News

• RMU announced on January 4 that President Chris Howard, who has led RMU since 2016, will leave the university next month to join Arizona State University as executive vice president and chief operating officer of the ASU Enterprise. Under his leadership, the university completed the largest fundraising campaign in its 100-year history, Ready to Rise, which reached its $100 million goal one year ahead of schedule and which closed December 31 with a grand total of $113.25 million raised. That campaign funded the UPMC Events Center; the expansion of the John Jay Center for the School of Engineering, Mathematics and Science; numerous scholarships and endowed professorships and new research and teaching centers on campus. The Board of Trustees will appoint RMU Provost Mary Ann Rafoth as interim president while a search for Howard's permanent successor takes place. Read more here.
   
• Chris Prada, first-year student in M.S. Cybersecurity, and Zachary Newton, sophomore in B.S. Cybersecurity, have each won a gold medal during the National Cyber League 2021 Fall Season. The National Cyber League is a performance-based and learning-centered collegiate cybersecurity competition to help prepare the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. Serving as faculty coach is Ping Wang, university professor of computer and information systems and cybersecurity.
   
• Last month, RMU announced that it will reinstate its NCAA Division I men's and women's hockey programs for the 2023-24 season. The RMU Board of Trustees adopted a resolution in support of the administration's decision to reinstate the NCAA Division I hockey programs. The Colonials will officially apply for reinstatement to both Atlantic Hockey for the men and College Hockey America (CHA) for the women and will provide an update on conference affiliation once a determination has been made. Read more here.
   
• During Full-time Faculty Convocation last week, President Howard announced this year's Distinguished Faculty Award winners:
   
  • The Distinguished Faculty Award for Scholarship or Creative Work went to Jim Bernauer, professor of education. Achievements over the past year include the publication of three peer-reviewed articles and three peer-reviewed book chapters.
  • Nabbing the Distinguished Faculty Award for Service was Betsy Guimond, assistant professor of nursing. In addition to chairing two curriculum committees at RMU, she was active with Genesis of Pittsburgh and the Mama Tulia organization in Uganda. 
  • The Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching went to Gavin Buxton, associate professor of physics. His award citation mentioned strong evidence of teaching innovation, grounded in strong student-centered pedagogy, despite his heavy teaching load -- as well as active engagement with students and outstanding student evaluations.
     
• RMU has named Danny Doherty head coach of the university's NCAA Division I volleyball team. Previously Doherty was associate head coach. Read more here.
   
• The Title IX office is looking for volunteers who would like to be advisors for Complainants and/or Respondents during and throughout the Title IX grievance process. An advisor is an individual who provides support, guidance, or advice to a party. Our policy is attached here for your reference and provides detail on the Title IX process in its entirety. If you have an interest in showing your support, we would like to invite you to attend a virtual training on Thursday, February 3, 2022, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. This training session will be led by Dan Schorr, who has 20+ years of experience in the legal/investigative arena. See Schorr’s full Bio here. 

  Oftentimes Title IX cases involve delicate and personal situations. Training for this role is essential and will include multiple hypothetical role-play scenarios. The following topics will be covered:
   

  • Overview of relevant RMU policies
  • Advisor’s role throughout the investigative process
  • Guidelines on providing strategic and emotional support to parties
  • Resources/services/supportive measures for advisees
  • Advisor’s role during hearings
  • Assessment of evidence
  • Cross-examination of witnesses

         If you are interested, please fill out this form. Participants will receive $10 Colonial Cash as a small token of thanks. If you have any questions, email titleixoffice@rmu.edu.

• RMU in the News has been updated for December 2021, with stories featuring Carol MacPhail, Dave Synowka, Peggy Outon, and President Howard.
   
