Instructions for getting the official OK to use equipment during break...

So I thought I would post this so you would be able to find it easily over the next few weeks....it's the PPECS process for getting permission to use equipment over the break:


Permission Procedure For
Equipment Over Spring Break

WRITE a proposal addressed to your faculty member telling why you are making this SPECIAL request.

EXPLAIN why this case is an exceptional one-time event and can only be recorded during this period. Include the particulars of the setting – physical and geographical – as well as why and how obtaining this footage/audio will substantially enhance your project. Understand, AT NO TIME is Park School Equipment allowed to travel outside the United States. It is also important to remember that if you are traveling beyond 100 miles of Ithaca College, there is no College liability insurance to cover the cost of the equipment in the event of loss or damage. You will be assuming the entire cost or replacing equipment should a problem occur.

LIST every piece of equipment (yes, cables, adapters, etc.) you believe you will need, IF approval is given. This list cannot be changed or added to, once signatures have been obtained.

PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT count on de facto approval.
Do not fool yourself into thinking “there is not a problem…I can conceive, do and complete my project over break. This is SPECIAL PERMISSION we are talking about, not routine assignment work.

BRING this proposal directly to Ellen Diffenderfer in Park 114. She will determine the specific forms needed and book the tentative equipment. Be sure to have your Valid Park Card and IC ID with you.

DO NOT place your equipment requests at the scheduling window nor with the student assistants working in PPECS. The only requests that will be honored or valid are the ones that are reserved with Ellen Diffenderfer in Park 114.

NOTE there are two signatures required on your equipment request and travel agreement are: First YOUR Faculty member who is grading this. The second signature is David Priester, Director of Techncial Operations in Park 111. HE makes the final determination, and may or may not sign off on an individual request at his discretion.

IF you are planning on leaving prior to 9:00 am on Friday, March 7, or returning later than 10:00 am March 17, a waiver is necessary. The waiver must be filled out completely and signed by your faculty member.

NO NEW requests will be accepted after Thursday February 28th at 2:00 PM.

We are honored....

Dr. Stephen Tropiano, faculty member in the Department of Television-Radio and director of the Park School's Los Angeles program, has just been named to the Executive Committee of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

The ATAS is a professional organization of more than 15,000 members that oversees the Emmy Awards and serves the television industry. It's among the most visible, prestigious and valuable professional groups in the media -- and certainly in the entertainment media. Steve's inclusion on its executive board is a highly visible acknowledgement of his position in and expertise about the industry.

Congratulations, Steve! (And hurrah for all of our students, who now have a high-level connection to the Academy!)

An invitation....

First, thanks to every one of you who takes the time to respond to one of my blog postings. Sometimes you have happy things to say; sometimes not. But I am always interested in what you think and what you want us to do, whether you're praising or criticizing.

Because you're responding anonymously when you email the blog, I can't follow up with you individually. So please consider this an open invitation to come up to the third floor and find a time to talk to me directly, to share your ideas and opinions and to let me answer your questions.

Cheers,
Dianne

The Gentlemen of CMD....puh-lease....

So here's a dean's dilemma, one that doesn't come up very often:

I always do my best to support student activities and fundraisers. I always do what I can to be enthusiastic and to donate whatever time and resources I can to help out. Really. I do.

But how appropriate would it be for the Dean of the Park School to post in her office a "Gentlemen" calendar featuring photos of a select group of male students from the Department of Communication Management and Design?

Answer: Ummmmm....not very.

But that doesn't mean you can't.

They'll be on sale (the calendars, that is) in the Park lobby tomorrow (Thursday) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For a mere $8 (such a deal), you can get one of your own... (Or better yet, I'll buy you one....that would make everybody happy!)

VIC...signing on!

Greetings,

I know you know where to find it (OK, I'll make it easy for you, it's right here), and I know you know how good it is...you put those two things together and you know everything you need to know about VIC.

Students used to call VIC the "other" radio station in the Park School, but that was before the station upped its bandwidth and expanded its audience (and its programming).

Today, it's a thriving (yeah, that's such a mom way to say it, but you know what I mean?) "alternative to terrestrial radio" -- and its 50 Hour Marathon is becoming one of the best and most valuable events in the school all year.

