Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Annual Report 2003-2004
Dean's Letter
Camden College of Arts and Sciences
Research Centers and Initiatives
Academic Departments
Undergraduate Programs
The Graduate School
Student Services
Appendices
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The Graduate School
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL The Rutgers Camden Graduate School has had a highly successful year. It has seen its numbers grow to an all time high of 412 , and the quality of its students has continued to improve. Student achievements were notable, with more graduates going on to Ph.D. study. From the English Program Sandie Sokowski will study Comparative Literature at Rutgers New Brunswick on a four year fellowship, and Abby Palko Capate will attend Notre Dame University on a five year grant. Dolores Scherer has received a full fellowship from Temple University’s history program and Kristi Hohenstein will begin Ph.D. study in biology on a grant at Johns Hopkins. Baba Jallow of Liberal Studies will continue his work here in Camden on a Trustees Fellowship during AY2004-2005. MPA graduate Jeffrey Landon has been named a Presidential Management Fellow and will take a position in the Veterans Affairs Administration. The Dual Degree Program continues to attract talented student to all programs, and as selectivity in admissions has increased, the GRE scores and GPAs of entering students have risen markedly. During the past year several students have delivered papers at regional and national conferences as they have pursued the professional development opportunities so important to their future careers. The accomplishments of the faculty, as demonstrated elsewhere in this report, are eloquent testimony to the excellent scholarship and fine teaching from which our students so greatly benefit. In the area of curriculum, two new tracks were initiated in established programs. A concentration in Educational Policy and Leadership was launched within the MPA; at the conclusion of AY 2004-05, it will have prepared and certified fifteen new principals for the Camden City School District. We are now working to extend this program to all south Jersey districts; we expect it to be highly popular. The Mathematics Program has inaugurated a track in Applied Industrial Mathematics, which is already attracting considerable student interest. The future holds the challenge of expanding the Graduate School at both the Master’s and the Ph.D. levels.. We will seek approval for an MA in psychology during the coming academic year; in the following year we will propose a Master’s in Computer Science. We are preparing to expand the MPT into a DPT, and in a major leap forward, we have proposals ready for Ph.D. programs in Childhood Studies, Public Affairs and Computational Biology. A caveat is in order here, however. Further growth in the Graduate School cannot occur without an infusion of new resources. We have gone as far as we can go with what we have. New resources must be made available. New space must be created, new faculty must be added, and fellowship funds must be increased exponentially over current levels if graduate education is to flourish at Rutgers Camden.
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN BIOLOGY During the 2003-4 academic year, a total of nineteen nonmatriculated students and twenty-six matriculated students were enrolled in the Masters of Science program in biology. Two additional undergraduates were enrolled in the dual degree program for eventual admission to the masters program. Nine students received their degrees this year and five of these followed “Plan A” including a thesis based on research done in the laboratory. A workshop in scanning electron microscopy was offered by William Saidel and Joseph Martin beginning in Fall 2003, and continuing into Spring 2004. Students were trained in the use of the new ZEISS 1450EP scanning electron microscope obtained with funds from the National Science Foundation (PI: Joseph Martin), supplemented by resources from the Dean and Provost. The students examined technical requirements for the detection of elements such as lead within biological samples. This curricular effort was supported by a $5,000 grant from the Office of the Vice President for Undergraduate Education (PI: J. William Whitlow, Jr., Psychology) to lay the groundwork for interdisciplinary research-based childhood studies courses on the topic of lead poisoning and children. In Spring 2004, innovative courses in Life at Extremes (Daniel Shain) and Endocrinology (jointly taught by Patrick McIlroy and Pradip Sarkar) were offered for the first time and have been added permanently to the curriculum of the program. Two of this year's graduates, Kristi Hohenstein and Michael Napolitano, received monetary awards from the New Jersey Academy of Science for the best graduate student presentations in biochemistry and biology, respectively. Hohenstein also received the prestigious Rutgers Life Science Award in her first year in the graduate program and this year's award for outstanding graduating student from the Graduate School at Rutgers-Camden. The graduate program continued to encourage the active involvement of master’s students in laboratory research, as evidenced by a steady output of publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. A strikingly productive group of students finished thesis research in the laboratory of Daniel Shain this year. For example, Corneliu Dimitriu published an elegant electron microscopical analysis of the structure