Upcoming Volunteering Events
 
In addition to those events mentioned in the Committees and Projects survey, there are immediate needs over the next few weeks for colleagues looking to help out . . . and hoping to garner some department service projects for their recontracting packages:

• Top of the list is the Rowan Global Information Session, this Saturday, September 29. It’s the first of four such events this academic year and is being held in the Eynon Ballroom at the Chamberlain Student Center from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Our colleague Ron Block was planning to take the lead at this session, but a last-minute engagement has forced him to seek a replacement on short notice. Ron will supply all the information you need to discuss our online and on-campus graduate offerings – with a focus on our Master of Arts in Writing studies and the Teaching Experience Program – in addition to the COGS (Certificates Of Graduate Study) and CAGS (Certificates of Advanced Graduate Study) that are available. This is an excellent opportunity for graduate students as well as faculty. Please contact Ron for more information, and to jump in and fill this void.
• The Fall Career and Graduate School Fair is being held on Thursday, October 4 and we need three or four volunteers to help staff the table representing our Master of Arts in Writing program and the M.A. in Strategic Communication. Talking points, handouts, and other information will be provided at the shared College of Communication and Creative Arts table. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Rowan Rec Center and will feature representatives from more than 100 employers and graduate schools. Again, in addition to faculty, second- and third-year MA students are welcome to help out with this event. Contact Jenn Courtney for additional details and to sign up to help.
• The Collingswood Book Festival is fast approaching – Saturday, October 6 – and we need a few more volunteers to help fill out our three two-hour time slots. Any assistance at any time would be great – the event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Haddon Avenue – but we specifically need additional staffing for the 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. time slot. The Festival is a fun event that’s well attended each year and, with all the interesting writers, educators, publishers, and book enthusiasts that stop by, your two-hour shift will fly by. Please email Anna Bassiri for more information, and to volunteer to help.
• While Homecoming 2018 officially runs from Monday, October 15 through Sunday the 19th, Saturday, October 18 is the day on which we need volunteers. After the parade and before the football game, the College of Communication and Creative Arts staffs a booth in the College Corner portion of the tailgate festivities. It’s great to meet the students, parents, alumni, fellow faculty, and community members who stop by our booth, and there’s always great swag available. Contact me for more information and to sign up for a shift.

 
 
Help a Family In Need Properly Celebrate The Holidays
 
Where is the time going this semester? We’re almost through September, Halloween is coming up soon, and – before we know it – Thanksgiving break will be here. That means it’s not too early to start thinking about once again “adopting” a local family and providing them with all the fixings for a fabulous holiday meal. The university’s Office of Volunteerism, Community Engagement, and Commuter Services (VCECS) is seeking to sponsor 100 families and set them up with all they need – including gift certificates for turkeys – to bring the joy of the season to their homes. You can choose to adopt a family on your own or bring in individual items for an overall Writing Arts Department donation. Keep the usual guidelines in mind: Non-perishables only and no glass containers. Cash donations are gratefully accepted. Please contact me or Shelly Klink in the VCECS office for more details.
 
 
Spend an Evening With a Social Activist and Sports Legend
 
He stood next to Dr. Martin Luther King during the “I Have A Dream” speech, was a standout player for the Villanova University men’s basketball team, and – as a coach -- took three different Division 1 teams – in six different seasons -- to the NCAA Tournament. He’s George Raveling and he’s coming to Rowan at the end of October to help launch the university’s Center for Sports Communication and Social Impact. Coach Raveling is the featured guest and the first keynote lecturer in the Center’s Speaker Series. Mark your calendars for 7 p.m., Tuesday, October 30 to make sure you’re at Tohill Auditorium in Bunce Hall for this kickoff event. The energetic octogenarian Raveling worked as a television commentator and as Nike Inc.’s Director of International Basketball before moving into motivational speaking. He now passes along life lessons through his Coaching For Success organization, a platform that provides him with a forum in discussions of race, education, and athletics. He’s been called a “molder of boys into men, and of men into better men” and is known by many as the “Human Google” for his encyclopediac memory. Coach reads at least four books a month, has traveled to every continent but Antarctica, and says his favorite hobby is collecting friends. Don’t miss your opportunity to become one of those friends and to experience this true Renaissance man. We’ll see you there on the 30th!
 