This year's marathon is scheduled April 4-6 and the beneficiary is the S.P.C.A. (you know, the Humane Society), and no, that doesn't mean we're all going to adopt new puppies and kitties in the Park School. But maybe it does mean we can contribute a few dollars to keep them fed and happy until somebody else decides to take them home.

The station's growth and success are really the result of the talent and energy of its staff: I went looking on the site for a complete list so I could include it here but I couldn't find one (not even on its Facebook site!). If somebody sends it, I'll post it.

In the meantime, I can tell you that the station has just appointed a new News Director: Welcome to Bethany Hinckley! And thanks to everybody involved in the station for all you do to make VIC such a great part of the Park School's media family.

REMINDER: PARK SCHOLAR DEADLINE!

Greetings,

As you all know (I hope), this year marks the launch of a new Park Scholar program for rising juniors (current sophomores). We announced it several weeks ago, but I thought you all might benefit from a reminder that the deadline is January 31 (that would be tomorrow!).

All the information is right here.

Good luck!

National Conferences on Undergraduate Research Selects 12 IC Students (including Three Parkies!)

Twelve IC students, including three Parkies, have been selected to present their original research at the 2008 National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Maryland in April. They'll join more than 2,200 students and their faculty advisers for three days of research presentations, including posters, oral presentations, visual arts and performances.

They include:
“Exploring Virtual Worlds”
Jason Soon (author)
Tammy Shapiro (faculty advisor)
Department of Strategic Communication

“The Efficiency of the NFL Point Spread Betting Market”
Benjamin McKee (author)
Elia Kacapyr (faculty advisor)
Department of Economics

“How Low Can You Go? The Effects of Substrate Variations on Green Roof Plants”
Dan Carrion (author)
Dr. Susan M. Swensen (faculty advisor)
Environmental Studies Program

“S.O.S via SMS: Text Messaging as a Communication Strategy in Hurricane Crises”
Leanne Gabinelli and Kellie Hoverter (authors)
Dr. Cory Young (faculty advisor)
Department of Strategic Communication

“The Fireman's Rule”
Laurie Stern (author)
Gwen Seaquist (faculty advisor)
Dept. of Legal Studies

“Mythopoetics: The Fringes of Academia”
Robert A. Volpicelli (author)
Michael Twomey (faculty advisor)
Department of English

“Deletion of the Nuclear Gene YME1 Stabilizes Mutant Forms of Cox2p”
Eric Van Fleet (author)
Vicki Cameron (faculty advisor)
Department of Biology

“Examination of Candidate Sex Specific Genes in Xenopus Laevis”
Ana M. Velez (author)
Marc Servetnick (faculty advisor)
Department of Biology

“Gene Expression in Two Incipient Species of the Pea Aphid”
Lei Mi-Mi (author)
Marina C. Caillaud (faculty advisor)
Department of Biology

“Organizational Effects of AAC Devices as Emerging Technologies in Primary and Secondary Education”
Sarah E. Brylinsky (author)
Tammy Shapiro (faculty advisor)
Department of Strategic Communication

“The Effect of Phospholipase A2 Inhibitors on the Processing of Amyloid Precursor Protein”
Pamela Ronco (author)
Ed Cluett (faculty advisor)
Department of Biology


Congratulations!

Rory Kennedy: A filmmaker with a conscience

Greetings,

About 450 of us showed up at Emerson Suites tonight to hear independent documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy talk about the extraordinary moments she has captured in the lives of "ordinary people" around the world -- ordinary people dying of AIDS, struggling to overcome drug addiction, explaining their participation in the inhumanity of Abu Ghraib. In more than a decade of work as a documentary filmmaker, Kennedy -- the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy -- has proven again and again that real stories are the best way to capture an audience and promote social change.
(
Her film, "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" will be screened at 7 p.m. Tuesday night in the Park Auditorium, sponsored by the campus chapter of Amnesty International.

Even if you missed tonight's speech, it's well worth seeing.

Come to think of it, even if you saw tonight's speech, it's well worth seeing.)

So next time you're in the lobby....

...stop for a minute and look at the floor.

Then look up at the ceiling.

