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URSINUS CAMPUS NEWS
Dr. Fong Receives National Student Life Award
(L to R) Erin Dickerson, Admission Counselor and Coordinator of Minority Recruitment, Dr. Lynne Y. Edwards, Professor of Media and Communication Studies, Dr. Crigler and Paulette Patton, Director of Multicultural Services.
Summer Bridge Program Renamed for Dr. Robert Crigler 1956
Ursinus College is honoring its first African American graduate, Dr. Robert Crigler, by naming The W. R. Crigler Institute, which was previously called the Summer Bridge Program. “Bob” Crigler graduated in 1956 as a psychology major. Much of his career was spent as the executive director of the Chaparral Treatment Center in Colton, Calif., a multi-disciplinary residential care therapy and education center for severely emotionally disturbed children. He received his master’s degree in public administration from Pepperdine University in Los Angeles and his Ph.D. in government from Claremont Graduate School. His work helping troubled families and children led Ursinus to award him the Alumni Association Professional Achievement Award in 1998. He is now retired and lives in California with his wife, Sheila. “Whenever he is called to serve Ursinus, he asks, ‘When and how long do you want me?’” says Paulette Patton, Director of Multicultural Services, who has worked with Crigler over the years on behalf of Ursinus students. “In this same spirit of academic excellence, leadership and social consciousness, how appropriate it is to honor Dr. Crigler in this manner.” The W. R. Crigler Institute is a three week summer, residential program which provides a unique opportunity for invited students to participate in the rigors of academic excellence, combined with leadership and social consciousness development. In addition to course work, students are given the opportunity to participate in a community service project, connect with Ursinus alumni and attend leadership workshops. Dr. Crigler was honored at a campus reception Feb. 4.
Incoming Ursinus President Bobby Fong’s efforts to advance the quality of student life at Butler University and throughout higher education was recognized with a national award from NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. The organization presented Fong its 2011 President’s Award on March 15 in Philadelphia. NASPA is a leading professional association for student affairs administrators, faculty, and graduate and undergraduate students, with more than 11,000 members at 1,400 campuses, and representing 29 countries. Dr. Fong’s nomination for the award noted his efforts to involve Butler students and staff in university-wide decision making, particularly in the planning of new residence and academic facilities and the campus’ Health and RecDr. Bobby Fong reation Complex. Dr. Fong won the NASPA Region IV-East President’s Award in 2009 for providing opportunities for students to be actively engaged on campus.
In Tune with Poet Robert Pinsky
The revolutionary idea that poetry can dance off the tongue of anyone in the free world demonstrates what poet Robert Pinsky sees as the democratic and universal face of poetry in America. Pinsky, the former U.S. Poet Laureate, visited Ursinus this February to speak about his craft. Launching into one of his poems from memory, he then explained why sound is such an important part of his poetry. As a child, he grew up in Long Branch, N.J., wanting to be a jazz musician and so devoted much more of his time to music than to schoolwork. To this day, he still plays the saxophone with other jazz musicians. The ear for rhythm and pitch that he gained as an aspiring musician became an essential part of Pinsky’s poetry. He became committed to the inflections of everyday speech, what he calls “the tune of sentences.” He writes, he says, with the hope that he might impart upon the reader the same pleasure that he gets from speaking aloud well-crafted lines. In 1997, on the tail end of his extended three-year stint as national poet laureate, Pinsky SPRING 2011 PAGE 3