of the leech cocoon, a biomaterial with extraordinary physical properties. In the same laboratory, Kristi Hohenstein conducted research in two different areas that will lead to at least four publications in well-respected journals such as Stem Cells. Her primary focus has been on the identification of genes that are turned on specifically in embryonic stem cells. Using modern molecular techniques, she has identified ~20 genes that are turned on when stem cells are born, several of which are likely to play important roles in defining the unique properties of stem cells. Hohenstein also conducted research related to the molecular changes in enzymes associated with energy production in cold-adapted organisms. This work suggests that specific amino acid substitutions in ice worm proteins may be responsible for the ability of the species to survive in glacier ice and has wide-ranging implications as to mechanisms for evolutionary adaptations to extreme environments. Michael Napolitano, also working with Daniel Shain, uncovered an underlying mechanism of cold-adaptation that may have broad applications (e.g., organ storage). His work has been recognized in several peer-reviewed journal articles including the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Plans are now being put together for the development of a new center for computational and integrative biology. The newly envisioned program would encourage the involvement of Rutgers-Camden scientists from a variety of disciplines, including biology, and would lead to the eventual institution of a doctoral program in computational and integrative biology. The existence of doctoral programs in the sciences is likely to have a strong positive influence on the Masters Program in Biology and on programs throughout the sciences at Camden.
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN CHEMISTRY Anne Loyle, a graduate student, was nominated and selected to present her research at the "Excellence in Graduate Research Symposium" which is sponsored by the American Chemical Society, Division of Polymer Chemistry and co-sponsored as a Presidential Event and by the Younger Chemists Committee. 228th ACS National Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, United States, August 22-26, 2004. This work will be published as Alex J. Roche, Anne D. Loyle and Jean-Pierre Pinto, " Synthesis, Characterization and Polymerization of Monomers towards bridge Trifluoromethylated poly(p-phenylenevinylene)". A second graduate student, Yogesh Patel, has presented his research at several meetings, including the National American Chemical Society meeting in Sept 2003. He plans to complete his MS thesis research during summer 2004.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE Twenty graduate students are actively taking classes in the M.A. program in criminal justice. Only one student remains in the non-matriculated status. The graduate faculty finalized procedures for supervising and evaluating graduate projects, the final step in meeting degree requirements. Moreover, the M.P.A. and M.A. programs agreed to procedures for graduate students to transfer between programs. The first M.A. candidates for the Dual Degree have been accepted to the M.P.A. Professor Drew Humphries received the Distinguished Scholars Award from the Division on Women and Crime (American Society of Criminology) in November 2003. Edna Galaraza received Rutgers University Trustee's Fellowship for Minority Students. The award covered her tuition for academic year 2003-2004. Margaret Quern received a Fellowship from the Eagleton Institute for a one-year internship in state government. She interned during spring 2004. A number of our students are engaged in exceptional research under faculty directions. For example, Dr. Michelle Meloy supervised Heiddy Alcantara's research on sexual assault between married or cohabitating persons. Dr. Meloy writes, “she did not merely describe these theories, which for some would have been a challenge unto itself given that they come from a myriad of academic disciplines and perspectives. Rather, Heiddy critically analyzed each based on its theoretical and empirical strengths and weakness when applied to this specific type of sexual assault. She concluded with some insightful recommendations for further study." All of our faculty engage in service to the campus and community. Professor Jon'a Meyer, for example, served as research consultant on Safer Streets, a law enforcement initiative sponsored by the Office of the Attorney General, the Police Institute (Rutgers Newark), and the Walter Rand Institute. Senior faculty have service and research grants pending with the New Jersey Highway Safety Commission and with the New Jersey Administrative Offices of the Court. Three out of five members of the graduate faculty are subject to personnel decisions in the next two years. My three-year term as Director expires in 2005. When the first wave of students completes Dr. Jane Siegel's Data Analysis course in December, 2004, they will be ready to graduate in May 2005, pending acceptance of their graduate projects. To offset the loss of students, we anticipate admitting about fifteen new graduate students. To date, eleven graduate students have been admitted for fall 2004. One M.P.A. graduate student is expected to apply to the MA program in criminal justice. By-laws specifying the organization and procedures of our M.A.. program will be completed and ratified by September 2004. We all look forward to relocating the M.A. program in our new offices at 405-7 Cooper Street.