Then the floor.

Then the ceiling.

Now take 10 steps in any direction.

And do it again.

Floor. Ceiling.

Get it?

:-)

OLYMPICS!

Greetings,

I know you have all been waiting for this news (though many of you have undoubtedly already heard it in bits and pieces through the grapevine), but I was waiting to confirm a couple of details with NBC Sports before announcing the "winners" of the 2008 Olympics internships. That confirmation came through on Friday....so here it is.

First, you should all be incredibly proud that Park was one of only SIX communications schools in the nation to be included in the NBC Sports Olympics internship program. We are winners before we even got started.

Second, every one of you who applied and were interviewed did a great job. The director of the program called me to say she was really sorry they could not take more of our students, but there was incredible competition at all six schools -- and they decided to basically distribute the slots across the six programs as reasonably as possible. (I thought they were going to have more slots in total than the 90-or-so they decided to fill...especially since they asked us for at least 150 student resumes and they interviewed almost 90 of you....but who knew?)

At the end of the process, SIXTEEN of our students will be involved with NBC Sports and the Olympic Games: eleven of them will go to China as interns, and five will spend the summer in New York City, working (yes, as in PAID working [at least to some degree] on the games at 30 Rock.

Here are the names of the students who are headed to Beijing:

Shannon Archer
Derek Callahan
Becky Goodling
Kelley Harrison
David Lease
Bill Ostrander
Adam Rivera
Ryan Woerner
Jessica Woodcome
Matthew Wright
Andrew Zivic

Students who have the opportunity to spend the summer working in New York include:

Brooke Hundley
Kris Lynds
Joe McCormick
Christina O'Rourke
Alyssa Zahler


Congratulations! What an amazing opportunity, and I am absolutely certain you will all do us proud.

(And I know many of you are disappointed; I am disappointed for you....but you all did a great job (I'm sure of it) and they just couldn't take you all. I wish they could....)

Welcome Dr. Cornwell!

Hey,

I should have done this last week -- I've been traveling too much these days, as those of you who have been coming up to make appointments to see me have discovered, I'm afraid -- so my sincere apologies, first to her and then to you all:

Let me welcome a new member of the Park School's leadership team, which we fondly call the Administrative Council -- the faculty who chair our degree programs and departments, and who invest such huge amounts of their time, energy and expertise in helping us run this place.

Dr. Nancy Cornwell arrived in Ithaca over winter break and has just completed her first full week in the Park School. She's fitting in like she has been here all her life -- or at least several years of it -- and we're all delighted to have her with us.

If you haven't had a chance to meet her yet, here's a little info about her:

Dr. Cornwell is coming from Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon where she was an associate professor and chair of the Department of Mass Communication. At Linfield, Dr. Cornwell was responsible for teaching video production, web design, media law, and the First Amendment. She received her Bachelor's degree from St. Lawrence University, her Master's from Syracuse University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is teaching a section of Government and Media in the spring semester...

And helping lead TVR into its extraordinary future! Welcome, Nancy!

Documentarian Rory Kennedy is coming to Park!

It's going to be another wonderful semester in the Park School this spring -- from new student award programs and exciting travel opportunities to new mini-courses and extraordinary guest speakers.

We're kicking things off Monday night (January 28) with a presentation by Rory Kennedy, one of the country's most accomplished and prolific (not to mention award-winning) independent documentary filmmakers.

Kennedy's presentation, “The Camera Doesn’t Lie: Social Change Through Documentary Filmmaking” will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday, January 28 in Emerson Suites.

It's the first in a series of special events in 2008 that will mark the launch of the Park Center for Independent Media.

Here's some background on her (she's amazing):
Co-founder/president of Moxie Firecracker Films, Inc., Rory Kennedy is one of the nation's most prolific independent documentary filmmakers. Her impressive body of work tackles some of our most pressing social concerns--poverty, domestic abuse, drug addiction, human rights, AIDS and mental illness--and has garnered numerous awards and been featured on HBO, A&E, MTV, Lifetime, The Oxygen Network, Court TV, TLC and PBS.

