Three undergraduate students at Medaille College presented at the tenth annual Media Ecology Association Conference, held in St. Louis, Missouri from June 18-21.
Shawn Arrajj of Rochester, Tara MacAuley of Tonawanda, and Rocco Zambito, Jr. of Elba addressed whether Neil Postman’s book Amusing Ourselves to Death remains relevant to today’s college students. They are part of Medaille’s Honors Program.
“I’ve been told that the Media Ecology Association has never before included undergraduate papers in their convention program,” says Dr. Gerald Erion, associate professor of humanities. “But our students did a really wonderful job representing the College and the Honors Program with their presentations.”
“Public speaking is often a daunting task, especially for undergraduates speaking to a room full of distinguished scholars, and I can tell you that the audience was quite receptive, and indeed impressed with the presentations,” adds Dr. Lance Strate, professor of communication and media studies at Fordham University. “Their outstanding performance at the Media Ecology Association’s Tenth Annual Meeting is a credit to Professor Gerald Erion and Medaille College.” Dr. Strate was one of the founders of the Media Ecology Association, and has served as the organization’s president since 1998.
Dr. Robert Tian, associate professor of business, presented his paper “E-Commerce Concerns: Cross-cultural Factors in Internet Marketing” at the International Conference on Electronic Commerce and Business Intelligence. The conference was sponsored by the Academic Committee, Society of Management Science of China and was held in Beijing, China, from June 7-8, 2009.
Medaille College is pleased to announce that Paula Valente has accepted the position of vice president for college relations. Valente will lead Medaille’s fund raising and communications efforts, and serve as part of the college’s senior administrative team. She began in this role on June 1, 2009.
Dr. Michael Lillis, associate professor and chair of the Business Department, has had his paper, “Faculty Emotional Intelligence and Student-Faculty Interactions: Implications for Student Retention,” accepted for publication in the Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice. This paper was the result of a recent mentoring initiative undertaken by Medaille’s Business Department in fall 2008.
Two of Dr. Alan Bigelow’s fiction stories have been published. A digital story, “What They Said,” is in the current issue of the online literary journal
Medaille College has appointed Illana Lane, Ph.D., as acting dean of the School of Education.