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH This year has been a very successful year for the Graduate English Program. One of the main challenges, which we met, was to keep our enrollment steady, while remaining selective, after graduating a record twenty-six students last year. In spring 2004 we had seventy-nine students (including matriculated and non-matriculated) in the program. Twelve students graduated with the English M.A. this year (two submitted theses, and both graduated with distinction). To date, we have twenty-one students who have been admitted for the fall and are planning to come. GRE scores and GPAs are at a near record high, and are up from last year. We continue to attract talented students to the program, and are conscientious about using the nine teaching assistantships and small fellowship awards to help in our recruitment efforts. Other ways in which we continue to enhance our recruitment efforts include: early identification of potential dual degree students (we had seven dual degree students taking graduate classes in spring 2004); a new secondary certification option, which allows students to work simultaneously toward the M.A. and subject-matter certification for secondary school teaching (this option was advertised in the Inquirer and Courier-Post); a revamped web site that includes current information about the program and degree requirements for both prospective and matriculated students. For current students, we undertook initiatives aimed at enhancing their academic experience and preparing them for success beyond our program. In the spring we held an information session about Ph.D. programs that attracted eight students. At this session, several faculty members and recent graduates pursuing the Ph.D. answered questions and gave advice. (This fall there will be an information session about career paths for English M.A.s.) Our cooperative arrangement with Camden County College continues to appeal to our students (currently about ten of them teach basic composition there), as does the Teaching of Writing track within the M.A. We are exploring a relationship with Atlantic County College to give our students more opportunities to teach English as they work toward their degree. For students in the Creative Writing track, the 2004 Summer Writers' Conference, featuring novelists Percival Everett and Victoria Redel, poets W. S. Di Piero and Anthony Butts, and essayist Laurie Stone, will provide the opportunity to interact with nationally-known authors and hone their craft. In our hiring of faculty, both full-time and adjunct, we are looking for areas of expertise that will allow us to expand our offerings at the graduate level, especially with an eye toward the Creative Writing and Teaching of Writing tracks. (The program hopes to offer Introduction to Publishing and Editing and Technology in Composition in the near future.) We are also working to develop cross-disciplinary exchanges. We cross-list with Liberal Studies in appropriate courses, and will help develop and support a course in Animation Screenwriting taught by Liqin Tan in Fall 2005. A number of our students have been accepted this year into Ph.D. programs. Abby Capate will be attending Notre Dame on a full five-year fellowship; Sandra Sokowski will be attending the Comparative Literature Program at Rutgers-New Brunswick through a fellowship; and Kate Delaney will be enrolled at Temple University, where she will join several other graduates of the program. Two of our recent graduates have been hired locally as full-time English instructors: Eileen Radetich at Camden County College and Lori Joyce at West Chester University. Shawn Smith recently received his PhD from the University of Delaware and taught for us as an adjunct instructor in the spring. Other students pursued professional development opportunities and enjoyed success in their chosen fields. Several attended national conferences, and were partially funded by the program to do so. One student, Tim Laquintano, presented a paper at a graduate student conference at Harvard on Chaucer. Two of our students undertook internships in the spring: one at a New York publishing house and another at YM magazine in New York. Another student in the program, Carol Plum-Ucci, has received accolades as an author of children's literature. Carol's second novel, What Happened to Lani Garver, has been chosen as a nominee for the 2005 Garden State Teen Book Awards. Her first novel, The Body of Christopher Creed, is a current nominee for 2004 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA).
Our faculty accomplishments will be noted in full in the Chairman's report. This year Bob Ryan was awarded the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award, and Tyler Hoffman received the Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching. Both taught at the graduate level in AY 2003-04.