Through her films, Kennedy illuminates issues via the stories of everyday people. Her 2007 EMMY award winning documentary, "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib," examines the abuses of U.S. soldiers at Iraqi prisons in 2003 and explores what the events reveal about American society, government and military operations. It premiered to critical acclaim at the '07 Sundance Film Festival before being broadcast on HBO.

Other Kennedy-directed projects include: "The Homestead Strike," part of the History Channel's "Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America" series; "Street Fight" (Academy Award nomination for "Best Documentary"), tracing the controversial 2002 Newark, N.J., mayoral race between Sharpe James and Cory Booker; "American Hollow" (Emmy nomination for "Non-Fiction Primetime"), illustrating the plight of an Appalachian family caught between century-old tradition and the modern world; "A Boy's Life" ("Best Documentary" at the Woodstock Film Festival), a dramatic portrait of the troubling forces shaping the life of a young child from impoverished Mississippi; and "Pandemic: Facing AIDS," recording the triumph as well as the heartbreak of five people afflicted with the disease. Other films include: "Epidemic Africa," "Fire in Our House," "Juvies," "The Changing Face of Beauty," "Travelers," "Different Moms," "Healthy Start," "The Nazi Officer's Wife," "Sixteen" and "Girlhood."

See you there!

You're ba-a-a--a-ck...and I have a gazillion things to tell you....

Welcome back! We have missed you like crazy (and how ABOUT that lobby floor? We asked for wild and dynamic, and we got it!)

I have all kinds of news, so rather than posting a whole bunch of short blurbs, I'm going to do it all in a bullet list. Here's hoping you'll at least skim the list in case there's something that matters to you (there is bound to be SOMETHING....)

So here goes:

-- Scholarships. I am always amazed at how few of you take the time to apply for our scholarships. Really. If you're paying your own way through college, believe me, I know how that feels -- and what the heck are you thinking? And if your parents are helping out, they would kill you if they knew there's scholarship money available and you're not even taking the time to apply.

So here's the info:
Endowed Park School of Communications scholarships for returning students
are now open to application. The deadline for application submission to
Dean's Office Reception is Friday, February 15. Awards will be granted
over summer for study in 2008-2009.

The list of scholarships, criteria for scholarship application, and the
respective forms for all available scholarships may be accessed at
http://www.ithaca.edu/rhp/community/ships

These scholarships are awarded to students with financial need as
established by the Office of Financial Aid, with the exception of the
James Pendleton scholarship.

2. Our fabulous faculty are (of course) doing fabulous things. As usual. A few examples:
Cinema professor Changhee Chun's documentary, "Spilled (Soy) Milk" was aired via satellite and cable for two weeks in December through MBC (Munhwa Broadcasting Corp.), a major TV network based in South Korea that provides content to audiences in the United States. MBC is available on DirecTV as well as via various digital basic and
premium cable platforms throughout the country. In addition, his short film, "Red, Yellow and Blue" has been selected to be showcased during the 2008 Muskegon Film Festival. (Congratulations, Chang!)

In addition, Journalism professor Lisa Drew's most recent article, "Bering Sea Blues," is the cover story in this month's National Wildlife Foundation magazine. Here's the blurb: "As global warming transforms the region, scientists are scrambling to study its diversity of species that depend on ice for survival..." (Way to go, Lisa!)

3. FRANCE! (OK, so this is why it's worth it to read through my long blog postings....)
T IS THAT TIME AGAIN.... REMEMBER THE 20 STUDENTS WHO GOT THE AMAZING OPPORTUNITY TO GO TO FRANCE FOR 2 WEEKS IN MAY. WE ARE SELECTING 20 MORE STUDENTS FOR THIS AMAZING EXPERIENCE.

Here is how it works...

The Park School has a partnership with the Burgundy Business School in Dijon, France. Under the terms of the agreement, a Burgundy student receives tuition assistance to study at the Park School; in exchange, a group of 20 Park students is invited to visit Dijon (and Paris,Geneva, and Strausbourg) for two weeks at the end of May – all expenses paid except for airfare.

