in local bands.

In September, IUP music faculty member Kevin Eisensmith ’78, along with Jason Allison ’98 and Geoff Durbin ’07, performed Modest Mussorgsky’s “Great Gate of Kiev” in a virtual ensemble of “131 All-Star Brass Musicians.”

After a 40-year career with the US Department of Defense (Navy), Jim Fawber ’79 recently retired as a computer specialist. His work required frequent travel to 11 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, and three foreign countries.

Last February, Michael Warriner ’79 became the controller of Hank Haney Golf in Dallas.

Forty years after the Gashouse Gang won the 1980-81 IUP men’s intramural championship, former team officer Dale Hosack ’81 remembers that season fondly.

“If you weren’t in a fraternity, intramurals was kind of your connection device,” said Dale, who recently shared photos and a Penn story by Jeff Smiley ’81 from that winning season.

Avid baseball fans, Dale and team president Ken Wiley ’81 picked the team’s name. It was the nickname of the 1930s St. Louis Cardinals, made up of “average players who worked together to win,” Dale said.

After a top-10 finish in the Gang’s first year, 197980, its leaders focused on recruitment—finding players with certain strengths (for example, the best badminton player on campus), as well as members who would show up for any event. The strategy paid off, as Gashouse Gang edged out Kappa Sigma by four points to win the title.

Now, Dale is chief financial officer for Texas’s Western Container Corporation,

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1980s

the world’s second-largest producer of plastic bottles for Coca-Cola. He’s also a board member for Special Olympics Texas and a member of IUP’s Houston regional advancement council.

The ties he developed during intramural sports 40 years ago have been lasting—and far reaching. In the mid-’80s in Chicago, he met a team member from a later year after spotting his Gashouse Gang jacket.

He has also shared lessons in teamwork with young accountants. Dale was the Gang’s softball pitcher, but he also filled spots in water polo, table tennis, and golf—any event in which he was needed. “You do what it takes to win,” he said. “Sometimes you’re the star. Sometimes you’re just a person who shows up.”

According to the Penn story, on the women’s side that season, Thumbs-Up won its fourth-straight championship, beating its closest challenger, the 42nd Street Hustlers, by 93 points. Mack Attack finished as the top dorm team. If you have memories of IUP intramural sports you’d like to share, email IUP archivist Harrison Wick at hwick@iup.edu.

An educator for more than 30 years, Mark Hazlett ’80, M’82 recently published his second academic book, American Indian Sovereignty: The Struggle for Religious, Cultural, and Tribal Independence Mark earned his PhD in political science and has taught at colleges and universities in Tennessee, Mississippi, Minnesota, and Louisiana, and later at the high-school level in Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana. The book is described as a “passion project, ref lecting his heritage, life’s work, and deep interest in all issues impacting the First Peoples of North America.”

Celia Hooper Miles D’80 recently published her 10th novel, The Skeleton at the Old Painted Mill: A Marcy Dehanne Grist Mill Mystery. This is the third installment in her mystery series featuring Dehanne, a former college instructor turned marketing consultant for old grist mills. The series is set in North Carolina, where Celia also makes her home. Learn more at www.celiamiles.com.

Cofounder and executive director of Let’s Play America, an organization that promotes play at any age, Pat Abramski Rumbaugh ’80 said the coronavirus pandemic inspired her to get creative. In addition to leading virtual play days, her organization created the Play Day Handbook, a guide for communities to hold their own events. The book is available through www. letsplayamerica.org for $20.20. Pat was also interviewed for a podcast on playgrounding.com in August and had a column on playgroundprofessionals.com/ play in September.

Clarence Carter ’81 was recently appointed commissioner of Tennessee’s Department of Human Services. He previously served as director of the Office of Family Assistance in the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families.

Inspired by an editorial in Susquehanna Life magazine encouraging readers to create their own adventure, attorney Daniel Holmes ’83 left Pennsylvania and his job at Conagra Brands to practice in the District Attorney’s office in Grants, New Mexico. He shared his story in the Spring 2019 edition of Susquehanna Life

In the fall, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics honored David Holben ’85 and Sherri Jones ’87 with 2020 Medallion Awards for their service to the academy and to the nutrition and dietetics profession. David is a professor of nutrition and hospitality management, the Gillespie Distinguished Scholar, and director of the Office of Food and Nutrition Security at the University of Mississippi. Sherri is a senior improvement specialist at UPMC Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh.

A professor at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where he has taught for 23 years, Rick DiMuzio ’86 has a new album, Time Travelers. It features his tenor and soprano saxophone music and nine original compositions, ranging from jazz trio to quintet. He lives in Reading, Massachusetts, with his wife, Jenny Tabler DiMuzio ’88, M’90. More about him is at www. rickdimuziomusic.com

Founder of Pinnacle Financial Strategies, an independent wealth management firm

The Gashouse Gang, 1980-81 COURTESY OF DALE HOSACK

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Fund. “This has been a very enriching experience,” he wrote, “allowing me to better understand China’s economic and financial system and to provide policy advice to key government agencies.” Some of his insights are ref lected in two edited book volumes: Modernizing China: Investing in Soft Infrastructure (2016) and The Future of China’s Bond Market (2019).

