The Shawnee State University Board of Trustees will meet Tuesday, December 11 at 4 p.m. in the Selby Board Room located in the Clark Memorial Library on the SSU campus.

            The committees of the Board will meet in the University Center at SSU as follows:

·        Finance and Facilities—12:45 p.m. in the Ketter Room;

·        Quality of University Life—1:15 p.m. in the Howard Room;

·        Academic Affairs—1:30 p.m. in the Founders’ Room.

Maroudis Joins Office of the Registrar at SSU

            Mary Vetter Maroudis of Portsmouth joined the Office of Registrar at Shawnee State University this past summer as manager of education for industry. 

Maroudis is serving as SSU’s representative to area business and industry.  Working as the liaison between SSU and business organizations, she develops academic services designed to meet the needs of area employers and their employees.  She promotes Shawnee State University credit courses, degree programs, and training programs to all employees of business, industry, and agencies in the region, and brings new information about the University’s programs to employees on a regular basis.

Once they are enrolled, Maroudis works with the employees to manage and facilitate the educational progress of individual students enrolled in University degree programs.  She also coordinates the review and evaluation of employees’ training records, military experience, and transfer credit.  She works with the Office of University Outreach Services to develop academic course delivery schedules and off-campus locations designed to meet the needs of area businesses and agencies.

Ginnie Moore, director of the Office of University Outreach Services at SSU, said Shawnee State University is a member of the Enterprise Ohio Network, and as a member, receives funds targeted for the training, education, and professional development of Ohio’s workers.

“Funds from this initiative make it possible for the University to provide this unique service for area employers,” Moore said.  “We are thrilled to be able to offer this connection to our area employers, and we want to get the news out to the community that Mary has joined the SSU team and that we have these new services available.”

            Maroudis said that relating SSU's Outreach Services to employees and management is exciting and draws upon her work experience and education. 

            “Working with students, many tackling an education plus a career change is especially rewarding," Maroudis said.

Maroudis, the former director of personnel for the Mercy Hospital Corporation in Portsmouth, is married to Sam Maroudis, and has a daughter, Maria, who is a student at Shawnee State University.  Their son Captain Socrates Stefan Maroudis, USMC, is a CH-53 Helicopter pilot stationed at Miramar, California, MCAS.

Area business and industry representatives may contact Maroudis at (740) 351-3370, or toll free at (866) 672-8778.  She can also be reached via e-mail at mmaroudis@shawnee.edu.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 3, 2001

(Article by Erica Fulton; Communications Specialist-SSU Office of Communications)  

SSU Distinguished Professor Herbert Martin Receives
 Governor’s Award

            PORTSMOUTH, Ohio – Herbert Martin, Ph.D., who spent the fall academic quarter as a distinguished professor of English at SSU, has been honored with this year’s Governor’s Award for the Arts from the Ohio Arts Council in the category of individual artist. 

            Martin, who teaches full-time at the University of Dayton, is the author of four collections of poetry, has written the libretti for two American operas, and is a leading expert on the work of Paul Lawrence Dunbar.  This past summer several of Martin’s colleagues and three individuals who had studied with him nominated Martin for the Governor’s Award for the Arts.

            When Martin first found out about the nomination he was hopeful of his chances.  “I was delighted and pleased...But then they sent a letter saying there were 140 people nominated in seven categories, and I thought you can just forget it,” Martin said with his usual humorous spin and laugh. 

            Martin, still skeptical about his chances, none-the-less gathered his opera libretti, books, and Paul Lawrence Dunbar manuscript he has been working on and sent them to the award committee at their request.  On Monday, November 26, Martin received a message at his home in Dayton, Ohio, that he had in fact been one of two artists awarded the Governor’s Award for individual artist. 

            “My first reaction was that I couldn’t believe that I had won.  It was gratifying to say the least that I had won and that somebody had thought I might be deserving of the award,” Martin said.

            The Governor’s Awards for the Arts is a statewide program that showcases and celebrates Ohio artists, arts organizations, arts patrons, and business support of the arts.  Since its beginning in 1971, the Governor’s Awards for the Arts has recognized individuals and organizations who have been vital to the growth and development of Ohio’s cultural resources.    

Of course, Martin should be accustomed to winning awards as he has received such honors as The Dayton Culture Works Award for Poetry, first place in The Piccadilly Poets reading in 1999, and is currently the poet-in-residence at The University of Dayton.  But he hesitates about talking too much about his past honors.