-- The trip leaves New York after graduation on Tuesday, May 21, 2008returning June 4 or June 5, 2008 (we're still finalizing the details).
-- The group will fly from New York City to Paris. Participants will be responsible for paying their own round-trip airfare.
-- The Burgundy Business School will be responsible for all other expenses (except, of course, your discretionary spending money).
They will pick you up at the airport in Paris, and take care of you for two whole weeks -- including lodging, food, transportation, and a full itinerary
of events and activities.
-- The schedule will include museum tours, day trips, media visits, lectures and social events with international students studying in Burgundy.
-- The schedule also will include free time to explore Dijon, and surrounding areas OR travel to London, Amsterdam, Munich, etc. Your
expenses on that kind of wider European excursion would be your responsibility, but your expenses if you stay in Dijon will be covered
by the school (except for meals that free weekend).
-- The schedule will also include a visit to Paris. Burgundy will cover all of your expenses on that trip.
-- The group will be accompanied by faculty or staff member of Park who will be coordinating the trip over the next five months and during the two weeks you're in
France.
-- The trip will be offered as a learning experience that DOES NOT require you to enroll for academic credit. We are doing everything we can to keep the costs as low as possible, and we are sensitive to the fact that many students cannot afford to buy a summer-school credit. Those students who need or want academic credit can make arrangements with the faculty member for independent study.
-- In exchange for this opportunity, you will agree to participate in a project documenting your experiences while in France. Those materials will be used to promote the trip in future years. AND you will promise to be the absolute best representatives of the Park School you could possibly be so we will continue to enjoy this partnership with the Burgundy Business School for many years to come.

This year, we can take up to 20 students to France. Obviously we expect many more students to express an interest in participating. So here's what we're going to do:

Monday morning, January 28, there will be forms in the rack OUTSIDE the Dean's office on the third floor of Park. Stop by, fill out the form, sign it, and hand it in to Heidi at the front desk in the Dean's office. One submission per student ONLY.

We'll be accepting forms until 5 p.m. Wednesday, January 30. NO EXCEPTIONS.

if you're studying abroad or in LA, you can email April Johanns at ajohanns@ithaca.edu, expressing your interest and providing your name, address in Ithaca, telephone number, class, and the type of documentary work you are best able to produce (writing, video, photography).

Questions about the trip should also be directed to April, but ALL students currently on campus in Ithaca must submit the paper form to the dean's office. If you're not here, you're sick, you're working an internship and can't get to the dean's office, ask a friend to fill out the form for you. Sorry, no exceptions on this one; we're trying to be fair to everybody.

On Thursday, we'll review the forms, make sure we have all the information we need on each form, and put them all in a box.

We'll select 20 forms – lottery-style and send e-mails to those selected no later than Monday, Feb. 4. By applying, you're committing to the trip, so please don't apply unless you're sure you can go.

And the winners will be off to France in May!

So it took 'em about three days to make national television....

I was going to wait until next week to start blogging again, assuming that the LAST thing you guys are doing during break is logging onto the school blog to see what's up back here in Ithaca (but just WAIT until you see the lobby....)

But there's news out in LA and it's happening NOW, as in TONIGHT (well, tomorrow morning, early), and I need you to know....

This just in from Stuart Kenney (and pay no attnetion to his comments about the weather; ice has its advantages):

Hey, I hope that this finds you well and that you're surviving the cold. We
are all here in LA just suffering in the 80 degree sunny days... Winter here
is horrible.

Anyway, I am writing to let you know some exciting news. ICLA has already
made it onto tv. I just got a call from my girlfriend, Natalie Jenereski,
who's only words were: "you cannot guess what just happened to me".

She, along with Sara Gerstenblatt, had gone to interview with Last Call with
Carson Daily as interns. They were told when they got there that they were
actually going to be on the show in a competition for the internship
position. There was one other girl, and the three of them were told that
they had to race to see who could get Carson a cup of coffee the fastest,
and the winner would get to become one of his interns. (and just to clarify,
that's not all that we do as interns!)

Without giving away the winner of the competition, they were all offered the
positions off air.

The show will be airing tomorrow night (or I guess Thursday morning) at
1:30am on NBC. I know it's late, but it's really great that ICLA kids are on
TV! Check it out, from what I hear, it's pretty funny.

That's all for now from LA.


-Stuart


Why do I have a feeling we'll be hearing a lot from the LA group this semester? Let's hope so....