University Reporter: March, 2002
College of Nursing and Health Sciences Researcher Examines Costs of Home-Based Alzheimer’s Care
According
to the National Institute on Aging, close to four million Americans suffer
from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or a related disorder. While half of
nursing home residents have some form of dementia, most with AD live at
home and are cared for by family or friends. College of Nursing and Health
Sciences professor Brooke Harrow is the lead author of a new study measuring
the costs of home health care for AD sufferers: The Cost of Informal Caregiving
and Formal Service Use for People with Alzheimer’s Disease. read
more: Alzheimers
Image: College of Nursing and Health Sciences professor Brooke Harrow is the lead author of a new study measuring the costs of home health care for AD sufferers. (Photo by Harry Brett)
Also in this Issue:
Olympic Champion to Coach Women’s Ice Hockey Team
Chancellor Gora Discusses the University’s Strengths on BNN’s Visións
Atlantic Monthly Awards Prize to
Creative Writing Student
“Technology Goes Home” Helps Bridge Digital Divide
Dean Cherry to Retire from College of Nursing and Health Sciences
What a Scoop at the Annual Ice Cream Social!
Design Firm Selected for Residential Housing Feasibility Study
Managing Conflict in Large Groups: Helping Organizations Confront Difficult Issues
Thursday, March 14
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., Quinn Administration Building, 3-308.
Featuring Barbara Bunker, organizational social psychologist.
Sponsored by the Benjamin and Sylvia Slomoff Visiting Lectureship in Dispute
Resolution.
Contact: 7-7421 for more information.
Olympic Champion to Coach Women’s Ice Hockey Team
By
Kim Burke
UMass Boston’s first-ever coach for the new women’s ice hockey team brings with her a piece of Olympic glory. Laura Schuler was a part of Canada’s 1998 silver-medal-winning women’s ice hockey team and brings with her 11 years of experience with Team Canada. At age 19 she was selected as Team Canada’s youngest player to compete in the inaugural World Championships in 1990.
In addition, Schuler spent four standout years playing with Northeastern University, where she made four appearances in the ECAC semi-finals, played in the ECAC championship, and led the team in scoring her sophomore year. She was named captain her senior year.
Athletics Director Charlie Titus has the utmost confidence in his new coach. “We searched for a young, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic coach…. We are convinced we have that person in Laura Schuler” says Titus.
Schuler gained coaching experience in her native Ontario and says she is looking forward to the “challenge of coaching at the varsity level” and having the opportunity to “give back to my sport full time.”
Image: Laura Schuler is the first-ever head coach for the women’s varsity ice hockey team at UMass Boston. (Photo by Harry Brett)
Chancellor Gora Discusses the University’s Strengths on BNN’s Visións
How do you develop a community? This was the theme of Chancellor Gora’s discussions as a guest on Visións, a cable program produced by the Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce. Gora spoke with host Gerardo Villacares at length about UMass Boston and her own visions for the university in a show that aired on Boston Neighborhood Network on January 23 at 9:00 p.m.
“We have a fantastic culture of commitment to our students,” Gora noted in describing the strengths of UMass Boston. She retold her many conversations with students, “the most honest audience,” about the university. Every student, she said, told an inspiring story about a faculty member who had made a difference in his or her life.
This connection is especially crucial for a commuter campus, Gora said, so she has been looking for ways to foster these connections. These initiatives include the recent technology and facility enhancements which have reshaped the university since her arrival.
However, with these changes, the university does not lose sight of its urban mission, Gora explained. “Our mission is to service the community, provide input and resources…. We are trying to play a role in the community.”
Atlantic Monthly Awards Prize to Creative Writing Student
By Leigh DuPuy
Though
she has been writing poetry for years, UMass Boston senior Rachel Melat
had never submitted any of her work for consideration. This all changed
when she entered three of her poems in the Atlantic Monthly 2001 Student
Writer’s Competition for Poetry and won second prize for her poem
“Philatelist.” Not only did she win $500 in the contest, but
she also won possible future publication in the magazine.