Currently, he is leading a project on China-Africa economic linkages and is heading the IMF’s India team.

For the past seven years, Alfred Schipke ’82 has headed the China office for the International Monetary

in Wexford, Vic Conrad ’87 was again named a Five Star Wealth Manager in Pittsburgh Magazine. Vic has received the recognition each year since its start in 2012. In November, he served as a guest speaker for a virtual meeting of IUP’s Student Accounting Association.

Married in November 2019, Douglas Kroll ’87 and Daniel Iyari Lopez have started a fine art photography business.

In October, Bonnie Krensavage Smith ’88 joined Tech Data Corporation, a Florida-based technology distributor, as chief information officer. She previously served as vice president and CIO for Lear Corporation.

1990s

A national board-certified counselor, Joy Himmel M’91 was recently elected to a second three-year term on the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care’s board of directors. A surveyor for the organization since 2009, she also serves on the faculty

Having come to IUP from Germany, Alfred said his undergraduate experience

for its Achieving Accreditation education program.

In October, global technology company Shutterstock named Sara Roche Birmingham ’92 its chief human resources officer. She previously served as global head of human resources for multimedia news provider Thomson Reuters.

Rich Jensen ’92 recently earned his doctorate in educational leadership from Liberty University and was named CEO of Agora Cyber Charter School in King of Prussia.

In November, Danielle Mashaw Brown ’93 became senior vice president and chief information officer for Michigan-based Whirlpool Corporation’s Global Information Systems. She previously served as vice president and CIO for Brunswick Corporation.

Last February, Lawrence Gelb ’93 was named Global Environment, Health, Safety, and Facilities vice president for Pall Corporation. In 2018, he

significantly shaped his career. “IUP not only exposed me to different ways of thinking,” he wrote, “but also sparked my interest in international finance and public policy.”

He went on to earn a master’s degree from Harvard and a PhD in economics from Germany’s University of DuisburgEssen. In addition to working for the IMF, he has taught international finance at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and at the National School of Development at Peking University.

construction. He was recently recognized as a top contractor in the Mars/Cranberry area.

Through a virtual format last fall, IUP’s Student Accounting Association welcomed guest speakers including Heath Winsheimer ’95, assurance partner at BDO; Brady Wise ’95, executive vice president, head of enterprise risk management, and chief operating officer of independent risk management for PNC; and Chuck Oshurak ’98, a partner at Arnett Carbis Toothman’s Pittsburgh office.

earned a master’s degree from Harvard. He and his wife, Jelica, live in Lake Mary, Florida, and have three children and two grandchildren.

Paul Ricci ’93 has published a book, Wuthering Depths in Johnstown: By the Numbers, which examines trends in the city’s population, politics, health, education, and more. The book is available through MadeinSomersetCounty.com

Following its most recent golf outing last August, the Bill Sugra Memorial Fund has raised more than $884,000 in 19 years for charitable causes. The event honors Bill Sugra ’93, who died in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. The next outing is August 27 at Green Pond Country Club in Bethlehem. Learn more at www. BillSugraMemorialFund.com.

After three years as a safety inspector for an insurance company in New England, Dave Otto ’95 formed Otto Construction, specializing in kitchen, bath, and basement remodeling and deck

Last fall, Melanie Monaghan Bradburn ’96, aka Melanie Taylor from 100.7 Star’s Bubba Show, discussed her 20-year broadcasting career in Pittsburgh with IUP communications media and journalism students.

In March, Kraig Kiehl M’96 was appointed deputy secretary for regulatory programs within the Pennsylvania Department of State. Previously, he served the department as regional director of the Bureau of Enforcement and Investigation. Retired from the US Army with 23 years of active military service, Kraig held leadership roles with the Pennsylvania National Guard Counterdrug Joint Task Force. He lives in Harrisburg with his wife, Renae, and their two dogs.

Mike Otto ’96 is lead graphic designer for C. H. Robinson, a Fortune 500 logistics company based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Last year, Kathyann Corl M’97 retired as director of Community Relations at Keystone Human Services Mental Health and received the Pennsylvania Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services’ Distinguished Career Award. During her 23 years at Keystone, she earned certifications as a psychiatric

Alfred Schipke at Peking University in Beijing

COURTESY OF ALFRED SCHIPKE

In 2017, Julie Swenson Bishop ’91, an IUP food and nutrition graduate, joined Allison Monette in starting O’MY Dairy Free

Gelato, which creates allergy-friendly products free of artificial ingredients. Julie, who serves as chief operating officer, said the Richmond, Virginia-based company went from having products in 100 stores at the beginning of 2019 to 1,500 stores today. All f lavors, including new additions I Love Chocolate and Cake Walk, are made with nine or fewer ingredients. Before starting O’MY, Julie worked for Ukrop’s Super Markets and Homestyle Foods for 25 years. A native of Cherry Tree, she also earned a master’s in food science and technology from Virginia Tech.

in Pittsburgh, connected to the canal towpath in Cumberland, Maryland, and finished in Washington, DC’s Georgetown after four and a half days of travel. Brian said the ride was inspired by the book I’ll Push You, about two lifelong friends, one in a wheelchair, who together traveled the Camino de Santiago in Spain.

was “Baby Jack’s Journey,” which chronicled a family’s experience through the loss of a child who lived 81 days. The Independent competed against other newspapers with a daily circulation up to 7,999.