 
Take Time to Celebrate the Life of Donald Farish
 
Finally, on a somber but celebratory note, plan to come together with the Rowan community this Friday, September 28, for a Memorial Service to commemorate the life of Donald Farish. The service will begin at 2 p.m. in Boyd Recital Hall inside Wilson Hall. Dr. Farish was Rowan’s sixth president, serving from 1998 to 2011, and helped lead Rowan through its greatest period of growth and expansion. Dr. Farish worked to coordinate and facilitate such major projects as the Campbell Library, Rohrer College of Business, the Edelman Planetarium, and the Bantivoglio Honors College. He also oversaw the construction of Science Hall, Education Hall, the Town House residential complex, and worked with community leaders on the development of Rowan Boulevard. Dr. Farish also was involved in the purchase of what we now call the West Campus and spearheaded the partnership that led to the creation of the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. Dr. Farish died on July 5 at age 75 while serving as president of Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I.
 
 
Do you have a new publication, a reading, or any other event of interest coming up? Please let me know so I can let all our colleagues know in the weekly Rowan Writing Arts Events Update newsletter. Stop by my Victoria 521 office or email me at [email protected] to give me the 4-1-1.
 
Stephen A. Royek, M.A.
Lecturer, Writing Arts
Rowan University
2015 Rowan Medallion Award winner
     Phone: 856-906-4755
     Victoria Hall, Room 521
     Email: [email protected]

Faculty Reading Features Breakups, a Helicopter, Sisyphus, and a Machete
 
With the psychedelic colors of artist Heather Ujiie’s “Terra Incognita” exhibit providing the backdrop, the first Glassworks magazine/Writing Arts Department event of the school year – a Back to School Faculty Reading and Open Mic Event – took place at the Rowan Art Gallery earlier this week. Four Writing Arts faculty members -- Katie Budris, Steve Royek, R.G. Evans, and Tim Zatzariny – shared some of their latest works of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction while nearly half a dozen students and faculty members took to the podium in the open microphone session. Katie (who also serves as Glassworks editor-in-chief) and R.G. (who’s known as Bob to his colleagues) read from their published collections of poems – Katie’s Prague in Synthetics and R.G.’s Overtipping the Ferryman and The Holy Both. Their topics ranged from breaking up and not breaking up (Katie) to Sisyphus and not suicide (R.G.). Steve shared several passages from his nonfiction academic paper “Instructor Lore in the Journalism Classroom” that appeared in the Spring 2017 issue of the peer-review journal Writing on the Edge and Tim read the opening chapter of his South Jersey-based novel-in-progress about crime, self-reflection, and redemption On the Way Down. The next time you run into them, ask Steve about the helicopter and Tim about the machete. They’ll both be glad to share details. . . . Also, a quick shout-out to Writing Arts colleague andGlassworks managing editor Anthony Palma who gave an emotional open-mic performance, from memory, of a poem that simultaneously celebrated his Italian heritage and howled at the depravity of the world. . . . Mark your calendars for the next Glassworks literary event -- a reading to mark the publication of the Fall 2018 issue of Glassworks magazine – on Thursday, October 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the Rowan Art Gallery, 301 High Street West. 

Attention Rowan Shoppers: Donations Needed for The S.H.O.P.
 
Old Mother Hubbard would not be pleased with the current condition of the bare cupboards at The S.H.O.P. With the fall semester underway, and student traffic increasing dramatically at the university’s on-campus food pantry, the call is going out to Rowan Writing Arts for donations of non-perishable food such as pop-top cans of heat-and-eat pasta meals and other foodstuffs, cereal (full sized and individual servings), rice and pasta (especially shells, rotini, and elbows), soups and chicken broth, boxes of stuffing, peanut butter and jelly, and granola bars. In addition, microwave bowls, coffee mugs, and any type of personal hygiene items (including those that are either male- or female-specific) are greatly appreciated. Rowan Writing Arts is the only department on campus that is planning regular monthly donations to The S.H.O.P.; we want to make sure our September delivery helps meet the facility’s needs. Let’s fill those bare cupboards with the sustenance the young adults in our classrooms desperately need. Please contact me or drop off your donations at my office (Room 521 at The Vic) or with either Stephanie on the 4th floor or Dawn on the 5th floor. Thank you very much for your generosity!
 