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN HISTORY A dozen new students entered the program over the year, nine in the fall semester. These included several with specific interests in public history, though the majority have an interest in teaching at some level at a later date. Nine students graduated in the spring, one--Bonnie Doyle--with honors on both her research paper and her comprehensive exam. Ms. Doyle also served as a research assistant to Professor Janet Golden for a compilation of medical documents that is coming out under Prof. Golden's editorship this year. Three students applied to Ph.D. programs, and two have so far been accepted. Dolores Scherer was accepted to the PhD program in history at Temple University with a four-year fellowship. She will be interning at the Atwater-Kent Museum in the fall as part of her duties there. Patricia Vignola was accepted into the Ph.D. program at Fordham. Deanne Walker applied to the University of California-Riverside. As of this writing, we have not heard whether she will attend. Jill Horner received a prestigious women's professional scholarship award, and as a consequence her last courses in the program were paid for externally. As part of her advanced course work in public history, she has organized a thirty-minute ComCast broadcast on the controversy surrounding memorialization of the president's house and the existence of slavery there on National Independence Historical Park. This work was done as part of a new course offered by Sharon Ann Holt that linked students with work experiences and products in public history. For the first time in the past three years, Howard Gillette was able to personally draw the linkages between the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities and the graduate introduction to public history. Many of the guest speakers in the course, including the directors of the regional office of the National Archives and of Philadelphia Heritage spoke in the class. In return, students did research on different area cultural institutions as part of ongoing surveys of work to build capacity for heritage tourism in the region. It is anticipated that advanced students will be offered internships and fellowships when funds are available to work on MARCH-related projects. The number of new candidates entering this fall appears to be lower than last year, and a few current students may not be continuing. One suspects the lower number reflects both a lack of aggressiveness on the part of the acting director and some slippage in information coming from the admissions office. At least one student's records were not forwarded on a timely basis, despite a special request for information, and as a consequence we have lost him to the University of Albany. This is a problem we are aware of and will continue to work on. Summer enrollments were also very slack, something we will evaluate in planning for the coming year.
We are confident in the program we offer. We have tended to be generous with admission, giving people a chance to try their wings in the program. Some arrive without much historical background, and as a consequence there are bound to be a few dropouts. The visibility of the regional center, and the experience Howard Gillette gained by directing the graduate program for a year should aid recruitment in the coming years.
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN LIBERAL STUDIES During the Spring 2004 semester there were forty-two students active in the program--all matriculated--including two dual-degree candidates. Since this time last year we have admitted twenty-three new students, one on a non-matriculant basis and have six more applications pending. We graduated eight students during AY 2003-2004. We mounted courses on a variety of topics including "The Literature of the Holocaust," "Islamic History and Literature," "The Rhetoric of the Image," "French Culture from Absolutism to Revolution," "Race, Affirmative Action, and Education," and "Family Ethics." We cross-listed many other courses offered by the departments of English, History, Fine Arts, and Political Science. Students also participated in the International Studies course, "Ancient Egypt." The Director of the MALS Program received the Charles and Mary Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. A student, Mr. Baba Jallow, was awarded a Rutgers Board of Trustees Fellowship for 2004-2005. The Capstone Projects completed by students under faculty supervision included research papers on the Islamic concept of "Jihad," "Deconstructing the Cultural Icon `Aunt Jemima,'" Individualism at the Fin-de-Siecle," "The ` No Child Left Behind' Act,” "Manipulation, Lies and Doublespeak," and "Neurotheology." The MALS program sponsored nine public events in our series on "The Seven Deadly Sins," including a guest lecture by Professor Laura Kipnis of Northwestern University and eight faculty-student colloquia conducted by professors from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the School of Business. Our program of lectures and colloquia for next year will focus on the theme "The Brain and the Mind." The program experienced a drop in enrollments at the start of AY 2004, but applications seem to have been increasing in during the past months, so we are hopeful that by September we will reach our optimal number of fifty students. Our faculty seem generally impressed by our students, and students' SIR forms give their professors very high marks. I will conclude with an unsolicited comment from Ivan Cartagena, a member of the military reserves who received his MALS degree in May: “I would just like to thank everyone that was involved in the wonderful experience I had at Rutgers. Graduate school was very problematic at times when trying to balance school and military deployments, but the time spent was very rewarding and I loved every course. From Emerson's Nature to . . . General Macarthur, I definitely took advantage of the diversity available in the liberal studies program, and I feel I have learned more in the last two years than the rest of my life combined.”