Known as Terry Van Horn when she worked in IUP’s Office of Advising and Testing, Terry Girardi ’99 died June 23, 2020. She retired in 2006 after 14 years of service.

2000s

Last summer, Shelly Clevenger ’04, M’06, D’12 joined the faculty of Texas’s Sam Houston State University as chair of the nation’s first Department of Victim Studies. Previously, she served eight years on the Illinois State University faculty and received numerous awards for her teaching and for her research, focused on sexual assault, intimate partner abuse, and cyber-victimization.

Friends since 1989, when they lived in Esch Hall, Brian Mannas ’91 and Michael Lutte ’92 got together in summer 2019 for a 335-mile bike ride on the Great Allegheny Passage and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath. They started their trip at the Point

rehabilitation professional and as an advanced-level trainer in Wellness Recovery Action Plans. In retirement, she is writing a book to help those who have lost a family member to heal and find hope.

Orchestra director at St Mary’s County Public Schools in Maryland, AnneMarie Kasnekaw Karnbach ’97 was recently elected president of the

Married to Donna Mooney Mannas ’91, Brian is a finance and marketing executive with Rewards Network in Philadelphia. A retired US Navy commander, Mike is married to Susan Srsic Lutte and is a principal safety compliance engineer at Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West Miff lin.

After more than 20 years at newspapers, Geoff Morrow ’01 left in 2018 to become a media specialist with the Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus, working at the Capitol in Harrisburg. Last August, he married Brandie Kessler. They had met while on staff at the York Daily Record, and Brandie, too, left newspapers to become a media specialist with the Pennsylvania House Democrats. They married informally atop the South Street Parking Garage, overlooking the Capitol, with a handful of socially distanced witnesses and with their French pointer, Pae. Geoff said they’ll hold a larger celebration with friends and family once they can congregate safely again. In October, they moved into their new home in uptown Harrisburg. Photos appear on the Alumni Extra website, www.iup.edu/magazine/ alumniextra

Managing director at Deloitte’s Tampa office, Christy Casado Pipes ’01 was a guest speaker last fall during a virtual meeting of IUP’s Student Accounting Association.

Mike Griffiths ’07 wrote IUP Magazine that his friend Anthony Stilianidis ’08 died January 3, 2021. Anthony wore the T-shirt emblazoned with a U at the center of the IUP gameday trio that also featured Mike and Rick Gerlach ’06, wearers of the I and the P, respectively. Then-and-now photos of the three from IUP Homecoming in 2005 and in 2016 appeared in the Fall-Winter 2016 edition of the magazine and are now shared on the Alumni Extra website, www.iup.edu/magazine/ alumniextra

Through a virtual format last fall, Bryan Moore ’07 was a guest speaker in IUP professor Daniel Lawson’s Finance Seminar class. He is managing director of public markets for the South Carolina Retirement System Investment Commission.

2010s

Maryland Orchestra Directors Association. An advocacy group for string students, MODA is affiliated with the Maryland Music Educators Association.

Amy Pryor Knapp ’97 was named Best News Writer in the 2019 Ohio Associated Press Media Editors newspaper competition for her work at the Independent in Massillon. Among her entries

A lecturer in Penn State’s Department of Advertising and Public Relations since 2017, Bill Zimmerman ’03 recently received the Deans’ Excellence Award for Integrated Scholarship in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. He was recognized for spearheading a new division of Penn State’s student-run media production agency and for his weekly podcast, Happy Valley Hustle, among other contributions.

At the 2020 Women in Business and the Professions World Awards, Brittany Scott ’11 was recognized as Outstanding Female Professional of the Year Silver Winner in the Sales/ Business Development category. A Butler native, she is a vice president at Florida software company KnowBe4 and founder of a nonprofit, Gals4STEM, which encourages girls to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math careers.

In December, Netf lix released Nate—A One Man Show, starring award-winning performer Natalie Palamides ’12. Her title character has been described as an “alpha male learning to express emotion and understand the rules of

Brian Mannas, left, and Mike Lutte at the Point

Last summer, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History selected Matt Gresick ’02 as Maryland’s 2020 History Teacher of the Year. Matt is in his 20th year of teaching and in his 15th at Reservoir High School in the Howard County Public School System. His courses include Modern World History and World Religions, which in a normal year sends students on field trips to a mosque, synagogue, Catholic church, Buddhist temple, Hindu temple, and Sikh gurdwara. While teaching in the Wicomico County

Public School System, Matt also received Salisbury University’s mentor teacher of the year award after being nominated by his student intern.

Coming to IUP from Mount Jewett, Matt played rugby, worked in the library, mentored special-needs students in the community, and student-taught at Westinghouse High School in Pittsburgh and Bishop Perowne High School in Worcester, England. He said he owes a great deal to “countless professors,” including Alan Baumler and Royce Walters, who helped him with his senior thesis on compulsory education for the Amish in Pennsylvania.

