Medaille College News

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.

Starting on Monday, June 29, the official postal address for Medaille’s Rochester Campus will be:

1880 South Winton Road, Suite 1
Rochester, NY 14618

The main phone number for the campus will remain the same, at (585) 272-0030.

Following two months of planning and construction, Medaille College’s Rochester Campus will officially open its doors at its new location on Monday, June 29, 2009. (pictures)

Located at 1880 South Winton Road, the new campus contains nine classrooms, each with a capacity of 24 students, and each with its own technology package. A 700-square foot library includes computer workstations, and a multi-purpose room provides space for meetings and workshops of up to 60 people.

“Medaille’s relocation to the Town of Brighton is a reinvestment in the campus and an investment that will contribute to economic growth in the Rochester region,” says Richard T. Jurasek, Ph.D., Medaille College president. “We’re developing new degrees with the needs of adult students in mind, and this larger facility will support those expanded programs and larger student base.”

“Like our current site, the Brighton location will be close to Rochester’s Outer Loop (Rte. 390/590), keeping it convenient for current and future students who travel to class after work,” adds Dr. Jenifer Bavifard, executive director for the Accelerated Learning Program. “The design of each classroom and inclusion of technology will give faculty more options when developing lessons and will be planned to accommodate adult learners.”

Since Medaille College opened its Rochester Campus in 2002, nearly 400 graduates have received associate, bachelor’s or master’s degrees in business through the Accelerated Learning Program. These degrees are designed to allow adult students to complete a degree through a flexible, interactive and cohort-based structure.

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.

In the paper, Dr. Tian probes cultural influences on Internet marketing and provides a possible solution to solve the cross-cultural problems that often happen to marketers who are doing online business beyond national boundaries through Internet. The full paper is included in the conference proceedings published by the CPS, Los Alamitos, California.

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.

“As Medaille continues to build partnerships with organizations in Western New York, Paula Valente will be a driving force in developing new opportunities for the benefit of the College and our students,” said Dr. Richard T. Jurasek, president of Medaille College. “Through her experience in government and civic engagement, she has proven herself to be leader who can effectively build relationships within and throughout a community.”

Valente brings to this role a strong background in community relations and public policy. Most recently, she served as associate vice president for development at Canisius College, an institution from which she is also a graduate. Prior to that position, Valente held leadership positions as the executive director of the YWCA of Greater Portland (Maine), president of the Institute for a Strong Maine Economy, president and CEO of the Maine Health Care Association, and city manager of Auburn, Maine.

In addition to receiving a bachelor’s degree from Canisius College, Valente earned a master of public administration degree from George Washington University.

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.

Comments from the Editorial Board of the Journal include: ”Sometimes students don’t acquire faculty mentors until they declare a major. . . [S]tudents who make some kind of connection with the University that first year, do indeed tend to stay enrolled and graduate. And, yes we should focus on the faculty side of the equation. Higher Ed would be well-served by the “creation” of a multi-faceted mentoring model, as well as an integrated model of student persistence… “

Ron Christopher, director of campus public safety, has been named as a member of the Erie County Central Police Services Board of Trustees, effective May 2009.

According to the Erie County Charter, seven trustees are appointed to set policy and advise on matters relating to professional and technical services to police agencies in Erie County.

Christopher joined Medaille in 2003, and previously served as chief of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority Police.

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 New River Journal from Virginia Tech, and his work has appeared in an Artist’s Studio update on Turbulence.org (New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.). He was also a finalist in the BIPVAL (Biennale Internationale des Poètes en Val-de-Marne) digital poetry competition.

In May, he presented at the E-Poetry festival in Barcelona, Spain, and at the UDC conference at Buffalo State College. His most recent story, “Higher Math,” is at webyarns.com.

Medaille College has appointed Illana Lane, Ph.D., as acting dean of the School of Education.

Dr. Lane joined Medaille in 2001, most recently serving as associate professor and chair of the elementary education department in the School of Education. She will lead a division of the College that educates nearly 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students across programs in special education, secondary education, literacy, elementary education, student teaching, and teacher certification programs for Canadian students.

She is a graduate of the University at Buffalo, with a master’s degree and doctorate in education, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University.

In addition to being elected to the Amherst Central School District Board of Education in 2008, Dr. Lane belongs to the executive board of the New York State Association of Teacher Educators (NYSATE) and is a member of the Academic Educational Studies Association (AESA).

Dr. Lane takes over for Founding Dean of the School of Education Dr. Francis Murphy, who retired on May 31, 2009.

Brenda Fredette, Ph.D., associate professor of mathematics and sciences at Medaille College, was selected to participate in the annual reading and scoring of the College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) Examinations this June in chemistry.

Dr. Fredette began teaching at Medaille College in 1996. She earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University at Buffalo, Roswell Park Division, and was promoted to associate professor at Medaille in 2006. She She serves as the faculty advisor for the Life Sciences Club at Medaille, and has been a driving force behind its community activities this past academic year.

Each year the AP Program, sponsored by the College Board, gives more than one million capable high school students an opportunity to take rigorous college-level courses and examinations and, based on their exam performance, to receive credit and/or advanced placement when they enter college. More than 2.7 million examinations from 37 AP Courses are evaluated by over 10,000 AP Readers from universities and high schools.