• Thanks to RMU's partnership with the Pittsburgh Penguins, team is offering our faculty and staff discounted tickets for upcoming Penguins games at PPG Paints Arena:

  January 27 - Seattle Kraken's Pittsburgh Debut
  January 30 - Los Angeles Kings for a 1 p.m. Sunday Matinee 

  Tickets are available as follows:

  FedEx Level - $95 per ticket
  Giant Eagle | Snapple Level - $50 per ticket

  Click here and select your preferred game to get started.

You're Invited

• The RMU Trees Network, a program of the Education Department, provides services and training to enhance support for children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities and their families. As part of our outreach, we host workshops and other virtual events the third Monday of every month. This coming Monday, January 17 at 7 p.m., our speaker will be Courtney List, a self-described special needs sibling. List is a 23-year-old sibling and caretaker of Danielle (Dee), who has CDG PMM2. Courtney and Dee are from McKeesport. Courtney List will discuss her experiences growing up as the sibling of a sister with a disability, including how her parents fostered their relationship, what worked, what didn't, and what their relationship is like now, in young-adulthood. This workshop is appropriate for parents and siblings, pre-teen and up. We hope you'll join us! Use this link to join or email Oosterhous@rmu.edu to have the link sent to you.
   

• The Media Arts Visiting Artist and Scholar Program invites you to a public lecture with new media artist Lori Hepner on Tuesday, February 1, at 12:30 p.m. in the Wheatley Center Atrium. Lori Hepner is a Pittsburgh based new media artist working primarily in new media performance, wearable technologies, fine art photography, and community centered public art projects. She has spent considerable time over the last five years in artist residencies in two Pittsburgh neighborhoods, in a small Arctic community in coastal Norway, as well as in Finland, Iceland, and the Canadian Yukon. Hepner was featured in the WQED documentary, Visible, featuring five female artists from Pittsburgh, in Spring 2018, and focusing on the Color Beechview project, an intergenerational, community centered public art project in the city neighborhood of Beechview.

  A collaboration with singer Kendra Ross has manifested itself into live performance as Hepner & Ross in Intersection*ology. A feminist exploration into the power of women, technology, and individual voices, she developed the real‑time, light painting system that is used to draw with light using the body. Intersection*ology has been awarded grants by the Heinz Endowments, the 2018 Carnegie International, and The Opportunity Fund and has been performed at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s Alloy Studios, in Durban, South Africa, the InLight Richmond Festival in Richmond, Virginia, and at the Luminaria Festival in San Antonio, Texas. Hepner's personal photographic work has been featured in Time, Wired, and Next Level Magazine and has been exhibited at the Houston Center for Photography, Carnegie Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, in photo festivals in the Netherlands, China, and Spain One of her Twitter portraits from Status Symbols, as well as her performative photographs from #Crowdsourced Landscapes project, will be sent to live on the Moon in 2021 in The MoonArk project.

  Hepner holds an MFA in Digital+Media from Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA in Fine Art Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology. She was promoted to Professor of Integrative Arts at Penn State University and recently returned from the community of Træna, Norway, where she founded a community makerspace and plastic recycling project for 3D printing, as a Fulbright Scholar. Learn more at www.lorihepner.com.

Upcoming Sports

NCAA Division I

• Women's basketball vs. IUPUI, Friday 1/14 @ 7 p.m. at the UPMC Events Center
• Men's basketball vs. Northern Kentucky, Saturday, 1/15 @ 7 p.m. at the UPMC Events Center
• Women's basketball vs. UIC, Sunday, 1/16 @ 1 p.m. at the UPMC Events Center

Go to rmucolonials.com for ticketing and other information about NCAA Division sports at RMU.

Club Sports

• D4 Club Hockey vs Cleveland State, Friday 1/14 @ 9 p.m. at the RMU Island Sports Center

Go to rmuclubsports.com for more information about club sports at RMU.

Upcoming Concerts

• Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias, March 10-11
• Trinity of Terror, April 7
• Lil Durk, April 26

All concerts are at the UPMC Events Center. Go to www.upmceventscenter.com for more information.