“I learned that there’s rarely a simple answer to the world’s problems,” he said. “I cherish every experience at IUP.” Matt is also a firm believer in public education and Pennsylvania public universities. “They’re a large part of who I am today,” he said. “It’s an investment that’s worth the sacrifice.”

WEDDINGS

1980s

Brad Miller ’85 to Maria Luszcz, October 17, 2020. Douglas Kroll ’87 to Daniel Iyari Lopez, November 2, 2019.

1990s

Brandy McKinney ’99 to Matthew Schmitt AA’99, June 15, 2019.

DeCesare ’20, independent risk management development program analyst, at PNC.

Through video conference last semester, guest speakers in IUP professor Daniel Lawson’s Finance Seminar class included Christopher O’Brien ’15, an associate at Citizens Commercial Banking in Boston; Michael Williamson ’15, a partner at Forest Lane Capital in Pittsburgh; and Robert Schwartz ’18, a portfolio manager at First Commonwealth Advisors in Pittsburgh.

2000s

Geoff Morrow ’01 to Brandie Kessler, August 21, 2020.

2010s

Stefanie Stitely ’13 to Dustyn Pastors, August 8, 2020. Jenna Snyder ’15 to Austin Edwards ’16, August 8, 2020.

After more than 20 years of active duty, Elizabeth Ceballos AA’18, ’19 has retired from the US Army as a master sergeant.

consent.” Actress and comedian Amy Poehler, an executive producer for Nate, provides an introduction. A graduate of IUP’s Cook Honors College, Natalie is a 2018 recipient of the Young Alumni Achievement Award.

When Stefanie Stitely ’13 married Dustyn Pastors last August in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, she had her Alpha Gamma Delta sorority sisters by her side and more than 50 alumni in attendance. Her wedding party included maid of honor Cassidy Stitely ’20, best man Cody Stitely ’15, matrons of honor Jenna Smith ’14, M’18 and Kaitlyn Zgurich Nesbit, Bethany Nold ’13, Jaclyn Kliber ’11, Brittany Hogg Lattanzo ’15, Jordan Smith, and Kaitlyn Kline ’14 Stefanie was recently promoted to Servicing Department manager at Provident Funding Associates in Pittsburgh.

A photo appears on the Alumni Extra website, www.iup.edu/ magazine/alumniextra

A former People magazine reporter now with NBC News, Char Adams ’14 had a story published in the New York Times in August about how guilt is a normal reaction to thriving during the coronavirus pandemic or other bleak times. The article appears online as “It’s OK to Feel OK Right Now.”

In virtual meetings last fall, IUP’s Student Accounting Association welcomed guest speakers including Alicia Fulmer ’15 and Sarah Zbur ’16, senior audit associates with KPMG’s Pittsburgh office; Matthew McCullough ’15, senior internal auditor at Georgetown University; Ben Geraud ’17, experienced tax associate at BDO; and Samantha Frye ’19, accountant senior, and Matt

A member of “The Commandant’s Own,” the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, Anthony Achille ’16 received the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal in October for arrangements he has contributed to the ensemble.

The Pittsburgh Business Times’s “30 under 30” awardees for 2020 included Bethany Barefoot ’16, a financial specialist senior with PNC, and Derrick Maultsby Jr. ’17, an associate with law firm Jackson Kelly. A graduate of IUP’s Cook Honors College, Bethany previously served as project manager for PNC Grow Up Great, an initiative that prepares children for success in school. Derrick’s focuses at Jackson Kelly are technology, data privacy, corporate compliance, corporate consultation, and sports and entertainment. He is a 2020 graduate of Duquesne University School of Law.

Reza Parchizadeh D’18 was promoted to senior language specialist for LanguageLine Solutions, a global interpretation services provider. He interprets for the legal, medical, financial, education, and immigration sectors and occasionally assists COVID-19 patients. As a bilingual Farsi/English cultural expert with a working knowledge of Arabic, Reza has a standing offer through his company to assist the US Department of Homeland Security. He is also qualified to interpret at trials in the capacity of a court officer. Reza has assisted the US government and law enforcement on national security issues and, in July 2019, appeared before Congress to provide advice and analysis on the Middle East. He has also published articles with the Begin-Sadat Center, Foreign Policy Association, and Tablet magazine on political, cultural, and security issues.

In November, Sarah Scruppi ’18, a global procurement manager at US Steel, gave a virtual presentation to students in IUP’s Eberly College of Business and Information Technology about her company and its internships.

Regional accounting firm Brown Schultz Sheridan & Fritz recently hired Josiah Hartzler ’19 as an audit staff accountant for its Camp Hill office.

COURTESY OF MATT GRESICK

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In November, Baindu Squire CA’07, ’11 participated in Food Network’s Holiday Wars, a series featuring teams of bakers who compete in holiday display challenges. Since 2017, Baindu has owned Lady B’s, a custom cakes and catering company, which she moved from California to New Orleans in 2019. She said of her Food Network experience, “I hope that this encourages students to

push a little harder through whatever challenges they may face and that they are inspired through both my experiences and my colleagues.”