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MATHEMATICS The Graduate Program of the Department of Mathematics currently has over forty enrolled students. In all twenty students will be graduating during this academic year (three in December 2003 and seventeen in May 2004). Three new students joined the program in the Spring semester of 2004 and another twenty are admitted for the Fall of 2004. Last Fall (2003) a new track in Industrial Applied Mathematics was initiated. The Mathematics department obtained the RUTGERS DIALOG grant to initiate a new course on Industrial Mathematics (645:561) which was offered in the Fall of 2003 (with enrollment of twenty-one students). As a part of this course, we have set up a (MATLAB based) software lab. In the current semester (Spring of 2004) another new course within this track (Introduction to Mathematical Modeling and Simulation 645:562) is being run. Yet another new course (Optimization and Control 645:574) will be offered this summer. For students in the Teaching Track, we developed and offered a course titled Mathematical Reasoning in the Fall of 2003. Again, for the Teaching Track students we are offering a new course on Teaching Methodologies this summer. Both of these courses will be offered regularly and will become part of the core requirement for the Teaching Track. Our enrollment in this track more than doubled over the past year and that has initiated us to design some Math-Education related courses. The scholarship of the faculty members of the Department of Mathematical Sciences is exceptional. This is exemplified by the high quality publications in top-notch mathematics journals such as the Journal of Algebra, the Transactions of the American Mathematical Society and the Journal of Differential Geometry. Our faculty members are found as participants of major conferences around the world each year. Many of our students have produced outstanding work/papers on topics ranging from schedule optimization problems, cryptography to radar filters. A significant number of their projects have industrial applications.
The outlook for our program is very bright with increasing quality of students, and employment opportunities. The program will maintain its significantly increased enrollment in the near future.
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN PHYSICAL THERAPY There were thirty matriculated students this past year. Fifteen completed requirements for May, 2004 graduation. Twelve entered the second year of the program in May. A new class of eleven students began on June 1, 2004. Three students withdrew from the program during the past year. Three faculty joined the MPT Program this past year. Dr. Kathryn Oriel and Prof. Robert Dekerlegand joined us in August. Dr. Jodi Handler joined the faculty in November. The MPT faculty completed a comprehensive review of the MPT curriculum and began planning for a DPT curriculum. MPT faculty participated in two faculty workshops with the UMDNJ-Newark Physical Therapy Faculty this past year: “Item writing for multiple choice examinations” (Dr. Marla Nayer) and “Evidence Based Practice” (Dr. Ellen Ross). Professor David Kietrys was notified that he will receive the APTA Margaret L. Moore Award for Outstanding New Academic Faculty Member at the American Physical Therapy Association Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois on July 1, 2004. Prof. Robert Dekerlegand was recognized as a Cardiopulmonary Clinical Specialist by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties at the Combined Sections Meeting of the American Physical Therapy Association in Nashville, Tennessee in February. Marie Koval Nardone completed her doctoral degree at the University of Delaware, School of Education. Prof. Dennise Krencicki was accepted into the DPT post-professional program at UMDNJ-Newark. Prof. Robert Dekerlegand was accepted into the Ph.D. in the Health Sciences Program at UMDNJ-Newark. Tanya Hazelton and Rachele DeCrescenzo, Class of 2004 were awarded the MPT Program Academic and Clinical Excellence Awards, respectively, by UMDNJ-SHRP. Laura Leiphart, Class of 2004 was awarded the MPT Program Excellence Award. Dr. Marie Koval Nardone was an invited external reviewer at Georgia State University from February 8 to 10, 2004. Dr. Marie Koval Nardone gave the keynote address at the Department of Physical Therapy Recognition Ceremony at St. Francis University in Lorreto, Pennsylvania on May 7, 2004. Prof. David Kietrys was an invited speaker at the MANNA Food for Thought Conference on September 30, 2003. He spoke on “Progressive resistive exercise for HIV disease” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was an invited speaker for the UMDNJ-SHRP faculty and presented “Effective meeting management using Robert's Rules of Order” on January 26, 2004. Prof. Dennise Krencicki was an invited speaker for the Southern District of the American Physical Therapy Association of New Jersey. She discussed, “The basics of direct access and professional practice: A review of key changes of the modernization of the New Jersey Practice Act,” on September 25, 2003 in Pomona, New Jersey. Dr. Jodi Handler was an invited speaker for the APTAnj Home Health Special Interest Group. She spoke about “Promoting Patient Adherence: Clinical Strategies for the Physical Therapy Home Care Provider” on April 24, 2004 in Robbinsville, New Jersey.
