ARTS AND LETTERS

Filmmakers, movie directors and motion picture industry experts visited the campus this spring for the college's first Film and Video Festival. Hollywood scriptwriter Arnold Schulman, best known for his films "And the Band Played On" (1993), "Tucker: A Man and His Dreams" (1988) and "Funny Lady" (1975), opened the weeklong festival, which featured screenings, talks and panel discussions. Topics centered on film production, experimental films, silent films, comedy and network news. "The response was much more enthusiastic than we anticipated," said Gary Edgerton, chair of communication and theatre arts and founder of the film festival. "In more than half of the sessions, there was standing room only."

The next Film and Video Festival, scheduled for March 22-26, 1999, will focus on the multicultural mosaic in television and film, addressing issues of gender, race and class, said Karen Gould, dean of the college.

The university plans to bring in Barbara Kopple, a filmmaker best known for "Harlan County" and "American Dream," and others in the business to discuss the significance of the televised O.J. Simpson trial and the historic importance of "Schindler's List."

BUSINESS AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

The board of directors of AACSB - the International Association for Management Education (formerly the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business) - reaffirmed the accreditation of the baccalaureate, master's and doctoral degree programs in business this spring, and issued a separate reaccreditation for the bachelor's and master's programs offered by the accounting department. The accreditation is for a 10-year period.

Achieving reaccreditation means that the college continues to meet a wide range of quality standards relating to curriculum, faculty resources, admissions, degree requirements, student and faculty access to library materials and computers, financial responsibilities and intellectual climate.

"The College of Business and Public Administration is among the first group of schools in the nation and internationally to successfully pass the scrutiny of the AACSB's new mission-driven process, which requires business and accounting programs to have in place programs that clearly support the overall strategic plan of the university with measures of value added, continuous improvement and quality," said J. Taylor Sims, dean of the college.

Only 352 colleges and universities have achieved AACSB accreditation of the approximately 1,200 institutions in the United States that offer baccalaureate, master's and doctoral degree programs in business.

"Increasingly, profit and non-profit organizations are looking to AACSB-accredited schools when recruiting employees, especially those like Old Dominion which emphasize interaction with the real-world business community by way of student internships and a burgeoning executive in-residence program," said Sims.

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Engineers, scientists and inventors from Old Dominion soon will conduct research at the Applied Research Center, a new high-tech research complex that opened this spring in Newport News.

ARC is one of the college's seven enterprise centers, which are designed to provide university resources, such as faculty and student expertise, to meet industry and government needs. Old Dominion will have 15 laboratories at the center where faculty and students can conduct research on projects in materials science and engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics and chemistry.

The college has received equipment originally valued at over $2 million from Eastman Kodak Co. to support research conducted at the center by Mool Gupta, the college's ARC director and a faculty member in the electrical and computer engineering department. The equipment includes various types of high-power lasers, thin film deposition systems, a scanning electron microscope, photolithography system and various pieces of optical and electronic equipment.

"The equipment will greatly facilitate the preparation of research proposals and the training of graduate students," said William Swart, dean of the college. Old Dominion also received equipment from Xerox Corp., originally, valued at over $432,000, to aid in the analysis and deposition of materials. Included are an XPS, a low-energy electron diffraction system, a mass spectrometer and an ion gun.

Two senior research professors are expected to work full time at the center, along with other faculty members, postdoctoral and research fellows, visiting professors and graduate students.

EDUCATION

More than 50 Old Dominion students participated during 1997-98 in the America Reads Challenge, a program initiated by President Clinton to raise the literacy levels among elementary-age children.

Administered through the Darden College of Education and the Career Management Center, the students began tutoring children last fall at two Norfolk elementary schools - Lindenwood and Tidewater Park - and Hunton YMCA. The tutors, most of whom were undergraduate education majors, were paid through Federal Work-Study funding. They visited the schools from 10 to 20 hours each week to help the youngsters boost their reading skills.

The America Reads Challenge was enacted in response to a study which found that nearly 40 percent of America's fourth graders fail to attain the basic level of reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

HEALTH SCIENCES

U.S. News and World Report recently ranked Old Dominion's master of physical therapy program as one of the best in the nation. The report places Old Dominion number three among universities without medical schools. Overall, Old Dominion was listed in the top 25 of the more than 100 physical therapy programs in the nation.

Lindsay Rettie, dean of the college, said the recognition is appreciated and well-deserved. "The program is highly selective and the students are extremely well-qualified to pursue this difficult curriculum. The faculty have worked hard to establish a top-notch program and our students have a 100 percent pass rate on licensing examinations, which is an indication of the quality of our program."

Old Dominion established the two-year program in 1981, which currently enrolls approximately 120 students.

SCIENCES

Janis Sanchez-Hucles, professor of psychology, and Daniel Dauer '70, professor of biological sciences, are the co-recipients of the 1998 A. Rufus Tonelson Faculty Award, which honors excellence in teaching, research or service.

Sponsored by the Alumni Association, the Tonelson Award is the highest award the university presents to faculty members. Sanchez-Hucles and Dauer each received a $2,000 check as part of the award, announced at a faculty dinner program in late April.

Sanchez-Hucles, director of the clinical psychology graduate program, joined the university in 1979. She has also served as assistant dean of the College of Sciences and as the university's NCAA faculty representative. Her research pursuits include urban interests, biracial and interracial concerns and ethnic diversity. Dauer serves as director of Old Dominion's Benthic Ecology Laboratory and associate director of benthic studies for the Applied Marine Research Laboratory. His research emphasizes the use of benthic (bottom-dwelling) communities in environmental impact assessment, and he has received nearly 60 grants, totaling more than $9.1 million. Dauer received his bachelor's degree in biology from Old Dominion in 1970. He joined the faculty of his alma mater in 1975.

The Tonelson Award is named for one of Old Dominion's first students, Alan Rufus Tonelson '33, a loyal alumnus, professor emeritus and a retired university administrator.

He retired from Old Dominion in 1986 following a 35-year teaching career in the music department. His courses included Piano, Theory, Form and Analysis and 20th Century Techniques. From 1954 until his retirement, he directed the Madrigal Singers and helped organize the annual Madrigal Banquet.

He is survived by his wife, Violet Kathryn Breneiser; two sisters, Marrie Ewing of Santa Fe, N.M., and Cathryn Darling of Redmond, Ore.; and a brother, J. Valentin Breneiser of Santa Fe.

She joined the Old Dominion faculty in 1975 and taught philosophy until her retirement in 1991. She started a graduate program of studies in Jungian thought at Old Dominion and specialized in Jungian philosophy and aesthetics. She was the author of "Jung the Philosopher: Essays in Jungian Thought."

Survivors include two daughters, Marie-Louise Pauson of Bainbridge Island, Wash., and Frances P. Bouton of Suffolk; three sons, Gregory V. Pauson and James W. Pauson of Eastbourne, New Zealand, and Jerome Pauson of California; three sisters, Marcia L. O'Toole and Helen L. Fisher of Metairie, La., and Anna L. Rominger of Mobile, Ala; and a brother, William L. LaGarde Jr. of Norco, La.