To Heidi Myers Maniccia ’06, M’10 and Tony Maniccia, a son, Jase Anthony, January 24, 2020. To Lyndsay Book Ward ’09 and Robert Ward, a son, Adrian James, July 8, 2020.

2010s

To Kevin Carter ’13 and Lauren Mough Carter ’13, a daughter, Kinsley, June 27, 2020. To Mary Rose Cristello Debor ’13 and Tim Debor ’13, a daughter, Isabelle Cora, July 1, 2020.

2020s

Communications media graduate Leah Natushko ’20 recently published Love, Leah, a collection of poems about her life. She calls it a “diary of sorts that touches on topics like mental health, love, the struggles that come with finding your place in the world, and the worlds we create and escape into to survive our harsh realities.” The book is available through major retailers. Follow her on Instagram @leahnatushko

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DEATHS

1941: Dorothy Carpenter Porter

1942: Geraldine Tronzo Dunkle

1943: Betty Baird, Dorothy Black Bradford, Barbara

Rifenbary Delozier

1944: Elizabeth Carson Kramer

1945: Josephine Marino

Grohola, Lois Heid Schiemer

1946: Kathryn Countryman Bell, Ruth Fleming Van Kirk

1947: Marjorie Llewellyn

Stumpff

1948: Marilyn Randall Brown, Helen Lundberg, Lois Meyers

McMahon, Adele Batdorf

Mueller

1949: Doris Benson Bentz, Mary

Tonkin Hamilton, Josephine

DeRaymond Lane, Mary

Markel Noll, Mary Perry, Mary

Lou Witmer Shoop

1950: Beatty Dimit Jr., Richard

Kauffman, William McMillen, Juanita Krause Pecjak, Ruth Goodling Riegle, Constance

Gwinn Shick

1951: Francis Bannan, Savelly

Chirman, Donald Marti, Marilyn Bennett Reese, Mary Malichowski Young

1952: Dolores Prengle

Berkheimer, Theodore Delozier, Ernest Frombach, Judith Adams

Hines, Lois Thomas Kilbert, Frances Hanna Lehnert, Irene Snyder Miller, Audrey Oaks

Musselman, William Williams Jr.

1953: Joanne Peterson

Diekroeger, Shirley Ullom

Filcik, Jean Hill, Robert Jordan, Thompson Lehnert, Vivian

Gall Leidy, Patricia Snyder

Livenspire, Eunice Walker

Millen, Elizabeth Hosack Rhule

(M), Edward Sims, Shirley

Bennett Tague, Cecil Tranquill

1954: Bernadette Hunter

Bowser, Esther Underwood

Debsky, Delores Domenick

Deibler, William Gera, John

Nagy Jr., Alpena Zazanis

1955: Stephen Formento, Eugene Mazzola, Laura

Waldroff Nacinovich, Loraine

Roberts, Glenda Broeseker

Speicher, Winnifred Thornber

1956: Dolores Chelko Bates, George Belock, James Clites Jr., Elaine Evans Creigh, John Gallagher, Sally Heitzenrater, John Lassinger, John Marefka, Dennis Myers Jr., Robert Oakes, Muriel Rehburg Seibert, John Snyder, Guy Wright

1957: Reges Angello Bush, Kenneth Davis, Daniel “Lee” LaBute, Margaret Shuster

McCalmont, Irene Kovaly

Milasincic, Joan Donovan

Mosier, Thomas Surace

1958: Gerald Boland, Bertha Daube, Anna Tate Jepson, Irene Thompson Keister, Thomas Lacey*, Dennis Lauffer, Ann Clever Lucas, Edith Orr McGhee, Ronald McMullen

1959: Sandra Katusin

Brone, Phyllis Burchfield, Richard Buzzelli, Mary Kay

Kennedy, Jackie Maurer, John McClelland, Ernest Michael, Sara Miller, Robert Pallone, Donald Polaski, Peter Sturey, Doris Todoroff, Carole Vasbinder

Vangrin, Leonard Volk Sr.

1960: Norma Masters

Burlbaugh, Vivian Dye Good, Richard Hoskinson, Patricia Roofner Pikulin, Edward Pruchnic, Joy Bouma Sides, Judith Barnes Stewart, Jane Stockdale, David Weaver

1961: James Cook, Patricia Anderson Crokie, John Gowarthy, Thomas Harris, Earl “Kip” Hewitt III, Gordon Hitchings, Richard Hunt, Robert Reich, Timothy Shindledecker, Nancy Grove

Shoup, Bette Ashbaugh Walters

1962: Donald Batiste, Fred Blaney, George Demetriades, Peter Gottardi, Lawrence Hardick, Robert Kissinger (M), Susan Hood Poling, Mary Anne Thorpe Smith

1963: Paul Beaty Jr., Kenneth Hennessey, Larue Henry Miles, Regina Cioppa Plutto, Charles Richards, Kirk Stewart, Marlyce Zebley Toth