“It’s the next thing that’s important.  I have this suspicion, maybe it’s a superstition, about resting on the last laurel or whatever it is.  I believe you have to do something more,” Martin said.  His reserve to continue setting goals for himself may explain the success he has had during his writing career that began seriously in 1960.  Martin views writing as a challenge much like a scientist trying to uncover a law of nature. 

“It’s how I would describe this cloud or this fog.  That’s an artistic problem I have to solve in writing,” Martin explained.   

            It was this fresh perspective, expertise, and sheer talent that made Martin appealing to SSU, an institution looking to attract distinguished professors to enrich its students’ educational experience.  Jerry Holt, Ph.D., the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at SSU, was in large part responsible for bringing Martin to SSU.

            Holt noted, “I think it’s wonderful this happened on our watch.  Dr. Martin had just concluded two delightful classes for us.”

            While at SSU, Martin taught a literature course on African-American authors and a creative writing course in poetry.  Holt is confident that Martin has had a positive impact on the students, especially those in the creative writing course.  He explained that this past week Martin’s class held a poetry reading that showcased students’ work.

            “I saw some students that I knew bloom in ways that I could tell were quite new to them.  As a catalyst and as an inspiration and as a teacher he did a wonderful job,” Holt said.  In fact, Holt added that many of the poems were about Martin—some humorous but many were thank-you notes.

            With the quarter ending this week, Martin will be leaving SSU to return to the University of Dayton.

            “This is very nice that this award comes right at the end of the tremendously enriching experience that we’ve had with Dr. Martin,” Holt said.

            Martin will be formally honored at The Governor’s Awards for the Arts and Arts Day Luncheon on March 13, 2002, at 11 am at The Columbus Athenaeum.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2001

(Article by Erica Fulton; Communications Specialist--SSU Office of Communications)

SSU Professor of Psychology Honored at Annual APA Convention

           Hagop Pambookian, Ph.D. (left), professor of psychology at SSU, accepts congratulations from Raymond F. Paloutzian, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. Pambookian received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association recently.

            PORTSMOUTH, Ohio – SSU professor Hagop S. Pambookian, Ph.D., recently attended the 109^th annual meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA), in San Francisco, where he gave a presentation on his recent research and was also honored at a related gathering of the Armenian Behavioral Scientists Association with a “Distinguished Achievement Award.” 

            Pambookian, professor of psychology at SSU, has long been active in the APA and has presented at many annual meetings. This year at the San Francisco gathering, he presented “Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale in Psychology Publications,” which discussed the citations made --in the recently published psychology books-- to the inventors of the first intelligence scale in the world.

            “I wanted to find out whether Alfred Binet and Dr. Th Simon and the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale were referred and cited in current psychology text books.  I analyzed and evaluated different books to see how the inventors and the Intelligence Scale were acknowledged,” Pambookian explained.  He noted that many times the first name of Simon, Dr. Th. Simon, is referred to incorrectly or Simon is not even given credit for his work with Binet.  Pambookian plans to continue his research on Binet and Simon and on the impact of the first intelligence scale during the past 100 years.  (The Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale was first published in 1905.)

            Of course, his reception is no surprise based on his past and present honors at APA meetings.  A member of the American Psychological Association for over 30 years, Pambookian was recently elected fellow of APA based on his professional contributions and involvement.  This is a distinguished position in the association.  In addition, in 1999, Pambookian gave a presentation in an invited address on “International Dimension of Psychology for a New Century.”  Earlier, in 1995, he was elected to the APA Committee on International Relations in Psychology (CIRP) for a three-year term, which he completed in 1998. 

            This year, Pambookian added the “Distinguished Achievement Award” from the Armenian Behavioral Sciences Association for “a record of outstanding contributions to behavioral sciences” to his long list of honors. They range from the Ohio Education Association’s (OEA) “Paul Swaddling Award” to honorary membership in the “International Academy of Psychological Sciences” (Russia), and from a Senior Fulbright Fellowship in the then Soviet Armenia, U.S.S.R., to serving on the Board of Directors of the International Council of Psychologists (ICP), with membership from over 80 countries. 

            “It was a great honor,” Pambookian reflected.

            Pambookian is of Armenian heritage, and is originally from Lebanon, and studied in Cyprus, Lebanon, and the United States.  His B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees are all in psychology and are from the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), Columbia University Teachers College, and the University of Michigan respectively. 

            Pambookian’s award is not only a great accomplishment for himself, but it also helps bring prestige to Shawnee State University and its new psychology degree, which Pambookian helped establish. 

            SSU interim president Michael Field, Ph.D., said, “Dr. Pambookian continually brings such positive attention to SSU.  Everyone at the University is grateful to him for his work.”