Research Prof. Kietrys served as an abstract reviewer for the Combined Sections Meeting of the American Physical Therapy Association 2004 for the Orthopedic Section. David Kietrys and colleagues, David Krefetz, D.O., Richard T. Jermyn, D.O. and Maryann Andrews, B.S.N. presented, “A comprehensive approach to the treatment of pain in HIV Illness,” an issues workshop, at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in New York on May 6.
Dr. Marie Koval Nardone presented a poster “The development of competence in physical therapy clinical education” at the American Physical Therapy Association Annual Conference in Chicago in June, 2004.
Faculty and students:
Royce Aldea, Tanya Hazelton, Jason Hyder, Michele Leary and faculty member David Kietrys presented “An updated systematic review of the efficacy of spinal manipulation for patients with low back pain at the American Physical Therapy Association Annual Meeting in June, 2004. MPT Program students complete a minimum of 4 full-time clinical internships as a component of the curriculum. Over the past year, students completed internships at the following institutions: A.I. Dupont Institute, Advanced Physical Therapy Association, A. Harry Moore School, Aspen POST, Atlantic City Medical Center, Bacharach Institute for Rehabilitation, Bergen Special Services School, Burlington County Special Services School, Burke Rehabilitation Center, Capital Health System - Mercer Campus, Cherry Hill Township Sports Therapy, Children's Seashore of CHOP, Clara Maas Medical Center, Comprehensive Sports Care Specialists, Inc., Concentra, Delaware Valley PT Associates. Eastern Long Island Hospital, Geisinger, CP of Gloucester & Salem, Hackensack Medical Center (2), HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of New Jersey (Toms River, Manahawkin), Inslandsports PT, JFKMC/Johnson Rehabilitation, Kennedy Memorial Hospital (Cherry Hill-4, Turnersville-2), Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County (2), Magee Moss Rehabilitation at Voorhees, Medical Center at Princeton, Moss Rehabilitation, Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center, Nova Care (Medford -5, Sicklerville-2, Woodbury), Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, Raritan Bay Medical Center, Rehabilitation Programs, Inc., Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (Hamilton, New Brunswick),Rohrer Health and Wellness Center of Virtua Health, St. Agnes Medical Center, St. Lawrence Rehabilitation Center (2), The Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Underwood Memorial Hospital, University of Maryland, Washington Township Sports Therapy, Vineland Developmental Center, Virtua West Jersey Hospital - Marlton. The Internships ranged from one week to twelve weeks.
MPT faculty made site visits to the following institutions: A.I. Dupont Institute, Advanced Physical Therapy Assoc., Atlantic City Medical Center, Bacharach Institute for Rehabilitation, Bergen Count Special Services School District, Burlington Township Special Schools District, Burke Rehabilitation, Children's Seashore House of CHOP, CP of Gloucester and Salem Counties, Eastern Long Island Hospital, Hackensack Medical Center, Hershey Medical Center, JFKMC/Johnson Rehab Kennedy Memorial Hospital (2), Kennedy Medical Center - Cherry Hill, Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County, Nova Care (Cherry Hill, Medford), Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, Princeton Medical Center, Rehab Programs of Poughkeepsie, St. Agnes Medical Center, St. Lawrence Rehabilitation Center (2), Vineland Development Center, Virtua Health - Rohrer Center. In October, faculty and students provided public service activities for Physical Therapy month. Professors Rob Dekerlegand , David Kietrys and 11 MPT students informed the public about Physical Therapy and the MPT Program at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia on October 4. Prof. Dennise Krencicki represented the program at the Rutgers-Camden Career Planning event on October 7. Dr Katie Oriel and a team of 14 participated in the AIDS walk in Philadelphia on October 19. Drs. Marie Koval Nardone and Katie Oriel and MPT students presented “Fun Fitness, “ on October 17 at the Dr. William E. Mennies Elementary School in Vineland. Approximately 