1964: Roger Aiello, Kay Campbell, Robert Cauvel,

Terry Fye, Helen Weber

Harvey, Donald Kline, Michael Nesbella, Dale Shaffer, Patricia Orendorff Smith

1965: Marilyn Murphy

Allegretto, Dean Bowman (M), Norman Greene, Jewell Pallos

Jordan, Daniel Marshall, Robert Shaffer, Emanuel Viores, Joy Wallace (M)

1966: Dennis Andritz (M), Doris Domat, Edward Grzelak Jr., Thomas Hogan, Kathryn Liptak, Ellen Mason Luce, Judy Reed

Marsh, Robert McDermott (M), John Petrosky, Richard Pickles, Anita Ewing Quayle, Jean Schrecengost, Carole Farver Sye, Glenn Wagner, Brad Weimer, William Witherup, Robert Wyne

1967: Charles Grant, James Harrington (M), Carol Shahade

Hrzic, Frank Hutton, Dawn Barnett Lewis, Wanda Hawkins

Major, John Merisko Jr. (M), Charles Rickard

1968: Myron Allison, Alana Shaw Bomer, Warren Boyd (M), Russell Edwards, Frank Gamble III, Trevor Hadley, Merry Markovina Jones, Janet Woods Lackey, Edward Lewis (M), Jeanne Link Mozina, Delia Rakoczy, Charles Wissinger

1969: Frederick “Ricky” Albert, Charles “Chuck” Battaglini (M)*, Gary Beuke, Daniel Fako, Richard Fetterman, Barbara Gazze, Robert Holben, Duane Lingenfelter (M), Anthony

Petrarca (M), Jean Sidora

1970: Rosalyn Blumenfeld, Barbara Carmichael, Christine Chemelli, Nancy Cowan

Duppstadt, Terry Farester, David Foster, Linda Ozimek

Harden, Bonita Marince Maurer, Frances Horn

McCullough, Charles Rattigan, Charles Ridgeway (M), James Steiner, George Tobias (M), Wayne Weimer

1971: Kathy McClenahan Knox, Carvel Markley, Mary Lou Goslin Niverth, Gladys Yeager

Pavlock, Robert Repp, Larry

Rowles, Stephanie Schardt, Rosemarie Esposito Waechter, David Whitten, Blair Williams

(M), Kathy Stake Yerep

1972: Paul Blose, Peter Bosin (M), Kathleen Kase Burk, Judith McGinnis Dobson, Barbara Kurchner Dodson, Susan Cravener Fello*, Edythe Noel Hepler, Donald Hursh (M), Margaret Taylor

Kiracofe, Rosemary Fragapane Niemiec, Gary Spinella, Linda Heintzelman VanBuskirk, Kristine Krchnavy Vokish, Cathleen Weis

1973: Jan Broxterman, Michele Chiavetta, Ronalda Buff Demmy, Donna Kapsia, Keith Kelley, Rita McMahon, George Measel, Robert Myers, Patricia Brungard Namet, David Rawlings, James Rodgers

(M), William Stump, Lucinda Berwager Troxell

1974: Marc Cerutti, Carole

Dutterer, Domenic Guido, Jan Altrogge Knorr, Sara Wallace

Little, Michele Dollar Ogle, Donald Orwald (M), Charles Peterman, Belinda Berzonsky

Simmers, Terence Walter

1975: Joan Messina Bachorski, Christina Holko Berg-Boldt, Sarah Neff Goodrich, Carol Howland, Donald Langley, Susan Crowl Nolt

1976: Gary Belonzi, William George, Robin Merritt Highfill, Kirk House, Dennis Kraft (M), Allan Pinkus, Ruth Talavinia

Santory, Theresa Rovan

Shustrick (M), Carol Dombroski Young

1977: Joseph Anderson, John Anspach (M), William Black (M), Beatrice Blose, Thomas Colucci (M), Ronald Hudgen, David Iseman, Brian Lucas, William Lukach, Marlene Price

(M), Sara Altstetter Rucosky (M)

1978: Samuel Knoch, Joyce

Lowrey (M), Kathleen Noble, John Orenchuk, Gerald Porsch, Laurie Weinstein, Kathy Witta

1979: David Frye, Arthur Gramps, Polly Busch Lechner

(M), Brenda Hanes Robinson, Stephen Weidman

1980: Dale Callaghan, Paul Cunningham, Madeline

Kaufman Havrilla, Robert

Kolar, Joyce Magee (M), Alice

Woomer Mangus, Shane

Scanlan, Richard Stokoski, Herbert Stouffer

1981: John Jankowski, Edward

Pickett (M), Kent Stauffer, Michael Tatarko

1982: Brian Bentz, Lawrence

Moore III (M), Karen Stone

1983: Eleanor Chan, Beverly

Klahr Wells

1984: Dennis Depp, Pamela

Frisco, Mark Johnson

1985: Donna Desalvo, Karen

Gustafson, Marjorie Lang

Montanari (M), Thomas Nagy, Brian Paredes, Carl Rossetto, Paul Shustack (M)

1986: Mark Bero, Rocco

Colangelo Jr., Shawn Criswell, Katherine Gestler-Kutzko, Beverly Green, James Reed

1987: Shawn Moran, Pamela Griffin Myers, Joanne Elliott

Weigel

1988: Robin Bush, Ida Hilliard (M), Shawna Maderer, Pamela

Zhu (M)

1989: Clara Kaufman Boyer (AA), Brenda Butenewicz, Pamela Haines, Jane Barr

Hanley (M), Brian Kessler

1990: Dawn Cauvel Schrader, Marshal Wallace

1991: Carol Butzow (D), Kimberly Tobias Tomajko

1992: Wayne Boyd, Michael

Smith, Bernice Trask, Mohd

Zughoul (D)

1993: Wanda Moebius

1994: Ashley Summers

Drawbaugh, Patrick Gilroy, David Pollard Jr.

