Carlow University’s Women’s Basketball Team Ranks Eighth in NAIA for GPA
Carlow University’s women’s basketball team has placed in the top ten in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Academic Top 25 Honor Roll.
The Carlow Celtics had a cumulative GPA of 3.495, which was good for eighth place, just 0.122 behind first place finisher Dana College of Blair, Nebraska.
“Our student athletes work hard on the court and off,” said John Brown, head coach of the Celtics, who play in the NAIA’s American Mideast Conference. “The WBCA has been honoring teams for 10 years and our basketball team has made the top 25 seven times. We were the only American Mideast team in the top 25.”
The WBCA announced its 2006-2007 Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA and Junior College/ Community College earlier in July 2007. The awards recognize teams throughout the nation that have the highest grade point averages (GPA) for the 2006–2007 season based upon nominations submitted by WBCA-member coaches.
“It always brings the WBCA esteemed pleasure to recognize such prominent women’s basketball programs that have committed themselves on the hardwood and in the classroom,” said WBCA CEO Beth Bass. “Each of these teams lead by example and have set a benchmark of success academically among their peers and in the sport.”
GPAs are calculated by dividing the total number of quality points earned by each student-athlete on an institution’s roster in the given academic terms by the total number of hours earned by the team. The GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point.
Carlow University Establishes Campus-wide Instant Notification System
Carlow University has contracted with e2Campus, a self-service, Web-based, mass notification system that sends instant descriptive alerts to all students, faculty, and staff cell phones, email accounts, pagers, and personal Web pages automatically.
“Carlow has been looking for a system that can deliver information swiftly and efficiently to those who wish to participate,” said Jacqueline Travisano, MBA, CPA, vice president for finance and operations at Carlow University. “Nearly every winter bad weather can cause delays or cancellations with very little notice. It will be nice to have the e2Campus system in place for those days, as well as for any unforeseen emergencies that may occur throughout the year.”
The e2Campus program is free to all from the Carlow community who elect to participate, but participants must sign up for the service. Using the e2Campus system, Carlow administrators and police personnel can instantly and simultaneously send alerts to participants using the method of communication they prefer. The e2Campus system delivers alerts via mobile phones (via SMS text message), Blackberrys, wireless PDAs, text pagers, University and/or personal e-mail accounts, the University Web page, personal portals like My Yahoo, iGoogle, or My AOL pages, and RSS readers.
“The great thing about this system is that it can deliver particular information for specific situations,” said Travisano. “So, for example, if a water main break would disrupt service or access to a building or parking lot on campus, we have yet another way to communicate with our community in addition to those we currently use.” Travisano noted that the University routinely communicates with the Carlow community via mass voice mails, e-mails, the Carlow Web site, electronic message boards, and also through public address notification available in most buildings on campus. The new system is now a key component of the Carlow Community Crisis Response Plan.
The e2Campus system was designed for non-technical users, so very little training is required of Carlow administrators or police personnel to make the system operational. The system states on its corporate Web site that e2Campus can send out 18,000 messages every minute, so all members of the Carlow community who elect to participate are notified of an emergency within a minute or two of the message being sent by administrators.
The e2Campus system was activated in August in time for the fall semester.
Carlow University Hires New Director of Information Technology
Anne Candreva
Anne Candreva has been named director of Information Technology at Carlow University. Candreva, a Pittsburgh native, comes to Carlow after working since 2005 as Chief Information Officer at the Brooklyn Public Library in Brooklyn, NY. Among her many accomplishments at the library, Candreva combined four separate departments into one office of technology, and forged a sense of teamwork and collaboration, while positioning the office as an active partner with the rest of the organization.
Prior to that appointment, Candreva was director of Information Technology at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh for four years. She also served eiNetwork, an independent 501(c)(3) organization that provides technology infrastructure to the public libraries of Allegheny County, in a number of executive positions.
Candreva earned her bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Pittsburgh. She also has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from The Pennsylvania State University. She did graduate work in systematic theology at Duquesne University.
Candreva has earned several honors and awards in her career. Most notably, she was a 2005 finalist for Pittsburgh CIO of the Year and a member of Leadership Pittsburgh Class XXI in 2004-2005.
Seven School of Nursing Alumnae Honored with Cameos of Caring Awards
Carlow University’s School of Nursing was well represented among the winners of the 2007 Cameos of Caring Awards. All the honorees were recognized at the annual Cameos of Caring Awards Gala on Saturday, October 6, 2007 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
The Cameos of Caring awards were created in 1999 to honor exceptional bedside nurses who work at acute care hospitals in western Pennsylvania. This year, 51 institutions, spanning a nine county area and one international facility, participated. More than 300 nurses have been honored since the awards inception, and last year the event raised more than $100,000 in scholarship money for students.