Important Notes and Dates for Your Outlook or iCalendar
 
The Collingswood Book Festival is Saturday, October 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. We’re looking for volunteers to help with set-up and tear-down and to staff one of three two-hour shifts. Please contact me or Anna Bassiri if you’re interested. . . . Homecoming 2018 – “Rowan Goes Hollywood” – is the weekend ofFriday, October 19 to Sunday, October 21. . . . The fall semester College Assembled will be held on Monday, October 22 at 3:30 p.m. at a TBD location. Heads-up: Full-time Writing Arts faculty should attend. . . . The official launch (or is it kickoff, tipoff, first pitch, faceoff, or scrum?) for the CCCA’s Sports Communications and Media major is Tuesday, October 30 at 7 p.m. in Bunce Hall’s Tohill Auditorium. Legendary basketball coach, social activist, and motivational speaker George Raveling will be the featured guest and speaker. 
 
The Rowan Shuttle: A Cure For The Parking Lot Blues
 
Want to avoid the time and aggravation of endlessly circling parking lots, of following people to their cars to take their spots, and of risking a ticket by parking illegally? Try the Rowan Shuttle. With eight stops around campus and a shuttle arriving at each roughly every 15 minutes, you’re less than a two-to-three minute walk away from wherever you need to be. Our closest spot is listed as the Rowan Art Gallery at 301 High Street West, but the shuttle actually picks up passengers in front of the garage entrance on Mick Street right next to The Vic. Other stops (in order from 301 High) are the Rowan Boulevard Apartments, the Chamberlain Student Center, Memorial Circle in front of Bozorth Hall, Lot A and Business Hall, James and Robinson halls, the Edgewood Park Apartments and Chestnut Hall, and the Ellis Street Parking lot. The friendly shuttle drivers, however, will pick you up and drop you off if you wave them down or tell them where you need to go – as long as it’s along their usual route. . . . I have been riding the shuttle since the first day of the semester – my classes this fall are in Robinson and Engineering Hall – and the vans always have – so far, knock on wood – been on time. If you are thinking of using the shuttle, the free TransLoc app (search “TransLoc” in the App Store or on Google Play) will prove to be invaluable. It will tell you, to the minute, when the next shuttle will arrive at your stop, or at any other location on campus. One final note: During these first three weeks, I have seen only one other faculty member on the shuttle – my officemate Tim Donaldson, whom I invited to join me one day. Download the app, give it a shot, and I know you’ll become a regular rider of the Rowan Shuttle. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask me.
 
Do you have a new publication, a reading, or any other event of interest coming up? Please let me know so I can let all our colleagues know in the weeklyRowan Writing Arts Events Update newsletter. Stop by my Victoria 521 office or email me at [email protected] to give me the 4-1-1.

Stephen A. Royek, M.A.
Lecturer, Writing Arts
Rowan University
2015 Rowan Medallion Award winner
     Phone: 856-906-4755
     Victoria Hall, Room 521
     Email: [email protected]

Start Off the Semester with a Night of Literary Readings
 
Glassworks magazine and the Writing Arts Department are kick-starting the semester as they join forces next week – Tuesday night, September 18 – with a Back to School Reading featuring four of our colleagues presenting some of their most recent work. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Rowan Art Gallery, right across from The Vic at 301 High Street West, with Katie Budris, R.G. Evans, Steve Royek, and Tim Zatzariny reading poetry, nonfiction, and fiction selections from their portfolios. They will be followed by an open microphone period with students and faculty signing up on site to present their creative pieces. This free event is open to the Rowan community and light refreshments will be served. Recent issues of Glassworks will be available for purchase. Get into the swing of the school year by attending and inviting your students to join you for a night of fun and creativity. This will be the first in a series of readings this academic year presented by Glassworks, a publication of our Master of Arts in Writing program, including the introduction of the magazine’s Fall 2018 issue in October. Keep an eye on this space for more details on the where and when for these events.
 