Melat describes her winning entry as a form poem with a New England nature theme. It was one of the pieces she worked on in her advanced poetry workshop with Professor Lloyd Schwartz. “I revised it four times for the class,” she remembers.
A theater major with a concentration in creative writing, Melat plans to move to California at the end of the spring semester. She hopes to publish a book of poetry and thinks about writing screenplays and attending graduate school.
Image: Rachel Melat received second place in the Atlantic Monthly Student Writers Competition for Poetry. (Photo by Harry Brett)
“Technology Goes Home” Helps Bridge Digital Divide
By Anne-Marie Kent and
Kim Trauceniek
With society and the workplace relying more on technology, the need to
bridge the “digital divide”— the gap in computer literacy
between the poor and affluent— has become a major public policy concern.
One new way UMass Boston is helping to close that gap is through a new
partnership with the City of Boston supporting the second phase of the
Technology Goes Home (TGH) program.
TGH began in 1998, when Echo Tsai, CEO of HiQ Computers, donated 1,000
new computers to the city, enabling Boston Mayor Tom Menino and the Boston
Digital Bridge Foundation to launch the neighborhood-based family computer
training program.
“Currently, TGH has provided training and computers to 300 families
in its first year of operation,” says John Ciccarelli, Chancellor
Gora’s special assistant for economic development. “The Boston
Digital Bridge Foundation wants to increase the scale of the program by
training up to 3,660 families over the next two years at the fourth grade
level through a new, school-based program called Technology Goes Home
@ School. We at UMass Boston are excited to help them in that effort.”
This month, UMass Boston’s Division of Corporate, Continuing, and Distance Education and the Boston Public Schools Office of Instructional Technology will train six fourth grade teachers in how to teach the TGH curriculum. Through this pilot program, 60 families from four schools will then be trained and equipped with free computers, printers, and Internet access for a year. A parent and child from each family selected to participate in the program will receive training from March through April, when they receive their equipment. Additional training will be held in May and June and over the summer, and graduation will occur in mid June, before summer vacation.
The McCormack Institute’s Center for Social Policy is assessing the first round of TGH and will evaluate both the pilot and full roll-out phases of Technology Goes Home @ School
Dean Cherry to Retire from College of Nursing and Health Sciences
After thirteen years of valuable service, Brenda Cherry will retire as dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, a post she has held since 1989. During her tenure, she helped develop a doctoral program in nursing, facilitated the reorganization of the college into three departments, and created a new governance structure for the college. She also revised the undergraduate nursing curriculum, established a baccalaureate completion program for RNs at Cape Cod Community College, and prepared the college for the upcoming accreditation review by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. Cherry will be leaving the university by the end of the spring 2002 term. The Office of the Provost will appoint an interim dean and anticipates conducting a search for a permanent dean in 2002 – 2003.
What a Scoop at the Annual Ice Cream Social!
By Jeannie Wallace-Buckley
Great
music and a line stretching out the door of the Quinn Cafeteria enticed
employees to the much-anticipated Ice Cream Social on Valentine’s
Day. Chancellor Jo Ann Gora joined Beth Marshall, Clare Poirier, Anne
Riley, Michael Forcier, Ed Gagnon, Forrest Speck, and Dick Lourie to serve
over 400 employees—and a few stray students—who gathered for
the 4th annual celebration of community spirit and fabulous ice cream,
courtesy of Ben & Jerry’s. The event is sponsored by the ARD
Experiencing the Community Committee, which seeks to foster community
spirit and provide opportunities for employees to meet. Other ARD-hosted
events include trips to Foxwoods Casino and NYC. ARD invites and welcomes
new ideas for trips or events; e-mail Clare.Poirier@umb.edu.
Image: Beth Marshall, associate vice chancellor for administration and finance, and human resources, Clare Poirier, director of personnel administration, and Anne Riley, trust fund budget manager, are all smiles in serving ice cream to employees. (Photo by Harry Brett)
Design Firm Selected for Residential Housing Feasibility Study
As the March issue of the University Reporter went to print, we learned that the design firm Sasaki Associates, Inc. was selected to complete a feasibility study for residential housing at UMass Boston. See the April issue for more details.