The seven Cameos of Caring honorees who received their BSN or nursing certification from Carlow University are:
Anne Marie Emanuel ’70
Carlow University
Susan Erin Gustafson ’06
West Penn Allegheny Health System – Forbes Regional
Keli Ann Heiple ’96 (awarded posthumously)
Indiana Regional Medical Center
Karen F. Little ’97
VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Heinz Division
Mary Alice McLaughlin ’81
UPMC Passavant
Lisa Schoch ’89
UPMC Presbyterian
Ruth Zalonis ’05
Jefferson Regional Medical Center
Carlow University Announces New Communication for Advocacy Major
Carlow University’s Communication Department has announced a new major—Communication for Advocacy—to begin in the fall 2007 term.
“We discovered that many of our students were gravitating toward a variety of communication careers outside the corporate sector,” said Michael Balmert, PhD, chair of the Communication Department at Carlow. “We designed this major to be excellent preparation for work in nonprofits, such as hospitals, foundations, educational institutions, and government agencies. Plus, it also serves as excellent preparation for graduate school.”
The communication for advocacy major blends courses from the Communication Department with courses from English/professional writing, political science, sociology, and social work. Through this integration of courses, students develop substantial grounding in communication theory and skills, experience a variety of research methods, and expand their understanding of the relationship between individuals and social institutions.
“Many students at Carlow are dedicated to serving the social good as active and socially responsible professionals. Communication for advocacy is designed for students who wish to use their communication skills to advocate for the greater good,” said Balmert. “In this major, students will explore how issues are addressed through public policy, and how they, as citizens, can influence policy decisions.” Students who major in communication for advocacy will earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Carlow University’s School of Management will offer a new major— Management in Health Services—began in the fall of 2007.
“The Management in Health Services major is intended to provide students with the educational background needed to advance their careers within the healthcare industry,” said Diane Matthews, PhD, CPA, CFE, the associate dean of Carlow’s School of Management. “This is an excellent program for students who currently work in the health care industry and need a degree to advance their careers, or those high school students wanting to work in health care, but in a management capacity rather than a direct patient care function.”
Carlow’s new management in health services major is a combination of science courses and business management courses intended to provide the health care professional with good management skills and a base knowledge in the sciences.
“Health services managers must be familiar with current management principles and practices,” said Matthews. “Health care is a business and, like every business, needs good management to keep it running efficiently.”
Carlow University’s School of Management will offer a new major in Information Technology Management (ITM) began in the fall of 2007.
“The United States Department of Labor lists information technology as one of its ‘in demand’ occupations, and includes it in its ‘National High Growth Industry’ listing,” said Diane Matthews, CPA, PhD, CFE, the director of Carlow’s School of Management. “Bachelor’s degrees and certifications increase the marketability of employees and provide current knowledge and skills in a specialized field.”
Carlow’s new major in ITM will include two areas of focus: database administration and Web design. The focus in database administration prepares the student to plan and develop databases for back-end server applications in larger organizations. The student learns how to design and produce informational reports to meet the current needs of the organization. The focus in Web design prepares the student to create and support small-to-medium-sized Web sites, using modern tools to create rich, multimedia content.
“Increasingly, more sophisticated and complex technology is being implemented across all organizations, fueling demand for these majors” said Matthews. “Many employers seek applicants who have a bachelor’s degree in information science technology or Web design. We believe the focus on database management and Web development in this major will help answer area employers’ demand.”
First Carlow Round Table Convened May 22-27, 2007, in Carlow, Ireland
Eighteen presenters from eight United States colleges and universities participated in the first Carlow Round Table 2007—an academic forum being jointly sponsored by Carlow College, Ireland, and Carlow University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—when it convened in Carlow, Ireland, May 22 through May 27, 2007.
The central theme selected for the Round Table focused on a quote from the founder of the Sisters of Mercy—originated in Dublin, Ireland—Catherine McAuley, who said, “We must try to be like those rivers that enter the sea without losing any sweetness of the water.” All of the participating colleges and universities have their roots in the Mercy tradition.
“Although each Mercy institution has its own culture, every Mercy institution shares the same heritage,” said Mary C. Rothenberger, EdD, the associate provost and dean of the Graduate School at Carlow University. “We believe the Carlow Round Table 2007 was a time for reflection, renewal, sharing, and significant discussion around the Mercy culture and heritage.”
Each presentation was followed by a 20-minute round table discussion of the topic. Subjects of the presentations included linkages between the Mercy values and justice, teaching, service learning, literacy, and technology, to name just a few.
First Winner of Carlow University’s Patricia Dobler Poetry Award Named
The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Carlow University announced that Maureen O’Brien, a native of West Hartford, Conn., is the first winner of The Patricia Dobler Poetry Award, named for the Carlow English professor and founder of the MFA program who died suddenly in July 2004.