1995: Wendy Roth Jones, Marci Rogalski, Norman Thiel (M)

1996: Laura Cochran, Michael Grimaldi

1997: Diane Bundy, Richard Englert, Barbara Johnson, Christopher McLaughlin, Theresa Zanetti

1998: Lucas Sturgeon

1999: Steven Curll, Terry

Girardi*, George Schilling III

2001: Ignacio Palacios (D), Andrew Peffer

2002: Lisa Waybright Calderone

2004: Stacey Haag Magagnotti

2007: Adam Burda, Teresa Randleman (D)

2008: Anthony Stilianidis

2011: Karel Hastings (AA)

2012: Alycia Gorlaski (M)

2013: William Burke, Dennis Ledden (D), Jonathan Vargo (M)

2014: Patrick Belusko, Erik Graybill

2016: Stephen Kayatin

2018: Rachael Johnston (M)

*current or former faculty member, staff member, or administrator

Note: In cases in which an IUP degree beyond the bachelor’s degree was earned, only the first degree is indicated. Deaths of faculty members are reported in the Mentors section of this issue.

Other Deaths

Arthur Byers, who retired from the maintenance area in 1998 after 16 years of service, died December 22, 2020.

Albert Dawson, who retired from the maintenance area in the mid-1980s, died October 20, 2020.

Maurice Fox, who retired as director of operations of the Technology Services Center in 1999 after 31 years of service, died January 14, 2021.

Annabell Marcoaldi, who worked as a secretary in the Office of Public Relations in the 1960s, died July 8, 2020.

Joseph Marinas, who retired in 2020 after working seasonally as a mason for 11 years, died January 2, 2021.

Chuck Mills, who served as head football coach in 1962 and ’63, died January 18, 2021. A 2009 inductee into the IUP Athletic Hall of Fame, he led the football program to its first national ranking.

Anatoly Primak, a physician at Pechan Health Center for 12 years, ending in 1993, died December 19, 2020.

Nedra Spearing, who retired from the housekeeping area in 1996 after 15 years of service, died September 1, 2020.

Gealy Wallwork, whose 26 years of service on the IUP Council of Trustees ended in 2017, died December 31, 2020. IUP presented him with the President’s Medal of Distinction in 2006 and named the residence hall at Pratt Drive and Grant Street in his honor in 2009.

Jaedyn Wright, a third-year communications media student from Rankin, died October 17, 2020.

40 Years of Amazing Grace

Mary Kreider Megna ’84 is calling on IUP Marching Band alumni and fans to contribute materials for a documentary about the IUP arrangement of Amazing Grace. First played 40 years ago, it continues in the lineup today. A search for band pictures, videos, brochures, and articles is in full swing, Mary said. Of particular interest are materials from 1981, the year the tradition started. The film will feature other pastimes as well, such as “zucchini,” drill downs, and the band’s singing of Amazing Grace as a thank-you. Materials from trips, parades, and high school competitions are also welcome. Send copies to mary.megna@ verizon.net.

MENTORS

Clinical Services Department in 1998 after more than 28 years of service, died January 12, 2021.

Ed Fry, a professor emeritus who retired from the Music Department in 2009 after 43 years of service, died October 3, 2020. A 2010 inductee into the IUP Athletic Hall of Fame, he was a longtime coach of the men’s and women’s track and field and cross country programs. In 2008, one of his former runners, YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley ’99, made a million-dollar gift to name the Kovalchick Complex arena in Fry’s honor.

BA Harrington at work on “Hope” Chest, a sculptural piece that references 18thcentury Pennsylvania German wedding chests

Solo Suite

A solo exhibition called Suite Américaine at the Asheville, North Carolina, Center for Craft will conclude the 18-month center fellowship of IUP art faculty member BA Harrington. Opening in June, it will reference historical American furniture designed and built specifically for women’s use. Harrington reinterprets the objects as proto-feminist forms.

The director of IUP’s Wood Center, Harrington was also part of a December Zoom event with Mary Savig, curator of Craft at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Their conversation was part of In the Making, a series produced by Boston’s North Bennet Street School. A recording of the conversation is available on the school’s website.