It’s Time to Volunteer For, And Attend, The Collingswood Book Festival
 
Another sign the semester is underway is the annual Collingswood Book Festival and the Rowan Writing Arts booth at the event. This year’s 16th edition of the popular celebration of writing and writers will be Saturday, October 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. As usual, the borough’s main drag – Haddon Avenue – will be filled with writers, publishers, educators, and book enthusiasts of all sorts promoting the craft and their offerings. As we do each year, the department is calling for volunteers to help set up, tear down, and staff our booth on the 6th. If you’re interested in helping out, and picking up some department service credit, contact me at [email protected] to sign up for one of three shifts – opening and 10 a.m. to noon, noon to 2 p.m., or 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and closing – or let us know if you’re available to work any of those three shifts. It’s always an exciting event with more than 6,000 attendees, nearly 300 exhibitors, and over 40 authors, and you never know whom you’ll see presenting throughout the day . . .
 
Writing Arts Takes the Stage in Collingswood
 
. . . such as our colleague Megan Atwood. She will be reading from and discussing her three latest books, all released earlier this month: A Fall for Friendship, the third book in her Middle Grade series; and two new offerings in the “Dear Molly, Dear Olive” chapter book series, Molly Gets A Goat and Olive Becomes Famous. Megan is a regular presenter at the event, having hosted similar discussions and readings in the past (the event’s website calls her a “festival favorite”) and she will be among a star-studded cast of authors. These include former New Jersey Gov. James J. Florio leading a political discussion panel and promoting his new book Standing on Principle: Lessons Learned in Public Life, and two local sportswriters/broadcasters – Sal Paolantonio and Ray Didinger – who will be presenting excerpts from their latest works celebrating the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl victory: Philly Special: The Inside Story of How the Philadelphia Eagles Won their First Super Bowl Championship by Paolantonio, and Eagles Encyclopedia Champions Edition by Didinger.
 
Don’t Forget The SHOP While You’re Shopping
 
Now that the fall semester is in full swing, student traffic at The SHOP food bank in the Rowan Boulevard Apartments is picking up. As mentioned a few weeks ago in the final Rowan Writing Arts Events Update newsletter of the summer, we will be collecting donations of non-perishable food items at our monthly department meetings. I’ve started picking up an item or two to donate whenever I stop at ShopRite and I’m always keeping an eye out for sales. (Example: Three four-packs of Spaghetti-Os for $9.99!) Feel free to drop off any items with me or Dawn here on the fifth floor, or bring them with you to our next department meeting on Wednesday the 19th. As mentioned before, nearly half of the students in our classes face food insecurity issues each week; let’s do what we can to help stem the tide of hunger. Thank you.
 
Rowan is America’s Sixth Fastest Growing University!
 
With our enrollment at an all-time high of more than 19,000 (double the number of students from just 12 years ago), it should come as no surprise that Rowan University recently was named the sixth fastest growing college or university in America. The survey conducted for the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Almanac of Higher Education 2018-19 included all U.S. public doctoral institutions and listed the top six as the University of California/Merced, Utah State University, Arizona State University/Phoenix, the University of Texas/Dallas, the University of Texas/Arlington and Rowan. That school up north -- Rutgers University/New Brunswick – was further down the list at #19.
 
Do you have a new publication, a reading, or any other event of interest coming up? Please let me know so I can feature it in the Rowan Writing Arts Events Update newsletter. Stop by my Victoria 521 office or email me at [email protected] to give me the 4-1-1.
 
Stephen A. Royek, M.A.
Lecturer, Writing Arts
Rowan University
2015 Rowan Medallion Award winner
     Phone: 856-906-4755
     Victoria Hall, Room 521
     Email: [email protected]