As the award winner, O’Brien received round-trip travel and lodging as a participating guest of Carlow’s MFA residency in Carlow, Ireland, June 12 through 27, 2007.
O’Brien is a published author and writing teacher. She received a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund/ Money for Women to work on her novel, b-mother, which was published by Harcourt Trade earlier this year. b-mother will be translated into German and Italian and has been selected by the New York Public Library as a Best Teen Read of 2007. The movie rights were sold to Lifetime Original Movies.
O’Brien’s poems and stories have appeared in various magazines, including Hurricane Alice, Kalliope, How(ever), Earth’s Daughters, The Louisville Review, and The Lilliput Review and forthcoming in Hard Ground III: Writing the Rockies. Her work has also appeared in the anthologies Through a Child’s Eyes, Mother’s Nature, and I Am Becoming the Woman I’ve Wanted, which received an American Book Award. She received an Honorable Mention in the Robert Penn Warren Award, judged by Yusef Komunyakaa, and is included in the Anthology of New England Writers 2007.
O’Brien has taught writing at St. Joseph College, the University of Hartford, and Trinity College and currently teaches at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts. She also teaches creative writing to elementary and middle school children for Bushnell Partners.
The Patricia Dobler Poetry Award contest is open to any woman writer over the age of 40 living in the United States and writing in English, who has not published a full-length book of poetry (chapbooks excluded), with the exception of Carlow University students and employees.
Patricia (Pat) Dobler was a distinguished poet and an associate professor in the English department at Carlow from 1986 until her death in July 2004. Dobler, who was the director of the Women’s Creative Writing Center and the leader of the Carlow writing workshop known as Madwomen in the Attic, founded Carlow’s MFA program in Creative Writing.
A judge for the contest was Jan Beatty, the interim director of the Creative Writing program at Carlow, where she directs the Madwomen in the Attic Creative Writing workshop. She is also the author of two books of poetry, Boneshaker and Mad River and is the host and producer of WYEPFM’s “Prosody.” Poet Judith Vollmer was the final judge.
Major Gifts Announced at Founders Legacy Event: Educating Children of Spirit
Major new gifts to increase the endowment of the Campus School of Carlow University were announced on May 19, 2007 at Founders Legacy: Educating Children of Spirit, held on the Carlow University campus.
Sister Mary Paul Hickey, RSM, PhD, the former director of The Campus School of Carlow University, was honored at the event.
“The Campus School of Carlow University holds a special place in the landscape of private elementary education in Pittsburgh,: said Dr. Mary Hines, president of Carlow University. “By creating the Founders Legacy Endowments, the University’s Campus School will be able to continue the traditions of teaching excellence and program enrichments, as well as to provide scholarships to qualified students with financial need. We are grateful to those parents of former and current Campus School students for their generosity in establishing this endowment for future students.”
New endowment leadership commitments totaling $2,710,000—bringing the total endowment of the Campus School to $3,310,000—will be used to create an endowed chair for the principal of the Campus School, an endowment for faculty excellence, an endowment for program enhancement, and an endowment for needbased scholarships.
The Gailliot family generously provided the lead gift for the Campus School endowment campaign. Henry Gailliot commented, “We have viewed the Campus School as a unique institution—somewhat like a nest where young children are nurtured, taught, and challenged and eventually learn to fly and leave Carlow for the real world. We have chosen to make the lead gift to this Endowment Campaign knowing that the Campus School will continue to thrive while retaining its distinctive character.”
The families and individuals who provided leadership commitments for the endowments include:
Carlow celebrated this year’s Mercy Founders Week from Monday, September 24 through Friday, September 28. The festivities kicked off with an original, one-woman play titled “Heart Centered in God: Mother Catherine McAuley, the First Sister of Mercy,” followed by a Mass. The “Teach-in on Social Justice with Emphasis on Issues Related to Women and Children” was held on Tuesday, September 25, followed by a panel discussion, “Mercy Sponsored and Inspired Works, ” which included panelists: Mary Paul Hickey, RSM, Mercy Neighborhood Ministries; Jean Murrin, RSM, and Jan Boyd, Operation Safety Net; Carol Lacher, Prayer Shawl Ministry; Mary Louise Nash, RSM, Chimbote Water Project; Anna Marie Goetz, RSM, Sisters Place; Bonnie Heh, RSM, The Intersection. On Wednesday, Sheila Carney, RSM, special assistant to the President for Mercy Heritage and Service, gave a presentation at the Afternoon Tea. Thursday’s activities included a panel discussion, “The Intellectual Traditions of the Sisters of Mercy,” with Sheila Carney, RSM, Dr. Martha Ezzell, and Dr. Lois Eveleth (Salve Regina University).
Carlow University is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, 3624 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. (267-284-5000)
The Middle States Commission on Higher Education is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the
US. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