150 4th grade students were screened for strength, balance, and flexibility. Dr. Marie Koval Nardone and Prof. Dennise Krencicki represented the program at the Rutgers-Camden Graduate Admission Fair on November 12. MPT faculty (Drs. Marie Koval Nardone and Kathryn Oriel, Profs. David Kietrys and Robert Dekerlegand) and staff (Marlene Burrell) represented SHRP at the SPARC Allied Health Expo in January in Camden. Approximately 500 students from middle and high schools in southern New Jersey attended the event. The MPT Program hosted a meeting of the Southern District of the APTAnj on January 29. Dr. Marie Koval Nardone, Prof. Robert Dekerlegand, Beverly Fraietta, and Rachele DeCrescenzo (class of 2004) represented the MPT program at various times in the full day event, the Annual SNMA Region IX Pre-Health Conference exposition, which was sponsored by UMDNJ-SOM on February 21. Prof. David Kietrys presented “A Career in Physical Therapy” in February at the Dr. Charles Brimm Medical Arts High School in Camden. Dr. Jodi Handler represented the MPT Program at the Garden AHEC Health Careers Fair at Woodbury High School on May 3. Prof. Dennise Krencicki and one student from the class of 2005 participated in the Special Olympics on June 5, 2004 in Trenton. The MPT Program Alumni Newsletter was distributed to all alumni. David Kietrys designed and coordinated this project. The MPT Program faculty, staff, and students hosted Open Houses for prospective applicants on October 25 and February 21. They hosted Informal “Meet and greet” sessions for prospective students on August 28, September 18, November 19, December 9, January 8, April 14, and May 13. The following faculty participated: Drs. Marie Koval Nardone, Kathryn Oriel and Jodi Handler; Prof. David Kietrys, Dennise Krencicki and Robert Dekerlegand. Marlene Burrell provided staff support. Local clinicians were invited to participate in two meetings of the MPT Clinical Advisory Committee on November 6 and March 23.
MPT Program faculty mentored local high school students who participate in the High School Scholars Program, which is sponsored by UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine (SOM). Faculty, Robert Dekerlegand, Jodi Handler, David Kietrys, Dennise Krencicki, Marie Koval Nardone and Kathryn Oriel supervised the students' research projects. Two of the high school projects were presented at SOM's Annual Research Day in March 18, 2004.The students who presented were supervised by Jodi Handler and Dennise Krencicki. Marie Koval Nardone coordinated the Scholars course. Dr. Marie Koval Nardone and Professors Robert Dekerlegand and David Kietrys made presentations to the High School Scholars at SOM. Prof. David Kietrys provided clinical services for individuals in the EIP Clinic who are HIV+ or have AIDS. He provided services on June 16, July 7 and 21, August 4 and 25, September 15 and 29, October 13 and 27, November 10 and 24, December 8 and 29, January 19, February 9 and 23, March 9 and 29, April 12, May 10 and 24. David Kietrys was an invited speaker for the UMDNJ-School of Nursing's Nurse Practitioner Program. He spoke about “Common orthopedic injuries: Assessment, diagnosis and treatment” in a two part series on March 30 and April 6. Prof. Kietrys presented “Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered issues in healthcare” to students at UMDNJ-SOM. Prof. Kietrys presented an elective, “Advanced clinical decision making in musculoskeletal physical therapy” for students in the DPT Program at UMDNJ-Newark. Prof. Kietrys presented on “HIV Disease - Implications for Physical Therapy” at Temple University (September 22), Drexel University (January 29), and the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (February 16). He was an invited speaker on “Examination and interventions for patients with temporomandibular joint dysfunction” for Arcadia University (February 26) and Virginia Commonwealth University - Medical College of Virginia (December 1 and April 19).”
Dr. Marie Koval Nardone was an invited speaker for the UMDNJ-Newark Physical Therapy Program in November and May. She spoke about “Qualitative research and physical therapy.” Dr. Nardone was also an invited speaker at Richard Stockton College on “Cardiopulmonary considerations in pediatrics.”
