SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
12 - THE COLLEGIAN
APRIL 1, 2010
Nursing school undergoes checkup
by Justin Schneewind Managing editor
The nursing school hosted a five-member site visit team during the process of reaccreditation. The results will be announced in June. The team, part of the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission, Inc., visited campus from March 23-25. The nursing school, already licensed by the Texas Board of Nursing, has maintained accreditation from the NLNAC to preserve its reputation. “With additional accreditation, students are seen as coming from a more esteemed school,” said Dr. Margaret Ugalde, associate dean of the School of Nursing and Allied Health. The reaccreditation process, which occurs once every eight years, begins with a letter from the NLNAC notifying the school that it is due for reaccreditation. Nursing faculty then write a selfstudy report which the visiting team reads before coming to the site. The report focuses on six aspects, the mission and administrative capacity of the school, faculty and staff, students, curriculum, facilities and outcomes the depart-
ment achieves. The site team works to verify, clarify and amplify the self-study report. During its visit, the team met with faculty and staff from across the University. The team had meetings with President Robert B. Sloan Jr., provost Dr. Paul Bonicelli, and staff from student life, advising, admissions, financial aid and registrar. Faculty and staff from the College of Science and Mathematics also met with the group to allow them to meet those outside of the nursing school who teach nursing students in key subjects. While on campus, the group evaluated the nursing facilities, Moody Library’s nursing resources and met with Sandy Mooney, vice president for financial operations, to review the school’s budget. In order to evaluate the professional abilities of students and alumni, the team visited clinical sites such as St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to meet with students and alumni as well as directors of nursing at the hospitals to discuss the abilities of the University’s nursing students. “They visit clinical sites to hear what employers say about our stu-
NLNAC Accreditation Standards The Nursing League for Nursing Accrediting Commission, Inc., focuses on six aspects, or standards, of the nursing programs it evaluates.
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Mission and administrative capacity: ensures department’s core values parallel the
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Faculty and staff: evaluates faculty and staff’s ability to guide students to department’s
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University’s and the nursing administration’s ability to effectively govern the program goals
Students: reviews students policies, development and services and their ability to support department’s goals
Curriculum: evaluates curriculum’s ability to prepare students Resources: reviews fiscal, physical and learning resources
Outcomes: verifies that students satisfy professional standards
dents compared to students from other programs,” Ugalde said. The visiting team will report to two panels who will decide on the school’s reaccreditation. Though the visiting team recommended reaccreditation, the panels will not release a decision until June. The demanding process of reaccreditation caused a number of faculty and staff to continue preparations during spring break. “Dr. Ugalde and the nursing fac-
‘Avatar’ trend has movie producers seeing green by Justin Schneewind Managing editor
“Avatar” set box office records as it became the highest-grossing movie of all time. The movie’s success has set a trend in Hollywood. “Avatar,” released in 2-D and 3-D, proved moviegoers would pay extra money for an extra dimension. Two earlier releases, “Monsters vs. Aliens” and “Up,” produced successful 2-D and 3-D versions, but the 3-D version of “Avatar” showed that the movies’ market extends past middle school. Production companies also saw that they could make more money by charging premium prices for 3-D tickets. With 3-D helping to push “Avatar” past the $2.5 billion mark worldwide, movie studios developed 3-D versions of their blockbusters to compete for a slice of 3-D’s more expensive pie. “Alice in Wonderland” continued the box-office success of 3-D, and “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Clash of the Titans” will hope to keep the 3-D glasses resting on the faces of a higher-paying audience.
Movie critic Roger Ebert chided the studios’ use of “a distracting, annoying, anti-realistic, juvenile abomination to use as an excuse for higher prices.” The rush of 3-D films has attracted critics from outside of the critic industry. James Cameron, director of “Avatar,” has criticized the conversion of 2-D movies into 3-D, the process that has been done with “Clash of the Titans.” “Avatar,” believed to be the most expensive movie ever made, was shot for 3-D, and the 3-D version was praised for its quality. The rush to develop 3-D films, causing several movies to go the 3-D conversion process, will produce a crop of lower-quality 3-D movies. Movies planned for 2-D release cannot attain the 3-D quality animated films and films shot with 3-D cameras feature. While moviegoers have shown a willingness to pay extra to watch a movie in 3-D, rushing 2-D movies through the conversion process will cause those who watch these movies to forget the quality films intended for 3-D can bring to theaters. Looking to profit from this trend, Hollywood may end up killing it.
ulty and staff did an outstanding job in a very short time,” said Dr. Doris Warren, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics and interim dean of the School of Nursing and Allied Health. The school’s newer faculty were exposed to the process of accreditation in the academic environment. “As new faculty, it gave us the ability to get up to speed because we had to know the department in depth,” said Dr. Carol Lavender, a
visiting professor in her first year as a full-time faculty member after working as an adjunct last year. Ugalde said the site visit solidifies the department’s standing even though it is going through a transition, a transition she called normal in regard to changes in faculty such as Dr. Nancy Yuill’s resignation last spring. “We’re in a good place and meeting our outcomes,” Ugalde said.
Did You Know..
Question:
How do computer viruses work?
Answer:
Software spreads to computers, attacking programs and hardware. Several types of viruses There are several different forms of electronic infection. The most common are viruses, small pieces of software that piggyback on real programs and reproduce when the software is used. E-mail viruses travel as an attachment and replicate themselves by automatically mailing themselves to contacts in victims’ e-mail address books. Trojan horses claim to do one thing but instead does damage when it runs, and worms use computer networks and security holes to replicate themselves. Different kinds of writers Computer users write computer viruses, which were first widely seen in the late 1980s as the use of PCs rose. A person has to write the code, test it to make sure it spreads the way the writer intends and then release it. A person also designs the virus’ attack phase, which may be just a silly message or the destruction of a hard disk. Patching the problem Computer viruses are called viruses because they share some of the traits of biological viruses. A computer virus passes from computer to computer like a biological virus passes from person to person. On the second Tuesday of every month, Microsoft releases a list of known vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system and issues patches for those security holes on the day known as “Patch Tuesday.” Viruses written and launched on Patch Tuesday to hit unpatched systems are known as “zero-day” attacks. The major anti-virus vendors work with Microsoft to identify holes ahead of time.
information courtesy How Stuff Works http://computer.howstuffworks.com/virus.htm
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