Rowan Writing Arts Events Update Week Of MArch 25, 2019

Welcome back! We hope everyone had a relaxing and/or productive spring break (depending on your goals). Just six weeks to go until portfolios, finals, and graduation!
 
March Department Meeting: This Wednesday the 27th
 
Our next Writing Arts Department meeting will be this Wednesday, March 27, at 3:30 p.m. in Victoria 200. Full-time and ¾-time faculty are expected to attend while adjunct and TEP instructors are welcome to sit in. Jenn Courtney will be sending an agenda in the next day or so with more details. . . . Please don’t forget to bring a donation for The S.H.O.P. as our grocery cart will be in the meeting room. We’ve already filled one cart this semester and it would be great to top off a second one before summer when students’ need for food is at its greatest. Also, if you attended 4Cs in Pittsburgh last week, this is the perfect opportunity to drop off any toiletries you might have picked up during the conference. Thank you!
 
Medallion Winner Barton Picks Up Another Award
 
Rachel Barton, recipient of this year’s Excellence in Writing Arts Medallion, will be picking up another honor before graduation: The Dr. James M. Lynch Jr. Courage in Adversity Award. The Faculty Senate Awards Committee selected Rachel from more than a dozen nominees for the award that is presented to a senior who has overcome circumstances of extreme hardship to achieve an education. The award is named for Dr. Lynch, who spent 22 years at Rowan University as Dean of Students and a faculty member and administrator in the Department of Educational Leadership. Rachel will receive her award at the Celebrating Leadership Awards ceremony on Sunday, April 14 at 4 p.m. in the Chamberlain Student Center ballroom. A Rowan Medallion (left) is the highest honor the university bestows upon a graduate to acknowledge superior performance in a particular area or field. Winning one Medallion is special; winning two is extraordinary. Congratulations, Rachel! Both honors are well deserved.
 
Sharpen Your Pencil: More Dates and Deadlines
 

• Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 26, at 11 p.m. is the deadline to submit your Spring 2019 Midterm Progress Survey through the Rowan Success Network (RSN). You should have received a reminder email over spring break, but if you need help filling out the survey, log into Starfish by clicking here. The survey should only take a few minutes and your responses will help RSN determine which students to reach out to and offer help. Note that if you have no concerns or lack sufficient data to report on your students’ progress, please complete the survey to let the Starfish folks know this. Remember, all departments with 100 percent participation receive a one-time department financial bonus from the Provost’s Office!
• Wednesday, March 27, at 4 p.m. is the deadline to submit your request to rent academic regalia for the University Commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 11 and the College of Communication and Creative Arts ceremony on Wednesday, May 15. Click here for more information and to access the Academic Regalia Rental Form. It costs from $34 to $38 to rent a full set of gown, headwear, and hood. Faculty are cordially invited to participate in both ceremonies, but must be in academic regalia to do so.
• Thursday, March 28, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in Bozorth Hall’s King Auditorium, James Chase Sanchez, co-producer of the “Man on Fire” documentary will present a screening and discussion of the film; then . . .
• The following morning, Friday, March 29, Sanchez will conduct a faculty workshop on “Critical Race Pedagogies” from 8:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. in Room 104 of Business Hall.
• Also on Friday, March 29, the university will sponsor the Experiential Storytelling Conference 2019 at the Rowan Art Gallery from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Nine speakers from academia, the arts, the media, and the financial world will share their stories of personal and professional accomplishment and achievement.
• Next Monday, April 1, is the deadline for members of the department’s Adjunct Review Committee to upload their completed review packets to the team’s Google Drive. Please contact colleagues Kate Brown or Tim Donaldson for more information.
• Monday, April 8, College Assembled with be held from 3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. in Bozorth Hall’s King Auditorium.
• Tuesday, April 9, Glassworks magazine – and its staff and interns – will be featured at the Livin’ on Luck Reading Series sponsored by the Mad Poets Society at Barnaby’s Pub in West Chester, PA. Contact Glassworks managing editor Anthony Palma for more details.

 
Perfect Round Boosts Quizzo Team to Second - Again
 
“The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Quizzo team that night; the lead looked out of reach and our score was such a fright.-*” However, unlike the ill-fated Casey and his three-pitch strikeout, the Writing Arts competitors pulled out a perfect 10-for-10 final round over spring break for a second-straight second-place finish at P.J. Whelihan’s Quizzo Night. With the competition being held just before the start of the NCAA basketball championships, the final category, fittingly, was “Name the tournament entrant with these nicknames.” We were the only team who knew where the Anteaters (left), Gaels, Orange, and seven other competitors call home. Earlier in the evening, we were fortunate to get six of ten correct in a graphic category that asked for the names of pictured video game characters. Win or lose, it was – once again – an excellent evening. Keep an eye onEvents Update for details on our next event: “The Rowan Boulevard Escape Room Challenge.” . . . (*- Apologies to Ernest Lawrence Thayer)
 
Last Call for Employee Tours of Hollybush Mansion
 
Thursday, April 4 is the final day of this spring’s series of employee tours of Hollybush Mansion. The tour runs from 4:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. and participants are asked to use the entrance that faces Evergreen Hall. Contact University Relations for more information. . . . The oldest building on our campus – completed in 1849 – Hollybush was the school’s first woman’s dormitory before the completion of Laurel Hall. It also served as the home for four of our first five presidents – Jerohn Savitz, Edgar Bunce, Thomas Robinson, and Herman James (our fourth president, Mark Chamberlain, chose a smaller dwelling off campus) – and it’s now used as a museum and to host university receptions. Hollybush has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972 and a 2016 research project indicates the structure most likely was designed by John Notman (1810-1856), known as the Father of American Italianate Design
 
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 royek@rowan.edu to give me the 4-1-1.
 
Access Events Update online by clicking here.
 
Stephen A. Royek
Lecturer, Writing Arts
Rowan University
Chair, Faculty Senate Awards Committee
     Victoria Hall, Room 521
     Phone: 856-906-4755
     Email: royek@rowan.edu