Long Gone

Paleontologist and IUP biology faculty member Shundong Bi and his collaborators recently made a one-ofa-kind find in southern China’s Jiangxi Province. Some 70 million years ago, an oviraptorosaur, a bird-like dinosaur, was sitting atop a nest of eggs with babies inside. Disaster struck, and the dinosaur and her babies were not seen again until Bi and his group discovered their fossils in Cretaceous Period rocks. Details subsequently appeared in Science Bulletin

According to Matthew Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, “This kind of discovery [eggs with embryos inside] is the rarest of the rare in dinosaurs. This dinosaur was a caring parent that ultimately gave its life while nurturing its young.”

Colorful Life

Ned Wert spent four years as an IUP art student, graduating in 1958. It wasn’t long before he returned and spent 20 years as an Art Department faculty member. In January, IUP’s University Museum unveiled an exhibition of the professor emeritus’s paintings that was due to continue through March 20.

Paintings displayed are from the artist’s personal collection and the University Museum’s permanent collection, in addition to others on loan from private collections. A video interview with the artist is also included. Information about this and other museum events is available from Audrey Swartz at 724-357-2530 or museum-info@iup.edu

Faculty Deaths

The following former faculty members died in recent months:

Tim Austin, a professor emeritus who retired from the Criminology and Criminal Justice Department in 2018 after more than 33 years of service, died September 18, 2020.

Charles “Chuck” Battaglini M’69, a professor emeritus who retired from the Art Department in 1994 after more than 25 years of service, died December 21, 2020.

Susan Cravener Fello ’72, M’77, D’92, a professor emerita who retired from the Professional Studies in Education Department in 2017 after 20 years of service, died October 2, 2020.

Jerry Fiddler, a professor emeritus who retired from the Special Education and

Walter Gallati, a professor emeritus who retired as chair of the Biology Department in 1990 after 33 years of service, died October 12, 2020.

Janice Holmes, a professor emerita who retired from the Nursing and Allied Health Professions Department in 2015 after more than 18 years of service, died January 7, 2021.

Thomas Lacey ’58, a faculty member who retired from the Art Department in 1998, died December 24, 2019.

Lynn Lockrow, a former Theater Department chair and a faculty member from 1978 to 1985, died January 3, 2021.

Robert McClay, a professor emeritus who retired from the Safety Sciences Department in 1998 after 26 years of service, died January 24, 2021.

Edward Mileff, a professor who retired from the Health and Physical Education Department in 1991 after nearly 21 years of service, died August 3, 2020.

Vincent Miller, a professor emeritus who retired from the Geography and Regional Planning Department in 1998 after more than 36 years of service, died August 31, 2020.

Gerald Ready, who taught in the German Department in the 1990s, died December 30, 2020.

John Sitton, a professor emeritus who retired from the Political Science Department in 2015 after 28 years of service, died October 14, 2020.

Virginia Szwarc, a faculty member who retired from the Nursing and Allied Health Professions Department in 1998 after 26 years of service, died October 29, 2020.

Jacob “Jim” Voelker, a professor in the German Department and former chair who retired in 1999 after 29 years of service, died December 13, 2020.

COURTESY OF BA HARRINGTON

Scientific Study

When Kopchick Hall, IUP’s new science complex, opens in a few years, one of its rooms will carry a nautical name. In calling her gift the Admiral’s Study, retired Rear Admiral CJ Jaynes ’79, M’82 honored the 33 years she spent in the US Navy.

“The name was an opportunity to let the students know that the possibilities are endless for IUP grads,” she said. “Even though there is an Army ROTC program on campus, other branches of the service are open for them.”

As a tutoring room, the Admiral’s Study will be a place for students “to go and study, away from distractions,” Jaynes said. “While I was at IUP, I did my best studying away from the dorms. I was always looking for a place where I could concentrate.” The room will also afford space for students to work together or with faculty members on group projects.

A mathematics major at IUP, Jaynes was the first woman ever to achieve Aviation Maintenance flag rank. When she left the Navy in 2016, she was program executive officer for Air Antisubmarine Warfare, Assault, and Special Mission Programs.

“My math professors at IUP were incredible,” Jaynes said. “Merle Stilwell, Bill Smith, Mel Woodard, and Marlin Hartman stand out as caring and compassionate professors. Dr. Stilwell allowed me to do an independent study in Advanced Calculus with him so that I could graduate with my master’s degree before leaving for the Navy. If it weren’t for him, I would have left IUP one class short, since there were no other classes available for me to take. I have never forgotten that and am forever grateful to him.”

Jaynes later earned an MBA from Norwich University, completed the Naval War College Command and Staff program, and earned systems engineering certification from California Institute of Technology. Today, she is an executive technical advisor for Raytheon Technologies, Intelligence & Space and is owner of CJ Jaynes Consulting in Leonardtown, Maryland.

“My love of STEM and the opportunities that it gives young women, my positive experiences on campus, and the family atmosphere I feel every time I return to IUP are,” Jaynes said, “what drive me to continue giving my time and money to the university.”

If you, too, would like to transform lives through a gift to IUP, please call the University Advancement office at 724-357-5661 or send email to iup-giving@iup.edu

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Before the holidays, the Department of Art and Design opened a pop-up store in downtown Indiana that featured laser-cut paper art designed by students. The effort

INTO THE FOLD

raised $1,555 for IUP’s Student Assistance Fund.