RUTGERS PINELANDS FIELD STATION The field station is developing by having a new building for student and visitor accommodation. This building has been funded by NSF through the Field Station and Marine Laboratories Improvement program and is due to be installed in August 2004. The station hosted two undergraduate interns during the summer of 2003; both students were from Drew University. One student worked to collect and identify and create a collection of insects and the second worked on an NSF funded grant with collaborators from the Ukraine. Camden undergraduate students are currently helping to map the field station property. Seven graduate students are currently working on projects related to the field station research mission, although some are resident on New Brunswick campuses. Fields of study range from the effects of control burning on nutrient cycling in the pine barrens, through the influence of fungal communities on roots on the bacteria in soil to the role of fungi in mercury movement in soils. The station director published a resource book Fungi in Ecosystem Processes through Marcel Dekker and is senior editor of a forthcoming book The Fungal Community: its Organization and Role in the Ecosystem which will consist of some 45 chapters written by an international cast of authors. Currently four journal articles are in press and another four are in preparation. papers and posters were presented at the Ecological Society of America, Mycological Society of America and International Congress on Mycorrhizae meetings during the summer of 2003.
The Station's mission to conduct research on ecological issues continues with a continuation of a grant from the NJ DEP on nitrogen deposition and educational components include a summer course on Field Ecological Methodology offered to both undergraduate and graduate students. Presentations have been made to other bodies, such as the Pinelands Short Course. Educational activities are being conducted in conjunction with the Pinelands Preservation Alliance. The Director served on the Board of Directors an Education Committee of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance and the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the New Jersey Academy of Aquatic Sciences at the Camden Aquarium.
PUBLIC POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM This year the Department has 110 matriculated students and fourteen non-matriculated students. The new Educational Policy and Leadership concentration will be opened up to school districts beyond Camden City in the Fall of 2005. The Department worked with UMDNJ to develop a joint five year relationship for the Health Care Concentration. In the International Service Concentration, the Department will join the U.S. Peace Corps Fellows Program, targeting returning Peace Corps Volunteers. The Department helped develop a formal MOA with the U. of Havana, Cuba establishing a partnership with their public administration program. This fall, two of our IPSD students will be in Cuba assigned to this project. Prof. Van Til has developed a new cross-listed course in “Sustained Dialogues”. Finally, the Department has developed a detailed plan for a Ph.D. in Public Affairs. The Department was presented with an award from the US Peace Corps in recognition of the Department’s International Service concentration. Prof. Jim Garnett was given a secondary appointment in the UMDNJ-School of Public Health and was inducted into the National Honorary Society for Schools of Public Health. Prof. Bonilla-Santiago received 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award from Salem County. Prof. Lang received The Whitman Preservation Award for Community Advocate. Prof. Brenner received the Outstanding Faculty award from PASA. Twenty two students were inducted into Pi Alpha Alpha and Jeff London, was selected as a Presidential Management Fellow. Prof. Van Til was a Fulbright Scholar in N. Ireland. Prof. Bonilla-Santiago was appointed to the After Three Authority Commission. She and Prof. Lang will join Provost Dennis and Cuban colleagues in Barcelona for a presentation on Historic Preservation Policy. The Department will sponsor a joint conference in Havana in 2005. Assistant Professors: Thomas’ book, Educating Drug Exposed Children was published by Routledge, Brenner’s book, Diga Me: Politics and Policy on the Texas Border was published by Kendall Hunt, Pandey had articles published in the Journal of Urban Health, and Mareschal published in the American Review of Public Administration. Faculty (Lang) served on the faculty senate committee on the reorganization of higher ed. in N.J. Six Urban Studies and MPA students were selected as DCA Housing Scholars. Additional community service to area non-profits and local officials came via the IPSD concentration (nine) and the Civic Ed. Course (thirty-five). The annual Bailey Lecture was attended by a large number of community residents. Professors and students serve on the Rutgers Fairview Neighborhood Partnership Board, Fairview Historic Society, Friends of the Camden Library, and the Camden Shipbuilding Museum. The future of the program is bright. Continued growth in enrollments and programs will depend on the continued productivity of faculty and staff as well as the availability of needed resources, e.g. computer lab space. The Department will search for a full time, senior appointment for the education concentration. The establishment of the Ph.D. in Public Affairs seems assured and planning continues. The Department is also gearing up for a self-study report as part of the NASPAA re-accreditation process.
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